Chapter 6 – Fireworks and Language barriers.
Merry had finished gathering his apples and had already given his load to Gandalf, who had finished unpacking his fireworks without the hindrance of Pippin and himself. Thinking of his cousin Merry realised that Pippin still hadn't come back yet from the orchard. "Damn Took, probably sleeping under the trees." He fumed to himself as he marched back to the orchard to give Pippin a piece of his mind.
VVV
"Thank you for saving me Halei." Pippin sincerely thanked the creature who had pulled him from the maws' of death. He was still utterly terrified of the appearance of the lizard; her mouth was lined with white, dagger like teeth, which interlocked with each other whenever she closed her jaws, only to be concealed completely by her scaly lips. Her luminescent crimson eyes, each as round and fiery as the sun, stared unblinkingly into his own. In a word she looked like a monster from Hobbit tales of old, that were designed to scare and control the lively children of the Shire. "What are you Halei... if that is your name?" he asked awkwardly, for he knew she could not understand him.
Halei stared into Pippins eyes, if only she could understand what the small hatchling like creature was saying. Was it thanks? What are you? I am going to tell everyone about you! She knew not, all that she knew was that he was talking in a completely different tongue than her own. She could see that Pippin was visibly frightened of her. She had to gain his trust if she was to gain anything out of this, peculiar, meeting.
Pippin watched as Halei bounded up the tree he had fallen from with unnatural grace, her clawed hands dug into the wood and dragged her up. She was climbing without the assistance of any branches; she merely went vertically up, like a spider on web. She reached out with one hand and grabbed something off the tree that was hidden behind her athletic body. She dropped to the floor elegantly from the top of the tree, she didn't even look fazed from it, she merely walked towards him.
Pippin unthinkingly took steps back as Halei came to him, fumbling with something in her hand. In two long strides she was in front of him. Kneeling onto one knee lowing herself to his stature, she outstretched her hand as if to offer something. He looked at what she was offering, and to his happy surprise she had, in her hand, the apple that he so wanted from before he fell. He looked back to Halei, her face now looking at his in a longing expression, well he thought that is what it looked like, but it was hard to tell, her being a lizard and all. She nudged the apple into his hand in a soft, gentle way, almost like his mother would, as if to say that she wanted him to have it. He took it from her and without more ado she stood up and slowly backed off to give him space.
Halei watched as Pippin quickly ate the apple with much mirth, he was happy, yet nervous, his eyes kept on darting from his apple to her. She realised she must look quite menacing if she stood over the poor thing, so she made her way to a nearby tree and sat at the base on top of a large root that jutted out of the earth. She then, not wanting to watch Pippin and make him more nervous, checked her gash. She rolled up her sleeve and to her shoulder and inspected the clotting broken skin; it had formed into an ugly looking wound, the contrast of the purple, black of the dried blood on her natural green scales was quite noticeable. She was lucky that it hadn't become infected...Yet. She didn't want to use her medicines just yet. Perhaps Pippin could help her; she would infer to him when he was done. So she licked the wound trying to clean as much as she could without medicine, it burned but she endured, waiting patiently for Pippin to finish.
Pippin ate the final part of the juicy fruit; it was the most delicious apple he had eaten in a long time. He would have to thank Halei... again. Speaking of the lizard where was she? Pippin looked to his left and saw her sitting beneath one of the trees licking her arm attentively. Pippin walked over to her and saw that she was licking, with her forked tongue, a rather brutish wound, probably done with a blade by the shape of it. "Are you ok?" what a stupid question of course she isn't, Pippin mentally slapped himself. He was grateful that she couldn't understand him. Halei looked up to him at the sound of his voice. Pain clearly etched on her face, yet she made no anguished cry of hurt. "umm... stay here." He said motioning her to stay put with his hands. When Halei made no attempt to get up he hurried off into the growth to get help for her.
Halei watched as Pippin ran off into the forest of green and red. Hopefully he had meant what she perceived him to mean, get help. "Hopefully he doesn't bring help in the form of other people; just one is enough for now." She contemplated out loud to herself, felling lonely in the woods.
Pippin ran down the cobblestone road that led to the Old gaffer's hobbit hole. His leathery soles slapping each individual stone with force. All a while many thoughts were racing through his head about Halei. What was she? Why was she hurt? Why did she save him? Has she killed someone? That last thought frightened him to the core like a chill wind. But she hadn't hurt him, she had saved him, Pippin reasoned with his worries.
Pippin fought his internal battle between reason and doubt as he ran, he did not notice a person pull into the path from the crossroads. He ploughed straight into the oncoming person, forcing them both to the ground.
"What... in the name of all that is green." Said an annoyed, Merry. As he picked himself up.
"Uhh Merry... hey... what are you doing?" Pippin tried to say as if nothing was out of the ordinary as he himself got up.
Merry just growled out Pippin.
"What did I do?"
"Where are your baskets, where are you apples, where is everything."
"Ummmmmmm..."
Merry put his palm through his curly brown hair in frustration.
"Well you best explain to Gandalf why you didn't do it."
" I did do it." Pippin defended.
"Oh really, well... where are the baskets?"
"I left them with her."
"You left them with whom?" Merry asked curiously.
Only now did Pippin realise his mistake. "I said... 'there' not 'her'... having a go at how I speak now." He weakly recovered from his slip of the tongue
"I was not, it just sounded like that you said 'her'" Merry rebutted. "Anyway why did you leave them 'there'" he said putting more emphasis on the 'there'.
"See... you are making fun of me." Pippin accused.
Merry giving up on the pointless augment and let out a sigh, "well at least give the apples to Gandalf."
"I will, after I see the old Gaffer."
"Why do you need to see the Gaffer?" Merry asked.
"I just do. Now please, I must go." Concluded Pippin as he continued to run down the road, leaving behind a rather confused Merry.
Pippin flew through the Old Gaffers gate, running straight up to the door, nearly colliding with it. He knocked, more forcefully than he should have. "Gaffer... Open up." The sound of shuffling feet behind the door could be clearly heard. "Gaffer please open the door... It's an emergency... I am not going to trick you today... I promise... That jar incident was completely unintentional by the way."
The door reluctantly creaked open, reviling a suspicious looking Gaffer, still in his pyjamas, bits of breakfast, or was it second breakfast, were caught in his small red beard. "To what do I owe the displeasure?"
"Awww... Come on, the jar wasn't even full." Pippin tried to reason Gaffer.
"Aye, but it is what it was half full of that bothers me... what do you want?"
"Do you know of anything to help heal a wound?"
Gaffers eyebrows arched in surprise, "why would you want to be knowing that? Is someone hurt?"
"Yes! Ummm... Ahhhh... In the orchard... someone fell on a rake." Pippin mumbled.
"Well you best get Gandalf for that, he is - "
"No!" Pippin interrupted, "I can handle it."
Gaffers eyebrow arched even more, to the point they looked as if they were about to snap clean in two. "Are you sure?"
"Yes... now tell me what to do? What do I need?"
"Well describe the injury."
"ahhh... the rake pierced her shoulder."
"Did she... or you... Pull out the rake?"
"Yes!"
Gaffer shook his head sorrowfully, "What could have possessed you to do that. Well you will need these." He said as he handed Pippin some cloth bandages that he pulled from a draw. "And due to your inability to treat wounds properly - "
"Hey!"
"You will also need this to wash the wound out of any rot... be warned it will burn." Gaffer handed him a small vile, with an opaque liquid lapping at the insides.
"Thanks gaffer." Pippin said as he went to leave.
"Ah...Ah...Ah... Ah... Wait. May I ask who has been hurt?"
Pippin gave a solemn look of discomfort, then smiled, "No one... thanks for the stuff Gaffer." He said as he ran away from the sparking, fuming Hobbit that was about to explode like one of Gandalf's fireworks.
VVV
The forest of fruit was eerily quiet, as Halei sat on her root and waited for Pippin to return, if he returned. The leaves rustled with each wanning and waxing of the cool breeze. Halei still continued to lap at her gash, the roughness of her tongue picking of parts of the dried blood, reopening the ugly wound in the process.
Halei could have easily used her own ointment in her knapsack to clean the wound, but she wanted to use it spare fully due to its rarity and special effects, it was made for wounds of a far greater extent than the one she now bore in pain. It was said to even be able to bring the recently deceased back to life, but that of course was just a rumour, whether it was true or not, was an entirely different matter, Halei believed the latter.
The rustling of the leaves being trampled brought Halei out of her musings; she quickly unrolled her sleeve and looked up in time to see a rather puffed Pippin holding some white cloths in his hand. He was alone, to her relief; she personally didn't want to be seen by more people, at least for now.
Pippin crept closer towards her, still slightly unnerved by her appearance. "I brought some bandages." Pippin said in his unknown tongue, as he got nearer. Halei submissively bowed her head trying to show Pippin that she would not hurt him. It worked because Pippin seemed to gain more confidence from the gesture, although he was still slightly uncomfortable, he quickened his unhurried pace.
Pippin put the hand with the bandages to his shoulder, trying to show Halei what he was going to do. Halei almost laughed, he thought of her as uncivilised, weren't her cloths testament enough to show that she was, she knew how a bandage work, and she didn't need him to explain it to her.
Pippin then showed her a vial with a opaque liquid inside. He repeated the same motion as before. Halei understood. She rolled up her sleeve until her wound was visible, the foreign air started to sting. Pippin made a disgusted look with his face at the sight of it, turning slightly green, to Halei's painful amusement, she had made her wound look tenfold worse than before.
Pippin uncorked the vial and dapped it onto his excess shirt, turning it a darking shade of brown from the dampness . he then applied the damp part of his shirt to her arm. A searing hot sensation stabbed at the cut, Halei felt that the inside of her arm was slowly but steadily melting away. She let out a harsh hiss, causing pippin to nearly jump up in fright. Pippin took it as the sign to stop.
The pain eventfully subsided to Halei's immense relief, Pippin moved to put the bandage on but was stopped by her, she didn't want to be completely reliant on him, and she snatched the bandages from Pippin and dressed her arm herself, to the annoyance of Pippin.
The white bandage was soon stained shady blue with her blood. It did however relieve some of the pain. "Thank you for bringing this." She told Pippin.
Pippin gave a confused look, as was to be expected. "We are really going to have to work on the language aren't we." He replied, to the confusion of Halei this time. "well... I have got to go now... Dont go anywhere... please" Pippin stated as he backed up a little. He pointed to himself and then pointed in the direction of Hobbiton. Halei was slightly confused about this gesture, but after a couple of rounds of charades she soon understood the basics of what Pippin was telling her.
VVV
The fantastic display of lights and colours exploded above the cheering and clapping crowd below, which only energized their cries of joy. There were hobbits dancing on tables, overfilling their cups with ale, sitting in the corners of the congregation and puffing thoughtfully at their pipes, and others... were getting into trouble. This was Bilbo's one hundred and eleventh birthday.
Gandalf let another fire work off to the amusement of the little hobbit children, magic butterflies fluttered around their heads until their flames faded into the darkness. He was so busy watching the children he didn't see the two shadows slip behind him.
Merry and Pippin crept forward, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Merry took a bite of an apple as Pippin jumped up into Gandalf's wooden cart full of fireworks. He put his hands around a bluish round one, pulling it up to show Merry.
"No...No...The big one" Merry whispered.
Pippin dropped the firework and then something caught his eye... A fire work that took the shape of a red dragon, it was Massive, it also at the same time reminded him somewhat of Halei who he had left in the orchard, he would go see if she actually stayed there tomorrow, her appearance still a mystery to him. He was curious. He wrapped his hands around the red firework and again showed Merry who only gave a mischievous laugh as he helped Pippin down with his load.
They crept back past Gandalf who was still looking after the young children, into a tent. The Pippin then lightly balanced the firework on the ground as Merry bent down and lit the fuse.
"There done." Merry confirmed, looking happy about himself. He then looked at the firework and his smile plummeted from his face. "You're supposed to stick it in the ground."
Pippin smiled then the meaning of the statement dawned on him, it wasn't in the ground something that he's cousin should have. "It is in the ground." Pippin shouted as he pushed the firework towards Merry.
"No it's not" Merry pushed back.
"It was your idea" Pippin said and was about to push the time bomb back at his cousin just as it exploded, lifting the two fighting hobbits off their feet and throwing them apart. They both landed on the ground parallel to each other, soot stained their faces, yet they cared not. The two hobbits watched as the trail of sparks ensuing forth from the tent flew into the sky gaining the attention of many around them.
It exploded into a ball of flames before it sprouted wings, the red sparkling flames morphed into the elongated shape of a dragon. The dragon spread it fiery wings and dived on the crowd of now frantic hobbits, who were running and tripping over tables. The Hobbits ducked as the flaming beast roared over them spieling off into the distance, then to the amusement and relief of the hobbits it exploded in many diverse sparking colours across the dusk horizon illuminating the entirety of Hobbiton in the strange ethereal light.
"Wow!" Pippin said still shocked.
"That was great."
"Let's get another."
Before the two Hobbits could even stand a pair of large hand grabbed them both by the ears. "Meriadoc Brandybuck and Perigen Took... I might have known." The deep rumble of Gandalf's voice scolded.
"Well we did say we would get you back... huh greybeard." Pippin taunted, obviously annoying the wizard further for his grip on their ears tightened.
Oh my... longest chapter so far. And it also takes my word count to 10 000 plus Yay. ok, enough of that... PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL OF LORD OF THE RINGS. please criticize, only a very few people are... like one or two... thanks Chris by the way... your private reviews are really helpful as well, and the detail dont get me started.
Ok another thing... I have a poll on my profile page that requires ALL readers attention if they wish to have a say in the way the story will play out... It is to do with the pairings of the story.
As usual please help make this story better by criticising, is it good, is it bad, does it even make sense... and why...
Thank you to all.