A/N:Sorry for not updating for awhile... I decided to make this chapter extra long to make up for it!

Once again I have to much to write and not enough time!

We rode out of Isengard immediately after our meeting with Treebeard and set off for Dunharrow. We made camp at Do Baran around 10 pm. We set to sleep around 10:30, and I was sound asleep by 11.

But not for long.

At around 11:30 I was awoken by the worst sound, that of a hobbit crying out in fright and anguish. I looked up and beheld a most troubling scene.

Gandalf was standing over the palantir looking at in enraged. "So this is the thief!" Gandalf cried. Hastily he cast his cloak over the globe where it lay. 'But you, Pippin! This is a grievous turn to things!'

He knelt by Pippin's body: the hobbit was lying on his back rigid, with unseeing eyes staring up at the sky. My heart stopped when I saw him, what could have caused such a thing to happen to him?

Gandalf took Pippin's hand and bent over his face, listening for his breath; then he laid his hands on his brow murmuring something under his breath. The hobbit shuddered and he closed his eyes. He cried out in fright and then rigidly sat up opening his eyes. He stared in utter bewilderment at all the faces round him.

"It is not for you, Saruman!" he cried in an unnaturally shrill and toneless voice so very different from his normally cheerful one. He looked at Gandalf in terror and struggled to get up and escape but Gandalf held him gently and quite firmly.

"Peregrin Took!" he said firmly. "Come back!"

The hobbit relaxed and fell back clinging to the wizard's hand for support. "Gandalf!" he cried, as tears sprang from his small eyes. "Gandalf! Forgive me!"

"Forgive you?" said the wizard quietly. "Tell me first what you have done!"

"I, I took the ball and looked at it," stammered Pippin; "and I saw things that frightened me. And I wanted to go away, but I couldn't. And then he came and questioned me; and he looked at me, and, and that is all I remember."

"That won't do. What did you see, and what did you say?" Said Gandalf sternly.

Pippin shut his eyes and shivered, but said nothing more. We all stared at him in silence, except Merry who turned away from his beloved cousin with tears of anger and fear in his eyes. But Gandalf's face was still stern. "Speak!" he commanded.

In a low voice Pippin began again. "I saw a dark sky, and tall battlements," he said slowly. "And tiny stars. It seemed very far away and long ago, yet hard and clear. Then the stars went in and out-they were cut off by things with wings. Very big, I think, really; but in the glass they looked like bats wheeling round the tower. I thought there were nine of them. One began to fly straight towards me, getting bigger and bigger. It had a horrible - no, no! I can't say.'

'I tried to get away, because I thought it would fly out; but when it had covered all the globe, it disappeared. Then he came. He did not speak so that I could hear words. He just looked, and I understood.'

'"So you have come back? Why have you neglected to report for so long?"

'I did not answer. He said: "Who are you?" I still did not answer, but it hurt me horribly; and he pressed me, so I said: "A hobbit."

'Then suddenly he seemed to see me, and he laughed at me. It was cruel. It was like being stabbed with knives. I struggled. But he said: "Wait a moment! We shall meet again soon. Tell Saruman that this dainty is not for him. I will send for it at once. Do you understand? Say just that!"

'Then he gloated over me. I felt I was falling to pieces. No, no! I can't say any more. I don't remember anything else." The terror in the little hobbits eyes as he finished was enough to drive even Gandalf to sympathy.

"Look at me!" Gandalf ordered softly.

Pippin looked up straight into Gandalf's wise eyes. The wizard held his gaze for a moment in silence. Then his face grew gentler, and the shadow of a smile appeared. He laid his hand softly on Pippin's little head.

"All right!' he said." Say no more! You have taken no harm. There is no lie in your eyes, as I feared. But he did not speak long with you. A fool, but an honest fool, you remain, Peregrin Took. Wiser ones might have done worse in such a pass. But mark this! You have been saved, and all your friends too, mainly by good fortune, as it is called. You cannot count on it a second time. If he had questioned you, then and there, almost certainly you would have told all that you know, to the ruin of us all. But he was too eager. He did not want information only: he wanted you, quickly, so that he could deal with you in the Dark Tower, slowly. Don't shudder! If you will meddle in the affairs of Wizards, you must be prepared to think of such things. But come! I forgive you. Be comforted! Things have not turned out as evilly as they might."

He then lifted the young hobbit up of the floor and placed him gently into his bed. Merry came up from behind Gandalf and sat next to his cousin, stroking his soft curls.

"Lie there and rest, if you can, Pippin!' said Gandalf. "Trust me. If you feel an itch in your palms again, tell me of it! Such things can be cured. But anyway, my dear hobbit, don't put a lump of rock under my elbow again! Now, I will leave you two together for a while."

He then turned and walked over to where Legolas, Aragorn, and Myself were standing.

"Is he alright Gandalf?" I asked hesitantly. I truly do not think I could bare it if something were to happen to Pippin. He is the sort of person that you cannot imagine sad, and when you see that sort of person, you feel as if you would move the whole world if it would make them smile again.

"I believe no lasting damage has been done." He answered softly. "He did not hold on to it long, and Hobbits have a truly astounding recovery speed. Still, the pain and shock of the experience should fade quickly, perhaps to quickly." Gandalf then turned his head from me and looked at Aragorn appraisingly. After a moment he continued. "Would you take and guard the Orthanc-stone? It is a dangerous charge."

Aragorn stared, first at Gandalf then at the evil stone. "Dangerous indeed." He said, "But not to all. There is one who may claim it by right. For this assuredly is the palantír of Orthanc from the treasury of Elendil, set here by the Kings of Gondor. Now my hour draws near. I will take it."

Gandalf looked at Aragorn, and then, he lifted the covered Stone, and bowed as he presented it to Aragorn.

"Receive it, lord!" he said: "in earnest of other things that shall be given back. But if I may counsel you in the use of your own, do not use it - yet! Be wary!"

"When have I been hasty or unwary, who have waited and prepared for so many long years?" said Aragorn.

"Never yet. Do not then stumble at the end of the road," answered Gandalf warily. "But at the least keep this thing secret. You, and all others that stand here! The hobbit, Peregrin, above all should not know where it is bestowed. The evil fit may come on him again. For alas! he has handled it and looked in it, as should never have happened. He ought never to have touched it in Isengard, and there I should have been quicker. But my mind was bent on Saruman, and I did not at once guess the nature of the Stone. Then I was weary, and as I lay pondering it, sleep overcame me. Now I know!"

"Yes, there can be no doubt," said Aragorn. "At last we know the link' between Isengard and Mordor, and how it worked. Much is explained.' 'Strange powers have our enemies, and strange weaknesses!' said Théoden. 'But it has long been said: oft evil will shall evil mar."

"That many times is seen,' said Gandalf. 'But at this time we have been strangely fortunate. Maybe, I have been saved by this hobbit from a grave blunder. I had considered whether or not to probe this Stone myself to find its uses. Had I done so, I should have been revealed to him myself. I am not ready for such a trial, if indeed I shall ever be so: But even if I found the power to withdraw myself, it would be disastrous for him to see me, yet - until the hour comes when secrecy will avail no longer."

'That hour is now come, I think,' said Aragorn. He carefully took the wrapped stone and set in his pack alongside his other possessions.

"Not yet,' said Gandalf. "There remains a short while of doubt which we must use. The Enemy, it is clear, thought that the Stone was in Orthanc - why should he not? And that therefore the hobbit was captive there, driven to look in the glass for his torment by Saruman. That dark mind will be filled now with the voice and face of the hobbit and with expectation: it may take some time before he learns his error. We must snatch that time. We have been too leisurely. We must move. The neighbourhood of Isengard is no place now to linger in. I will ride ahead at once with Peregrin will be better for him than lying in the dark while others sleep." He then turned sharply and peered at me. "I believe it would be wise for you to follow me with all due speed. I think your presences will be needed most despeartley in Minas Tirith."

I stared at the wizard in shock. Leave for Gondor? "My father shall not welcome me." I quietly responded. "I believe you would fare better without my aid."

"Be that as it may, you shall accompany me." He answered.

"I will keep Éomer and ten Riders," said the king. "They shall ride with me at early day. The rest may go with Aragorn and ride as soon as they have a mind."

"As you will," said Gandalf. "But make all the speed you may to the cover of the hills, to Helm's Deep!"

At that moment a shadow fell over us. The bright moonlight we were meeting under was suddenly cut off. And at the disapearence of the light came a blind fear and a deadly cold that made one forget what it was like to feel safe and warm. With a shiver I looked up. A vast winged shape passed over the moon like a black cloud. It wheeled and went north, flying at a speed greater than any wind of Middle-earth. The stars fainted before it. And then, it was gone.