Ok, so I didn't get the reviews I wanted on the last chapter (2 out of the five I wanted!), but fifteen people read it. And I got no reviews to the chapter before that, However, I know they weren't the most exciting ones. So I want lots for this chapter! Please? I'm beggin you! Make up for the eeble amounts to the two previous ones! And since this chapter is also long (longest yet for this story, over 2100 words), I'm hoping I've given you a lot to review about.

Chapter 27

Malinaduial and Rana raced in and saw Pippin rolling on teh ground in obvious pain, clutching the palantir. Aragorn raced in with Legolas and saw, and instantly ran to help the poor hobbit. He grabbed Pippin's shoulders and let go in pain. Legolas rn to help Aragorn, then the palantir fell from Pippin's hands.

Gandalf, who had entered the room, threw a blanket over the palantir, and it stopped moving. Gandalf tehn turned on Pippin.

"Fool of a Took!" he said in anger. Then, noticing that Pipppin was lying unmoving on the ground, he walked over to him. He knelt beside him. Shortly after, Pippin began to tremble and whimper, gasping for breath.

"Look at me, what did you see?" Gandalf asked the poor, terrified hobbit.

"Forgive me, Gandalf," Pippin whimpered.

"Look at me. What did you see?" Gandalf asked again.

"A tree. There was a white tree, in a courtyard of stone. It was dead," Pippin whimpered. "The city was burning."

"Minas Tirith, is that what you saw?" Gandalf demanded.

Rana glanced at Malinaduial, who shrugged. Caranduin ran in, and glanced from one person to the other, then saw Pippin lying on the ground in terror. He looked to Rana, who gave him a look that said 'I'll tell you later'.

"I saw- I saw him! I can hear him in my head," Pippin gasped.

"And what did you tell him?" Gandalf asked, sounding worried. "Speak!"

"He asked me my name, I didn't answer," Pippin whimpered. "He hurt me!"

"What did you tell him of Frodo and the ring?" Gandalf demanded. Pippin remained silent for moment, looking confused before answering.


"There was no lie in Pippin's eyes," Gandalf said to Theoden. Rana had just finishing informing Caranduin of what had happened before he arrived, and she, Legolas, and Malinaduial had all finished explaining everything to Boromir, Anwyn, and Eowyn, none of whom had been present for Pippin's misadventure. And now Gandalf was filling Theoden in. "A fool, but an honest fool he remains. He old Sauron nothing of Frodo and the ring."

Theoden let out a sigh of relief.

"We have been strangely fortunate," Gandalf continued. "Through the palantir Pipin glimpsed the enemies plans. The battle of Helm's Deep showed our enemy one thing. The heir of Elendil has come forth. Men are not so weak as he supposed. There is courage still, strength enough perhaps to challenge him. Sauron fear this. He will not risk the peoples of Middle Earth uniting under one banner." He looked at Theoden with a concerned expression. "He will raze Minas Tirith to the ground before he sees a king return to the throne of men. If the beacons of Gondor are lit, Rohan must beready for war."

Theoden remained silent for a moment before speaking. "Tell me," he said finally. "Why should we ride to the aid of those who did not come to ours?" He gazed at Gandalf, slightly confused, slightly annoyed. "What do we owe Gondor?"

Rana turned to look at Caranduin and Malinaduil, as well as Legolas, since he was in that direction, standing with them. She wished he weren't. "Is he mad?" she whispered. "He never even sent to them for help!"

"Shh," Legolas replied. That made her mad. Why couldn't it have been Caranduin or Malina to respond? "Theoden probably doesn't want more war for his people, he's just using it as an excuse."

Rana glared at him. "Since when have you been so smart?"

"Will you both be quiet? They're still speaking!" Caranduin whispered to them in anoyance. Both glared at him momentarily before turning their attention back to Theoden and Gandalf.

Gandalf had ust finished saying something to Aragorn, and now turned to Theoden, addressing them all. "Understand this: Thinsg are now in motion that cannot be undone. I ride for Minas Tirith." He then looked at Merry and Pippin. "And I won't be going alone."


"Of all the inquisitive Hobbits, Peregrine Took, you are the worst! Hurry, hurry!" Anwyn sighed and rolled her eyes. Pippin had to also be the most hilarious of all Hobbits. She'd enoyed Boromir's stories about Pippin's curiosity getting the Fellowship into trouble on their way to Rohan. She assumed Gandalf had been happy to be rid of him after Moria, until they met again.

"Where are we going?" she heard Pippin ask as she walked alongside Boromir. She had to resist the urge to laugh at Merry's response.

"Why did you look? Why do you always have to look?"

"I don't know, I can't help it!" She shook her head. Pippin seemed impossible.

"How did you put up with him?" she asked Boromir. He shrugged.

"He's not all bad, he's actually quite amusing. He and Merry were actually the easiest to deal with. I'm quite fond of them." He smiled at Anwyn. "They were eager to learn sword-fighting from me."

She smiled back. "I recall you telling me." She looked at him curiously. "Why exactly do you plan on going with them?"

Boromir sighed. "My father will want to know why I didn't return with the ring. He wanted me to bring it back to Minas Tirith, to be kept safe. He was wrong. It can only cause destruction."

"I'm going with you."

Boromir looked at her in shock. "Anwyn, you can't be serious. It's not safe!"

"Try and stop me." She met his gaze with the same fire and determination her cousin Eowyn had, a quality that she showed less often than Eowyn, but was still there.

"If Sauron plans to attack Minas Tirith, I don't want you there. Anwyn, promise me you won't go to Gondor until the war is over." Boromir looked at her, a look of desperation on his face.

"I don't make promises I can't keep," she replied, her face expressionless.

Boromir sighed, then kissed her before going to join Gandalf and Shadowfax. Anwyn followed quietly.

"How far is Minas Tirith?" Pippin asked as Gandalf mounted Shadowfax behind him and Boromir mounted his own horse.

"Three days ride, as the nazgul flies, and you better hope we don't have one of those on our tail," Gandalf replied.

Pippin and Merry exchanged a few words that Anwyn couldn't hear, and she turned her attention to Boromir. She reached over and handed him a small suare of cloth. "To remember me by, until next we meet," she said softly as he took it.

"I love you," Boromir replied softly.

"Run Shadowfax, and show us the meaning of haste," Gandalf said a second later.

"Good luck," Anwyn said as they began to gallop away, Pippin calling back to Merry.

Merry turned and ran off to a lookout point, Anwyn close behind.

"Merry! Anwyn!" Aragorn called, following them.

The three reached the top, and watched their friends vanishinto the distance. Anwyn remained silent, but Merry spoke.

"He's always followed be, since before we were tweens," Merry said. "I would get him into the worst sort of trouble, but I was always there to get him out." He looked up at Aragorn. "And now he's gone, ust like Frodo. And Sam."

Aragorn smiled down at the Hobbit. "One thing I've learned about Hobbits; they're most hardy folk."

"Foolhardy, maybe," Merry replied with a slight laugh. "He's a Took."

Aragorn smiled, then turned to Anwyn. "And I'm sure Boromir will be fine. He's a mighty warrior."

Anwyn turned to face him. "His father will be furious, though. He was expected to return with the ring. Lord Denethor won't be happy to find out where it's headed, and in whose hands."

Aragorn looked grave. "No wonder Boromir was so determined to have the ring taken to Gondor," he murmured.

"I'm just glad it wasn't Faramir, or Denethor's wrath would likely be worse," Anwyn replied. "From what Boromir tells me, Faramir and his father don't exactly see eye to eye."

Aragorn sighed. "Either way, what's done is done. Let's just hope that Gandalf will be able to talk some sense into Denethor before it's too late."


The four elves wandered through Edoras together. Caranduin and Legolas had heard about Rana's curiosity and her questioning of Haldir, and were curious about what he'd said. Therefor, the two ellyth were satisfying their curiosity.

"So you mean to tell us that you were lied to your entire life?" Legolas asked.

"Pretty much," Rana replied.

"Has Haldir told you everything yet?" Caranduin asked.

Rana shook her head. "Not yet, he didn't manage to tell very much before Pippin got curious about the palantir." She looked up thoughtfully. "Though come to think about it, Pippin got curious even before we returned to Edoras." She sighed. "Why is Pippin such an idiot?"

Malinaduial shrugged. "Who knows? Although as Gandalf said, we were fortunate. Pippin wasn't badly hurt, and we got the information we needed. Also, maybe this taught Pippin a lesson about curiosity."

Legolas snorted. "Yeah. Curiosity tried to kill the Hobbit."

Rana and Malinaduial both shot a glare at him.

"What's your problem recently, Legolas?" Malinaduial asked, her voice scathing. "Ever since the battle of Helm's Deep, you've been horrible!"

Rana and Caranduin were both stunned. Neither of them had ever seen Malinaduial so shocked. Truly, it was hard to tell who was more shocked. Legolas, or Rana and Caranduin. The latter two blinked at each otehr. Neither of them had seen too much of a personality change in Legolas, although Malinaduial had spent a little more time around him then they had.

"Pippin could have been seriously injured," the angry elleth snarled at him. "And you're joking about it?"

Legolas had no response. He simply remained silent as Malinaduial glared at him. Finally he spoke. "Malina, he's fine though, isn't he?"

"He just got taken away to Gondor! To Minas Tirith, in fact! Right where the battle's going to be! If that's fine, then I'd hat to see trouble!" She rolled her eyes at him. "Seriously, Las. Where hve your brains and sensiblity gone?" And with that, she stalked off in annoyance, leaving a stunned Legolas, Caranduin, and Rana behind. After a minute, Caranduin spoke.

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I think that that was rather odd and awkward," Caranduin said, breaking the silence.

Legolas simply glared at his brother. "Shut up, Caranduin."

Rana smirked. "Well, I do believe you deserved it. Pippin was in real danger, and still is. I don't know how you could possibly make light of it. And what did you do to offend Malina before now?" Rana aksed curiously.

Legolas didn't answer.

Rana and Caranduin glanced at each other. Caranduin spoke.

"I'm going to take the silence as either something really bad, or something really stupid. Or both."

Legolas sighed. "Well, we were talking, and then the talk turned into an argument, and I'd rather not say how the argument started. But basically it ended with me telling her she had the hollow head of an orc."

Caranduin and Rana both stared at Legolas. Then they both slapped him.

"Idiot!" Caranduin said.

"If anyone of us has a hollow head, it would actually be you," Rana added dryly. "What were you thinking?"

Legolas shrugged. "I have no clue," he muttered.

Rana sighed. "Well, I'm going to go find Malinaduial and see if I can't talk her out of killing you for your recent stupidity, both with her and Pippin's incident. And I'd suggest that you think of an apology."

"That might be a good idea," Legolas agreed.

"Might? Might be a good idea? It sounds like a brilliant idea to me!" Caranduin retorted.

Rana sighed and left the brothers to find her friend, and hopefully to keep her from murdering Legolas.