Well, here's the second chapter of the week out just in time. Hehehe. For those of you who don't know because you don't read my other story, I have a new policy now and that is to get out one chapter of each story every week unless something comes up that prevents me, but there is also a second, more important one. I am no longer go to try and be consistent with the chapter lengths, as in many cases I felt that I was having to extend the descriptions and explanations and scene setting far longer than necessary to keep all the chapters around the 13000 word mark. It was starting to get to the stage where I was waffling a lot and losing interest in the writing so, now, here I am again a new chapter that is significantly shorter than the others, but which I feel does the job it was meant to do without a ton of extraneous stuff to drag it out. I'm quite pleased with it – this chapter was much more fun to write than they were normally getting because I did not have to force myself to think of extra things to put in.
I will definitely be doing this from now on. The chapters will be a minimum of 5000 words, but all the amount longer than that will depend on how long it takes to make the point the chapter was trying to make. And I hope you enjoy it anyway, despite its reduced length.
To Be a King
Chapter 37:- Little Orcs
Merry and Pippin were not sure how long they had been running for, but they kept on running anyway. They had no way of knowing how much time had elapsed since they had entered the trees, for everything looked pretty much the same and all they could tell from the faint light filtering in from above was that the Sun had come up.
Had they gotten far into the forest? Or had they been running around in circles. They could not tell. They certainly could tell though, that they were lost.
But right now they didn't care about that. It didn't matter, namely because they were still fleeing for their lives. Unarmed as they were, they knew they were no match for anything that might have it out for them and, although they couldn't be totally sure, they had both thought they heard the sounds of something crashing through the bushes behind them on more than one occasion. As if something was blindly running after them in an ungainly, but persistent, way.
The Hobbits were bone tired, but they kept going regardless. Neither one of them could say their time with the Uruks had been restful and right now all they really wanted was a place to rest. But for some time, they did not dare to stop.
When they finally did, the two Hobbits stumbled, one after the other, into a space between the two roots of a giant tree, sitting sagged against the trunk but still warily looking out around them, sharp eyes alert for any signs of movement.
They saw none, but the dark and oppressive forest seemed to peer in at them from all directions nonetheless. But right now, neither Merry nor Pippin were concerned with how spooky the trees looked. They were more worried about what might potentially come out of those trees.
And they had a good reason to be fearful.
"Did we lose him?" Pippin whispered slightly to Merry, his breath ragged from all the blind running they had been doing. "I think we lost him."
For the first time in a while, both the Hobbits dared to allow smiles to creep across their faces at the prospect of their escape. Their freedom. They had had no idea what would have been in store for them at Isengard if they had reached their initial destination in the hands of the Uruk-Hai but neither one of them wanted to think about it. But it seemed now, finally, they had made their getaway and it had been a successful one.
They were not prisoners and they had not been eaten by their captors. That mere thought alone also made them shudder.
But even as they began to relax a little more, there was the sound of bushes rustling nearby and the two Hobbits turned slowly, their facial expressions slipping into ones of horror as they saw the undergrowth violently thrashing in the direction they had come from. It was a clear indication that something large was making its way straight towards them.
And sure enough, moments later, the hulking form of the persistent Orc Captain, Grishnáhk – the only member of the company besides the prisoners to have survived the attack from the Rohirrim, surged out of the bushes. His head swung violently from side to side, his eyes seeking out the elusive Hobbit pray before his head swung around so fast to stare at them that his neck licked. But he didn't notice the difference.
The Hobbits started as his eyes fixed upon them and scrambled to their feet in a mad dash to keep going right as Grishnahk hurried after them with a snarl of, "I'm gonna rip out your filthy little innards!"
The Orc Captain was clearly wounded. He had taken a spear wound to the lower back during the initial stages of the attack and now he was having trouble walking. If he had been in the highest of health at the start of the chase, he would have caught the Hobbits a long time before now. But as it was he could still shuffle along at a fast pace, able to match the speed of the tired run of the Hobbits as the chase continued, the prey dashing wildly through the trees and trying not to get separated from each other as he stumbled on after them.
"Come here!" he snarled after them, but of course the Hobbits didn't listen. And even if they had, they would not have obeyed him.
The chase continued for a short time until Merry looked over his shoulder and saw no sign of Grishnáhk. But he definitely didn't think that this was good news yet. Grishnáhk was not about to give up pursuing them so easily. He grabbed Pippin's arm to slow him down and the two of them looked around wildly, trying to see if the Orc Captain would come from another direction instead.
Panicked, Merry hissed, "The trees. Climb a tree!" And they both ran the short distance to the nearest trunk, which looked fairly climbable. Merry helped Pippin up first and began to scramble up the trunk after him. Both were seasoned tree climbers and had done this many times when they were younger in the Shire, Merry especially. But even as Merry scrambled a fair distance up the trunk, he paused too look all around at the landscape again.
There was no sign of Grishnáhk.
"He's gone," he breathed in relief, looking up at Pippin. "I think that its…" and suddenly he was jerked downwards as a clammy hand caught his ankle in a grip tighter than a vice and jostled him bodily downwards. Pippin looked over his shoulder in horror as Grishnáhk, who had somehow managed to sneak up on them even injured as he was, tugged hard and pulled Merry right out of the tree, to land with a thud on his back, the Orc looming over him.
Merry quickly retaliated with a swift kick right to Grishnáhk's face, but while the Orc jerked back from the strike, it only seemed to serve to annoy him and anger him further, and, with a hiss he stepped forwards and stood over Merry once more, his horribly curved sword poised to strike down at him.
"Merry!" Pippin cried, from his position in the tree.
But there was nothing that Pippin could do by hang there from the tree and watch as the Orc raised his sword still further.
Except it was at that point that Pippin saw something out the corner of his eye.
A red shape moving through the trees in their direction at high speed. One that he couldn't make out, but one that was heading directly for Grishnáhk.
"Let's put a maggot-hole in your belly," suggested the Orc nastily, with a cruel leer on his face as he reached forward to possibly grasp Merry's throat, enjoying the look of terror on the Hobbit's face for as long as he could before he wiped it and all other expression except pain off that face. And all Merry could do was lie there and wait for the end to come.
It came.
But not for him.
Grishnáhk was taken totally off guard when something slammed into the side of his head so hard it fractured his skull and sent him flying through the air to slam into the trunk of a nearby tree. He roared with the pain and managed to peer over to look at what had attacked him, only to see some kind of three-pronged club clattering to the ground right next to the floored Hobbit.
"Yeah, if there's one thing that's really going to piss me off," a voice said as the person who had thrown the club thing stepped into view nearby, "It's some jerk like you threatening someone who can't fight back. I've seen enough of it in my time that I can practically smell it. Or maybe it was just the fact that you really do stink because let's face it, you do."
Grishnáhk and both the Hobbits stared in bewilderment, despite the pain and the fear that all three felt and varying degrees. None of them could hope to put a name on the creature before them – a large, two-legged Lizard-like creature with a pronged crest on top of its head in the shape of a large V, a silver breastplate, jagged mouth and horned nose.
Shoutmon, for that was indeed who it was, stepped over to the microphone that he had flung straight at Grishnáhk's head and held it aloft, ready to be used again at any moment. "And I highly suggest you back down now, if you know what's good for you," he added.
Grishnáhk, though, was beyond reasoning like that. This creature, whatever its intentions, was not about to take away the pleasure of killing and eating those two former prisoners that were now behind it. Despite the pain of his broken skull and the spearwound in his back he staggered to his feet and took a wild, swinging charge right at him.
"Alright then," Shoutmon grimaced. "Then make sure you carve this name into your black heart. I am SHOUTMON!"
And he sprang forwards with incredible speed and slammed Grishnáhk's sword away with the butt of his mic before spinning around in mid-air to smash the business end of it into Grishnáhk's broad chin, snapping it upwards with enough force to break the Orc's nack. Grishnáhk crumpled over backwards in a heap and Shoutmon landed in front of him, looking down at the dead body with a grimace behind is eyes.
"I don't like killing people," he said. "But I'm not about to turn my back on a couple of innocent kids just to let scum like you live."
Merry and Pippin stared at Shoutmon's back in shock. So much so that Pippin actually lost his grip on the tree that he had been holding onto and dropped to the ground with a relatively painful thud. Shoutmon was almost suddenly reminded of their presence and turned around to face them, Merry having scrambled to his feet to help pull Pippin out of the leaves. Luckily, nothing had been broken in the fall.
Shoutmon stared at the two individuals before him right back. It seemed he had been lucky to run into them when he had. He had just been heading out for a small stroll, intent on stretching his legs after spending most of the previous day sitting on a rock and waiting for something to happen, when he had heard the sounds of struggling and some yelling coming from nearby and run to investigate, knowing that those sounds were rarely ever a good thing.
He'd shown up just in time to see what was going on and put a stop to it. And now that he looked around he found that this was pretty much the spot that Treebeard had been standing in when Gandalf and he had come to speak to him. He wondered if the Ent would have still been here to do something about it himself had Deckerdramon not shown up and distracted him, but right now that did matter. What did matter was the well-being of these two, who were no bigger or smaller than most of the humans that he knew, such as Taiki.
"Hey," he gave them a small wave, placing his microphone across his shoulder and giving them a nod. "You two sure picked an interesting place to take a hike."
"What is it?" Pippin whispered to Merry, just loud enough to for Shoutmon to hear him.
"I don't know," Merry whispered back. "It looks like… a small Dragon…"
"Can it be…" Pippin muttered. "An actual Dragon?"
"I can hear you, you know," Shoutmon coughed. "And yes, I am a Dragon, but I am a…"
Before Shoutmon could even finish his sentence, Merry and Pippin immediately turned and bolted further into the trees, dashing away from Shoutmon as fast as their short legs could take them. Shoutmon froze in place for a moment, wondering what, if anything, he'd just done. But then he remembered what Gandalf had told him earlier about the Dragons of this world, and how they were notoriously not creatures that aligned themselves with good and had a bad reputation throughout the entire of Middle Earth.
Shoutmon grumbled to himself as he watched the Hobbits flee. But he also realised that the two of them were dashing off into a woodland full of potential dangers and he sure as heck was not going to let that lie. There'd be no deaths on his watch, and so he immediately sprang after the Hobbits at high speed.
Merry and Pippin ran on blindly as they had been doing for so long now. They had no desire to be in the presence of a Dragon – they'd heard all the stories about Smaug from Bilbo and didn't want to be around even a small one, which were surely also dangerous creatures. So they ran madly, bare feet thumping the tree roots and soil and rocks of the forest heedless of any pain in them in their mad desperate bid to escape from the small Dragon that involved a lot of weaving through the trunks of the trees.
"Hey! Come back!" Shoutmon yelled, but that sounded too similar to what Grishnáhk had yelled after them before and the Hobbits increased their speed if anything. Pippin looked over his shoulder and saw the small red lizard pelting after them, his eyes fierce and his staff held ready in his hand. Panic gripped him momentarily when he realised a forest was probably the most dangerous place of all to encounter a Dragon and piled on the speed to try and escape before he set fire to anything.
Shoutmon grumbled to himself, thankful that it had not been so difficult to get to know the humans of Xros Heart like this – even Akari and Zenjirou had not run away from him and they were clearly terrified of the Digital World. But it was clear that the Hobbits were not going to stop anytime soon so he quickly decided to go a different way than outright pursuit. Without asking the trees for permission, he suddenly bounded onto one of their trunks and sprang off it with a powerful double kick, twisting in the air to land feet-first on another trunk and spring off that too, then another and another, bounding from tree to tree as he veered around to the side.
The Hobbits glanced over their shoulders again, but saw no sign of the Dragon thing. But they were not about to believe him gone. Not after the last time when the Orc had managed to sneak up on them, and if anything the sudden lack of a pursuer made them increase their speed still further, desperately trying to keep ahead of a foe they could not even see.
Their efforts proved futile in the end though, as was proven when suddenly Shoutmon shot into their path and landed with a soft thump on the leaves after jumping off another tree. Merry and Pippin almost screeched to a halt and fell over one another, fear etched across their faces as Shoutmon turned to look at them with sharp eyes.
"Would you just listen?" he asked. "I'm trying to…"
He sighed when the Hobbits just bolted to the left instead and hared away into the trees again.
"Guess not," Shoutmon growled as he raced after them again, trying to figure out a way to get them to stop and stay stopped without whacking them over the head.
This kind of thing was clearly not his forte.
"Run, Pippin!" Merry cried. "It's gaining on us again!"
"I don't think we can outrun it, Merry!" Pippin shouted back.
"We have to!" Merry replied.
"No, you frigging don't!" Shoutmon roared after them as he did indeed begin to gain on them. "I'm not going to hurt either one of you, damn it! Didn't I just save you from the big, ugly guy not five minutes ago!"
Neither Merry nor Pippin believed him. They had heard all about the ways that Dragons could manipulate people with their words into thinking things that they shouldn't and they had no desire whatsoever to stick behind and find out if this Dragon was telling the truth or not. So, on they ran.
And it was at this point that Pippin tripped over a tree root and fell the ground with another thump.
Merry immediately turned back to help and tried to pull Pippin to his feet as the latter tried to scramble up himself, but Pippin only ended up stumbling to the floor yet again, something wrapped around his ankle. The Hobbit looked over his shoulder and gasped in astonishment when he saw the thick tree root that he had just tripped over had seemed to spring a life of its own, having risen out of the ground and encircled his foot, pulling him towards the trunk of the tree that it belonged to.
Maybe it had even lifted itself up deliberately to bring him to the ground.
"Pippin!" Merry cried once he also saw it, running to the root and attempting to pry it away, but immediately as he did so, another tree root rose from the ground with a small shower of soil and belted him in the stomach, knocking him onto his back amongst a cluster of other roots all belonging to the same tree. Before Merry realised what was happening, the roots had pressed down and around him, one of them shifting position to pin his shoulder to the ground while another skewing to the side to trap his leg as well.
Pippin's eyes were wide with horror as the entire bottom half of the tree seemed to come to life, more of the roots wrapping around his torso and pulling him into their woody embrace, trapping him against the base of the tree. The two Hobbits struggled wildly, yelling and crying out in pain as the wooden limbs compressed around them, like tentacles, shifting aside and around them like some kind of giant squid drawing them deeper into the base of the tree and attempting to bury them under their shifting mass of wood.
And all the while there was a terrible groaning going on, as the top half of the tree also began to shift and lean over, almost as if it was looking down at them without eyes, making sure that they were drawn as deeply as possible beneath it. The groaning and creaking noises the tree was emanating almost seemed to be the tree-equivalent of a sadistic cackling noise, watching delightedly as it drew the Hobbits down.
The other trees around were doing similar things, and now Merry was under no illusions that the things he'd mentioned last night about the moving, talking, intelligent trees were totally true. And if this is the kind of thing that happened in the Old Forest when a travelling Hobbit went missing… nobody would ever know what had become of him or Pippin but they would have died a fate similar to many Hobbits, the only difference being how far away from home they were.
"Help!" Pippin was yelling. "Somebody help! It's got my stomach!"
Merry gasped as it wrenched his other arm down with a writhing limb of wood and gritted his teeth, waiting for death to claim them. They had run from a band of Orcs and Uruk Hai, many of which were intent on eating them, to becoming the prey for this great tree. How, in any way, was this fair?
But suddenly he stopped and stared in disbelief as the red lizard Dragon creature bounded to a halt right in front of them and gave the tree a smack with its staff thing that he couldn't begin to name.
"Hey!" he roared, clenching his fist and glaring up into the leaves of the tree as if there was some face up there looking at him and ignoring the dent in the bark his blow had just created. "You listen to me, you woodworm-infested pile of fuel! You let go of these innocent people and let them go free or I swear to the Code Crown that this is going to get ugly!"
The trees around them all fell silent for a moment and the constrictions on Merry and Pippin stopped, and everyone got the distinct impression that the entire forest was staring at Shoutmon in disbelief for a moment. But then the groaning resumed, reaching an enraged crescendo as the tree thrashed violently at the top, as if it was trying to scream something at the lizard Digimon.
"I don't speak Vegetable," Shoutmon yelled back at them without batting an eyelid. "But I can tell you now that you're not going to go taking innocent lives on my watch, no matter how bad tempered you are. Did these guys ever do anything to you?"
The trees rumbling only seemed to increase and a root uplifted itself from the ground and snaked towards the lizard, but Shoutmon immediately brought his microphone to bear and slammed it aside like it was a cricket ball, sending it almost crumpling to the ground.
"Oh, so now you're going to go for me instead are you?" Shoutmon growled. "Newsflash, you're messing with the Digimon King here and while I may not be from around here, you're not going to make me back off. You want me to carve my name into your trunks because you know I could do that if I wanted to. Quite easily! Not let go of the kids before you really tick me off!"
The trees almost seemed to shrink back from him for a second before the ground rumbled slightly and it seemed that they were attempting to close in around him. Shoutmon was almost sure that they were moving in ever so slowly from all sides and the ground split underneath him from the movements of longer roots beneath the surface of the ground.
"Really?" Shoutmon growled. "You really are going to take this all the way? Would you just look at yourselves you walking matchsticks? You're attempting to smother a bunch of innocent people here. A couple of terrified lost travellers. Do not test me, because I am not going to turn my back on them, even if I have to take on the entire forest by myself I'm not just going to back away and let you suffocate them like this. You trees might be victims of the bad guys in this world that are always getting cut down and burned but right now you're the villain, not the victim. You can't just attack anybody you like because you're angry with other people!"
The trees made absolutely no move at all to back down, but Merry and Pippin were both staring at Shoutmon in disbelief, wondering why the heck this Dragon was sticking up for them so powerfully. Fortunately the tree seemed to have forgotten that they were only half wrapped in its roots until that point, but they both yelled and gasped as it started to constrict them again and pull them deeper into its system.
"That's it!" Shoutmon snarled and raised his hand, forming a flaming ball of Rock Soul between his three fingers. "Do we really need to do the math here?"
The trees lurched backwards visibly at the sight of the burning musical symbol that Shoutmon now held above his palm. They literally recoiled away from the fire and the groaning almost became a roar that drowned out everything else around them except for Shoutmon's voice, which rose up above the tumult.
"Release them or I burn my way through your roots until I can pull them out of there myself and then I'll burn a path out of these damn woods! You don't think I'll do it? I sure as hell will if you push me any further!"
The trees made no further move forwards, but it seemed that the one in question was unwilling to give up its grip on the two Hobbits. It was almost like some kind of impasse, with Shoutmon glaring at a knot in the trunk of the tree as if that symbolised the tree's face, though of course it did not have a real face.
And, after about ten seconds of this silent "stare-down" there was a loud voice through the trees that cried, "ENOUGH!"
Shoutmon grinned and extinguished the unthrown Rock Soul as he turned around to see Treebeard striding forwards with his great, long steps. The Hobbit's jaws dropped at the sight of the great Ent stepping towards them, and Treebeard took in the scene at a glance of his bright amber eyes, spotting the Hobbits trapped underneath the roots and Shoutmon squaring off with the tree in question.
"Hoom, what is going on here?" the Ent asked, in a voice that boomed out through the assorted trees in a much bolder tone to his usual breathy voice.
"I thought that would do the job," Shoutmon said, before pointing his mic at the tree. "This buddy of yours is attempting to murder a couple of innocent travellers. Would you get it to see sense and lift its roots up so they can get out from under there."
Treebeard's head tilted so that he could get a good look at the trapped Merry and Pippin before hooming again and saying, "They look like some kind of Little Orcs to me. Orcs are no cause for mercy, no matter how small they may be. The Forest will not show them any mercy."
"No…!" Merry suddenly cried. "We're… we're not Orcs. We're Hobbits, not Orcs! We haven't done anything wrong, Mister Tree! Please let us go!"
Treebeard harrumphed and was about to correct Merry before Shoutmon said, "Actually, he's not a tree. He's an Ent. Never heard of them? Because I sure hadn't until I came to this place. But anyway, they're like shepherds to the trees apparently. Though I'm not entirely sure what a shepherd is either so I could be wrong."
"Burarum," Treebeard muttered to himself. "That is of small importance, Shoutmon. What concerns me is that you, hroom, threatened my brethren with fire. This is a most, haroom, heinous action. The forest does not like it."
"Yeah well," Shoutmon shrugged. "I might have threatened them but I wasn't actually going to do it. I just figured if I did something big then word would get back to you and you'd be able to come and do something about all this yourself. Like when Deckerdramon appeared in the forest, you got word of it down the treeline even though he was a long way away."
"A ruse?" mused Treebeard.
"Yeah," Shoutmon gave the Ent a wry grin. "Look, mate, this is your forest and I know that you love it. Like heck I wasn't going to burn it down, but I'm also not going to stand by and just watch an injustice like this. It was an empty threat. Mostly. I might have had to take drastic action on this one tree if you hadn't shown up."
Treebeard regarded the Digimon King solemnly for several moments before he turned to the tree and said, "Away with you now. You should not be waking. Eat earth, dig deep, drink water, go to sleep. Away with you."
To the great surprise of both the Hobbits, the roots of the trees began to slacken and pull away from their bodies. Both of them immediately thrashed around to free themselves before they pulled away entirely, stumbling away from the tree to almost fall over some distance away before they stopped and looked around them, now realising they were standing between Treebeard and Shoutmon.
"They look like Orcs to you?" Shoutmon asked the Ent. "They look like Human children to me."
"We're not children!" Pippin protested. "We're fully grown adults."
"Just about in his case," Merry replied. "But… we're Hobbits, not Orcs."
"Hobbits, huh?" Shoutmon muttered, remembering something else that had been told to him. "Yeah… you've got the hairy feet…"
Before either one of them could react, Treebeard had bent down as well as giant being made of wood could and scooped them up into each hand, holding them at arms length and staring at them with a critical eye. "You have, hoom, pleasant voices. That I do admit. Not the usual harshness of an Orc voice. But you could be involved in some, hum, trickery. Orcs can come in many shapes these days and wherever they go, destruction follows…" they could hear the bitterness in the Ent's voice quite clearly. "They slash, they hack, they splinter us away to fuel their fires. They are stains on the world and leave nothing but stains in their wake. But they can be clever."
"No, you've got to believe us!" Merry cried, still getting over the fact he was talking to something that looked like a tree. "We're from the Shire. We're Hobbits. Some Men call us Halflings. We live in holes in the ground and tend to farms and gardens in a country far away from here. We love trees."
"We've got a big party tree right in the middle of Hobbiton that we all gather around to celebrate big events," Pippin agreed. "We'd never cut that down. And there's a forest a bit like this one just outside the Shire. We live alongside it in peace. We like the woods. Though this one is a bit scary."
"Like the woods?" Treebeard stared at them both in turn, and then stared at them both again, both of the Hobbits trying to look as sincere as they possibly could. "You like the forest? There are few left in Middle Earth that do who are not Elven Kind or Entish folk? You are sure."
"Yes, we're sure! And we're definitely not Orcs!" Merry cried.
"Not Orcs!" echoed Pippin eagerly. "Just Hobbits. Through and through."
"I think you can believe them, Treebeard," Shoutmon smirked. "They certainly don't look like evil people to me."
Treebeard still looked dubious before he said, "I shall have to ask for an alternative source first. And Shoutmon… you have stepped into dangerous territory with this rescue of yours. The forest has a long memory and anger does not abate quickly. The trees are uneasy with your presence and unhappy that I am not attempting to punish you."
"Yeah well," Shoutmon muttered. "I was bluffing, if that's any help." He stepped over to the tree that had been holding Merry and Pippin captive and patted its trunk, eliciting a slight rustling in the leaves above, but other than that no response. "No hard feelings, eh?"
"You are reckless to challenge the whole forest in such a manner," Treebeard pointed out. "Even in jest."
"I've been told I'm reckless a lot," Shoutmon replied. "But if you're not prepared to take some risks… then you're not really going to get anywhere with this kind of thing.
Treebeard shook his head slightly and said, "Come then, Shoutmon. Little Hobbit Orcs. We must consult the White Wizard to find the truth about what you are."
"The White Wizard?" Pippin blinked, before suddenly becoming very alarmed.
"Saruman!" Merry gasped. "No! You can't! You can't take us to Saruman! He's a traitor! He's turned against all the good guys and we just escaped from a group of Orcs that were taking us prisoner to him… for some reason."
"You can't give us to him to look at otherwise our escape would be meaningless!" agreed Pippin. "Trust us! We're not Orcs! Born and raised specifically not to be an Orc in fact. I'm a Took."
"I thought you said you were a Hobbit," Treebeard narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he stepped away, Shoutmon hurrying to keep up.
"I am, but am a Took by name. I'm Pippin Took and this is Merry Brandybuck."
"I am known by many names," Treebeard replied. "Many call me Fangorn, just as this entire forest is called, but I am often referred to as Treebeard as well."
"And I'm Shoutmon," the Digimon in question piped up from below. "And don't worry. We're not taking you to see this Saruman guy. Never met him before in my life."
"But… Saruman is the White Wizard, isn't he?" Pippin blinked. "You said that you were taking us to see the White Wizard so… wouldn't that be Saruman?"
"For once, Peregrin Took, you appear to be using your head," said an amused voice from up ahead, that caused both of the Hobbits to whirl around in disbelief. "Unfortunately, in this case, you are not entirely correct."
The Hobbits only had a brief moment to stare at the white robed figure standing before them before they were dropped rather unceremoniously to the ground by the Ent that loomed over them. The two of them quickly pushed themselves up though and stared in wide-eyed shock at the face that now gave both of them a kindly smile.
"I have been waiting for you to arrive," said the White Rider.
"G…" Merry struggled to say the word, natural disbelief in his voice. "Gandalf? Is that… you? Or is this a trick?"
"No trick, Meriadoc Brandybuck," Gandalf smiled. "It is indeed I. I am pleased to see that for all your ordeals you are still physically well and I can understand why you might choose to think this might be a trick. After all, last you set eyes on me was when I fell from the Bridge of Khazad-dûm with the Balrog, in the Mines of Moria. A fateful fall if ever there was one. But now I have returned until such a time as I am no longer needed in this world. And I am glad to see two members of my old company once again. Even if it is you, Pippin. I would severely regret my last words to you personally to be to call you a fool."
"I don't believe it," Pippin breathed. "It… really is you, isn't it?"
"Yes, indeed," Gandalf nodded.
"But you're so… different…" Merry stumbled over his words.
"Yes, Meriadoc, I am," Gandalf nodded. "I am much changed. As you can see I have assumed the mantle of the White Wizard rather than the Grey. It is a position that Saruman has no more claim over, for no longer is he a member of the White Council and nor is he a member of the Five Istari that wander these realms seeking to improve the world for the Free Peoples. Now, that burden has fallen to me, and I shall maintain it for as long as I can."
The two Hobbits didn't make any attempt at dignity whatsoever as they stumbled to their feet and ran to the Wizard to hug him. Gandalf didn't drop his staff but he allowed them to do it anyway, despite the fact the size different between them made it a rather awkward affair. But the Hobbits didn't care. They couldn't express their sheer relief that one of the two members of the party who they were sure had perished was standing before them. Especially one they had known as long as Gandalf.
Gandalf himself looked up at Treebeard and said, "You need not worry about these people, Treebeard. For they are, indeed, not Orcs. They are Hobbits of the Shire, just as they claim. And I have visited their homeland many a time and know these two troublemakers well. They are no threat to the Forest."
Treebeard nodded stiffly, which was about the only way he could nod. "Then, hum, right you were Shoutmon to try and free them from the Trees. Only, let us next time try and find a way of doing so without resorting to flames."
"It was a last ditch attempt," Shoutmon gave the Ent a grin.
"To be totally honest," another rumbling voice said from behind Gandalf. "I am quite surprised that you did not throw it, my King."
The Hobbits stepped back from Gandalf and peered around him to look at the speaker. Needless to say, when they saw the massive metallic alligator-like creature that was Deckerdramon rolling slowly towards them, the trees almost scurrying to either side of get out of his path as he did so, they fell backwards so hard their backsides literally went numb.
"Wha… guh… huh…" was the beginning of the confusing jumble that came out of their mouths.
Deckerdramon chuckled as his eye rolled to look down at them. "Such small creatures, you are," he said. "And yet I sense much love within the pair of you. You are very good friends with many people – that I can already tell. And you take those friendships very seriously indeed. Yes, I think I like the pair of you already."
"What… what are…" Merry stumbled over the words.
"Relax, guys," Shoutmon stepped between them and patted them both on their lowered shoulders. "You're just looking at Deckerdramon. Big lug's a lot less scary and imposing than he looks, let me tell you. Unless you're his enemy, which in your case, you are not."
"I could never harm people with hearts such as yours," Deckerdramon agreed as he tilted his head down to look at them. "You remind me in some ways of Nene's little brother, Yuu. You have no reason to fear me."
"What… are you… exactly?" Merry swallowed, still a little nervously.
"He's a Digimon," Shoutmon replied. "As am I. We're… not from around here, I suppose you could say."
"Wait a minute? Didn't you say you were the Digimon King?" Pippin asked. "Does that mean you're King of him?!"
"Kinda," Shoutmon shrugged. "Though I think it's safe to say he could easily beat me in a fight while I'm like this."
"You know as well as I Shoutmon that being able to win against all your subjects is something required to be a good King," Deckerdramon told him.
"Yeah, I know. I didn't say it was," Shoutmon replied, deciding to forgo mentioning his doubts on whether he could be an appropriate leader in a crisis without Taiki once again.
"Hierarchy here is unimportant," Gandalf brushed the topic aside. "Just know, young Hobbits, that these two are most definitely allies of ours, as is Treebeard here. You have nothing to fear from any member of this group, large and imposing though they may be. Treebeard and Deckerdramon are Forest Guardians both and now that they know you are allies, you are safe with them."
The Hobbits looked reassured by Gandalf's words, but they were still quite wary of both of the giants, especially the giant form of Deckerdramon.
"Does this mean that these guys are the reason we've been waiting here for a couple of days?" Shoutmon asked.
"Partially," Gandalf nodded. "The Lady Galadriel informed me that these two would make an escape and head here into the forest and that I should be there to meet them and that I have now done. But the rest of the company that they travel with, or most of them at least, have been pursuing the creatures which took them captive and will be here shortly themselves. It is they that you and I have come here to see, Shoutmon."
"Most of the company?" Pippin suddenly looked at the ground. "Then… it is true? Boromir is dead?"
"Dead, Peregrin?" Gandalf glanced at him. "Why should Boromir be dead?"
"He was struck by many arrows while he was defending us from lots of giant Orcs," Merry bit his lip. "He gave his life to save us and we still got captured by the enemy. He fought so hard and now…"
"Fear not, young Hobbits," Gandalf raised his hand. "Boromir still lives. I was informed that all the members of the Fellowship beyond the other Hobbits were making their way in pursuit of you and that includes Boromir. He has not gone to the halls of his fathers just yet."
"But… but the arrows…" Pippin blustered, unable to feel joy at the sudden revelation just yet. "He was weakening. He was collapsing. He had three arrows buried in his front. And he is still going?"
"Three arrows?" even Gandalf did look perturbed by this news. "We were not informed of any arrow wounds by our source."
"Maybe not," Shoutmon could feel a grin breaking out across his face. "But we were told that there were a couple of people that I might know with them. If someone made such a remarkable recovery as that so quickly… I think I might know who one of them is."
"Sounds like Cutemon's work to me," Deckerdramon agreed. "For a human to be up and running so fast after being shot by arrows… it is an impressive accomplishment. It can only be Cutemon."
"His healing skills are definitely first rate," Shoutmon nodded. "Sounds like your friend was lucky to run into him when he did."
Gandalf nodded. "Well, needless to say, we are grateful for Boromir's survival and perhaps we shall confirm the reason why that is the case soon. But I am afraid, young Hobbits, that although we have met again, we must soon part ways once more."
The Hobbits looked up at him in astonishment and began to protest, but Gandalf held up his hand to silence them before he continued.
"I do not wish for you to be upset by this, but know this. With the Fellowship broken, the task that we originally focused on is now in the hands of Frodo alone. We can do nothing to assist him further so now we must turn our attention to an equally great matter – the war itself. Once Aragorn and the others arrive I will be taking them on a different path, one which you Hobbits cannot follow, for neither of you are warriors yourself. No, you must remain here, where you will be in good hands. Treebeard, I must ask you if you would be willing to take these Hobbits into your care and keep them safe. You will be able to protect them from many foes here."
Treebeard looked down at the two of them for a moment, before he nodded his great wooden head and said, "Harroooom, if Gandalf says these Hobbits can be trusted then trusted they can be. And I must admit, I do like their little voices. It has been long since anything so small was under my care but I shall take them under my branches."
"Thank you, Master Ent," Gandalf nodded. "And I fear that everything from this point on must flow together soon. Treebeard, you know what I ask of you, do you not?"
"It has been many a year since anything of this ilk has occurred," Treebeard replied. "But it shall be as you say. We will convene."
"And I think that perhaps I should stay here as well," Deckerdramon replied.
"Say what?" Shoutmon looked up at the giant alligator. "You want to stay here? What for?"
"I believe that here I may be more useful if what I have understood is correct," Deckerdramon replied. "I have overheard all discussions and I know that I would not be able to keep up with you when you must leave here, Shoutmon. I am not built for moving fast over long distance and you will need to cover a great amount of that. Here… perhaps I can be of more assistance."
Shoutmon hesitated for a moment, but Deckerdramon did make sense. His giant form was capable of moving very fast when needed, but not for long and only on very even surfaces. He was better designed for moving slowly and purposefully over all terrains than trailblazing. And he had heard many of Gandalf's intentions to, and he had to agree with the Digimon's assessment of himself. Perhaps here he would be better after all.
"Very well," he nodded. "At least I will know where you are for later when we must gather again. And besides, I think you are definitely one of the Digimon I do not need to worry about, big guy."
"Flattering," Deckerdramon chuckled.
"But Gandalf…" Pippin protested.
"Peregrin Took, my lad, you Hobbits have many uses by outright battle is not yet one of them," Gandalf replied. "But my plan does not leave you out entirely. No, I believe that you will still have your role to play in all this. Just know that now you are safe. And now, Shoutmon and I must wait for the rest of the former Fellowship to arrive."
"Hope they don't take too long," Shoutmon muttered. "If I don't get to do something soon, I may actually throw a fireball at something just to see what would happen. KIDDING! KIDDING!" he yelled as the trees immediately grumbled in protest.
Deckerdramon chuckled wryly. "They should probably be thankful that you are not Greymon."
"Isn't that the truth?" Shoutmon laughed. "He probably would have done by now."
Well, there you go. Like I said, not as long as normal but better because of it, I think. I didn't have to repeat points many times throughout the same chapter and such or come up with new topics of conversation to draw it out. This chapter did what it was meant to do and that is it. Still, hope you liked it.
Well, see you by the end of next week with the next chapter of this story. I think I've settled into my summer routine a bit more now. Bye bye.
Next time…
Golemon has continued to wander southwards for quite some distance until he eventually reaches the end of the mountain range he was following, but he isn't going to like what he finds at the end. Meanwhile, the Bombmon finally come up with another way of getting themselves out of the pits.
Coming up:- Chapter 38 : Strength of Stone