Chapter Six - Up A Tree
As they walked, their laughter echoed down the road and off the trees. Even Pippin joined in the fun and laughter, though he had no idea of what his sister and cousin were talking about--he laughed because, well--Pippin just liked to laugh!
As they walked further down the road, they heard howling that sounded not too far away. Merry shot a look to Perva; she returned a frightened look of her own. He shaded his eyes and looked far down the road--nothing. They kept walking; cautiously looking about for wild dogs.
Merry quickened his pace, and Pippin had to run at times to keep up with his sister and cousin. "Wait!", Pippin cried.
"Shhhh! Not so loud!", Merry cautioned him.
"Why? Are da Big Fokes coming?", Pippin whispered.
Soon Pippin began to lag again. Merry picked him up and carried him pig-a-back. They heard more howling--closer this time. Merry was now frightened himself--wild dogs? He saw a gray shape move swiftly through the dense foliage. Now he was definitely scared, and Pippin noticed. Pippin began to be frightened as well.
Perva let out a small yelp when she saw two more shapes run across the road ahead of them.
"The tree!", Merry indicated to Perva with a look; there was a tree by the edge of the road that looked easy enough for them to climb. They were almost there when a dark shape loomed to the side of them, baring his
teeth. Perva screamed and literally ran up the tree, and then reached down for Pippin. With both now safe up the tree, Merry slowly and carefully inched toward the lowest branch, careful not to make the animal lunge at him.
As he started to lift himself up, and the dark shape charged at him anyway. Merry quickly found himself scrambling to get up the tree. The muzzle caught his right foot as he slipped in trying to get a foothold. "Ahhh! Let go of me!", cried Merry. The animal yanked and pulled at Merry's foot, but Merry hung on for dear life. Merry was so intent on getting up the tree he barely felt the teeth sinking into his flesh.
"No!!", Perva screamed in terror while she watched in helpless fright as Merry struggled to gain hold in the tree.
Finally, the Took blood began to warm up inside her. "Merry! Take my hand, Merry!!"
The wolf yanked harder and Merry almost lost his entire grip.
"Merry!! No!!", Perva cried, now even more terrified, "Take my hand, Merry!!"
Merry looked up, and there was Perva, holding onto a huge branch while reaching out to him. "No! I'll drag you down with me!"
"No you won't! Take my hand!!", Perva was screaming and crying. "Merry!!"
I can't hang like this forever, he thought, and as he thought this, the sweat in his hand made him slip. Perva shrieked. As he slipped, in the same movement, he swung his right arm up and grabbed Perva's hand.
Perva hung on; she was stronger than she looked. Merry, getting a good grasp of Perva's hand and wrist, now grabbed for a solid branch with his left hand. With one last heave, he pulled himself up into the tree. The wolf couldn't hold onto Merry's foot, so it let go, but not before it shredded more of his flesh.
Merry was safe, and up in the tree. He looked down; there were at least four or five dogs walking around beneath the tree. He could see one of them licking its chops; licking Merry's blood from its muzzle, no doubt. Merry sat back against the huge center branch and caught his breath. He was safe. Though now he could not see how they were to get down anytime soon.
Pippin was calming down, but was still crying. "What do we do now?", Perva sniffed. "Your foot! It's bleeding and needs a bandage!"
Merry now looked at his foot; it was bleeding pretty bad. "They will never leave as long as there is the scent of blood", Merry leaned against the large branch and said, "Someone will come for us--but for their sake, I hope they're careful!"
"Not if they don't know we're here!", sniffed Perva.
"They know we're out here, Perva! Was it not your own mother who let us come on this trip?"
Perva was sitting next to Merry on one of the stronger branches, holding Pippin in her lap. She handed Pippin to Merry for the moment while she ripped the hem from her dress. She took Pippin back in her arms and gave the strip of cloth to Merry.
Merry looked at the makeshift bandage; he was stirred by Perva's thoughtfulness. "I know that was your favorite dress."
"Work dress, remember? And if it was my favorite, it's not anymore! I don't ever want anything to remind me of all this! Not even this dress!"
"Papa will come for us!", Pippin was scared, but spoke his absolute confidence in his papa.
Merry saw how frightened his little cousin was and squeezed his shoulder, "Papa will come for us, Pip." He took the cloth Perva gave him and wrapped it around his foot, making a nice bandage for the time being.
Perva leaned up against Merry and put her head on his shoulder, and held his hand. Merry put his arm around her and drew her and Pippin close. Here, up in a tree in the road, sat three terrified children--one with a blleeding foot, as five wild dogs paced around the trunk salivating over who would be the first to fall...
