Pippin had a feeling of coldness all over his body. He was unable to open his eyes, but was able to feel what was ailing him. He felt his side, damp with blood, putting as much pressure on it as possible. He felt a searing pain in his side. His eyes jolted open. The bright sun high in the sky burned his eyes. He wanted to shut them, but knew he had to stay awake. He had to find Merry and the rest of the fellowship. He looked around, only to find he had no recollection of the place where he lay. He struggled to remember that events leading up to now. 'If only Merry was here' he thought. He felt alone and scared.
Merry was yelling at Aragorn, "We have to go find Pippin! He needs us." Aragorn simply replied, "There is nothing left for us to do. We must help Frodo now." This angered Merry. "Is Frodo more important than Pippin? Or have you just given up him. What if he is alive? He would need us, but no, Frodo is more important than Pippin, isn't he?" Aragorn replied in a soft tone, "Pippin is extremely important, but the chances of finding him are little, and we need to get Frodo to Rivendale, we still have a chance to save him." Merry began to cry. "Will we be able to look for Pippin?" he asked. Aragorn simply said, "When we get there, I will send the best Elf trackers out to find him." This comforted Merry some, but he still thought that they should go look for him right away.
As Pippin lay on the cold ground, he heard a noise from a distance. He concentrated on it for a couple of minutes, thinking it might be Merry looking for him. He desperately wanted to yell for him, but then he heard a shriek. It sounded like orcs. "What am I going to do?" Pippin thought. He couldn't get up and run away, for the pain in his side was too great. Then he closed his eyes and pondered on his options.
Frodo was getting worse. The poison was starting to take a toll on him. They needed to get him to Rivendale very soon or he wasn't going to make it. Merry began to feel guilty for being jealous of Frodo. He knew it was more important to get Frodo somewhere safe, for he was the ringbearer. Merry thought about Pippin, 'where is he? Is he hurt? Is he alive?' These thoughts ran through Merry's head and soon Pippin was the only thing he was thinking about. Merry began to daze. Aragorn saw this and decided to take a short rest. Merry was relieved at this notion, but also saddened. He needed rest. But knew the longer they rested, the longer it would take then to reach Rivendale and send out a search party for Pippin.
Pippin realized he didn't have much of a choice. Either he stay lying on the ground and risk the orcs getting ahold of him, or he bear the pain and get up and hide. He thought that since there is a chance that Merry might come to find him, that he was going to try to stay alive as long as possible. He decided the only way to do this was to get up and hide. Pippin rolled to his good side, feeling an almost unbearable pain shoot through his body. He wanted to stop, but knew he had to keep going. He got to his knees and slowly inched his way to his feet. He felt dizzy, but maintained his balance. He began to walk towards some shrubbery nearby, when a grey cloud filled his eyes. He felt that he could go no further and collapsed on the ground. He breathing became shallow and all that was around him grew black. He lost consciousness.
