Oh, Those Irrepressible Hobbits
Chapter Two: Pippin in Ithilien
Darkness. Everywhere. Pippin was surprised to be aware of this darkness. Even as he thought about it, the darkness seemed to lighten.
"Pippin! Pippin! Come back!" came a frantic sounding voice.
Pippin tried to open his mouth to answer, but couldn't make his body respond.
"Peregrin Took! Come back!"demanded a more commanding voice.
"Fool of a Took! Taking on a troll! If you aren't dead, I'll kill you," a gruff voice resounded.
Pippin succeeded in smiling at the last voice.
"Gandalf?" he whispered. "Are you dead too?"
"Pippin! You're awake!" Merry said. Pippin felt something wet splash onto his hand. "I'm going to beat you silly for making me worry like that!"
"Merry? You died too? How? Did we lose? At the end, I wanted to die there with you, but I guess this is the same. Don't cry, Merry."
Merry gave a strangled laugh. "Pip, you aren't dead! None of us are! We won! Don't tell me not to cry, you foolish Took. We won!"
"We… won?" Pippin echoed, finally opening his eyes.
Aragorn was leaning over him, smiling. "Yes, my little hobbit, we won."
"I'm not dead?" Pippin asked, slowly lifting his head to look around.
"Careful, careful," Aragorn cautioned. "You are not fully healed yet."
Pippin ignored the warning and looked around him. Each color, each texture seemed more vibrant than before. He then looked down at his hand, the hand that Merry was clasping tightly, and noticed how wetthe appendagewas.
"You cried that much, Merry?" Pippin asked softly. "Now I get to tell the whole Shire that Meriadoc Brandybuck is more of a softie than I."
"Don't you dare, you little tomfool. I hope that you would cry as much if I was the one to nearly die."
"I was only joking, Merry," Pippin replied, smiling.
"Save your jokes, Peregrin," Gandalf said gruffly. "You still have healing to do. It is only thanks to Aragorn that we could get you this far. The rest depends on you."
"Where's Beregond?" Pippin asked, sitting up quickly, memory rushing back. A queasy feeling came into his stomach, and his head started to swim.
"Lay back down!" Aragorn commanded sternly, "You are not fit to be moving!"
"But Beregond? Where is he?" Still frantic, Peregrin nonetheless obeyed orders andslowly lowered himself back to the bed.
"Your friend is lying in a different ward," Gandalf replied. "Thanks to you, he made it through the battle. With not much less injury than you, I might add. Was it necessary to be underneath a falling troll?"
Pippin slowly smiled, feeling his eyes starting to close. "Where else would a hobbit be, Gandalf? You always said I was getting under foot."
"I didn't mean it literally, as you well know," Gandalf brusquely stated.
"Is the little one finally awake?"
"I'm not so little anymore," Pippin scolded the newvisitor softly.
"Aye, you have that right, laddie. But I'm glad to be proven wrong, if only in proof that you yet live. When I found you on that field, you seemed quite dead," Gimli answered.
"I felt quite dead," Pippin countered.
"But I wasn't about to let you die on me, after the pain you've put me through. How many times have I gone tracking after you? Let's hope Cormallen Fields was the last," Gimli laughed.
"I'll agree to that," Merry said.
"And you should, Meriadoc. For we were forced to track you as well," Legolas laughed, coming into the room.
"Though I tracked him last!" Pippin said weakly.
"That you did, Pip. I owe my life to you as well. If not for you, than Aragorn may have been too late. I would've been consumed," Merry's eyes seemed to fall within himself, to be looking for a wound within.
Pippin felt sad at seeing his friend so worn. "I don't recall crying, however," he answered teasingly.
Merry withdrew from himself once more. "Of course you wouldn't, you unfeeling Took."
"At least I'm not a sentimental Brandybuck."
"Enough, enough," Aragorn softly said. "Pippin needs his rest. Come, Merry. You need your rest as well."
"Nonsense, I feel fit as an Uruk-Hai and a thousand times as wise."
"Well, Master Wise Uruk, does your knowledge reveal to you that rest is needed for healing? Come along now," Gandalf gently pulled Merry from the room. "Off to bed with you."
"Make sure he doesn't get into trouble while I sleep. Orcs are known for mischief," Pippin said sleepily.
"We'll watch over him," Legolas said merrily. "Now off to sleep with you as well, Pippin."
Pippin gently drifted to sleep as the three hunters left his room.
"He shows great strength, for one who came so near to death," Legolas remarked.
"Aye, hobbits seem quite resilient. Much more so than would be expected," Gimli added.
"I just hope all the hobbits in my care prove as resilient," Aragorn commented, looking into the room across from Pippin's, where two small, forlorn figures lay.
He need not have feared.
For indeed, hobbits were always irrepressible.