"Merry Memories: Chapter Two"
By Romania Black
Elanor and Pippin glanced at each other then Pippin nodded his head at her. She took off running to the room. Vardahir followed close behind her. Elanor saw Merry now standing at the window. It was as if he was looking for something in the distance.
"Merry???" Elanor asked. Merry turned slowly towards her. He had no expression on his face, no sign of fright or worriment.
"Hi Elanor." he said turning back to the window. Vardahir watched in wonder. She didn't know what to think. Merry then sat on the edge of the windowsill. The breeze blew his thick curls back and forth. "I remember what happened," he said softly. "Frodo and I were about to cross into Rohan, when we heard a thud in the distance, almost sounding like thunder. When we heard that we ran for shelter just incase it came a downpour or something like that.... As we ran it got darker and darker...it finally got so bad that it was hard to see where we were going. Then something grabbed us from behind. I couldn't see who or what they were. All I know was that they weren't Orcs. They were men because I could hear them talking. Then I heard Frodo give out a yell. So then I thought to myself. I have to get out of here and get help. I knew where we were and I knew Minus Tirith wasn't far from there. So I took off running here." Merry stopped suddenly...he stared...at mainly nothing....
"What.... Merry what happened..."Elanor said. Merry looked at her.
"I saw large Fires. As if a camp of some sort.... I could hear people yelling and screaming as if a battle...but I'm sure it was just my nerves playing tricks on me." he said. Vardahir and Elanor walked to the bed and sat down.
"We have to inform Al." Vardahir started to say....
"Inform me on what????"
Aldarida stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips, staring at Merry mercilessly.
"Oh, hi Al." Merry paused to remember the name of his fellow friend. "Aldarida! That's it!"
"Glad to see your memory is back," Aldarida said sharply. "Now what's this about Frodo?"
Everyone knew about Aldarida's fondness towards Frodo, and neither of them wanted to tell her the bad news. Unfortunately, Merry didn't remember this, and blabbed the terrible truth out.
"Frodo's still stuck in the midst of what seemed like a battle.... I wonder if he's still alive..." Merry's voice trailed off.
"WHAT!?!?!!?" Aldarida stared shocked by the words of her friend. Vardahir smiled weakly and grasped the shoulders of her fellow colleague.
"Um...I'm sure Merry's exaggerating a little bit..." Vardahir said in a false encouraging way.
"No," Merry said sadly. "I'm quite sure that he's injur--"
Elanor gave him a sharp elbow into the stomach. Merry winced and recoiled back to the window. Elanor smiled swiftly and turned to Aldarida.
"Frodo...poor Frodo...All alone in the cruel harsh realities of this land...." Aldarida said slowly.
"And without a ring to protect him..." Elanor said pondering of what would happen to him.
"WAHHHHH!" Aldarida began to sob in Vardahir's arms. Vardahir, who really didn't want Al's tears on her new dress, tried to wrangle Al off, but to no avail.
"It's okay, Al," Vardahir said in a pained voice. "Frodo isn't going to be hurt."
"With the numbers like that, he's most likely to be dead!" Merry said worried.
Elanor gave him an evil glare and threatened to elbow him again. Merry stopped at once.
"We'll call father, he'll know what to do!" Vardahir said to Al, who was now drowning in tears.
"Merry," Elanor began, "Do you know where Frodo and you were ambushed?"
Merry paused, trying to think. "Yes, I think I do."
"Vardahir," Elanor said, rushing over to her and Al, "Let's call the King and have him send some men with us and head out of here to find Frodo!"
Vardahir nodded. "Alright, let's go!"
Vardahir and Elanor ran down the long hallway...and down the sets of stairs. Then they came to the large gathering room and there sat King Aragorn, and his beautiful wife Arwen. Vardahir and Ellie ran up to them. They could tell something was wrong. Arwen was quiet and didn't say much at first; Aragorn sat there with his head rested upon hand. Elanor and Vardahir looked at each other in worriment.
"Dad is everything o.k. Something wrong?" Vardahir said. Aragorn looked at her them Elanor.
"We heard some news about Frodo. My soldiers found him down by the river. They are guessing he and Merry were ambushed and he ran to get away...and..and fell into the river. They are bringing him in right now." Aragorn said. Then he paused.
"Lord what is it? What happened? Is he alright?" Elanor said. She ran to the king's side and knelt down looking him in the eye. "Is Frodo...going to make it??" Suddenly there was a crash and then the doors slammed open. The soldiers came in. Two were carrying Frodo. Frodo was passed out. Vardahir and Elanor watched in terror, thinking the worst had happened. Al, Pippin and Merry came running down the long staircase. A fright came over their faces.
"Come Hobbits, quickly follow me!" Vardahir said running to catch up with Soldiers.
Frodo lay on Vardahir's bed, where Merry had been only hours before. Vardahir frowned.
*Does anyone realize that is MY bed? * She thought to herself, sighing aloud.
Elanor was by his side, but could only gaze down at him, for Aldarida had made herself the primary person of Frodo's view.
"Any chance I could get closer?" Ellie said sadly.
"I need to be right by him when he wakes up," Al said coolly. "So, no then."
Elanor sulked off into the corner of the room, glaring back at Aldarida. Vardahir sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.
"At least we didn't have to go after him," Vardahir said with a splash of joy in her voice.
"He came to us!" Merry said, obviously regaining his memory.
"Yeah," Pippin muttered.
Aldarida gazed out the window, her mind obviously on something else at the moment. There was a silence that filled the room. Vardahir started to notice the odd expression on Al's face beginning to form. It was a look of curiosity and pure terror that was spreading across her narrow brow. Aldarida suddenly reached into Frodo's jacket pocket and frantically started feeling around in it.
"What are you doing?" Elanor pried, eyeing her suspiciously.
Aldarida gave a startled cry.
"It's NOT here!" She cried out.
"What do you mean?" Merry asked curious.
"The ring is gone!" Aldarida yelled out, her hand flying to her forehead.
"The ONE ring?" Pip chimed in.
"Yes," Al said slowly.
Pip turned to look at Elanor.
"She's lost her marbles!" He whispered to her furiously.
"Um, Al, the one ring is destroyed!" Vardahir said trying to resolve the awkward situation for what it was.
"No, no." Al started to mutter, "It's still here."
"Sounds like someone needs to read 'Lord of the Rings...'" Merry said merrily.
"Al, are you even talking about THE ONE RING?" Vardahir said calmly.
"It's the one ring I know of," Al said dreamily.
"But it's not the One Ring of Power?" Vardahir said raising an eyebrow.
"OH! NO!" Al said, realizing what they were thinking. "Not THAT ring!"
"Oh," Vardahir sighed in relief, "Good. Good."
"I'm talking about my birthday ring!" Aldarida blabbed.
Everyone stared at her strangely.
"What?" Ellie said curious.
"My birthday ring. It's what Frodo was getting me for my birthday! He told me himself that he was taking it to me when he got his business taken care of!"
"Oh," Merry said thinking back. "He said something about it."
"What?" Al asked urgently.
"He showed it to me. It was very pretty, all blue and all, the gem anyways." Merry said jovially.
"Where is it now?" Al asked.
"Don't know. I think he may have lost it during the ambush!" Merry said suddenly remembering the event.
Aldarida flared her eyes and stood up, grabbing the hands of the company around her.
"We're going after it!" She said simply.
"Are you kidding?" Pippin said in disbelief.
"What about Frodo?" Elanor asked.
"We'll have the King look after him," Al said simply. "He'll watch him while we look."
"You're nuts!" Merry said aloud, drawing away from her.
Al gave him a sad stare. "Oh, come on Merry!"
"This'll be fun!" Vardahir was obviously not worried about this mission at all.
"Geez," Pippin said staring at the group. "Isn't this going to be fun?!"
Pippin, Merry, Vardahir, and Al all walked down the stairs. Vardahir walked up to her dad and explained what was happening and what they were going to do. As Vardahir talked to her dad the Hobbits stood and waited.
"Do you think someone stole it?" Pippin asked.
"No, no one stole it Pip.... it was dropped!" Merry said slowly.
"What, what did you say?" Al said grabbing him by the shoulder. She, being the strong halfling she is she squeezed as hard as she could.
"Ouch..ouch..Al ok..ok. I'm sorry. I just now remembered," Merry said dropping to his knees. Pippin laughed, Al let go of him. He rose up and rubbed his shoulder.
"What's going on?" Vardahir asked.
"NOTHIN" they said at once.
"Lets go. we've got a journey ahead of us and...." Vardahir said
"Wait....if we go on this mission, quest, thing....will we end up going further than what we've planned...we're not going to end up in.......MORDOR OR GONDOR are we???" Pippin asked forgetting where he was.
"PIP we are in Gondor." Merry said shaking his head. Pippin just smiled....
*2 Days Later*
"Are we there yet...are we there yet..are we-"
"Pippin will you shut up. I'm sick of you always asking us that. The answer is always the same....NO!!" Merry said as his face turned a bright red as he yelled. Pippin stared at Merry.
"Well. we know of one person who woke up on the wrong side of their Rock this morning don't we." Pippin said.
"Shhh,this is the place. look there's horse prints...and Hobbits tracks." Vardahir said.
"How do you know?" Al asked
"My father taught it to me when I was younger. Seeing how he grew up around the elves." she said. Merry and Pippin stood there. Merry looked around as if trying to find the ring. They all started to search around Aldarida gazed around, staring back at Vardahir, whom she thought knew what was going on. the area. Then they heard something. Everyone stood up. Al stood with a serious face. She wasn't going to let what ever it was to take her and her friends away.
"This is where Frodo was..." Vardahir said slowly to herself. "But whose horse is this?"
The group stared at each other, no on knowing the answer.
"Merry? Did you travel on horse back?" Aldarida asked.
"No, No we didn't."
"Then, did the orcs and attackers have horses?" Vardahir inquired slowly.
"No, no they didn't," Merry said plainly, not realizing that this meant someone else must have came by there.
"Then that means..." Al started.
"That someone else was here before us!" Vardahir cried out. She placed a hand to her forehead. "This is giving me a migraine!"
"Could be worse," Pip said brightly.
"WORSE?!?!" Vardahir screamed. "HOW!?!?"
"We could be lost out here with no food or water," Pip began.
"Pippin," Merry said approaching Pippin, "WE are LOST and have NO FOOD OR WATER!!!"
"Geez, that is bad..." Pippin said bluntly, sitting down, right next to an arrow.
"What's that?" Al asked.
"Its...Its an arrow!" Pip said reaching for it.
"STOP! That's mine!" A figure ran out in to the open field. The group recognized her at once.
"Audyavieiel!" Al gasped.
By Romania Black
Elanor and Pippin glanced at each other then Pippin nodded his head at her. She took off running to the room. Vardahir followed close behind her. Elanor saw Merry now standing at the window. It was as if he was looking for something in the distance.
"Merry???" Elanor asked. Merry turned slowly towards her. He had no expression on his face, no sign of fright or worriment.
"Hi Elanor." he said turning back to the window. Vardahir watched in wonder. She didn't know what to think. Merry then sat on the edge of the windowsill. The breeze blew his thick curls back and forth. "I remember what happened," he said softly. "Frodo and I were about to cross into Rohan, when we heard a thud in the distance, almost sounding like thunder. When we heard that we ran for shelter just incase it came a downpour or something like that.... As we ran it got darker and darker...it finally got so bad that it was hard to see where we were going. Then something grabbed us from behind. I couldn't see who or what they were. All I know was that they weren't Orcs. They were men because I could hear them talking. Then I heard Frodo give out a yell. So then I thought to myself. I have to get out of here and get help. I knew where we were and I knew Minus Tirith wasn't far from there. So I took off running here." Merry stopped suddenly...he stared...at mainly nothing....
"What.... Merry what happened..."Elanor said. Merry looked at her.
"I saw large Fires. As if a camp of some sort.... I could hear people yelling and screaming as if a battle...but I'm sure it was just my nerves playing tricks on me." he said. Vardahir and Elanor walked to the bed and sat down.
"We have to inform Al." Vardahir started to say....
"Inform me on what????"
Aldarida stood in the doorway, her hands on her hips, staring at Merry mercilessly.
"Oh, hi Al." Merry paused to remember the name of his fellow friend. "Aldarida! That's it!"
"Glad to see your memory is back," Aldarida said sharply. "Now what's this about Frodo?"
Everyone knew about Aldarida's fondness towards Frodo, and neither of them wanted to tell her the bad news. Unfortunately, Merry didn't remember this, and blabbed the terrible truth out.
"Frodo's still stuck in the midst of what seemed like a battle.... I wonder if he's still alive..." Merry's voice trailed off.
"WHAT!?!?!!?" Aldarida stared shocked by the words of her friend. Vardahir smiled weakly and grasped the shoulders of her fellow colleague.
"Um...I'm sure Merry's exaggerating a little bit..." Vardahir said in a false encouraging way.
"No," Merry said sadly. "I'm quite sure that he's injur--"
Elanor gave him a sharp elbow into the stomach. Merry winced and recoiled back to the window. Elanor smiled swiftly and turned to Aldarida.
"Frodo...poor Frodo...All alone in the cruel harsh realities of this land...." Aldarida said slowly.
"And without a ring to protect him..." Elanor said pondering of what would happen to him.
"WAHHHHH!" Aldarida began to sob in Vardahir's arms. Vardahir, who really didn't want Al's tears on her new dress, tried to wrangle Al off, but to no avail.
"It's okay, Al," Vardahir said in a pained voice. "Frodo isn't going to be hurt."
"With the numbers like that, he's most likely to be dead!" Merry said worried.
Elanor gave him an evil glare and threatened to elbow him again. Merry stopped at once.
"We'll call father, he'll know what to do!" Vardahir said to Al, who was now drowning in tears.
"Merry," Elanor began, "Do you know where Frodo and you were ambushed?"
Merry paused, trying to think. "Yes, I think I do."
"Vardahir," Elanor said, rushing over to her and Al, "Let's call the King and have him send some men with us and head out of here to find Frodo!"
Vardahir nodded. "Alright, let's go!"
Vardahir and Elanor ran down the long hallway...and down the sets of stairs. Then they came to the large gathering room and there sat King Aragorn, and his beautiful wife Arwen. Vardahir and Ellie ran up to them. They could tell something was wrong. Arwen was quiet and didn't say much at first; Aragorn sat there with his head rested upon hand. Elanor and Vardahir looked at each other in worriment.
"Dad is everything o.k. Something wrong?" Vardahir said. Aragorn looked at her them Elanor.
"We heard some news about Frodo. My soldiers found him down by the river. They are guessing he and Merry were ambushed and he ran to get away...and..and fell into the river. They are bringing him in right now." Aragorn said. Then he paused.
"Lord what is it? What happened? Is he alright?" Elanor said. She ran to the king's side and knelt down looking him in the eye. "Is Frodo...going to make it??" Suddenly there was a crash and then the doors slammed open. The soldiers came in. Two were carrying Frodo. Frodo was passed out. Vardahir and Elanor watched in terror, thinking the worst had happened. Al, Pippin and Merry came running down the long staircase. A fright came over their faces.
"Come Hobbits, quickly follow me!" Vardahir said running to catch up with Soldiers.
Frodo lay on Vardahir's bed, where Merry had been only hours before. Vardahir frowned.
*Does anyone realize that is MY bed? * She thought to herself, sighing aloud.
Elanor was by his side, but could only gaze down at him, for Aldarida had made herself the primary person of Frodo's view.
"Any chance I could get closer?" Ellie said sadly.
"I need to be right by him when he wakes up," Al said coolly. "So, no then."
Elanor sulked off into the corner of the room, glaring back at Aldarida. Vardahir sighed and ran her fingers through her hair.
"At least we didn't have to go after him," Vardahir said with a splash of joy in her voice.
"He came to us!" Merry said, obviously regaining his memory.
"Yeah," Pippin muttered.
Aldarida gazed out the window, her mind obviously on something else at the moment. There was a silence that filled the room. Vardahir started to notice the odd expression on Al's face beginning to form. It was a look of curiosity and pure terror that was spreading across her narrow brow. Aldarida suddenly reached into Frodo's jacket pocket and frantically started feeling around in it.
"What are you doing?" Elanor pried, eyeing her suspiciously.
Aldarida gave a startled cry.
"It's NOT here!" She cried out.
"What do you mean?" Merry asked curious.
"The ring is gone!" Aldarida yelled out, her hand flying to her forehead.
"The ONE ring?" Pip chimed in.
"Yes," Al said slowly.
Pip turned to look at Elanor.
"She's lost her marbles!" He whispered to her furiously.
"Um, Al, the one ring is destroyed!" Vardahir said trying to resolve the awkward situation for what it was.
"No, no." Al started to mutter, "It's still here."
"Sounds like someone needs to read 'Lord of the Rings...'" Merry said merrily.
"Al, are you even talking about THE ONE RING?" Vardahir said calmly.
"It's the one ring I know of," Al said dreamily.
"But it's not the One Ring of Power?" Vardahir said raising an eyebrow.
"OH! NO!" Al said, realizing what they were thinking. "Not THAT ring!"
"Oh," Vardahir sighed in relief, "Good. Good."
"I'm talking about my birthday ring!" Aldarida blabbed.
Everyone stared at her strangely.
"What?" Ellie said curious.
"My birthday ring. It's what Frodo was getting me for my birthday! He told me himself that he was taking it to me when he got his business taken care of!"
"Oh," Merry said thinking back. "He said something about it."
"What?" Al asked urgently.
"He showed it to me. It was very pretty, all blue and all, the gem anyways." Merry said jovially.
"Where is it now?" Al asked.
"Don't know. I think he may have lost it during the ambush!" Merry said suddenly remembering the event.
Aldarida flared her eyes and stood up, grabbing the hands of the company around her.
"We're going after it!" She said simply.
"Are you kidding?" Pippin said in disbelief.
"What about Frodo?" Elanor asked.
"We'll have the King look after him," Al said simply. "He'll watch him while we look."
"You're nuts!" Merry said aloud, drawing away from her.
Al gave him a sad stare. "Oh, come on Merry!"
"This'll be fun!" Vardahir was obviously not worried about this mission at all.
"Geez," Pippin said staring at the group. "Isn't this going to be fun?!"
Pippin, Merry, Vardahir, and Al all walked down the stairs. Vardahir walked up to her dad and explained what was happening and what they were going to do. As Vardahir talked to her dad the Hobbits stood and waited.
"Do you think someone stole it?" Pippin asked.
"No, no one stole it Pip.... it was dropped!" Merry said slowly.
"What, what did you say?" Al said grabbing him by the shoulder. She, being the strong halfling she is she squeezed as hard as she could.
"Ouch..ouch..Al ok..ok. I'm sorry. I just now remembered," Merry said dropping to his knees. Pippin laughed, Al let go of him. He rose up and rubbed his shoulder.
"What's going on?" Vardahir asked.
"NOTHIN" they said at once.
"Lets go. we've got a journey ahead of us and...." Vardahir said
"Wait....if we go on this mission, quest, thing....will we end up going further than what we've planned...we're not going to end up in.......MORDOR OR GONDOR are we???" Pippin asked forgetting where he was.
"PIP we are in Gondor." Merry said shaking his head. Pippin just smiled....
*2 Days Later*
"Are we there yet...are we there yet..are we-"
"Pippin will you shut up. I'm sick of you always asking us that. The answer is always the same....NO!!" Merry said as his face turned a bright red as he yelled. Pippin stared at Merry.
"Well. we know of one person who woke up on the wrong side of their Rock this morning don't we." Pippin said.
"Shhh,this is the place. look there's horse prints...and Hobbits tracks." Vardahir said.
"How do you know?" Al asked
"My father taught it to me when I was younger. Seeing how he grew up around the elves." she said. Merry and Pippin stood there. Merry looked around as if trying to find the ring. They all started to search around Aldarida gazed around, staring back at Vardahir, whom she thought knew what was going on. the area. Then they heard something. Everyone stood up. Al stood with a serious face. She wasn't going to let what ever it was to take her and her friends away.
"This is where Frodo was..." Vardahir said slowly to herself. "But whose horse is this?"
The group stared at each other, no on knowing the answer.
"Merry? Did you travel on horse back?" Aldarida asked.
"No, No we didn't."
"Then, did the orcs and attackers have horses?" Vardahir inquired slowly.
"No, no they didn't," Merry said plainly, not realizing that this meant someone else must have came by there.
"Then that means..." Al started.
"That someone else was here before us!" Vardahir cried out. She placed a hand to her forehead. "This is giving me a migraine!"
"Could be worse," Pip said brightly.
"WORSE?!?!" Vardahir screamed. "HOW!?!?"
"We could be lost out here with no food or water," Pip began.
"Pippin," Merry said approaching Pippin, "WE are LOST and have NO FOOD OR WATER!!!"
"Geez, that is bad..." Pippin said bluntly, sitting down, right next to an arrow.
"What's that?" Al asked.
"Its...Its an arrow!" Pip said reaching for it.
"STOP! That's mine!" A figure ran out in to the open field. The group recognized her at once.
"Audyavieiel!" Al gasped.
