"Well, we're certainly here early." Merry said lightly as he sipped on the
beer, as Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Gandalf sat down around him on a round
table. Frodo looked up slightly at his voice, and then directed his
attention to the fire, which crackled softly in the fireplace. The Prancing
Pony was not usually this busy, but there just seemed to be much more
travelers than usual.
"We're not early, they're late." Pippin chipped in as he started on his plate of cheese and beef. "It is almost fall and they're still not here yet!"
"True, they promised to be here before night fall, but it is tomorrow's night fall." Merry argued, then emptying his pint in one single swallow. "That's some good stuff." He added after he had gulped down his drink and was wiping his mouth with his sleeves.
Gandalf seemed to be deep in thought, and Frodo looked more grim than usual. Sam stared at Frodo with a worried expression, the table fell into silence. Seeing that nobody was interested in responding nor carrying on the conversation, Merry satisfied himself with a sigh and looked at his emptied pint. Then the inn owner came over with the rest of their foods, laying them one by one in front of the companion. Seeing that none of them spoke, he seemed to have taken on a personal responsibility to start a conversation.
"What rare company." He smiled lightly as he looked around the table. "Four hobbits and a wizard.strange company, if I do say so myself."
"Trust me, it gets even more strange, sir, by tomorrow nightfall." Merry found himself replying. He was about to go on and say who will be here when Gandalf gave him the darkest look from underneath his wizard hat, and Pippin kicked him underneath the table. Gulping back his sentence, he dove into his order of pork ribs and mashed potatoes, and the inn keeper left the table without further attempts to restart the conversation.
Suddenly, a drift of cold air hit him from the behind. Turning around, he saw several Orcs walking through the doorway. Orcs in the Shire nowadays were not rare, but it was not a common sight either. After the fellowship of the ring, it was assumed that the Orcs were extinct, though they do quite often show up in unexpected places. But little did the regular civilian know, that the Orcs were forming an army of their own, this time, they used the breeding techniques they learnt from Saruman, and were on the way of creating even more powerful monsters than the Uruk-hai. As the Orcs came in, the entire atmosphere in the inn changed. Several glanced around curiously, just to turn back shivering under the Orc's glare.
But his entire table was watching, though not so apparently. Aside from Merry, Pippin was peering over his pint glass to look at the Orcs. Frodo was watching them through the corners of his eyes. Sam was watching them openly, almost knocking lady Galadriel's glass vial onto the floor, luckily it was tied to Frodo's wrist, and did not smash to pieces on the floor. Gandalf showed no sign of noticing their arrival, but Merry could tell that he was watching them silently from underneath his hat. The shadow of the hat cast over his face and covered his eyes. No one knew what each other was thinking at that moment, but soon everyone had a common thought.
"Thank the gods that the company wasn't planned to arrive here today." Pippin said significantly to Frodo, who nodded, thinking of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. The Orcs hated Legolas and Gimli, partly because they were often associated with Aragorn, and partly because they had killed a lot of Orcs at the battle at Helm's Deep. They were under no obligation to kill them, but will give them a hard time if they ever found them. Aragorn, on the other hand, was different. Every Orc had Aragorn's face memorized into their comparatively small brain. Aragorn equals kill, it was that simple. Whereas Legolas and Gimli would face some rough times, Aragorn would loose his life. Everyone sitting around the table knew, and maybe they were all feeling secretly relieved at that moment.
But thinking of them caused so many memories. Merry remembered it full well when they had met up underneath Isengard, how Gimli and company had been tracking them for days, to find them safe and sound, and well fed, too. He chuckled at the memory, then immediately returned to the situation at hand. The inn keeper were reluctant on taking orders from the Orcs since they were not likely to pay, but he chose to keep his life and ran into the kitchen with the Orcs' orders. One of the Orcs stood up, and took out a large parchment. At first, it wasn't clear what was on the parchment, but it soon revealed to be a partly accurate hand-depicted picture of Aragorn's face.
"Hobbits, listen! Humans, listen!" It said in ragged common tongue. Obviously, they had learnt how to speak common tongue, though not very well. "We search, look for this, human we look for!" He jabbed his long- nailed finger into Aragorn's face. "We him need, you see him, you come to me, speak. We give reward." At that point he offered an attempt at smiling, but it was a failure, it sent chills down Merry's back. "We stay in inn, five days, you see him, you come, speak. To me."
"Five days!" Frodo whispered urgently to Gandalf, who looked just as impassive as ever. "And to think, the company arrives tomorrow."
"You hobbit! Listen! Important talk, I have!" The Orc had apparently seen Frodo leaning over to Gandalf, and was not pointing at him angrily. "I speak, you listen! Or hobbit pay! You too, pointy-hat!"
Merry almost laughed out loud at that description of Gandalf, but held back, choking down his laughs, knowing that Gandalf would probably turn him into a frog later if he did laugh. Frodo leaned back in his seat, and looked away from the Orc with a sour expression. The Orc gave another grunt and continued.
"We reward have! You come, speak of this man." Then, he turned grim. "If human lie, if hobbit lie, we punish!"
Then, randomly, the Orcs pushed away from the table, and grasped people by their collars, and questioned at random. The Orcs were so tall that most people questioned were lifted off their feet. Merry ran his eyes over this scene of confusion, and looked quickly around for a way to go upstairs into their rooms.
The movement of his eyes must have caught the Orcs' eyes, for one of them walked directly over while he was still looking around and picked him up by the collar. Only a bit scared but mainly defiant, Merry stared into the Orc's eyes without flinching. The Orc did not seem to like this, he shook Merry roughly.
"You see man! You see that man? You seen him? You speak! You seen him or not?" His breath stank very badly, and Merry felt a wave of nausea travel up his throat. He had never been this close to an Orc's mouth before, never mind smelling its breath.
"No." He managed to keep a straight face while trying not to overreact. "No, never."
The Orc gave him a searching glare, and he returned the glare with determination. Finally, after what seemed like eternity to Merry, the Orc let go of his collar with a rough push. He landed bottom-first onto the table, spilling Sam's beer and almost pushing his own dinner over the side of the table.
"You lie, you die." The Orc left these final words before moving onto the next person.
Usually, it was in the best interest of the King's knights to kill Orcs. But after the fellowship, the Orcs developed human speech, which was a rarity. There were just too many of them for humans to deal with, and the elves had withdrawn their forces. So in major gathering places like Gondor, Orcs were killed upon sighting, and that was why they mostly live in small towns, terrorizing its inhabitants. The King's powers did extend far, but there was not enough troops to break off a legion to protect every single small village. Nobody blamed it on Aragorn, though, Gondor and Rohan became rich, strong and prosperous under his rule. He was a good king, at least better than the ones before him. Aside from that, Lady Arwen's beauty and wisdom attracted much loyalty amongst the people of middle earth. Together, Arwen and Aragorn had a dream for middle earth, and it would have come true too, if the Orcs were not there.
"Did you hear that?!" Pippin was desperately tugging on Merry's sleeves. Merry was too deep within his own thoughts that he was jolted back to reality by Pippin's urgent voice. Then, he discovered that the tavern had erupted into urgent discussion, and the Orcs were now drinking and eating, tossing occasional glances to others' tables.
"What happened?" He asked, looking around at his friends' horrified faces. Gandalf looked so tired and old for a moment, under the flickering fire light.
"They.or at least they claimed.that." Sam gave a gulp of air before continuing, rushing through the rest of his sentence. "They claimed that they are building up again! Their forces!"
Merry almost fell of his chair. "And to think, Aragorn had left the castle, leaving lady Arwen alone in charge! Did they say how soon?"
"Say Strider! Walls may have ears, you never know." Pippin hissed at him, then, "No.I suppose it will take another month, at least. But it just meant that their powers are growing, and it puts us deeper in danger."
"Not us." Frodo corrected him, with Sam nodding fervently by his side. "Only Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, and maybe Gandalf too. We, us four, did not do much killing of the Orcs, so they do not know our faces. As for Gandalf, they know of him as Gandalf the white, but Gandalf is well disguised now, under his cloak of silvery gray."
"Back to the old Gandalf the gray!" Pippin joked. In a normal situation, everyone would have laughed, even Gandalf. But the atmosphere right at that moment was making everyone uptight, so even Merry could only manage a small, nervous laugh.
Suddenly, one of the Orcs pointed excitedly at their table, speaking in rough, hurried Black speech. The rest of them turned their heads all together, and it didn't take long for the company to realize that the attention of the Orcs were focused on Gandalf, who seemed to reach a decision and stood up quickly, ushering the hobbits to stand up too, and leave.
"You, bad wizard, you kill Orcs in front gate Mordor!" The Orc shouted. Angrily, the other Orcs stirred, and grasped their weapons rightly. "You! You stay, you come, your companions come!"
"Run!" Gandalf issued, as he raised his staff high. The room was suddenly filled to the brim with light. Screams issued from every corner of the tavern, only the four hobbits knew enough of Gandalf's magic to know to keep their eyes shut. The brilliant light temporarily blinded everyone's sight. As the light went out, the Orcs had already overturned their table and was now hacking and slashing in random in the companions' direction.
"Run!" Gandalf hissed at them. "This will only blind them temporarily, we must leave!"
The rest of the hobbits ran towards the door, dodging low to prevent their heads from being hacked off by the Orcs whom were now screaming in rage and stumbling everywhere, over tables, out of windows. With a sharp scream, one women who was sitting by the window fell over and crashed the glass. An Orc had accidentally slashed into her, its axe lodging deeply into her ribcage. The sight was too gruesome, and it made Merry thought better of just running out.
"Pippin!" He shouted to Pippin, who was loading provision, dumping everyone's dinner into a huge sack in the confusion. "We are knights of Gondor! We must fight!"
Tossing the huge bag of food to Sam, Pippin nodded smartly and pulled out his short sword. Together, they made for the closest Orc. The Orc had heard their footsteps approaching, and swung his huge sword around in an arc. Pippin leapt up high in the air while Merry ducked, the sword flew harmlessly between them two. Not giving the Orc time to do another turn, Merry flew for its feet, slashing into the Orc's knees. With a scream, the Orc tumbled towards him in a fluid motion. The axe fell from its hands and landed face-first heavily onto Merry's left foot.
Cursing heavily, Merry ignored the pain in his left foot and clubbed the Orc on the head with the flat face of his sword, and as if that was not enough, Pippin's sword flew right through its throat, severing its head right off, which landed onto an old man's dinner plate, splattering blood everywhere.
Some of the Orcs' vision were returning, and they looked around for a sight of the hobbits. "Enjoy your dinner!" Merry shouted mirthfully at the old man whom looked flabbergasted at having an Orc's head for dinner before launching himself onto another one. With a loud shout he ran this one through the middle. It did not die fast enough, and swung its rapier weakly to Merry's head, successful only in cutting off a few streaks of Merry's curly hair. Beside him, Pippin was finishing off another, though he had received a slash on his cheeks. It was not bleeding badly, but it would probably leave a scar.
They did not notice until later on that Sam had already joined the battle, leaving Gandalf to protect Frodo with his magic. Sam was so skilled in bashing by now he was using metal plates as boomerangs, though he certainly did not expect them to make an arc and come back to him. Many civilians were hiding under their tables, not wanting to be harmed by Orcs, nor Sam's flying plates. Some of them were cheering, others helping only slightly by tripping over Orcs from underneath their tables.
Merry fought left and right with his sword, and finished off three Orcs before noticing that there was only one left, and it had cornered Pippin. Pippin's short sword lay on the ground a few meters away, and the Orc was advancing onto him menacingly, smashing chairs with his club. Hurriedly, Merry fitted a small stone and a large piece of broken glass onto the slingshot which he hid in his back pocket. He aimed and fired the stone only seconds before he fired the glass.
As the Orc swung his club and was ready to smash Pippin, the stone hit him in the back of his head. Confused and angry, he turned around, only to get a large piece of glass straight through one eye, and into the brain. Women screamed and men cheered as the Orc gave a short scream before falling first down to his knees, then, with a thump, to the floor.
"In case your brain was empty, I've just put something into it, so think about it." Merry said lightly, as Pippin came over to pick up his sword, smiling broadly at him.
"The glass is transparent." He said, looking sorrowful. "You should have put something more solid into him. With the glass, his thoughts will go right through it."
"When you two crow mouths have finished chatting, may I remind you that we will be sought after by the Orcs after this incident and that it is best we leave right now?" Gandalf's voice interrupted their conversation.
"Yes, Gandalf." They said reluctantly. They were already on their way out when they were stopped by the inn keeper, whose arms were laden with foods, dried meats, fresh vegetables and other durable items.
"Keep these, young knights! You two bore the mark of a knight of Gondor." He said proudly, offering the whole load into Pippin, Merry, and Sam's arms. "If the Orcs are truly building up their forces like they said, us civilians cannot do a thing, but it is up to brave knights like you to fight them! You have done a great deed for us indeed, ridding the inn of Orcs like that, and accept these as my token of gratitude!"
"Why thank you kind sir!" Merry offered his brightest smile, while stomping onto Pippin's foot, because Pippin had already started on the armload of food, starting with the carrots. Sam just looked at the inn keeper with a bland smile on his face, his mind probably off elsewhere.
"Reinforcements!" Came Frodo's desperate voice from the doorway.
Still thanking the inn keeper, Merry and Pippin rushed to the door amidst the claps and cheers of the people in the tavern. The only man who wasn't happy was the old man who has gotten an Orc's head in his dinner plate. With sigh and a fearful, disgusted look, he pushed the plate sideways so it splattered over the floor, and signaled the inn keeper for another order.
The had started raining outside, the world seemed to be covered in a gray mist. Hastily stuffing the new provisions so that they do not get wet, Merry untied his horse from the wooden peg and led it to follow the others, whom were already seated and ready on their horses.
"Where do we go?" Pippin asked, already thoroughly soaked. The rain had almost straightened his curls, which hung down by the sides of his face, with water dripping from them.
"Rivendell! To the woods of Elrond!" Came Gandalf's reply through the noises of the storm. Gandalf's figure had already half-disappeared through the rain, Merry reined his horse in the direction of the voice. Then he heard it, almost a hundred Orcs on horses, approaching the inn at top speed. The ground almost shook underneath all the hooves, as Sam took one last worried look backwards.
"What's wrong, Sam?" Frodo asked as he rode past him.
"Well." Sam replied, half embarrassed. "I.um.it's Rose, Mister Frodo. I told her to meet me here tomorrow night.and now."
"But you can't stay, Sam! She'll be able to take care of herself!" Frodo shouted as he started to ride away.
"Let's hope so." Sam sighed, and rode on after Frodo's disappearing figure.
"We're not early, they're late." Pippin chipped in as he started on his plate of cheese and beef. "It is almost fall and they're still not here yet!"
"True, they promised to be here before night fall, but it is tomorrow's night fall." Merry argued, then emptying his pint in one single swallow. "That's some good stuff." He added after he had gulped down his drink and was wiping his mouth with his sleeves.
Gandalf seemed to be deep in thought, and Frodo looked more grim than usual. Sam stared at Frodo with a worried expression, the table fell into silence. Seeing that nobody was interested in responding nor carrying on the conversation, Merry satisfied himself with a sigh and looked at his emptied pint. Then the inn owner came over with the rest of their foods, laying them one by one in front of the companion. Seeing that none of them spoke, he seemed to have taken on a personal responsibility to start a conversation.
"What rare company." He smiled lightly as he looked around the table. "Four hobbits and a wizard.strange company, if I do say so myself."
"Trust me, it gets even more strange, sir, by tomorrow nightfall." Merry found himself replying. He was about to go on and say who will be here when Gandalf gave him the darkest look from underneath his wizard hat, and Pippin kicked him underneath the table. Gulping back his sentence, he dove into his order of pork ribs and mashed potatoes, and the inn keeper left the table without further attempts to restart the conversation.
Suddenly, a drift of cold air hit him from the behind. Turning around, he saw several Orcs walking through the doorway. Orcs in the Shire nowadays were not rare, but it was not a common sight either. After the fellowship of the ring, it was assumed that the Orcs were extinct, though they do quite often show up in unexpected places. But little did the regular civilian know, that the Orcs were forming an army of their own, this time, they used the breeding techniques they learnt from Saruman, and were on the way of creating even more powerful monsters than the Uruk-hai. As the Orcs came in, the entire atmosphere in the inn changed. Several glanced around curiously, just to turn back shivering under the Orc's glare.
But his entire table was watching, though not so apparently. Aside from Merry, Pippin was peering over his pint glass to look at the Orcs. Frodo was watching them through the corners of his eyes. Sam was watching them openly, almost knocking lady Galadriel's glass vial onto the floor, luckily it was tied to Frodo's wrist, and did not smash to pieces on the floor. Gandalf showed no sign of noticing their arrival, but Merry could tell that he was watching them silently from underneath his hat. The shadow of the hat cast over his face and covered his eyes. No one knew what each other was thinking at that moment, but soon everyone had a common thought.
"Thank the gods that the company wasn't planned to arrive here today." Pippin said significantly to Frodo, who nodded, thinking of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. The Orcs hated Legolas and Gimli, partly because they were often associated with Aragorn, and partly because they had killed a lot of Orcs at the battle at Helm's Deep. They were under no obligation to kill them, but will give them a hard time if they ever found them. Aragorn, on the other hand, was different. Every Orc had Aragorn's face memorized into their comparatively small brain. Aragorn equals kill, it was that simple. Whereas Legolas and Gimli would face some rough times, Aragorn would loose his life. Everyone sitting around the table knew, and maybe they were all feeling secretly relieved at that moment.
But thinking of them caused so many memories. Merry remembered it full well when they had met up underneath Isengard, how Gimli and company had been tracking them for days, to find them safe and sound, and well fed, too. He chuckled at the memory, then immediately returned to the situation at hand. The inn keeper were reluctant on taking orders from the Orcs since they were not likely to pay, but he chose to keep his life and ran into the kitchen with the Orcs' orders. One of the Orcs stood up, and took out a large parchment. At first, it wasn't clear what was on the parchment, but it soon revealed to be a partly accurate hand-depicted picture of Aragorn's face.
"Hobbits, listen! Humans, listen!" It said in ragged common tongue. Obviously, they had learnt how to speak common tongue, though not very well. "We search, look for this, human we look for!" He jabbed his long- nailed finger into Aragorn's face. "We him need, you see him, you come to me, speak. We give reward." At that point he offered an attempt at smiling, but it was a failure, it sent chills down Merry's back. "We stay in inn, five days, you see him, you come, speak. To me."
"Five days!" Frodo whispered urgently to Gandalf, who looked just as impassive as ever. "And to think, the company arrives tomorrow."
"You hobbit! Listen! Important talk, I have!" The Orc had apparently seen Frodo leaning over to Gandalf, and was not pointing at him angrily. "I speak, you listen! Or hobbit pay! You too, pointy-hat!"
Merry almost laughed out loud at that description of Gandalf, but held back, choking down his laughs, knowing that Gandalf would probably turn him into a frog later if he did laugh. Frodo leaned back in his seat, and looked away from the Orc with a sour expression. The Orc gave another grunt and continued.
"We reward have! You come, speak of this man." Then, he turned grim. "If human lie, if hobbit lie, we punish!"
Then, randomly, the Orcs pushed away from the table, and grasped people by their collars, and questioned at random. The Orcs were so tall that most people questioned were lifted off their feet. Merry ran his eyes over this scene of confusion, and looked quickly around for a way to go upstairs into their rooms.
The movement of his eyes must have caught the Orcs' eyes, for one of them walked directly over while he was still looking around and picked him up by the collar. Only a bit scared but mainly defiant, Merry stared into the Orc's eyes without flinching. The Orc did not seem to like this, he shook Merry roughly.
"You see man! You see that man? You seen him? You speak! You seen him or not?" His breath stank very badly, and Merry felt a wave of nausea travel up his throat. He had never been this close to an Orc's mouth before, never mind smelling its breath.
"No." He managed to keep a straight face while trying not to overreact. "No, never."
The Orc gave him a searching glare, and he returned the glare with determination. Finally, after what seemed like eternity to Merry, the Orc let go of his collar with a rough push. He landed bottom-first onto the table, spilling Sam's beer and almost pushing his own dinner over the side of the table.
"You lie, you die." The Orc left these final words before moving onto the next person.
Usually, it was in the best interest of the King's knights to kill Orcs. But after the fellowship, the Orcs developed human speech, which was a rarity. There were just too many of them for humans to deal with, and the elves had withdrawn their forces. So in major gathering places like Gondor, Orcs were killed upon sighting, and that was why they mostly live in small towns, terrorizing its inhabitants. The King's powers did extend far, but there was not enough troops to break off a legion to protect every single small village. Nobody blamed it on Aragorn, though, Gondor and Rohan became rich, strong and prosperous under his rule. He was a good king, at least better than the ones before him. Aside from that, Lady Arwen's beauty and wisdom attracted much loyalty amongst the people of middle earth. Together, Arwen and Aragorn had a dream for middle earth, and it would have come true too, if the Orcs were not there.
"Did you hear that?!" Pippin was desperately tugging on Merry's sleeves. Merry was too deep within his own thoughts that he was jolted back to reality by Pippin's urgent voice. Then, he discovered that the tavern had erupted into urgent discussion, and the Orcs were now drinking and eating, tossing occasional glances to others' tables.
"What happened?" He asked, looking around at his friends' horrified faces. Gandalf looked so tired and old for a moment, under the flickering fire light.
"They.or at least they claimed.that." Sam gave a gulp of air before continuing, rushing through the rest of his sentence. "They claimed that they are building up again! Their forces!"
Merry almost fell of his chair. "And to think, Aragorn had left the castle, leaving lady Arwen alone in charge! Did they say how soon?"
"Say Strider! Walls may have ears, you never know." Pippin hissed at him, then, "No.I suppose it will take another month, at least. But it just meant that their powers are growing, and it puts us deeper in danger."
"Not us." Frodo corrected him, with Sam nodding fervently by his side. "Only Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, and maybe Gandalf too. We, us four, did not do much killing of the Orcs, so they do not know our faces. As for Gandalf, they know of him as Gandalf the white, but Gandalf is well disguised now, under his cloak of silvery gray."
"Back to the old Gandalf the gray!" Pippin joked. In a normal situation, everyone would have laughed, even Gandalf. But the atmosphere right at that moment was making everyone uptight, so even Merry could only manage a small, nervous laugh.
Suddenly, one of the Orcs pointed excitedly at their table, speaking in rough, hurried Black speech. The rest of them turned their heads all together, and it didn't take long for the company to realize that the attention of the Orcs were focused on Gandalf, who seemed to reach a decision and stood up quickly, ushering the hobbits to stand up too, and leave.
"You, bad wizard, you kill Orcs in front gate Mordor!" The Orc shouted. Angrily, the other Orcs stirred, and grasped their weapons rightly. "You! You stay, you come, your companions come!"
"Run!" Gandalf issued, as he raised his staff high. The room was suddenly filled to the brim with light. Screams issued from every corner of the tavern, only the four hobbits knew enough of Gandalf's magic to know to keep their eyes shut. The brilliant light temporarily blinded everyone's sight. As the light went out, the Orcs had already overturned their table and was now hacking and slashing in random in the companions' direction.
"Run!" Gandalf hissed at them. "This will only blind them temporarily, we must leave!"
The rest of the hobbits ran towards the door, dodging low to prevent their heads from being hacked off by the Orcs whom were now screaming in rage and stumbling everywhere, over tables, out of windows. With a sharp scream, one women who was sitting by the window fell over and crashed the glass. An Orc had accidentally slashed into her, its axe lodging deeply into her ribcage. The sight was too gruesome, and it made Merry thought better of just running out.
"Pippin!" He shouted to Pippin, who was loading provision, dumping everyone's dinner into a huge sack in the confusion. "We are knights of Gondor! We must fight!"
Tossing the huge bag of food to Sam, Pippin nodded smartly and pulled out his short sword. Together, they made for the closest Orc. The Orc had heard their footsteps approaching, and swung his huge sword around in an arc. Pippin leapt up high in the air while Merry ducked, the sword flew harmlessly between them two. Not giving the Orc time to do another turn, Merry flew for its feet, slashing into the Orc's knees. With a scream, the Orc tumbled towards him in a fluid motion. The axe fell from its hands and landed face-first heavily onto Merry's left foot.
Cursing heavily, Merry ignored the pain in his left foot and clubbed the Orc on the head with the flat face of his sword, and as if that was not enough, Pippin's sword flew right through its throat, severing its head right off, which landed onto an old man's dinner plate, splattering blood everywhere.
Some of the Orcs' vision were returning, and they looked around for a sight of the hobbits. "Enjoy your dinner!" Merry shouted mirthfully at the old man whom looked flabbergasted at having an Orc's head for dinner before launching himself onto another one. With a loud shout he ran this one through the middle. It did not die fast enough, and swung its rapier weakly to Merry's head, successful only in cutting off a few streaks of Merry's curly hair. Beside him, Pippin was finishing off another, though he had received a slash on his cheeks. It was not bleeding badly, but it would probably leave a scar.
They did not notice until later on that Sam had already joined the battle, leaving Gandalf to protect Frodo with his magic. Sam was so skilled in bashing by now he was using metal plates as boomerangs, though he certainly did not expect them to make an arc and come back to him. Many civilians were hiding under their tables, not wanting to be harmed by Orcs, nor Sam's flying plates. Some of them were cheering, others helping only slightly by tripping over Orcs from underneath their tables.
Merry fought left and right with his sword, and finished off three Orcs before noticing that there was only one left, and it had cornered Pippin. Pippin's short sword lay on the ground a few meters away, and the Orc was advancing onto him menacingly, smashing chairs with his club. Hurriedly, Merry fitted a small stone and a large piece of broken glass onto the slingshot which he hid in his back pocket. He aimed and fired the stone only seconds before he fired the glass.
As the Orc swung his club and was ready to smash Pippin, the stone hit him in the back of his head. Confused and angry, he turned around, only to get a large piece of glass straight through one eye, and into the brain. Women screamed and men cheered as the Orc gave a short scream before falling first down to his knees, then, with a thump, to the floor.
"In case your brain was empty, I've just put something into it, so think about it." Merry said lightly, as Pippin came over to pick up his sword, smiling broadly at him.
"The glass is transparent." He said, looking sorrowful. "You should have put something more solid into him. With the glass, his thoughts will go right through it."
"When you two crow mouths have finished chatting, may I remind you that we will be sought after by the Orcs after this incident and that it is best we leave right now?" Gandalf's voice interrupted their conversation.
"Yes, Gandalf." They said reluctantly. They were already on their way out when they were stopped by the inn keeper, whose arms were laden with foods, dried meats, fresh vegetables and other durable items.
"Keep these, young knights! You two bore the mark of a knight of Gondor." He said proudly, offering the whole load into Pippin, Merry, and Sam's arms. "If the Orcs are truly building up their forces like they said, us civilians cannot do a thing, but it is up to brave knights like you to fight them! You have done a great deed for us indeed, ridding the inn of Orcs like that, and accept these as my token of gratitude!"
"Why thank you kind sir!" Merry offered his brightest smile, while stomping onto Pippin's foot, because Pippin had already started on the armload of food, starting with the carrots. Sam just looked at the inn keeper with a bland smile on his face, his mind probably off elsewhere.
"Reinforcements!" Came Frodo's desperate voice from the doorway.
Still thanking the inn keeper, Merry and Pippin rushed to the door amidst the claps and cheers of the people in the tavern. The only man who wasn't happy was the old man who has gotten an Orc's head in his dinner plate. With sigh and a fearful, disgusted look, he pushed the plate sideways so it splattered over the floor, and signaled the inn keeper for another order.
The had started raining outside, the world seemed to be covered in a gray mist. Hastily stuffing the new provisions so that they do not get wet, Merry untied his horse from the wooden peg and led it to follow the others, whom were already seated and ready on their horses.
"Where do we go?" Pippin asked, already thoroughly soaked. The rain had almost straightened his curls, which hung down by the sides of his face, with water dripping from them.
"Rivendell! To the woods of Elrond!" Came Gandalf's reply through the noises of the storm. Gandalf's figure had already half-disappeared through the rain, Merry reined his horse in the direction of the voice. Then he heard it, almost a hundred Orcs on horses, approaching the inn at top speed. The ground almost shook underneath all the hooves, as Sam took one last worried look backwards.
"What's wrong, Sam?" Frodo asked as he rode past him.
"Well." Sam replied, half embarrassed. "I.um.it's Rose, Mister Frodo. I told her to meet me here tomorrow night.and now."
"But you can't stay, Sam! She'll be able to take care of herself!" Frodo shouted as he started to ride away.
"Let's hope so." Sam sighed, and rode on after Frodo's disappearing figure.