Chapter 17 – The Palantír

Arwen_undomiel3: Hey! I'm glad you liked the chapter. I love Pip all cute and innocent too, but now that things are crossing over into RotK, who knows how long that will last. :-(

Lotrfan4ever: I'll try to go and read your new stories, but if I don't, please don't take it personally, I've got a lot going on right now.

Melilot: HEY THERE BUDDY!! Y'know what I think? I think you should go review "Sno-Kones" because it would make Carie very happy and you know you don't want to upset her! (She didn't write this, I swear. . .) lol

Rachel: I'm glad you found the fic you were looking for! Hopefully it hasn't let you down.

Butterfly: Yay! Hello again! Lol, I'm glad you liked Lexi's dream. What I realized though is that the part where Treebeard is walking them out of the forest is LONG after Frodo and Sam and Gollum go through the marshes. Whoops. . . :-P

A/N: The time has come, my friends, to move on to RotK. I'm very excited to do so, as the last one is my absolute favorite. This might be a fairly long chapter. . .maybe, if I get carried away. Oh, and on fictionpress.com, I have a screenplay up called "Black Tuesday" under the same penname, if anyone wants to check it out.

Warnings: AU, angst, mushy stuff

Disclaimer: LotR is not mine. Oh, but how I wish it was. Then Peter would have thanked ME at the Oscars! And I would have been there and gone up on stage and given him a big hug and gotten to meet the hobbits, and I'd thrown myself onto Billy and. . .*ahem* Sorry, babbling. . .

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"Look! There, through the trees!" Merry stood up on the wall, his pipe in hand. His face lit up. "It's Gandalf! And Aragorn, and Legolas and Gimli!"

The four hobbits were sitting on the now crumbling walls of Isengard, awaiting the arrival of their friends. Treebeard and the Ents had successfully destroyed Saruman's fortress. Treebeard had taken over Isengard and was waiting for the hobbits to bring Gandalf and the others to him.

Luckily for the starving hobbits, they had found Saruman's storeroom, full to the brim with food and ale and, best of all, pipeweed. Longbottom Leaf, as well. One of the finest pipeweeds in all the Shire. There was no surprise that Merry and Pippin had been very excited over this.

And now, here they sat, eating, drinking and smoking, as it were, while waiting for their friends to arrive. It hadn't taken all that long, really. But they certainly hadn't been expecting them right then.

Pippin laughed and raised his mug to them as they approached. Merry, a bit drunk, spread his arms out wide in welcome.

"Welcome, my lords," he proclaimed grandly, pointing vaguely behind him, "to Isengard!"

"A merry hunt you've led us on!" Gimli cried up to them. "And now we find you here, feasting. . .and smoking!"

Pippin leaned forward. "We are sitting on a field of victory, enjoying a fell well-earned comforts. The salted pork is particularly good." Lexi and Meridol giggled as he slurred the last few words.

"Salted pork?" Gimli repeated, looking at the piece of meat in Pip's hand eagerly.

Merry blew a giant smoke ring. "We're under orders from Treebeard, who's taken over management of Isengard."

* * *

A loud cry caused Lexi and Meridol to start awake. Across the room from them was Pippin, with something in his hands. Merry was sitting up, staring at him in shock and fear. Pippin was the one who had screamed, and it took Lexi a minute to register that the thing in his hands was the ball he had found in the water earlier that day. Gandalf had hastily taken it away then, but clearly Pippin had wanted it back.

Just then, Gandalf jumped up out of his bed and Aragorn and Legolas burst in. The ball was knocked from Pippin's hands and Gandalf threw his cloak over it as it rolled across the floor. Pippin lay motionless on a pile of blankets. Gandalf went to him, closing his eyes and muttering some words. With a loud gasp, Pippin looked around, and when he spotted the wizard hovering over him, he began to weep.

"Gandalf..." he whispered. "Forgive me." He tried to close his eyes, but Gandalf stopped him.

"Look at me," he commanded in a low voice. "What did you see?"

Pippin paused a minute, gathering his words. "A tree...a white tree, in a courtyard of stone." He paused again. "It was dead! The city was burning..."

"Minas Tirith..." Gandalf muttered. "Is that what you saw?"

"I saw..." Pippin stammered, his eyes going wide, and tears overtaking him again. "I saw...him! I could hear his voice in my head!"

"And what did you tell him?" No answer. "Speak!"

Pippin flinched, but complied. "He asked me my name. I didn't answer. He hurt me."

"What did you tell him about Frodo and the Ring?" Gandalf demanded. Pippin's eyes went wide again as he searched for an answer, but soon the wizard released him with a nod. He sat up, glancing in shame at the other three hobbits. Lexi rushed to him, pulling him close.

"Oh, Pip, are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," he told her. She pulled back and nodded. Pippin averted his eyes, then looked up at his cousin. "Merry?"

The Brandybuck turned his eyes to him. "Pippin."

Pippin hesitated. "I'm sorry..."

To that, Merry didn't answer.

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A/N: GAH!! I know, it's so short, but if I continued it would be terribly, terribly dull as well as long. So I figured I'd spare you all and stop here. I promise promise PROMISE to update quicker. Please review, though! And don't hate me! :-(