Ch. 9

"Eh?" Pippin said, even more confused. He thought he just might cry. Why would the universe be so cruel to him? Tricking him and giving him nightmares, oh, the nightmares, which he could not escape. What had he ever done?

Bracing himself, he turned to face the group behind him, the only thought in his mind being that the eye would be there, or an orc, or an Uruk-hai, or something even more terrible. What met his eyes sent him flying backwards in surprise onto a bed, which had luckily been empty at the time.

"Pippin, what was that?" asked Frodo Baggins, laughing so hard he nearly fell over himself.

Pippin could only stare. Frodo was here! He hadn't imagined it, it wasn't another dream. His mind was running in slow motion and fast forward at once. Frodo's here, kept running through his mind, and was all he could focus on.

"Pippin, are you okay?" Frodo asked, the worry showing in his eyes.

"He's fine, Frodo," said Gandalf. "He's just surprised."

"Mr. Took, you must come back to us now," Elrond calmly ordered, and Pippin instantly regained his composure. "Gandalf has something he wishes to say."

"Yes, I was!" said Gandalf, surprised because in the excitement of the moment, he'd forgotten. "As I was saying, we traveled all the way here from Valinor, and Gimli, well, I don't quite know where Gimli traveled from, only that as we reached the Shire, there he was. And so---"

"Frodo, you're here!" Pippin screamed, flinging himself upon the hobbit, only just realizing that Frodo was here.

"Eh-Hem!" coughed Gandalf.

"Right, sorry," Pippin muttered, abashed.

"And so, I present to you, Peregrine Took, of the Shire, this!" Gandalf cried as he pulled out a green wizard's staff---

A green wizard's staff made for someone of hobbit-size, which he handed to Pippin.