Chapter Three.
Of Trees, Dinnertime and Orc Cannibalism.
The orc horde ran through the plains of Rohan. Sarah had discovered that her dear friend, Charles, didn't like being called Charles, and was almost ready to behead Sarah on account of her continuous whinging and whining on their run back to Isengard.
"...So then I told him about the kangaroos," Sarah said, huffing, trying to talk while running. "He thought we rode them to school...I didn't want to break his heart,"
The orcs stopped abruptly, Sarah tripping over her feet and onto the ground. She is pulled over to a spot, where she is joined by Merry and Pippin, who are dropped on the ground next to her.
"Glad you could drop in," she nodded to Pippin, suddenly becoming worried over Merry, who didn't seem to move.
"We're not going no further, 'til we've had a breather," the orc Sarah had called Charles stated, ordering for a rest.
"Amen Charles!" Sarah yelled, receiving a glare off the orc. "Eep," she said, ripping some grass out and placing it in front of her face as a way to hide herself from the wrath of Charles.
"Get a fire going," the leader of the horde commanded, random orcs grunting and heading into the woods, chopping down trees.
Pippin crawled closer to Merry.
"Merry. Merry," he whispered, trying to get his friend's attention.
Merry looked up at Pippin, smiling faintly.
"I think we might have made a mistake leaving the Shire, Pippin" he said, trying to make light of the situation.
"That gash looks really bad," Sarah said, kind-heartedly, manoeuvring her hands to reach her pockets, pulling out a handkerchief and lightly dabbing the hobbit's cut on his head, tending to the wound while growling erupted from the woods behind the threesome.
"What's making that noise?" Pippin asked, curiously.
"It's those ugly oversized, Charles following, orcs," Sarah nodded, paying close attention to Merry's forehead.
Merry shook his head in disagreement. "It's the trees," he said, softly.
"What?" Pippin asked, double-checking that he heard correctly.
"You remember the old forest, on the borders of Buckland," Merry stated to his hobbit friend.
"Let me guess, hobbits told tales about the trees moving?" Sarah scrunched her nose in sarcasm.
Merry nodded. "Folks used to say there was something in the water that made the trees grow tall," Merry said, dramatically pausing. "And come alive,"
"Alive?" Pippin gulped at the thought of being squashed by a walking tree.
"Trees that could whisper, talk to each other, even move," Merry said, almost retelling the stories he heard back in the Shire.
"I think that cut has given you concussion," Sarah nodded in her best medical tone.
The orc horde next to them began to become restless with hunger.
"I'm starvin'" one orc stated, grumbling. "We ain't had nothin' but maggoty bread for three stinkin' days,"
"At least you've eaten," Sarah muttered under her breath.
"Yeah, why can't we have some meats?" another orc agreed, looking towards Merry, Pippin and Sarah, paying more attention to the two hobbits than the elf in particular. "They're fresh," he continued, slurping.
"They are not for eating," the leader orc stated sternly to the other orc, saying each syllable slowly to get his point across.
The lead orc grabs the two hobbits and drags them away from the horde of his fellow orcs, Sarah crawling to her knees and hobbling her way over to her friends.
"What about their legs?" another orc asked. "They don't need those. Ooh, they look taste,"
"I think they do need them, for walking," Sarah nodded, stating to the orc, as he lunged towards the hobbits, trying to reach for them. Sarah pulled the hobbits to her in protection of the two Halflings.
The lead orc lunged at the other orc.
"Get back, Scum!" he ordered.
Suddenly, yelling springs up among the group of orcs, arguing over whether they should go against instructions in order to quell their hunger.
"Carve 'em up. Just a mouthful!" one random orc yelled in agreement to eating them. Sarah pulled the hobbits closer, in an attempt to protect them.
The orc lunged at Sarah and the hobbits, raising his scimitar towards them. Sarah shut her eyes, fretting her end was closer than she expected. But it never came. The lead orc leapt forward, lobbing the other orc's head off with his sword, the head landing on the ground near Sarah, Merry, and Pippin, the three looking at the decapitated head with anguish and disgust.
"Looks like meats back on the menu, boys," the lead orc announced whole-heartedly to his fellow orc, the horde yelling and running forward to eat.
"Ew, gross," Sarah scoffed, feeling bile form in the back of her throw, as she and the two hobbits are pushed out of the way in amidst the hungry orc.
"Let's go," Merry stated, Sarah reluctant to go, receiving looks off the two hobbits. She shrugged, crawling after them in an attempt to escape. The three crawled off, in the opposite direction of the cannibalistic orc horde, gouging on a fellow orc.
Suddenly, Merry stops abruptly, a foot planted on his back.
"Let him go!" Sarah growled at the orc, who lunged at Pippin, turning over and yelping at the sight of the repulsive orc.
"Go on, call for help," it snickered. "Squeal! No one's gonna save you now,"
The orc, who had raised his knife in anticipation of stabbing it through Pippin, was stopped suddenly as a spear was imbedded through the orcs back. It screamed, falling to the side. The rest of the orc noticed the riders, and a bloody battle begins.
"Pippin!" Merry yelled to his friend.
"Merry! Pippin! Come on!" Sarah urged her hobbit counterparts to follow, as the three began to crawl towards the safety of the woods.
Sarah looked around her as she crawl, mortified at the slaughter of the orc horde by this mysterious group of riders. Suddenly, Pippin is stopped in his tracks.
"Nooo!" Sarah yelled, as the horse stood up on two legs, ready to trample Pippin.