Pippin
"Why did you look?" I looked down. "Why do you always have to look?"
I sighed. "I don't know. I can't help it." I didn't honestly know why I looked into the palantir. I just wanted to take a look. Just one.
"You never can."
I stopped, exasperated. "I'm sorry, all right?" Merry slowed down. "I won't do it again," I added.
When he turned to face me, I almost flinched. He looked so angry...but why? "Don't you understand? The enemy thinks you have the Ring. He's going to be looking for you, Pip. They've got to get you out of here!"
I didn't like how he said "you." I mean...wasn't he coming, too? "And you-? You're coming with me?" His silence was making me nervous. "Merry?"
He turned away from me and kept walking. "Come on." He was avoiding the issue.
---
I asked Gandalf something about Minas Tirith, but it was an automatic question as he helped me onto Shadowfax. I turned to see Merry holding out something to me. "Here, something for the road."
I looked at him questioningly. "The last of the longbottom leaf." Why was he giving me this? Unless he...
"I know you've run out. You smoke too much, Pippin." Unless he's thinking we'll never see each other again.
It was foolish to think we wouldn't, but why else would this feel like we were saying goodbye as if it were final. "But-but we'll see each other soon. Won't we?"
He quickly glanced at Gandalf before saying with a choked voice, "I don't know." I saw unshed tears in his eyes. Merry didn't cry often. "I don't know what's going to happen." I felt my confusion grow. Then I realized that I didn't know what was going to happen, either. Usually that was okay, but this was a bad unknown. In the Shire, we didn't know if we'd get caught in our pranks or not; and now we didn't know if we would die or not.
Merry backed away, as if physically distancing himself from me. "Merry," I said hurriedly. "Merry!" I yelled as Shadowfax began our journey, and I had to resist the urge to jump off and run back to Merry.