Chapter 8: Katjaa, Carley, and the Entdraught
Katjaa, Carley, Merry, and Pippin have had a good night's worth of sleep in Fangorn Forest, at Treebeard's home. Carley slowly fluttered her eyes as she turned her head… to see that it was morning. She yawned, stretching out her arms.
Then, Carley shook Merry, "wake up Merry."
Merry then opened his eyes.
"…Carley," Merry spoke.
He and Carley looked around in confusion, to see a clearing surrounded by trees and rocks, with a little stream, which started as a trickling waterfall amongst the rocks. There, they also saw Pippin and Katjaa standing near the little waterfall drinking what appeared to be water from a fungus bowl. But… there was no sign of Treebeard.
"Hey, where's Treebeard?" asked Carley.
"…I don't know, Carley," replied a confused Merry.
Merry and Carley then stood up, gazing about, looking for Treebeard, who had apparently left them.
"Hello," Merry called out, "Treebeard?"
"I hope you didn't leave us behind," Katjaa added her call, "you promised Gandalf that you'd look after us."
"Where's he gone?" pondered Merry.
As he and Carley were wondering about Treebeard…
"I had the loveliest dream last night," Pippin spoke dreamily to the others, "there was this large barrel, full of pipe-weed. And we smoked all of it, and then… you were sick, Merry."
Pippin's last remark seemed to discourage Merry as he still wondered about Treebeard. Katjaa and Carley however, could not help but laugh to themselves at Merry's reaction.
"I'd give anything for a whiff of Old Toby," Pippin said wistfully as he laid back into the rocks.
OOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!
A tree-like sound suddenly came, startling Merry and Carlet.
"Did you hear that?" asked Merry as he and Carley walked towards Pippin and Katjaa trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from.
Pippin and Katjaa however, seemed unconcerned as they just stood, carrying two larges fungus jugs in their arms…
OOOOOHHHHHHHH!
The sound came again.
"There it is again," pointed Merry.
"…Is it Treebeard?" asked Katjaa.
"No," replied Merry uncertainly, watching the trees around the clearing suspiciously, "…something's not right here. Not right at all."
Pippin looked at his friends like they were frightened for no reason at all. Pippin and Katjaa then took a swig of the liquid in the bowl and suddenly…
"OOOOOHHHH!" Pippin burped.
"Do you want some water, Carley," asked Katjaa kindly..
Merry and Carley, then turned to look beside them… to find that Pippin was the one who made those noises.
"Pippin," gasped Carley in great surprise.
"What is it, Carley?" Pippin asked incredulously at Carley's shock.
"…You just said something… Treeish," answered Merry, also gasping.
"No I didn't," contradicted Pippin, "I was just stretching."
Pippin then did his stretching, making those tree-like groans again. And as he did… something else happened…
Pippin appeared to be growing when he 'stretched'. Which apparently make Carley and Merry gasp even more. Merry looked at Pippin, seeing how much he's grown.
"You're taller," stated Merry.
"…Who?" Pippin asked innocently.
"You."
"Than what?"
"Than me!" Merry exclaimed indignantly.
"I've always been taller than you!" Pippin informed him smugly.
"What?!" Carley interjected, "since when?"
"…Since always Carley," Pippin answered, even more smugly.
"Pippin," Merry explained to Pippin, as he puts his hands on his waste, "everyone knows, I'm the tall one, you're the short one."
"Yeah," added Carley, "even I know who's taller than who Pippin."
"Oh please, Carley," laughed Pippin, "Merry's what… three-foot-six, at the most? Whereas me, I'm pushing 3'7"."
OOOHHH! Pippin stretched himself again…
"…3'8"!" Pippin exclaimed with great amazement.
Pippin and Katjaa then drank the water again, becoming happier each moment. Carley and Merry, however, were becoming more distraught with Pippin's unnatural growth.
"Three-foot-eight?" Merry said incredulously.
'Ohhh,' thought a bewildered Carley, 'this is getting creepy.'
"You did something," Merry accused Pippin.
Pippin only responded with an innocent shrugged, grinning as he pleased. The happy Hobbit and Woman then lowered the fungus bowls in which they drank the water from. Merry and Carlet suddenly noticed the two pitchers that Pippin and Katjaa held in their arms, their expressions turned to greed as they believed that it was the water that made Pippin grow unnaturally.
'That water's got to be what made Pippin grow,' thought a greedy Carley, 'man, if I had some of that… Doug will finally see me as a woman, and not a kid.'
Carley looked at Merry, who shared the same greed for what Pippin and Katjaa drank… and gave each other a conspiratorial nod…
Merry and Carley then snatched the jugs from Pippin and Katjaa… and drank out of it.
"Merry, don't!" Pippin warned Merry, "don't drink it!"
"Carley, don't!" Katjaa warned Carley, "don't drink all of!"
Merry and Carley only grinned mischievously at Pippin and Katjaa and ran off with it. Pippin and Katjaa tried to follow…
"Merry! Carley!" Pippin and Katjaa cried out desperately.
as they ran towards their greedy friends, "no, Treebeard said, Treebeard said that you shouldn't have any!" said Pippin.
"Well, you should've remembered that before you started drinking," Katjaa pointed out the obvious.
"Now I want some!" Merry said as he took the pitcher and drank from it.
"Me too!" added Carley.
"But Merry," Pippin cried out even more desperately, "Treebeard said that-"
"But Carley," Katjaa out desperately.
But Merry, Carley, and Mark kept pushing Pippin and Katjaa away, avoiding their lunges and grabs each time, wanting more of the Entdraught. The ensuing mayhem resulted in a frivolous chase with Pippin and Katjaa in pursuit of Carley and Merry.
"He said that-!" Pippin repeated, still chasing his friends, "it could well be dangerous!"
Pippin and Katjaa continued to chase Merry and Carley and Pippin and Katjaa, who had now, ran into one of the ancient trees.
"Give it back!" Pippin implored them once more as they clambered over the gnarled roots of an ancient tree that made Merry, Carley, and Mark drop the pitchers, "Merry! Carley!!"
Suddenly…
The ground underneath the mischievous quintets began to tremble and shake… the roots of the tree were moving!
"What's happening?!" cried Merry.
The tree roots grabbed a hold on Merry and Pippin's legs.
"Ah!" exclaimed Merry, "it's got my leg!"
"Carley!" Katjaa cried out
Katjaa and Carley tried to jump…
But the roots caught them as well.
"Oh no!" cried Katjaa, "we're trapped!"
"What are we gonna do," cried Carley.
"Merry! Katjaa! Carley!" Pippin cried out as he was starting to be pulled into the ground as was Merry, Katjaa, and Carley …
The Hobbits, Katjaa, and Carley used all their strength to get free…
But each time…
They became even more trapped… hastening their peril…
Merry, Katjaa, Carley, and Pippin were pulled into the ground even faster. They all screamed and cried out. It was so hard for them to believe that their adventures… would end here…
When only their faces were left uncovered… the leaves from the trees covered their faces. Then…
The tree settled with its captives held inside its roots.
"Help!" Pippin cried out, but was muffled by the tree so much… that practically no one could hear it!
"Somebody get us out of here!" Katjaa's cried was also muffled.
"Treebeard! Help," cried Carley muffled.
For a time… it seemed that there was no hope for them until…
"Away with you," Treebeard stepped in, gesturing the trees to let their captives free, "you should not be waking."
Then… the tree's roots began to loosen slowly at Treebeard's command…
"Eat earth," Treebeard ordered the tree as it loosened even more, "dig deep. Drink water."
And Katjaa, Carley, and the Hobbits swiftly escaped the roots, getting as far away from them as they could. Katjaa and Carley upon seeing Treebeard, immediately jumped onto Treebeard's branches.
"Go to sleep… away with you!" Treebeard finished.
"Man, Treebeard," said a panting, yet relieved Carley, "…could you practice not coming in at the last possible moment? We nearly suffocated in there!"
"I am old, young lady," mentioned Treebeard, "but I am not perfect."
Treebeard then turned to pick up Merry and Pippin as he said, "come, the forest is waking up, it isn't safe."
Treebeard continued to carry Katjaa, Carley, Merry, and Pippin through Fangorn Forest.
"I don't understand," said Katjaa, "I mean why did the tree attack us like that? We didn't do anything to it."
"The trees have grown wild and dangerous Katjaa," Treebeard explained, "anger festers in their hearts. Black are their thoughts, strong is their hate. They will harm you if they can.
"There are too few of us now… too few of us Ents left to manage them," Treebeard finished.
"Why are there so few of you, when you have lived so long?" asked Pippin, "are there Ent children?"
"Bru-ra-hroom," rumbled Treebeard, "there have been no Entings for a terrible long count of years."
"Why is that?" wondered Merry.
"We lost the Entwives," Treebeard answered. Carley and Katjaa gasped in shock, filling their with remorse after hearing Treebeard's answer.
"Oh, I'm sorry," said Pippin with the same remorse as Carley and Katjaa, "how did they die?"
"Die?" asked a bemused Treebeard, "no, we lost them. And now, we cannot find them."
"You mean to tell us," interjected Katjaa, "that these 'Entwives' didn't die, but are just missing for no reason?"
"Yes, that's correct," answered Treebeard, and asked Katjaa, "are there any Entwives from where you come from, Glenn?"
"Sorry," replied Katjaa, "my world doesn't have any Ents, or any trees that could eat you alive."
Treebeard was shocked to hear that statement come form Katjaa and Carley, to which they recoiled a little nervously.
"Oh," said an apologetic Carley, "we're sorry, we didn't mean-"
"No," interrupted a sympathetic Treebeard, "I… understand. You've just gone through a terrrible ordeal, and no one can blame you for that. From where you come from, you and your people must've never heard of the Ents before."
"Well, we've never heard of Orcs or Uruk-Hai either, you know," added Katjaa.
Treebeard then asked the Hobbits, "I don't suppose you've seen Entwives in the Shire?"
"Can't say that I have," Merry responded with much doubt, "you, Pip?"
Pippin thought for a brief moment before he could say anything.
"What do they look like?" inquired Pippin.
Treebeard tried to think about it, trying to remember the Entwives, but alas…
"…I don't remember now," answered Treebeard sadly, leaving Pippin with a bewildered expression on his face.
'Geez,' Carley thought, with an exasperated expression, 'Treebeard can be so pathetic. First he loses these Entwives of his, next thing you know… he forgets all about them.
'I'm sure glad I'm not an Ent… because then, I'd probably end up forgetting all about Doug.'
Back in the plains of Rohan, Gandalf, Lee, and the others have arrived in Edoras, a large, village-like wooden city set up upon a hill, in front of a range of mountains in the background.
"Edoras," announced Gandalf, "and the Golden Hall of Meduseld. There dwells Théoden, King of Rohan, whose mind is overthrown. The poison of Saruman has been induced into the king by the king's advisor, Grima Wormtongue. Saruman's hold over King Theoden is now very strong…"
In the hall, Éowyn kneeled before Théoden, holding his hand in hers, trying to bear bad news to her uncle…
"My lord," said Eowyn, with much sorrow, gently stroking his hand, "…your son… he is dead. My lord… Uncle?"
After all of Éowyn's efforts… Théoden just sat there unresponsive… and stared ahead, his eyes clouded and unseeing. Saruman's poison had truly taken its toil upon him. Theoden could no longer be called the ruler of Rohan… but a virtual zombie without any will of his own.
"…Will you not go to him?" Eowyn asked, weeping, "…will you do nothing?"
Still… there was no response from her uncle…
"Be careful," Gandalf advises the others, "what you say. Do not look for welcome here."
Gandalf and the others then rode off to Edoras, to aid them against Saruman…
Disclaimer: The Lord of the Rings and TWD are not mine. They belong to their authors, respectively J.R.R. Tolkien and Darrell Rodriguez. This fanfiction is created just for fun, not for any commercial purposes.