#62 I Am Flying!
"Pip, maybe it isn't such a good idea to eat those. We are not in the Shire after all," Merry said unsurely as he watched his best friend begin munching on some wild mushrooms. The two were in Rivendell resting while Frodo recovered from his ordeal with the Witchking.
"Don't be absurd Merry. They are only mushrooms after all. What could they possibly do?" he asked as he ate another one. No sooner had he finished his fourth one when he began to get a sick look on his face. "Merry, I don't feel so good, maybe you were right."
Merry quickly rushed over to his friend who started to stumble and giggle madly. "Pip! What did you do? Why do you refuse to listen?!" Merry yelled, panic gripping him like a vise.
"I feel light as a feather, like… like I could fly!" Pippin said with a sing-song voice. Looking down at his hands, Pippin gasped. "Merry! I have feathers! I am a bird!"
Merry just looked at him as if he lost his mind. "Don't be ridiculous. You're a hobbit, not a bird."
But Pippin wouldn't listen. Running over to a high boulder, he began to climb to the top. Down below he could hear Merry screaming at him to climb down, but he refused to listen. When he reached the top, he spread his arms and began to flap them wildly. "Look, Merry; I am flying!" he exclaimed enthusiastically, and with a leap, he jumped off the boulder landing with a hard thud on the ground.
Several hours later found Pippin waking up in a dimly lit room. As he slowly sat up, he grabbed his head and groaned loudly. "Oh, my head. What happened? Where am I?"
"You are in the House of Elrond you blasted Took. And you are lucky to be alive," a gruff voice resounded in the room causing Pippin to flinch. Pippin looked up to see Gandalf sitting there, his arms folded across his chest.
"What happened?" Pip asked again not sure he wanted to know the answer.
"You ate some poisonous mushrooms, and according to Merry you thought you had wings and attempted to fly, and instead of flying, you fell and hit your head."
Pippin just looked at Gandalf, and for the first time, he was at a loss for words.
"Let me just say next time you try something like that; you won't need to worry about hitting your head on the ground, I will hit it for you!"
Pippin just laid back down and pulled the blankets over his now tender and bruised ego.