Chapter 19: Fangorn Forest
Sorry for the long update. Usual guilty parties are, as usual, responsible. Anyway: here's chapter 19!
Looking at his surroundings, Gandalf made his way into the forest, looking around once every so often to see if he remembered anything he saw. Not much of what was in his line of vision was in his memory. Gandalf muttered to himself and wondered if he would have had better luck back at school, in the Forbidden Forest.
He headed westward and stumbled upon a stream. Looking at his reflection, Gandalf noticed that his greying hairs had changed to silver and seemed more managable. His skin seemed smoother than before his battle with the Balrog, and his scar had dulled. The reflection changed and he saw Harry Potter, the Chosen One and once the Boy-Who-Lived.
Had he really changed that much from being the savior of the Wizard World to a mentor and a leader to a company unlike the DA or the Order of the Pheonix?
Harry Potter looked back at Gandalf, his mop of black hair unmanagable as ever and the scar showing through the tangled locks like a symbol of heroism long forgotten by the people it saved.
Gandalf raised his hand to his forehead and the reflection copied his actions.
"If you only knew what was to happen to Hermione, Harry," Gandalf whispered to the reflection, who didn't respond…
"Hoo-hum," Gandalf looked up at the face of Fangorn himself. "Master Gandalf, it has been many years since you have come to this side of the forests. Though I suppose that you have been quite hasty as it usually is with you young wizards," Fangorn, also known as Treebeard, drawled in his deep booming voice.
"Good to see you too, Treebeard."
"I almost didn't recognize you, Master Gandalf. You seemed to have changed…yes… your appearance has heightened to White. Are you now the White Wizard?"
Gandalf smiled. "You could say that. I am certainly white now. Treebeard, could you let me know where I am, I seemed to have lost my way. The forest has changed."
"Yes…the forest is older than you remember it to be. It is easy to get lost now if you do not know your way. Here is the very place of which you came to after confronting Sauron so many years ago—"
"Thank you, Treebeard. Knowing that helps a lot!" Gandalf interrupted. Indeed that was true now that he thought about it. He stayed in this very area many times before the incident in the forest, finding this area quite calming. The incident in the forest couldn't even be calmed by this remote place in the forest. It used to be a grove surrounded by some trees and a pond. Gandalf nearly tore this serene place apart with his frustration had not Treebeard come along and calmed him down.
Later events following this leading to him smoking weed.
Gandalf grabbed his staff and walked onwards as Treebeard headed off in another direction.
Gandalf reacquainted himself with the forest and as the night came, he decided to take a nap…he had forgotten the last time he actually went to sleep.
Gandalf was at the Black Gate. The land was wasted, charred, black…Bodies of men and elves littered the ground. Mount Doom sputtered fire and lava which poured down it's slopes at a quick, flowing pace.
The Black Gate opened and Sauron came out, dressed in black from her neck down. Her eyes were like flames of fire. Her hair had darkened to black and had grown to the floor. Her skin was sickly pale and fangs protruded from her mouth, covering her lower lip. Her nails were long and sharp to filleting point.
They had failed. Sauron was back from the ghostly plane and no longer trapped within the Eye.
She took nimble steps to Gandalf. "You can still join me, Harry," she assured him. "Just follow me and I will make you lord over Middle Earth." She cupped his face with her lethal hand. "The choice is yours, Harry."
Gandalf stepped away and shook his head.
Sauron shrugged. "Fine. It didn't matter anyway. I actually was willing to share power with you…for respect of our past. But if you don't want it, then you are no use to me." She snapped her fingers and Gandalf fell to the ground, his scar burning like never before. "Wounds never heal, I guess, whether physical or emotional."
Gandalf wrenched his eyes open, breathing heavily. Standing up, he walked on, vowing that the dream would never come true. That Sauron would never return.
He was unaware that his subconscious told him that he still loved her, but the dream made him wonder…
"The White Wizard will know what to do with you," he heard Treebeard say. Moments later, he dropped two creatures at Gandalf's feet.
Gandalf smiled at Merry and Pippen and they stared in shock.
"Dear ol' Sam's Gaffer! Gandalf!" Merry whispered.
"Hello, Merriadoc Brandybuck. To you too Perrigrin Took," Gandalf greeted. Taking a seat at the rock, Gandalf implored them to tell him what had happened while he was gone.
"After you fell, we headed to Lothlorien. There we met the Lady of the Wood, Galadriel and she gave us gifts," Merry explained.
"Our supplies were filled with lambas bread. Legolas told us that it was enough to fill a whole man," Pippen interrupted.
"Pippen!"
"What?"
"You ate four, for the love of…of…"
"Merlin?" Gandalf suggested.
The hobbits turned to him questioningly.
"A powerful wizard of the old world. When I was younger, my friends and I usually would say 'for the love of Merlin,' or 'Merlin's beard.' But that is another story for another time."
The twosome continued long into the day, Treebeard stood a couple ent-strides away, listening intently.
They spoke of Lorien, Galadriel, Frodo disappearance ("We saw Frodo and he told us that he was leaving. It was his intention to continue the quest alone, we think," Merry explained.), Boromir's death, and of their capture.
"I suppose that the others might have gone after you. Knowing Aragorn, they would have gone after you since you were in more danger than Frodo," Gandalf pondered.
The Hobbits shrugged and Gandalf turned to Treebeard.
"There is no reason to fear these two, Treebeard. They are not Orcs. But I do believe that you might need to convince the other Ents of that. As for me, I'm going to search for some others who might be traveling in your forests soon."
"Others?"
"A man, an elf, a dwarf, and maybe a companion of these two," Gandalf explained standing up and taking his staff. "I leave Merry and Pippen in your care."
Treebeard, Merry, and Pippen bade Gandalf goodbye and headed off.
