Chapter 16

The Flooding of Isengard

The Ents stormed into Isengard fighting the thousands (at least) of orcs there in any way they could: throwing rocks, crushing them under foot, and tearing down every tower they could reach. Ruby looked up and saw Saruman pacing his balcony scowling down at them as they systematically destroyed everything he had sought to build up. Smiling to herself she raised her own stone and threw it, and suddenly there were two soaring through the air and just nicking him on either side of his face.

"Yes!" She cried victoriously before turning to see who had thrown the other stone only to see Pippin grinning at her triumphantly.

"A fine hit!" He told her, and she grinned back.

"Yours was too." She replied.

"Break the dam! Release the river!" Treebeard suddenly shouted above the dim, and the two turned to see one of the Ents working on the supports of the dam, seeking to break it as best he could and suddenly the water gushed forth sweeping the helpless orcs under its current.

"Ruby, Pippin, hold on!" Merry called to his friends, and they immediately complied clinging to Treebeards branches as well as each other.

"Hold on, little hobbits!" Treebeard warned bracing himself just as the water hit the Ents full force and flushed the Orcs and all of their terrible constructions over the edge of the Isengard caverns washing them clean once and for all while the Ents stood firm.

~jb~

"He doesn't look too happy, does he?" Merry teased, the next day after the battle was through and the Ents had clearly won, as the three hobbit friends waded in the water and gazed up at the angry face of Saruman.

"Not too happy at all, Merry." Pippin agreed smiling brightly.

"Still, I suppose the view would be quite nice from up there." Merry continued on with their little joke. Ruby couldn't help but smile. This was the Merry and Pippin she had known and grown to love. It was so great to hear them joking around again.

"Oh yes. It's a quality establishment. I hear the staff are very good." She joined in earning a couple of winning grins from the two boys, before Merry became preoccupied with stealthily checking his height with Pippin's. She had to cover her mouth in order to stifle the laugh, which of course made Pip immediately turn around to see what the commotion was though Merry was trying to cover it up by playing with his hair.

"What are you doing?" Pip asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, the world's back to normal, that's all." Merry told him smiling satisfactorily.

"No it isn't. I'm starving." Pippin complained, and Ruby had to nod her head in agreement. It felt like ages since they had had a proper meal.

"Good luck trying to find something decent to eat around here. Probably nothing but dead rats and moldy bread." Merry told them rather gloomily picking up a floating basket and tossing out its contents. Suddenly Pippin picked up a floating apple, before turning to the sky as if trying to figure out where it might have come from and if it was 'raining' apples again. Ruby might have found this amusing but then she one floating in the water, and another nearby. She reached out to grab them and began to follow their trail with the boy's right behind her. They continued following this trail until they came upon the jackpot: a room full of all sorts of food.

"Saruman's storeroom!" Ruby cried in astonishment at their lucky find, leaping forward to examine all the different food though when she turned around she found the boys preoccupied with quite a different prize.

"I don't believe it." Pippin breathed gazing at the two barrels in awe.

"It can't be." Merry murmured reverently.

"It is." Pippin said delightedly.

"Longbottom leaf. The finest pip-weed in South Farthing." Merry stated sounding as if he had found a piece of heaven itself.

"It's perfect. One barrel each. Unless of course you want some Ruby." Pippin offered, a little sheepish that he hadn't thought of splitting with her in the first place, though Merry's face was one of near horror at the suggestion.

"No I'm fine thank you." She declined politely never having had any desire to try the stuff after she had heard about Hazel's little misadventure with it years ago. "But what about Treebeard? Shouldn't you share some with him?"

"Share it?" Merry frowned again, after his brief relief at Ruby's refusal. "No. No. Dead plants and all that. Don't think he'd understand. Could be a distant relative." He argued safely.

"Oh. I get it." Pippin said touching his finger to his nose and smiling mischievously. "Don't be hasty."

"Exactly." Merry replied and Ruby rolled her eye as he pulled out his pipe from somewhere in his cloak and took a deep smoke of the 'fine' stuff. "Bar-hrum." He said in a fairly decent impersonation of Treebeard and at that all three of them burst into peals of laughter; for despite all of the darkness they had witnessed for this one moment light had prevailed and happiness filled the air around them.

Author's note: Yay! The end of book 2! I hope you enjoyed. Thank you for following Hazel and Ruby on their adventure! Leave a review!