Hey! I'm back! And I have the dialogue necessary to write this thing! Yay for me.
Frodo's Girl- I think you're kinda predicting the future here. Good job! pats back well, unfortunately having my driver's license means that I scratched a car in a parking lot, scratched my mom's car driving into the garage, and hitting my own car while also trying to pull into the garage. All in the same day. People who are accident prone so should not drive. That's my warning to you. Yeah, I have the POTO soundtrack on my i-pod and I used to listen to it all the time. You're so lucky that you saw it on stage! I'm officially jealous.
changleingchild- Jessie...shakes head you know, I could send it to you and have you proofread it, but I never know when you wouldn't be too busy to read it. smiles I heart you! Enjoy this chapter, ok?
Haras Railfcm- How long has it been since I told you that I love you?! You're awesome. Thank you so much for the long review. I have never written any swear words into a fic before and when I told my friends they gave me a round of applause! They're dorks. Lol. I saw Wicked in Dallas at Fair Park. It was absolutely amazing! I'm going back to see it again with my mom next year when it comes back to Dallas. Actually I heard that the LOTR musical just got taken off of the stage. Maybe because people didn't pay to see it. I would; the guy who played Frodo was very cute. Not as hot as Elijah Wood, but pretty close. laughs happy belated b-day! I hope you enjoy this (hopefully) long chapter!
Hyper-Space Grl- Thank you so much for your constructive criticism! I only use spell check on Microsoft Word and not a beta, so there's probably a lot that I need to fix. My friend Jessie just loves to point these things out to me, so not to worry. smiles I have been working on trying not to use too much dialogue, but it's also a helping to me to use some of it. I frequently have to go back and watch the movie over and over again to remember what happened where (that's what I get for only watching the movies a hundred times. I should have stretched for two hundred…) and it's easier to just stick extra dialogue in there half the time, but I am aware of how boring that is. Thankfully your paragraph on how great I am was longer, so I thank you again! It's so wonderful to hear praise instead of flames. Especially since I thought that a certain chapter was lousy, so I'm leaning more on the side of loving you than hating you right now. laughs Thank you so much for reviewing!
TheLoneShe-Elf- Yay for you finally getting back online! I have that problem too; I hear they now offer classes on ways to overcome that particular disease. laughs thank you for my birthday wishes! blows kisses
SpiritGirl of japan- thank you so much! Yay for no slashes! (You really like the exclamation point, don't you?) lol, that's cute.
ArwenEvenstar83- I apologize for not updating in more than four months. There really is no excuse for that except that I can't be trusted with the way time passes…whoops. Somebody get me a watch! Oh wait, there's one right here on my wrist. Oh dear, it says that I'm four months too late and that people don't care about this story anymore. Ah, well. Just joking! I'm trying as hard as I can and I'm sorry for the delay! Thank you for re-reading the story again and reviewing!
Destiny- that's a cool name, actually. Thank you for your review! Hope you enjoy the rest of the story!
And yet that was all of the reviews. Sad, huh? If you wish to ratify that (and you should), then you should fix it. What I'm saying is please review! I'll give away free cookies (with chocolate!!).
That entices you, right?
Entmoot lasted the rest of the day, as well as the next. It was in the evening of the second day that Treebeard finally turned away from the other Ents and spoke to us about what was going on. Thank God. I didn't think I could last through another night of strainfully trying to listen to what they were saying only to remember that I certainly didn't have enough patience for that sort of thing. Ok, I definitely didn't have enough patience.
We were lounging in a tree near the Ents. Never mind, I lied. I was lounging. Merry and Pippin, however, were pacing back and forth, crossing each other over and over. While they were in complete turmoil I was completely resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to be there much longer anyways. As soon as I could find the right time I was dead set on asking Treebeard to take me over to the edge of the forest I had entered. I needed to retrace my steps if I wanted to get back to Frodo and my idiot brother as soon as possible.
I was antagonizing over the situation so much that I was determined to not let it get to me. After all, I was being an idiot to be so indecisive; however, this is not the point.
I was awaken from my reverie when Pip hurriedly said, "Merry, Mira!"
We waited in inpatient silence as Treebeard spoke. As slowly as possible, I might add. "We have just agreed,"
Pause.
We looked at each other apprehensively as he took yet another deep breath. But he didn't open his mouth again. In fact, I was pretty sure he had fallen asleep. At least, his eyes were closed and he was snoring slightly. If that wasn't sleeping, I'm not sure I know what is.
"Yes...?" Merry finally asked, waking him from his short nap. Treebeard started and then continued as if he hadn't just taken a short nap while talking.
"I have told your names to the Entmoot..." pause. "...and we have agreed..." longer pause. "...you are not orcs." We waited for him to go on, but he smiled as we stood there slightly stupefied.
Pippin, always the optimist, spoke first. "Well, that's good news." Merry, however, seemed to have turned his optimist switch to the off position.
"And what about Saruman? Have you come to a decision about him?" Usually embarrassed by Merry's rarely rash ways, I was surprised to find that I agreed with him.
"Now, don't be hasty, Master Meridoc." Treebeard said calmly.
"I wish you would be hasty," I muttered under my breath. I heard Pippin stifle a laugh.
Apparently Merry hadn't heard me and he continued to rant to Treebeard. In my mind I silently roared with him. "Hasty?" he drew closer to the Ent and pointed off in the distance. "Our friends are out there. They need our help! They cannot fight this war on their own."
Treebeard seemed the tinniest bit peeved, if that was even possible. "War? Yes. It affects us all. Tree, root, and twig." he took a longer breath, preparing to lecture us. Great. This is going to take forever. "But you must understand, young Hobbit..." Pause, "...it takes a long time..." Another pause, "...to say anything in Old Entish..." Another, another pause, "...and we never say anything..." Yet another pause; I looked over at Merry to find his face mirroring mine. "...unless it is worth taking..." Oh my God, I think I might die from waiting for the rest of the sentence, "...a long time to say."
The council lasted even farther into the night, but my patience had run out around the time Treebeard had fallen asleep while talking to us. (See, even he knows he's boring!) Giving up, I went back over to where our sleeping arrangement was.
But I couldn't lie down. I was too anxious to do anything that involved lying still for more than five minutes. Okay, two minutes. I was going to see Frodo again and my nerves wouldn't let me forget that all too important fact.
I started to pace, but then I reminded myself too much of Merry and Pippin, so I stopped and began to walk in a circle instead, as if that helped. Pretty soon I was walking around the trees closest to me and before I knew what my legs were doing, I was far away from the camp, meandering through the woods. I knew I shouldn't be doing this, but I felt compelled to.
I heard the sound of water trickling and followed it, excited to find a new discovery and forgetting all about my apprehension from being alone in the woods.
There was water, clear and pure water coming from somewhere, but I couldn't tell where. Suddenly I spotted it, surrounded by moss and hidden by trees. I cried out in joy, running to the small pond. For a moment I dared not to touch it, afraid that my hands might contaminate it. However, the water looked so inviting and, having not tasted real pure water in weeks, I carefully dipped my hands in the liquid and drank.
It tasted like…ale. What? Ale flavored water? How was that possible? I took another taste just to make sure. Well, also because it had been a while since I had had any ale.
But after that second tasting, it was impossible to stop drinking. I brought my hands down to the water again and again, so many times that I began to stop even being able to savor the taste. Suddenly frightened, I told my brain to tell my hands to stop dragging more water to my mouth. However, it seemed my brain and hands were disconnected. Even as I could feel myself pull my arms away from the pond, I was immediately tugged back to it over and over again.
I began to feel sick. My arm hurt from moving it so much to get to the water; the homemade sling nearly snapped in half at the force that compelled me to keep reaching out.
It was Merry who finally hauled me away and I sat, shocked, for a couple of minutes while he covered the pond back over with the moss that I had removed.
"I should have warned you," he said, and I could hear the anger in his voice that still hadn't receded from talking to Treebeard. "Pip and I found it a couple of days before we met you here." He explained as I quickly dried my hands on my skirt. Get this water off of me!
"Do you know what it is?"
He looked contemplatively over at the moss filled pond. "Well, when Pip and I drank it we each got a little taller. I don't know why that didn't happen for you. Maybe it just depends."
I swallowed hard, still desperately trying to dry my hands. Then a thought occurred to me. "Maybe I was supposed to die." Merry gave me a confused look.
"'Supposed to die'? What do you mean by that?"
I turned away from him and muttered, "Nothing." For a moment I had forgotten that he didn't know about the prophecy. We were silent for a few minutes as I tried to ignore the sound of running water that was still plainly in my ears.
"Yeah, you should have seen Pip when he finally found that he was taller than me." Merry laughed, standing up and measuring himself against a nearby tree. It dwarfed him.
I laughed too, thankful for Merry's joking spirit. "But I thought that he was always taller than you." Merry gave me an evil glare, which was exactly the reaction I was hoping for.
"I'll have you know that I'm most likely the tallest Hobbit one has ever seen." He proudly stated, drawing himself higher against the tree, putting his foot on a root and trying to stand on his tiptoes.
"Right. You're only the tallest if that person happened to be blind as a bat!" I laughed, rolling my eyes. It was always a treat to watch Merry be pompous. As if it didn't happen every few seconds.
"It's true!" he watched my unbelieving face for a moment then declared, "Ask me about any hobbit in the Shire. I'll tell how much taller I am than them!"
"And I'm to know you're right how?"
"By trusting me, of course."
I laughed uproariously at that one.
"C'mon Merry, let's get back to camp. Pip will be waiting for us."
"He'll be waiting for you, you mean." He dropped his prideful face and became serious in an instant.
I looked at him quizzically. "What do you mean by that?"
"I think you know exactly what I mean."
I scoffed, shaking my head. "If there's one thing you've learned about me by now, Merry, it's that I'm the densest hobbit you'll ever meet!"
He looked at me a little funny. "I don't know if I'm the one who should be telling you this." I didn't say anything, waiting for him to go on. "Pippin…Pip likes you. More than that, in fact. I think he's in love with you. He's never acted this way around anyone before you."
I gave him an incredulous look. "What are you talking about? Pippin can't love me. All he loves is breakfast, second breakfast, and elevensies!"
Merry shook his head, smiling a bit. "Would you care to bet on that?"
I raised my eyebrow.
"What did you have in mind?"
The trap was set (in a way, anyways) when we arrived back at the camp. As soon as we reached where Pip was pacing it suddenly occurred to me the foolishness of me having to do all the work. Why were the women given all the tough jobs?
Then a thought occurred that stopped me in my tracks. Was this considered cheating on Frodo?
No!
Right?
Just stop thinking that way! You have a bet to win and you sure as heck aren't going to let Merry be smug about it all if you can't even get the nerve to do anything!
Steadying myself I took a deep breath and kept walking. Just smile. Smile. Smile. Smile. The word began to lose all meaning to me.
What's the matter with me? One harmless peck on the cheek and my head goes tipsy! And I haven't even done it yet!
My smile became one of a homicidal maniac as I neared Pippin. He still hadn't noticed that I was there, probably too wrapped up in pacing. Treebeard wasn't anywhere around; I assumed that Entmoot was still going on.
Suddenly he looked up at me, grinning, as if he had known I was there all along. I swallowed hard. I could feel Merry's mocking Cheshire grin burning into my back. I turned and motioned with my head for him to go away and mind his own business. The look on face said he wasn't going to miss this even if the world was ending around him.
"Mira?" Pippin's face looked concerned. He probably got a good look at my homicidal maniac grin before I dropped it. "Are you all right?"
I nodded while smiling and succeeded in chocking on my own spit. A few moments of hacking and struggling to breath later, I looked up at Pip, who was clutching my shoulders as I held onto him to breathe, and…froze.
He raised his eyebrows, unsure why I had come up to him looking like I was going to kill him, then preceded to almost die in his arms and finally ended up looking up at him with miles of spit hanging appealingly out of my mouth.
I smiled weakly and wiped the drool from the corner of my mouth, flushing a deep shade of red.
"Yeah," I managed to choke out, "Just fine, thanks."
We stood there for a few minutes, with him still clutching my shoulders comfortingly. I realized that my hand was on his arm, but was a little too freaked out to pull away. Suddenly I noticed that we were getting closer and Pippin was beginning to close his eyes and pucker. And I was doing the exact same thing.
Whoa! Paging Miriam Gamgee, please remember that you have a boyfriend and keep all lip puckering motions out of reach of others! I quickly came to my senses just in time to pull away and give Pip a mouthful of my hair as I spun around.
I saw Merry's laughing face and wanted to throw up. What the hell was I thinking? I could feel my face burning the brightest red I had ever known and I quickly ran to the fire and tried to get it started again. I wasn't successful.
Behind me I could hear Pippin shuffling along to Entmoot and I knew that he was just as embarrassed.
"Ah, it wasn't that bad!" Merry cried, laughing so hard that tears were forming in his eyes. I shot him a death glare that made him stumble back. He stopped laughing.
"I just want you to remember something before you go ballistic on me, Miriam. You were about to kiss him back, but you claim to love Frodo." His eyes turned hard as they gazed on me. "Maybe that's something that you should think about before you talk to either of them again." He walked away in the direction Pippin had taken, leaving me alone to a dying fire and my jumbled thoughts.
Hope you enjoyed that little chapter! Sorry it took so long for me to write it! Please don't let that influence you to not review; I need positive reinforcement.
See you all in chapter fourteen…sigh…fourteen already?!
Emmablk1