Note to the reader: The events in this chapter take place a few weeks before Orcs arrive and invade the Old Forest, as recounted in Seeing the Forest for the Trees and A Took by Any Other Name and touched upon in retrospect in Chapter 47 of Jewels. By this time, old Carodoc has retired, and young as he is, Pippin is now the Steward of Buckland, serving Merry's father, the Master.
***
46. A Walk in the Woods
'I dare you!'
The time-honoured words of challenge rang ominously on the still air.
Small clucking and baaing noises arose from the loose ring of young hobbits encircling fifteen-year-old Maladoc Brandybuck and gathered strength.
'Chicken! Chick, chick, chick, chick, chick-en!'
'Maladoc's scared, Maladoc's scared!'
The sing-song taunt stung the lad to straighten, and his hands closed into fists without his conscious knowing. 'Am not!' he shouted.
'I double-dare you!' sneered Doderas, who could be a bully sometimes (though he ought to have known better and would indeed, with time and adult guidance, learn better). Doderas was rather put out because Maladoc had taken the prize in their lessons that morning for the second day in a row. It wasn't fair! Doderas had applied himself vigorously to his lessons after they'd been dismissed yesterday, and he'd known the answer to this morning's puzzle, had raised his hand high and practically stood upon his seat to draw the tutor's attention – but the tutor had called on Maladocinstead, even though Mally had won the prize for solving yesterday's puzzle!
Doderas scarcely noticed that the other young Brandybuck cousins suddenly fell silent at this ultimate challenge.
A smaller hand tugged at Maladoc's sleeve. 'Mally?' the owner of the hand said to his older brother. 'Mally, Papa says dares are stupid.'
'You'd do better saving your breath to cool your porridge!' the darer hissed in fury. 'What do you know, babe? Are you even out of nappies yet?'
'You leave my little brother alone!' Maladoc hissed.
Doderas turned back to Maladoc with an obnoxious smile. 'You said you go into the Old Forest all the time... Liar! Prove it!'
Maladoc studied the gate of thick-set iron bars rather anxiously, then sighed with relief. 'I can't,' he said, returning his steady gaze to Doderas. 'The gate's locked. Otherwise, I would.'
He regretted these words as the darer dug in his pocket and produced a key, which he dangled before the others. 'Good gravy!' someone breathed. 'How did you ever manage to get your hands on one of the keys?'
Doderas merely winked at the speaker, then turned to unlock the gate. It took some effort to swing the heavy impediment open.
The Old Forest looked more menacing, somehow, without the barrier between them.
'Problem solved,' Doderas said softly. 'I'm quite as good at solving problems as the next fellow, it seems. Now what do you say?'
Little Feledoc pulled at his brother's arm again. 'Mally...' he pleaded.
His big brother shook him free and stood tall. 'I'm not afraid!' he said defiantly.
The other hobbit lads gathered closer, breathing hard in excitement, to hear the challenge.
Doderas nodded. 'All right, then,' he said. 'Here are the terms of the dare – if you want to prove yourself. You'll walk five hundred paces along the path. We'll count! Then you can turn around and walk back out, and we'll agree that you're the bravest of all. But,' he held up a hand, 'if you come out running...'
One of the other lads, Elberic, a year younger than Maladoc and Doderas, muttered uneasily, 'Doderas, stop it. This has gone far enough.'
Doderas turned on him. 'What are you on about?' he snapped. 'If Mally wants to brag about how brave he is, then he owes it to his cousins to prove it!'
Elberic backed away, shaking his head. 'Don't do this!' he hissed. 'Going into the Old Forest is a stupid idea, or the adults wouldn't always be going on about it!' He raised his voice. 'Mally, don't be a fool!'
Doderas advanced on him, scowling. 'Go back to the nursery, Elberic, your nappies are showing!'
Elberic was wise enough to know when to retreat. Ignoring the other hobbit-lads' laughter, he turned and fled back towards the Hall. He needed to find help – someone bigger, stronger, wiser. Somebody was going to get hurt if this business didn't get stopped, and he was not big enough to stop it himself.
'All right,' Maladoc said. He felt cornered. For someone bright enough to win the prize for the tutor's daily challenge two days running, he was feeling stupider with every passing moment. What had got into him, that he'd felt confident enough to boast that he was not only smarter than his cousins but braver, too?
On further thought, five hundred paces down the path leading into the Old Forest didn't sound all that dangerous. And then simply turn around and go back again? Simple. He'd do it. He'd show them. He shook off his little brother's grasp and squared his shoulders. 'Five hundred paces.'
'Right!' Doderas grinned. 'You start walking – we'll start counting when you reach the edge where the trees begin!'
Maladoc nodded, trying to look more confident than he felt. He turned away from the others and walked across the wide hollow. 'They're just trees,' he said to himself. If he said it enough times, maybe he could make himself believe it. Nevertheless, he hesitated when he reached the verge where the first trees rose. He peered into the shadows under the trees. Even in the bright afternoon sunshine, the Old Forest looked dark and forbidding, somehow, as if warning him not to intrude. They're just trees! he told himself. Stop letting your imagination run away with you! Besides, his cousins would never let him live it down if he were to turn around now.
Maladoc had always thought that paths in the paintings he'd seen looked inviting, as if welcoming the viewer to walk along the way. Staring down this path gave him a breathless feeling, though, somehow. Nonsense! he told himself. You're imagining things again! Defiantly, Mally took a deep breath, let it out again and started walking. When the trees above him blotted out the sunshine warming the back of his neck, he couldn't seem to help the shiver that went down his back.
The other lads were counting in chorus, their voices ringing clearly across the gap between the gate and the beginning of the path. 'Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten!'
Suddenly, Mally felt his hand seized in a firm grip, and he looked down into the frightened eyes of his little brother. 'Feledoc,' he said. Tree limbs moved above their heads even though he might have sworn there was no breeze. Instinctively, he lowered his voice to a whisper. 'Go home. The Old Forest is no place for you.'
'I'm coming with you,' the smaller hobbit maintained stoutly, though Felly was also keeping his voice low, either from Mally's example or his own feeling of caution. 'Even the grownups never go in the Old Forest alone. Besides, five hundred paces isn't that far,' the younger brother added bravely.
Maladoc smiled and tousled Felly's dark curls. 'Okay, little brother,' he murmured, and smiled. 'It's you and me, then. Guess you can't tell on me if you're in on the mischief, too!'
Feledoc smiled up at him. 'Guess I'd be foolish if I tried!' he chuckled.
The two young hobbits continued down the path, listening to the count that continued behind them.
After a hundred paces, the path turned slightly, but the brothers walked on, secure in the sound of their cousins' voices floating on the air, for when the group at the gate lost sight of them, Doderas raised his voice, and the others followed suit. The group of lads standing just inside the gateway counted loudly to five hundred and then fell silent, looking at one another. 'What do we do now?'
Doderas shouted. 'Mally! Felly! You can come out again!'
The group of cousins by the gate fell silent again and stood there in growing unease as they watched the silent, empty path.
***
Pippin pulled up Socks as a small figure raced up to them, waving its arms and shouting. He couldn't make out what the matter was, but it was all too obvious that the lad was scared. He jumped down from the pony, placed calming hands on the lad's shoulders, and gazed steadily into the frantic eyes.
'Easy, now, lad,' he gentled. 'Take a deep breath. Slow down and tell me. You're not making any sense.'
'Maladoc's gone into the Old Forest on a dare! You've got to stop him! You've got to save him before the goblins get him!'
Pippin smiled faintly at that bogey-tale; he'd seen real goblins, and wolves, too, but so far as he knew, there'd never been goblins reported in the Old Forest. Old Man Willow was bad enough. Idly, he wondered if the Old Willow would trap and devour any goblins that might venture into the Forest, or if that dangerous tree would find the creatures bad-tasting or, perhaps, regard them as comrades of a sort?
He shook himself free of such fancies. 'Elberic, is it?' The lad nodded. Pippin asked softly, 'Did Mally tell you he was planning to go into the Old Forest, then?' He smiled reassuringly, for the Master insisted that any foresters or Brandybucks who ventured into the Forest for any reason should go in pairs and lock the gate behind them both coming and going. 'Well, he's all right, he wouldn't get far. The gate's kept locked, you know.'
Young Elberic almost sobbed as he clutched Pippin's arm in fresh alarm. 'Doderas stole a key. He dared Mally to go in. They all did!'
Pippin remembered all too well his own run-ins with dares in his earlier days, at least one of which had nearly proved fatal. 'I see,' he said. 'Come along with me; we'll take a look.' He lifted the lad up onto Socks' saddle and swung up behind him. Turning the pony's head down the path to the cutting that went through the lip of a little hollow, he nudged Socks into motion. When they reached the little tunnel that went under the Hedge, he stopped Socks, dismounted, and lifted the lad down.
Pippin stopped to listen. He heard a few birdcalls, but for the most part, their surroundings were so quiet, he thought perhaps the lads' "adventure" had already reached its conclusion. He extended his hand to the lad and said, 'Come along, lad. Let us see what's what.'
They walked together into the dark, damp tunnel.
The small, silent group came into view as Pippin and Elberic approached the heavy iron gate, still hanging open. From their taut silence, Pippin knew the worst; Maladoc had not yet come out. He turned to young Elberic.
'I need you to ride to the Hall and raise the alarm.' Elberic nodded, and Pippin seized the lad's hand and ran back to where they'd left Socks. He tossed him up onto the pony's back and, working quickly, shortened the stirrups. 'Hold on tight!' he called to the lad. It took only a quick slap to the rump – 'Go Socks, go!' – to send the pony off at a gallop.
Pippin turned back to the gate and walked back to the little group, his face grim. The hobbit lads were breathing shallowly in fear, and tears streaked several faces.
'What's going on?' Pippin asked quietly.
'Mally and his little brother walked into the Old Forest, and they haven't walked out again!' one of the lads piped up.
'Hush!' an older lad hissed.
Pippin turned to him. 'Doderas?' he asked mildly. 'Would you care to explain?'
'Mally was bragging that he was braver than all the rest of us, and so he went into the Forest to prove himself!' the lad said defiantly. 'I had nothing to do with it!'
Pippin looked down at the key that was still clutched in Doderas' hand. 'Oh?' he asked.
The teen followed the young Steward's gaze and dropped the key as if it burned him. He turned away as if he thought he might try to run away, but Pippin caught him with fingers that might have been made of steel. 'I think we need to have a little talk...' he said.
***
The sound of galloping pony feet rang on the stones of the yard, and Merry looked up as Socks raced into the yard, stopping so suddenly that the hobbit lad on his back was nearly catapulted over his head. Thankfully, young Elberic managed to save himself from what might have been a bad fall by grabbing wildly at the pony's neck.
Merry ran to seize the dancing pony's bridle. 'What is it, lad?' he asked the breathless young rider. 'Where's the Steward?'
'Old Forest!' The hobbit lad managed to gasp out.
As soon as Merry had gathered enough details to assess the seriousness of the situation, he turned and shouted across the yard. 'Merimas! Berilac!' The urgency in his voice caused his cousins to drop their tools and jog over. 'Get a search party together and meet me at the Forest Gate.'
'Someone's lost himself in the Forest?' Berilac asked grimly.
'A lad went in on a dare. Alone.' Merimas shook his head and began to outline strategies, while Berilac turned and ran to the stables. Merry and Merimas had sketched out a workable plan by the time Berilac came out leading Jewel and his own pony.
'Old Nob is saddling up more; they'll be ready for you soon,' Berilac told Merimas.
'I'll notify the Master and organise the search party!' Merimas said, and turned towards the Hall. His long, hurried strides took him quickly to the entrance.
Merry glanced at the angle of the sun and muttered with a sour smile to his cousin, 'Just a quick hike into the Forest and be back in time for tea.' He turned his gaze to young Elberic. 'You'd better go tell Mally's parents he's going to come late to the tea table.'
Then Merry and Berilac mounted their ponies and rode out of the yard at a slow gallop, with Merry leading Socks beside Jewel.
***
Merry and Berilac dismounted to lead their ponies through the tunnel under the Hedge. When they arrived at the gate, still standing open, Pippin was not waiting with the small group of frightened lads who stood there. One of the young Brandybuck cousins answered Merry's urgent query with, 'He walked in after them.'
'More than one lad went in, Olly?'
The lad couldn't meet the young master's eyes. 'Two went in,' he whispered. 'They haven't come out again... Where are they? Why haven't they come out again?' Tears began to leak from his eyes.
Merry nodded to Berilac and they rode across the clearing to the edge of the woods. 'Pippin!' he shouted.
'D'you think that's a good idea?' Berilac asked. 'We don't want to rouse the trees or worse – provoke them.'
Merry returned his gaze grimly. 'I'm sure the trees already know that Hobbits have entered their domain.'
Just then, Pippin appeared on the path before them, walking back towards the gate. Merry mounted Jewel and rode to meet him, with Berilac close behind on his pony.
When Merry and Berilac reached him, Merry called, 'Any sign?'
Pippin shook his head. 'I've walked twice five hundred paces. There's no sign of them.'
Merry reached out his hand to Pippin; the younger cousin took hold, and Merry pulled him up to sit behind him on Jewel's back.
At this close proximity, he could hear his cousin wheezing, which worried him enough that he asked no further questions as they rode across the clear space between the Forest and the gate.
At last, they reached the gateway where Socks waited with the young Brandybucks. The pony tossed his head up and down at seeing Pippin riding behind Merry. Merry and Berilac dismounted, and Merry steadied Pippin as he slipped from Jewel's back. Socks pulled free of the lad who held his reins and pushed forward, whickering as he greeted his owner.
'Could they have come out of the Forest again?' Berilac asked.
Pippin stroked his pony's soft neck. 'I told the boys at the gate to give a shout if they had so I'd hear them and leave the trees to themselves once more.'
'We didn't see them come out!' Olly said earnestly. 'Or we would have told you so!'
Pippin took Socks' reins and pulled himself up into the saddle, moving rather more slowly than usual.
Merry noted his pallor. 'Is it well with you, cousin?'
Pippin nodded. 'Oh, aye. It's just a little stuffy in there, is all.'
Merry turned to Berilac. 'We'll send the lads home but wait to start the search until the other searchers arrive at the gate. We'll use Merimac's standard search pattern, working in pairs. I want you to stay here by the gate when we all go in.'
Berilac tried to argue that Merry should be the one to stay by the gate, but Merry wouldn't hear it. He continued his instructions, 'Your task will be to watch the Sun. If they haven't been found when She's still an hour from dipping below the horizon, blow your horn to recall all the searchers to the gate. We don't want anyone else caught out by darkness.'
'We certainly don't!' Berilac agreed. He turned to the frightened lads who stood in a huddle nearby. At his shooing motion, the little flock of young Brandybucks turned away to head back to the Hall, keeping close together.
'Who went in?' Merry asked now.
'Young Mally and his little brother Felly,' Pippin answered. A little brother is quite as good as a littler cousin for tagging along and getting into trouble, after all. He smiled at the thought, but there was no humour in it.
Merry felt dread clutch at the pit of his stomach. 'Little Feledoc's in the Forest?' He'd imagined the lads who had gone in were both teens, at the very least. He didn't want to think of a five-year-old – a faunt! – in the Old Forest.
Pippin smiled grimly. 'Oh, aye,' he said, and this time he spoke the thought aloud for Merry's benefit. 'A little brother is quite as valuable as a wee cousin when it comes to trouble.'
***
As soon as the search party, with Merimas at their head, arrived from the Hall, the search began. But by the time the warning horn sounded, none of the searchers had found any trace. When Pippin and Merry, who had formed one of the pairs of searchers, rode back to the gate, they found the lads' weeping mother and grim-faced father waiting.
Merry dismounted. 'I'm sorry, Lilac, Marroc,' he said, though his heart was wrung with pity at having to say as much to the lads' parents. 'We have no choice but to suspend the search. It's too dangerous to go into the Forest at night, even in pairs. The trees have barely tolerated our presence as it is, even with the light of the Sun to soothe them to sleep – or at least a doze. You know as well as I do that they'll come fully awake after nightfall.'
He drew a deep breath and added, 'They may see the lads as no threat to them, and leave them in peace until morning, when we can go in and resume the search safely,' he said. 'But grown hobbits who dare to venture under the trees when darkness falls – we know from experience that the trees will take offence... and take action.'
'You can't just leave them in there!' Lilac gasped. She fell to her knees before Merry, grabbing at his hand. 'You can't. O please!' Her sobs broke out again, and Merry's eyes darkened with sorrow, though he felt helpless to change his decree.
But Pippin disagreed. 'We have an hour of light left,' he broke in. 'We can take lanterns with us. If we go on foot we can make a broad sweep. I know! Each searcher can tie a rope to the gate and walk to the end of it, then turn around and use the rope to guide himself back.' He nodded towards the waggon filled with supplies.
Merry made a snap decision that his father and uncle might have countered. Luckily – or perhaps unluckily – his father and uncle weren't there, at least not yet. 'Very well, you heard the hobbit! Let's get started then. An hour's not a long time.'
Willing hands took up lanterns as they were lit, and the searchers took up coils of rope, tied an end of each coil to one of the iron bars of the gate, and settled the remainders of the rope coils onto their shoulders.
'Blow the horn at sunset,' Merry instructed Berilac. 'Everyone must return to the gate at the call.' He swept the searchers with a keen gaze. 'No exceptions!' He marked the nods of agreement from each one and then looked compassionately at the grieving parents. 'We'll have to suspend the search when the Sun seeks her bed, even if we haven't found them. But I assure you, we'll keep a huge bonfire in the clearing going through the night – perhaps they'll be able to see it through the trees, and walk towards the light to find their way out of the Forest! But if they're still missing when morning comes, we'll start the search again at first light.'
Merry and Pippin, each walking and doling out rope as he walked, started off side by side but soon lost sight of each other and the searchers on their other sides as the search fanned out. The searchers' shouted repetition of the lads' names seemed swallowed up by the brooding trees in the growing gloom.
Pippin's long legs took him swiftly deeper under the cover of the trees, his eyes probing the shadows as he paid out his line. He managed to avoid the tree roots and vines that seemed to come out of nowhere, as if the Forest were trying to trip him, nor did he quail at the branches that fell across his path periodically as his steps took him ever further into the smothering darkness. You've known much worse, he reassured himself, though he was careful not to speak aloud and antagonise the trees to greater anger.
When he came to the end of his rope, the horn had not yet sounded, but from the amount of light in the darkening Forest, he knew that Berilac's recall must come soon. Holding lightly to the end of his rope, he stared into the shadows, unwilling just yet to turn back.
The Forest seemed to be trying to rob him of air, and in defiance he took a deep breath. 'Maladoc!' he shouted. 'Feledoc! ...Mally! ...Felly!' He listened, shouted once more, and had turned to follow his line back to safety, when he heard a faint reply, stopping him in his tracks. He spun around and shouted, 'I'm here! Where are you?'
He was encouraged to hear the childish voice again. Though it was not close, he deemed, he was able to make out that the child was ahead of him and... slightly to the left? He nodded to himself.
Pippin tied the lantern to the end of the rope and raised his voice again. 'Maladoc! Feledoc! Stay right where you are! But keep shouting! Help me to find you!'
Whichever child was yelling continued his efforts obediently. 'Here! We're here! Help!'
As Pippin followed the voice, he counted his paces and kept swivelling his head back to locate the precise position of the lantern behind him. Its light would serve as a shining anchor to lead them all back to safety.
At last, he found a forlorn little figure standing guard over his bigger brother. Despite the tears that streaked his dirty face, the little lad screamed defiantly at their rescuer. 'Go away, Goblin! Leave my brother alone!'
Pippin chuckled as he advanced. 'No hungry goblins here,' he called. 'Just a hungry hobbit who's overdue for his tea!'
The lad ran at him to hug him fiercely, then led him back to his brother. 'I can't get Mally to wake up,' he sobbed. 'I tried and tried, but he won't answer me.'
'Let's take a look,' Pippin said, bending to the still form. One arm did not look quite right to him, and there was a dark bruise on the older lad's forehead. 'What happened?'
'We'd walked five hundred paces, and we turned around, and Mally said, "Let's run back, shall we? It'll be a race!" but he kept hold of my hand, and then something tripped him! ...and he fell, and I couldn't wake him up!' the lad said in a rush, gulping back a sob.
Pippin lifted Maladoc in his arms. 'He'll be fine when we get back to the Hall,' he reassured the younger lad. 'Come on.'
At that moment, the sunset horn sounded far away, muffled by the trees. 'Good timing,' he grinned, and started towards the distant light of his lantern. 'We've missed tea, but we'll be back in time for supper.'
Just then there was a puff of wind, and suddenly, their guiding light was gone, and the deepening shadows seemed to close in on them.
Pippin had stopped instantly when the beckoning light had winked out. 'Feledoc?' he said. 'Take hold of my arm. We don't want to get separated.' He felt the little hand and heard a gulping sound from the youngster.
'All right, then,' he said, holding on to the memory of where the light had last gleamed. 'Let's move on. Feel each step with your toes first so you don't trip o'er a branch or root, or stumble in a hole you can't see.' Of course, Pippin followed his own advice as they felt their way forward and the forest darkened around them.
When they had walked twice the number of paces needed to reach the lamp and its attached lifeline, he knew they were in trouble. The Sun was gone from the sky now, Pippin knew, for the blackness under the trees was complete. He stopped and shifted the burden he carried and confirmed that he couldn't see his hand before his face.
'Felly, lad,' he said gently to the little lad who had stopped the moment Pippin had ceased walking. 'We're going to take a little rest. Sit down here with me.' He folded his long legs and eased himself down, feeling young Felly nestle close to him and Maladoc. He cradled the limp body against his shoulder and fumbled for the younger lad's hand, still clutching at his arm. 'There we are,' he said, 'all safe and cosy.' He gave Feledoc's hand a comforting squeeze and forced himself to take deeper breaths of the stifling air.
As he released the little hand and eased his arm around the young hobbit, pulling him closer to share his warmth, he felt the child shaking with silent sobs. 'There now,' he soothed, and to distract the lad from their troubles, he said as cheerfully as he could manage, 'Would you like to hear a story about how an Elf tried to teach a Dwarf how to fish?'
***
'Everybody's back but Pippin,' Merimas reported.
Merry lifted his own silver horn and let loose its voice to float into the Forest. They waited.
Berilac gave a tug on Pippin's rope, the only rope disappearing into the darkness under the trees at this point, since all the other searchers had rolled up their ropes into coils again as they'd retraced their steps out of the Forest, but there was no answering tug. 'That tears it, right enough,' he said. 'We're all here, save himself.'
'We're not going to leave them in there all night!' Merimas protested at Merry's elbow.
'Light the bonfire,' Merry said. 'Build it up as big as you can.' He turned to Berilac. 'Set up a watch.'
'You can't go in alone,' Berilac said. 'Let Merry,' (meaning Merimas), 'set up the watch, and I'll go in with you.'
Merry nodded and grasped Berliac's shoulder in silent thanks. 'You're in charge here,' he told Merimas.
Old Uncle Merimac came up, shoving knapsacks at them. 'Food, water, medical supplies,' Merry's uncle said.
'Thank you,' Merry answered. He and Berilac shouldered the packs. Each picked up a fresh coil of rope in one hand and a lantern in the other. 'We'll follow his line to the end, and then we'll tie our ropes to the end of his and search as far as we can in several directions, staying close enough to see each other's lantern. If we don't find anything, we'll come back and start the search again at first light.'
He could see from his uncle's expression that Merimac was not happy with the plan, but since he apparently could not think up something better, and two young children were lost in the Forest along with the young Steward, he could find no objection strong enough to prevent their going into the increased peril that was the Old Forest at night.
The two intrepid searchers discovered that following Pippin's line was not as easy as it had sounded back in the clearing. In several places, the rope passed underneath a tree. As they happened on the third occurrence of this phenomenon, Berilac murmured, keeping his voice as low as possible, 'Now I wonder how he managed to do that?'
'The trees moved after he passed this way,' Merry muttered back. 'I know you've heard the same stories I have.'
'Trees don't move,' his cousin protested, albeit softly.
Merry laughed, a short, grim chuckle, and then he shook his head at the surprise he saw in Berilac's face by the light of their lanterns. 'O yes,' he said. 'You'd be amazed at how some trees can move in all actuality...' But the Forest seemed to be darkening around them even though night had already fallen. How can total darkness get darker? Merry wondered, and then he shuddered, thinking of the Shadow and the Black Breath that had touched him and threatened to divide him from the Light forever.
The two cousins seemed to have reached the same conclusion – that even their quiet talk was irritating the trees around them – for they both fell silent as they continued to trace Pippin's path.
The trees creaked around them, whispering dark secrets; the branches groped and swayed in the breathless night. Berilac stopped, and Merry put his hand on his cousin's arm and squeezed gently. After taking a deep breath, Berilac met Merry's gaze and nodded. They started forward once again.
The two searchers came at last to the end of the rope and found Pippin's burned-out lantern. 'He must have found something,' Merry mused, risking a whisper, 'Or he'd never have left the line.' He raised his voice. 'Pippin!'
A faint shout answered him.
Despite their surroundings, Merry grinned at the sound. 'That's got it!' He gave his lantern to Berilac and bent to tie one end of his rope to Pippin's rope. When he straightened again, he shouted again, despite the looming menace of the trees, 'Pippin! Keep calling! Guide us to you with your voice!'
They followed Pippin's shouts, ducking a branch that fell nearly on top of them but feeling heartened nevertheless. Soon the light of their lanterns reached the little group sitting on the ground just ahead.
Merry jogged the last few paces. 'Are you hurt?' he asked Pippin.
Pippin grinned up at him. 'O no, I'm just taking a breather,' he said easily. 'Feledoc and me have been swapping stories, i'n't that right, m'lad?'
Merry saw a brave little face looking up at him. 'O yes,' the lad breathed solemnly. 'Cousin Pip sure knows some good ones!'
Merry reached a hand down to help his Tookish cousin stand up, while Berilac gave a hand to Feledoc and then hoisted the little lad onto his shoulders, telling him, 'Keep your head down and hold tight, and we'll have you back to your mum and dad in two shakes. Three, at the most.'
Noting Pippin's shortness of breath, Merry said, 'Here, give the lad to me – can you take the lantern?'
Pippin did not protest the exchange, which worried Merry still more. 'We'll be out of here soon,' the older cousin added.
'The sooner the better,' Pippin answered as they began to retrace their way along the rope.
They didn't waste time trying to untangle the ropes from the tree roots. Though the Forest would undoubtedly be displeased at hobbits leaving hobbit-made artefacts underfoot, so to speak, by this time tomorrow, all traces of rope would have disappeared. Merry shuddered at the thought that Pippin and the two young lads might have suffered the same fate if left overnight under those dark treetops.
The rescuers heard a cheer go up from the watchers waiting at the bonfire. Though the Forest seemed to absorb the light, Merry could see hints of dancing flames peeking around the dark boles of the trees ahead of them. 'They must be able to see our lanterns!' he said to the others. 'We're almost out!' Despite Pippin's wheezing, they all quickened their steps since the lanterns allowed them to see their footing clearly, precluding the Forest's attempts to trip and, perhaps, trap them.
As they reached the edge of the trees, Merry found himself attacked by a near-frantic mother. 'Easy, Lilac,' he soothed. 'Mally's well enough. He just got knocked on the noggin and broke his wrist, I think.'
'Just...!' Lilac sputtered.
'It might've been so much worse,' Merry reminded her quietly, bringing her up short. Then he smiled at Feledoc, sitting upright on Berilac's shoulders now that the threat of a tree branch striking him had been eliminated. 'You've got two brave lads here.'
Marroc reached for his younger son and held him close in a fierce, wordless embrace, while Lilac clutched at Maladoc's arm, falling into step with Merry.
'Let's finish up here,' Merry shouted as they reached the bonfire. 'I think the fun's over for the night.'
Marroc set Felly on the ground again, and Lilac picked him up, while Merry carefully transferred Maladoc to his father's arms. 'Thank you, cousin,' Marroc said fervently. 'Thank you... I know the right thing would have been to wait until the dawning, but...'
'That would have been the prudent thing, but I wouldn't call it the right thing,' Merry answered, slapping Marroc on the shoulder. 'Here comes Ossilan to check your sons over. We'll see you back at the Hall...'
As he finished speaking, Merry pulled Pippin out of reach of the smoke from the bonfire as a puff of wind blew it in their direction.
'All's well with me, cousin,' Pippin said, sounding as cheerful as ever though he was still too obviously short of breath. 'I find the air is both much more abundant and more breathable, somehow, out here in the open.'
'Do you want Ossilan...?' Merry began.
'Never!' Pippin snapped back. 'Has the Forest stolen your wits? Besides, the hobbit is already occupied with the little lads! Far be it from me to take him from their side...!' He took Merry firmly by the arm and began walking towards their waiting ponies.
Merry found himself laughing in spite of his concern for his cousin. 'Far be it from you in any event,' he said.
'Let that be a lesson to you!' Pippin retorted. 'Now come along! I think I've earned a spot of brandy, wouldn't you say?'
'I'm not so sure...' Merry began, but at Pippin's protest, he added, 'considerably more than a spot, I should think!'
'A whole glassful, do you mean?' Pippin said, making himself sound at his most hopeful.
'I'm not sure I'd go that far...' Merry said.
They reached their ponies without further incident, mounted, and turned towards the Hall.
'D'you suppose that Estella's made any of her famous stuffed mushrooms?' Pippin asked idly as they nudged the beasts into motion.
'If she hasn't, I think she'd be happy to whip some up pretty quickly,' Merry answered.
Pippin nodded. 'Good. I seem to have worked up quite an appetite.'
'Well I never! It's about time!' Merry muttered.
Pippin only laughed and signalled Socks to trot. 'Coming, cousin?' he called over his shoulder.
'I'm right behind you!' Merry answered, and soon Jewel was trotting alongside Socks.
'Right beside me, you mean?' Pippin said airily.
'Whatever,' Merry answered.
Since there was no answer to that sentiment, Pippin simply nodded as they trotted on.
***
Further note: Though it does not happen in this story, Doderas grows up into a good-natured, (relatively) steady tween and becomes fast friends with Elberic rather sooner than later. (His change of heart and increased mindfulness may have something to do with his interview with Master Saradoc after the satisfactory conclusion of the incident in the chapter you've just finished reading.) At a later time, as recounted in Seeing Red and touched upon in At the End of His Rope, even when interrupted in the middle of tweenish mischief, the two friends successfully work together to save the life of a future Steward of Buckland when they're older.
***