GypsieRose - Debbie Does The Two Towers 3

Aragorn lay with his ear to the ground, listening. He didn't really hope to hear the pattering feet of two hobbits, but it was best, he thought, to at least look as if he knew what he was doing.

"I don't believe they've run off!" Gimli puffed, coming up behind him.

Arargorn stood turning back to the dwarf, and to Legolas, who was standing just behind Gimli. "I am certain they have gone in search of Sam and Frodo. I should have seen that--should have prepared for it."

"Should have tied them to a rock before we went to sleep, you mean?" Legolas huffed. "At least Boromir had the courtesy to tell us he was going."

"And tell us, and tell us," Gimli added. "He's been a changed man since Debbie--but not changed, in a way."

Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Either way, he was insufferable," the dwarf said by way of explanation.

"Still, with Boromir gone, it is left to only the three of us to search for Merry and Pippin," the Ranger reminded them. "And there are still Uruk-hai running about here. We must press on."

The remaining six members of the Fellowship had awakened the previous morning to find that Frodo and Sam had slipped away in the night. Merry and Pippin had gone off to search for their friends without even waiting for second breakfast, and they had not returned either.

Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir, and Gimli had then held an impromptu council to decide what must be done. It seemed clear that Frodo had started out for Mordor, since he had taken the Ring, but Merry and Pippin's whereabouts were unknown. Boromir, while humbly deferring to the judgment of Aragorn, was nonetheless worried about the state of affairs back in Minas Tirith now that the Ring had reappeared.

Finally it was decided that Boromir would take one of the elven boats to Gondor and warn them to prepare for war. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli would find Merry and Pippin and follow him as soon as they could. However, after more than a day of tracking, they seemed to have lost the trail of the two young hobbits.

Aragorn, not sure of what to do, lay upon the ground once more, and pressed his ear to the earth.

"What makes you think you'll hear any different now?" Legolas asked the Ranger.

Aragorn nearly called up some of the less-polite elvish with which he was familiar, when he caught an acrid odor wafting through on the breeze. "Legolas, go to the hill," he ordered as he rose. "Tell me what your elf eyes see."

Legolas sprang lightly to the top of the nearest, rocky crest. He squinted at the horizon. "A column of smoke, far off. Black smoke."

"That bodes ill," Gimli moaned.

"We must hurry!" Aragorn shouted as he raced over the hill. "Legolas! Gimli! Come!"

"Oh, please, no more running," Gimli whined, but the other two were already far ahead.

********

Aragorn studied the smoldering pile of mangled corpses with care, hoping that his fears were unfounded.

"So many Uruks and orcs," Legolas marvelled. "It must have been an army to have felled so many."

The Ranger bent over the pile, trying hard not to vomit at the foul stench that emanated from it. "They do not bear sword wounds...at all...."

And then, Gimli spoke words that struck at the core of the heart of the future king of Men: "This is a hobbit belt--Merry's belt."

"They...are dead, then," Legolas said sadly. "We are too late."

Aragorn screamed in frustration and kicked an orc helmet, then screamed again. "I think I broke my toe!" he howled. He hopped awkwardly on one foot for a moment, then lost his balance and fell to the ground. And there, he noticed something that made him very curious, indeed.

"A hobbit lay here," he deduced, running his right hand inches over a depression the others could barely see. "And here." He ran his left hand over an equally unremarkable patch of crushed grass. He then crawled back a bit, studying with care the place where he'd fallen himself. "And someone...not an orc or Uruk...was here as well."

"That was you," muttered Gimli.

"No, someone else," Aragorn insisted. Gimli and Legolas exchanged a look that the Ranger's perceptive abilities missed entirely, probably to his benefit.

Aragorn began to crawl about on the ground. "Their hands...were bound," he muttered as he moved. "Their bonds...were cut....Their hands were...bound...again...." He continued to work his way through the scene as he deciphered it: "...and cut again. And here there is only one impression, but a deep one, as if they lay one upon the other...but the weight is off, somehow...and then they ran...and they were followed..."

Legolas and Gimli followed the running Ranger as he headed away from the burning pile of corpses. Aragorn continued, "And they ran...into Fangorn Forest!"

Aragorn and Legolas stared apprehensively at the trees. Gimli looked at them blankly. "What's wrong with Fangorn Forest?" he asked.

Aragorn and Legolas looked at each other. "Well..." Legolas said slowly. "It's, erm...well known for its...."

Aragorn finished for him. "It's said to be a giant aphrodisiac."

"The whole forest?" Gimli asked with disbelief. He swallowed. "Well...we must find the hobbits. But if I start fancying one of you, please hit me hard with something, all right?"

"All right," said Aragorn and Legolas together. The three of them stepped gingerly into the shade of the trees.

********

"These are strange tracks," Aragorn mused, looking closely at the forest floor.

"The air is so close in here...," Gimli muttered. "And I never noticed how nicely Aragorn fills out his breeches before, either."

"Concentrate on the hobbits," Aragorn hissed, insistant.

"They aren't half the man you are--literally," the dwarf replied, low and under his breath.

"This forest is very old," Legolas mused. "Very old...and full of memory. Enticing memory of a time when Estel and I were young and fancy--"

Aragorn hit Legolas. "The *hobbits*?"

"Er...yes...hobbits," the elf stammered. He then froze in his tracks.

"What do you see?" Aragorn was almost afraid to voice the question, unsure of whether his friend was still "reminiscing".

"Something white." The elf's eyes were wide.

"We must be on our guard," Aragorn whispered. "We must be quick." He drew his sword silently from its sheath. Legolas and Gimli, bow and axe, followed in kind.

A brilliant white light enveloped the three companions, and their weapons fell to the forest floor as if ripped from their very hands. A familiar voice boomed, "You! It's about time someone showed up!"

Aragorn gazed in wonder at the sight that met his eyes. "It cannot be! You went home!"

"Yeah, well, apparently that was a round-trip ticket."

The Lady Debbie stood in brilliant glory before them, radiating a heavenly white light that made her all the more fetching. She wore a nearly ethereal, fur-trimmed baby doll nightie of a pure, sparkling white. The three companions--elf, dwarf and Man--all fell to one knee and bowed before her.

"I can't really seem to remember much of how I got here," Debbie went on. "I feel like I've been waiting...waiting."

"Lady Debbie!" Aragorn said in reverence.

"Lady Debbie...yes, that's what you cutie pies used to call me...," she mused, lost in thought. "But I am Debbie the White, now." She smiled. "And I'm feeling all warm and fuzzy in a really kinda horny way."

Gimli said, "Suddenly Aragorn's backside doesn't seem as appealing as it did a little while ago."

Debbie's smile broadened. "Speak for yourself, honey."

GO TO Chapter Four

BACK to Chapter Index

BACK to GypsieRose Index

BACK to Fanfic Index

BACK to Main Page

FEEDBACK