"Pippin...Pippin...wake up... Pip,"

I heard a faint voice say. I ignored it for a moment. Not only did I hear a voice, probably from Merry, I heard running. It sounded like a large heard of cattle trampling through a field. I then felt a gentle shake on my shoulder. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around the room I was in through a squint. Slowly processing everything and then remembering were I was.

"Pippin!" I rolled over to face the speaker. As I did, I rolled right onto my bad arm. I winced in pain and slowly sat up.

"Are you all right?" I rubbed the sleepiness out of my eyes and turned to face Merry, who had been trying to wake me.

"Ya, just stiff. What's going on?" I yawned.

Before Merry could answer, a loud horn went off. It made us both jump.

"That," he whispered, "Orcs have been running by yelling for a while now and blowing horns. That's what woke me,"

He paused for a minute while yet another horn went off, louder than the last.

"They know were gone,"

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"Can't say that I know. I fell asleep too," Merry said looking ashamed.

"At least we both had a good rest,"

"But injured too. If we come into trouble, I don't know how well we will hold up with your arm like that,"

I looked at my arm. There was dried blood all over the bandage I had put on earlier. I could hardly move it without making a face.

Outside of the cell, the noise was beginning to quiet down.

"I think we should move... now," Merry said.

"Move where?"

"I don't know, but we can't just sit here and wait for rescue to come to us, we have to be the rescue,"

He had a good point. Merry stood up and then helped me up. He cautiously looked out the doorway of our hiding place. I looked too, both ways. There was nobody in sight, only the light of the torches that lit the hallway. Merry motioned for me to follow him, so I obeyed. We walked down the lit hallway and stopped at a fork in the road. To the right there were more cells and to the left there was a steep stair case. We gave each other thumbs up and went forward to the stairs. We walked along the edges of the halls were the shadows lay.

Once we got to the top of the stairs, we were in a circular black room. It had four doors; any of them could open at any moment. There was also a large black throne and a tall black pedestal. I looked up to see what was on top, but there was a long droopy piece of grey cloth on top of the unseen object. My curiosity took hold and I walked over to it.

"Pippin," Merry urgently whispered.

"I just want to see what it is," I said on my tippee toes looking up at the pedestal.

Merry ran to me quick, but not quick enough because I had already torn of the long piece of grey cloth and started into the object that lay there.

A/N: anyone know what the object is on the pedestal?