"Co now, Shadowfax, show your true speed..."
Outside the walls, Gandalf gently patted Shadowfax. In the next instant, the great horse surged forward, and within the blink of an eye, only its distant silhouette remained.
"So fast."
Watching Gandalf's departing figure, even Garrett couldn't help but sigh in admiration. In terms of pure top speed, that horse was a little faster than the fastest ones he had ever trained, and its endurance was just as remarkable.
Gandalf rode on alone, heading toward the White City.
Pippin and rry stood beside Garrett, gazing after Gandalf with a faint sense of lancholy.
"Frodo will really be all right, won't he?"
"For now, yes. I've received word from them."
Garrett replied, "Frodo, Sam, and Gollum, who guides them, they have safely reached Ithilien and are drawing ever closer to Mordor. The true trial is only just beginning."
Hearing Garrett's words, the two Hobbits fell silent, each lost in thought.
rry seed to have made up his mind about sothing. He turned first and walked back toward the great hall.
Pippin stayed where he was, still staring blankly in the direction Gandalf had gone.
As Garrett was about to leave, Pippin suddenly drew his sword.
"I must be able to do sothing too, right?"
He looked up at Garrett, eyes filled with hope.
Garrett stopped walking.
"You?"
"Yes, ."
The usually mischievous and lighthearted Pippin said earnestly, "Frodo and Sam are carrying out their great mission in the most dangerous of places... My friends are suffering. I can't just sit idly by, doing nothing in safety. Please, let do sothing. I can give my own strength to help. Even if it costs my life."
Looking at the determined Hobbit before him, Garrett suddenly smiled, as though reminded of sothing.
"There is indeed sothing only you can do, sothing that could even help Frodo directly. But it will take imnse courage and willpower, and it may leave you with lasting scars and shadows you'll carry all your life. Even so, will you still do it?"
"I will!" Pippin replied without a mont's hesitation.
"Very well, Peregrin Took."
Garrett bent down slightly and rested a hand on Pippin's shoulder. "From this mont on, you are an apprentice Ranger. In the days ahead, you'll remain at my side and carry out missions with , a task that only you can accomplish."
"It's an honor."
Pippin's voice rang out, firm and full of conviction.
Garrett looked at him, then in the direction rry had gone, and smiled faintly.
"You know," he said, "when you and rry are together, you always remind of two old friends."
"Arje and Yavin, they were fine young n, much like you two. They were very close, always together, doing everything side by side. They too were apprentice Rangers. Long ago, they visited both Rohan and Gondor, fighting orcs across the wild lands."
Pippin nodded. "That does sound a lot like and rry. We haven't been to Gondor yet, but right now, we're standing in Rohan. Where are they now? In the City of Waters or at Wayfort?"
"At Wayfort," Garrett said, gazing northward. "They've rested there for more than twenty years now, buried side by side in the green grass, their headstones leaning together. The night of life never halts for anyone, Pippin. Even now, I rember them vividly, as if those two young, spirited lads were still standing before , straight and tall, waiting for to give them their next mission. As if... the mont I turn around, I'll see them behind sowhere, sitting together on a rock or in the grass, weapons laid at their sides, talking about what happened a few days ago."
Pippin listened in silence, and despite himself, turned to glance behind, only to see an empty stretch of plain.
There was nothing there.
"All right," Garrett said, "nothing to see. It's ti for us to go."
Garrett patted Pippin on the shoulder, motioning for him to follow, along with the swiftly withdrawing host of the City of Waters.
"Wait, but rry..."
Sohow, Pippin suddenly found it hard to part with his dearest friend.
"He has his own part to play," Garrett said, pointing toward the gates of the great hall in the distance.
"Look."
Pippin strained his eyes and saw rry speaking with King Théoden.
By now, Rohan had decided to ride to Gondor's aid, and urgent mobilization was underway. Partly it was in answer to the plea of Aragorn and Boromir, but more than that, a ssenger from Gondor had recently arrived bearing Denethor's token, a red arrow.
It was the sign that war was upon them, and that Gondor now called for Rohan's help.
Théoden had long desired to honor that alliance. Now that the formal summons had co, he did not hesitate. He began gathering his riders, fulfilling at last the ancient Oath of Eorl. And it was at that mont that rry approached him.
The little Hobbit suddenly drew his short sword and knelt on one knee before the king.
"I have a sword," he said.
Holding it up in both hands, he looked up at Théoden and declared, "Your Majesty Théoden, please accept it. I, riadoc of the Shire, offer myself to your service."
rry, too, was trying in his own way to do sothing aningful.
"And I gladly accept," Théoden replied, a warm smile crossing his face as he gently helped the Hobbit to his feet.
"From this mont, I na you riadoc, squire of Rohan. You shall ride beside and lend your aid."
rry nodded eagerly, his heart alight with pride, and accepted the charge at once. And so, beside the King of Rohan, there now rode a Hobbit squire astride a small pony.
anwhile, as Théoden's call to arms echoed across the land, others too felt the stir of battle within them.
"I'd give anything to rally a full dwarven host," Gimli muttered, his blood burning as he watched the gathering Riders of Rohan. "Imagine it, an army clad in steel, riding mountain goats or boars, our heavy crossbows and war wagons rolling forth. That would be truly unstoppable."
Beside him on the sa horse, Legolas guided the reins and said quietly, "Your kin need not march here to join the fight, Gimli. I fear they already have war enough of their own."
"Haven't you heard of the peril on the Brown Lands before the Black Gate? The Lonely Mountain, the Free Cities, and the Woodland Realm all stand together now, facing the Enemy in grim defiance."
"Elves, Dwarves, and n, united once more..."
Legolas murmured the words, and Gimli listened, lowering his head with rare silence.
The darkness was spreading everywhere. No Free People who still drew breath could imagine themselves untouched by it.
For three whole days, the great host continued to gather. From cities, keeps, and far-off villages they ca, all mustering for Gondor's aid.
Rohan's deep green banners stread in the wind, and the white horses upon them seed almost to leap to life, galloping beside the Riders themselves.
"Beneath the high walls of Minas Tirith," Théoden murmured, "the fate of our age shall be revealed..."
With that thought, he turned one last ti to gaze upon the golden hall upon the hill, duseld, and then rode on, never looking back again.
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Completed at Chapter 405!
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