2.  ALONE

Beta read by Budgielover. Thank you!

Raking his fingers through his hair, Merry turned in a slow circle. Trying to glimpse a wee frog amongst the green foliage was nigh impossible through eyes partially blinded by tears. “Pippin! Pippin! Where are you! Croak, or something!”

No ‘ribbit' answered him, no gentle tugging of his foot-hair. “Pippin! Peregrin Took! You come to me right now! Pippin!” Only silence and a breeze rustling through the winter grass answered him.

“Get a hold of yourself, Merry-lad, You need help…lots of help!” Casting a last desperate glance at the ground, Merry shot up the steps fast as his legs could carry him. Skidding around a corner, he flung open a door and burst into the dining hall, red-faced and wild-eyed. Elves turned in his direction, astonishment and disapproval (for some) replacing their usual serene expressions. Merry paid them no heed. Locating the shorter figures he required, Merry sped up to them, snatched up his elder cousin’s hands, and shouted in Frodo’s face, “Pippin is gone! I cannot find him. Help!”

Ignoring the stir among the Elves and oblivious to Lord Elrond's approach, Bilbo and Sam both whirled around aghast at Merry’s hasty entrance and news Bilbo‘s, “Where was he last, Merry my boy?” contested with Sam’s, “Sir? Are you certain, sir?”

Frodo raised his voice, “Quiet everyone. Let Merry speak!” Blinking, Frodo pulled his hands from Merry’s and patted his cousin’s arm comfortingly. “Calm down, lad. Take a deep breath. No-another! Now … are you certain?”

Panting, Merry answered, “Yes, of course I‘m certain!” He turned his pocket completely inside out, dislodging the little nest of grass he had built for Pippin “I have searched everywhere and even combed though the grass and leaves trying to find him!” With that, Merry could no longer hold back his terror . He flung himself on his knees, locked his arms around Frodo’s waist and sobbed inconsolably.

Patting Merry’s head helplessly, Frodo looked up at the Master of Rivendell, who stood before them watching in astonishment, “Please help us find him, Lord Elrond, please.” Gathering around the sobbing Merry, three hobbits looked at the Lord of Imladris with terrified and worried eyes.

The tall figure knelt on one knee at Merry’s side, his robes draping in graceful folds around him. “Peace, Master Meriadoc,” Lord Elrond said. “Of course we will find him. However we can not run about carelessly…we must organize a proper search.” Lord Elrond stood and turned to his seneschal, “Lord Glorfin...”

Rapping his staff sharply on the stone floor to gain attention, Gandalf raised his voice, “That will not be necessary!”

Lord Elrond, not accustomed to being abruptly interrupted, raised one eyebrow as he stared into the glinting eyes of his old friend. “Go on.”

Perceptibly uncomfortable, Gandalf began, “There is something about our disrespectful young friend’s …err … condition …” he paused as Merry struggled to his feet, “...that I did not tell you.”
* * *
Climbing out of Merry’s pocket had been easy…sneaking away without his cousin seeing him, however gave him pause.  Pip-frog managed both tasks without discovery. He had slipped off the bench directly behind Merry and quietly sidled under a nearby bush. Snuggling under the leaves, he waited to see what would happen after the Elves had left the garden.

When Merry began to scold him and poke about in his pocket, Pip-frog wriggled in glee. Merry’s antics while trying to find him had Pip-frog rolling in froggy laughter. “That will teach Merry to treat me badly. Just who does he think he is? I’m the one who has to be a frog for a whole day, after all!”

After Merry had departed in such entertaining haste, Pippin experimented with his lovely toe pads. He found that they stuck to stone as well as tree trunks. In fact, he could climb anything solid to his heart's content. He then practiced hopping, and was surprised how hard it was, ending up on his nose several times. “Drat!“ Persevering, he soon accomplished a fairly good rhythm. Then he began extending his tongue, staring cross-eyed down his blunt nose to control it. He kept flicking it at stray leaves as they drifted past on the breeze and soon got the hang of slapping them still. "Thwap, thwap, thwap!"

This amusement paling, Pippin decided to explore.  If he was to have any adventure at all, he’d best do it before Merry dragged Frodo and Sam out into the garden and they put an end to his fun. Pip-frog decided to 'disappear' for a while. Standing up on his froggy hind legs, putting his toe pads against a tree and looking up through the lofty branches, he mused, “Hmmm, everything looks different and so huge from down here.”

His tummy growled in a very unfroggy-like fashion. “Hmmm, perhaps I had better find something strengthening before trying to climb something so tall.“ He dropped to the ground and started travelling under his 'hiding' bush. He finally reached the other side, which took quite a while.

This particular ‘bush’ was a part of the thickest hedge around the inner gardens. Panting from the unaccustomed exertion, Pip-frog plopped his little round bottom to the ground, looked around and found himself in the unique situation of wanting to consume a tasty looking beetle just within the reach of his tongue!

"Ewwww, I want to eat that bug? No, not me!" Blinking a couple of times, his rumbling tummy prompted him to decide that the insect did look good enough to try. ‘Slurmp’ Finding that he was not adverse to such crunchy fare, he began quietly hunting and consuming enough to satisfy his hobbit-froggy appetite. He discovered that caterpillars were the juiciest and that each colour had a different taste. He spat out an extraordinarily bright coloured one as it tasted nasty, and he had to spend some time rubbing his tongue clean on grass and leaves, “Bleh, I’ll not try that one again!” He left the rest of the colourful insects alone, not wanting to repeat a bad experience.

Wandering a good distance from the hedge while in pursuit of delectable edibles, Pip was soon tired as well as full.  Slowly climbing a nearby tree by carefully sticking his toe pads to the bark, Pip unsteadily pulled himself up onto a low branch and caught his breath. "A very extended froggy tummy is really rather cumbersome when climbing a tree. Really, there is only one way to deal with an overfull belly."

Pip yawned hugely and snorted when he thought of Frodo's reaction to his bad manners. "That tuft of moss lodged in the fork might do nicely." Pip approached and extended a foot to investigate the fluffy growth. Instead of being scratchy, it was soft and cushiony. He burrowed into it head first with a sigh, ending in a sleepy murmur that trailed off into a snore.

Unheard, unseen, the grass snake that had chanced upon Pip-frog's trail flicked out its tongue, tasting the little creature’s scent. Slithering to the base of the tree, the snake curled around it, tracing where its prey had begun to climb. Easily, gracefully, it followed. Its scales made no sound as it warily approached the softly snoring, tasty looking little tree frog. The snake’s forked tongue flicked in and out in anticipation.

TBC