What if Boromir Lived Longer? (Complete)

Chapter 13: Planchgo! 6-22-16

Chapter By: Pippin

The next morning, Pippin woke up with the sun. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Then looked around for Aragorn or anybody else. But nobody was in sight anywhere. Pippin slowly stood up and walked to the river. He cupped his hands into the water and splashed some water on his face to wake him up more. His stomach growled; time for something to eat then.

Pippin wiped off his face with his sleeve and stood again. Looking around he only saw the wood from the day before and the nature around him. He could hear the birds singing in the trees and the fish jumping and splashing around in the river.

Pippin noticed a bush with red dots all over it. Walking over to it, he realized they were tiny red berries about the size of his finger. He picked one and thought to himself, "What kind are they? Are the edible?" There was only one way to find out so he opened his mouth and before he could put it in somebody yelled from behind him,

"Stop!" Pippin turned quickly and saw that it was Aragorn, "Don't eat that. Put it down," he said more calmly.

Pippin looked at the berry in his hands and turned it around with his fingers and asked,

"Why?"

"Its poisonous to humans," Aragorn said, "It's called a Dartmore berry,"

Pippin dropped it and Aragorn continued,

"Here, eat this instead," Aragorn held out a fruit that looked like a peach mixed with a mango.

Pippin took it and asked,

"What is it?" he smelt it.

"It's safe and it's called a Planchgo fruit," Aragorn explained.

Without further delay, Pippin took a small bite of the fruit. From just that tiny bite it tasted amazingly sweet and made your mouth tingle happily after you where done chewing. Aragorn walked back towards the river and Pippin stood and followed him. He took another bite, but big this time. Juice squirted out and ran down his face. He hadn't expected it to be that juicy. He took more and more bites until it was gone and all that was left was the pit. He washed his hands off and the pit off in the water and then put the pit in his pocket.

Pippin: I was thinking I could use it for bait later when I would fish again. (If I did) But I used it for something else actually... you will see soon.

Pippin caught up to Aragorn who had gone back to sit by the river to smoke his pipe.

"Do you have anymore?" Pippin asked eagerly.

Aragorn gave him another one and Pippin took it joyfully. He ate it and asked for another one, and another, and another. Finally Aragorn told him to leave some for later. Out of boredom, Pippin took all the Planchgo pits out of his pocket and made a small mountain/ pyramid thing out of them.

Once his mountain was complete, he got up and wandered around hoping to find more fruit or edible berries. He was still hungry. Aragorn told him not to leave his sight because he didn't want to lose him or for him to get taken. Pippin understood and was fine with that.

After a while, Pippin tripped over something and tumbled to the ground hard. Ouch! He looked behind him and saw that he had tripped over a large tree root that was sticking out of the ground. Something rolled out from behind the tree root and Pippin recognized it to be a Planchgo fruit. The same one that Aragorn had given him just a while ago.

Pippin picked it up and another one rolled out. He picked up the other one and crawled over to where the fruits had come out from. He smiled as he looked down and saw a whole pile of the Planchgo fruits sitting in a hollow part of the tree.

Pippin looked around and then started eating them. One after the other.

Pippin: I remember thinking it was so strange how this kind of fruit grew from the bottom of a tree trunk instead of in the braches.

A long time past and Pippin's pockets where filled with the pits from all the fruits. There was only one fruit left, but he decided to keep it for Merry when he returned. He then decided to go add all of the pits to his already started Planchgo pit mountain. Once he was done putting all the pits on top of his mountain, he stood back and admired his creation proudly. It was a little lower than his knees.

He sat down beside his mountain and put his head to his knees. His stomach was beginning to hurt because of eating all those fruits. He knew he shouldn't have eaten all of them, except for the one that he left for Merry. The same thing had happened when he had eaten too much Lembas bread in Rivendell. Same with Merry. He heard footsteps coming and looked up to Aragorn,

"Where did you get these?" Aragorn asked pointing towards the pit mountain.

Pippin stood up and explained what had happened,

"You would never believe what I found! I found a whole bunch of these fruits at the bottom of a tree trunk. Isn't that strange how they would grow are such a place? Also, I ate them all and they were good, but now..."

"Where?" Aragorn interrupted.

Pippin pointed toward the tree he had found them. Aragorn looked to the sky and gave a big sigh.

"What?" asked Pippin.

Aragorn looked back to Pippin and said calmly,

"I picked all those and put them there so we could eat them later. You ate them all?"

"Well, I didn't eat them all actually," Pippin started.

Aragorn interrupted and said, "How many did you leave there?"

"None," Pippin said plainly.

"What?"

Pippin pulled out the last Planchgo fruit out from his pocket and held it up,

"This is the last one left and I am keeping it for Me..."

Pippin looked past Aragorn and froze. His green eyes grew wide and his mouth hung open slightly.

"So there is only one left and you left it for Merry?" asked Aragorn.

"Merry," Pippin whispered and tore past Aragorn.

Aragorn looked behind him confused and saw Pippin running towards Merry. They had returned!

A/N: this chapter was kind of long. The next one will be short it think. Yay! Merry!