Abducted by Two Towers Tuesday: Book 3 ch. 1-3

Welcome to the first Two Towers Tuesday post!

Where the Fellowship of the Ring left off we had the entire Fellowship divided and scattered on a hill top, Boromir is dying, and most importantly Frodo and Sam have gone off on their own. When The Two Towers picks up we get to find out what happened to the rest of the Fellowship.

It all begins when Aragorn finds Boromir after he has been slain by many black arrows. As he lays dying he confesses to Aragorn and tells him that the Orcs took some of the halflings but he was not positive on whether or not Frodo and Sam were with them.

By the time Legolas and Gimli make their way back to Aragorn, Boromir has already past and now they must decide if they should follow the Orcs hoping that all of the hobbits are together, or continuing on to Minas Tirith. Ultimately, Strider is able to use his wicked (and when I say "wicked" I don't actually mean "wicked". I can see how when reviewing a book like this that could be taken wrong. I mean "wicked" like the boys in Good Will Hunting used it when they say "My boy is wicked smart!" Not that Strider was holding back on any wicked or evil notions.) Ranger smarts to determine that Frodo and Sam went off on their own voluntarily and that their own attentions would be better put to use trying to save Merry and Pippin.

What follows is many many many pages of them walking. They walk and they walk and they walk. They have a brief conversation about whether or not to rest. They decide to rest. Then they wake up and they walk and they walk and they walk. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty boring.

But then, drum roll please!!! Ba Ba Ba BAAAA!!! Eomer shows up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies, he is a hottie!!! I know that he isn't described in the book. And I know that his scene is just barely mentioned in the book so far. But I remember when I watched the movie and Karl Urban popped up on the screen I was like HELLO!!! Sitting up straight now! Fix the hair! Freshen up the lip gloss (even though I don't actually wear lip gloss I was probably attacking the girls next to me to make them share)!

Anyway, what were we talking about again.......hmmmmm.....

Oh, Right! The Book! The Book! Right...

Okay, so the Riders of Rohan show up and they tell Aragorn that they have just killed a whole bunch of Orcs but that they didn't see any other creatures among them. Because Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are all positive that they have not missed any signs of the hobbits escaping along the trail, they decide to keep going further to see if they managed to break away before the Riders of Rohan had attacked the Orcs.

Along their way, they stop and rest and take turns keeping watch. When Gimli is on watch, a man suddenly approaches the fire but does not speak to him. When Gimli rises it wakes up the others and they all see the man but before they can try to talk to him he is suddenly gone. Gimli is convinced that it is Saruman, but I have my suspicions (as does Aragorn) that it just might be someone else entirely.

Then in chapter three we get to learn what happened to Merry and Pippin. They have indeed been taken captive by a group of...well, it turns out it wasn't your average everyday Orcs. The group is made up of Orcs, Goblins, and Uruk-Hai. From what I understand, the Orcs are traveling from Mordor and are carrying the red mark of the eye on their weapons and shields. The Uruk-Hai are traveling from Isengard under the white mark of Saruman. And the Goblins, well forget them I have no idea who they were traveling under the orders by.

This group of travelers turn out to be awful hosts for Merry and Pippin and treat them pretty horribly! And even though Pippin is made out to be kind of silly and goofy in the movie version, he actually keeps his senses about him through out this chapter. He managed to get his hands unbound but kept the rope wrapped around them like bracelets so that the Orcs wouldn't know he was free. And then he used his wits to talk an Orc Goblin Uruk-Hai, oh who cares! let's just say he got one of the enemy to cut the binds around his and Merry's legs.

And when that chapter ends, their captors have all been slain by the Riders of Rohan (meaning mainly the sexy Eomer) and Merry and Pippin are headed into the Fangorn Forrest without a care in the world...or so they would have you think.

Life Lesson # 7

Be careful as to who you choose to act as your traveling agent.

This book is basically one big life lesson in bad trip planning! I mean, the Fellowship booked their trip to Mordor with Elrond and look where it got them! Two of them are dead, two of them have been taken captive! Another two are off wandering around on their own, and the other three have ended up taking what seems to me to be the worst hiking trip ever! 

This is why when taking a vacation I plan MONTHS if not YEARS in advance! 

If I was in that fellowship I would have called in an upgrade a long time ago! That's all I'm saying.