Merry stayed as close as he was allowed, fretting and worrying about his cousin.

He only had the one… no one else tolerated his antics like Pippin. If he lost Pippin… he’s lose part of himself…

“Just a couple more steps.”

He called out to Strider, he needed help.

“Just keep talking.”

“What?”

Merry heard Pippin talking.

“Lembas? You’re bleeding and all you can think about is your stomach?”

It was both absurd and funny, it kept him grounded a bit.

“Just up ahead, don’t worry. I’ve got you.”

He can see Strider now, he continues to shuffle through the battle field. Keeping an eye on discarded weapons.

“Save the compliments for later Pip, save your strength.”

He kept walking, he wasn’t going to stop for less than his own death.

Just a few more minutes, that’s all he begged for. He needed to save Pippin.

—avoid any conflict or fired arrows.

“I’ll always carry you.”

Just like when they were kids. That’s all he had to do. He hoisted Pippin onto his back, despite Pippin definitely not being a small kid anymore. And being dead weight.

“Come. On.. Pip… just a little longer.”

He started the long walk over to Strider, doing his best to —

Merry nods and wipes his eyes with a sleeve quickly. He looks around, trying to see if he sees Strider or really anyone they know…

“I think I see him over there”
He points to a person quite a distance aways.

“I’m going to have to carry you.”

“Course I will..”

He was crying now, he didn’t care about anything going on around them.

“I’ll take care of you, but you just need to keep going.”

"No! I'm not leaving you again!"

If he was going to die, Merry would go with him. That was their deal, they promised....

"Y-you just need to hang on.. we need to go back to the shire.. we need to steal more crops from farmer Maggot... drink more pints... you can't leave me... not again…”

—you’re going to be ok.”

He stuttered and trembled as he put pressure on the wound.

“You’ll be ok, you need to be ok..”

He was crying again. This time for a complete different reason.

“PIPPIN!”

Merry yells and stabs the orc, driving his sword into its body as far as it could go. Yelling out of sheer anger.

The orc falls, sword still buried into its body. Giving a final few twitches as it died.

Merry runs to Pippins side once the orc was dead.

“Pippin! Pip! You-you—

“Then we stay, but you need a weapon!”

He noticed Pippin didn’t have a sword or anything, if they were going to fight they needed weapons.

“Follow me.”

“I thought /you/ had died!”

The embrace was comforting and real. He was happy.

“We need to get off the field. Follow me!”

He moves to get up, helping Pippin to his feet.