Friends in Danger

Friends in Danger is the seventh chapter of Taran Wanderer. Here the hero is called upon to help not only a friend in need, but that friend's entire kindred of people. Evil enchantments and taking on a friend's duties are major themes, even as the stage is set for a dangerous magical encounter.

This page contains spoilers. If you do not wish to be spoiled, do not read further.

Plot

Doli, in frog form, was given water to drink until his voice returned; the frog explained to a baffled Taran and the Companions that the Fair Folk had been robbed by a wizard called Morda, who had also caused the disappearances of other Fair Folk spies, inlcuding a way post guardian of the Hill Cantrevs. Invisibly, Doli had tracked the wizard to his forest abode but, in the darkness, had thought it safe to drop his invisibility -- when he was turned into a frog. Morda had cruelly flung Doli onto the dry rocks, over which the parched frog had crawled until Llyan had found him and brought him to the companions. He insisted, however, that he must finish his task himself and asked Taran only to take him back to Morda's home so he could find out the wizard's powers and the nature of his scheme.

Yet matters grew worse when Doli caught a sneezing cough from all the moisture he needed as a frog (having somehow missed out on an amphibian's resistance to the damp), but kept on directing Taran into the woods. Soon Kaw returned and dropped into Taran's hands the bt of polished bone which Gurgi had earlier uncovered. Doli assured him the item was enchanted but knew nothing of its origin or nature.Taran decided to keep it, then determined that Doli was too weak to go on. He determined to take the dwarf's mission on himself.