After their capture, Merry and Pippin are first carried by the orcs and then forced to run. Although some of the orcs want to kill them, the leader, Uglúk, insists on taking them unharmed to Saruman in Isengard. A fight breaks out which the larger Isengarders win. Pippin takes advantage of a moment of confusion to run away from the main trail and drop his brooch, hoping to leave clear prints for Aragorn to follow. They are forced to run across the plains, but soon the orcs are harassed by armed horsemen who occasionally shoot stragglers. Just before the orcs reach the forest, the riders surround them and cut off escape. In the night, the leader of the Mordor orcs carries the hobbits away from the main group of orcs to search for the Ring, but he is killed by a horseman's spear. When the battle begins, the hobbits hide in the forest.
Wandering in the forest, the hobbits climb a small hill to get a better view of the area. There they meet Treebeard, a walking and talking stumpy oak tree. He is in fact an Ent, and he finds the hobbits puzzling, because he does not recognize their race. He asks for news of Gandalf and reveals that he dislikes Saruman's recent activities. When the hobbits ask what side he is on, Treebeard replies that he does not take sides, because no one takes his side, the side of nature. He takes Merry and Pippin to his home and feeds them Ent-draught, a drink that makes them grow like young trees. Treebeard explains Saruman to the hobbits, indicating that while he once was wise and learned, he has turned away from the natural world toward machines, even creating an unnatural crossbreed between orcs and men: the Uruk-hai. Treebeard calls an Entmoot to deal with Saruman, and after careful deliberation, the Ents march to war.
