The four men hid behind the bushes, watching the hobbit children play. At the signal of their leader, they came out from their hiding place and each of them grabbed a few children and dragged them away, ignoring their screams. By the time their parents missed them, they would already be far away. As they reached their wagon, they carelessly threw the children in the back, not even thinking about their pain and took their places in front. They let the horses trot for a few hours until they stopped at the place where they would stay over night. After they had put the children to sleep and secured them in the wagon, they went inside the warm house. It did not matter to them that their newest acquisitions were comfortable, they could always get others.

Since they had discovered the Shire, they had come there regularly. It was a good place for getting slaves, no hobbit, not even the adults, could ever hope to defend themselves. They probably had lived in peace for so long that they could not even imagine someone would take their children. This trip had been the most successful of all, they had gotten more than twenty of them.

As soon as their evening meal was ready, they sat down at the table and raised their glasses, congratulating each other. They continued to drink beer until their heads hit the table.

In the meantime, one of the hobbit children, a girl of about thirteen years, woke up and crawled as far as she could towards the child next to her. Slowly she touched her shoulder and whispered: "Selyena, wake up. It´s me, Sarolea." At once, her twin sister shot up like she had been hit by lightning. Only Sarolea´s hand over her mouth stopped her from screaming and alert the men who had captured them. They spent the next hour shaking the others until they were all awake.