In the deep of the night, with lightning flashing and rain thrashing down, two cloaked beings rode upon pony-back on the plains of Rohan and onward. They were headed towards Gondor. Something was terribly wrong. Merry had told her to go there and seek help from King Aragorn. He had told her after passing out.

The Shire had been invaded by wild folk and giant spiders. Few knew what to do or how to fight. Merry was one of the few and she had no clue where Peregrin or Samwise were. The hobbit knew they could help - they had been in the War of the Ring after all -, but only if she could find them. Hopefully, the Big Folk will help.

The woman, Gilly Ploughman, looked down at the unconscious hobbit that she held tightly so that he would not fall from the pony. His eyes were closed and his face was deathly pale. Glancing down, Gilly saw two small holes where he had been bitten. Blood had stained the cloth all around the wounds and the poison had even burnt the cloth's hole. Gilly shuddered. She hoped that she could get to the castle in time. The attack had happened a week ago and it looked as if Merry might not make it.

As the wind picked up and the rain fell began to fall harder, something loomed up suddenly in front of her as she rounded a hill. It was the white castle. She gasped. Gilly had never seen anything quite like this place in all of her days. Pressing the sides of the pony, she urged her steed Fauna onward and up the ramp. There were no guards at the bottom of the massive castle and that surprised her, however, there were guards at the two massive oak doors. "Let me in. It is imperative that you do. I must see the king. I must."

The two soldier's looked at eachother. They then nodded and let her pass - on the pony. Seeing the king at his throne with a dark haired elf at his side - his queen -, she stopped riding. Her mouth hung open and she tried to do a bow while atop her pony, but it did not work well and she all most fell off her pony. "Your majesties. I have dire news. Giant spiders and wild folk have invaded the Shire and from the looks of it, Rivendell as well. Merry, he needs help. One of the spiders bit him. I do not know if he will survive."

Eowyn was in Ithilien, with Faramir in their bedroom. She was looking out of the window.

"Eowyn, you've been staring out of that window for three hours. What's going on?"

"I'm worried about Eomer. What if he can't handle being king of Rohan? What if the pressure builds up and he can't do it anymore?"

"Eowyn, he was the Marshal of the Riddermark. He led the Rohirrim for many years. He is probably fine. Now come to bed, you are scaring me."

"I'm sorry. But still there is evil out there. Still there are supporters of Sauron and Saruman, and they mean to destroy us."

"Aragorn will take care of most of Gondor. I am only Prince of Ithilien. We can handle this small part of Gondor for awhile. Please stop."

"Okay, I guess I don't have to worry. Not much at least," she lied to her husband, and crawled into bed. She was warmed by his embrace, but her mind continued to wander to Eomer, Aragorn and Arwen, and her father, who she hoped was watching over her and her family. She hoped Aragorn could handle being King of Gondor and being a leader, somewhat, of Rivendell. After all, Arwen was the princess of Rivendell, and now queen of Gondor. How were they going to handle leading two lands?

'Eowyn, stop it. It's none of your concern!' she told herself, and tried to get to sleep.

In the morning, she changed into her green dress, and looked back out the window into the sunrise.

"Not again!" Faramir grumbled.

"I'm just looking at the sunrise, Faramir. I'm done with worrying about my brother," she lied again. She didn't want Faramir to worry about her. Suddenly, she saw a small woman ride up to the halls of Emyn Arnen, with what seemed to be a small, wounded child. She hurried down the steps to greet the woman, and realized that it wasn't a child, but a hobbit, in the arms of another hobbit.

"Merry! What happened to him?" She asked the other hobbit, as she helped him down from the horse. Merry was the hobbit closest to Eowyn's heart, as she had helped him ride into battle. She was the closest "Big Person" he liked, except for Gandalf and Treebeard, if Treebeard could be called a person. She carried him into the hall, as Gilly, as the woman hobbit was called, told her about the spiders' attack on the Shire.

Gilly looked at the approaching woman. Her green eyes grew wide from fear. Never before had she seen one of the big folk, except for those horrible wild folk, and the height was terrifying for the hobbit. Her mouth opened in shock as Merry was lifted from her grasp. "Oh, do be careful," said the worried hobbit. Clumsily Gilly Ploughman half-slid and half-fell off of her black pony. Dusting herself off and stretching her stiff legs, the hobbit followed behind Eowyn. Her red curls flopped up and down as she trotted to keep up and her inquisitive green eyes looked all around the castle. This place was truly amazing. She had never seen anything so big in her life and here she was surrounded by giant things. Gilly wrung her hands as she followed the princess (or at least she thought that the woman was royalty). Every once in awhile, Gilly would look behind her to see if Aragorn was following, but soon they were too far away to be able to see the king and so she gave up her searching.

"Well, m'lady, there is terrible trouble in the Shire. There are giant spiders an' these wil' folk. They chant horrible things abou' avenging 'Sharkey'," Gilly began. She shuttered slightly at the memory of that horrible man. "Well, the spiders' didn' chant anything, jus' those wil' folk," she corrected, "What happened to Merry? Well, he was fightin' the wil' folk an' the spiders…" Gilly paused and took in a breath. Everything she had just said was spoken in a rush and the hobbit had not taken a breath in since before she had begun to speak. "While fighting a wil' folk, one of the spiders, bit 'im on the side. That was a week ago. I don' think he'll last much more. He tol' me to come here for help," Gilly finished in a rush.

She glanced at Merry, who had not stirred at all, even though he had been moved and the two beings had been speaking not very quietly, and a deep frown came upon her face. Merry looked worsen in the lights that lit the marble halls. He was so pale that he was all most gray, his breathing was shallow and infrequent and the hobbit looked small and frail. Gilly bit her thumbnail as she thought about the situation. It was bad, very bad.

"Come with me," Eowyn told Gilly, and picked Merry back up. There were a few herbs that could help him, and if worse came to worse, she was only a few miles away from Arwen, who could definitely help if need be. She placed Merry on the table, and whispered in his ear. "Wake up, Merry. I can only help you if you wake up," and, whether by coincidence or not, he awoke, panting loudly.

Meanwhile, Gilly followed Eowyn as fast as she could. Her feet pattered and made hardly a sound as she trotted behind the woman. With each movement, the hobbit kept a wary eye on her. She did not trust her very well. "Don't hurt him," she warned as she crossed her arms over her chest. She made a sucking noise of fear as Merry began to stir.

"Shh. He's awake, not healed. Please do not excite him." Eowyn placed a crumbled up leaf - like object on his wound, and it began to draw out the poison. Eowyn prayed that it would work, and that Merry wouldn't die.

Merry panted. His eyes were wide and frightened. There was pain etching his face and in his eyes. Every muscle was tense. "It hurts," he sobbed. Wearily, he closed his eyes, but opened them again. His mouth gaped in agony. He then cried loud, "Aragorn," and fell into darkness. Sweat broke out on his forehead from fever and the exertion of the poison trying to leave his wound. He chewed his lip and shifted uncomfortably. The pain was so great, even in his unconscious state.