The Lord of the RingsAgain

Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky

Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die

One for the Dark Lord on his Dark Throne

In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them

One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness, bind them

In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

If this Ring should ever fall, there will be another

Made of Ivory, hidden well, to bring back the other

The Chosen Ones, Four Maidens, shall find it when they are strong

They must decide, what path to choose, whether right or wrong

In the land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

Another Ring to bring Him back, Another ring to wield Him

Another Ring to call Him back, unless the Maidens yield Him

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Autumn Gamgee shot straight up in the cot where she lay, hitting her head against the low beam that hung there, hard, and fell back down in pain. 'What a dream,' she thought to herself, while trying to conceal the pain shooting through her head that was about to break loose in the form of tears. As it subsided, she slowly raised her head again, ducking this time, and looked around.

Angela Brandybuck and Pyppineeya Baggins, or Angie and Pip as she called them were still asleep, on cots of their own, in the room. They had had somewhat of a sleepover the night before, and had stayed up far too late. They had come to sleep in her clubhouse, which normally served as a bedroom for her, since she had to share a room with four other girls, her sisters Ruby, Goldilocks, Rose, and Daisy (Elanor had moved out nearly a year earlier). And just to tell you it's not all that easy to live in a room with four other girls, when you absolutely love the quiet, privacy, peace, and tranquility, all of which she got in her clubhouse.

She crept out of her cot, slowly stepping around Angie and Pip, and walked over to the small round window that looked out Eastward. 'Judging by the sun,' she thought, 'it's only about 6:30 AM or so. Curse that dream!' She remembered her dream and sighed.

That same dream had come to her nearly every night for the past month. She was always in a forest, walking down a path lined with white glistening stones that looked as if they were very wet, but definitely were not. She knew she was trying to end up somewhere, yet she never did. It was always just the same path with just the same trees and just the same voice

Oh, the voice. That was what scared her the most. It was not evil and dark, nor was it soft and cheery. It was somewhere in between. It would whisper something in Elvish, and she'd whip around to see who it was, and then she would wake up. Never did she remember exactly what was said.

'No need to wake them up yet..'

As she thought this, the two slumbering girls awoke suddenly, screaming. Autumn jumped backwards, nearly falling out of the round window, which wouldn't have been so bad, since it was nearly level with the ground anyway. Clearly she had not been expecting that to happen. "Pip! Angie! What is it? You nearly scared me to death!" she exclaimed, breathing hard.

Pip and Angie looked at each other uncertainly, then back to her. "Well" Pip started, "We, too, have been having your dream these past few nights. We didn't want to tell you, we thought you might think we were lying."

Autumn tried to bring her breathing back down to normal. "Well you were wrong. You should have told me! But no matter, have you found out who the voice belongs to yet?"

They shook their heads. "We're sorry," they said in unison.

"Well, now that you're both awake, let's collect Ruby and go down to Ninniachir. I am waiting still for the day when we get there before Leo does. If I didn't know any better I'd swear that he slept up there every night, just so we won't get there first. Well, no matter, just as long as we don't wake my brothers up. "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nearly an hour later, as there had been much arguing about breakfast and where to eat it, they arrived at Ninniachir, or "The Rainbow Stream". They had named it this the first time they had seen it, nearly ten years ago, since at the bottom of the little stream there were all kinds of smooth, perfectly round, translucent rocks that glittered multi-colored when the sunlight hit them just right. It had been quite a romantic spot for the pair that had found it, but just a few short weeks later that pair was just a single person. But more about that later.

Autumn skipped merrily along the path lined with trees that were all loosing their beautiful orange-and-yellow leaves, now that it was mid-October. The leaves were scattered all around the path in various patterns. Autumn took care not mess them up, for the last time she had done so the tree had not been very happy. She inhaled the cool breeze slowly, closing her eyes. She loved autumn (tee hee!).

When finally they reached the hill where the Ninniachir cascaded down, and where Brilost, their ACTUAL clubhouse, which Rob and her had built, with a little help from her father, Samwise Gamgee, was built into, they found no trace of Leonen Took, or any of the other boys in their 'Order'.

You see, Autumn, Pip, Angie, and Ruby, differed from most normal hobbits. Most hobbits enjoyed a quiet, peaceful life and had no taste for adventures of any kind. The former was true of them, but definitely not the latter. For they loved adventures.

Needless to say, still being Tweenagers, the furthest they had ever gone from home was when Angie's father, Meriadoc Brandybuck, took them out for a week to the tiny village of Bree and back, to stay at the Infamous Prancing Pony. Yet they would always pretend they were off to somewhere strange and mysterious, and would plan for weeks their departure and where they were going, even if it was only to raid Farmer Maggot's crops, which they did do on occasion.

In their 'Order', there were eight people: Autumn, Eden, Pippin, and Ruby Gamgee; Pip Baggins; Leonen Took; Angie Brandybuck; and Tom Bolger.

Back to reality, there was no one there. Although Autumn thought this rather odd, she couldn't help but celebrate.

They climbed over the stream and into the perfectly round hobbit-door. But they had little time to celebrate, As they were bringing out the wine bottles and glasses, Tom ran through the door.

Autumn whipped around to see who it was and froze at Tom's face. "Whathappened?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

Tom's face had sorrow, grief, remorse, and worst of all regret for having to bear this news, whatever it was. He looked long at Autumn, too afraid to say anything, but mouthing words that didn't seem to mean anything. His eyes just kept getting fuller and fuller with tears,

After a while, he sighed, and looked at his feet. "Leo's mum's really ill. The doctor came in this morning. Hehe reckons she might, mightdie," he said in a voice that was clearly on the verge of tears.

At the last word, Autumn dropped the wineglass she had been holding, and clasped both hands to her mouth. "Oh how awful!" she whispered, tears streaming down her face. "Is Leo alright?" But she didn't give him time to answer the question. She just ran straight passed him, out the door, and all the way down to the Took's hole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leonen Took caught his mother as she fell suddenly from where she was standing. "MumMum what is it?" he asked. "Da! Get in here quick! There's something wrong with Mum!"

Perigrin came wheeling in to the kitchen. "What's wrong?" he asked, but didn't need to to see what was wrong.