"Merry! Merry! I think she's awake!"

"I can see that Pippin...and keep your voice down will you?"

"She's kinda pretty... "

"Snore's like the Gaffer though."

Dawn groaned for the second time in twenty-four hours. She really had to stop losing consciousness - it was ridiculously painful getting it back. She rolled onto her side slightly and opened her eyes a crack, allowing her vision to come back to her in jolts and slides. The view that greeted her was definitely one she wasn't prepared for.

Faces.

Two of them, equally bloody, bruised and beaten and each with matching grins plastered across dirt-encrusted features.

"Hi'ye, I'm Pippin, an' this is Merry..."

"Have a pity Pip, let the girl wake up."

"She is awake!"

Dawn couldn't help it, she laughed.

The face on the left, the one who'd greeted her, grew smugly cheerful as he nudged his companion. "See."

Dawn shifted her weight to sit up but was stopped by a surprisingly small hand on her shoulder. One of the faces - Merry? - turned serious eyes on her before glancing off to the side.

"Don't sit up - you'll get their attention," he warned and Dawn followed his gaze to see dark figures milling around in a large group to their right. She didn't have to be a genius to work out that they weren't of the human variety.

"What the hell am I doing here?" She hadn't meant to say it out loud and the darkness in the open night sky seemed to amplify her words.

Pippin cocked his head at her. "We were actually gonna ask ye that, weren't we?" he said astutely, turning to Merry who met Dawn's confused gaze with an unsure one of his own.

"It's not very common to come across someone like you among a band of Orcs," Merry supplied.

Dawn frowned. "Orcs?"

Merry gestured over to the creatures. "Big, ugly, smelly chaps with a habit for kidnapping."

Dawn nodded stealing a look over at the monsters milling around in the darkness. Smelly looked about right. Turning back to the two little people she found herself at a loss for what to say. The silence stretched for a moment as they all stared around at each other.

"So..." Pippin began finally. "Why is it you're here then?"

The bland comment awarded him a nudge and a look from Merry.

"What?"

The innocence in Pippin's tone was palpable and Dawn couldn't help her small smile. He reminded her scarily of Anya with his straight forward nature. Her humour slipped however when his question sunk in. Why was she here? The last thing she remembered was...was that man. And before that was the dive. She should be dead. She cocked her head at the thought - maybe she was.

She looked up at last to find Merry and Pippin staring at her expectantly. She sighed. "I don't know what I'm doing here...I don't even know where 'here' is," she said sullenly.

A second later a roar went up from the creatures - the orcs. Merry and Pippin both stiffened visibly and Dawn glanced to the right fearfully as the Orcs jogged towards them.

"Here we go again..."

She couldn't tell if it was Merry of Pippin who voiced the comment but found herself fully agreeing with the sentiment as an Orc dragged her off the ground and onto it's back.

She could see this being a very long day.


They had been running for days…on days…on days…

Gimli swore under his breath…or would have if he'd had any left. Didn't they realize their company? A dwarf's legs were meant for greater, and slower things than running around after a bleeding big group of horror goblins. Not that he would admit any such thing of course, especially in front of the damnable pointy-ear.

As if to spite his thoughts themselves, Gimli's legs gave way at that precise moment. A precise moment that annoyingly enough, found him at the cusp of a great hill.

"Oh bloody -"

The dwarf never got the whole curse past his lips as he pitched forward and rolled all the bumpy, jagged way to the bottom. The move didn't even cause a slowing in the elf or the man. It had happened before. The whole trio was actually quite used to it. Gimli halfway found himself looking forward to the hills now as it gave his legs a much needed rest.

With a rough, though unenthusiastic shake of his bearded head, the dwarf climbed to his feet and trudged onward, colliding soundly with the stiff back of Legolas.

The hill had obviously done some good. Gimli was able to let loose a rather impressive stream of curses as he toppled backwards, the added weight of his axe on his back making any chance of staying upright void. As a result, Gimli the dwarf soon found himself taking stock of the clouds whisking across the otherwise, un-marred sky. He was just beginning to accept the idea that perhaps he was better off right where he was when the one face on middle earth he didn't want to be witnessing him in his current position leaned over his, the humour twinkling annoyingly in its clear, pristine eyes.

"Are you quite happy Master Dwarf? Perhaps a pillow for your added comfort?"

Gimli growled before moving - for a moment struggling like a tortoise on its back before the elf hooked a foot under his axe and flipped him over to allow for better leverage. Gimli scowled at the grinning elf.

"I was merely takin' advantage of any stationary situation," he growled out defensively, stalking off towards Aragorn who was crouched a little ways ahead. He really despised that look that damn elf got - though he was coming to a slow acceptance that he did not despise the elf himself. Gimli had found that he couldn't hate Legolas, despite the rivalry that had sustained between their species for a time unbound. They had simply been through too much together.

Gimli snorted derisively at his thoughts. Next he'd actually be enjoying the devil's company. He came to a halt near Aragorn, sensing Legolas doing the same behind him as they both watched the ranger scour the earth. Finally Aragorn spoke.

"They rested here, though not for long," the ranger said lowly. "They moved off before the morning broke the hills." With a sureness that only a ranger could possess he turned to the west. "This way."

Gimli rolled his eyes. More running.