Legolas gulped as he looked at the scene of the collision. The dwarf was lying on the ground beneath his horse. Legolas's horse was nowhere to be seen. Neither were the hobbits.

An acorn fell from the tree branches above him and knocked Legolas on the head. He looked up.

Merry and Pippin were hanging from branches near the top of the tree. "Mister Legolas," Merry cried. "Could you please come and get us out of here?"

Legolas sighed and jumped up in the air, catching hold of one of the middle branches. He stood on it and unhooked Pippin, and dropped him down to a not so soft landing on the grass. Merry was next, although he fared better. He landed on Pippin.

"Mister Legolas," Pippin said, looking up into the tree, "are you mad at us or something?" He was answered by a groan from above, followed by a terrible sound behind him. Pippin spun around. From beneath an unconscious horse, a bloodshot eye glared at him.

It looked all around before catching sight of Legolas jumping down from the tree. "An elf. An elf and some little children. I hate Elves," the dwarf grumbled. "And children," he added as an afterthought.

~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~

"Oh come on, Gandalf. It's not like we actually hurt anyone," Pippin beseeched. Gimli snorted in derision at that (having one arm in a sling and his head wrapped in bandages) but remained silent. Gandalf still stood over them, a really tall and really scary figure.

"And he was the one who let us ride his horse," Merry said, pointing at Legolas, who was peeking in the door. The blond head vanished.

"I am quite aware of that, Mr. Brandybuck. He will get his due later," Gandalf said. "And as for the two of you-" here he paused dramatically- "go to your rooms and stay there for the rest of the day. I am very disappointed in you."

"What about supper?" Pippin asked.

"What about it?" Gandalf said with an evil grin. He walked out of the room, followed by Elrond and Gimli. In the background they could hear the hobbits protesting: "What? But we'll starve. We'll waste away to nothing!"

~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~

Merry was lying on his bed, eyes closed, when he felt some plaster fall on his face. Opening one eye, he saw Pippin peering at him through a space in the ceiling.

"Oh, you're awake," he said. "Catch this." He threw down the missing ceiling tile, which hit Merry in the stomach. "Move, Merry! I have to get in."

Merry moved. He looked a bit uneasily at Pippin, who landed on his bed with a thud. "Don't you think we've gotten into enough trouble today?"

"Oh, stop being a Sam," Pippin said breezily. "Elrond wasn't really mad at us, remember?"

"But Gandalf was," Merry reminded him.

Pippin frowned. "Oh yeah, too bad. We won't do anything incriminating this time, I promise." Merry rolled his eyes, but followed Pippin into the ceiling duct (Which they reached by bouncing on the bed).

"Where are we going?" Merry whispered. Pippin didn't answer. He was staring down through a crack in the ceiling. Merry shoved him aside and looked. It was either Arwen or Strider's room, and although the hobbits were making quite a bit of noise, it was all right. They were a bit. preoccupied.

Merry rolled his eyes and crawled on. When he looked back, Pippin was still watching. "Come ON, Pip," he said impatiently. "You can see that some other time."

"When?" Pippin asked, but he sighed and followed Merry. "We're not going to be allowed in the dining hall, if I know Gandalf. But."

"But what?"

Pippin grinned. "This crawl space goes to the outer walls. We can sneak out and find something to eat." He held up a pack of matches.

The hobbits managed to get out of the building and away from it before anyone saw them. They wandered around for a bit in the surrounding woods, looking for a sparrow to roast, perhaps, or a rabbit to catch. Merry was getting cold and hungry and a bit fed up at Pippin, and he was about to suggest they turned back, when he caught sight of something that suddenly cheered him up.

Mushrooms! Pippin saw them at about the same time, and they rushed up to pick some of the delectable things. Pippin made a fire and they cooked the mushrooms by spearing them on sticks and holding them over the fire.

~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~

Later that afternoon, they wandered back into the house at Rivendell with some more of the delightful vegetables with them. Pippin was a bit tired and wanted to go to bed, but Merry felt wide-awake. He suggested they go exploring.

After a few minutes, they found themselves in a deserted chamber. The hobbits went over every inch of it, and they found many interesting things. They were about to leave the room when Pippin noticed a stone ledge.

He got Merry to lift him up to see. "Hey," Pippin said, "it's some broken pieces of steel." They switched places and Merry looked.

"No it's not," Merry said. "It's a sword." He reached for one of the old rusty pieces and cut himself. "Ow!" The piece dropped to the floor.

Pippin bent down to inspect it. "Wow," he said, "you're right. Now why didn't I see that?" Merry didn't answer. "Well," he continued, "I bet this isn't the first time this has hurt someone. Look, there's dried blood on one of the edges."

"Hey," Merry said, "I have an idea. Since this is a dangerous object, and it can't be used for anything, let's hide it away so no one else gets hurt! That would be doing a good deed."

Pippin stared at him. "Really? I could use some of those. Okay, let's go!" They gingerly took the broken sword and carried it away.

~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~

"Where do we put it?" Pippin asked.

Merry thought hard for a minute. "I know," he said finally, "let's bury it. Like pirates."

Pippin stared at him. "Really? I've always wanted to be a pirate."

Merry grinned. "I knew it was a good idea."

~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~

A/N: What do you think? R/R!