Merry sat with Pippin's hand held securely in his hand. Tears had been running down his cheek, but had since then subsided. It had been almost a day since they had found Pippin, but no change occurred. He was still barely breathing. It seemed as if every breath was more and more painful for the small hobbit.

            "I wonder who beat him like this." Sam said, breaking the silence.

            "I think more than one person has beaten him. More than likely orcs and maybe some other creature. I noticed when we found him that there was strange footprints around him." Aragorn replied, not knowing how right he was.

            "Nassty little hobbits. We hates them. We will gets them for stealing from us."

Merry was just about to doze off when he heard a noise coming from the bushes by the camp.

            "I wonder what that was." Merry said to himself.

The noise stopped just after Merry ad said that. He thought he was hearing things, so continued to fall asleep. Aragorn had decided that he should look at the footprints of Pippin's attacker a little more closely. He told Sam to stay with Merry and Pippin while he was away.

            "Sure thing, Mister Strider." Sam said happily.

After Aragorn had walked off to look at the footprints, the noise returned. Sam and Merry both heard it this time. They stared at the bushes, almost trance-like, hoping that the noise would go away, or at least be a bunny or some other small creature. Much to their disappointment it wasn't a harmless creature, but something much more dangerous, Gollum. Gollum leaped at the hobbits with a large stick in his hand. He whacked Sam in the head with it and Sam fell to the ground, unconscious. Merry went to attack Gollum to protect Pippin, but Gollum also hit Merry, knocking him unconscious also. Gollum decided to finish what he had begun on Pippin, so he wrapped his fingers around Pippin's neck and squeezed as hard as he could. Pippin was unable to breath, Merry was unable to help him, and Sam was unable to help Pippin either. Pippin was doomed.

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

I know that was bad, and I took me forever to post, but first my computer died (again) and then I had problems with my internet connection. So at last here is the next chapter…please don't yell at me for  it being short, the next chapter will be longer.