Aelfgifu: Can I say that I miss you? Yes, I can! I really do hope that you are still there enjoying the story.

QTPie: I believe that the real Merry would feel the same way too.

Krista: Hurrah for your return! I miss you just as I miss Emma.

Endymion: I felt a bit lame myself about the elves...

Alisundre: "We're here! We're here!" said Strider, Sam, Ted, and - Pippin.

Blue Jedi Hobbit: Sorry! But Merry made me write this. This was what really happened, he said.

Warning: AU

Chapter 49

Strider could almost swear that what had caught his sight was a hobbit for it was small and clearly had curly hair. But Pippin, with his sore body, was still quite fast that he managed to bury himself in bushes behind all the big trees. If it wasn't because of a slight movement he made, the ranger wouldn't have known where the hobbit was hiding.

Striding undoubtfully with his long legs, Strider got to the groups of shrubs even before Pippin had the chance to take a breath. He wailed when sensing a hand grasp his shoulder and yank him upward, away from the bushes, and continued to drag him along to where Sam and Ted were waiting cautiously.

Sam sucked his breath when recognizing who Strider was holding.

"Master Pippin! What are you doing there alone?" he shouted, his eyes widening. It was lucky for the questioned hobbit, though, that Sam didn't realize what Pippin had done to him, again, the last time they crossed their paths.

But Pippin, recalling how he had struck the ranger, got so engrossed in his own fearful feeling that he failed to even notice Sam's question. Strider, on the other hand, had not been willing to let him go although the man had finally released his bruising shoulder. The ranger turned him around none too gently so that now he was facing, not the ragged face of Strider, of course, but the man's chest instead. Pippin didn't dare to look up at Strider, who was now starting to shake him, making Pippin's body sway uncontrollably. Dizziness began to overcome him and he struggled to keep his teeth from bumping to each other.

Strider got unusually impatient as he had been hoping to meet whatever creatures that had caused the earth to quake, and to fight a bloody fight if that was the only way to free Frodo, the hobbit he so desperately wanted to save. He couldn't imagine what would happen to himself if he failed this single thing. Gandalf would shred him into pieces as the wizard had carefully stated that nothing harmful should come upon the hobbit, not even on a strand of hair. But this? Frodo was practically wrecked the last time Strider laid his eyes upon him. He couldn't forget how Frodo had been unable to resist what the corrupted hobbit, Merry, had told him what to do.

The ranger continued to shake the limping body of Pippin without a single word coming from the man's mouth. What else should he ask the hobbit besides the very same question Sam had addressed the hobbit and that hadn't been answered?

Pippin's face grew paler and he felt he couldn't stand it anymore. Sam was alarmed seeing how Frodo's cousin's face was greening and looked as if he would be sick anytime.

Sam jumped in just in time to save Strider from being spilled all over his body by Pippin's heave.

"Strider!" Sam cried. "That's enough! He's getting sick!"

And as the ranger released Pippin from his grip and Pippin slumped down on his knees from the lack of support, a stream of yellowish liquid shot out of the hobbit's mouth.

"Poor Master Pippin," commented the softhearted Sam, and looked scornfully at Strider.

"You need not do that, Master Strider," glared Sam. "It is so obvious that Pippin was in pain even before you shook him like a worthless rag doll." Sam either didn't want to admit that Pippin had beat him so hard at the back of his head once or just simply forgot.

He kneeled down beside Pippin and started to knead the trembling hobbit's neck to help him let out all the lumps in his throat and also to ease the taut muscles there.

"Feeling better, Master Pip?"

"Mmh, thanks, Sam," mumbled Pippin. Sam nodded and stood up. He replied his question earlier. But Pippin shook his head weakly.

"I don't know. I was left behind."

Sam's brow furrowed.

"Left behind? Why? I thought Merry would never leave you. Where is he? Where is Master Frodo?"

Strider stood silently with his back facing the hobbits. He didn't realize that he was shaking furiously. Ted, who was standing in front of him, extended his hand and put it gently on the ranger's shoulder, trying to calm him down.

"We will find him, Strider. I promise you," said Ted in his soothing voice.

What? Wasn't Ted taking the matter a bit too lightly? Promising him something like that? No, it was hard for Strider to believe that. They needed some information that could lead them to Frodo and the only person whom they could gather it from was this silly little hobbit!

"I don't know where Frodo is!" Pippin insisted. "I got unconscious when they finally took him away."

Strider frowned. His suspicion arose.

"They? Who is 'they'?" asked him harshly.

Pippin turned to the man and began to shiver again.

"They --- they--" he stuttered.

Strider ignored his hesitant speech.

"Just answer the question!"

Pippin stared back at Sam.

"There were men, orcs, and - beasts! Hundreds of beats!" Pippin cried out. Dread fell over him, and it quickly spread to Sam.

"What - what kind of beasts?" he asked, fearing the worst for Frodo.

"Wargs," muttered Strider.

"What's that?" Sam's jaw dropped open.

"The big creatures you felt their drumming along the other day, Sam. They look like a dog, a menacing-looking one, but they are much bigger. Orcs are riding them, but I never heard men are, too."

"They are!" convinced Pippin.

"And where did they say they were going?"

Pippin was just more than happy to inform them. Anything. As long as they never came to the point where he would be forced to tell them how he had tried to drown Frodo.

"Rivendell!"

***

The man let go of Frodo and the unconscious, bound and blindfolded frame of the hobbit sank slowly to the ground, on his knees first, then finally slumping completely on his side. The man stooped and tied another piece of rope around Frodo's ankles.

"Someone must take him now," he, the leader, said. "I can't. I lost my warg."

He looked around, but even he was bewildered by what he saw. The orcs were surrounding Frodo and looked down hungrily at him as if he were some kind of a delicious meal.

"Aa - I don't think so. Not either of you, please." He had known these creatures long enough to be able to see what was running in their minds right now, and even he shuddered to think about it. So he motioned to the man who had helped him earlier to take the hobbit away.

Merry stood impatiently, watching the men's slow action. He sighed loudly when someone finally took the responsibility, so he could walk back to the warg he had been riding together with a big folk.

"Now let's go! I didn't see the advantage of lingering here. They can send more elves soon."

Grumbling high and low, the man grabbed Frodo's tied form and tossed it over his shoulder. He thought he heard a groan when he unceremoniously threw Frodo flat on his stomach on the warg's back. But he didn't give much attention to it as he drabbed a thick, coarse cover over Frodo's body, hindering any outsiders from finding out about their wretched captive unintentionally.

TBC