"Milo?"

Milo of Long Cleeve looked up, startled. He had arrived at the second mark at sunset, and had sat down in the shadow of a tree to settle his thoughts. There had been nothing to the north, except for a few stray dogs that had belonged to the Big Folk. He had barely escaped them with his hide. They were large dogs, with wolf blood in them--they had gotten loose once the Big Folk had scattered, and they were hungry.

Milo scurried to his feet, and looked up into the face of his brother, Tolman. His face was streaked with dirt, and his eyes were weary.

"No sign of them. Any luck to the North?"

Milo shook his head. "I've searched everywhere Tolman. They aren't anywhere to be seen."

Tolman sighed, and sat down next to Milo, leaning his back against the tree. Silence fell between them, an uneasy silence.

"I hope Diamond comes back soon." Milo whispered.

"You shouldn't have let her go."

"And what was I supposed to do! Tie her down and sit on her? You know it would have come to that!" Milo argued. "Diamond's not a hobbit you say no too."

"That's cause she's the youngest and a spoiled brat," Tolman broodingly said, surprising Milo. Tolman was the fourth born, and forty two years old. He was the most serious of the Long Cleeves, and always acted as if one day all the family responsibility would fall on his shoulders. Milo knew that Tolman often looked down of those in the family that were carefree--but his words were unexpected.

"Spoiled? Diamond is not spoiled! You know and I know that she's one of the hardest working of the girls, and don't you mistake that Tol--"

"Not spoiled as in she doesn't do anything--she does what needs to get done, and then she's allowed to do whatever she wants!" Tolman explained. "Everyone treats her as if she's a great tragic figure, and cause of that she's allowed to wander all over the Shire as she pleases. She's impossible to control, Milo. She ain't a bad'un--hardly. But she doesn't know her place, Milo. She does whatever her fancy decries, and that! That will get her in a world of trouble."

"Everyone feels sorry for her cause we don't have enough money for her dowry," Milo quietly explained. "She's going to be a poor old spinster--what of it if she's allowed to enjoy life while she can?"

Tolman snorted. "Spinster! That's the sort of nonsense that will keep her from getting a husband! What, with all the girls fawning over her cause she'll be a 'spinster', and with everyone believing she can't do any better, she'll become one, without a doubt! She'll be the queer one, unmarried and still wandering the Shire like a madwoman. Milo, she has to be treated like a normal lass, and that's final."

"But what if she hadn't helped us the last few months cause we treated her like a normal lass?" Milo retorted. "Where would we be? Remember that time she warned us of the raid? We would have been caught if it hadn't been for her."

Tolman stared off in to the darkness, chin clenched. Milo continued. "Or how about that time she killed that stray dog? It would have torn you apart Tolman! And the time--"

"That's enough Milo! So you've made your point." Tolman muttered, raising his hands in defeat. "I know we owe Diamond a lot--I didn't choose my words wisely. She's still a spoiled one. But we needed to spoil her, I think." He sighed, and looked back down at his feet. "She's a plucky one all right--but it's not going to be easy for her, you know that. The war's over, Milo! The Big Folk have been defeated. That's what made Diamond acceptable, the war against the Big Folk. But now it's over, and she don't know how to be normal. That's going to make things hard for her--and we're to blame…she should have been sent back North as soon as those hobbits arrived."

"Maybe…she's not meant to be normal, Tolman," came Milo's soft, hesitant answer. "You don't know Diamond as well as I do-she never was normal. She was always just…Diamond."

"I just worry about her, that's all. She's my littlest sister, after all."

Milo grinned at Tolman, wrapping his arm around his shoulders. "She's my littlest sister too, you know."

"Yea--" Tolman gave a rare grin. "But she's littler to me than to you."

The sound of horses' hooves interrupted Tolman and Milo's thoughts, and they leapt to their feet, preparing to run. Two horses broke into the clearing that was the second mark--places that had been set as markers by the hobbit rebels. Hobbits such as the Long Cleeves of the North, the Bolgers of the East, and the Cottons of Hobbiton.

Relief was visible on Milo's face. "Mister Meriadoc and Mister Peregrin! Thank goodness it's you, and not Big Folk."

Pippin was the first off his mount, and he walked over to the two Long Cleeves. "Any luck finding the young ones?" he asked. It was evident that this young hobbit was not a grim chap, but the situation was, and it affected him greatly. Milo could see that a pint with friends, or even pulling a trick or two were more his game than this hard and depressing work.

"Only news I have is that there isn't even a smidge of track that can be found either north or south--that narrows our search down to the west," Tolman explained.

"And what of Diamond? What have her findings been?" Merry said as he got down from his mount.

"She hasn't come back yet." said Milo.

"What? What could be keeping her?" Merry asked, worry in his voice.

Milo could only shrug. "Tell the truth sir, it isn't like her to be late."

Merry shook his head. "She should not have left! It was still to dangerous…"

"Twasn't your fault sir," Tolman replied. "She's a very determined girl--very headstrong. It's a family trait."

"Yes, and she's succeeded quite well in giving us all a great deal of worry," Merry wryly commented.

"There's a large group of hobbits ready to search at a moment's notice if they aren't found," Pippin explained. "If she doesn't come soon, then they'll be summoned."

"We only need to hold out a bit, she'll come!" Milo argued. "Diamond is the fastest, sneakiest one of all us Long Cleeves, and the best tracker to boot. If she got caught, then a dwarves forge would freeze over! Just you watch, she's going to walk in here, with those two young'uns, and the joke will be on-"

"What's that!" Pippin suddenly said, drawing his sword.

Merry drew his sword, and all three hobbits turned and followed Pippin's gaze to one patch of darkness. It was a half moon, and the forests were illuminated in its' ghostly and unnatural light.

Milo couldn't see anything in that darkness, but Pippin and Merry could. What they saw was a dark figure, hiding behind a tree. Pippin was the first to call to it. "Reveal yourself, stranger!"

But the figure made no sound.

Merry was the next to speak. "Come out where we can see you!" he ordered, and he and Pippin began to advance.

The figure didn't move, but it did utter one weak phrase.

"Good evening, Mister Meriadoc."

The two hobbits immediately sheathed their swords, and all four ran to Diamond's side.

"Diamond, are you a sight for sore eyes!" Milo exclaimed. But his relief turned quickly into shock.

"I've...I've been hurt bad," she stuttered as she collapsed, sliding down the tree trunk.

"Diamond!" Tolman cried as he fell to his knees next to her. The others followed suit, trying to examine her wounds in the darkness. The makeshift bandages were stained dark, and were frightening.

"Diamond, what happened!" Tolman asked, shaken.

Diamond's eyes focused beyond them, and she gave a weak grin. "Don't be afraid," she said, voice clipped from pain, but cheery. "I'm in good hands now. I'm going to be just fine, you see. You can trust these fellows."

Merry and Pippin looked at each other, confused.

"Who's she talking to, Merry?" Pippin asked.

Merry turned, eyes searching the surrounding forest, trying to see what Diamond saw. Leaves rustled.

"Diamond?"

It was a tiny voice, a wavering and weak one. The voice of a child.

"Diamond, did you find them?" Milo exclaimed.

"Come on out you two," Diamond said, once again addressing the forest. "We're safe now."

The two missing hobbit children shuffled out of the shadows, clinging to each other. They were terrified, and kept shifting their eyes from the prone Diamond to the four hobbit men that surrounded her.

"Diamond--" the girl's throat choked, and she burst out into tears. The children tried to run for her, to embrace her, but Merry swooped down and picked them up just before they reached her.

"You can't touch Diamond," he explained as he put their squirming and crying forms back onto the ground. "She's very badly hurt. We have to take her to a healer."

"She mustn't die!" the boy wailed. "She mustn't!"

"Who said anything about dying!" Diamond retorted as she struggled to sit up. Milo had to hold her down. "I'm in the prime of health, can't you see that! I've just got a few nasty scraps that's all--nothing a proper bandage and some bed rest can't fix!"

The makeshift bandage on her thigh was saturated with blood. Tolman lifted it as gently as he could, to try and see what her injury was like. But the cloth just pulled the scabs up with it, and the deep gashes bleed fresh.

"Diamond, did a dog get you?" Tolman asked in shock.

She clamped the bandage back down, and grimaced. "Take the children away!" she hissed, her voice for their ears alone. "They mustn't see me like this! Take them back to town! Mister Meriadoc!" she cried, "Please take Primrose and Ollie back into town."

"No!" the children cried even harder. "We can't leave Diamond! Diamond keeps the bad things away!"

"Mister Meriadoc…please take them back," she pleaded. "Primrose, Ollie, you're just as safe with Mister Meriadoc as you would be with me. You have to go back with him."

Their tears didn't stop, but they clung to her words, and nodded.

"Pippin, you need to get Diamond back to Hobbiton as quick as you can ride," Merry ordered as he took the children's hands. "She needs to get to a doctor, and now."

Pippin nodded his understanding, and Merry shepherded the children to his horse back in the clearing.

"Milo, Tolman, we have to lift Diamond on top of my horse," Pippin explained. "I have to ride her back in."

They were careful, so careful as they lifted her--Pippin and Tolman lifting her torso, Milo lifting her legs. She gave a groan in pain. Her head hung low and lolled back and forth as they carried her. She was weak, so very weak, and it scared Milo. She was so thin and lifeless, a mere shade of a true hobbit.

They placed her on the pony so that her legs hung over one side, and she said upright in the saddle. Tolman and Milo balanced her as Pippin climbed onto the pony's back. Diamond's body fell against him, and his arms went around her to grab the reins and to keep her from falling off.

"Now, Miss Diamond," he said boisterously, forcing cheer and liveliness into his voice. I'd suggest you put your arms around me and try to hold on, cause it's my understanding that the worst part about riding a horse is falling off."

She moved one arm, and it weakly hung around his waist--Pippin brought his own arms closer around her. He gave his horse a kick, and it trotted off. Her brothers melted back into the darkness of the woods--Pippin knew it wouldn't be long till Diamond's kin heard of her misfortune. "That'll do," he said, "Now just sit tight and relax--we'll be in Hobbiton in no time, and I figure you'll be a regular hero once all this is over."

He adjusted to the feel of holding her in the saddle, of her dead weight against him, and feeling more confidant, he gave another kick, going into a gallop. He didn't doubt that the faster pace must be giving Diamond pain, but he had to get her there as quick as he could. She was on the edge, and a few minutes could mean the world. "Hang in there, Miss Diamond," he whispered in her ear. "You mustn't die…you mustn't die…"