Frodo, Sam, and Pippin went back to the parlor (Little did they know, Strider was following them) They went inside and shut the door behind them (still not noticing Strider) Strider helped himself to a rocking chair. While the three hobbits began settling in and talking to one another, he began rocking in the rocking chair. Then becoming extremely amused with the chair, Strider forgot all about the hobbits. He then began rocking vigorously in the chair and laughing with glee. The hobbits all stopped what they were doing and began staring at this rather disturbing display, not quite knowing what to think.
Strider suddenly realized they were all staring at him and he stopped rocking and cleared his throat, going back to his rough-tough-fearless-warrior look.
"Who are you?" Pippin asked the scary stalker man.
"Who am I? Who am I?!" said the scary man, towering over the hobbits as he stood to his full height. The hobbits took a step back, but Strider turned suddenly and strided (Haha! Get it?… Strider strided? Haha!… Yeah, anyway…) quickly toward the door. After opening it, looking around suspiciously, and quickly shutting it again he turned back to the now frightened and befuddled hobbits. He looked as though he was going to speak if he could only remember why it was that he was going to speak.
There was a long awkward silence before Frodo finally stepped forward to speak to the scary man.
"Don't make any sudden moves, Mr. Frodo," whispered Sam.
"Alright Mr.- er… whatever your name is," began Frodo; "who, exactly, are you? How do you know who we are? And for the sake of everything sane, why are you stalking me?"
"Well, as for who I am that depends on who you are because I have many names," began Strider, as if he felt this was a question well worth answering in full (at the expense of the poor soul who dared to ask). "My real name is technically Aragorn, or if you live in Gonder it will soon be king Aragorn, hehe. But then if you're in Rivendel I'm known as the Dunadain or also there are still some who call me Isildur's Heir. However, one of my less commonly known names is-"
"Why don't we just call you Strider?" Frodo interrupted.
"Oh, but that's not even half of my list," continued Strider.
"I'm sure you can tell us all about your names later," said Frodo quickly. "But first why don't you answer my other questions?"
"Oh, right," Strider remembered. "Well, how do I know who you are? . . . That's simple . . . I know everything. I'm a friend of Gandalf's and I'm supposed to lead you to Rivendel because that's where Gandalf is hiding out and claiming that he's 'seeking council'. There, Agent -er, I mean . . . Master Elrond will be able to help you figure out what to do with The One Way Cool And Awesome All Powerful Circle."
The three hobbits looked at each other.
"Dude, that's deep," Pippin stated intelligently.
Just then the door opened and in stepped Merry.
"Halt! Who goes there!" shouted Strider, as he jumped up from his chair. "State your name, street address, phone number, zip code, and date of birth. Are you on our side or Sauron's side? You're a spy, aren't you?" he pressed. Merry simply stared at him with a blank-unimpressed look. He then turned to Frodo.
"Do we know him?" he said pointing to Strider.
"This is Strider," replied Frodo. "It's Ok, Strider, he's with us," he said, turning to Strider, who still had his sword drawn and was eyeing Merry suspiciously.
"Oh . . ." said Strider, putting away his sword. "Sorry . . . I have to be extra careful. There are strange folk about, here in Bree," he said, running over to the door, opening it, looking around suspiciously, and then closing it again.
"You don't say. . ." said Merry, eyeing the strange man.
"Oh! Speaking of strange folk. . ." said Merry, remembering, "just thought you might like to know that the Dark Riders are here in Bree."
"What?!" said Strider and Frodo together.
"Yep," continued Merry. "Tried to kill me, they did. Not very cheery folk, if you ask me. Personally, I think that these Black Riders are the end result of watching too much Barney. I knew there was something queer about that dinosaur the moment I first saw him skipping around singing that annoying song. And, in fact, I think that -"
"How far are they from here?" interrupted Strider.
"And how did they find us here?" said Frodo (seeing as this was the only advice Frodo usually seemed to offer in moments such as these).
"How did you escape them?" "They tried to kill you? . . . cool!" said Sam and Pippin together.
"One question at a time!" said Merry.
"How far are they from here?" Strider repeated.
"Well, I followed them up to that strange 'Bill' guys house" began Merry, "and I think it was about then that they tried to kill me . . . I don't really remember though . . . well, anyways . . . then this guy who said that his name was Bob and he worked for Mr. Butterbur showed up and the next thing I remember we were running from the Black Riders. And I can't be sure. . . but I'm pretty positive that they know we're here now."
Panic rose in the other fours' eyes.
"So, anyways . . ." Merry added casually, "how was everyone else's evening?"
"Do not go to your beds tonight," said Strider, ignoring Merry's last question. "We will sleep in here."
"We?" interrupted Sam.
"Yes, we," said Strider. "It's all part of my way ingenius plan." He then proceeded telling of his 'way ingenius plan'.
"Probably just going to wait 'till we're all asleep, then he'll pull out his laser beam and fry our brains then take the circle for himself," Sam mumbled under his breath.
". . . What's a laser beam?" asked Pippin, who had caught most of Sam's mumbling.
Sam thought about this a moment, then shrugged.
"Right now we should board up the doors" Strider continued. "There's no time to board up the windows now, so we'll just shut them really, really tight . . . yeah, that should keep the Ring Wraiths out."
So, everyone proceeded to board up the doors and shut the windows really, really tight. Then they cleverly put pillows in their beds to make it look like they were in them. Then they all went back to the parlor and the four hobbits laid on the floor, in front of the fire place and went to sleep, while Strider sat in his rocking chair, occasionally opening the door and glancing around suspiciously.
The next morning, when the four hobbits woke up they all went to their room to see if the Black Riders had come in the middle of the night. When they reached their room, they found all of the beds lying on theirs sides with mattress, pillows, and blankets all ripped to shreds, and feathers everywhere.
"You know" said Sam "I'm really starting to dislike them Black Riders."
Pippin nodded in agreement.
"I think that maybe we should leave now," stated Frodo as he stared at the pulverized beds.
"No argument there," from Merry.
And with that they all packed and left (on time [yes . . . on time])
a/n: Legolas cookies for everyone! Now click that little purple button. ( Come on, you know you wanna ;-) )