~*~ Chapter 9~*~
"What did he say?"
"Not a lot… I know for a fact he's not doing as well as he says. I swear he can be as stubborn as me when the right time comes."
Gandalf smiled.
Aragorn looked over at the hobbit, "You will have to stay with a friend… it will be too dangerous for you."
The hobbit's eyes widened, "You're gonna leave me?"
Aragorn shook his head, "Simply for a couple hours… not likely to be any more than that… then I'll come back."
The hobbit was silent for a moment, "Uh… 'm sorry bu'… what's an ada?"
Aragorn smiled, "Ada means dad in Elvish…"
"Why would ye call'm ada then? Why not jus'… dad?"
Aragorn glanced back at Legolas with a smile, "Terr, my father is an elf."
The hobbit clearly didn't believe this though and just gave him an odd look, "Ye father canna be an elf."
Aragorn laughed lightly, "Not my real father but my adoptive father can be."
"Oh…" his eyes were large, "you were adopted by an elf?"
Aragorn smiled, "Aye, I was."
The small hobbit looked thoughtful for a moment, glancing at the man and smiled.
"Come on Terr, let's go. We have to go."
The hobbit climbed into the cart and waited.
~*~*~*~*~*~
By the time they were half a day away from The Shire, the man and elf were becoming quite annoyed, though they didn't show it.
Every five minutes the young hobbit asked if they were there yet or how long it would be.
Aragorn finally motioned to the hobbit, "Come here, I have something to show you."
The hobbit came over right away, "Yessir?"
Aragorn sighed, "Please stop with the 'sir'…"
The hobbit nodded, "Okay."
Aragorn pulled the hobbit over and pointed out the trees, "That is where we are headed. You are to stay with a friend while we go to get my father."
The hobbit's eyes widened, "Yur gonna leave me?"
Aragorn smiled slightly, "Only for a little while, remember? I already explained it to you… no longer than an hour or two I hope."
Terrian nodded slowly, "Oh yeah… 'kay…"
Without warning the man jolted forward with a gasp.
Legolas spun around and jumped quickly into the back of the wagon, "Telcontar? Are you okay?"
"Nothing hit me," he sounded confused, "I don't know what happened…"
He jolted again but this time was ready for it and didn't make a sound, the sudden pains in his sides and back just kept coming.
Without a word, Gandalf sped up the horses, seeming to know what happened.
"Mithrandir, do you know the cause of this?" Legolas asked.
"It is probably an after-effect of being linked with his father," he started explaining without pause, "they are likely beating him now."
Aragorn's eyes became pained but the elf knew it was not the pain in his side putting it there.
"It will fade in time."
~*~*~*~*~*~
Aragorn jumped off the cart as soon as it slowed down, "I'll go ahead and warn them of our coming."
The wide-eyed hobbit tugged on his cloak, "May I please come with ya'?"
Aragorn smiled down at him, his eyes hiding the slight pain that still lingered from the beating, "You may, but you must be as silent as you can."
The hobbit nodded and smiled, following the man into the trees as silently as a hobbit can go, with next to no sound.
The cart would get through but it would take longer for it to find a wide enough path through the trees.
Aragorn went silently as he recognized the area as the same one the others were in. When he saw the group he used one of the many signals they knew, a lark-call is what it sounded like but to the rangers it was a signal that a friend was approaching, used mainly to keep the rangers calm instead of having them spring up with arrows aimed at you.
The group glanced up and Halbarad copied the signal, saying he'd heard the first and the newcomer should approach.
Aragorn stepped into the clearing, followed closely by the hobbit.
"Strider," Halbarad started, a cold gleam in his eyes, "you have given away our whereabouts."
Aragorn bowed his head, ready for the test they had to give the hobbit, "Aye sir…"
"You know the penalty of bringing an outsider in without the knowledge of your leader?" Halbarad knew full well that Aragorn was the rightful leader of the rangers but the hobbit didn't know that.
Aragorn winced and gulped, "I know sir but."
Halbarad cut him off, "No buts! Do you know the penalty or not?"
"Yes sir… death…" there obviously was no such penalty but it got the reaction they wanted.
"What?!" the hobbit yelped, "NO! Please! I'll go! I wont come back I swear! I wont tell anyone either! Just let him go!"
"We can not do that halfling, it is against our rules."
The hobbit's eyes swam, "Please…"
Halbarad felt bad for the small being but it was something they always did with newcomers to be sure they did not simply want to find out about their weaknesses. He didn't think a halfling would be in on such but he was from Bree and humans could have a large influence on others.
Terrian took a deep breath, "He has a family, I do not," the other rangers could see the anger in the hobbits eyes, "if you must take a life take mine."
The older ranger gazed into the hobbits eyes coldly and seeing the truth grinned.
Aragorn smiled and patted the hobbit on the back.
Terrian gazed around, open-mouthed.
"I'm sorry Terr, any outsider must go through a test of some sort," Aragorn explained, "I hope it wont change your opinion of us."
Halbarad got to his knees in front of the halfling, "Please accept my apologies, I could not say I enjoyed doing that."
The hobbit eyed the man while clearing the tears from his eyes, "If you tell me why you did that I can accept your apology."
Aragorn smiled and knelt down next to Halbarad, "A while ago, we accepted a couple men into our group," he glanced at Halbarad, "they found out more than they should have and told some people… we ended up abandoning four posts because of it."
Halbarad nodded, "Luckily we were able to replace them."
Aragorn nodded and glanced at the young man he had seen when he arrived, "New arrival?"
"Aye, he's shown a good talent so we decided to get him started off early," Halbarad replied.
Aragorn smiled at the young man, "Mae govannen neth edain." // Well met young man. //
That man smiled, "Mae govannen hiramin." // Well met my lord. //
Aragorn turned a slight glare on Halbarad who smirked and shrugged, Aragorn sighed, "No lord, please."
The man looked to Halbarad who raised his eyebrows, "Do not look to me! If he tells you to do something listen to him. Even I must answer to him."
The man muttered the last part causing Aragorn to smirk.
"Okay sir."
Aragorn groaned, "No sir, no… anything like that. Not even Mr.! Just, call me Strider."
The man nodded slowly with a smile, "Strider, amin esta Benneron." // My name (is) //
Aragorn smiled and clasped the man on the shoulder then turned to Halbarad, "We should sleep. We need to get up early…"
Halbarad looked to him, "What has happened?"
Aragorn sighed, "Elrond has been taken captive, he is not far from here, surely you know about the men camping only a little ways away?"
"Aye but I did not know they had captives."
The hobbits eyes were huge, "Elrond? Lord Elrond of Rivendell? He is you father?"
Aragorn smiled sadly at him, "Aye little one."
Benneron looked surprised but not incredibly so.
"I intend to head over tomorrow at dawn."
Halbarad nodded, "But there are not many people here… there are many of them."
Aragorn smiled again, "Aye… but Gandalf and Legolas are coming in the cart," he pointed in the direction they were coming, "they are probably waiting not far off to make sure it is okay to come in."
Halbarad nodded and turned to the three other rangers, although only Anarion was paying attention as the other two were talking with the hobbit, "Me and Strider are going to go and inform the other two that they are safe to come in."
A/N
Elven Kitten: Hey! I got some wonderful reviews
for my last chapter and I greatly appreciate them all! So here are the replies!
Jadelyn Rashwe- Thank'e! Glad it's excellent. ^_^
Aut-of-Mandos/Macilwen- No, not unobservant… they were bored and it led to that…people do odd things when they're bored… you understand… lol. And yes, not being able to speak properly would drive me insane… ^_^ I already AM insane!!!!! *Giggles* LIVE off my stories???!!! *Blushes* I'm not that good… but thank you so so so so so so so so so so much for the compliment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I'll try to post quickly!
Kandice- ^_^ I had a ton of fun writing it too! I'm sooooooo glad you liked it! It makes all my hard work worthwhile! Lol. *Mutters* Hard work indeed… ^_^
mascara freak- Who doesn't like it when people update quickly? ^_^ I'll think about the Gandalf thing… no promises but I'll think about it… lol, PRANK WAR WITH A WIZARD!!!!!!!!!! That REALLY doesn't sound like a good idea… lol.
grumpy- I realize that's not how Tolkien shows foresight. I just figured it would be an interesting thing to add in. But, meh, probably wont happen that way again… that is if you only meant how it turned out in that last chapter… but w/e… glad you enjoyed!
Elf Side: Six reviews… pretty good.
E.K.: Is very good to me. Although 2 were from the same person. Lol. Thanx again!!!!!!!!!! ^_^
Gollum Side: The cheese is gone and nowss the evil lawyersss wants to know where their cheesesss iss…
E.K.: AH! A LAWYER IS COME!!!!!!!
E.S.: *Rolls eyes* Creepy though they may be… you need not freak like that…
G.S.: Clown…
E.S.: EEP!!!!!!!! WHERE!!!!!!!! *Climbs a very high tree*
E.K.: AH! NOT THE CLOWNS TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
G.S.: *Groan*
E.K.: WELL AT LEAST I'M NOT AFRAID OF CHEESE!!!!!!!!!
G.S.: CHEESE?! WHERE?!?!?!?!?!?!
Aragorn: … can I go now?
E.K.: NEVER! *Jumps on him*
A: AI! GET IT OFF!
Legolas: *Snicker*
E.S.: *Smacks him upside the head*
L: HEY!
Bilbo: And I wondered why they had become insane when I first arrived…
G.S.: *Is spray-painting Bilbo*
B: -.-
Elrond: Are you going to leave me tied to this tree?!
E.K.: *Is still hugging Aragorn* Yup!
E: … HELP!
Elladan: I love this… I finally have the upper hand on my father! I'm not helping.
Elrohir: *Snicker*
E: You two are in BIG trouble when this is over!
Ell: Ur… should we leave now?
El: Good idea…
E.K.: Nope! Once you're here there is no escape.
Frodo: That's for sure… all the doors seem to be locked from the outside…
Pippin: I'm scared…
Merry: We all are Pip…
Sam: *Is staying silent because he is covered in duct tape, for what reason I will never say…*
E.K.: Yes! You should all be afraid of us!!!!!!!!! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
G.S.: o.O… that even creepeded ME outsss…
E.K.: *Evil snicker*
E.S.: I could swear someone's missing…
E.K.: But who?
*Silence*
*…more silence*
*Silence again*
*Yet more silence*
*Yes… even more silence*
*Are you getting sick of the word 'silence' yet?*
*Even MORE of that annoying silence*
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*Silence… haha got you! No more silence*
E.K.: Ah ha! The one missing is Terrian! My hobbit runded away!!!!!!!!!!!!… Hey… so did Hal… and Anarion… and Tyryn… and Benneron! Grrrrr… new ones… they need to learn the rules… hey wait a sec… where are the unicorns and my dragon?! MY DRAGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
E.S.: Oh no… well… hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!!!! And yes, I also realize that the Author's note was almost as long as the story itself… if you enjoyed this, than you should check out our fic with MicroChips. It's under the name 'Agent Elf' and it's mainly like this the whole way through except for the fact that it's a crossover with The Matrix… but although it takes us forever to update… it's fun!
~*~Elenmeoi~*~