A/N: Here we go, our first encounter with men! Just like to say that exams are what caused my lateness, not me, blame the government. Thank you.

Dealing in Death

"Stop scratching it Pippin, you'll not make it any better that way," said Frodo as they continued their journey along the road.

"But it shan't make it much worse either, seeing as how it should, by all rights, still be bleeding but is in fact nearly healed." Pippin stopped and rubbed his injured foot with the other until Merry yanked him off balance and so had to put his foot down.

"You wouldn't be arguing if you'd seen what Frodo had done to others who disobeyed him."

"Yes I would, you still do." Pippin raised his eyebrow, challenging Merry to disagree so he could list all kinds of things he'd heard, but Merry knew when he was beaten and backed down, Pippin was quite disappointed.

"What do you say we stop here for the day?" said Sam, peering down an overgrown path that must have had some kind of dwelling at the end of it. They agreed and wandered, still lightly bickering, down to an empty house. Well, it looked empty, though it certainly didn't sound it. There were definitely two beings inside that would rather not be interrupted. So, naturally, Frodo saw fit to interrupt them.

He pushed the door and with a creak, it grudgingly opened to reveal two hobbits, male and female, on the floor wearing considerably less than was suitable on such a cold night.

"What are you doing in here? Get out!" Ordered the male, obviously not seeing exactly who it was in the doorway and not noticing that they were outnumbered two to one.

"No." said Frodo civilly, "I really think it is you who should be the ones to get out." the hobbits on the floor jumped and shivered as they realised to whom they were talking.

"Mr. Frodo sir!" said the lass, who was the first to gather herself together, "We are sorry! We didn't realise it was you! Nor you Mr. Samwise, Mr. Meriadoc." Pippin snorted, he obviously wasn't important enough to be mentioned. Frodo didn't move. "We'll just be going." said the lass and she kicked the lad still lying on the floor in what seemed to be some state of shock.

"But it's nearly dawn!" cried the lad in dismay. The lass rolled her eyes, gathered up her skirts and exited as fast as she could manage. The four intruders stared at the remaining lad, he quickly caught on that he was more likely to survive dawn than Frodo and followed his partner into the night.

Pippin smiled and hopped into the house. While the other three settled down onto a sofa they found at the back of the room, Pippin went off to explore. There wasn't much to explore, it was a very small house and a part of the roof had fallen in at the back.

He stepped into a darkness in which even he could not see and shuffled around until he came upon something soft on the floor. He picked it, or at least part of it, up and felt it. It had fingers.

"Ugh!" he said as he dropped the arm back to the floor with a thud.

"What is it?" called Merry sleepily from the other room.

"The previous occupant of the house I think." Pippin carefully made his way back to the front room as the smell wasn't particularly pleasant. He shut the front door and settled himself down into an armchair.

The next evening, just as the sun dipped below the horizon, four well- rested vampires emerged from the house stretching and made their way back towards the borders.

The night was drawing on and still Aragorn had only met a pair of vampires and they had been dispatched easily enough. It seemed as though it was going to be a quiet night, he mustn't let his guard down though. He called to the rest of the rangers that travelled with him, they were a group of four, using various birdcalls and two replied telling him all was well.

The third, from up ahead gave an owl hoot, a sign that meant something approached on the road. Aragorn made his own way to the road. This was how they caught vampires, one of them would walk alone on the road and the other three would hide in the bushes surrounding and ambush when the signal was given.

"Are we nearly there? My foot still hurts." Aragorn jumped and looked up, they were closer than he had expected but they were not in sight just yet.

"Quiet Pippin, I think I hear footsteps far too load to be a hobbit's." Aragorn stopped walking and glanced around to check the others were in position. "Is anyone there?" the voice called forward, seemingly nervous.

"Yes, I am." said Aragorn, as though that would clear everything up. Four hobbits then appeared around the corner. Four! That was odd in itself, it wasn't often that four vampires were able to get along without one of them being killed, perhaps they were actually hobbits trying to flee the Shire.

"Hello there!" called one of the hobbits, a tall one with an untrusting look, Aragorn couldn't blame him, he doubted that much could be trusted on these roads anymore. "It's been a long time since I've seen a friendly face in these parts. Have I found one at last or do I have to keep looking?"

"That depends if you're alive or dead." said Aragorn, smiling slightly, this didn't sound like vampire talk but still, he shouldn't let his guard down.

"We're alive," stated another of the hobbits, more stout than the others, "But do you really think anything dead would say so?" Aragorn chuckled,

"No," He admitted, "But it may catch out those with slower wits."

"What brings you out here at this time of night?" asked the tall one.

"I could ask the same of you."

"Well we asked first, so really you should be the one to answer." Said the one on the end, he looked to be the most energetic and slim, his face was more tanned than the other three.

"Very well, I am out hunting." They didn't bother to ask what he was hunting, it wasn't that hard to guess.

"On your own?" said the one who hadn't spoken so far, he had broad shoulders and his look was calculating and still mistrusting. Aragorn opened his mouth to reply but the stout hobbit beat him to it.

"No, look, there's someone above our heads and aiming an arrow at us if I'm not mistaken!" Anborn, who was the one above their heads jumped, he thought he had been quite well hidden. Aragorn laughed.

"There's another over there." stated the slim one pointing to another of Aragorn's men. Aragorn could barely keep upright after seeing the look on his face.

"And another." Indeed, they had all been found out and Aragorn called them all onto the open road. Anborn brought with him a torch. The slim one hissed at the sudden introduction of light. Hissed? All arrows were suddenly notched, back on the bowstring.

"Pippin!" cried one of the hobbits, "Of all the things you could have done at that moment in time you went and hissed!"

"I couldn't help it! It hurt my eyes!"

"It hurt my eyes as well but I managed to refrain from hissing!" All four rangers were frozen watching the argument as though they were under a spell.

"This is only the third time I've been out at night for over a decade! What do you expect?"

"Merry, it's time you stopped using the excuse that you're young and let Pippin use it, you could barely open your eyes in moonlight." The one called Merry shot an annoyed look at his apparent elder.

"Moonlight and hunter's torches are two completely different things!"

"Did I ask to be bitten? Did I wander down the road yelling, 'Oy Merry! Come and bite me!'"

"No, but you were wandering around at night, that's good enough for me."

"Please you two, this is neither the time nor the place, and you were getting along so well earlier!" Their elder put that argument to rest, at least for the moment it seemed. They four vampires turned their gazes back to the rangers who shifted uneasily, they were still trying to work out why they hadn't loosed their arrows yet.

The tall one, the leader, raised his eyebrow and smirked, "Well, are you going to stand there all night and wait for the sun to burn us away?"

"Don't tempt them Frodo!" said Pippin a little worriedly, he looked to be only just stopping himself from running into the bushes and he rubbed his foot absentmindedly with the other. Aragorn gave a jolt. Frodo! This was Frodo! The tales he'd heard babbled from the mouths of his prey were numerous and decidedly unpleasant. Not only that but this creature, once Frodo Baggins of Bag End, still carried with him a tool of great evil. He only knew what he could work out from Gandalf's riddles but from that, he knew that it was not anything that should be in the hands of vampires.

Seeing his friend stare in such wide-eyed horror at the vampires, Anborn snapped back into reality and at last let his arrow fly. Judging from the breathless scream, he had hit something but the four fled into the shadows so quickly that it was hard to see anything more.

They would have to keep a good watch tonight