A Better Life

Chapter 11 The Last Day

My last day before we left for battle was kind of sad. Tihana, myself, Merry and Pippin spent the day in the field. Mainly sleeping and eating a few strawberries. I was resting against Merry with my head on his chest. I was thinking. Thinking about how things could have been different. If I only put the case away. If I only..I sighed. My life was always full of twists and turns, but this was the biggest turn I had ever taken. I snuggled even closer to Merry. Pippin pointed this out to Tori and she laughed. But did she even realize she was holding Pippin's hand? I would have used it against her, but being the good friend I am, I decided against it.

"We'll be right back, just going to take a walk," Tori said nervously.

She and Pippin got up and started walking away (hand in hand) while Merry and me stayed where we were. It was obvious Tori and Pippin liked each other. I was happy for her. I knew they were perfect for each other. I spoke my thoughts out aloud to Merry.

"Must be love then," he said, "I've never seen Pippin like this before, all giddy and happy, it's quite amusing actually."

"Don't tell me you don't act the same," I said cheekily, grinning up at him.

"Well maybe I do, only not in the stupid way he does," he replied smiling.

I laughed. Merry always made me feel good when I was around him. In fact I had never met anyone like him. He really cared about me. I looked up at him and kissed his chin.

"I love you Merry," I whispered, my heart beating fast.

He looked a little taken aback, then the hugest grin I'd ever seen spread across his face and he whispered back "I love you more Kara."

I was filled with joy. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder. So happy I started crying. Gosh I'm such a sap. Anyway little did I realize that in the bushes across from us two sets of eyes watched.

"You owe me eight apples Pip, I told you they'd confess their love today," Tori said giggling evilly.

"That's no fair it was too obvious they liked each other, " Pippin complained.

"Still owe me," Tori said leaning over and kissing his cheek.

"I'll give you eight more apples if you give me more of those kisses," he said grinning.

"Deal," Tori said giving him another kiss.

Awhile later we all started heading up to Frodo's to meet him, Gandalf and Sam. As we got there we took our weapons and suited up. Once we were sure we had everything we started our trip to collect the other hobbits willing to fight. In total there were about fifty of us. More than I had expected, but not quite enough to satisfy Gandalf. Still we headed out following Gandalf's lead. I was so afraid. I had never fought before. Never killed anyone before. Now I was about to.

I held onto Merry's hand tightly as we made our way cutting through thick forests until we came to a high hill. As Gandalf had expected there were groups of tents down bellow where the men were camping. It was early morning and luckily none of the men were up. The plan was working so far. Surely they would never expect hobbits to ambush them in the early morning. I sighed a sigh of relief. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad. They would most likely be unarmed. Slowly we split into groups and made our way silently down to the tents.