Wil was lost in a cornfield. Well, he wasn't really lost so much as he had lost track of Rosie.

"Rosie? Rosie!"

Rosie's head popped from around a bend in the path.

"Did'ya miss me?"

Wil scowled.

"No. I just made a promise to Andyalf to protect you, and I don't want him to turn me into a toad."

"Come on, Wil. We're still in the shire. Why do I need protecting here?"

"Actually," Wil mused, "being a toad might not be so bad."

Rosie looked around. "What could possibly happen?" she said louder.

"I wish I were a toad."

"Hello!" Rosie shouted, ignoring Wil. "That's your cue!"

Suddenly, two piles of vegetables with curly hair and feet stumbled out of the corn and ran into Wil and Rosie. Vegetables flew everywhere, revealing the tardy hobbits.

"Sorry," Hunter said, abnormally short, even for a hobbit. "Merry got us lost."

A baying dog interrupted them, and Merry shoved vegetables into Wil's arms. "Here, take these," she said, and took off through the cornfield, the others close behind.

"I don't see why Farmer Maggot is so upset," Hunter said as he ran. "We only stole half of his crops." He stopped abruptly at the edge of a small cliff. The others slammed into him, tipping them all over.

"Ow."

The hobbits lay in a heap at the bottom of the cliff.

"I think I broke something," said one.

"I think my nose fell off," said Wil.

"Hey! Mushrooms!" said Hunter.

"I don't like mushrooms," said Wil.

"You're insane!!" cried the other three.

"Get off the road!" said Rosie.

The four scrambled into a conveniently located hole at the foot of a tree. A donkey ambled down the path. A clan sounded as the rider jumped off and began sniffing around the ground. Rosie slowly reached for the hood on her sweatshirt. Wil's hand on her arm stopped her.

"Hey!" hissed the rider. "Come back here!" The donkey had wandered off without him. As he ran after it, the hobbits dashed in the other direction.

Running through the sudden darkness, Rosie blurted out her plan to go to Bree. Merry led them to the ferry (in a sort of round-about kind of way) with the black rider close behind. Hunter, Wil, and merry piled onto the ferry and foolishly pushed off without Rosie.

"Come on, Rosie!" merry shouted. "Jump! You can make it!"

"No I cant!" she yelled back, running full speed.

"Yes you can!" hunter called.

"No I cant!"

"Just jump!" the three cried in unison.

Rosie jumped.

SPLASH!!!!

The ferry drifted down the river, with Rosie in the water, clinging to the edge. The hobbits pulled her up and solemnly watched as the black donkey stopped on the bank and sat down.

"How far is it to the next crossing, merry?" Rosie asked.

"It's just over there," she pointed to a bridge upstream, "but considering the donkey, we have a huge lead."

"I wish I had a nose." Wil said.