Azaelia followed Ruby silently. Night fell before they were able to stop. They came to a great hill top, and saw a fire near the top.

"Ruby, I need to stop." Azaelia panted and fell to her knees.

"No, Zaelia, please, just a little further. Just to the trees there at that hill. It's not safe here..." Ruby looked around and shivered. "We have no cover here."

Azaelia stood up. She was incredibly dizzy and Ruby could see it by the way she swayed when she stood up. Without a word Azaelia walked along, following her friend. They finally made it to the trees and Azaelia collapsed to the ground.

Ruby felt badly for driving her friend so hard, but they needed to make sure they were safe. As Azaelia lay on the ground, she got food out. She had no strength to build a fire and cook, so she merely passed some vegetables on to her friend.

"Try to eat before you fall asleep."

Azaelia took an apple from her friend, looked at it and smiled. "I wonder if Merry's eating an apple right now…"

Ruby laughed. "Probably." They ate a little, then she turned to Azaelia. "I want you to try and get some sleep, I'm going to go check on the others."

"But you need rest too! You've been up longer than I have!"

Ruby put her hand on Azaelia's. "Not that much longer. It's all right, I'll only be a minute. Then I'll sleep, too." She stood up and slowly began to scale the very steep rock face of the hill, toward the fire.

Azaelia couldn't sleep while her friend was all alone. She sat up and watched Ruby climb.

Halfway up, the fire was put out, and a cold wind swept up. The shriek of the riders filled Ruby's head and she held onto the rocks for dear life.

Azaelia's heart leapt. The fire had gone out and now the riders were coming. She looked around frantically and saw five of them climbing up the cliff, one of them right under Ruby!

Deciding that she couldn't hang onto the rock all night, Ruby continued her climb to the top. Pulling herself all the way up, she saw the hobbits surrounded by four of the riders. Gasping, she rolled behind a rock, just as a sixth reined his horse right up to where she had just been. Breathing hard, she peered over the rock. The hobbits were trying their best to fight against them, but all four were separated. Then she saw the most terrifying thing. Frodo disappeared. And not in the same manor as before, when he fell over the cliff. He just vanished. All the riders present turned away from the other hobbits and advanced to where he had been mere seconds before.

They reached their hands down toward where she assumed Frodo must have been, then retracted them. One rider plunged his sword down, and Frodo appeared, screaming out in pain. Ruby was about to stand and leap on the riders when from above her leapt a tall man in black, wielding a sword and a torch.

Ruby dropped back down to the ground and watched as the man fought off each of the riders. When they had all fled, the man dropped to Frodo's side. She strained her little pointed ears to hear their conversation, then scaled down closer to them. She heard words like, "Wraith" and "Nasgoul", "Mordor" and "Strider". As she listened in, she put a few things together and returned to where she and Azaelia had set up camp to tell her, but when she got there, Azaelia was no where to be found. She began to panic. What if those...those things had gotten her?

Azaelia was panicked by now. She was about to climb up there when she saw someone back at where they had left their stuff. Mustering all her courage, she ran back and tackled the creature, hearing a stifled, "Get off'a me you dumb Danderfluff!" Azaelia quickly retreated and found Ruby under her.

Now a little irritated on top of afraid and tired, Ruby yelled, "Azaelia Danderfluff, you should have slept while you had the chance!" Then tossed her cloak at her and put on her pack, following after the retreating forms of the four hobbits and the tall man.

Azaelia gathered up her things and followed along as quickly as she could. They followed the man as he carried Frodo with the other three hobbits trailing behind. They lost them for a little, but somehow managed to follow their trail. Azaelia about fell onto the place where Sam was looking for something called Kingsfoil.

Ruby grabbed onto the back of Azaelia's shirt, pulling her backward before she ran smack into Sam. "Careful!" She hissed, not wanting to be caught.

Azaelia bowed her head. "Sorry." she whispered solemnly

Ruby moved quietly through the woods, then snuck quietly up to the circle of stone trolls where the other hobbits lay as exhausted as they were.

"So Bilbo's stories were true..." Azaelia whispered. Ruby shh'shed her, finding a safe place to watch over their friends. She wanted so badly to tell Azaelia what she had found out, but now was not the time.

After a few minutes, the man appeared in the field, followed by a beautiful Elven woman leading a white horse. They lifted Frodo onto the horse and argued a moment in hushed Elvish.

"What are you doing!" Sam yelled as the woman mounted the horse. "Those wraiths are out there!" As she and Frodo rode away, Azaelia looked at Ruby.

"Wraiths?" She mouthed.

Ruby nodded. "The riders."

It looked as though the man in black wanted to leave right then, but Sam, Merry, and Pippin were clearly too tired to go any further. He allowed them to sleep, and sleep they did. Ruby and Azaelia quickly followed suit. The next morning they were on the move again. Ruby tried to place themselves into a following position that would allow them to talk. Quietly, she whispered the little bit she knew to Azaelia.

"Wow, these things are worse than we thought…"

"Well...whatever a Wraith is, that is what those riders are; they come from Mordor. And it's true-They are after Frodo. He has something they want, and whatever it is...it makes him vanish from sight."

Azaelia's eyes widened and her mouth hung slightly open. "It does? I wonder what it is…"

Ruby shook her head. "I don't know. But what I do know..." She looked sidelong at Azaelia. "I know where we're going."

"Where?"

"That Elf woman...I know enough Elvish to know her name is Arwen. She is taking Frodo to 'her father's' house. And last night, after you'd fallen asleep, I heard that man, Strider-yes, that is what they call him-say something about Rivendell. We are going to the home of Elrond."

"Wow, we get to see more Elves!"

Ruby didn't reply. She had a bad feeling. Something was going to happen there, in Rivendell. Something very important.

Azaelia pulled Ruby back just as one of the larger branches swung back and almost hit her in the face."Watch where you're going Ru, or we'll end up wraith meat for sure!"

Ruby smiled faintly. She envied Azaelia's freshness. She had gotten a whole night's sleep, unlike Ruby, who was awake trying to learn more. She so wanted to question that Strider.

Azaelia decided to take the lead for a little and let Ruby to her own thoughts.

When they rested that afternoon, Ruby claimed she had eaten plenty for breakfast and wasn't hungry, just so that she could instead take a short nap. Azaelia, however, knew better, but decided not to argue. If worse came to worse, Ruby could always eat while they walked. She giggled when she spotted an apple core on the side of the road. She was glad that Merry was enjoying the apples.