Yaaayyy!!! Holidays! Christmas, sleep-ins and best of all, internet back on! Yep, our prepaid internet bill ran out a while ago and mum said we could put it back on in the first week of the holidays. Which meant I could only do my story in the school lunch hour, which really isn't much time so that's why it's been a while since I last updated. This chapter's pretty angsty, but it's my longest yet. Enjoy!

4. Attack

"Merry, what's wrong? What does it say?"Sam tried to get a look at the letter his friend was holding with such dread. Merry answered quietly without looking up. "Do you remember my cousin Magee, whom I told you had the fever?"Sam nodded. Well, she died yesterday. Her parents came home from the market to find her coughing and retching. They'd left her at home by herself." He suddenly balled his fists in anger. "I always thought they were careless."

Both hobbits stood in silence for a moment. Sam felt terrible. Merry should be home with his grieving family, not out here looking for something that might not even exist. But he tried to console. "Merry, I'm so sorry. Do, do you want to go back? Because I can understand if you do and me'n'Pippin can always carry on alone."

It had taken a lot for Sam to say that, because if Merry left, chances were, Pippin would go back too, and Sam didn't really want to go on all by himself. But to his surprise, Merry looked up sharply."Go back?" he said incredulously. "Sam, this is why we're going, so that this sort of thing doesn't happen. Nothing can help Magee now, all we can do now is find this thing so no one else dies."

He seemed so determined that Sam was rather taken aback but pleased. "I'm glad. I didn't think I'd be able to carry on alone anyway." Merry laughed. "I know you wouldn't have been able to." The two hobbits smiled at each other.

"Hey, are you two finished bonding so we can get a move on now?" Pippin's voice called from the stream. Merry was outraged at this. "Bonding? I'll show you bonding you little pipsqueak. Ha, get it? Pipsqueak!" And with that he ran after the wickedly grinning Pippin.

Sam shook his head at the frivolous pair acting like they weren't even in their tweens yet but he also smiled. It reminded him of the old days when Frodo was there.

Sam and Merry's fire crackled merrily in the warm night air. The two hobbits were sitting on a hill under a huge elm tree waiting for Pippin who had been bestowed with the chore to bring a bucketfull of water from the stream below. The younger hobbit seemed to have completely recovered from the fever and had even complained about being too hot before, which was a load off Sam's mind. Both were contended to sit in silence until a thought crossed Sam's mind.

"There's just one thing I don't get," he said. I thought Magee was over the fever. How could she have picked it up again so suddenly and then just die from it?"

Merry's brow furrowed as he took a huge pipe out of his mouth that he had been smoking on. "Yes I was just thinking about that. It's just so strange, she seemed completely recovered."

"Maybe she caught it again off someone else" Sam suggested. Merry thought about it. "No, I don't think so. I mean none of her close family had it at all and the only other time she saw anyone was when I visited with Pippin."

"Do you think she could have caught it off Pippin?" Sam suggested.

"I doubt it. Pippin didn't have it bad enough to be contagious."

The two of them fell back into silence, each lost in thought. "Can you think of any other way Magee could have got it?" Sam pressed.

Merry sighed. "No, I can't. I mean, let's see. She had it for a couple of weeks and got about as bad as Pippin. Then she started getting better until it went away completely, like what's happening to Pippin now. In fact, she seemed to be in exactly the same predicament as Pippin altogether. And then....."

"And then she died, " Sam finished in a hushed voice. Merry looked at him. The older hobbit had gone pale and was staring at Merry as though he were a ghost.

"Sam, what........" Then his eyes, too, widened in horror as he realised what Sam had said.

Both hobbits turned their heads in unison to stare at Pippin who was stuggling at the base of the hill with the water. They had just realised what this could mean for their young friend and both started talking at once.

"We'll have to go back-"

"Maybe it was just a coincidence-"

"He could die too-"

"He won't die!"Sam nearly shouted, stemming his companion's near hysterical comments. In a calmer voice he continued. "Look, I know Magee's death was unexpected, but think about it. Do you really think that sort of thing will happen again? I mean, he'd give some sign that he was sick before he dies wouldn't he? Besides we're too far from home and the best thing we can do now is to keep going. If he starts looking bad then we an stop at a town."

Merry looked like he was going to say more, but at that moment Pippin finally arrived with the water. "Phew!!! I am not doing that again. Next time you two layabouts can get your own filthy water." He stopped when he saw the expression on his companion's faces. "What?"

Merry and Sam looked at each other. "Nothing." Sam mumbled.

As the journey continued, Merry started to relax a little. Pippin hasn't showing any signs of sickness yet and maintained his cheerful, mischevious nature. It wasn't until a week later, when they were well away from any town or village, that anything happened.

The three companions had been walking all day and were very tired when they sat down to dinner. Sam and Merry didn't talk much but Pippin kept up a constant flow of chatter about this, that and the next thing and he seemed fine, although Merry noticed he was rather flushed and kept fanning himself in the not so warm evening. They settled down to sleep.

Merry woke very suddenly at aroung midnight for no apparant reason and for a moment just lay there wondering why. After a moment he realised that it was because Pippin, who was sleeping right next to him, wasn't breathing evenly. Merry sat bolt upright and looked at his friend. The young Took was sweating heavily and seemed to be struggling with each haggard breath. "Sam, wake up!" Merry yelled, trying not to panic.

Sam hurried over to where they were and tried out every emergency first aid thing in in his pack, growing increasingly frantic.

"What do we do?"

"We'll have to carry him, where's the nearest town?" Sam yelled as he tried to sponge Pippin down.

"We're nowhere near any, we'll never get there in time!"

"Well we can't just stay here, he's getting worse!" Sam slung the delirious hobbit rather unceramoniously over his shoulder and turned north, in the direction of Bree. But as soon as he had taken just a few steps, a low growl could be heard from the bushes up ahead. A huge grey wolf stepped out into the clearing where the hobbits had set up camp. The companions stood there petrified as it was followed by about ten more.

Finally Merry came to his senses. "Run!" They stumbled through the bush in a panic, all too aware of the snapping and snarling pack of wolves on their heels. Pippin didn't weigh much so wasn't very heavy as Sam half carried, half dragged him through the forest, but the wolves were gaining on them.

As they came to another clearing, somehow half of the wolves had gotten ahead and circled them, coming up in front of the hobbits. Surrounded with nowhere to go, Merry and Sam were sure this was the end. Suddenly a bright white light filled the clearing and for a moment, Merry thought he was dead. Then the wolves began to back off and he thought it was a miracle. He sighed with relief. But Sam wasn't so trusting. The light looked very suspicious and for some reason, Sam had a mad instinct to run from it too. But he couldn't. They were trapped in a clearing with a sick hobbit and some unknown thing that could be friend or foe. They were helpless.

I'm glad I've finally got that chapter done, It's taken forever! How about rewarding my hardworking efforts with a lovely long review? They encourage me to post much faster.