Dropped Into Where???

Disclaimer: Well, you know the disclaimer, right? So I don't have to do one, right? Wait, I'm required to. Crap. Oh, fine. I don't own anything created by J.R.R. Tolkien or New Line Cinema. All I own is me, Shadowwind, and Stardust, and Cass. Wait. I don't own Cass either! Gad, life sucks sometimes.

Chapter 4: Injury and Conquest

Cass woke for a moment to my hand shaking her awake. She opened bleary, unfocused eyes and closed them again almost immediately.

I tried for the next 10 minutes to wake her up, to no avail. She flipped over onto her stomach any time I tried to wake her up. Later I was still trying to get her to open her eyes for over 5 seconds, at the very least, and my hand slipped on her back. I picked my hand up and saw that it had a light smearing of some reddish-brown liquid: her own blood. The dresses we were wearing laced up in the back, so it was only a matter of minutes before I could see what it was that was that was causing her to lose so much blood.

It was a huge hoof print. Easily bigger than my hand, it could only have been the gelding's fault. And to all apparent reasons, it appeared to have not stopped bleeding since she had gotten it. Not good at all. This complicated my plan to get us out of here quite a bit. It wasn't meant to be a one-woman operation. It was a 2-3 person operation. I'd have to figure out how to manage.

Later that afternoon, I lay amongst the tall grasses and rocks of the plain. I lay on my side with my ear pressed flat against the rock under me (a.k.a. think Aragorn in the beginning of TTT). I could hear faint beats coming through the rock with the consistency of running horses. So far so good.

I stood up and began to walk in the general direction that the hoofbeats were coming from. After 100 paces, I dropped back to the ground and listened again. The hoofbeats suddenly stopped. Crap. Not good. Not good at all. Now I had to twist my plan again. Crap.

I wandered closer to the herd of horses and saw a grove of willow trees. Willows? Out here? Willows are water plants! They need to be near water at all times!

Hold up there girl, I told myself. Ok, you are going to drive yourself mad at the rate you're going. Now, to simplify it, that means that there has to be water down there! Haha! Jackpot! Horses, water, trees! This might actually help!

I made my way back to where I had left Cassy, and attempted to heave her onto my shoulders. Oof. That girl weighed more than I thought. Then again, I wasn't used to picking up people.

I carried her about halfway to whatever sort of running water I had seen, and there I set her down. I was going to need that water for this plan to work.

She opened her eyes long enough to see me running down the hill towards the trees, and then closed them again, pain taking her back into unconsciousness.

A/N: Once again, weird chapter. Don't ask. And Cass, sorry, I think you're going to get a scar.

Ok, I'll do review response down here.

Puka-shells: Cass, I'll either tell you when I see you at school, or if you read this chapter, you'll have figured out why. DUUUH!!!!