CH.7 Nothing to worry about……….yet

At the sound of the roar, Strider had quickly drawn his sword. He was about to run off towards the noise, but remembered the Hobbits. He looked at them, quietly deciding what to do with them. Take them with him, and know that they are being protected, and having a few of Hiryuu's extremely well protected secrets revealed, or leave them here, to defend themselves, and not know if they're safe or not, and keep the aforementioned secrets safe. Finally he decided to let them do what they wanted.

Frodo and gang, seeing Strider rush off into the woods decided to follow him, they had a little difficulty, since he was faster than them, but they were able to keep him in their sites.

"Strider! Wait up!" Yelled both Merry and Pippin. Both Frodo and Sam kept quiet, knowing that it would be useless to try and talk to the running Ranger, but they still followed their guide.

It seemed that the further they went, the louder the roars got and if they listened close enough, they could just make out the neighing of a horse, and the clash of steel against steel. Finally, after running for a few more minutes, the noises stopped abruptly.

Strider stopped for barely a second before continuing. The Hobbits, meanwhile, stopped so suddenly, that the result was a huge pile-up. Merry and Pippin on the bottom. They quickly got up, but not fast enough, because they had lost sight if Strider.

Seeing that they had lost sight of their guide, the Hobbits wisely decided to stay put and stay quiet. Who know what was out there?

After several minutes of intense silence, something extremely rare with Hobbits involved, Frodo heard something coming closer. It sounded like heavy footsteps, the Hobbits instinctively huddled closer together, looking fearfully at the place were the sound was coming from.

Out from the shadows that the trees were creating, they saw one wide shadow, moving awkwardly, at a slow are fairly unstable pace. Just then, a small gust of wind blew by and moved the shadow that was moving towards them, only to be revealed as Strider, with a tired looking Hiryuu hanging onto him.

"Hey there Hobbits!" She said weakly as she and Strider slowly make their way closer.

"Hiryuu! We were SO worried about you!" Said Merry and Pippin in sync.

Both humans, ignored them as Strider took off his dirt encrusted cloak and placed it on the ground a bit awkwardly, since he had to hold Hiryuu up with one shoulder, but somehow managed it.

"Hobbits, go and get our things from camp and bring them here. I fear we won't be moving far this night." Ordered Strider. Immediately Merry and Pippin went without hesitation. Surprisingly enough, Sam followed them, mostly to make sure they didn't forget anything. Like his pots, and to put out the fire.

Frodo decided to stay with Hiryuu. Though he regretted it once he saw her wound. He didn't see much, but what he saw was enough to make him slightly nauseous. He thanked the Valar that Strider was there to take care of it.

From what he saw, she had a fairly deep cut in her right thigh, which was bleeding pretty badly. She also had a smaller, but no less ugly, cut on her stomach.

By this point, Frodo was feeling VERY sick. Luckily, Sam and the other Hobbits arrived at that very minute.

"One of you pass me some water, bandages, and my sack, and the rest of you be quiet while I tend to her wounds. After that, you may talk amongst yourselves, quietly." Said Strider, stressing the word quietly.

Sam was the one voted to get the requested items from where they dumped all of their belongings. And as soon he had done that, he came rushing back to where the others where.

As soon as he left Hiryuu and Strider started talking in hushed tones, in Elvish no less. The Hobbits, completely confused, looked towards Frodo. Mainly because all of them knew that Frodo had learned Elvish from his uncle Bilbo.

He just looked at them and shook his head.

"Don't look at me. I may know some Elvish, but that doesn't make me fluent in it. I only know a few words like brother and sister, and besides, they're talking to low for me to here them!" They where quiet for the next while.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, Strider left Hiryuu and went to the Hobbits. He was immediately bombarded by questions such as; 'What happened!' 'Is she alright?' And other such questions.

After a few seconds of this, Strider got fed up.

"Quiet!"

Immediately they were all silent.

"I'll tell you, but you must be silent. She's sleeping right now, I don't want any of you to wake her up." He was met with silence. "Apparently, while she was scouting, she met up with a few Orcs. Don't worry, they were all dead, and Hiryuu is doing just fine, a night of rest and she'll be ready to go." And with that, he got up and walked to where Hiryuu was sleeping, comfortably wrapped up in her cloak and bedroll, as well as Striders' cloak and bedroll.

-Fin of Ch7

Authors Note;

Gin; I am SOOOOOOOO sorry I haven't updated, but, I had a good reason. You see, I went into a depression, mainly because my dog, one I've have for 11 years I might add, was put to sleep, a bit after he attacked me.

Pippin; It's ok Gin, I'm sure the reviewers will forgive you……….as long as you update a lot in the next few weeks.

Gin; I will I promise! Scouts honour!

Merry; An trust us, she really is a scout!

BTW; The author would like to thank the following people; Crecy, for your support, legolasfan91, pappy, BloodyPenhand (twice, I might add thank you so much!), as well as Samantha for your wonderful e-mail!