Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I don't own LOTR, or Kel or Neal or Harry Potter

A/N: I haven't updated in a while. . . Sorry. . . I've kind of been busy, with school and stuff. To tell you the truth, I actually finished this chapter over the summer, but I got a bit too lazy to post it up. . . hehehe. . .

Traveling with the Uruk-Hai

Pippin woke up to find himself bouncing uncomfortably up and down.He was hanging onto the neck of an orc. There were orcs all around them, and all were running. The last thing he remembered was running through the woods at Amon Hen, looking for Frodo, when orcs had suddenly come and attacked them. Before any could land a blow, Boromir had jumped in and fought them off single-handedly, until the orc captain had shot 3 arrows into him, and yet he had continued fighting to save them. Then Kel and Neal had come out of the trees, only to be taken by surprise by the orcs and had gotten slashed by the orc-swords. Four orcs had grabbed him, Kel, Neal, and Merry-

Pippin gave a start. Where was Merry? He looked around, relieved to see Merry being carried by an orc not too far away. He was not so relieved, though, to see the rag wrapped around his friend's head. What had they done to him?

He spotted Neal a few orcs away. The young adult waved but glanced worriedly at Kel, who, like Merry, was unconscious.

Pippin closed his eyes. The Fellowship was lost. He would never see Aragorn, or Frodo, or anyone ever again. . .

A few hours later all the orcs dropped their burdens onto the ground. Neal gasped in pain as his injured side came into impact with the stony ground. The shock of the fall woke Kel up. She looked around her at all the orcs, horrified. There was also an intense pain in her right shoulder, but she wasn't sure how she'd gotten the wound. She found her wrists and ankles bound tightly. When she tried to move, a very heavy foot kicked her back. Then memory came flooding back-and hit her like a brick. But why had the orcs taken them? Why hadn't they killed them? She noticed Neal a few feet away. He seemed fine, as well as Pippin, but Merry was in a pretty bad state.

"Why keep them?" one of the orcs was saying. "Why not just kill them?"

"No." growled a deep voice, so low and crackly that even Pippin had to strain his ears to hear it clearly. "It's orders. I was told to kill all but not the Halflings. They were to be brought to Saruman, alive and unspoilt."

"But Ugluk," another orc protested, "only 2 are halflings. What about the others?"

"They were kept only because they knew we had taken the Halflings. The others will take longer finding them if they don't know where we've taken them," came the reply.

"So can we kill the humans?" the first orc asked.

The corners of Ugluk's mouth curled up in a nasty smile. "I have a better idea. We can have a bit of fun with them."

An ugly orc sneered. "Just kill them all. Saruman is an insignificant minion of Sauron. Why take orders from him?" He raised his sword and advanced on the hobbits.

Ugluk jumped forward, narrowly missing stomping Pippin flat, and beheaded the ugly orc. Then there was a lot of confusion and fighting, as orcs yelled at each other and drew weapons. It looked like there were 2 different races, from the way they were grouped together.

In all the chaos Neal inched closer to Kel and green magic flowed from his fingers as he healed Kel's shoulder wound and other injuries. Kel glared at him but didn't protest. It felt too good. The healing left both of them exhausted and they took no heed of what was going on around them.

A dead orc fell beside Pippin. Seizing his chance, the hobbit cut the binds around his wrists and quickly retied them loosely. When Ugluk finally got things back in order his temper was as quick as the rapids on the Great River.

"Get up!" he hauled Pippin to his feet, but the hobbit fell back down, not having used his legs for a long time. Ugluk was in no mood to patient. He took a bottle of smelly dark liquid and poured it into Pippin's mouth. It burned his throat all the way to his stomach, but at the same time sent warmth flowing into his limbs.

He watched as Ugluk gave Kel and Neal the same treatment, then went over to Merry and kicked him repeatedly until he woke up. Kel winced in sympathy as the orc stripped off the rag on Merry's forehead and dumped the liquid on it, then shoved some down his throat.

"We're tired of carrying you." Ugluk snarled. "On your feet. All of you are running the rest of the way!"

They ran for the entire day, the 4 captives straining to keep up with the never-tiring orcs. At one point Pippin stumbled off the path, trying his best to make it look accidental. His fingers fumbled with the elven brooch at his throat, unclasping it and dropping it on the ground as an orc seized him and pushed him back onto the path, whipping his legs with a leather strip as an unspoken reminder to keep up.

Kel noticed that the whip was used on her and Neal a lot more than the hobbits. So this was what Ugluk's "better idea" had been. She bit her lip as the whip descended on her once again. Orcs here and there would take turns shoving Kel and Neal off the path, then dragging them back, or knocking them to the ground and attempting to trample them. It was all Kel could do to hurl herself out of the way of those iron-shod feet.

By the time they stopped, Kel and Neal were covered in bruises and whip-lashes. Their legs were watery from running for so long. The orcs that had been carrying Merry and Pippin (they had fallen repeatedly to the point that the orcs were forced to carry them) dropped them on the ground beside Kel and Neal.

Ugluk's nasty voice pierced through the sullen atmosphere. "What do you think you're doing, Glob?"

The orc called Glob grumbled. "I want to kill the humans. Tasty flesh. . . tasty flesh. . ."

"No." said Ugluk. "They will be brought to Saruman as well."

"He didn't ask for them, though!" a high pitched voice protested.

"He will question all that are brought. If nothing can be gotten out of the Halflings, then all of them will be tortured until someone talks."

An argument broke forth. Merry took that moment to talk to the others.

"What do we do?" he hissed frantically.

Neal shook his head but Kel said, "Do you all have some lembas left? That would give us the strength to escape, but I don't know how we'll get it with our hands and feet tied so tightly."

Hoofbeats pounded close to them. All 4 lay flat and still, hoping it wasn't an enemy. It wasn't though, they found out soon enough, as the rider killed the orc closest to them. Several dozen more riders leapt out of the darkness and attacked the orcs.

Pippin untied the loose rope around his hands and used the sword of the dead orc to cut the binds around his legs. He cut Merry, Kel, and Neal's binds as well.

Merry frowned. "Why don't we find out whether these riders are friend or foe? They seem nice enough; they killed the orcs for us."

"They must be the Riders of Rohan," Kel said, "We could try to speak to them, but even if they were friendly we would be taken to Rohan, and what good would that do to us? We're not trying to get to Rohan."

"Where are we trying to go?" asked Pippin.

Neal rolled his eyes. "We're trying to find Aragorn. Or at least get him to find us. I don't he would have gone to Rohan. It is most likely that he went with Frodo to Mordor."

"Good point," Pippin mused. "But if we went to Rohan-"

"You know Rohan isn't on the way to Mordor. We have to catch up to Aragorn and the others. We can't stray off course."

Then all of them crawled out of the vicinity of killing. They crawled for a while, then stopped when they thought they were safe and ate some of their remaining lembas. Although it had been crushed and shaken, it still tasted as fresh as it had when they had left Lothlorien. Back when the Fellowship was still whole and existent.

A/N: Yay! Is it good? Is it horrible (I hope not)? Please review!