"Hurry Pippin! Farmer Maggot is on to us and we need to get these vegetables out of the fi-" Merry ran headfirst into Sam as he ran through the cornfield. Seconds later, Pippin barrelled out after him and ended up on top of Frodo.
"Hello Frodo! Merry, it's Frodo!" Pippin exclaimed excitedly.
"I am well aware Pippin, he is our cousin!" Merry rolled his eyes as Sam shoved him off and picked himself up, brushing off the dirt from the ground.
"You've been stealing the Farmer Maggot's crops again!" Sam pointed an accusing finger at the two redheaded hobbits as they began quickly picking up the vegetables they had dropped on collision.
Suddenly they heard yelling and saw the Farmer's pitchfork heading towards then and Merry shoved the rest of the vegetables into Sam's hand and pulled Frodo in the opposite direction of Farmer Maggot.
"I don't know why he's so upset! Its only a couple of carrots!" Merry yelled as he pulled Frodo along, Pippin right behind and Sam behind them.
"Oh and those potatoes we got last week, and those cabbages the week before!" Pippin chimed in as he followed Frodo, arms filled with vegetables.
"Yes Pippin! The point is that he's clearly overreacting!" Merry yelled before skidding to a stop, looking down the small cliff in front of him. Frodo skidded to a stop behind him and Pippin behind that, all looking quite relieved that they hadn't fallen until…Sam came barrelling towards them, looking behind him and he ran right into the other three hobbits, sending them all tumbling down the small cliff to the leaf-covered ground below.
"Thanks a lot Sam," Merry muttered as he spit leaves out of his mouth.
"Sorry about that," Sam looked around guiltily and noticed that Frodo was staring down the path in an odd sort of way. Merry and Pippin began picking up the vegetables and checking the condition of them all like a concerned doctor nursing their patients.
"Get off the road," Frodo muttered more to himself than anyone else but he suddenly looked around, "get off the road! Quick!" he yelled and the other three hobbits followed him behind a large tree just as they heard hoof beats a few feet away, slowly moving closer.
Pippin looked around the tree trunk to see the view of a rider in black placed on a black horse. The black horse snorted and Pippin saw that there were nails coming out of its hooves. He looked back at the other hobbits. Frodo was doing some odd thing with the gold ring he was holding and Sam was watching him but Merry looked at Pippin expectantly.
"I have an idea," Pippin whispered and Merry smiled mischievously. He quickly followed his cousin around the tree and behind the black rider. It began making weird sniffing noises but they ignored it and continued behind another tree.
Finally they were spread out, one hobbit on each side and they nodded to each other before throwing dirt clumps, pinecones, and a few rocks at the rider and horse, ducking out of view behind trees whenever the rider turned its tortured horse around in circles.
"You know," Pippin whispered just loud enough for the rider to hear, "2 miles to the left down this path and you can get some bleach for those stains."
"Yeah, all you need is a soul to trade with," Merry followed his younger cousin's lead and whispered, continuously moving all the while so the rider couldn't find either of them.
"What's that?" Pippin asked.
"You don't have a soul?" Merry added, more like twins reading each other's minds then cousins who knew each other well.
"You say you sold your soul?" Pippin was trying desperately to hold back his laughter as the rider continued to force the horse in circles.
"That was pretty stupid of you," Merry burst out laughing and they ran back to Frodo and Sam. They noticed right away that something was wrong with their brown haired, blue-eyed cousin as Sam was forcefully keeping Frodo from slipping the gold ring on his finger.
Suddenly the rider let off a loud shriek and set off around a bend, Frodo snapping out of it immediately after the rider in black was gone. "We need to get out of here!" Frodo looked up quickly and the three hobbits followed his lead, quickly making their way to Buckleberry Ferry.