AN: Here comes another one. Thank you for the encouragement! (Even if my latest attempt makes you regret it…) Tally-ho!

Chapter 2

It seemed like an eternity passed as they sat beneath the dead tree roots, Frodo and Miss Ivy staring hard at one another, but in reality, only a few minutes had gone by. The others held their breath as they watched in silence. Finally, Miss Ivy reached out with her right hand, sending her copper ringlets to dance around her face with the motion. Frodo instinctively flinched and covered his chest where Bilbo's ring lay hidden from sight.

"Don't be daft." She grasped his hand and gave it the customary three pumps of friendship. "I'm Miss Ivilina Manstone, hedge witch and all around handy-woman for hire." Her voice was pitched low in case the dark creature was still lurking, but its warmth was unmistakable. It was her tone that broke through the ice that had begun to creep into Frodo's heart. The shade of fear that had haunted his eyes slackened as the manners he'd been raised with came to the fore and he returned the handshake.

"I am Frodo Baggins, Hobbit scholar, and this is my friend and traveling companion Samwise Gamgee."

"Just Sam, if you will, Miss."

"If you'll call me Ivy," she grinned as she shook the stout hobbit's hand. Merry and Pippin insisted on calling her, "Miss Ivy," probably because the two pranksters knew that it irked her.

"I'm afraid that you've fallen into some ill luck, Ivy. Having crossed paths with Sam and me, you may now consider your life in grave danger." Merry and Pippin's heads raised as their self protection instincts were aroused.

"What about us, Frodo?"

"You too, my friends. Sam and I need to reach Bree, but I think the creature, possibly creatures, roaming the woods would have differently." Ivy looked to her guides and saw their conflict. They were hired to take her to the Shire, but they wanted to help their friend in his desperate situation. It was refreshing to be faced with an easy decision for once, she thought.

"Well then. Looks like my luck isn't so ill, fellas. Bree, by way of the Buckleberry Ferry, just happens to be on my, 'Sites to See,' list."

Dusk had faded into darkness and despite Frodo's protests; four hobbits and a most determined human female began to make their way through the night shrouded woods. "Get down!" Pippin's warning came not a moment too soon as a rider dressed in rags of black crested the path up ahead. They were all so focused on the threat in front that they almost didn't see the other Black Rider part from the shadows behind them.

"Run!" Ivy, with her longer legs and speed born of fear, reached the raft first followed closely by Merry and Pippin.

"Get the ropes!" Sam had turned back to urge his Mister Frodo on as Merry began to cast of the raft. Ivy grasped Sam's shoulder and hung out over the craft's edge, her body suspended above the water.

"Jump, Frodo!" With a black demon at his heels, Frodo did just that, his hand catching Ivy's while his inertia pushed them both backwards to land in a sprawl upon the other three. Pulses pounding, chests heaving, Ivy shifted somewhere in the center of the pile. "We've got to stop meeting like this," she deadpanned. Having earlier felt as if he'd never have reason to smile again, Frodo was surprised to feel a faint smile curve his lips.

"Miss Ivy, I do believe you're enjoying yourself."

"Well, I'm not," grumbled Pippin. "Now get off of my head."

Somewhere in the night a horse screamed with madness as it carried its master further into the waiting darkness

AN: I've taken some good advice and stopped doing so many direct quotes from the movie. Hope you all enjoy the change.