Disclaimer: i never owned them! ... maybe i can borrow orlie...? ... i guess not.. nutz... XD

Chapter 2:

Still hot on her pursuit, were the Rohirrim riders. If only I was invisible, thought Halie, Éomer seemed so decent on screen, I actually kind of liked him, him and Legolas, but seriously, this is not funny, for like the second time today, I'm going to die. Darn! She kept running and before long came across a very steep cliff. Holey moley, this is SO not good, Halie thought to herself as she flung her arms out and waved them wildly outwards as she swayed dangerously back and forth until she finally caught her balance. But, having stopped, the Rohirrim army finally caught up with her and surrounded her. The only open space for her escape was if she jumped off the cliff. She looked down and saw that is really a long way down. She looked about. The Rohirrim army once again pointed their weapons at her and once again Éomer jumped down off his horse and went to speak to Halie again. She had to admit that he was pretty brave because she had just kind of kicked him in the gut and well it must have hurt. Her eyes lingered to the man that lay hunched over on Éomer's underdog's horse; the guy was being held by the underdog, but he looked dead or just really badly wounded and unconscious. She remembered him to be the King's son, Theodrid, the guy that would die. Poor guy…those stupid Orcs…Uruk Hai…whatever…same difference. Maybe I can help him, I've got some bandages in my baggie and it's not like I'm in the past or anything…at least I don't think so…, thought Halie. Éomer seemed to see a recognition play upon her face as Halie began to back away slowly, but careful not misstep and fall off the cliff.

"Do you know him?" asked Éomer giving her a frown as he jutted his head toward Theodrid.

"No," said Halie, well it would be hard to explain to him that Middle-Earth was fictional and in a book and a trilogy of movies.

"You lie," replied Éomer giving her a look of distrust.

"And what if I am?" retorted Halie; she was so tired and just wanted a very long rest, she just need some oxygen…some air. Before long she was on her knees, breathing hard. I'm not going to pass out! Not now not ever! I am NOT a maiden of mistress always needing to be saved. I will not pass out! They think I'm a murderer! I'll show them, thought Halie. "I'm not a murderer, if that's what you believe. I did not ambush these people, and I most certainly am not an Orc or Uruk Hai for that matter. I'm innocent!"

"Then come on my horse and ride to the king," said Éomer.

"Your king is corrupted," Halie nearly screamed.

"How would you know such thing as that?" asked Éomer quite suspiciously.

"I-I-I guessed…sort of…kind of…oh crud," said Halie, she had been caught and well it wasn't like she was going to go and try to explain to Éomer how she knew of his uncle, it would be really too complicated.

"Last chance, climb on my horse or I shall have my men bind your hands for sure," threatened Éomer.

"Fine!" said Halie and stuck her tongue out at him briefly in frustration. The other men laughed at her childish ways and relaxed a bit, seeing her as no threat, for a time being, part of the fact being that she was a lady with several issues. Éomer, though, looked at her curiously and found her interesting and different and quite odd, where the girl had hit him was still in pain, but it was quickly receding. He shook his head briefly to rid himself of his thoughts and waited for the girl to climb onto his horse.

Halie was having a slight trouble trying to climb onto Éomer's horse, but she wasn't about to show herself weak amongst so many men and so she dealt with her troubles and sort of threw her right leg over the side of the horse and managed to balance herself once she was on the horse. His horse neighed and walked back and forth for moment, but silenced once Éomer jumped on. He sat behind her and took the reins into his hands and got to go.

"To Edoras!" shouted Éomer and his galloped toward Rohan while the Rohirrim army was close behind.

Éomer needed to bring King Théoden's son, Theodrid, to Edoras as quick as possible because he was still alive, but badly wounded and was in need of extensive care. After a while, Halie tired as she was, fell into a dreamless state, and dreamt about places far away from anywhere. Éomer didn't seem to notice, though, that Halie had fallen into slumber; he had other things to worry about, he needed to get to Edoras immediately and warn King Théoden of the ambush. As he came upon the massacre scene once again, he grabbed a helmet of a Uruk Hai, which bore the white hand of Saruman on it and placed it in safe keeping to show the king later the evidence that Saruman was not an ally of Rohan. No matter what Grima Wormtongue says, Éomer thought, hating even the thought of Grima and his sly looks and advances toward his sister Éowyn. If it had been up to him he'd have decapitated Grima's head long ago. Now he had to think of the road ahead and who the girl that was asleep in front of him was and where in name she had appeared from. Her clothes were extremely odd-looking. No matter, Éomer thought, a bed shall be set for her to sleep in for the time being.

Maeve groaned. She looked around her and it took her a while to realize where she was. It seemed that once again I have survived a watery death, thought Maeve ironically. She watched Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn closely. They were taking a short break; it seemed to be approximately midday, but Maeve knew she was slowing them down on their pursuit. She realized that she was wearing Aragorn's long cloak because she was still wet from falling into the river. She thought to herself, I feel so Middle-Earthy in this attire, this is so totally cool, EBay auctioneers so do not have ANYTHING compared to this, I mean come on, THIS is the real thing! She softly chuckled to herself and rubbed her hands together.

"Legolas, what can you elven-eye see?" Aragorn called over to Legolas, who was standing at a cliff's edge watching the horizon.

"The Uruk Hai are turning north-east. They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!" cried Legolas.

"Saruman…," muttered Aragorn.

Whoa, this is like total déjà vu! Man, oh, man. I mean at least it's like watching the movie all over again because I like so totally remember this scene, thought Maeve and made a move to get up and stand. Hey! I'm not as sore as I thought…totally awesome!

"You're not seriously thinking of chasing the Uruk Hai…right? I mean they're like a full day ahead of us…that's a lot of running…" said Maeve, who was trying her best to make small talk and also trying to feel like an actress, even though this place was as real as could possibly be. She still felt bad for attacking Aragorn, who still had a swollen lip, which seemed to be getting slightly more swollen. Whoops…thought Maeve. All three men, well actually one man, one elf, and one dwarf, turned their heads toward her and looked at her oddly.

"What?" asked Maeve, she had just made a comment and now they were looking at her quite like she was insane.

"M'lady we've run too far to stop now. And we, well at least I am not about to run back home without further knowledge of what has happened to our friends. The Uruk Hai will pay for what they did," said Gimli.

"Ok…" said Maeve, "but running isn't exactly one of my specialties…"

"Oh and I suppose fighting with a blade is?" Gimli asked sarcastically.

"Hey!" Maeve then stuck out her tongue at him and then walked over to the edge of the cliff and sat down, dangling her legs over the edge. She looked out at the beautiful sight. Something that she could never see at home, it was so peaceful. There were no cars zooming by and no trash on the ground that people left behind. Everything around her was so clean and pure and she wanted to grasp onto it and never leave. She never wanted to return home. She just wanted to live, even if it was in a place that didn't really exist in her world. And far ahead, where the ground meets the horizon, she saw only what elves can see from such far distance and that is black specks moving fast and she knew that they were the Uruk Hai. Up behind her, Legolas walked over.

"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Legolas, who had crouched down next to her.

"Dangerous is my middle name," said Maeve and when she saw the look of confusion dawning on Legolas's face she laughed and said, "I was only kidding."

"Oh…okay, my question still remains then," replied Legolas and Maeve laughed again.

"Um…let's see…I guess I like being near danger," said Maeve, "It thrills me…" Maeve wasn't exactly sure how to explain how much she loved adventure and danger; it was like it was almost her calling in life.

"We must move if we are to try and catch up with the Uruk Hai before daylight fades upon us," said Aragorn, who had approached behind them.

"Nice, but don't expect me to go quite far…" said Maeve.

"Fair enough," replied Aragorn and Maeve, in a fluid motion, swung her legs over the cliff edge and jumped up, but clumsily tottered back and forth, until Aragorn grabbed her by shoulders and steadied her.

"Heh, thanks," said Maeve and took off the cloak that was around her, which was technically his anyways and gave it to him, "this is yours…I think…"

"Are you not cold?" asked Aragorn, who began to slightly frown and glanced at her sleeveless turtleneck. He showed concern toward as a parent would to his only child. A child who punches the parent's face…right…, thought Maeve. But instead she said, "Um…if I get cold I'll let you know…okay?"

Aragorn gave a brief nod. He took his cloak back and put it back on; his Evenstar pendant shining brightly, contrasting against the dark color of his cloak. It looks so beautiful up close; it's so real, so pure, quite a lovely possession, thought Maeve.

"We are near Rohan, from there we shall pass Fangorn Forest and possibly find our friends before they are taken to Isengard," Aragorn told the others.

"Can we not take a break? I need to get some energy…and possibly some food," said Gimli.

"We just took a break and we need to catch up to the Uruk Hai before they take Merry and Pippin to Saruman," said Legolas.

"I have a Snickers bar…," said Maeve and laughed when the three of them gave her an expression of complete and utter confusion.

"A what?" asked Gimli.

"It's a chocolate bar filled with caramel and nuts," explained Maeve.

"Oh well that's sure a pity!" cried Gimli.

"How's that?" asked Maeve.

"Peanuts! I'm allergic to peanuts," said Gimli and Maeve burst into a fountain of laughter, "I don't find that quite funny, M'lady."

"Sorry," said Maeve as her laughter subsided, "it's just I never knew dwarves were allergic to peanuts." That wasn't really why she laughed, but it wasn't the end of the world; Legolas and Aragorn did was raise their eyebrows though. They took life a bit too seriously for her own liking. And what IS up with the whole M'lady business? "Anyways my name is Maeve, start getting used to using it." Now Legolas had arched his perfect elven eyebrows.

"I think we have some lembas left," he said and Gimli grumbled something about being sick of lembas. He took three bites of it, even though one bite could fill the stomach of any grown man, and finally was ready to go.

"Can we leave now?" asked Aragorn, getting only slightest bit annoyed and feeling that only person slowing them down was, in fact, ironically, not Maeve, but Gimli. He sighed wishing that he would be quicker, but he wouldn't push, dwarves were known for their stubbornness.

"Yes," said Gimli, and Aragorn jumped over the cliff that Maeve had previously been dangling her legs over, climbing down, and using nature's steps…and a bit of elvish rope too. Legolas followed him, with Maeve close behind, and Gimli the latter, grunting the whole time down to the bottom of the cliff. Once they reached the bottom, he let out a loud belch that calmed him down a bit, but everyone else steered clear from him for a while. Meanwhile, as this was going on, Maeve began to hiccup uncontrollably, which can't be helped when you're running constantly.

Todd woke up with a start and briefly forgot where he was. He would have started crying for his mommy except for the fact that he was afraid that these monsters would eat him alive, or worse. He sucked on his thumb to comfort himself. It was blazing hot and there were big black bugs everywhere. Todd's little brown eyes widened in fear as the Uruk Hai took the pleasure of eating any that flew into their mouths. They hadn't had any real meat for a few days and were in a rush to get to Isengard where a great feast would surely be waiting for them. They were eager to return, but they had a long way to go.

Pippin and Merry awakened to find that it was indeed midday and also saw their new friend, Todd, who seemed a bit frightened. They had much to tell him, so it was a good thing he was awake. The poor thing had probably never truly seen neither Orc nor Uruk Hai. They had plenty of questions to ask him too, he seemed to be curious fellow, for three that is. Pippin was the first to speak.

"So, do you want know about hobbits?"

"Do I!"

"Well, do you?"

"It was a figure of speech; it means yes."

"Oh well, what do you want to know?"

Todd's three year old innocence overtook him as he said "everything."

"Well that would take many years, if you truly wanted to know everything about a hobbit and his ways because then we'd have to get into the whole history of hobbits and we'd have to mention Gandalf somewhere in there too. Rest his soul."

"Can I ask you both any questions then?" asked Todd excitedly.

"Sure you can, anything you want we'll answer, unless it gets a bit too personal that is," answered Pippin.

"Neat-o!" cried Todd in utter excitement forgetting for the moment his place and Pippin and Merry looked on in a confused state. There were a couple of grunts from the Uruk Hai and then silence, except for the sound of twigs and leaves being disturbed underneath their feet.

"So, where are you two from?"

"The Shire. It's such a beautiful place, especially this time of year."

"Ooo…nice...um…hmmm…oh yeah! What's a hobbit?"

"There are many things to explain about hobbits. Where to begin? Well, for starters, we're short and sure proud of it! Our feet are nice and hairy and we don't need to wear uncomfortable shoes. Oh, and hobbits love beer. We also like pipe weed, but only the older folk are allowed. We love to be around nature and love peace and quiet. Hobbits really don't like going on adventures away from home, but then here we are."

"Wow! That's really cool! I want to be a hobbit! But if you're proud to be short, how come you both were making a fuss over who's taller?"

"People tend to want to be what they are not. Merry and I are proud, but it's nice to know that I'm taller than Merry, it can come into use."

"I'm taller than you, Pip, everybody knows that!" cried Merry.

"I'll make nice hobbitses sandwiches out of you three, if you don't shut your little mouths! Now silent and make sure I don't hear another sound out of you three!" Ugluk growled and spat. He pointed one of his many blood-stained knives at all three of them and then walked to the front and the Uruk Hai continued their way.

Todd, who was starting to get sick of bouncing up and down every time the Uruk Hai ran, clutched him stomach and moaned. Moments later, he emptied the contents of his stomach over the shoulder of the Uruk Hai that was carrying him. Since the Uruk Hai was already dirty, he didn't seem to care; either that or he hadn't noticed and wasn't bothered and just kept running. Todd, on the other hand, would delay his questions for a while and silently wept himself to sleep. Some of the big black bugs that were swarming around, landed on him, but both Merry and Pippin took turns in swatting them away. They felt bad for the little fellow and had questions of their own that they were all too eager to ask.