(A/N - I'm BACK!! For those of you who didn't visit my author's page, I took the month of October off to get some things situated. This month I'm pretty busy, too, but at least I have two long weekends I can use, one of them being this weekend. So yeah, I took October off. But I have new chapter for you! Haha... Thanks for being so patient! Here ya go!)
. Reviewers .
x) bdrake07 - Ooo, yeah! Percussion! I feel totally misplaced in marching band since I play the piano. They put me in pit but it feels weird. Oh well. What else are they gonna do with me? LoL... Thanks for reviewing! Enjoy the chapter!
x) ArwenEvenstar83 - Anyone can think up schemes, m'dear! And it's fun, too! And yes, Angie gets all that mischievous stuff from Merry nad Pippin, so blame them! LoL... Well, thank you so much for another fine review, and have fun reading the next!
x) Frodo's girl - HI!! LoL... I told you I'd be updating today! I've got ten minutes before I have to go and a few more reviews to answer, so I think I'll be okay! But anyhoo, I don't remember you reviewing for chapter nine, but seeing as you are my pen pal from way yonder, I'm sorry! You get sneak peeks and everything! I'm virtually sneding you a cookie. Right now. Take it. Good girl, lol. Thanks for reviewing! Ta!
x) jennaalissa - I will most certainly keep looking for updates on your story, and remember that if you need any help, I am a certified beta! You can ask Frodo's girl... I help her with her stories and edit and check them, and she loves me! So yep, just send it to my email address if you want and I'll be happy to help! And thank you for reviewing! You are so nice:)
x) Padme4000 - Yay! I'm so happy that you like the story! Keep reading! Whatever you do, keep reading! LoL... Thank you for showing the interest, and please read on! It only gets better and more involved! Thanks for the review, and enjoy more, like the chapter below!
.. October was fun, but I missed being here! Thanks everyone! ..
- Dis/Claimer -
. Chapter Eleven .
.. The Ranger ..
"It's... what? Excuse me?" Frodo asked, quite confused. "Our turn?"
"You said it was a game," Angie said, now searching the bureau for something. "And in games, you take turns. They've had their laugh, so now we get ours."
Frodo eyed her suspiciously and slid cautiously over to her side as she began tying a few of her dresses together with huge knots.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "Going to hang them?"
"Nope."
"Then what are you doing?" he laughed, picking up the other end of the dress chain. He looked up at her, and she told him, "Move down that way, and you'll see."
He did as instructed with the other end still in hand, and once it was taut, he looked up at Angie who held the other end, smiling maliciously. Then he gave a small laugh, looking back down at the dresses.
"Brilliant," he said.
x x x
After slamming the door in Frodo's face and leaving him at the mercy of Angie, Merry and Pippin started bursting into laughter as Angie began screaming their names. They exchanged looks and were able to contain some of their laughter until they were safely across the hall in their rooms. Merry shut the door before diving onto his bed with Pippin, and together, they congratulated each other.
"You know, I feel a tad guilty doing that to poor Frodo," Pippin said. "What happens when he tells her it was us?"
"Psh... Don't worry, Pip. Just laugh! She's probably still half asleep and won't realize she's mistaken Frodo instead of us until morning. That's the best part!"
"But if she does find out..."
"We'll be dead. That's sort of inevitable."
They contemplated this thought, wondering whether or not it would be best to leave Frodo in there with a raging Angie until morning.
"Well, she'd never kill us," Pippin said, "just beat us down so we can't move for a few days."
"Yes, but she'll have to catch us first!" Merry said.
"Merry, please. She's the fastest thing on two legs we've ever seen," Pippin said. "Do you seriously think that'll work?"
"Worth a try," he said rather sourly. "And it was only a suggestion. Let's hear yours, Mr. Took. What's your ingenious suggestion?"
"Um... well, we could confess, or... we could hide!"
"Hide where?"
"Oh, come on, Merry! It's a big place! We could evade her until she forgets!"
"Which is...?"
"Never," Pippin said, slouching in frustration. "Oh no, Merry. Do you know what this means?"
"No, what?"
"We're never going to get out of here! We're trapped! We're going to -!"
"No we're not!" Merry shouted, trying to stop Pippin from going crazy. "Stop being so ridiculous!" After a few deep breaths, Pippin was calm enough for Merry to continue. "Let's just hurry and leave now before she finds out the one she's really cornered isn't one of us."
"Okay. Good. Excellent," Pippin said as they moved towards the door silently. "But where are we going?"
"Um... the hall upstairs isn't being used by anybody until the Midsummer's Eve celebration," Merry whispered. "We go there and sleep soundly and peacefully for the night, then we go outside around sunrise, come back in, and asked how Angie and Frodo's night was… asking if they're well-rested, ready for the day..."
"Ahh," Pippin said, nodding in understandment. "Okay. Then what? What if she pounces for us at first sight?"
"Again, we stick to the original plan of running."
Pippin rolled his eyes, but agreed.
"Alright, alright..." he said. "But I don't know why we bother with all that when we know she's going to belt us anyways."
Leerily, the two irksome hobbits creaked open their bedroom door, scanning the outside hallway for any sign of Frodo or Angie. A nasty silence filled the spaces all around them. It was not reassuring. It made them feel as if they could anywhere, which definitely gave them second thoughts about leaving the room.
"Go?" Pippin mouthed to Merry. He nodded to Pippin, and they opened the door wide, hearts pounding as if Angie were going to leap out of the room in front of them and tackle them barbarically if they didn't go soon.
"On three, we run," Merry whispered. "Okay?"
"Yeah, alright," Pippin said. "On three."
"One, two, three!"
Both of went to dash up back down the hall so that they could reach the stairs, but both hobbits were delayed, or 'tripped up,' landing painfully face-first into the hard wood floor.
"Ow! My nose!"
"Watch your feet, you big goon!" Merry ragged, clutching his nose as well. "Shh!"
"I'm sorry! It sort of hurts! I've got a huge splinter stuck in my nose!" Pippin whispered.
"That's disgusting," Merry said.
"Not in it, on the outside of it!"
"I don't care! Come on, run! She'll be out from all that noise! Go!"
They clambered to their feet, scrambling to get to the stairs, but they skidded to a halt wide-eyed when they saw Angie standing in front of them swinging the end of her dress rope in a circle with a clever and knowing smile. Merry and Pippin took a step back, staring in horror, knowing they were doomed.
"Hey, you tripped us!" Pippin said, pointing at her.
"And you set Frodo up," Angie shot back with that smile that belittled them.
"Oh, that?" Pippin said with a nervous laugh. "That was just... um..."
"Pip?"
"Yeah
"Ever get the feeling that she's too smart?" Merry asked as they continued to back away and she remained in her one spot.
"Ay," Pippin said, nodding subconsciously. "Let's run now."
They turned to run down to the other end of the hall, but the immediately ran into Frodo. Their eyes doubled in size. Frodo was wearing a mimic of Angie's expression, and Merry and Pippin were backing up again. Only this time, Frodo was moving towards them unlike Angie had.
"Left me there to take the blame and wonder why she's going to hurt you?" Frodo asked.
"Something like that," Pippin said before Merry could properly elbow him in the stomach.
"And now you're going to help her hurt us?" Merry asked. "You TRAITOR!"
"Traitor?" Frodo laughed. "You slammed the door in my face when I tried to run!"
"I- no, wait... that-"
"Pippin, shut up," Merry said.
"No! I didn't-"
Then they found that they had backed into Angie and jumped in surprise again. Pippin faced her, and Merry, Frodo; both were biting their lips.
"Would you just hurt us already!" Pippin shouted. "This is torture! I have a splinter in my nose!"
"Exactly," Angie said. "Torture."
Pippin could've sworn he had seen a wild gleam of revenge in her eyes for a split second, and it only made him tremble more. He tried to discreetly nudge Merry to get his attention, but he didn't pay attention.
"Do you vaguely remember telling Frodo that this was a game?" Angie asked. Pippin and Merry laughed.
"Game?" Pippin asked. "Would something that serious be considered a game?"
"To you, yes," Angie said. "So, as in every game you play, everyone gets a turn."
"That's very true," Pippin said. "But what if we rolled doubles?"
"What?" Angie asked.
"Doubles," Pippin said. "The team that rolls doubles gets another turn."
"I don't see how you're going to be able to," Angie said dangerously, bearing down on them more.
"Now what, genius?" Merry asked.
Pippin was faltering, but then he remembered that their bedroom door was still open.
"GO!" he yelled to Merry.
The two of them dived sideways for their room, and Frodo and Angie lunged forward to catch them but collided with each other instead, falling down in the middle of the floor. When Merry and Pippin had seen what they had done, their started laughing.
Then Merry picked up Angie's dress rope and threw one end to Pippin. Immediately, they began running around Frodo and Angie, tightly binding them together.
"Merry! Pippin! I'll get you for this!" Angie yelled.
"Well, we know that," Merry said, securing the knot. "So that's why we've decided to go ahead and get a head start!" He bent down and patted her on the cheek with a victorious smile, but she tried to bite him, at which he brought his hand back quickly with a scowl.
"Ha ha," Angie said.
"So now you've taken up biting, have you?" Merry said. "We can fix that. Pip!"
Suddenly, Angie felt a piece of cloth put between the lips of her mouth. They were gagging her! How uncalled for! She vowed payment for this. Since she was face-to-face with Frodo still, her eyes widened as they did the same to him. Then, Pippin and Merry stood up, swelling with pride that it was they on the other side of the ropes now.
"Well, that should do till someone finds you... whenever," Merry said, holding in his laughter.
"Ay, and by then, we'll be long gone!" Pippin said. "You'll never find us! Haha!"
"Toodles!"
Angie looked at them with great annoyance. She turned her head around the best she could as they walked down the hall snickering and laughing about what they had just done to her and Frodo. Then she looked back at Frodo who sighed. It felt weird being bound to him front-to-front. What ever happened to back-to-back?
.. x x x ..
After settling in their rooms without any words, the five hobbits returned to the tavern in hopes of seeing Gandalf come through the door. The air was clingy and smoky and filled with raucous laughter. None of them could help but to feel out of place amongst all of these Big Folk.
"I'll go get us some drinks," Frodo said. "Take that table over there. Be sure that you can see the door clearly enough."
"I'll help you, Mr. Frodo," Sam said, following him over to the bar.
Angie looked at Merry and Pippin, and the three of them went over to the table that Frodo had indicated. She noticed that they both moved a bit closer to her as everyone eyed them, and for once, she didn't mind or bother to reprimand them. She didn't feel comfortable here at all. She sat down at the table with Merry and Pippin across from her looking half as awkward as she did.
"I really wish Gandalf would hurry," Merry said. "I want to know what's going on."
"I do, too," Pippin said as they both looked at Angie as if on cue.
"I'm sorry, you two," she said, "but Frodo, Sam, and I must not give away any information. You're lucky you know what you do. It's a delicate subject."
"What about?" Merry pleaded. "Tell us!"
"Not until Gandalf arrives and we're in private!" she said. "I can't go around telling you information about… this in the middle of a tavern."
"Of course you can!" Pippin said. "Everybody's drunk... who's gonna remember tonight in the morning?"
"I will, that's for sure," she said. "I'm not about to go overboard like the other night at the Green Dragon and then have Gandalf show up and not remember what I was doing here!"
"You see! You forget everything when you drink too much!" Pippin said. "Tell us!"
"Tell us what?" Frodo asked as he and Sam approached the table and set the drinks down.
"Need you ask?" Angie said, Frodo and Sam sitting down on either side of her. "They want to know all about what's going on."
"Well if you don't want to tell us right here, there's always the room we'll be spending the night in," Merry said.
"Sorry," Frodo said. "Just be patient. Gandalf will be here any time now."
Merry huffed, rolled his eyes, say, "Anything you say, Frodo..."
A stillness formed around them as they drank, thought, and glanced up at each other every so often. Angie felt as if she was secluded from the tavern here at the little table, like she was inside a bubble and everything outside of it was blurred and unclear, though that was not necessarily comforting to her.
"I'll be right back," Merry said, breaking the silence and shaking his ale mug a bit.
He headed towards the bar, and Angie looked back down at her own mug that she hadn't really touched yet. Frodo and Sam had tilted theirs a few times, and Pippin's was almost gone to her guess. They still sat silent, Gandalf's whereabouts running through all of their minds. Frodo assured them that he would turn up, but the words were not much of a comfort. Soon enough, Merry returned, carrying a large mug filled to the brim. Pippin gawked at it as Merry sat down, a light dancing in his eyes as he admired his tankard.
"What's that?" Pippin asked in astonishment.
"This, my friend, is a pint," Merry said, taking the first sip from it.
"It comes in pints?" Pippin asked incredulously.
"Mmhmm."
"I'm getting one," Pippin said with a quick glance up at the bar before dashing out of his seat.
Angie bit her lip to hide her smile as Sam shouted 'You've had a whole half already!' after him, but it was a lost cause. Pippin was already halfway to the bar squeezing in between all of these tall Men with not a care in the world except getting his ale.
"That fellow's done nothin' but stare at you since we arrived," she suddenly heard Sam say, bringing her back to the table. She glanced around quickly until she figured out that Sam was talking about someone watching Frodo, not her. She looked in the direction they were and saw a Man cloaked in black puffing at his pipe. He looked ominous and threatening in that dark corner.
"Excuse me," Frodo finally said, taking aside Mr. Butterbur who was walking by, "but that man in the corner, who is he?"
Mr. Butterbur looked half afraid to answer, but he lowered his voice and did anyway. "He's one of them rangers," he said, nodding. "Dangerous folk they are, wandering the wilds. What his right name is I've never heard, but around here, he's known as Strider."
"Strider..." Frodo quietly said as if the name would strike familiarity with him. But it did not. Mr. Butterbur continued on down the row of tables as Frodo pulled out the Ring and turned it in his hands under the table while it whispered to him. The temptation grew strong on him once again to put it on.
He closed his eyes as it repeated his name softly. He became unaware of Angie, Merry, and Sam conversing right beside him, and the musty, smoke-filled air of the tavern was distant. He heard no noise except the voice of the Ring chanting 'Baggins...'
That is, until he was pulled out of its seductive trance when Pippin loudly voiced the name 'Baggins' from clear across the room. Bad. His name had been announced to all these strangers now whom he had never met! They could all be after him for all he knew, and Pippin had just given them the key to their success!
Highly unlikely, but still!
Before Angie or Sam knew what was going on, Frodo had leapt from the bench calling out Pippin's name. They both stood up and watched the entire scene unfold; Frodo had slipped upon reaching Pippin and his group of new friends, and the Ring was taunting them all as it flew up into the air out of Frodo's hand. Angie went to move forward, but Sam held her back. Frodo reached up to catch the Ring, but it slipped onto his finger.
Angie gasped and Sam opened his mouth in fear of what had just occurred. Merry came running up behind them, stopping next to Angie and looking at where Frodo's body was moments before in utter confusion and disbelief. The three hobbits then raised their heads and stared at Pippin who held his ale mug so loosely they thought he might drop it. Pippin bore the same expression the others did. Though he and Merry knew not the seriousness of the situation, they had a feeling that what just happened was very bad judging by the looks on Sam and Angie's faces.
"Um, 'scuse me," Pippin said with a troubled smile as he hopped off of the barstool and went over to Sam, Merry, and Angie. "What'll we do?" he whispered to them once he was in a circle with them.
"Sam! Look!" Angie said, pointing over to the stairwell. They turned and saw the dark Strider figure pushing Frodo up the stairs with force.
"C'mon!" Sam said, heading for the dark corner the Ranger sat in moments earlier. "We need to get Mr. Frodo back!" He handed them each something heavy to use as a weapon and said, "Let's go!"
"But we don't know which room he's stayin' in!" Merry said as they walked swiftly towards the stairs. "Or if he's even stayin' at all! What good's that gonna do us?"
"We just keep the distance short between them and us," Angie said, running on her toes over to the stairwell.
The four of them threw their heads around the corner, looking up the stairs just as the end of the mysterious Ranger's cloak disappeared down the right hand corridor. Sam, being above them all, looked down at them and jerked his head towards the stairs. One by one they left their little totem pole and swept up the stairs in time to see the Ranger push Frodo into a room at the end of the hall.
"Come on," Sam said.
Upon reaching the outside of the door, a heavy silence fell over them. Angie, Merry, and Pippin gripped to their objects and had them raised as Sam looked back at them and nodded. And, with one swift motion, Sam burst through the door with the others. The Ranger drew his sword, but each of them was ready to fight, even if they didn't exactly look it.
"Let him go!" Sam shouted. "Or I'll have you, Longshanks!"
Angie saw the Ranger's face fall in disappointment, as if he was willing and eager for something more evil and threatening to come through the door than four hobbits. He sheathed his sword, and Angie felt a bit offended at that. Thinks a hobbit can't fight, does he?
"You have a stout heart, little hobbit," this Ranger said. "But that will not save you."
"Little?" Angie asked angrily. "Well I'll have you know that they are advantages to being little."
Strider raised an eyebrow just taking notice of her and her fiery personality. "I meant no offense, m'lady," he said. "I apologize." He kept looking at her with the same expression everyone else had given her when she was with her group of friends.
"And if I hear one word out of your mouth telling me to go back because I'm here and it's too dangerous, you will not like the consequences. Yes, I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere without him," she said, pointing at Frodo. "At least, not without a good fight."
"I would not send you back to your home," Strider said. "Not while you and your friends would go to such lengths as to save him if you thought he was in danger."
"Don't give yourself so much credit," Angie spat lowly.
"M'lady, I don't wish to quarrel with you," said Strider gently. "I am but a friend of Gandalf the Grey."
"Gandalf?" Frodo asked.
"Where is he?" Sam demanded.
"I don't know, Master hobbit," Strider replied. "But you cannot wait any longer for him. They're coming."
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