A/N: I would like to inform everyone of the fantastic story written by FernTimberlake called The New Pirate Arrivals. You should visit it; it features the same cast of girls though in a new setting.

Dedicated to demee! And all our other fantastic reviewers which is now a grand total of four!

Queen of Monkey Magic a cookie for your review and Jess will stay safely tied to her seat as long as we continue to get reviews; they seem to calm her.

And now for the next fabulous instalment:

Chapter 4: Elfling's

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The prisoners were strange creatures, the lead Urak-hi noticed, tilting his head, watching them. They'd stumbled upon them at dawn, during a hunting trip. Their plan had been quite simple: catch the stupid human children, have some sport in chasing them, then killing would be nice. Instead they had discovered that at least one was an elfling, a rare find; so they decided to capture them instead and go from there. His master would be most happy with the find.

He turned to his second command, "Check the others, see if they are all elflings," he said in the black speech of Mordor.

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Susan looked around at the others, sprawled on the ground. Jess lay unconscious; her head in Mel's lap and Mel leant against a rock, holding her arm. Fern was faint, as she leant against Jackie, whose hands were tied behind her. Susan sat there, depressed, as she realised she was the only able bodied one left. Those strange creatures were standing guard over them; they felt evil to her, she felt incredibly uncomfortable under their gaze. One creature approached her, and grabbed her roughly by her hair, she screamed in pain as he checked her ears before he dropped her and moved onto Fern.

Jackie yelled at the creature as it did the same to Fern and then herself. It then approached Jess, though didn't need to touch her as Melgently brushed Jess's hair aside so the creature could see Jess's ears without hurting her; Mel had been watching what he did to the others and was protecting Jess. The creature sneered at her before turning to another creature; speaking to it in a language that made them all shiver in fear: it was a harsh, evil language that suited the creatures. Though she couldn't understand what they were speaking of, Mel did pick up one word that was used more then once: elfling. This word seemed familiar to her though she didn't know why. The creatures conversed in that horrid language for a time, often glancing at the girls before they walked off, soon returning with reinforcements.

"Up!" one of the creatures demanded harshly," Get up!" Susan stood up straight away and tried to help Fern stand; Jackie also stood, standing on Ferns other side trying to help steady her. Mel shifted Jess's head gently of her lap, before she too stood.

The lead creature nodded to another who swiftly moved forward and grabbed Jess roughly, slinging her over his shoulder.

"You will do as you are told! If any of you try to escape I will kill you and the person next to you! Is this understood?" the lead creature informed them harshly and they nodded in agreement.

The creatures got them to walk in the middle of the group at a fast pace, Mel was soon exhausted and her arm stung badly, but she didn't dare voice a complaint. Fern wasn't faring as well, the cut on her cheek felt on fire and it seemed to be spreading, she believed it to be poison. As she stumbled for the umpteenth time one of the creatures grabbed her and threw her over its shoulder.

They walked at a fast pace, not stopping until dark when none of the others could even stand, let alone walk, any farther. They didn't stop for long just long enough for the creatures holding Jess and Fern who too had slipped into the world of oblivion, to pass them over to other creatures and for others still to lift Mel, Jackie, and Susan as well.

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Being carried by these creatures had got to be one of the most uncomfortable experiences Susan had ever had the displeasure of feeling. The creatures had obviously never heard of the concept of bathing, for they reeked beyond anything she had ever smelt; worse even then rotting eggs. They were anything but gentle and the look in their eyes when they looked at any of them scared her more then anything else ever had.

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As they travelled through the night their pace seemed to lift, it seemed as though they were running. But as the sun rose the next day their pace slowed slightly and Jackie noted that they tended to try and stay in the shade as much as possible. At midday they finally stopped to rest, the creatures dumped their prisoners on the hard ground leaving three to guard.

Jackie crawled slowly over to Fern and noticed she was very pale and was sweating, Jackie thought she had a fever but wasn't positive, but she knew whatever it was it wasn't good.

"Hang in there Fern," Jackie whispered "we'll be ok…" 'I hope' Jackie thought her eyes watering at the thought of Fern dying 'she can't die!' "Don't leave us Fern! Not now! We need you!" Jackie said as tears ran freely from her eyes

"Don't worry Jackie, she won't die," Susan said as she came over "Someone will save us!" Susan said, but her voice wavered.

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Mel looked down at Jess who was still out of it; she was afraid, but refused to admit it to the others, she wanted to appear strong for the moment, even though she ached all over. She needed Jess awake, if only because Jess understood her and had a way of making her smile no-matter what was going on at the time.

"Come on Jess, wake up, we need you," Mel said desperately. "Trust you to sleep in!" Mel said, trying to cheer herself up

"Yes, well I need my beauty sleep," Jess muttered groggily.

"Tons of it, but that's beside the point," Mel said, automatically. "Jess, you're…alive!"

"Yes, yes, now keep your voice down I have a killer headache," Jess muttered, her eyes closing once more

"Sorry," Mel said sheepishly, "no don't go back to sleep!" Mel cried quietly.

"Why not?" Jess said, not really awake but getting there, "What happened anyway?" Jess asked frowning as she tried to remember, it all came flooding back to her and she sat up quickly her eyes wide as they swept over the area before returning to Mel. "You're alright?" she demanded

"Yes but I think I've broken my arm and I hurt all over." Mel said nodding towards her sore arm.

"And the others?" Jess asked looking over to where Susan and Jackie were sitting beside a not so good looking Fern.

"Susan and Jackie are fine but I think Fern has been poisoned," Mel said glancing over to Fern worriedly.

Jess frowned for a moment before looking around again "How long have I been out?" she asked.

"Since yesterday morning,"

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Jess's eyes scanned the area, unconsciously taking in information about the camp and their captors. She saw the creatures holding Susan's Stick. The rest of the weapons were in a sack that had been thrown aside. This stuck her as quite curious. She tried to make herself catch of the time she had lost, it was now a day later, things had changed, and they were prisoners. Jess thanked God that she had been unconscious for a time; she did not know how she would have coped with it all.

A creature approached Mel and Jess, glaring at them both now that Jess was awake. Jess saw that this one was unarmed and realised that some had put down their arms when they had stopped.

"We're going now, elflings," the creature spat out the last word.

Mel suddenly felt brave, "We're not going anyway anymore until Fern gets some care! Give us the poisons antidote and then we'll come quietly. And we'd like a cold compress for Jess's head," she ordered.

The creature looked momentarily shocked, and then got angry. "GET UP!" it ordered.

Mel remained still, her face determined. The creature marched over to Fern and pulled her roughly to her feet. He dragged her over to a rock and threw her against it, then picked up a knife and held it against her throat.

The lead creature came over and hit the other one, knocking it to the ground. It yelled at it in the same foul language they'd used before. It threw Fern over towards Jackie and Susan who caught her roughly, their hands still bound.

The creature then handed them mouldy bread to eat. Mel looked at this with disgust and raised her voice again. "This is disgusting! This is completely against the Geneva Convention! Fern needs medical attention!" Mel gently pushed Jess off her and stood up, holding her arm carefully. "I demand you untie them…"the creature glared at her, though that wasn't what made her stop. Mel was the only without bounds, because of her arm; yet Jess's hands were no longer tied, she had freed herself. Mel decided to try and keep the creatures distracted whilst Jess implemented whatever plan she had.

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"GET UP!" Susan heard the creature yell at a peculiarly defiant Mel. Susan stared at her shocked that she would enrage their dangerous captors that had already threatened to kill them. As the creature stormed over to her she shrunk back in fear; it grabbed Fern and pulled her away, Jackie moved forward to try and get to her but Susan stopped her; and they could only watch as a creature threatened Fern's life.

"Mel, what did you do?" Susan screamed but Mel didn't hear her. Susan saw the knife in slow motion, going for Fern's throat. She had a sudden idea as she saw the creature's leader nearby, "HELP! STOP HIM!" she screamed out. The creature looked over and strode towards Fern, knocking the other creature out of the way. Susan and Jackie attempted to catch Fern as she was thrown towards them. She landed awkwardly and they checked to see if she was all right. Mel was still arguing with the creatures. Susan looked for Jess and noticed she was gone, she wasn't unconscious on the ground; she wondered what they had done with her. She noticed Mel's voice getting extremely desperate, "Ah, have you heard the theory about blondes? That blondes are derived from redheads and brunettes? You know how some blondes look like they are brunettes and some look like they are red heads?" The creature stared at her, and then began to turn around. Mel's eyes widened, Susan looked where Mel was looking and saw Jess fighting with some of the larger creatures. 'What the hell is she doing?' Susan wondered, 'wasn't she unconscious?' Susan looked around fearfully and saw a slight movement on the ridge. She squinted at it, but it was no longer there.

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A/N: Remember to review it encourages us to write more!