A/N: Hello one and all, I'm back! Sorry for the long absence (graduating school, acting in four *and a current* musicals, a trip to New Zealand, and working four jobs simultaneously will do that to a person). Rest assured, I am here now with a nice extra long chapter. Since Eric has already had more than his fair share of POV's, I'll be going back to Susan. Here I'm hoping to portray the confidence and skills she THINKS she has before realizing just how out of her depth she really is in this new environment.

Chapter 6: A Nazgûl Stops To Ask For Directions

Susan's POV

So far the plan had turned out beautifully (at least my side of it had - I had no idea how Eric was managing with the rest of the hobbits). All I had to do was distract Merry from going outside until Eric came back with the others. It was too easy! I knew almost every character inside out and upside down, who they were and what they were like. Merry was no exception, and I knew exactly what would keep him busy. It was a topic so perilous that Gandalf himself warned Théoden against it when the king first met (or rather, when he will meet) the hobbits. A topic that tested my very pride as a true Ringer nerd.

'Right then, let's see if I can remember this now,' I said, using the utmost concentration that I could muster. 'Pippin is your first cousin on your mother Esmeralda Took's side, right?' Merry nodded, and I continued cautiously. 'And Frodo... is your first cousin once removed on your father Saradoc Brandybuck's side through... through your great aunt Primula Brandybuck - but he's also your second cousin once removed on your mother's side through his great grand uncle, uh... Higgins...?' Merry raised his eyebrows up in warning. 'No wait! Not Higgins, uh... Hildigrim, that's it. His great grand uncle Hildigrim Brandybuck, and first cousin once removed Rosa Baggins (who are both your great-great grandparents). Is that right?' Merry nodded, looking altogether impressed.

'Well done,' he praised. 'You were close, I'll give you that.'

'Darn it,' I sighed, and he laughed. 'What did I get wrong?'

'Well not too much (unless you look at it in its entirety). Hildigrim and Rosa Brandybuck are only my great grandparents, and Rosa is Frodo's first cousin twice removed. Now if you want to be even more specific, this also makes Frodo my third cousin once removed through my great-great uncle Largo Baggins (Frodo's great grandfather). That can also make me Old Bilbo's second cousin twice removed through his grandfather Mungo Baggins (also a great-great uncle of mine).' He finished all of this without pause, and a rather pleasant tune in his voice. Meanwhile I couldn't stop gaping at him in amazement, which seemed to amuse him more. 'Oh my goodness,' I said, still in disbelief that he could remember that all so easily. 'It's a wonder that you're not all related to one another in the Shire. Distant or otherwise.' Merry laughed again.

'It hasn't quite come to that yet,' he chided. 'Maybe give it a hundred years or so, and I shouldn't be too surprised if that turns out to be the case. Of course, we Brandybucks prefer to keep to our side of The Water away from those Hobbiton bunch. Those folk on The Hill are queer, especially if you have the misfortune of crossing paths with the S.B.'s.'

'S.B.'s... Sorry, who are they again?' I asked, once again feigning ignorance (of course I knew who the Sackville Baggins were). And Merry explained just that, going into great detail about the different families and their significance in the Shire (we had already covered the history of pipe-weed about an hour ago). It was sort of like a lesson in politics, only a million times more interesting. After all, it's not every day that you get to have a conversation with a real live hobbit. Most of his knowledge was about the folk of Buckland, although, to be honest, I was struggling to remember a lot of it. There was just so much to take in all at once, and too many names that all were somehow related to each other. I was just lucky enough to remember a small fraction of Merry's relatives! All in all though, I did my best to soak up everything I could. Not to sound like an obsessed nerd or anything, but this was Sir Merry the Magnificent I was talking to. You know, one of four hobbit members of The Fellowship of the Ring, knight of Rohan, bane of the Witch King of Angmar (he deserves at least 50% of the credit for that one), revolution leader of the Shire against the ruffians of Isengard, and the soon to be Master of Buckland!

"Whoa! Okay, deep breaths Susan, control the inner fan girl. He hasn't done all of that yet." I had to admit, it was getting harder and harder for me to keep it together. I could feel my knee bouncing up and down beneath the table we were sitting at, just winding up and getting ready for the moment when I would inevitably leap out of my chair and have a complete fan girl attack.

'Miss?'

'Huh?' Yikes, see, this is what happens when I get too excited, I zone out. Meanwhile Merry was glancing at me as if waiting for an answer to whatever question he asked. 'I'm sorry, I must have been deep in thought. You were saying?' Merry nodded, taking the apology with ease.

'I thought as much when you didn't answer,' he replied. 'I was only asking about your family.'

Crap.

'...My family?' I asked back surprised. He nodded again.

'Well I'm sure you can understand my curiosity, what with a young child such as yourself (not even in your tweens no less) trekking through the wilderness alone with only a younger brother as company; and besides, I've no doubt tired you enough with talk about the Shire.'

'Oh no, I actually quite enjoyed listening to you,' I said, hoping to talk myself out of it.

'All the same,' said Merry brushing off my last comment, 'I am curious.' Well shoot. This wasn't going to be an easy thing to answer, and by the look on Merry's face, this wasn't just a passing curiosity of his. He had clearly been waiting to ask this question for a while now, especially after everything that's happened today. He didn't appear to be suspicious in any way, but they were on a perilous quest, so it was understandable that he wasn't looking to trust us completely. It's like what he said to Frodo in A Conspiracy Unmasked chapter: you can trust us to keep any secret of yours - closer than you keep it yourself. Above all else, Merry was going to look after Frodo, which I suppose meant questioning me too.

"Oh boy," I thought, clearing my throat. "Guess it's time for another improv act." It was either that or the truth, and God only knew how this hobbit would react if I went with the latter. Despite my lack of experience, I felt confident enough to assume that fictional characters did not respond well to being told that they were, well, fictional.

'There's not really much to tell I'm afraid,' I started off with. 'My father was a huntsman, and my mother a healer. We lived away from other settlements of men in the north, in a small house in the woods.' Well, it wasn't technically a lie (more or less true at least). My dad did hunt, and my mom was a healer... well... okay, an animal healer, but there's no need to nit-pick, and we did own a log cabin in the middle of nowhere in the north... it was just up in northern Canada... and we only stayed in it a few times a year during hunting season.

When I had finished my brief explanation, Merry scrunched up his eyebrows. 'That's it?' he said. 'No cousins, no distant aunts or uncles?'

'Well, I imagine there probably are,' I answered back. 'I do believe I have some distant cousins on my father's side, only I've never met them... or even know who they are for that matter.' More or less true as well, I just failed to mention the ones I did know and saw on a regular basis (the ones I hadn't met lived on the opposite side of Canada).

'I see,' said Merry, biting his lower lip in thought, 'and where are these parents of yours now, might I ask?'

"Shoot. I was afraid he'd ask that." The way I saw it there were only two ways I could go about answering this. I could either do option A: go into a detailed explanation on where my parents were and why they let their children wander through Middle Earth by themselves (which would inevitably lead to more questions that I may or may not be able to answer). Or, I could go with option B.

'They're dead.' Yep, option B it was.

'What!' Merry blurted out, only catching his voice at the last minute and lowering it back to a quieter tone. My feet suddenly became very interesting to me, as I worked desperately to steady the nervous bounce in my knee.

'Yes,' I replied softly, trying to sound sad about it. I even managed to get my eyes to water a little by not blinking them (a trick I picked up in the theatre business). 'Our mother died when I was very young, and our father... Well, his passing was more recent (A little over a week now I suppose). I don't know why I said a week. I was planning on saying month, and I was thinking month when I opened my mouth, but it just came out as week. "Stupid dyslexic mind."

'A week!' said Merry astounded. 'You mean to say that you've been alone in the woods this whole time?' Looking down at my lap, I nodded, all the while silently cursing my stupid self. "Why on earth did you say 'week'? There's no way you and Eric look like two kids who are only a week into mourning. Stupid! You should have said MONTH!"

'Sunniva?' Merry's voice brought me out of my self scolding, the look in his eyes reflected a sad sympathy... a sympathy which suddenly made quite guilty to receive. That was the final thing to throw me off my game.

"That's it! Can't hold it in any more. I need to pace." Before any more questions could be asked from the hobbit, I stood up from my chair, ending the conversation. 'I'm sorry, but might I take leave of you for a moment.' Merry stood up also bowing his head in a quick nod towards me, still with that sympathetic look on his face.

'Of course,' he said. 'Please go, and I'm sorry if anything I said-'

'Oh no,' I interrupted. 'You've done nothing to offend me. It's just... please excuse me.' With that I made a beeline for the room Eric and I shared, being sure to close the round door fully behind me before dropping the sad act.

"Well that could have been worse," came the first thought to cross over my mind, right before I remembered something else... Something much more serious. "Oh God," I realized with a start. "My parents! What must they be thinking right now?" Eric and I were supposed to be home hours ago (heck, I had school in the morning - and a Math test!) I was pacing again now, back and forth, back and forth, running through every scenario that could be going on back in our world. I could only imagine how worried our mom and dad were. Did they go looking for us when we didn't come home? Did they call the police? Were there search parties currently underway throughout the county? "And when we finally get home, what then? People will want an explanation. If we ever get home that is."

'Oh no,' I spoke quietly to myself. 'What if we never get home?' Now that it was just me by myself, I could finally do what I've been wanting to do since we got here: have a freak out. Back and forth, back and forth, I kept pacing, keeping my head low to avoid the short ceiling above. Pacing was good. Pacing helped me think.

"Wow, Eric was right. This is all just so out there. For goodness sake, we are actually IN Middle Earth, and I just had a conversation with a hobbit about pipe weed and Shire relations while my folks at home are probably worried to death. The last thing I said to them was 'don't worry, it's not as if we're going to kill each other out there,' and now I might never even see them again because we're not even in the same world! Oh wow, I am literally not even on the same planet anymore... or maybe I am? Tolkien did say that his books were supposed to be an English mythology set before Christ. Does this mean we've gone back in time? Oh no, HAVE we gone back in time?! What if Eric and I have changed the whole course of human history just by being here!" I took a moment to stop myself and light a candle on the window sill, before I had a complete panic attack.

'Whoa! Okay, calm down Susan, it's not all that bad,' I said to myself as I wrestled with lighting the damn candle (old fashioned matches suck!). 'You're fine, you're okay,' I continued. 'Let's face it, you'd be lying to yourself if you said you weren't a little bit excited.' I suppose that was true. I mean, I had literally met the four hobbits from the Fellowship of the Ring. How many people get to meet their favourite fictional characters? I could only imagine how Ringer nerds everywhere would kill to be in my position at that moment.

"Crap. I'm going to have a fan girl attack now, aren't I? I better sit down." It sounded like good advice to me, however just as I started to lean back onto one of the small beds, something sharp poked itself into my rear end.

'Ouch!' I squeaked, jumping right back onto my feet.

"What the heck? What did Eric leave his sword here for?"

'Idiot,' I muttered. 'He better not make a habit out of this. Idiot, idiot, idiot. For all he knows there could be a pack of orcs about to attack Bree this very minute.' Okay fine, that may have been overstating things a little, but he should have known better than to go around forgetting his sword in random places now that we were in Middle Earth (or now that he even had a sword for that matter). Something could happen to him, and then where would that idiot of a brother of mine be? "Yeah, but then again, he's not really in any danger. I mean, what's the worst that could happen to him in a room full of party goers? Eric isn't exactly the kind of kid that would get into a bar fight."

I was able to relax a little bit after that, though for the record, I was not worried about him (for that brat? Definitely not!) I was only considering every outcome should something go wrong regarding his side of our plan. Besides, I knew Eric could take care of himself, in fact it was probably best that he was out there instead of me (I wasn't going to tell him that though).

"Hmmm. On that note I should probably go back out and join Merry," I thought to myself. I had already been in my room for maybe ten or so minutes, and knew that I shouldn't have kept him waiting for so long as it was. "Okay, okay, you're good now. You can do this." After a few deep breaths to ready myself, I approached the round door and gently opened it up to the lounge.

The room was empty.

'Uh-oh...' I looked from one side of the room to the other, but there was no Merry in sight.

"Crap! Now who's the idiot." He could have just gone into his room to rest, but I knew Merry better than that to know that that's not where he went... "And if we've reached the part in the story where he goes outside for fresh air, then that means the black riders are here in... shoot, Shoot, SHOOT!"

I had to find him. Find him and bring him back to the room fast before the Nazgûl found him first. If I didn't, then they'd know Frodo was here with the Ring, which meant that they'd chase them down like they did in the books, which meant they'd chase us down too since our only chance of finding Rivendell was to follow the hobbits.

"Oh bad, oh bad, oh bad, Bad, BAD!" Needless to say I was back in my panic mode as I dashed for the main door, but then stopped. "I can't go out there. What if I run into one of them?" I jumped up and down nervously on the tips of my feet. I didn't like the dark as it was, but now that there was actually something in the dark other than shadows, that made the whole situation even worse. With a turn of the heel, I raced back into my room and snatched up Eric's sword. The thing was a lot lighter than I thought a sword would weigh. No different than holding a base ball bat, with the handle fitting snuggly in my hand. "Thank God Eric left it behind here."

Now I was ready. Well ready-ish, but that was basically the same thing right? With the sword tucked behind my back I headed towards the main door, this time without stopping as I darted outside into the cold September night.

The air was icy and bitter, freezing my nose, like every breath I took was a gulp of winter wind... far too cold for the start of a fall season now that I thought about it. "Don't worry about that now," I reminded myself, "just find Merry and get off the street." I stayed where I was beneath the safe lamp light looking for any sign of the hobbit, but so far I couldn't see heads nor tails of him. "He must already be following the black rider towards Bill Ferny's house," I realized. There was nothing for it, I had to follow him. The only issue now was... which way was Bill Ferny's house?

"Great. Now what?" It was a fifty-fifty chance that whichever way I went, left or right, would be the right way. "Hmmm... right way... Right it is then(?)" Like I said, fifty-fifty chance, but there was really only one way to find out if I was right or wrong. I had to go out there. "Okay, okay, go... Now!" My feet didn't budge. "Come on, don't be such a sissy. It's just the dark." Still my feet wouldn't budge. I just really did not want to go. "Okay, think of it like this," I reasoned to myself: "If you don't find Merry now, then these black riders are going to be hovering over you every night from here to Rivendell. Good luck feeling safe then." I wasn't certain, but I think my voice made a little whimpering sound to that last thought in my head. With that in mind, I took one last deep breath before stepping out of the safety of the lamp light in pursuit of Merry.

'Just remember,' I whispered to myself. 'You're not the one they're after. You are not the one they are after.' It wasn't much reassurance, but it was enough to keep me going. 'They are not looking for you. You are not the one they are after.' Over and over again, I kept whispering these things under my breath, if only to convince myself not to turn and run back to the inn. With every step the air seemed to grow colder and colder, and every motion I made was causing my blood to freeze up inside my veins. Eric's sword was starting to feel heavier in my grip, ringing slightly with a quiet tune as my hands trembled around the hilt. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all," I thought bitterly. "Nope! I can't do it. I'm going back."

I'm sorry, but camping in the dark woods was one thing - walking down a dark road with ring wraiths creeping through the shadows was quite another! Honestly it was impressive that I made it that far out in general, past a bunch of houses and even around a couple bends in the road. Once the lamp post was out of sight however... that was it for me. I was very much prepared to turn back and run when a figure suddenly appeared out from around the bend, masked for a brief moment by the shadows. My breath caught in my throat and I squealed slightly, jumping backwards, and barley managing to steady myself against a stone wall. The figure in front of me jumped back also, with the sound of a short ringing from a sword coming from its being, before it paused, sighed heavily, and then spoke.

'Sunniva!' Merry hissed under his breath, sounding just as relieved as I was at that moment. 'What a fright you caused me. What are you doing out here?'

'I was looking for you,' I said, gasping for air to breath (I hated jump scares).

'Me?' he said stepping out of the shadows. 'Why on earth... Oh never mind that, we have to go back now. It's dangerous out here.' Now that I could see him a bit more clearly, I noticed that Merry held a firm grip on the dagger he'd drawn from his belt a second ago, but there was also something about the look in his eyes that terrified me to the bone.

'Merry, are you alright?' I asked him. 'What happened?'

'No time for that now,' he answered back urgently, 'we have to get to the inn.' He cast a long glance over his shoulder as if someone were after him, before leaning in real close to utter words in such a soft whisper that I almost missed it: 'I've seen them.'

The breath caught in my throat again. I didn't need any other explanation to know who he meant by them. 'Did they see you?' I managed to ask back.

'No, or at least I don't think so,' Merry whispered. 'I started following one, but turned back around when I heard someone following me (which turned out to be you - thank goodness!) I thought you were another one of those riders.' My blood started to unfreeze now and began racing to a panicked height. There was still time, time to avoid any confrontation with the Nazgûl and steer clear of them all together.

'Well then let's go!' I hissed urgently, 'before they come back.' Merry didn't need to be told twice. Sheathing up his dagger, he came to my side and started leading us both back to The Prancing Pony. Despite the difference in height between us, Merry was matching my every pace, even daring to walk a step or two ahead, as though to check that the way was clear. Further down the street, the lamp light above the inn had come back into view. Just a little further and we would be safe in our room, with maybe even Eric and the others already there waiting for us. "And Strider," I reminded myself. We were so close now, just a little bit further...

...The hair on the back of my neck stood up on end as a cold chill traveled down my spine at the sight before us. There, riding up from the opposite side of the street and cutting off our path was a cloaked figure atop of a giant black horse.

'Merry...' I began to say.

'I see him,' he uttered back. 'Just keep walking. Maybe he won't bother us.'

'Okay...' I whispered, once again practicing to regain my breath. While half of me understood that playing the act casual card was smart thinking on Merry's part, the other half just wanted to scream and run like the little coward I currently felt like. My blood was starting to freeze over again, making it very hard just to keep up the motion of moving my legs. Eric's sword fell heavy at my side leaving me frantically trying to conceal it in the folds of my dress.

We both kept our heads bowed low as we neared the place it was, waiting on the road. I didn't dare peak upwards in case I found it watching us. "Don't make eye contact, don't make eye contact." The dark stead it rode snorted at us, and I could hear it's large dish plate hoof smack down against the earth. "Don't make eye contact..." It was behind us now. The door to The Prancing Pony in sight beneath that wonderful lamp light shining above it.

'Hssss.'

Merry and I both stopped where we were, either by fear, or some dark command, I couldn't say. My mind was racing. "It hissed at us. IT HISSED AT US!" Every bone in my body was screaming to run, to make a dash for the Pony and hope I reached the doors before... it. To my complete horror though, I could hardly find it in myself to pull off such a stunt.

'Come,' the cold voice hissed. 'I have questions.' Oh how I desperately wanted to run, but instead I found myself turning around to its demand, every inch of my skin crawling with fear. Some hidden thought told me I would be a dead woman if I didn't obey it (a silent threat that lingered in the air maybe), so there Merry and I stood, in the middle of the road with one of the Nine sitting no more than seven or eight feet away atop its black horse. One of The Nine!

'I am looking for someone,' it said, it's voice reminding me of an icy breeze, slow and chilling, with a deep haunting air about it like the voice of death itself. 'Have you seen Baggins?'

I didn't speak, and neither did Merry. I was terrified. Terrified that if I tried to speak, I would only be able to speak the truth. Something about the black rider made it seem like it was impossible to get away with lying and I would end up telling it everything it needed to know. I couldn't do that, it went against everything being a nerd meant, especially a Middle Earth nerd. So I was afraid to speak because of that. I was also afraid because I felt that by not speaking I would somehow reveal everything through my silence because I refused to answer it's damning question (and get myself killed in the process). We were trapped. The rider was poised where it sat in its saddle, with invisible eyes that seemed to see right through my very soul. Then with a kick of its heals, it approached.

"RUN! RUN! RUN!" Ever part of my being was screaming at me to run, but I couldn't - not even when the black rider stopped it's horse directly in front of us.

'You will tell me,' it spoke again. 'Where is Baggins?'

"Oh no. I was right." It knew that we knew Frodo. Our silence was enough to prove it. Now we were going to die.

'Uh... Who?' Eric asked beside me.

"What? Eric? When did he get there?" Part of my mind wondered, while the rest of my thoughts were frozen cold by the rider in front of us. It's voice, cold and dreadful spoke again, asking it's question harsher than it had before.

'Where is Baggins?' No one answered. I could barely even breath, let alone speak.

"How was Éowyn able to fight such an evil thing," I thought. Even with Eric's sword dangling at my side I felt completely helpless. I knew one of us needed to say something, but it was at this particular point in time when my mind chose betray me and draw up blank. "Why Mind, WHY?!" The rider was leaning over us now, casting it's black shadow over us all. The sniffing, oh God, it was sniffing just like it did in the books

"Come on Susan. Say something. ANYTHING! C'mon! Pull yourself together. Show a little back bone!"

'Back!' A voice blurted out.

"Wait... That was MY voice... Shoot, did I actually just speak?"

Sure enough, the black rider's full attention had turned onto me, while I cursed my stupid mouth for also betraying me like that. Just because my mind was thinking about back bones did not give my mouth permission to suddenly shout out the word back. Both my mind and mouth really needed to work on their communication skills to one another.

"Well you have to say something now," my mind thought. "SPEAK!"

'Uh... I mean, back... b-b-b-b-baaa...'

'Is that really the best you can do? Pathetic! You're fighting for your life here. At least say something smart."

'Back!' I shouted again. The black rider was visibly loosing patients now, leaning further down until it's hood hovered over my head. Beside me, Eric squeezed my arm.

'Su, stop talking.' He whispered, his voice lacking its usual annoyance, and instead holding something much more unnerving. Fear.

"Oh, you are in trouble. You are in so, SO much trouble... And for God's sake Susan, stop saying back!"

'Uh... hehe...' I laughed nervously

"Wait. Hehe? He? HE!" I hadn't a clue what my mind was thinking, but my mouth decided to just role with it.

'He! Back!" I blurted out again. 'He... He went back!'

"Finally! Something intelligent," I thought. I couldn't help feeling proud of myself for that. Not only did I speak a whole sentence, but I had actually managed to lie! That meant Frodo would stay safe, and this Nazgûl could finally leave us alone... or that's what I thought at least. As far as the black rider was concerned however, I wasn't done yet.

'Where is Baggins?' It hissed, still looming over me like the grim reaper coming to take my soul - which actually wasn't that far from the truth, since I would likely be dead in the next couple of seconds if I didn't figure something out.

'Yes!' My mouth went.

"Smooth," thought my mind, as I made a mental face palm. "Well don't stop there. Finish your damn sentence!"

'Uh... Baggins. Yes. He... back. He went back,' I said, rambling without control. 'Back... back... to... uh...'

"Shoot! What was that place with all the hills called again? I can't remember with him sniffing me. STOP SNIFFING ME!" Oh sure, like the Black Rider was a mind reader... or was he? Beats me, but he didn't stop with the sniffing. Ugh! Why was my mind betraying me again?!

'Back to the Shire,' a voice spoke up timidly (this time not my own). I turned to my one side where Merry stood, having been the glorious hero that came to my defence. 'Back to - Hobbiton, that is,' he added, with a slight stutter in his voice.

'Oh?... OH! Yes,' Came Pippin's voice from the other side of me. How long he had been standing there I hadn't a clue. 'He left hours ago, b-back up the west road.'

'Through the Old Forest if you want to catch him quicker,' finished Merry. Whoa, hobbits really were braver than people gave them credit for. Huh, maybe all hobbits were just resilient that way, especially with Bilbo and Frodo who both had the R-

"NO!" I thought to myself. "Don't even think about it. The black rider will know. Somehow it'll know." Its threatening form above us still hadn't wavered. In fact, if anything else it had gotten worse. Did it know we were all lying through our teeth? "Probably." The rider had stopped its sniffing now, which I thought would have been a relief, but only summoned an air of dread about the four of us. We were all going to die, I just knew it.

'Why go back?' It hissed, and I mean really hissed, like a serpent spitting venom. It's tone had grown darker and it's words harsher. I could tell it didn't believe us, it's tone spoke as much even if it didn't. Liar, was what it was really saying with its question, not why go back.

'W-Well,' said Pippin a little less confidently. 'He... he said there was something of his he needed to get... back in the Shire.' Maybe it was because it had turned its attention to Merry and Pippin and was no longer hovering over me, or maybe it was because I had nothing to lose (being dead either way), but somehow, I had found it in myself to speak words that were not a complete jumble of nonsense.

'Yes,' I said, though it came out more as a squeak. 'I remember, He uh... Baggins, said there was something he had to go back for. Something he dropped on the road between Hobbiton and Buckland.' As soon I had finished speaking, I really wished they hadn't "When are you going to learn to shut that big mouth of yours?" Oddly enough, the voice in my head sounded suspiciously like Eric's, but I didn't dwell on that for long. What with the undead-king-servant of Sauron starring me down and all, I was otherwise distracted.

The rider's presence hadn't faltered once as it's looming form hovered over me once again. For a third time it hissed, no doubt calling my bluff. The rider then shifted suddenly, lifting one of its arms from where it rested. Maybe it was going to pull out a sword, or maybe just hover its hand over my head and kill me that way (don't judge me! It seemed very plausibly at the time). Either way, I had become a desperate woman and with that in mind practically screamed out the next thought which popped into my head.

'Something very precious!' The moment that sentence had left my lips, I knew I had done it. I had said the magic word. Precious.

In an instant the rider's shape shot up straight with another hiss, as if to consider me for a moment. We all stood beneath its shadow with baited breath (or everyone else was - me, I just forgot how to breath). Was it still calling us on our lie? No one knew. What was odd was how the rider began switching its glance back and forth between Eric and I, beginning its sniffing again as it did so. I didn't like that one bit. It was as though it could somehow sense that there was something different about the two of us (we weren't exactly the local natives after all). An eternity seemed to pass by without anything happening. Then, without warning, it drew out its hand again, this time stretching it out as though it were about to seize one of us.

'Su, get back!' Eric's shout barely registered in my mind, but I still couldn't move.

A lot of things happened in that short space of time. It first started with the blinding torch light which appeared right in front of my face, carried by a tall figure wearing a brown cloak. I could practically feel my eyebrows singe at the sudden blast of heat. The dark hand of the rider pulled away at the sight of the flame and instantly afterwards, a horrible scream shot out from beneath the rider's hood, a sound which I would never forget, inhuman and twisted into some cold and dark shriek. The best I can describe it is that the Nazgûl's screams in the movies paled dramatically in comparison. It was answered straight away by a second scream, equally as terribly as the first before the giant black stead reared up onto its hind feet, kicking two dish plate hooves into the air. I was certain that one of those hooves would have cracked my skull open had the same cloaked figure with the torch not swung out his arm and shoved me out of harm's way. In less than a blink of an eye, a sword appeared in that very same hand, bearing only a foot long blade as the rest of the sword appeared to have been broken off at some point. That didn't stop the cloaked figure however as he continued to wave both torch and sword in the direction of the black rider and it's angered stead.

Shouts began echoing across the street as the town of Bree woke up to all of the commotion. Shudders opened up and some of the braver men shot out of their doors bearing lanterns of their own. With one last hiss, the Nazgûl let out a final horrific scream before spinning its horse around and galloping off towards the west gate. The cloaked figure took a few steps forward in pursuit, stopping in the center of the road to watch the rider's retreating form fade into the distance.

For a short while, it seemed like the danger had passed, but still, the air didn't feel quite right. It was a bad feeling, like there was something I was missing, but my mind was too numb with fear to recall what that was. "Wait a minute," I remembered. "They didn't have their horses with them in the books. And wasn't there supposed to be two of them...?" Another scream broke through my thoughts as a second black rider came charging up from the east end of the street with an outdrawn sword, right towards the cloaked man with the torch and the broken blade. "Broken blade?... THE BLADE THAT WAS BROKEN! ARAGORN!" Yes, I was insanely numb with fear to the point of being paralysed and brain dumb, and yes, it really did take me that long to figure out who the cloaked man was, but I was still an obsessed ringer nerd, and like all nerds, I was incredibly defensive over the worlds and especially characters that I fangirled over. Add panic and adrenaline to that and you've got something which somewhat resembles bravery (I said somewhat).

'Watch out!' Aragorn had already spun around to the sound of the scream, but there wasn't nearly enough time for him to react to the armed rider and it's stampeding horse. Eric must have been thinking the exact same thing as me because the next thing I knew, both of us had launched ourselves at the ranger, each grabbing one of his arms and yanking him out of the way of the rider's path. A swishing sound whistled right past our noses as the Nazgûl's blade missed us by a hair. The town's people of Bree continued with their uproar of shouts, but quickly shrunk away as the wraith passed them by.

Up ahead, the black rider slowed in speed before it could reach the gate, stopping briefly and swiveling its horse around to face the five of us again. A final hiss came from its being before it turned and fled through the west gate.

Then there was silence.

Those who still remained on the street said nothing, many of which out of pure fright either gripped their lanterns tightly, or retreated back into their homes, hastily slamming their doors and shudders behind them, not before sending curious or downright dirty looks our way. No one was willing to risk any business with whoever they thought those riders were (well, almost no one).

'I told you they were sniffing!' Pippin's voiced squeaked out in Merry's direction.

'I believe you,' Merry answered through a large exhale of breath. 'But what in the Shire was that noise? That - that scream! I doubt I'll hear another sound more dreadful than the likes of it again.'

'Let us hope that you do not,' Said Aragorn turning to face the hobbits. 'Else it will be a perilous journey from here to Rivendell.'

'Oh?' said Merry, addressing the man for the first time. 'And who are you?'

'I am Strider,' he answered smoothly.

'I see,' said Merry, crossing his arms. 'And where exactly do you fit into all of this, I should like to know?'

'Save it!' Eric glowed from beside me. 'We've already heard the whole caution speech while you two were out here getting into trouble.' Okay, I may have still been completely out of it at the time, but even then I could pick up Eric's subtle jab towards me.

'And you were none the better running after them,' Aragorn pointed out. 'Much of tonight's troubles could have been avoided had you all have taken better care and kept to yourselves in the north wing.' Most of the talk after that had escaped my notice. It didn't matter to me at the time. All I could do was stare on at the spot where the Nazgûl had previously been. Where it had stared us all down.

'Much too careless,' I heard vaguely from a voice somewhere behind me. 'Inside, all of you.' The tone in the person's voice left no room for debate, though I still couldn't bring it in myself to remember how to walk. I was barely standing as it was, and that alone took all of my concentrated ability. The riders were gone, but not completely. The ground was tainted where their horses had carried them, and in a way, it was as if they had left their shadows behind (and not in the way you'd think it, like in Peter Pan or something). No, these shadows were left as a reminder, even a promise. A promise that they'd come back.

'Child,' that same voice stretched out. 'Look at me.' The voice was old and calm now, and bared some hidden power of sorts behind a rough veil. I don't know, the best way I could really describe the effect of it is that it was like being drawn in to the timid light of a warm candle, dispersing all cold around it. A hand touched my shoulder and turned me around, bringing me under the watchful look of a pair of grey eyes, steady like a quite cloudy day, yet buried beneath them was the potential might of a storm, humble, yet noble. As noble as the man they belonged to.

Strider.

The king of Gondor was standing right in front of me. There might have been a time (admittedly less than an hour ago) when a mere notion of this exact moment would have had me screaming like a mad fan girl. However, such thoughts were left completely in the dust at the sight of this ragged looking ranger, and were instead replaced with awe. Awe for the worthy son of kings, descendant from father to son of Elendil himself. A man whose ancestors were among the greatest of men, elves, and Maia alike. Aragorn, son of Arathorn. Elessar, the Elfstone. Estel.

"Hope."

'Dwell away from the shadows' he said to me. 'Come Child.' As soon as the words past his lips, I was walking again, following Strider back to the inn where the others had already gone. 'Your name is Sunniva I do believe,' he spoke again. Now that the shadow had worn off, speaking was no longer a struggle.

'Yes,' I said. 'And you're Strider.' Strider nodded. If he was shocked that I had known who he was, he was very good at hiding it. 'Thank you,' I added after a short pause, to which he then hummed in response.

'You were all more fortunate than you can know,' he said softly. 'Had you understood the true perils of these riders, I doubt you would have wandered out so blindly, knowing the depth of their task. Inside now.' With a gentle guided hand on my shoulder, he lead me through the door, but not before I took my last look of the outside world - a world which had suddenly become darker than it once was.

'I know now,' I whispered to myself.

A/N: There we have it! Hope you guys all enjoyed my latest chapter (after my year and a half absence). Wow, this is honestly taking a lot longer to finish than I expected. I first started this story way back when I was sixteen (I'm nineteen now). Hmmm, I really should think about getting a life one of these days, I hear they're really good. However, I did promise that I would finish my stories, and as I have stated before, I am too stubborn to give up on a promise. Not sure when the next chapter will be up, but rest assured, there will be one... eventually.