abnormal tragedy

Chapter 1: strider

"Who is that sitting over in the corner?" Asked Frodo Baggins to the one of the passing patrons.

"That is a Ranger. Dangerous folk that live in the wild." Frodo stared at him for a moment more before quickly getting up. He tripped over something and landed in a heap on the floor. The small gold ring he had been holding went flying in the air. Frodo reached up to grab it and he disappeared. Strider found the frightened Hobbit under a near by table. Grabbing the hobbit by the back of his shirt, he dragged him up to his room. The three Hobbits stared in fear as the ranger disappeared upstairs.

"I am Strider." The ranger said quickly before slamming the room door shut. The Hobbit looked at him for a moment before telling his name. "I am Frodo Baggins. I was told to meet Gandalf here. But he is not." Strider interrupted. "I know, we can not leave you hear, so you must come with us." Strider would have said more if the door hadn't opened and the three other hobbits came in. "Let him go." Said the sandy haired one. "You won't take Mr. Frodo anywhere." The other two nodded in agreement.

"We are not going to hurt you, but Mr. Baggins must get to Rivendell quickly. He is in danger here and placing everyone else in danger also. So I'm going to ask you to go home and speak a word of this to no one." Strider said, hoping beyond hope that they would listen. "You are not taking Mr. Frodo anywhere. I promised Gandalf that I would watch and take care of him and I will."

"Ya, we aren't going to let you take our cousin anywhere with out us going along too." Merry and Pippin said together. "Alright you can stay." Strider had a feeling that this was not going to be an uneventful trip. "I hope you don't mind sharing beds. You will be sleeping in here tonight."

"Good-night Hobbits." Strider took a seat at the window, his sword in hand. He would watch the night through.

...

A loud scream shook the night, waking the occupants of Bree. "What was that?" Frodo asked sitting up in one of the two beds. Merry and Pippin looked at each other and then at Strider. "The wraith have come to Bree. We leave at first light. So get back to sleep." The hobbits laid back down and went back to sleep.

"Merry, I'm hungry." Pippin said. They had been walking since sunrise and had only a brief stop for a small breakfast. "So am I Pip." Merry was walking next to Pippin, Frodo was walking next to Sam who was leading a horse that they had got for the packs. "How can you two be hungry we just ate breakfast three hours ago?" Strider said having heard the two young hobbits.

"We had first breakfast, but what about second breakfast?"

"Second breakfast?" Strider shook her head. 'You have got to be kidding me.'

"Ya."

"Ok. Sorry I asked." Pippin and Merry shrugged, Frodo and Sam were trying to hide the smiles that formed when the ranger had asked about second breakfast and the smiles widened when they heard Pippins whisper to Merry. "Do you suppose they know about second breakfast?" Merry shook his head no. "What about brunch, supper, what about dinner? Do you suppose they know about them?"

"I doubt it Pip." A couple minutes later an apple came flying at Pippin's head. Merry reached out and caught it before it could hit him the head. Pippin looked at Merry and then at the apple. Another apple came flying at his head and hit him. Strider hid a smile as he pushed them on.

They pushed on threw the marsh with little trouble. Strider helped the hobbits as they had little trouble with the journey so far. They still had over a fortnight before they would reach Rivendell. During a brief stop at the edge of the marsh, the six traveler's had a small meal. "If we make good time today we can rest there." Strider point to the top of a hill where the ruins of some building could be seen.

"What is that Mr. Strider?"

"That is Weathertop. There's a history behind those ruins that would take days to tell and explain." Strider said. He started gather up their gear and putting it away. Merry went back to what he was doing. Frodo and Sam were just outside of the small cave that the ruins had formed. The fire was done and the food had almost finished cooking when Frodo came in.

"What are you doing you fool. Put it out." Frodo shouted, stomping out the small fire. It was too late the four hobbits could feel a cold shadow coming near them. The wraiths had caught up with them.