What Happened Thereafter {A LotR Fanfiction}

Thorn

[I dedicate this chapter to my good friend, Alexandra. She has always been there for me and understands when I'm having a rough day and feel a little crabby. I have known her since the fourth grade and will always treasure our friendship. Here's to you, Alexandra.]

"Tag, you're it!" Thorn's younger brother, Beauregard, yelled. He ran away from the older girl and screamed when she grinned and ran after him, their short little hobbit feet determined to outrun one another. Beauregard dashed behind a tree and put his fingers on his head like the antlers of a moose and stuck his tongue out at his sister. Thorn's eyes narrowed as she grabbed at him.

Beauregard had been born six years ago to Thorn's family, and though she got along with the younger boy, she felt herself wishing, at times, that she was the only child again. Her parents loved her, but it rather seemed to her that they adored Beauregard to an extremity.

"Nah-nah-nah-boo-boo! You can't catch me!" Beauregard laughed. Thorn pinned her back against the tree and went completely silent. For a few minutes all was quiet, then Beauregard timidly poked his head around the tree trunk.

"Thorn?" he asked in his little boy voice. Thorn didn't move. Beauregard came out from behind the tree.

"Thorn?"

"AHA! GOTCHA!" Thorn jumped from her hiding place and pounced on the little hobbit and he screamed. She laughed as he squirmed and shouted: "Let me go, let me go, let me go!"

"So you've resorted to picking on your poor innocent brother, now?" A voice from behind Thorn said. She froze and grinned. Pippin. She released her hold on Beauregard and he shot free from her grass, running down the path. Thorn frowned.

"You made me lose at tag," she pouted. Pippin laughed.

"But you caught him. Technically he's it."

"No," Thorn smiled slyly and circled around Pippin once before poking him in the shoulder. "You are."

Pippin grinned and Thorn took off running in the direction Beauregard had gone. She was usually faster than Pippin, but about two out of ten times he could catch up with her and she was never sure when one of those times were about to occur.

Pippin ran after Thorn as fast as his legs could carry him. He was surprised that he didn't trip and fall along the way (that seemed to be the leading cause as to why he could never catch up). It wasn't long before he caught up to Thorn and grabbed her shoulder with a huge smile on his face. When she turned around and said: "I can't believe you caught up with me!" Pippin couldn't help but notice the way her turquoise eyes sparkled and her normally rosy cheeks were beet red from running so hard.

Thorn slugged him in the arm, but didn't shove him away. He kept his hands on her shoulders and Thorn leaned into him where she stood and gave him a backwards hug. Pippin rested his head on her curly mound of thick, auburn hair and encircled his arms around her. He liked holding Thorn in his arms, and Thorn like the protected feeling Pippin's arms around her, and his head on her head. His breath tickled her neck and she shivered.

"Would you like to go to the forest?" Pippin murmured. He was feeling a bit dizzy for some unexplained reason, and the hair on his arms was...tingling? Weird.

"I'd love to go to the forest, Pip," Thorn said. She freed herself from Pippin's arms and took his hand instead, then skipped down the path in the direction of the forest. Pippin laughed and pretty soon began skipping as well, not letting go of Thorn's hand.

When they passed Thorn's house, Beauregard jumped out of some nearby bushes (wonder where he learned that from, huh, Thorn?) and landed in front of Thorn and Pippin. They were forced to stop skipping and Thorn groaned. She felt like pulling the hair on her feet out.