There for you.

Prologue

Disclaimer (and I'll only write this once): I don't own LoTR 

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Prologue

"Stop! Thief!" The calls rang out through the small village, but the culprit, a young-looking, red-headed boy who slipped like water through the fingers of his pursuers, had already lost to many fingers to be easily caught.

Leaving the gate open behind him, the thief ran through a chicken pen, the chickens running to freedom through the open gate in the wake of his passage. Overhead, a deadly, feathered predator eyed the agitated birds with malicious intent in its intelligent eyes.

To add to the chaos, the fleeing thief shouted conflicting directions as he ran, attempting to distract those chasing him; "Over there!" "By that pen!" "I've got him!" etc.

Jumping over a wayward table and ducking under a flying butcher's knife, he made a hasty escape into the woods outside of the village.

He knew he would have to move on soon; in a small settlement like the one he had just plundered, a small thing like a misplaced pickpocket was sure to be a big deal. He was fairly certain that many an adventurous villager would be roaming the area for days to come, just to be able to say they had done something vaguely interesting.

Making his way through the woods, the boy caught the sound of wings flapping through the air, and turned towards the noise. Sure enough, moments later, a large bird of prey came swooping through the trees, dropping a fat, very much dead chicken at the boy's feet and landing deftly on his outstretched arm.

"There you are," He said in a long-suffering tone of voice, "I just knew you'd take advantage of my distraction to get yourself lunch. You cheating little bird!" He knew very well that the delicious-looking chicken at his feet was not his for the taking; if he'd caught it himself, it would be, but he and the bird had rules, they did, the one currently in play was 'you catch it, it's yours.'

"I hope you're going to share that," he added, "I'm starving."

The falcon perched on his arm just looked at him like, 'you kidding me? It's mine.'

The boy sighed, but didn't push the matter, instead grumbling, "I knew you'd say that." He'd gone hungry before, he could do it again.