[*Varda*]

Olo yawned while searching amidst the thick bushes for food. All he had found so far were berries, red as blood, while Penny seemed to be faring a little better, having found some strawberries. Olo supposed it was doubtful to find food out here in the wild, but there must be some way of surviving.

As Penny had said, perhaps the other groups would be more successful, having headed off in different directions to see what they could scrounge from the unknown land. Olo inspected the berries more carefully. Were they fit to eat? When wandering around the Shire, he hadn’t needed to work out what was edible and what wasn’t, having brought some food from home, or usually able to convince an elderly hobbit to give him something by turning on his smile.

“Here, Penny?” Olo said, showing her some. “Do you think these are ok? We don’t want to take more risks than necessary…”

Penny, looking them over, felt that they would probably be safe to eat, but even so, to only eat a few, until the hobbits could see that they weren’t poisonous. The two hobbits looked at the few things they had gathered, before heading back to the campfire to see what the others had found.

Olo felt calmer in the warm light of the sun, although he dreaded the nightfall. Somehow, things always felt worse when it was dark. And although he had slept well the night before, being so tired from the wreck, vague recollections of old stories had come back to him. He remembered being a young hobbit, sitting on his grandpa’s knee, hearing far off tales and rumours of what lay beyond the borders. Mysterious creatures, even though the hobbits scoffed at that idea, but if not that, there were wolves. Wolves came into the Shire sometimes, of course, but Olo’s grandfather had told him how willing they were to eat a young hobbit up, and this idea had remained with Olo a long time after.

However, in the light of day, Olo pushed this thought to the back of his mind, and wondered instead what the others were up to.