[Firefoot]

Though outwardly maintaining some semblance of seriousness, inwardly Sondo was absolutely thrilled, and it shone through a bit. After having listened closely to their bold statements and latching on to their enthusiasm, he had explained his plan and now they were more than willing to go along with it! Yes, this was the type of situation he knew best.

“Okay,” said Sondo, “I’ll need someone to go with me to take some of the Big Folk’s supplies.” He looked around for volunteers.

“I’ll go with you,” someone piped up. Sondo looked; it was Rory. The promise of a real adventure seemed to have perked him up a bit

“And me,” said another, only an instant following. This time Marroc had spoken. Sondo nodded. “That’s settled then: Rory and Marroc will go with me.” Marroc was trusty enough, but Rory would not have been his first choice for a companion - ever since the day they had split Sondo had gotten the impression that Rory did not trust him fully. He had followed along, though, so Sondo didn’t push it. For now, Rory seemed as eager as the rest of them for this escapade to begin. Except, noted Sondo, Bingo, who seemed less than thrilled with his plan, yet thankfully said no word of dispute, or Sassy, who was just plain scared, but what was to be expected of a girl anyway?

“The rest of you, then,” continued Sondo, “will stay up here and wait for the Big Folk to come over here. You can spread out a bit first, and hide; make them have to look around before anything actually happens. It will just give Rory, Marroc, and me more time. Remember, they’re looking to capture us, no more. Once we’re done, you all will know; we’ll do something to make the Big Folk go back to their camp or something. Then we’ll have to get out of here, and quick. Just like at home when we don’t want to get caught. All right?” There were nods and cries of agreement.

“Good. Come on, Rory, Marroc, let’s get going.” With a jaunty wave to the rest of them, he set out toward the hill with his companions. He held a finger to his lips for Rory and Marroc to stay quiet; the Big Folk could not know of their approach. He led them up to the base of the hill, then stopped.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” he whispered. “We’ll split up; that way if they see one of us, they won’t know we’re all three there. Marroc and Rory, you go around that side-” He pointed to the north end of the hill - “and conceal yourselves as best you can. I think there’s a tree that one of you can use. I’ll go around the other end. I don’t know which way the Big Folk will come over, so make sure they can’t see you, even if it means you have to go a little way away. Just make sure you’re within fairly easy distance of their camp, and can see it. If they leave a man to guard their stuff, well, I guess our best option will be to knock him out with a few well aimed stones. Once they’re gone, we have a few things that need doing. We only take as many supplies as we need and as we can carry. Hopefully there’ll be some smaller packs that we can use, but all I saw was saddlebags. We’ll also cut their horses lose, so they can’t follow us. And we’ll have to figure out some kind of signal to the rest of them. It needs to be pretty fast, too: get in, get what we need, get out. Got it?” They nodded to show that they did and broke off.

Sondo hurried off to his end of the hill and cast about for someplace to hide. He wished for a sparse forest, or even just some undergrowth. But the place was pretty barren. A tree grew off a little way to his right, but he would have to cross about fifteen feet of empty ground to get there, risking being seen. He was risking being spotted as it was, though, exposed against the side of the hill, and so decided it was worth it. The Big Folk seemed concerned about little else beside themselves; they seemed to have finished their lunch and were digging into their saddlebags. He waited until all their backs were more or less turned, and spanned the distance to the tree quickly. He squeezed himself up against the trunk, which was barely wide enough to hide him. He peeked around; they hadn’t seen him. The men spoke together for a few moments, and then four of them took off toward the hobbits, leaving a single guard as Sondo had expected. They carried ropes, and seemingly no more dangerous a weapon than knives. He hoped the others were ready. The time had come.