[Child of the 7th Age]

Rory laced his arm tightly about his sister's waist. Daisy looked as if she was about to cry, but was trying very hard to hold her tears back. She kept glancing sideways at the bulging bag that held the two presents and then up at Saraph's stern face. Perhaps, Rory reflected, Saraph was some kind of an Elf. In any case, she appeared enormously large and dour, and not at all likely to believe anything they said.

Nabbing mushrooms and apples was a normal part of any Hobbit childhood, as well as borrowing little items from friends and occasionally forgetting to return them. Rory had never heard of anyone who'd been sent to jail for such things. The most that would happen would be a stern lecture or two and perhaps being sentenced to a week of weeding and hoeing, or other comparable chores. But now, things looked very bad. If he and his sister got off with a stint in the Lockholes, they would consider themselves lucky. He could imagine far worse happening in the clutches of that Green Wight.

Still, Rory was not going to give up, and he vowed to try and protect his sister, especially since she was so much younger. No Green Wight was going to shake the stuffings out of her, or deactivate her account, at least if he had anything to say about it. Leaning over towards Pimpernel and Daisy, he whispered a hasty warning. "When I count three, everybody go for the Elf. That bag is the least of our worries. Daisy, just hightail it over to the tree where we were the other day. Maybe we can hide there."

On the count of three, the Hobbits attacked in unison. Rory slammed in from the front, Daisy from behind; Pimpernel lunged at the bag and hurled it to the ground, dumping its contents into a patch of tall grass. The trio plunged through the tall grass back towards the gate where a few lonely trees stood near the edge of the party field. There were no crates to help them reach the lower limbs, so they could not climb up into the same tree as before. This would have let them scramble over the fence and out into the freedom of the Shire. But they did manage to heave themselves up into the branches of another tree, this one a willow with limbs hanging close to the ground. Squatting back in the comparative safety of its leafy curtain, Rory looked around to make sure everyone was safe.

Pimpernel spoke first, leering at his two companions, "Look what I have: this Gondorian thingamabob. I scooped it up from the ground."

Daisy groaned and shook her head, "Why couldn't you leave that behind? It's only going to cause more trouble."

"Maybe,....maybe not," he countered with a shrug.

With that the three Hobbits settled back in their leafy perch, hoping that night would soon arrive.

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OOC Comment: Please don't haul my trio in just yet! Other than that, you may do anything with them that you like. Thanks.... Cami