[Mithadan]

"Soon we will intercept your friends' vessels," gloated Alatar. "We had intended on using force to capture those that we need. But the appearance of the Baggins girl makes that unneccessary. We shall offer a trade - a Baggins for a Baggins. The girl for the Ringbearer and his companion. Once we have the Ringbearer, none will resist or assail us for fear of doing him harm."

Mithadan frowned. "We will let the others go? We will not destroy them?" he asked.

"Once we have the Ringbearer, we can take the others at our leisure," replied Alatar. "We need them for our breeding program, after all. Luring them to the open ocean away from all help was our initial plan. But when they became wary, we pulled back and intended on merely destroying the ships and plucking out the survivors. The flaw in the plan was the possibility that the Ringbearer might be slain. Your little friend has solved that problem. Once we have Frodo, we can address how to capture the remainder with as little trouble as possible. They will likely follow us making things even easier."

Mithadan smiled and patted his sword. "There will be no trouble. We do not need all of them, do we?"