[Firefoot]

Sondo ground his jaw in irritation. He should have expected that she might try to bargain with him. He knew she had a point though; there really wasn’t anything in it for her. He did need her, however, so he nodded in resignation to her request.

“Deal,” he agreed. “But hang on, Sassy, I’m supposed to be scolding you here.” He winked. “Try to act like I told you to be nice to Falco, whether you would listen to that advice or not...” He sighed. She could be so difficult. “And I can’t exactly help you look for stones right now - it would look pretty bad if I yelled at you and then helped you.” He expected her to see the sense in that. She was young, but smart enough. Too smart for her own good. My own good, he thought ruefully.

He took a step to go after her back to the others when he halted abruptly, frowning. He heard voices, and not hobbit voices either, or he was a Dwarf. He glanced over his shoulder uneasily. The people the voices belonged to were hidden by a broadly sloping hill. He was thankful for that. It meant they couldn’t see the hobbits either. He would bet that they had heard them though, and they didn’t sound like nice voices.

“Sassy,” he whispered urgently, “go tell the others to be quiet." He would have told them to hide, too, except there wasn’t anywhere to hide, unless he counted the occasional hill or the distant tree cover. “I hear someone, over behind that hill. I’m going to find out what’s going on.” He hurried off toward the slope, keeping low as he ascended. He lay flat upon reaching the top, poking his head up so he could see. What he saw worried him.

There were four of the Big Folk down there. No, five, Sondo corrected himself as he saw another approaching from the left. Had he not been so concerned, he might have been fascinated - he had never seen any Big Folk before. The shortest of them was probably twice his own height, and all of them were burly and rather muscular looking. Their hair was dark, their skin tan. But their looks were not what caught Sondo’s immediate attention. They had supplies! Currently, they seemed to have stopped for lunch, same as the hobbits had been about to do. The difference was that they actually had food (they seemed to be cooking a stew of some kind) - and plenty of it, judging by the lumpy saddlebags on their horses, which seemed quite large to Sondo, being used to short, sturdy ponies as he was. His stomach rumbled at the thought of a square meal, and he began to wonder if there wasn’t some way to filch some food off of them, be it steal or otherwise.

“They should prove easy to catch,” the approaching one was saying. “They look young, and mostly unarmed. There’s somewhere between five and ten of ’em.” Sondo winced. They had been not only heard but also seen by these horrible Big Folk! How had they been so careless as not to know of them before? What was more, these men seemed intent on capturing them! Just why, Sondo was unable to figure out, and once the fifth man got close enough to the others, their voices got quieter and Sondo couldn’t discern the words. Hastily, he edged away from the top of the hill and upon reaching the bottom he sprinted off toward the others. What could they do? They would not get very far if they tried to run, because of the men’s horses. The men knew they were there; where could they go? Besides... he wanted some of their food.

Despite the situation, Sondo could not be more happy with the challenge. These were the type of problems he was deft at figuring out, the types of plans he might cook up at home. By the time he had reached the group, he had a sketchy plan worked out. Most of them would stay up here and act as the ‘bait’ for the men. Sondo never even considered that some of them might be caught; the men were bigger, but Big Folk were just that: big and clumsy and probably not so smart. A few, however, would sneak down there, and when the Big Folk came after the ones left, those couple would get into their supplies and take what they needed. Then they would just have to escape. He grinned wickedly to himself. This was what adventurers were supposed to do! (Though perhaps they usually went after gold and not food, he amended to himself, and banished the thought.)

Upon reaching the group, he quickly explained the problem, telling them about the Big Folk and their supplies and horses, and how they wanted to capture them. He did not, however, explain his plan, or even say that he had one. He wanted to hear their ideas first, then spring his idea, because otherwise he might risk the whole of them going against him. With Falco recently returned, he wanted that not at all. “The biggest problem,” he finished, “is that they know we’re here, and our situation. If we try to run away, they’d probably find us pretty quick on their horses. And there really isn’t much place to hide around here. So now we have to figure out what to do.”