The nine companions walked through the long dark corridor. It seemed to Pippin that each foot step was loud enough to alert all the orcs in the world to their presence. Something scurried in the darkness and the hobbit's breath caught in his throat, before he realized that it had only been Merry tossing a pebble he had picked up. He sighed. This creepy old place was setting him on edge.

'I don't care what Gimli says about how welcoming it used to be. Right now, it is scary and creepy and that's all that matters.' Pippin thought as he shivered, half from the cold and half from the thoughts of all the ghosts that could be haunting that place. Yes, Pippin was very scared of ghosts- and being in a mine where numerous dwarves had recently been killed wasn't helping.

"Gandalf?" Merry piped up. The wizard leading the group looked back for a moment.

"Yes Merry?" He asked, almost warily. After all, the last time Merry had asked something, it had been if Gandalf could summon him a carrot to make up for that one that pippin stole. This had lead into a heated discussion about the use of wizards if they couldn't (or if they just wouldn't) conjure up food.

"How long are we supposed to be here?"

"Three days if we're quick, Mr. Brandybuck. Which means no lagging behind." He said.

Merry groaned and turned to Pippin. "Three days! did you hear that, Pip?"

"Yes, Merry, he said it quite clearly."

"What do you think we should do?"

Pippin thought for a moment. "We could play a game."

Gandalf's spoke from the front of the group, "If I see any more rocks flying around, Peregrine Took, I shall turn you into a carrot and hand you over to Merry." The two hobbits winced, although one looked like they were considering wether or not it would be worth it to give up their cousin for a carrot.

"I would suggest story-telling," Frodo said from behind them, "but I don't know of any without some sort of evil creature in it, and I don't think it would be wise to discuss those types of things in here."

"Right you are, Mister Frodo. Although I could do with a good story right about now, or something to lift my spirits." Sam glanced into the dark shadows around them and Pippin nodded in agreement.

"Then why not speak of happier times," Legolas' clear voice joined the conversation. "Tell us of this 'Shire' you are from, anything to take us away from this... Place." Gimli frowned at the elf's obvious dislike of Moria.

"I would put it differently," the dwarf said, "but I have heard snippets about this strange homeland and it sounds interesting enough."

The four hobbits looked at each other, each trying to see if someone else had thought of something to talk about. There was a long span of silence in which their own footsteps echoed around them again.

"I suppose... We could talk about our childhood in the Shire." Frodo said. Sam, Merry, and Pippin each bobbled their head some and muttered approval. This was followed by another awkward quiet. Eventually seeing that no one else had any intention of speaking, Pippin began.

"Well, whenever I used to visit Frodo and Sam in Hobbiton, I always wanted to play a game with them." Frodo and Sam nodded, remembering the 6-year-old Pippin who followed them around. "At first I was too young to actually understand their big adventure ones, so they didn't play very often with me."

"We did play with you, just not when you were really little." Frodo protested.

"Of course you did Frodo." Merry said sarcastically.

"Yes, yes, well, anyways, the first game I really remember playing at Bag End was the one where you and Sam were burglars. Frodo gave me a nice little rock and told me to hide and guard it, because they were going to try to steal it. It was a really pretty stone- all gray with white flecks on it, and I really didn't want you to get it. So I went and I hid it in a flower pot and stood guard by it. Sure enough, soon there were two, curly, hobbit heads sticking out from a bush across the garden. From there it pretty much turned into a game of tag. One of you would run at me, I would try to run forward and tag you, only to realize that the other one of you was sneaking behind me to try and get to the flower pot, so I'd run back to tag them, then I'd have to go after the first one again..." Pippin paused here and frowned. "That was sort of one-sided don't you think?"

Sam laughed. "Yeah, I remember that. What game even was that? One of Bilbo's adventures, right?"

"Yes, Bilbo's encounter with Gollum." Frodo said as he smiled in remembrance, "Poor Pip. I don't think you even knew you were playing the role of the villain."

Pippin stopped walking, causing those behind him to stumble as well.

"I was Gollum?!"