Gandalf, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli were resting in Fangorn Forest for just a few minutes. All was quiet and they were quite relaxed. None of them had expected something frightening to happen, especially now Gandalf was around. However, one of them, or in fact all of them, were in for a little surprise.
As they were sitting on the ground in silence, eating and drinking a little, Gimli started to act rather strange. He sat up rigidly, then slowly and nearly unnoticeably moving away from his place. All the time he had his eyes fixed on something on the ground none of the others could see.
After a minute or so, Legolas' sharp eyes noticed this awkward behavior. He looked up at Gimli with a politely puzzled look on his face.
'Everything all right there, Gimli?' he asked.
'Yes yes,' grunted the dwarf still without looking up.
By now, Aragorn and Gandalf were also staring at Gimli's peculiar behavior. After a while, Aragorn decided to mingle himself in Gimli's problem.
'Gimli, what is there on the ground that frightens you?' he asked the dwarf not at all unfriendly.
'Nothing, nothing above or under the ground frightens a dwarf,' Gimli answered stubbornly.
Gandalf had a smile on his face, but still said nothing. Legolas however, had got rather curious and got up. He looked at the place, where Gimli still had his eyes fixed on and began to laugh. Aragorn remained seated, but now threw Legolas a questioning look.
'Gimli, do you know what that is?' Legolas asked still laughing.
'Looks poisonous,' was his reply.
'That, my dear friend, is not poisonous,' Legolas said bending forward to grab whatever it was on the ground. 'This is a ladybird,' he finished dramatically, standing up again holding indeed in his hand a small red and black ladybird.
Aragorn now burst out laughing as well, as Gandalf merely chuckled.
'Does it do anything? Eat humans or something else dangerous?' Gimli asked, looking fearful at the small insect Legolas was holding.
'No, it is an insect and it eats lice. So unless you would at this moment change in a louse, you have absolutely nothing to fear of this little animal,' Legolas said still smiling.
For a moment, Gimli looked doubtful, but then he decided it did no harm.
'Well, one can never be too careful,' he said as if his act had been in fact quite heroic, 'Come on, let's get moving again or we'll never get to Isengard.'
'Sure and watch out for butterflies,' said Aragorn quietly so only Legolas could hear.
Then they followed after Gimli further through Fangorn Forest, with Gandalf bringing up the rear still holding his silence.