1 Chapter 9

They all stood looking at the great hall in wonder. For once, even Becky was speechless. Gimli was on the verge of crying. Finally, Sam spoke.

"Well, there's an eye-opener and no mistake." Everybody nodded their heads in agreement. They began to walk across the hall, still looking at their surroundings. Suddenly, Gimli spotted a doorway, and ran towards it crying "NO!". He entered a room, and in there middle there was a tomb.

The company followed Gimli, and saw the tomb. Gandalf read out the inscription on it.

"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria. He is dead then. It's as I feared." Gandalf began to look around and spotted a big book in the hands of a corpse on the floor. He picked it up and began to read aloud.

Meanwhile, Mary-Jo had had the most horrible thought. 'Shit! I've got that Biology coursework to do!" So she took herself off to the side, sat down, removed a thick textbook, a pen, 3 pieces of paper and an exercise book from her a pack and began to scribble down anything that popped into her head.

"They are coming." Said Gandalf. Pippin was about to touch the skeleton sitting on the well, when Michelle distracted him.

"What on Middle Earth are you doing?" she said to Mary-Jo, whilst wondering why the hell she was writing.

"It's my Biology coursework. I have to 'Describe and explain the genetic differences between Elves and Orcs, caused by the process of de-evolution' in a 1000 word essay. So if you don't mind…" then she turned back to 1000 word essay.

"I wish I'd never asked." Mumbled Michelle.

A mischievous smile crept onto Becky's face. She turned to Legolas, hoping he'd be convinced.

"I've got an Elvish oral coming soon. D'ya wanna help me practise, Legolas?" she asked, whilst slowly walking towards him. Mary-Jo looked up at her, very confused.

"You didn't take Elvish. You chose-" Becky cut Mary-Jo off.

"Shut up! Yes I did!" Becky hissed at her, then turned back to Legolas and smiled. "Well?"

"I… er… well… you see, the thing is… that… um… it's just, well…" Legolas dreaded the thought of Becky and him, alone. He wanted someone, anyone, to change the subject. She was still walking towards him, and he started moving backwards.

Right then, Pippin couldn't resist it anymore and had knocked the skeleton, along with the bucket, into the well. The noise echoed around the whole of the mines.

"Fool of a Took!" said Gandalf, "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" Gandalf turned around to walk away, when drums sounded.

"It weren't me this time!" said Pippin. Sam looked at Frodo's sword, Sting. It was glowing blue.

"Orcs!" aid Legolas.

"Get back! And stay close to Gandalf!" Said Aragorn to the Hobbits and the girls.

"OI! Just because we're girls, don't mean we need some old man to protect us. But, if Legolas is offering…" said Becky, hopefully. Michelle was quite excited by the thought of Legolas rescuing her from a group of Orcs, but came back to her senses when a bloody great cave troll smashed its way through the door.

Seemingly unaware of the chaos surrounding her, Mary-Jo remained seated, doing her biology coursework. An orc ran towards her, clutching a knife.

"Don't even think about it, shortarse!!!" she shouted, "It took me three hours to do my hair this morning, so I ain't having you messing it all up!" The orc paid no attention to her and was about to stab her, when it received an arrow in the back of the head.

"Nice aim, Legolas." She said, appreciatively, but then carried on with her work.

At the moment, Frodo got skewered by the cave troll, and collapsed in a little pile on the floor. The remainder of the orcs were killed, and then everybody, even Mary-Jo, crowded around him.

Aragorn turned him over, thinking he was dead, but Frodo wheezed and sat up.

"It's alright. I'm ok." He said, looking around at everyone.

"I think there's more to this hobbit than meets the eye." Said Gandalf. Frodo opened his shirt to reveal the Mithril coat.

"Wow, a piece of metal." Said Michelle, sarcastically. "I always wanted to stare at shiny silver stuff whilst about to be killed."

"Killed?" said Sam

"Yes, killed. In case you hadn't noticed," she turned around and pointed at what used to be a door, "We have company." They all turned to see a company of orcs heading their way, so they went back into the Dwarven hall they had entered from, and ran like the buggery.