Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR, the Hobbit, Snow White, The Ring, Halloween, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mulan

~Chapter 10~

We walked into a great cavern. Many ornate columns stretched from floor to ceiling. "Let me risk a little more light," Gandalf murmured as he lit up his staff more. "Behold the great realm and dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf."

"That's an eye opener, no mistake," Sam breathed in awe.

"Duuude," I muttered, whistling in appreciation. It was beautiful here. "You dwarves are awesome at architecture! I wonder, did you teach the Seven Dwarves how to do that? Or just to mine for jewels? Do you guys even mine for jewels? And why is it so hard to say the word 'jewel'? Jewel. Jewel. Jewel. Jewel. Jeeewweeelll. Jewel!" I gasped. "IT DOESN'T EVEN SOUND LIKE A WORD ANYMORE!"

Gandalf whacked me gently with his staff. "Silence, or we will gag you again!" I gulped, and obeyed.

As we walked across the huge floor, Gimli let out a sudden cry. "Oh!" He broke away from the group and towards a door leading into another room.

"Gimli!" Gandalf snapped, but the distraught dwarf ignored him. We all followed after him, and came into a smaller room. There was a tomb in the middle of the room, with skeletons surrounding it. Wincing, I hid behind the Child, also known as Boromir.

Gandalf walked up to the tomb, and read the runes inscribed on it. "Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria. He is dead then." Gimli let out a whimper, and my jaw dropped. Gandalf removed his hat, seemingly weighed down. "It is as I feared, then."

"What? No! Balin was awesome, okay? He can't be dead! Oh, Tolkien, you didn't!" I glared at the tomb and muttered curses at said author of the books.

Gandalf tossed his hat and staff to Pippin, and knelt down beside a skeleton, removing the book from his fingers. "Gross, Gramps," I muttered, wrinkling my nose and turning away. Gandalf ignored me and blew the dust off of the book.

"We must move on, we cannot linger," Piccolo (formerly Legolas) whispered to Aragorn.

Gandalf ignored the whelp and started reading from the book. "They have taken the Bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums... Drums in the deep." I noticed Pippin back away from the group and glancing around him. "We cannot get out." It was worse than a horror movie. That Gandalf was one hell of a storyteller. Everyone was treating it like the Halloween movie and the Ring combined, glancing around as if they expected to see Samara or Micheal Myers hiding in a corner.

"A shadow moves in the dark," Gandalf continued. I saw Pippin glance behind him and notice a skeleton sitting on the edge of a hole. I cocked my head to the side, and tried to bring up fuzzy memories. Didn't something happen between Pippin and some well that was bad...? "We cannot get out," Gandalf said, bringing his voice down to a whisper - for dramatic effect, of course. "They are coming."

Everyone looked pretty freaked out. I opened my mouth to say a witty remark, but something beat me to it. A loud clang reverberated throughout the chamber, and the nine of us, excluding Pippin, jumped a mile. "Holy sh-" The rest of my exclamation was cut off by the rest of the skeleton following the abandoned. Pippin winced at every clang that happened.

Oh, shit, I thought. That's the well. There was a silence for a moment, before Gandalf slammed the book closed with a furious bang. "Fool of a Took!" he hissed, and I swear to this day that I saw sparks fly from his mouth. Grabbing his hat and staff back, he snapped, "Throw yourself in next time, and rid us of your stupidity!"

Ouch. That had to hurt. I sent a sympathetic glance towards Pippin's way, but he didn't notice. As I turned away, a quiet boom sounded throughout the chamber. Everyone froze. "Please tell me that wasn't what I thought it was," I said to everyone, but a louder boom confirmed it. I gulped. "I think this is the first time ever that I will admit it, but right now I'm ashamed to play percussion."

"Frodo!" I heard Sam gasp, and I looked over to see Frodo drawing a sword. The blade was blue. My eyes widened. Sting! Bilbo's sword! That means...GOBLINS!

"Orcs!" Piccolo gasped. Close enough.

Boromir ran to the door and looked out. Two arrows nearly embedded themselves in his head, and he pulled back just in time.

"Get back!" Aragorn snapped at the hobbits and me. "Stay close to Gandalf!"

It was that moment when I realized a crucial detail. I tugged on Gandalf's sleeve. "Sword? Please?"

Gandalf nudged a sword from a skeleton with his foot, and I picked it up, grimacing. "Sorry!" I hissed at the skeleton. Poor bloke didn't answer me, thank goodness.

"They have a cave troll," Child said in a sarcastic happy tone.

I raised my eyes to the ceiling. "Can't have forgotten the cave troll at home, nope! Just haaad to bring it!"

Gimli climbed on top of the tomb, brandishing his axe. "Let them come!" he roared. "There's still one dwarf in Moria who still draws breath!"

A twisted smile appeared on my face. "Let's get down to business!"

A/N

A rather short chapter, I apologize. Hopefully I'll get another one out before vacation ends.

STILL ACCEPTING BAND GEEK JOKES!

PLEASE DO POLL!

Blah blah blah...eh no random rants about band today. Just not up to it, guess.

Also, please check out my other story, Roads Go Ever On. It's a rather cute story about a young girl who gets tossed into Middle Earth with her faithful dog, and stays in the Shire for a while (GlorfindelxOC story).

Review and you get magical glittery peanut butter!

~Eva Sirico~

YOU MIGHT BE A BAND GEEK IF...

...you duck every time you see a flag.