Disclaimer: I don't own Lord of The Rings.

Chapter 10: Another Discovery

Although they were underground and Frodo thought he should be scared he wasn't.

This trip wasn't like the one he had undertaken back in Middle Earth. This trip was so much different. He was actually enjoying himself and was not constantly worrying about the ring that was starting to weight even more than before.

He talked to Anson about what they had found hours ago back there. Somehow that led to Kyle to talk about his ancestors. " I taught that they came to this world in flying ships out the sky. Unlike you and your friends that came here by the way of the sea." " That's what I was told when I was smaller." Anson said. David decided to join in. " I heard that the ships were not like the ships we use. They were of metal and were bigger than the biggest ship we could make. Thousands of the humans came in one. There was suppose to be many more. I don't know what happened to them though even I was not born back then. Actually I was not even close to even being born. My father was verily a fledgling and his father was young." Frodo looked at Kyle. " You have a very interesting history." Kyle smiled down at Frodo. " Indeed I do. Perhaps even more than Cassia." " Of course you do. We do not come from the sky like your ancestors. We come from the forests and are originally from this world." " All of us do." Anson said, " All of us that is except Kyle."

Kyle sighted dramatically. " Sure make me the outsider because of it." This brought a laugh from everyone.

Frodo was definitely enjoying this journey. They walked on for a couple more hours.

Then with out warning David stopped and Cassia, Frodo, and Anson who were behind him bumped into him and send him to the ground. " Can you look where you're going?" He asked getting up. " Well you should tell us when you're stopping as you can see it quite dark even for a Catzian." David dusted himself and instead of responding looked at the wall. He traced his hands through the writing on the wall. " Is something wrong?' Nolion asked. " There is writing here. It is not just any writing it is from the dragon's old language. As any language ou8rs changed through the ages. This writing is as old as the time when the humans just arrived in this planet." Everyone looked at each other. " Can you read it?" Kieran asked. David said nothing for a moment. " Beware travelers you walk into danger unknown. If you wish to… cross into the… Hidden Valley path… you must defeat.. the.. sleeping guardian in.. the lake." There was more writing but it was scratched over therefore David couldn't make it out. Miriam was starting to get bored more than scared. The entire group seemed to have gotten into an argument on who or what the guardian was. These kinds of things didn't suit her. She preferred discovering new things. She leaned against the wall and was surprised when it gave way and she fell with a yelp of surprise. She spread her wings and started flapping them just in time to land on the ground. She looked at the ground she had landed on. It was not what she expected. The ground was tiled with black and white. Around her lay mountains upon mountains of gold and on the walls there were the most beautiful paintings she had ever seen. The group was looking down on huge room Miriam had landed in. " This room is bigger than even I am in my dragon form." David said in awe. Lily flew down followed by Andrew.

Jennifer used a spell to make a shield around all of them that carried them down to the floor. Miriam had not wasted any time she was now putting various things into her bag and happily humming a little tune. ' This,' she thought, ' is much more like it.' " Look at this gold!" Miko said looking around in wonder. " It is a wonder." Kieran said. Miko looked at David who was instead of looking at the gold was looking at the paintings. He joined him. " The paintings are beautiful too I've never seen any like them they are so beautiful." David smiled at Miko. " Yes they are. Sometimes paintings like this ones are worth more than gold." Miko nodded agreeing with David. " Look at this painting." Lily said. Both Miko and David joined her. " It's a portrait of someone." David said. " The painting seems old but who do you think she is?" Miko asked. David looked at the small writings on top of the picture. " Its old English, it says; The Mona Lisa." Miko looked puzzled. " I've never heard of her. Do you think she was a great Queen?" Miko asked. " She doesn't look like a Queen more like, hmm, I don't know really." David said puzzled.

" Look what I found!!" Miriam yelled holding up something that didn't look like gold. They ran to where she stood looking at her find. " Let me see it." David said. Miriam gave it to him. The coin was not made of gold or silver for that matter. In what David thought was the Front there was a picture of a man with a ponytail looking sideways. The writing was also old English. " Untied States of America?" David said puzzled. " What's a United States of America?" Miko asked becoming puzzled too. " I have no idea." David said. He looked at the other writing on the front on the left side it said Liberty and in the right it said in god we trust at the bottom it said Quarter dollar. " Anybody know what a quarter dollar is?" He asked. Everyone shook his or her heads.

He turned it around. This time the picture was different. There was a big house behind a horse and the writing said: Kentucky. He let the others see it. " What is this suppose to be?" Kieran asked. " I think it must be money from Old Earth." Kyle said. " Are you sure?" Miko asked, " Is your money like that." David shook his head. " There is no money I have never seen money and I have never seen any money that looks like that." Miriam put the quarter in her bag. " Well if it is old money from Old Earth Vennsile will be very interested in it." Then she looked at the paintings. " The paintings are beautiful too. I think I'll take a small one for Vennsile." She started walking towards the paintings.

" Miriam no!" David shouted at her a little to late she was already trying to take one of the paintings. He ran forward and got her out of the way just when about a dozen knives landed where she had been. Miriam started wide-eyed at the knives. David got up. " That could have been you cut into pieces." He took a golden cup from on e of the gold pile and threw it again at the place where Miriam had stood. This time giant axes swung by cutting the cup into three pieces. He did this four time and each time some kind of trap appeared. After that David stepped forward and took the picture down and walked back to the others. He handed Miriam the picture. " Sometimes dragons value other things than gold." Miriam nodded to stunned to talk at the moment. After about a minute she was back to her old self and deposited the picture in her bag and thanked David for saving her life.

Deciding to keep away from the paintings Miriam went to the piles of gold and started putting a couple more things in her bag then she told the others she was ready. The ones who could flew out of the room and Jennifer cast the same spell and brought the others back to where they had been.