Well all of this would have been bad enough if the Fellowship hadn't made a lasting impression on Gandalf in the Mines of Moria. You know...before the Balrog threw a hissy fit and dragged Gandalf down with him (literally!).

However, there were other occurrences in the mines that just built off of the ones already mentioned.

First and foremost in Gandalf's mind was Boromir's rejection. The 4-day journey to the other side of Moria would have been made a lot easier if Gandalf hadn't been trying to grope Boromir every 5 minutes.

Yes, every five minutes. The Fellowship would be treated to Boromir shrieking:

"Hey! Cut that out!"

However, by the final day Boromir had given up on 'talking' to the old wizard because Gandalf clearly wasn't getting the message that the Gondorian just was not interested.

The first time that morning that Gandalf tried to pull something, Boromir gave no warning to what he was going to do. He simply unsheathed his sword and swung at Gandalf's head.

Gandalf barely had time to duck before the sword came at him and as a result the top of his pointy hat was chopped off.

This put both Gandalf and the Fellowship in a bad mood for the pointy hat could do a marvelous trick. (Don't ask!)

Well Boromir was also fond of the pointy hat (even if he didn't share the same sentiment toward its owner) and so he was a lot more vocal towards Gandalf.

"DAMMIT GANDALF! NO, MEANS NO, SO PUT A CORK IN IT!"

Gandalf stopped after that for he was quite embarrassed and already plotting. Besides Boromir was now covering his beloved horn.

But then things quickly went from bad to worse...Pippin's cluttering around roused the Balrog.

Although the rest of the Fellowship would later agree that it was Gandalf screaming:

"You fool of a Took!"

That roused the Balrog.

Either way the Balrog was coming.

And Aragorn seemed to have gotten the idea in his foolishly thick head that he could take on the Balrog with just...well...whatever he was carrying around on his person.

So there was Aragorn running back toward the Balrog while the rest of the Fellowship was smart and ran away from it.

Luckily, Gandalf intercepted Aragorn.

"Where do you think your going Aragorn?"

"Get out of my way Gandalf."

"Aragorn, as much as I'd like to kill you myself I can't allow that to happen because then you know who would be ruling Gondor."

"HEY I HEARD THAT!" Boromir yelled up at them.

Aragorn ignored both of them and started running again.

Gandalf got angry. I mean more than he already was.

"DO AS I SAY!" he yelled, shoving Aragorn back. Aragorn gave him a look that suggested the wizard was out of his mind.

"Swords are no more use here," Gandalf muttered.

While that was going on further up the stairs (you know they were heading toward the bridge), Legolas had been getting rather playful since he hadn't had his afternoon nap. So when Boromir nearly fell off the edge of a stairs that ended quite suddenly, Legolas grabbed the man around the waist to keep him from going over and in the process he couldn't resist saying in a joking term:

"Don't fall! I love you!"

Of course Boromir (who had been groped by Gandalf for 3 or 4 days and was therefore in no right mind for that kind of joking) took Legolas literally, quickly untangled himself from Legolas' arms and jumped over the ravine.

This left Legolas with a dumbfounded look on his face just as Aragorn and Gandalf got there.

"AHHHHHHHHHH..."

There was a pause.

"I'M STILL FALLING I JUST RAN OUT OF BREATH. . . AAAAAAHHHHHHH. . ." THUD. "Cool."

"Well what did he do that for?" Sam asked, putting his hands on his hips.

"Hey Sam I found that pot you were missing," Boromir yelled from the bottom of the ravine. Suddenly Sam's pot came flying up and into the hobbit's hands.

"Cool. Thanks Boromir."

"Hey you guys should try falling down here," Boromir yelled, "its kind of a rush."

Gandalf interrupted. "We have to get to the bridge of Khazad Dum. There's a hole in the stairs we have to jump over."

And of course they got there and Legolas, Gandalf, Sam, Merry, and Pippin got over okay. Then Gimli tried to jump. He got onto the top step, but then started to lean backward and so Legolas grabbed him by the beard to keep him from going over.

"NOT THE BEARD!" Gimli yelled.

"Oh. Okay." Legolas let go of him.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

THUD.

"Cool. That is a rush."

"Told ya." Boromir said, helping the dwarf to his feet.

"DAMN YOU LEGOLAS GREENLEAF! YOU GO DOWN THERE AND GET BOTH GIMLI AND BOROMIR!"

Legolas didn't even flinch from Gandalf's demanding tone.

"Okay, okay." He then leapt down.

About .2 seconds later the elf returned with Gimli and then jumped back down.

It took him .4 seconds the second time, but he was back with Boromir (that was quite a sight). "That is a rush!" He leapt down again.

"LEGOLAS!"

He came back up with a cardboard box in his hands.

"Any of you guys order a pizza?"

Pippin (the always-hungry one) looked at the box. "Hey! That says Orcs Express on it!"

Legolas opened the box. The smell was enough to make him turn green, stiffen and then fall backwards into the ravine.

Gandalf slapped his forehead. "I'm surrounded by fools!"

"I should say so." said a deep rumbling voice.

Gandalf, Gimli, Sam, Merry, Pippin and Boromir looked up in shock.

Aragorn and Frodo tilted their heads backward...so far that they ended up falling backwards and landing on their butts.

The Balrog was right above them.

"I need those two," Gandalf yelled, referring to Aragorn and Frodo.

The Balrog shrugged, picked up the human and the hobbit and tossed them over the hole in the stairs. Both Aragorn and Frodo shrieked.

"Hey I had hair there!" Aragorn said, touching the side of his face.

"Well, I had hair there!" Frodo retorted pointing at his feet.

About that point Legolas leaped back up and looked at the Balrog.

"He looks angry."

Gandalf was just as angry, "You need to give us a chance to get out of here!"

"Why should I? You didn't even give me a birthday present last time you came through here."

Gandalf rolled his eyes, "Either way we need to get over the bridge."

The Balrog looked at the bridge, "Your friends are already over."

"WHAT!"

They sure were. And Gandalf had been arguing with the Balrog.

Well, Gandalf took one last look at the Balrog and took off for the bridge.

However, he hadn't noticed the Fellowship sawing the bridge apart on the other side so, the moment Gandalf and the Balrog stepped on the bridge, the whole thing collapsed.

Gandalf vaguely heard Legolas yell, "You two have your hissy fit down there!"

Oh he'd be back. And he'd really get them.