Author's note: This week has been hectic beyond the meaning of the word, and I'm sorry I haven't updated lately. Good news though, for anyone that cares: I'm improving in Latin and my teacher no longer sees me as an unworthy outcast! Yay! Ahem…anyways, I know you'll all hate me for this but I give you another cliff hanger. You see, this installment (stumbling across danger) is going to be over two parts long because I had a brain wave for a twist instead of the usual. ^^ So expect a part three to this! Anyways, thank you all ( MarigoldG, Miss Pennyworth, Mr. BittleWinkle, Sunflower, Mome Wrath, Meir Brin, and D45 ^.^ ) for your wonderful reviews! I hope you enjoy and decide not to kill me for making it a three parter!
- Zeech
Stumbling Across Danger [part two]"Gandalf…Mr. Frodo is still cold and wet from that nasty creature…and seeing as how we've been traveling for.." Sam counted out five fingers before continuing, "Over five hours, can we stop and maybe have a bite to eat?"
The old wizard removed his hat and nodded, looking around for a flat, sturdy surface big enough for them all to rest on. He signaled for them to follow to a clearing under a large jagged cliff of a rock piece, and soon the Fellowship was resting. Sam offered some water to Frodo, but the other Hobbit declined.
"Ah, I don't like this place." Merry said as he looked into the shadowy crevices and the looming rocks above him. "Not enough light and too much rock. I want to see grass and trees." He scooted closer to where Aragorn and Sam were inspecting Frodo for bruises or breaks. "Strider, do you know where we are?"
"No, and neither does Gandalf, so do not pester him, Meriadoc." Aragorn answered in a quiet voice. His words were harsh but his voice was kind, and Merry plopped against the same wall that Frodo was propped against. "Go pester Boromir a while." the ranger gave a smile that almost rivaled Peregrin's best mischievous grin, and added, "It's always entertaining to watch you two converse."
Merry gave a quiet snicker, but Gimli pointed out what the rest of them had neglected, "Where is Boromir?"
Frodo said upright at the Dwarf's words, large eyes bounding from one depressing corner of their rest stop to the next. He asked Aragorn, in an alarmed voice, "And where is Pippin?"
"Legolas is missing too." Aragorn murmured, and looked to Gandalf. The wizard was now on his feet and looking very displeased. It was no laughing matter to be lost in the Mines of Moria, nor was it even a sort of matter to take lightly. The Mines were a dangerous place, and being lost in such darkness could mean the disappearance of their comrades forever or a good two day delay. Gandalf beckoned Aragorn over and the ranger got to his feet, walking about ten paces away from the remaining company.
"We cannot allow the Halflings to panic." Gandalf replied, looking very grim. Aragorn shook his head.
"No, we cannot. But Mithrandir…I do not even remember last seeing them. I spoke briefly to Boromir as he handed me Frodo when the entrance was destroyed, and then to Legolas a minute after…but that was five hours ago."
"Aye, the path was dark. I did not think to keep glancing back because I held the light…I had not even considered the possibility of losing them." he leaned on his staff wearily and exhaled softly, bringing a knarled hand up to stroke his beard and Aragorn caught the frown on the wizard's forehead. "I expected more out of Denethor's heir and leagues more from Thranduil's."
"Peregrin is also missing." Aragorn reminded him. "Perhaps that explains some of it."
"No doubt it does." Gandalf replied, and he now seemed greatly stressed. Before turning to the rest of the group he murmured to Aragorn, "Do remind me to inform Denethor of his son's disobedience, will you, Aragorn?"
The ranger would have laughed if not for the severity of the situation. "Let us first find them before you elect me tattle-tale of the Steward's heir." Gandalf nodded, and Frodo got to his feet once the wizard and the ranger turned to face them. Frodo looked terribly worried.
"Gandalf?"
"Everything is alright, Frodo, I assure you. All of you. We must think, not panic." Gandalf said evenly, and narrowed his eyes at Sam, who looked worse than Frodo did. "Samwise Gamgee, do not start blubbering! Though it may help bring them to us with the terrible sound, it will certainly attract the fell beasts of these parts!"
"I wont, Mr. Gandalf, I'm only worried is all." he replied respectfully, if not a little indignantly. "No telling what Mr. Pippin will get himself and the others into out there."
"I hardly find it possible to disagree with you there, Samwise." Gandalf replied grimly. "But we all must think. Where did we last see them?" Sam prepared to answer, but suddenly his body went ridged and his heart stopped when a cream echoed about the walls and around the company.
Frodo looked up as if expecting to see something, and his features were distorted with frozen fear in the light of Gandalf's staff. "That was Pip!"
"We have no time to lose. We must follow it –" A rumbling followed the noise, and then all was still. The wizard nodded for the company to follow him. "Come, quickly. Do not lose me, or you may end up like our three lost companions."
--- --- ---
It took Legolas no more than a fraction of a second to react. He seized Pippin with both arms and gave Boromir the command to run. Gondor's captain wasted no time in joining the Elf that dashed into the darkness with the hobbit. Unaware of their destination and blind in the darkness, the only thing they could think to do was run away from the sound of the collapsing rock. The entire crevice seemed to be falling on top of them.
Pippin looked behind and above them as Legolas ran, seeing more light glinting off the falling rocks and onto the small path. It was such a faint light that it made little difference, but at least it was something. Legolas gave a cry suddenly, and Pippin nearly wet himself at what he saw. The rocks were before them as well as behind them!
"Pippin, stop screaming, you are only aiding it! Boromir, no, this way!" Legolas hissed, and Pippin suddenly realized that he had been shouting in fear without even hearing himself. He quickly bit off the last sound of his wail and squeezed his eyes shut. He heard Boromir hiss something to Legolas, and all at once he was on the ground with Legolas crouched over him. In the back of his mind he felt Boromir's body heat next to him as well, but not close enough under the little shelter Legolas had found. Pippin had no time to look up. "Cover your head!" Legolas bellowed above the horrible noise, and he now he did not seem to care that his voice was only making an avalanche of the situation.
The rocks fell all around them in a terrible rain, and twice Pippin swore a rock was heading straight for him, but refused to look up. Boromir made a noise that sounded like a yelp, and finally, like a storm coming to an abrupt stop, the sound and the shaking ended. Legolas, still crouched protectively over Pippin with his arms covering his head, slowly unfolded from his position and gazed up and around them in awe. The rocks, now all balancing on one another, had fallen right above them to form an arch. If they had slipped any further, and had their time been any different, the three members of the Company would have been dead.
"Cautiously.." Boromir's voice whispered in the dim, dim light. "Any movement could trigger our demise."
"I can see over this pile…" Legolas replied, squinting into the darkness and then looking up at the high walls of the gap they had fallen into. "It does not reach to the surface. I fear it will not aid us in climbing out; that is was what I had hope for."
Boromir lightly dusted himself off and climbed to his feet, then held out a hand to the Hobbit. Pippin grasped his forearm with both hands and allowed himself to be pulled up, but then latched on to Boromir's leg. He knew he was behaving like a child, but he was still so frightened he did not care. A crumbling mine was no place for a Hobbit, so he felt he had the right to show fear!
"Pippin, let go…the worst is over and I require two legs to walk." Boromir's voice sounded strained as he attempted to pry the Hobbit's fingers from the bend of his knee, and hearing this, Legolas turned around and examined him with his keen eyes. He noticed Boromir's stance was rigid. Rigid with pain.
"Boromir, are you well?" he inquired, and Boromir's eyes snapped up to meet his. "You were not hit, were you?"
"I…yes, one of the small rocks…boulders…hit me, but it is nothing more than a bruise. I am quite well, Master Elf." The man's tone was somewhat irritated, and Pippin (fear now drained and replaced with annoyance) rolled his eyes. Now they had gone back to referring to one another with wry formality.
"Where are we?" Pippin piped up to break the ice between the two. "How…how far did we run?"
"That I do not know," Boromir answered, and Pippin looked up to see him observing their surroundings will a little less than patience. "Feh, and they say Elvish instincts outwit a man's. Well, Master Peregrin, that just goes to show you that the world is usually wrong about everything they say."
"Alas for all Middle Earth when the fair folk leave it to your kind!" Legolas retorted, and Pippin's gaze whirled to the Elf now and saw that his green eyes sparked in indignation. "Should a rockslide ever rain upon Minas Tirith I certainly hope the rest of you have the sense to flee from the rocks instead of crouching directly in their path."
"I have always thought it better to face an onslaught then run like an insensible thing and lose one's self control." Boromir growled, and added with a note of triumph, "Or in the case of your people: brushing your hair and bathing every minute of every hour!"
Legolas' nose wrinkled in a smirk. "Yes, well, it's quite obvious you disagree with the concept of bathing." Another growl from Boromir and Legolas continued dangerously, "It would do you some good to spend a day with the fair folk, they might teach you to use a bar of soap – "
"Legolas, please! That's enough from you two!" Pippin suddenly hissed, and both man and elf suddenly looked quite embarrassed. The hobbit snorted. "Humph, and Gandalf calls me the 'fool of a Took'. There's no time to argue. We need to find a way back to the rest of the Fellowship."
"The halfling is right, Legolas, stop your bickering –"
"My bickering?!"
"Yes, Master elf, you are not the first being on this planet to ever resort to petty retorts –"
"Well neither are you, apparently."
Boromir narrowed his eyes at Legolas but said nothing in return. It was now clear among the three of them that there was no room to bicker, only room to try and find a way back to their comrades.