~ Chapter 8 ~

I got IN! AT SCHOOL! I GOT ON THE BLOODY FANFICTION.NET SITE AT SCHOOL!

....

Go me.

*

Gandalf stormed off angrily, dragging the rest of the Fellowship with him.

"Hey!" cried Victoria. "Wait up!"

She ran after the Fellowship, determined not to be left behind. "Listen, Gandalf!" she said, grabbing onto the wizard's wrist and forcing him to turn around. "We CAN'T go back. I don't know how we got here, or why, but whatever the reason was, we're stuck here until we CAN get back to where we came from. Till then though, we're in just as difficult a position as all of you here. Or rather, a WORSE position, because we're not fighters or

A/N

Christina Aguilera. 'Fighter'.

E/A/N

gifted in anything that's gonna keep us alive for at least an hour in this world." Victoria threw him her saddest look. "I'm sorry if they offended you, Gandalf, but PLEASE let us stay with you. At least until we can find somewhere else we can stay. Then you'll never hear of us again, I promise. Just- please?"

A half-hour later, they were jogging along with the Fellowship, on the condition that Rachel had her mouth gagged tightly.

"Mmf!" shouted Rachel angrily.

"Yes, yes. I know," nodded Pippin. "It's annoying, isn't it?"

Rachel shot him a look that would have frozen a volcano. "Mf mm."

"Now, now," said Merry. "Be nice."

He was still chuckling to himself when he fell flat on his face in a thistle bush.

Rachel smiled evilly and withdrew her foot.

A

Angeline sat at her new desk, wringing her hands nervously. The production of the gunpowder was far riskier than she had anticipated. It wasn't that her plans weren't accurate enough- a few modifications and it would be perfect. No, the problem was that the creatures she worked with were simply too....too....well....stupid. The simply fact was that the orcs WERE STUPID. They were slow to react, lacked total common sense and intelligence of any sort and to top it all off, they were LAZY. At least that stopped her from missing her friends, though.

"Is something wrong?" Saruman peered in over the door.

Angeline sighed. "No, it's fine." She tried a smile. "Nothing I can't take care of."

Saruman smiled and nodded. "How is the gon-pow-dar going?"

The girl blinked. "Pardon?"

"How is the gon-pow-dar going?" repeated Saruman.

"Oh. Gunpowder?" Angeline asked. "It's going alright, but....well...." Her voice trailed off.

"What?" demanded Saruman, his smile snapping off like a light.

"It will take longer than I had anticipated." Angeline got up and began to pace. "Listen, I had this whole idea about how we would-"

"How much longer?" Saruman looked dangerous.

However, Angeline was not one to back down. "A few months or so," she shrugged.

"MONTHS?" boomed Saruman. "MONTHS?!"

"Yup," nodded Angeline. "You see-"

"No, I DON'T see!" roared the wizard. "You told me DAYS! Now you say MONTHS?!"

Angeline looked vexed. "Look," she said, a steely tone in her voice. "I'm going to have to make a few changes, alright? It's going to take MONTHS. Not DAYS. I might have said DAYS earlier, but that's changed to MONTHS."

Saruman the White scowled and considered her words. His troops would need to begin marching in a year or so. He had hoped to become better accustomed to the use of 'gunpowder' before marching. However, it shouldn't affect his plans too much. "Oh, very well then," he sighed. "Have you any need of other materials?"

"Ah, yes," nodded Angeline. And she proceeded to list a number of chemicals that no one could understand.

It was a wonder that her ideas worked at all.

*

I'm sorry. These chapters are just getting shorter and shorter, aren't they? But I NEED to finish my homework and this stupid crappy speech that I have give on Tuesday. To all those innocents out there.... debating is EVIL. Don't do it.