Angel
Chapter 20: Moria, Part I
Authoress' Notes: I told you with summer would come more frequent updates! Pwease pwease come back! I'm sorry all my wonderful reviewers! Irish Bug AKA PIP, Autumn Took, Ruby, danceingfae, AnnabelleOdd, Dersi, Riska, Cavca, pwease pwease come baaaaccckkk!!!! If even just to yell at me. (u_u)
"Saaaam." Merry said, poking Sam's shoulder. "Wakey Wakey!"
"Mngh."
"Told you he liked her. Pay up." Pippin said.
"Stupid hobbit…" Boromir muttered, handing Pippin five bronze coins.
"That's not very nice, betting on one of your best friends." Frodo said, narrowing his eyes at Pippin.
"You're just mad because you have to pay up too. You owe Merry a silver coin."
"Shut up…"
"Hey, could someone come over here and help me wake Sam up?" Merry asked. "He sleeps like a dead log after all."
"What about me?" Sam said sleepily, slurring the words a bit.
"Never mind!" Merry called over his shoulder to the rest of the fellowship (who hadn't really been listening to him anyway) then turned back to Sam. "As for you Sam, I don't suppose you've noticed who's using your shoulder as a pillow."
"Huh? Oh, Tersa you mean? Yeah I noticed, why?" Sam asked, rubbing at his eyes, clearly seeing nothing incredibly unusual about that fact.
"Hehehe. No reason. Thanks though, I have a new silver coin because of you." Merry grinned, then went to collect his silver coin from Frodo.
"Alright." Sam said, then tried to wake up Tersa. "Ters! Ters wake up."
"Whaddaya want?" Tersa mumbled, opening her eyes halfway.
"You have to get up."
"Says who?"
"Your pillow because it needs its shoulder back." Sam laughed.
"Fine…" Tersa grumbled and sat up.
Meanwhile, across camp…
"What are you finding so funny?" Aragorn asked Gandalf, who was currently having to bite down on his pipe to keep from laughing himself to death.
"Tersa and Sam, what else?" Legolas answered, as Gandalf couldn't even take his pipe out of his mouth with out laughing.
"What's so funny about it?" Aragorn said.
"You are VERY unobservant aren't you? Haven't you noticed?!" Legolas replied in disbelief.
"What, Tersa's crush on Sam? No, I noticed that long ago. I still don't see what's so funny about this however." Aragorn said, beginning to wonder if both Gandalf and Legolas had gone crazy.
"It is funny because it's a break in all of this seriousness and darkness we've had over the past few weeks, Aragorn." Gandalf grinned, finally managing to get a hold of himself. "Those two are nearly the only cheer that is left in this Fellowship. We'll need plenty of cheer on this long road, we are starting towards Moria today."
"I suppose you're right." Aragorn agreed. "Now, how are we going to get through Moria?"
~*~
"So much for going through Moria, Dalfy can't open the door!" Tersa said, rolling her eyes.
"I can open these doors, just give me time!" Gandalf said irritably.
"I hope so, or whatever is lurking in that water is going to jump out and attack us." Tersa muttered to herself, then grabbed an apple out of her pack and walked over to where Aragorn was convincing Sam to let Bill run off and not be forced to trek through Moria with the rest of the fellowship.
As Tersa approached, Bill stamped and snorted unhappily, as if he was saying 'This is all your fault, you Sam stealer! You want him all to yourself and you're going to turn me into glue!'.
"Glad to know you're so happy to see me." Tersa said sarcastically, then turned to Sam. "So, we're getting rid of the emergency food supply?"
"Bill isn't an emergency food supply!" Sam said, narrowing his eyes at her a bit. "I know you don't like him, but you don't have to be so mean to him."
"Alright, I'm sorry. Besides, I brought the demon pony a good bye present." Tersa said, holding the apple in her hand out to Bill. "Here, try to stay out of the way of glue makers will you? I don't want Sam mad at me for the rest of my life."
Bill nodded happily and ate the apple, then nudged Tersa's sleeve with his nose.
"Oh fine, here." Tersa sighed, then handed Bill the carrot she'd hidden up her sleeve. "I suppose you're a fairly smart animal after all."
Bill said nothing and happily munched away on his carrot.
"I knew you liked him, despite how horrible you were being to him." Sam grinned, removing the last of the baggage from Bill's back.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Tersa said, then turned back to Bill. "Off with you demon pony, don't get eaten on the way home."
Bill neighed then galloped off, but not before he nudged Tersa just hard enough so that she fell into Sam.
"Er, hi S-Sam." Tersa stuttered, blushing a bright red.
"Hi." Sam said. "Can you stand up again, or am I going to have to keep holding you up?" He added with a slight smile.
"Oh! I can stand up, sorry about that… I told you, that's a demon horse, I had nothing to do with this." Tersa apologized as she stood up.
"Sure you didn't." Aragorn muttered, just loud enough for Tersa to hear.
"Shut up." Tersa glared at him.
"Hey Gandalf, what's the elvish word for friend?" Merry asked.
"Mellon, wh-" Gandalf said then stopped as soon as he realized the doors were opening.
"You just had to irritate that giant pond critter didn't you?" Tersa said to Merry and Pippin. "You would be rather angry if people were throwing rocks at you while you were in your house."
"Well, at least Frodo's safe, right Frodo?" Pippin asked with a laugh, but Frodo didn't answer. He seemed rather preoccupied with something off in the darkness.
"Hey! Angst boy!" Tersa said, waving her hand in front of his face. "Yooooohooo!"
"Hm, what, sorry?" Frodo said, finally realizing someone was talking to him.
"Get your brain outta the darkness, you'll have plenty of time for that when we get to Mordor!" Tersa laughed. "In the meantime, come join us in picking our way through the bones of the goblin and dwarven dead trying not to slip on a rib or two!"
"What a cheerful way to think of it." Legolas said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, it's true! I only speak the truth!" Tersa grinned, but Merry thwapped her over the head, ruining her victory stance.
"Sure you do. Now keep walking, some of us behind you would like to get through Moria alive." Merry said, trying hard not to laugh.
"What about the guy at the end? HEY! Who's at the end of this lovely parade, most likely to be attacked and dismembered by a lurking goblin or two?" Tersa called back into the darkness, where she could just see vague shapes of whoever it was that was behind Frodo.
"What do you want?" Boromir called back. "I thought you had no use for a 'ring mad lunatic'."
"Only as long as you're looking at Frodo like a dragon looks at a lamb, as something to be eaten, are you useless. Besides, I'll bash you over the head if you ever go ring mad on us; Don't worry!" Tersa grinned, obviously plotting to do so the first chance she got.
"Thank you so much." Boromir replied, less than thrilled.
"Anyone else back there?" Tersa asked.
"Just me." Sam replied, moping.
"Aw, what's wrong with you?" Tersa asked, pushing her way past Merry, Pippin, and Frodo to get to Sam. "You miss the emergency food supply already?"
"He wasn't an emergency food supply." Sam said, with a half-hearted glare.
"Well, still. Cheer up, he's smarter than most of the fellowship when they first wake up in the morning." Tersa grinned.
"You aren't included in that statement I'm guessing?" Aragorn said from a bit up next to Gandalf in the front.
"Of course not! I'm not at all disoriented in the morning!" Tersa replied, putting on her most angelic 'Yep, it's true!' look.
"Sure you're not." Sam laughed, spirits starting to lift despite the gloomy atmosphere.
"Oh shut up. Like you're any better." Tersa said, flicking her hair so it hit Sam in the face. "Hmph." She said, then all of a sudden, ran into Frodo. "Oy! What are you stopping for?!"
"Gandalf stopped, I don't know!" Frodo snapped.
"Well, aren't we a bit crabby today. HEY! DALFY! WHY'D WE STOP!?" Tersa yelled.
"I have no memory of this place, we'll have to stop here." Gandalf called back, then led the rest of the fellowship into the small room in the middle of the narrow passage way.
"And here we sit, because Dalfy got us lost." Tersa sighed a few hours later.
"We are not lost, Gandalf will remember sooner or later." Merry said.
"Emphasis on the 'later'." Tersa muttered. Suddenly her ears perked up. "Hey, did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Boromir asked.
"That… hissing. Besides your mumbling to yourself about Gondor and whatnot meaning." Tersa said, then crept over to the side of the cave floor and looked down into the steep drop it was beside. "Over there, that… thing. It's climbing on the cave wall opposite us."
"It's Gollum." Gandalf said, taking his pipe out of his mouth for a moment.
"Eh? I thought you said he was being tortured or something. How did he get here?"
"He's following us." Frodo said simply, having already asked Gandalf about why Gollum was here. "He's after me."
"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean he's out to get you." Tersa said, then picked up a rock. "Let us see how my aim is, shall we?"
"Go for it!" Pippin said with a laugh. "We need something to entertain us."
"No Tersa, or you'll be the one that has to fight off the goblins that come to see what all the ruckus is about." Gandalf said, then stuck his pipe back in his mouth. Then, miraculously, he pointed to one of the passages. "It's that way."
"He remembered!" Merry exclaimed happily.
"Should we applaud?"
"Shut up Tersa." The rest of the fellowship said as they started off through the tunnel.
Whoooo!!! Another chapter done, if all of my reviewers haven't abandoned me… *Sweatdrop* Pwease pwease come back and review! And for all you Boromir fans, I know I'm being rather mean to him, but this story needs some comic relief! Pwease don't hurt me! *Puts hands over head to hide from all the heavy objects being thrown at her by Boromir fans*