Merry was really, truly, terrified. First the ground had gone out from under him, and then a large shouting shadow thing had jumped into the hole and started swinging what looked like a weapon about. Then a bunch of little lights started buzzing around, and not a one of them stayed still long enough for him to see them.

Then another shouting shadow, this time taller, had jumped in the hole and started swinging what looked like a weapon about. He huddled in a corner, or at least by the edge.

When the two shadow's blades crashed together, he jumped and ran screaming down a tunnel that just happened to be there.

-------------

Estel the hope of men landed on both feet in the hole and immediately started looking for the enemy and quite rashly swinging his sword around. When he didn't find any, he turned to the dwarf to ask him what he was fighting, but the dwarf roared and attacked him. He instinctively parried and swung his sword around – but then he thought.

Just in time he angled his sword so it wouldn't slice into the dwarf's side. It whistled past the dwarf's ear, and the dwarf immediately swung his axe towards Strider's stomach. He stepped back and to the side, narrowly avoiding the axe.

Then he retreated back to the wall and put down his sword. "Whoa, whoa, I'm not an enemy."

The dwarf kept his axe. "An' why should I trust you, eh?"

"Um, um, can you just not attack me for now?"

"You not going to attack me?"

"I won't, I swear."

"Good. What do you want?"

"Nothing. What were you fighting?"

"Whatever that was."

"Whatever what was?"

The dwarf changed the subject. "What are those lights?"

Aragorn looked. "They look like fireflies."

"Fireflies?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

They stood in silence for a while. Then Thorongil asked, "Who was that other person in here before?"

"Who, the one that ran screaming down that tunnel?"

"Yes."

"No clue."

"Ah. Should we go after him?"

"Maybe."

Elessar stared at the dwarf. The dwarf stared at Estel. They stood there for a long time.

Then they heard more screaming. They turned towards the tunnel entrance. A small person, shorter than a dwarf, came running out of the tunnel closely followed by some small people, shorter than the person who was smaller than a dwarf. More fireflies flew flightily flickering above them.

They were still staring at all the little things when Strider felt something sharp sting him on his right shoulder. He turned his head and saw one of the fireflies. It looked more like a dragonfly now, sparkly in the light. But it was different somehow. As he stared at this strange apparition, he became aware of not being so aware anymore. The world swirled around him and he didn't know he was falling.

-------------

Legolas the green leaf of Mirkwood, Crown Prince of Eryn Galen, smashed into the water at quite a few miles per hour. Some very strange thoughts went through his head, like what would happen if he could run that fast, or if he could fall up through the trees. It took a few minutes for him to realize he had probably broken quite a few bones, the water was freezing cold, and there was a very pretty elven lady standing on the stone he was washing by.

Then the water completely enveloped his head and he was swept along at an impossible speed through the rapids.

-------------

Gimli bumped along about a foot off the ground. It felt like the time that he had fell into that one stream and the current had swept him along. He shuddered at the memory. It had been unpleasantly cold and fast, and he had bumped into a few rocks.

Once his mind finished thinking that thought, it turned to exactly why he was a foot off the ground and swiftly moving down a long dark tunnel lit by fireflies. It grasped that he was being held tightly by something, but nothing he could think of was a foot tall and could also tie someone up and carry him. He frowned thoughtfully. So, if it wasn't anything he could think of, what was it? For the first time he wondered if it would be good, being an elf. They seemed to know about everything. Then he dismissed the idea as preposterous.

Then he figured out that the shiny lights weren't fireflies, they were some sort of long-toothed four inch tall things that looked slightly elven, were dusted in a shimmering golden glow, and had dragonfly wings on their back. Strange.

He had never heard of something like that before, so it was quite natural to think that these things were quite obviously something he'd never heard of before.

Wait, said his incredibly groggy mind. I've already been through this before. I know I've never heard of these things, and I certainly don't know why they are doing this, unless they're some type of miniature orc, and I've never heard of a miniature orc before. But then I've never heard of these things before, either.

He was quite hopelessly confused, and as he was wont to do when he was seemingly drugged the dwarf slipped back into unconsciousness.

-------------

Merry woke up with a pounding headache. He started to get up off of his most incredibly uncomfortable bed, but he couldn't. When he figured out why he couldn't, he nearly passed out again from shock. Why he would be about a foot or so off the ground and bound as well quite exceeded his imagination for the extraordinary. Who would bind a hobbit?

There were a couple of other dark shadows being carried by smaller shadows lit up by little shining lights. He distantly wondered if they were stars, and then he remembered that he was underground. So what were they? He saw that they had wings. He went through his mental list of things with wings. Bugs, dragons, birds, and those strange squirrels, toads, and snakes were the only things he could think of that could do anything remotely close to flying, unless you counted the time Pippin had jumped off of the roof of the old mill on a dare and almost broken his neck.

They were changing course, slipping into a side tunnel. After a while of watching which side tunnels they went into were, Merry got bored and his body decided, because of his pounding headache, to knock itself out.

-------------

Frodo and Sam ran along, trying to keep up with the very frantic Pippin. They were running in the direction where Merry had gone, and had been doing so for about an hour. Both Frodo and Sam were exhausted, but Pippin seemed to have boundless amounts of energy. "Merry!" he called. "Merry, where are you!"

Merry didn't answer. For about fifteen more minutes, he still didn't answer. Pippin stumbled on a rock and fell heavily to the ground. "Ow! Merry!"

Frodo and Sam used this chance to catch up with the young hobbit. "Pip, you do know you shouldn't be so worried?" said Frodo breathlessly.

Pippin ignored him. "Merry! Where are you? I'm sorry, Merry, where are you!"

The hobbit got up and started running again. "Merry!"

Frodo turned to Sam. "Do you think that we can calm him down?"

Sam thought a moment. "Probably not, but we can try!"

The two hobbits ran after the third.

-------------

Pippin was terrified something might have happened to Merry, and it would be all his fault. Berating himself for possibly putting Merry in danger, he tripped yet again. But this time he didn't fall on ground.

He fell through it.

TheAmazingTecnoColorRingWraith – Well, yes, Legolas is plummeting to his death but Aragorn conveniently forgot about it, mostly because Legolas is 1) out of sight, 2) has stopped screaming, and 3) Aragorn is still slightly dizzy from the beautiful maiden.