Kiana: You have to read the next few chapters to know my idea of Van Helsing's past. And Carl doesn't exactly have a crush on Ruby. It's just that I used Carl's friendliness to help me only in my story. So, I guess the answer is, no, Carl does not have a crush on Ruby.

Chapter 3

"Aren't they supposed to be west of Moria?" Carl asked shivering as he followed Van Helsing to Moria.

"Yes, but there aren't any tracks. I think they've traveled around Moria. Carl, you know a little bit of Elvish. What does Moria mean? Maybe that can give us some help," Van Helsing suggested as he trudged on.

"Well, mor means dark. Ia means abyss. So, it'd be dark abyss. Robin said that inside Moria, there is a dark abyss," Carl said while rubbing his head.

"Inside?"

"Moria is inside a mountain. Orcs live there. Dwarves used to live there, but some how they were all killed and the orcs took over. When the Fellowship were passing Moria, they tried to climb the mountain, but it was snowing too hard, so they had to go through Moria," Carl told him.

"Is it safe to stay in Moria?" Van Helsing asked quietly.

"It is a lot safer than when the Fellowship was there," Carl said, not fully giving the answer Van Helsing wanted.

"But is it safe?"

"Well, no, not exactly. You see, there are still orcs. You can kill orcs easy, but there are thousands of them, some archers, some with weird weapons that I will never, ever give you. Pathetic weapons, really. Blunt blades! The Cardinal would fire me if I ever gave you those types-"

"Get on with it!"

"Sorry, well, when the Fellowship was there, there was a balrog," Carl said slowly.

"Balrog?"

"Yes, there were only seven balrogs in the whole Middle-earth. Melkor, one of the creators, turned against his brothers and sisters and turned Middle-earth upside down. He made horrifying creatures, one of them was a balrog. All of the balrogs were killed in the Third Age. Balrogs are creatures with the head of an ox. They are fire and earth creatures. Some of them have fire whips, others just their fire that comes from their mouth like dragons. You can kill them by taking away their fire or stabbing them. They are as tall as… As… As the Vatican ceiling," Carl exclaimed, happy that he found a description.

"Go on," Van Helsing urged.

"Unless Melkor made more balrogs, we are fine," Carl said as he looked up.

They had reached the Moria. There was a pile of rocks. Niether of them knew how Moria was supposed to look, so they thought that the rocks would clear up once they said the password.

"Can wolves go into Moria?" Van Helsing asked wonderingly.

"Yes, if they know the password," Carl told him.

"And do we know the password?" Van Helsing asked looking at Carl.

"Yes, I do. It's easy. On the doors it says in elvish, 'Speak, friend, and enter'. All we do is we say friend in Elvish," Carl said.

"And what is the word for friend in Elvish?" Van Helsing asked annoyed.

"Well, it depends…" Carl said as he drifted off into his new invention.

"It depends," Van Helsing muttered.

"Oh, uh, you can say a suffix or etc." Carl said as he looked around.

"Go on," Van Helsing sighed.

"But the real password was found by Meriadoc Brandybuck. Mellon," Carl said grandly.

They waited.

"Carl…" Van Helsing asked.

"Yes?"

"How come it didn't open?"

"Oh! I forgot! The doors crashed down when the Fellowship came in," Carl muttered as he slapped his head.

Howling of wolves came.

"Van Helsing?" Carl whimpered.

"What?" Van Helsing snapped.

"Remind me why we came here?" Carl muttered.

Van Helsing looked about. He walked up to the rocks carefully as he drew out his crossbow. He looked at the top of the mound of rocks and saw a little opening. The sound of howling came closer. Carl started walking backwards to Van Helsing. Van Helsing turned around and grabbed Carl and started climbing the hill of rocks. Carl followed him blindly. They were at the top, when the wolves appeared.

"Ngaurhoth!" Carl cried.

Van Helsing turned around as he got his crossbow into shooting position. Carl scrambled about and started a rockslide. Van Helsing started shooting and shifting his weight so that he wouldn't fall. Carl reached into his habit and took out a strange looking thing while sliding down. It was sort of like dynamite, but one side was the dynamite, the other was dynamite-proof. Carl grabbed Van Helsing's coat. Van Helsing lost his balance and rolled down the side mound of rock.

"Dammit, Carl," was all Van Helsing got to say before Carl threw down the invention.

The dynamite-proof side was facing them. The dynamite side was face the mound of rock and half of the ngaurhoth. It exploded. ('It exploded,' that explains a lot.) Unfortunately, the mound blew up and rocks started flying all over the place, including the place where Carl and Van Helsing were.

Once the rocks finished flying, Van Helsing asked, "Are you trying to stone us?"

"No, I was just experimenting with it," Carl said, but then he realized that his invention worked, "It worked! Yes!"

"Yeah, it worked on trying to murder us," Van Helsing muttered as he got up from underneath all the rocks, while Carl was jumping up and down.

Van Helsing looked at the mound, well, that's if you can actually call it a mound. There wasn't a mound left. There was the entrance to Moria. Dark.

"Carl?"

"Yes?"

"Do you have more of those dynamite things?"

"Sure. You like them?" Carl asked eagerly.

"No," Van Helsing chuckled softly.

"What?" Carl asked happily.

"Uh, I need your dynamite invention," Van Helsing said.

"For what?" Carl asked as he handed Van Helsing five of his invention.

"I am going to try to blow these rocks back up so that we can rest safely in Moria for a while," Van Helsing replied.

"But how will we get back in?" Carl asked as he reached to get his inventions back.

"One of us will go into Moria with a torch, while the other blows the rocks back to the entrance," Van Helsing said as he took out another of Carl's inventions.

An automatic torch that lights up when it is dark. Van Helsing didn't like it because they had to put a lantern in the bag to keep the torch from burning up the weapons and bag.

"Okay, I'll be in Moria," Carl said as he reached for the torch.

"But you'll be with the orcs," Van Helsing smiled.

Carl drew back his hand and muttered, "All right."

"Here," Van Helsing said as he tossed Carl a silver stake and the dynamites.

Carl reached for them. They fell right next to him. Van Helsing snorted as he turned around walked into Moria.

I need more reviews!