Syen: Sorry I didn't put this in sooner. I've been busy with schoolwork and such like things.

Chapter 4

Carl sighed and prepared to fire his weapon. He threw the first one down. It exploded and he missed. It was successful on blowing the rest of Moria down in front of the entrance though.

"Van Helsing?" Carl whimpered.

He ran up on the mound and started to dig with his bare hands. He didn't get very far. Then the howling came back. Carl jumped and accidentally dropped one invention he was still in the middle of making. It burst a man-sized hole in the rocks. Carl grabbed his inventions and wormed through the hole. But unfortunately, there was a cliff. Carl fell off the cliff and landed at Van Helsing's feet.

"Carl?" Van Helsing asked.

"Oh, yes?" Carl replied as he stood up and brushed his habit.

"We got company," Van Helsing sighed as he waved his arm behind him.

There stood Elanor, Ruby, Robin, and Faramir with angry faces.

"We escaped the rockslide just in time," Elanor told Carl.

"Hi, where are the rest?" Carl asked.

"We told them to go home because we thought you didn't want a big group, but Ruby and I insisted on coming, Nibs," Robin replied with mixed emotions.

"It was his idea," Carl said as he pointed at Van Helsing.

"Frodo, Bilbo, Merry, and Pippin didn't even know where we were going and so I, uh, didn't want them to get hurt," Van Helsing lied.

Faramir gave a small smile, but Ruby's face showed no emotions. Robin nodded seriously for he knew his brothers well.

"Nice excuse, but it didn't work," Elanor sneered.

Now just to let you know, when pretty hobbit girls sneer, they don't look too pretty anymore. Just then, the sound of drums came. Elanor jumped and Faramir took out his Gondorian sword. Robin started shaking and Ruby pulled out a dagger.

"Van Helsing?" Carl whimpered as Van Helsing prepared his crossbow.

Van Helsing didn't answer Carl. The orcs came a few seconds later. Carl took out an invention from the bag and closely looked at it while the battle was going on.

"This? No," Carl muttered as he put the bottle full on chemicals back and took out another one, "Yes!"

Carl tossed Van Helsing the invention. Van Helsing caught it and quickly looked it over. It read 'toxic' and at the bottom it read 'pour some of this onto tip of blade, etc. Fire at orc's heart. Stiffens body and paralyzes orc and mutes.'. Van Helsing followed the instructions and fired his weapon. It hit an orc, but it pierced the orc's rib cage. The orc started crying out in pain as he clutched his rib cage.

"Aim at the heart! Didn't you read the instructions?" Carl shouted.

Van Helsing gave a slight nod and shot at the heart. The orc died without a sound, but it remained still standing. Ven Helsing continued shooting. Carl rubbed his hands satisfied with his work.

"Nibs? Nibs?" Robin asked as he tugged on Carl's habit.

Carl took no notice of Robin as he watched Van Helsing use his invention.

Robin tugged harder and said louder, "Nibs? Nibs!"

Carl stilled ignored the hobbit.

"NIBS!"

"Oh! Uh, yes?" Carl asked as he finally gave his attention to Robin.

"Elanor wants to talk to you," Robin said as he pointed to his older sister.

Carl nodded and walked over to her. Elanor grabbed his habit and pulled him closer to her.

"We don't need you and your leader here. You don't know anything," Elanor hissed at him.

Carl shrank back and pulled out a red book from his habit, "I know stuff. See! This is titled: Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth."

"What!" Elanor screamed as she took the book from Carl and flipped the pages, "Where did that book come from? You don't live in this world! What is Old Welsh? That doesn't exist in Middle Earth! Ruth Noel? Who is she? Where are you from?"

"Uh, I come from the movie, Van Helsing, and you come from the book, Lord of the Rings?" Carl suggested as he put the book back in his habit.

"No!" Elanor said as she turned away from Carl.

Carl sighed and went back to Robin. Robin looked up at him with pity written all over his face.

"Elanor isn't going to leave the subject. She'll pester you until you give her the answer she likes," Robin said as he pulled Carl into a sitting position.

"What is the answer she wants?" Carl asked as the fight finished.

"I don't know. You better try every answer. Hey, Nibs, Ruby seemed to like your pal and now she doesn't. What's with it?" Robin asked as he looked at Van Helsing.

"I have no clue," Carl replied as he gazed off into thin air.

"No clue! Yeah right! You know more than I do," Robin muttered as Van Helsing walked over to them with Ruby and Faramir at his heels.

"They'll be back. I'll take the first watch," Van Helsing said as he looked sharply at Carl.

Carl looked away as Faramir laid down to sleep. Ruby went over to Elanor and talked, Robin went to sleep next to Carl. Once Elanor and Ruby went to sleep, Van Helsing went over to Carl and sat down.

"Robin was muttering something like: No clue! Yeah right! You know more than I do. What was that about?" Van Helsing asked.

"Nothing," Carl mumbled guiltily.

"Nothing?" Van Helsing asked with a faint smile, "There was something going on or you wouldn't be mumbling words like you're guilty."

"Robin said to me, 'Ruby seemed to like your pal and now she doesn't. What's with it?' I told him that I didn't have a clue. I didn't hear what he said next for I was too focused on you coming back and… And that's what happened," Carl replied as he turned around with his back facing Van Helsing.

"Ruby likes anyone. She has told me herself that she likes to read about adventures and 'heroes' and things like that. It's only natural that she would like me because Robin told her that I 'go on adventures'. Now, you told Robin that I 'go on adventures', am I not correct?" Van Helsing asked.

"Yeah. I told him that. But that doesn't have anything to do on what we where talking about," Carl said as turned back to face Van Helsing.

"Really? If you hadn't told Robin that I 'go on adventures', Ruby wouldn't have liked me and you wouldn't be talking about this now," Van Helsing replied as he leaned forward towards Carl.

"Well, Ruby likes anyone. She would have gotten it out of you anyway because she looks like Anna and you liked Anna and so you would have told her everything," Carl said quickly and a bit too hastily before he could realize his mistake on mentioning Anna.

"You better go to sleep. You should take the second watch," Van Helsing said as he turned around.

Carl sighed tiredly and slept.

R&R