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Evening….

It wasn't until they had reached near the bottom of the mountains that they finally stopped for the night. Gorluk's legs were aching from stumbling over rocks and snow, and he was having difficulties trying to stay awake again. When they halted, he hid behind a large Evergreen tree and tried to rest. Eventually, he nodded into an uneasy sleep filled with nightmares about giant boulders rolling down the mountains, ready to crush him.

When he awoke, he realized that he had only slept for a few hours. The group was gathered around a fire, so it seemed like they were having a serious council. The wizard Gandalf was speaking, and there was a grave expression on his face as he talked. "... Since our open attempt on the mountain-pass our plight has become more desperate, I fear. I see now little hope, if we do not soon vanish from sight for a while, and cover our trail. Therefore I advise that we should go neither over the mountains, nor around them, but under them. That is a road at any rate that the enemy will least expect us to take."

"We do not know what he expects," a man with a horn hanging at his belt argued. "He may watch all roads, likely and unlikely. In that case, to enter Moria would be to walk into a trap, hardly better than knocking at the gates of the Dark Tower itself. The name of Moria is black."

Gorluk's eyes widened in bewilderment. Moria!? Are they really thinking about going there!? There were probably thousands of Orcs down there that never associated themselves with the Great Eye. He had only heard of a few select messengers who could find there way in and out, but sometimes, they never returned. There were rumors that something even darker lurked down in the deep.

His mind wandered from the rest of their conversation for a bit. He clung to the dirty fabric of his ragged clothes as the chilly wind blew harder. But then, he thought that he could hear something in the distance. It seemed like a howling noise, but not from the wind…

The Ranger automatically leapt to his feet. "How the wind howls! It is howling with wolf-voices. The Wargs have come west of the mountains!"

WARGS!? Gorluk's blood turned cold at the mention of them. It is strange for an Orc to fear them, since Orcs and Wargs often help each other in wicked deeds, but of course, it is strange for an Orc to act like Gorluk. The reason why Gorluk was scared of them was because one had tried to eat him a few years back. Gorluk couldn't remember why the Warg didn't, but he assumed that the Warg had reconsidered, and thought that Gorluk would barely make more than a mouthful because of his small size.

"How far is Moria?!" the man asked, who ironically was the same one who earlier was against on going there.

"There is a door south-west of Caradhas, some fifteen miles as the crow flies, and maybe twenty as the wolf runs," Gandalf answered grimly.

"Then let us start as soon as it is light tomorrow, if we can," the man suggested. "The wolf that one hears is worse then the Orc that one fears!"

"True!" the Ranger said, "But where the Warg howls, there also the Orc prowls."

Gorluk gulped and huddled closer to his tree. The ranger was definitely right about that. More right than he would ever begin to realize!

One hour later…

The travelers moved their camp up a small hill, from where they had earlier been sheltering below. Since there were only small and old twisted trees that surrounded their new camp, Gorluk had no other choice but to climb to the top of the pine tree and watch with growing fear. Very soon, the howling was all around them, sometimes near, other times far off. Gorluk could see many red eyes surrounding the hill, but the travelers sat silently with their backs to the fire. Other than the Halflings, they made no sign of fear.

Out of the darkness, Gorluk could see the outline of a large Warg slinking closer to the fire, until he was only twenty feet away. The Warg stopped and stared at them silently. The Travelers did not move. The Wolf suddenly pointed his nose up to the sky and howled, as if he was the leader of the pack, and was summoning the rest of the Wolves to attack. Gorluk began to shake so hard, the top of his tree began to sway back and forth as if it was in a windstorm.

Gorluk watched with terror as Gandalf grabbed his staff and stepped forward. "Listen, Hound of Sauron!" his voice boomed, "Gandalf is here. Fly, if you value your foul skin! I will shrivel you from tail to snout, if you come within this ring."

The Warg growled and leapt towards the Wizard. Gorluk was about to cry out NOOOOOO!, when suddenly, there was a sharp twang! and the Warg fell to the ground with a thud. Gorluk's jaw dropped with disbelief. There was an arrow that was sticking out of it's throat. Gorluk saw the Elf standing, staring silently at the dead Wolf. The Elf had probably shot it so fast that Gorluk didn't even notice. Gorluk was reminded of that Autumn back in Mirkwood, five month ago, when that Elf had (non-intentionally) saved his life.

With a trembling hand, Gorluk hesitantly drew out his small knife, the only weapon he had. In a dangerous situation like this, Gorluk knew that he would have to return the favor. Gorluk was going to fight for them, even if he had never killed a single thing in his life. It wasn't much, but it was all Gorluk had to offer (or so he thought at the time).

Right at that moment, a sudden chorus of howls of rage broke out around the hill. More Wargs had come.

To be continued…

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DUN-DA-DAAAAAA!

I guess that it was a major cliff-hanger. Please tell me if that was too much, so that I'll never do that again. I wanted for this chapter to be longer, but, well… I'm busy being non-productive.

Chapter seven coming soon!