[Arry]

“Well, would you look at that!” Annû’s eyes went wide as Rôg’s form crumpled down into a small brown bundle of fur. “He’s hardly as wide as my hand!” Carrandû, too, was taken aback, saying, “And here I thought he was just some hapless Second Born that the Captain met in Gondor. A skinchanger . . .”

The two brothers were in the middle of the group waiting to go in. They had agreed that once they entered the main cavern they would rope themselves together along with whoever else might choose to join them. “Just remember to leave about six feet of rope between us, brother mine,’ laughed Carrandû as they reached the entrance to the tunnel. “I don’t relish the thought of you kicking mud in my face as we crawl through those other tunnels.” “Too bad we bear the curse of the Eldar,” his brother replied, winking. “Curse?” asked Carrandû as he knelt to begin the crawl into the main cavern. He could hear his brother laughing softly behind him. “The Curse . . . of being so tall, brother! Were we Hobbits this would not be such a back breaking task for us.”

“Were we Hobbits,’ Carrandû reminded him, “we would not be here. We’d be in some snug little Inn, our feet propped in front of the fire. A mug of good ale in one fist, and a pipe in the other.” Carrandû emerged into the cavern and stood up as best he could, helping his brother up as he emerged. “Though why they enjoy that noxious smoke is beyond me.”

The two brothers moved to one side of the tunnel entrance to make way for the others. Annû pulled a torch from his belt while his brother fumbled in his pocket for the flint to light it. “Hurry,” whispered Annû. “I can barely make out a thing in here – save for the lights of the others as they move off toward the other tunnels.”

Their now lit torch throwing a small puddle of flickering light on the floor as they held it before them, the two rope-linked figures moved off toward one of the tunnels that no one had looked into as yet . . .