[Hookbill the Goomba]

"Who the Morgoth are you?" yelped The Barrow Wight as Alli and Aime stood blinking in the pail green corpse light. Tollin gripped Smilog by the shoulder and pointed to the north where two points of blue light could be seen getting closer.

Smilog swore and took out his axe, "It's those Wizards," he said, "what do they want now? Why doesnt their army attack?" A laugh leaped up from the Wizards as they drew nearer and before long, the towering forms of Alatar and Palando were before them as menacing as fire mountains.

"I'm telling you, rice salad exists and can be a great help!" Alatar was saying, Pallando punched him and stepped forward.

"We do not attack because we do not need to," snickered Palando, "do you see our army, Aime?" Alli and Aime quickly turned to look at the wizards, slightly shocked that they had even noticed them. They had been more interested in why The Barrow Wight was emitting such an odd glow. Palando laughed again, "where is the King of Mordor?"

"He is not here," said Alli, "so why don't you all go somewhere else and bother some other people?"

"Do not cross me!" boomed Alatar, raising his staff, "Canst thou not see I am mightier than thee?" blue clouds swirled around him and Alatar's eyes became like a raging inferno of blue fire. He raised his staff and began chanting strange words. But he stopped. He looked down and saw that a long, golden hilted sword had passed through his stomach.

The Barrow Wight trembled as he removed his blade and watched as Alatar struggled to maintain his balance. "I say," said the Wight, "sorry old chap." The Wizard made a loud cry of anguish before falling down to the ground, face first. Palando knelt beside him and placed his hand on his assistant's head.

Thunder boomed from withing Palando. "You!" he roared, "You are a dead man!"

"Well spotted," said the Wight before Pallando struck him in the chest with the staff. The flailing body of The Barrow Wight flew through the air until it was out of sight. The remaining blue Wizard took his sword in one hand and his staff in the other, raising both hands, thunder and lightning surrounded him. Smilog gripped Alli and Aime by the arms.

"Run!" said the Dwarf. No one dared argue with his logic. The roar of anger from Palando was heard in Gondor. Roggie, wherever he was, sensed a change in the winds. Elrogorn and the others stopped what they were doing for a moment. All the other characters looked towards the sound of the enraged Wizard and the tornado of blue fire that surrounded him.

Palando sent forth a beam of blue light towards Smilog and the others. Fortunately, he missed and succeeded only in unburying some corpses. The Wizard looked down at his fallen comrade and Lo! He was not there. The winds stopped, the magic stopped. Palando turned this way and that looking for Alatar's body but it was no where to be seen. He ran towards a large stone pillar and climbed up it. He saw, in the south, a strange light growing.

Smilog tripped over a tree root and fell upon his face. Tollin picked him up and carried him on his back. Alli and Aime didn't think to ask why Tollin, a minotaur, was helping. Quite frankly, they didn't care. "Look," said Aime, "some stone steps. We can get a better vantage point from up there!" Not bothering to ask what they wanted vantage on, they began to climb.

At the top, they found a shelf with several small pillars dotted around. They came at length to the edge of the shelf and turned around to look out over the grave yard. They could see clearly the army that had gathered in the centre, minuscule in comparison to the massive were army the Wizards had gathered. "Look!" cried Alli, pointing down the steps into the over growth bellow.

Smilog looked and beheld a figure, like an old beggar man, bent over a staff, wearing a long brimmed pointed hat. In other lands they would have greeted him with kind words, but here they stood silent, each feeling a strange expectancy. Something was approaching that held a great power or menace.

No longer able to contain himself, Smilog yelped, "Your bow, Alli, shoot him quick! It's Palando!"

"Hail and well met!" came the voice from the old man, "may I come up that we may talk more easily?" without waiting for an answer, the old man leaped up the steps and before they knew it, he stood before them. An old man, dressed in brown with a long thorny staff. "Well met, I say again, friends." The man stepped up towards Aime and said, "do you not know who I am?"

"Erm..." said Aime, "Radagast the brown?"

"No!" cried the Old man, leaping back and lifting his hat.

"Alatar!" shrieked Smilog,

"Alatar..." mused the Wizard, "Alatar the blue, that was what they used to call me. I am Alatar the brown. I come back to you now, at the... erm... something of the tide." He looked out over the grave yard, "See, Palando! I told you rice salad could help!"

"So..." hummed Alli, "are you going to kill us?"

"Yes." replied Alatar.