[piosenniel]

The Elves and Lossoth had all entered the cavern and were beginning their explorations. Rôg took one last fly-about in the main cavern. Bats are, of course, blind for the most part, but he sent out a high pitched squeal, unheard by the human ears, and listened closely to the pattern of echoes that returned to him. He was beginning to make a sort of map in his head of the interior of the main cavern . . . where the rocks were that jutted up from the floor; where the ceiling slanted, where it arched up; where the rock shelves jutted out about the walls, their echoed images configured with the irregular shapes of fallen rock that cluttered along their lengths.

How odd! he thought to himself as he moved from rocky grouping to another. How very odd! Probably nothing, really . . . He shrugged off the difference in the returned echoes as he moved across a particular section. Parts of the echoes were different, softer, blurrier than the others. Having never been in this sort of situation before, he could not tell what it was that made the difference.

Still, as he dropped down to where Luindal stood, the light of the torch flickering on his features, Rôg thought that perhaps he should tell the Captain that there appeared to be some ‘irregularities’ in the rocky structures that he had picked up. ‘I really have no idea what they mean,’ he said as he finished telling Luindal of them, having taken on his mannish form once more. ‘But I thought you would want to know about them . . .’

Luindal took Rog’s information under advisement, then repeated the question about the side tunnels and caverns. Rôg gave his gathered information careful thought, presenting it finally in as organized a way as he could:

‘There are thirteen tunnels,’ he began, ‘leading into smaller caverns than this, although four of them – the four immediately to your left as you stand with your back to the main cavern’s entrance, are blocked to entrance by rock fall. I managed to squeeze into them – they are small caverns and small tunnels. I really doubt something the size of even the smaller of the palantiri could have been deposited in them.’

‘That leaves nine tunnels – the four leading to the larger caverns; that is the ones you Elves could probably stand hunched over in are straight ahead of you. I think they must be the ones the motion of the incoming tides hits the hardest. They are likely candidates for having had the globes rolled into them at one time or another. Unfortunately, when the tide comes in, there might possible be headspace for breathing, but I would hate to have to find out whether that is true or not. And breathing room or no, the tunnels leading to them will all be completely filled with surging water.

‘The other five – three to the right of those larger mid-caverns and two to the left have very low ceilings. It will be a hands and knees search in there. And those five will certainly all fill with water as the tide comes in. They are large enough certainly for the smaller of the globes to have become lodged in.’

‘According to Bear the tide was just fully out, the waters of the bay ebbed as much as they would, when we gathered in front of the tunnel into this cavern. The incoming tide will be a very high one and will be at its full around midday when the sun is straight overhead. The tunnels will be passable about half way into that time period. Beyond that, they may be too full of water for some to pass safely.’

‘So . . . it is best that we make haste to finish as much of our investigations as we can this morning . . .’