LOTR: Shire Dragons - Pippin Took FF

Chapter 3

The sun was high in the sky and the wind had settled when Pippin and Mallyra reached a hole in the ground. The ‘water’ was flowing heavily from it and was a deep blue in colour. Behind the hole, stood a bare silver birch tree, it had no leaves, no birds. In fact, it looked quite dead.

"that's it! That's the tree" Mallyra cheered, looking around it quickly, before standing next to Pippin again.

"oh... that’s a nice tree." Pippin said admiring it, a bit sarcastically. Mallyra looked at him with a raised eyebrow, as he did the same to her. After a moment of silence, they lost their seriousness, and both burst out laughing.

"what do think's down there?" Pippin asked when he'd stopped laughing, gesturing towards the gaping hole in the ground in front of them.

Mallyra shrugged a little, took a chance, got on her knees and put her head in the hole, scanning around slowly with her eyes. It was dark at first as her eyes adjusted to the light change, but her eyes soon grew wide with surprise.

"what do you see?" he asked her, crouching down next to her. Mallyra pulled her head out of the hole, a puzzled expression on her face.

"What? What’s wrong?"  Pippin said, his voice filled with curiosity. Mallyra frowned at him, and put her head in the hole again. It was a few seconds later when she shouted up to Pippin,

"you will not believe this!" she shot backwards, scaring Pippin, and causing him to fall backwards. Right into the river.

"great. I’m soaked!" he complained shaking his head. Mallyra tried to contain her laughter, she really did. But after a few seconds of biting her lip, She burst into fits of laughter. After she’d finished laughing at him, Mallyra decided to help Pippin to his feet. He brushed himself down and looked at his cloak, which was drenched in the blue water.

"Well that's just lovely!" he complained, glancing across at Mallyra. "what was it you saw anyway?’ he continued, nodding towards the hole.

Mallyra pulled a strange face, indicating him to look himself. What Pippin saw was confusing, and hurt the logic of his mind. The blue river was flowing upwards out of the hole. It actually ran up the side, and out of the hole. But that wasn’t the most intriguing thing. There was a wooden ladder that ran all the way down the far side of the hole. It went down and down, and then disappeared into the darkness.  

"What in Gandalf's name.." he cursed, tilting his head to one side.

"where does it end?" Mallyra shouted to him, a nervous look on her face. Pippin reached out for the ladder and grabbed onto it with both hands. As soon as he moved, he felt Mallyra grab his legs,

"Pippin?!" he heard her exclaim, causing him to smile to himself,

"Ra I’m not falling! I’m going down the ladder" he laughed up at her. She laughed nervously, and he felt her let go of his legs again and he pulled himself onto the ladder.

"Pippin, Are you ok?" Mallyra asked, concern filling her voice. Pippin sighed

"yes I’m fine! I didn’t realise you were such a worry pot Ra" Pippin looked up through the hole, to see her peering down at him. "now are you coming or what?" he chuckled to himself.

Ra scowled at him. "alright I’m coming just move out the way, otherwise we’ll never both fit onto that ladder" Mallyra said, as she reached down and grabbed the ladder, pulling herself onto it and making sure not to kick Pippin in the face. After about ten minutes of going down the ladder at a slow pace, Mallyra began to grow impatient.

"will you hurry up down this ladder Pippin! My hands hurt from holding on so long" she complained, looking down at him. Pippin looked around, the hole had gotten bigger as they got further down, and he could see the faint glow of torches that crept up the walls below them. The ladder creaked and Mallyra watched as the blue water rippled upwards to the hole where they had entered. It was now, just a faint white dot shrouded in darkness.

A few minutes later, they reached the bottom of the hole. Pippin jumped down first, looking round to make sure it was safe.

"It's okay to come down," he shouted, and looked up just as Mallyra jumped down off the ladder. With a loud thud, she landed right on top of him,

"sorry" she winced, and looked down to see that Pippin was face down in the dirt. He coughed dust from his throat as Mallyra quickly got to her feet and helped him up. She helped his brush the dirt from his chest, and looked up at him, smiling wide. A moment of awkwardness fell over them, causing Mallyra to turn away quickly.

"where are we?" She asked as she grabbed a torch off the wall. There was a tunnel to the left of them, the water still running along the ceiling. Then another to the right, which was filled with a looming dark shadow. 

"should we follow that stuff?" Pippin said curiously, hiding slightly behind Mallyra. She looked round at him and gulped, trying not to sound nervous.

"I guess so, although, neither option looks rather appealing," She said as she took a step forward. They continued to walk further into the tunnel, every noise made them jump. A small rat crawled across the floor, making Mallyra fall back into Pippin's arms. She apologised and blushed a little, her heart skipping, before continuing.

Suddenly, Pippin noticed something sparkle in the corner of his eye. He looked down at the floor, his mouth fell open.

"Ra... do puddles normally glow like that?" he asked, pointing towards the damp floor. Mallyra looked down and saw the floor was covered in small pools of water, like the water that was running across the ceiling. She stopped and bent down to look at it closer. Her reflection was faint, as She touched the surface on it with her right index finger, it felt like it should be solid. She lifted her finger again and looked at it, the drop that formed on it fell and plunged to the floor. But it didn’t split when it hit the ground. The drop stayed together in a tear drop shape, that begun to grow duller in the light from the torch.

Pippin went to pick it up, and held it in his fingers. "is this what I think it is?" he said, his eyes wide with amazement. Mallyra peered over his shoulder and her jaw nearly hit the ground.

"I do believe it its Pippin.. that’s a diamond." She exclaimed. Mallyra looked back at the pool and took a step forward, standing in the centre of it. It felt like it was made of ice, but it still rippled with her touch. Mallyra picked up a few more drops of diamonds which had fallen from the ceiling, and let them roll around the palm of her hand.

"Look Pippin!" she exclaimed, lifting them into view, but he wasn’t paying attention. He’d seen a cave in the distance, and was cautiously walking towards it. With a smile on her face, Mallyra slipped them into Pippin's pockets while he wasn’t looking.  

She followed Pippin a little further into the tunnel, and almost hid behind him. Although she seemed to be a daring adventurer, Mallyra had an intense fear of the dark. But she really didn't fancy telling Pippin, as she found it rather embarrassing. They reached a darker section of the tunnel, where shadows lurked even in torch light, and stopped. Pippin shuddered, and turned to Mallyra.

"You want to go first?" he asked, handing her the torch. She gave him a look of dis-belief, and reluctantly took the torch. She began to feel more relaxed, when she realised that they had entered a cave.

"We’re not that far underground Pippin" she said, breathing a sigh of relief, before pointing to a tiny crack that let fragments of light in through the dark. She lent up towards it, and then looked back at Pippin in confusion.

"it’s dusk! How long have we been walking?!’ she exclaimed, scratching the back of her head. Pippin looked at her and shrugged, 

"Come on!" he smiled, seeing the hints of fear in Mallyra's eyes and reaching out for her hand. "Come with me," he laughed. She blushed a little harder, before following him into the darkness.