For Elena Tiriel's birthday over at HASA.
Run, or be forever entombed in darkness: we cannot get out... Aragorn has Frodo; Merry and Pippin sprint before him, Sam follows-
Something about the shape of the air behind me makes me look round: no Dwarf. There the fool stands yet as though carved from the stone of his forefather's tomb.
Doom, doom. Afterwards I do not remember choosing. I turn, run, lunge as black-mailed orcs crowd in again; I have him-
Not till we pause at the next stair's foot does he look up, panting.
"My thanks, Elf."
*******
"The others followed; but Gimli had to be
dragged away by Legolas: in spite of the peril
he lingered by Balin's tomb with his head
bowed." FoTR, The Bridge of Khazad-Dum. Oh,
and Gandalf's opening line is a direct lift
from that chapter.