“They have a cave troll!”

Boromir looked up from his history book at Faramir’s panicked hiss.
His little brother was desperately trying to block the door to the study with a heavy wooden end table.

“Who has a cave troll?” he asked, amused.

“The Haradrim!” Faramir replied, as if this should be perfectly obvious.

“The Haradrim,” Boromir repeated, skeptical but grinning.

“Yes.”

“Have a cave troll.”

“Yes!” Faramir was having no luck getting the end table to move. “They’re almost here -- they were right behind me!”

Boromir set down his book and stood. “Then we’d better hurry,” he said, and went to help his brother barricade the door.

***

“They have a cave troll.”

The moment he spoke the words, Boromir remembered. He smothered the grin that came to his face -- the others would not understand why he was smiling at a time like this.