Dust and debris from the rockfall hung in the air, cloying at the fellowship, making it difficult to breath.
The light from Gandalf's staff barely breached the dark of the mines.
"We now have but one choice. We must face the long dark of Moria." He said grimly "Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world."
The hobbits looked at each other and drew together instinctively, the men kept their hands close to their swords and Legolas gripped his bow firmly.
Only Gimli did not heed Gandalf's words; he had not heard them, his mind to full of horror at the wholesale death around them.
"Quietly now." Gandalf spoke. "It's a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence goes unnoticed."
Maon's eyes opened heavily. There appeared to be a war going on in her head. She groaned and sat up slowly, one hand going to her bruised temple, the other reaching around her for her phone.
Her probing fingers found something, but she felt jagged plastic at her fingertips.
She shook her head and stood up. Her head swam and she reached out for the wall. Disorientated, dizzy and starting to feel frightened, she edged along slowly in a direction she hoped was the way out.
Her foot brushed something and she reached down to see what it was. She frowned. That couldn't possibly be right. Her fingers probed a little more and then she gasped in horror.
Skulls did not feature on what she expected in a mine.
Despite the dark, she squeezed her eye's tight shut and walked on.
The fellowship travelled in silence, passing the un-shrouded dead on their way. They were over halfway through, and had been travelling for much of the third day when they reached a junction of 3 passages.
Gandalf frowned. "I have no memory of this place"
He sat down on a stone, facing the 3 passageways, and the fellowship also sat down.
Frodo looked around, and glanced into a deep pit of mine workings. He saw something and rushed to Gandalf.
"There's something down there!"
"Yes. It's Gollum" said Gandalf without looking around. "He's been following us for 3 days"
Frodo looked shocked "He escaped the dungeons of Barad Dur!"
"Escaped, or was set loose"
Frodo looked around to where Gollum had been seen. "It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance!" He said vehemently
Gandalf looked at Frodo sharply. "Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can not see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or evil before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."
Frodo was taken aback, and looked away. He sank onto a stone beside Gandalf. "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Gandalf looked at him kindly ""So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought." He smiled and glanced back at the passages with a small laugh "It's that way!"
Everyone looked up. "He's remembered!" Said Merry
"No" said Gandalf "But the air doesn't smell so foul down here" he leaned down to the hobbit "When in doubt, always follow your nose!
Maon was still hugging the wall when her foot came against something hard. She risked opening her eyes, and looked up a long flight of steps leading into more darkness.
She stood frozen and frightened at the bottom when she heard voices from above her.
She backed away instinctively, and found herself in a shadowed alcove.
A light descended the stairs, held by a man in long robes. She squinted against this sudden bright in the dark, and could make out 8 companions to this man. 5 of them children by their height.
She frowned. School party perhaps. They must know the way out.
"Excuse me?" She spoke softly.
There was a brief sense of movement, a noise of drawn steel and she felt the point of a blade against her neck.
Her eyes widened in shock and she froze.
The fellowship regarded the figure trapped beneath Aragorn's sword.
Gandalf closed his eyes for a moment, as though listening to something that only he could hear.
Maon blinked, eye still wide, and focused down the length of steel that was held at her neck. It was held by a tall man, dark in hair and wiry in body. There were two other men close behind him, one heavily set and one who looked vaguely effeminate in appearance until you took in the bow he held.
She closed her eyes and gulped. Bows she was more at home with and this one would annihilate her if the blonde lad let loose the arrow at this range.
They all wore strange clothes that reminded her strongly of pictures in the more romantic history books.
"What manner of creature are you to stalk us in the dark places?" growled the man holding the sword.
Maon opened her eyes, gulped but couldn't speak.
"Lower your sword Aragorn" Gandalf spoke, looking intently at Maon."Step forth, that we may see you better"
The sword was removed from her neck and she raised her hands slowly, stepping forward from the alcove as bidden.
Pippin gasped. "It's a woman!" Maon's head snapped round to the hobbit. this is no child she thought none of them are she looked around the group's smaller members, before looking back up to the old man with the light.
"How did you come to be in the mines, lady?" it was the dark haired man, Aragorn, who spoke now. Maon looked at him mutely, and gulped. She and her voice had never had a good relationship and it had deteriated further when she joined her aunts household. It had always failed her when she needed it. Her aunt had thought it was funny, as her name translated roughly into 'silence'.
Gandalf spoke now, his eyes never leaving Maon's face "She is not from our world Aragorn. Nor our time. Yet I feel she is here for a reason"
He glanced at Aragorn before looking back at her "lady, have you any knowledge of where you are?"
She shook her head
"Have you any weapons?"
She shook her head again
"Have you no voice? You can lower your hands now" he added kindly "You need not fear of us"
Maon lowered her hands, gulped again, opened her mouth and frowned at the lack of words.
She swallowed hard and tried again; the resultant voice hoarse and quiet
"M-my name is Maon. I came into an abandoned mine to shelter from the storm. I heard voices, I followed the sound. There was an earthquake or rockfall or something, and I hit my head. I woke up here and could not find my way out" she paused, aware of how stupid it sounded "t-this is not the mine I walked into, I think. When I came in there were no skeletons.." Her voice tailed off.
"By some magic or devilry you have come to us, and my heart tells me you have a purpose in this quest" Gandalf looked around at the fellowship "We have tarried too long. We must continue now lest our presence, and that of our guest, is noticed." He turned to Aragorn "Do not let our guest stray"