A.N. Thanks Chidori-No-Kyoku for being my first reviewer! Yayness! *virtual hug to Chidori*

Disclaimer: I own Kestrel and Angel.

Chapter 4

"Quietly now. It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence here may go unnoticed." Gandalf said as they came upon a huge cavern, with only a narrow, winding walkway that led to the other side. As they crossed, Kestrel looked all around her. She could see chains, ladders, and scaffolds everywhere. This was once a great mine.

"I do not feel comfortable in this place." Legolas whispered.

Kestrel suppressed a shudder. "Me neither. It's too dark…too confined." Their footsteps echoed in the cavern. On the other side, after climbing a flight of stairs, they came to a crossroads. Three exits could be seen. Gandalf's eyes darted from one to another, and Kestrel barely heard him whisper: "I have no memory of this place."

While they were waiting for Gandalf to figure out where to go, Kestrel heard the hobbits whispering.

"Are we lost?" asked Pippin.

Merry answered, "No."

"I think we are."

Sam: "Shh! Gandalf's thinking!"

"Merry?"

"What?"

"I'm hungry." Kestrel sighed. Pippin.

She saw Frodo climb up to talk with Gandalf. Not bothering to listen, she instead took out an apple from her pack and began eating.

"Hey!" Pippin exclaimed indignantly when he noticed Kestrel eating.

She took the apple from her mouth and looked at the hobbit in a severe manner. "Hay is for horses, Peregrin Took."

Suddenly Gandalf got up and began making his way towards the center doorway. "Oh! It's that way."

Merry sprung up. "He's remembered!"

As they began making their way down a staircase, Gandalf shook his head. "No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here." He rested a hand on Merry's shoulder. "When in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."

0oO0oO0oO0oO0

In about fifteen minutes, they came apon a huge chamber. Broken pillars were strewn about. Gandalf lifted his staff. "Let me risk a little more light."

Kestrel could see a cavernous hall, lined with tall columns and gracefully arched ceilings. She gasped. "Wow. And this was made by Dwarves?"

"I know what you're thinking." Legolas said, winking at her.

"Behold, the great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf." Gandalf announced.

"Now there's an eye opener and no mistake." Sam remarked. As the Fellowship made their way across the hall, they could see a ray of sunlight shining into a chamber on the far end. It was strewn with corpses.

Gimli gasped and ran towards the chamber. "Gimli!" Gandalf called. But the Dwarf paid no attention.

When the rest of the Fellowship got there, Gimli was kneeling at a crypt, sobbing. "No. No. No!"

Boromir placed a hand on his shoulder as Gandalf walked forward, peering at the runes on the crypt. " 'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.'" he read. "He is dead then. It's as I feared." He gave his hat and staff to Pippin. Taking a huge book from a dead Dwarf, he opened it and cleared the dirt from its pages.

"We must move on. We cannot linger." Legolas said to Kestrel.

Gandalf started reading slowly. " 'They have taken the bridge…and the second hall.'" Gimli looked up.

" 'We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes.'" continued the wizard.

" 'Drums, drums in the deep.'" He looked up and turned the page.

" 'We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark.'" Kestrel saw Pippin stumble and turn around to face a corpse sitting on a well with an arrow in its chest.

" 'We cannot get out…they are coming.'" He looked up to utter silence. Kestrel shifted uncomfortably, looking around warily.

Pippin reached out and twisted the arrow in the corpse. The skull slipped off, falling into the well and echoing. Gandalf turned around. Guiltily, Pippin turned to face him. As he did, the headless Dwarf fell into the well, along with a chain and a bucket. The once-silent chamber was filled with noise and echoes. Pippin winced with each new wave of sound.

After a while, all was silent. Boromir exhaled. Kestrel glared at the hapless hobbit. Aragorn looked around warily. Gandalf slammed the book shut, grabbing his hat and staff back from Pippin.

"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"

"I KNEW we should have left him behind." Kestrel said to no one in particular.

Suddenly, they heard drums. Boom-boom, boom. Boom-boom. The beat stopped. Kestrel breathed a sigh of relief, but the drums began again. Boom-boom-boom-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM…

"Frodo!" Sam whispered. With fear on his face, Frodo loosened his sword. It glowed blue.

"Orcs!" Legolas exclaimed. Boromir rushed to the door. Arrows slammed into the wood, right in front of his face. Aragorn dropped his torch and ran to Boromir.

"Get back! Stay close to Gandalf!" he said to the hobbits. Working together, Aragorn and Boromir managed to shut the huge wooden doors. Kestrel heard a bellow.

"Did you hear that?"

Boromir smiled grimly. "They have a cave troll." Kestrel and Legolas tossed battle-axes to Aragorn and Boromir, who barricaded the door with them. She strung an arrow to her bow, along with Legolas and Aragorn.

Gandalf unsheathed his sword and threw away his hat. He gave a yell. The hobbits also unsheathed their swords. Frodo's sword quivered, and it was shining blue. Gimli jumped onto Balin's grave. "Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"

They heard many creatures pounding on the doors. Weapons broke through. When the first clear gap was made, Legolas let fly his arrow. The Orc screamed shrilly and fell back. Another took its place, and Kestrel hit it. It also wailed and fell back. Another gap was made, and the leering face of an Orc could be seen through it. Aragorn released his arrow, hitting the creature right in the forehead.

Suddenly the creatures broke through. Kestrel put her bow on her back and unsheathed her sword, slicing an Orc in half as she did so. But another took its place, and she lunged at its belly, only to have her sword knocked aside. She sliced again, ducking the Orc's blade as she did so. A geyser of black blood erupted in its stomach, and it fell with a wail.

Kestrel looked up when she heard a crashing. A hideous cave troll smashed through the doorway, bellowing and snarling. A chain led from its neck and wrists to the hand of another Orc.

Legolas shot the cave troll in the shoulder. It clapped a hand to the arrow and swung a mace at Sam. He crawled underneath the huge monster. It turned around and sighted Sam cringing in a corner.

Suddenly, Kestrel heard a Orc snarl behind her. Whipping around, she plunged her sword into its stomach. It fell with a cry, and Kestrel yanked her blade out. Seeing an Orc right behind Legolas, ready to strike, she threw her dagger. The blade embedded itself in the Orc's back, and it fell with a thud. "Shoot. Now I lost my dagger." she muttered, turning around and slicing another Orc open as she did so.

Kestrel battled her way to where the Orc that she had slung her dagger into lay. She pulled the blade out with her left hand. Amazingly, there were no blood stains on it. A leering Orc suddenly thrust its face into her line of vision. She lunged at it with her sword, but the blade was parried. The Orc grabbed her right hand, and turned it so that her own sword was pointing to her throat. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wrench free. She collapsed to her knees, and the Orc snarled, pulling Kestrel's sword back for the final thrust.

Kestrel brought the dagger in her left hand up and over the Orc's head, suddenly burying it in the back of the monster's neck. A look of shocked surprise registered itself on its face. Kestrel scrambled away as the Orc crashed down.

She heard Frodo screaming. "Aragorn! Kestrel!" Instinctively, she glanced over her shoulder. She gasped. Frodo was being dragged off a ledge by the cave troll! As she watched, the hobbit slashed the monster in the hand with his sword. It let go of him, staring at his injured hand.

Kestrel leaped over a fallen Orc and ran towards Frodo, but Aragorn got there first. He grabbed a spear and stabbed at the troll with it. She saw an Orc menacing from behind. She threw her dagger again, and it flew into the Orc's brain. "Not again." she groaned.

"Nice throw!" complimented Legolas, before shooting an arrow into yet another Orc's neck. Kestrel smiled, and ran to grab her dagger.

She heard a thud, then saw Aragorn crash into the wall and slide to the ground. Leaving the dagger, she ran to him. "Aragorn! Aragorn!" she said as she shook him, but he was too stunned. Knowing that there were still Orcs about, she sheathed her sword and fitted an arrow to her bow, loosing it into the belly of an Orc. It fell with a cry.

Running over to the Orc that had her dagger embedded in its brain, she yanked it out and sheathed it. "I've really got to stop throwing my dagger around. Who knows where I'll be able to get another one like it." she muttered.

She saw the cave-troll holding the spear, ready to stab Frodo. An arrow flew into its back from her bow, but that did nothing to it. Snarling, the cave-troll stabbed Frodo in the chest with the spear.

"NOOOOOO!" Kestrel screamed, loosing another arrow into the troll's back. This time, it roared and turned around.

"I am the Hunting Hawk! Come to me and perish!" she shouted. The troll roared again and advanced with slow, lumbering steps toward her.

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Merry and Pippin jump onto the cave-troll's neck. They whipped out their small hobbit-swords and started slashing and stabbing at the troll's neck.

"What are you DOING? You fools! Don't you know you'll be killed?" Kestrel yelled up at them. She sighed. "Typical."

The cave-troll started groping around its neck. It grabbed Merry and swung him around by his legs, then dropped him on the floor. Kestrel rushed to him.

"Merry, are you okay?"

"Yes, I just have a bump on my head. But that was fun."

"Wait, what?" They both heard a moan, coming from the troll's direction. Kestrel saw an arrow in its mouth, sticking upwards into its brain. It was yellow-fletched. As they watched, the troll moaned one more time, then slumped to the floor with a loud thud. Dead.

"Nice shot, Legolas!" Kestrel yelled.

The Elf smiled. "Thanks."

Gandalf and Aragorn rushed to Frodo, as did Kestrel. "Oh, no." Aragorn muttered.

"How can this be the end?" Kestrel asked no one in particular. Aragorn rolled Frodo over. The hobbit was gasping for breath.

Sam looked up at Gandalf. "He's alive!"

"I'm alright." Frodo gasped. "I'm not hurt."

Kestrel asked, "But how?"

"You should be dead! That spear would have skewered a wild boar!" Aragorn exclaimed.

"I think there's more to this hobbit than meets the eye." Gandalf said with a twinkle in his eye. Frodo slowly unbuttoned his shirt. A mail-coat of mithril shimmered umderneath.

"You are full of surprises, master Baggins!" said Gimli.

Kestrel moved to the destroyed doorway. Looking into the distance, she couldn't see anything, but straining her ears, she heard drums. Boom-boom. Boom. Boom.

"Orcs! More of them!" she said, running back to the group.

Legolas sighed. "I heard them already."

"To the bridge of Khazad-dûm!" Gandalf ordered. They ran out the other door of the chamber to a large hall. Kestrel could hear the second army of Orcs gaining on them. Others were springing out of the ceiling and crawling down the pillars. The Fellowship was quickly surrounded by Orcs. Kestrel drew her sword, and she could hear everybody else drawing their weapons.

Suddenly, the end of the hall was illuminated by a light, as if from a fire. A rumble scared all the Orcs away, and they scrambled back to where they came from. Now what? Kestrel thought. What's that?

"What is this new devilry?" muttered Boromir, as if reading Kestrel's mind.

Gandalf closed his eyes, thinking hard, and then opened them again. "A Balrog – a demon of the ancient world!"

"A Balrog?" Kestrel asked Legolas, who was standing next to her. He didn't answer. Kestrel glanced at him. He looked as he always had, but his eyes showed only fear.

"This foe is beyond any of you." Gandalf turned. "Run!"

0oO0oO0oO0oO0

A short while later, they came to a flight of steps. Boromir, who was first, narrowly stopped short of the edge of a gap. His torch fell into the fiery depths. Legolas pulled him back from his precarious position.

"Gandalf!" Aragorn said, worrying at Gandalf's weary state.

The wizard, who was leaning against the wall, commanded, "Lead them on, Aragorn! The bridge is near!"

Kestrel followed Aragorn's gaze across the huge cavern. She saw a long bridge spanning a huge distance. From her point of view, the bridge seemed small and inadequate.

Aragorn moved towards Gandalf, trying to help him. The wizard pushed him away. "Do as I say! Swords are no more use here."

They turned back and went down another flight of stairs. Seriously. How many stairways do they have? Dwarves do have pudgy legs…she thought, turning to look at Gimli. More stairs. I'm getting really annoyed with stairs. Kestrel sighed.

Suddenly they came to another gap in the stairway. But this gap was small, only five feet. Legolas leaped over first. "Gandalf!" he beckoned. The wizard jumped over the gap, landing on the other side.

Kestrel was next. She made it easily across, except for the fact that she almost tumbled off the side of the stairs when she landed. Legolas pulled her back.

"Thanks." she smiled at him.

Arrows came flying down from the blackness of the upper reaches of the caves, narrowly missing them. Kestrel notched an arrow to her bow. She couldn't see where she was aiming, but she aimed where the arrows were coming from. And sure enough, although Kestrel was positive she didn't hit and kill, an Orc came tumbling down from the caves, one of her red-fletched arrows in its shoulder.

Boromir picked up Merry and Pippin and jumped over, more arrows hitting where he had just been standing. Kestrel aimed and shot another arrow, and heard a rewarding scream.

"Sam!" Aragorn shouted and picked the hobbit up. He tossed Sam over the gap, and Sam was caught safely by Boromir. Aragorn reached to pick Gimli up next, but the Dwarf held up a hand.

"Nobody, NOBODY, tosses a Dwarf." Kestrel sniggered. Yeah, you're just a little too wide for that. Gimli jumped over, and amazingly (to Kestrel), he landed. But he was just a little too close to the edge, and he fell backwards. Legolas grabbed his beard.

"NOT THE BEARD!" Gimli yelled in pain. Kestrel snorted and helped Legolas pull him back up.

Some of the steps crumbled then, leaving Aragorn and Frodo to scramble up the stairs. Dang. That gap is WAY too big for them to jump. Kestrel thought as she fitted yet another arrow to her bow, aiming and firing once again. A third Orc screamed and fell.

Kestrel could now hear the Balrog approaching. Its thunderous steps caused a bunch of rocks to fall from the ceiling. One crashed into the staircase right behind Aragorn and Frodo. The segment that they were on began to wobble and lean forward.

"Hang on! Lean forward!" Aragorn told the hobbit, grabbing on to his arm.

Kestrel encouraged, "Come on!" Suddenly the stairs fell and crashed into the lower set. Aragorn and Frodo leaped forward, and Kestrel caught Frodo and set him down.

"Over the bridge! Fly!" Gandalf said as they reached the bridge. The Balrog was now clearly heard, and although it had not yet appeared, its fiery glow was clearly seen. The Fellowship, sans Gandalf, ran across the bridge.

Gandalf, meanwhile, had turned to face the fire. Suddenly, a huge black form burst out of the flames. It had a head like a bull, hoofs like a horse, and was utterly black. A flaming sword was in its hand, and a whip in its other hand. It swished the whip menacingly.

"You cannot pass!" yelled Gandalf.

"GANDALF!" cried Frodo desperately.

Gandalf began to raise his staff. "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!" The crystal on the end of his staff was glowing fiercely now, shielding the wizard with a blue light.

The Balrog struck at Gandalf with his sword of fire, but the blade broke upon the shield of light. Gandalf clenched his teeth. "Go back to the Shadow!"

The monster hissed, and lashed over Gandalf's head with his whip. The wizard took his sword and staff, raising them into the air. "YOU…SHALL NOT…PASS!" He drove the end of his staff into the stone, causing a bright flash of blue light. The stone cracked, and as the Balrog advanced towards Gandalf, it fell into the darkness.

Gandalf watched it fall, then wearily, he turned around. Suddenly, the Balrog's whip cracked up and wrapped itself around the wizard's ankle, pulling him over the edge.

"No." Kestrel whispered. "No!"

Gandalf tried vainly to climb back up, but it was no use. "Fly, you fools!" he whispered, letting go of the bridge and falling into shadow.

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