This chapter is kinda in two parts: this chapter, and the next. This chapter ends at the end of the battle, and the next one ends just as they enter Lothlorien. Oh, if you've forgotten, if the speech is in italics, then the person is speaking Elvish. Enjoy!

Call Brandybuck: Thanks! No, Boromir is not the pair for Lizzy. You'll out about that pairing after Lothlorien. But Boromir (and Faramir for that matter) is closer to Lizzy than you may think... it's all going to be explained in Lothlorien (for Cat and Lizzy).

AddisonMalfoy: Thanks!

BlackestSlytherin: I'm sorry mellon-nin! I'm trying, I promise! Merry Christmas to you too.

The Mines of Moria: Part 1

Lizzy's POV

After Frodo had decided that we should go through the mines of Moria, we all turned around and started climbing back down the mountain. I was walking behind Cat and Legolas, and I was very bored. And when I'm bored... things get nasty. For other people, obviously. Not me.

So to cheer myself up, I decided to push a certain blonde elf down the mountain. Hey, he's an elf! I probably wouldn't hurt him. Probably.

Talking of being blonde... hmm, what about some nicknaming? 'His Blondliness'? 'Leggy-bear'? 'Lego-my-ego'? Oh, I have it! 'He-who-prances-about-in-stockings'! Yes, that works.

So back to pushing he-who-prances-about-in-stockings down the mountain. I quickly and quietly jogged down to behind the happy couple and then shoved Legolas down the mountain. He tumbled down for a bit, then put his hands out to go into a final forward roll, then came up, brushed himself off, and carried on walking. Cat looked at me.

"What was that for?" She asked. I shrugged innocently.

"I don't know. He annoyed me."

"How?"

"By being there." Cat looked offended.

"You don't have to hate him, you know."

"Yes I do. He's an elf, and he's not as perfect as he thinks." Cat raised an eyebrow. "Ok maybe he is. But it's funny to bug him, and maybe I'll get him to go off in a girly huff."

"God Lizzy, he's not a girl."

"Are you sure?" We both looked at Leggy-bear, who was still ridding himself of snow (in a girly way). Cat glared at me. "Well, he is quite girly." Cat sped up to get away from me, but I wouldn't let that happen. I ran back down to her, and since she was ignoring me, I shoved her down the mountain.

She was obviously expecting it, and didn't fall. Instead she just skidded down the side of Caradhras, and came to a stop next to Legolas. She turned and gave me the thumbs up, so I glared at her and carried on walking.

"The Walls…of Moria!" Gimli said. We had finally got to where everyone was saying the door to Moria was. We stood and looked at a vast cliff face, sheer and brooding, which rose above us and before us, away into the mist. Phew. I can only take a small amount of glamorous description at one time. "Dwarf doors are invisible when closed." Gimli knocked his axe against a rock.

"Yes, Gimli, their masters cannot find them, if their secrets are forgotten." Gandalf said.

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Legolas asked. Gimli ignored him. There seems to be a lot of ignoring going on at the moment. I heard a foot splash into shallow water. Frodo gasped, pulling his leg back. Gandalf approached the rock between two twisted, gnarled trees. He ran his hand over the cliff face.

"Now... let's see. Ithildin." Beneath his hand were spidery silver lines, faint beneath the dirt of ages. "It mirrors only starlight…and moonlight."

"Ok, so how do we get in?" I asked impatiently, but no one replied. I saw the silvery lines on the rock grow bright, shining with sheer white light. They formed the outline a door formed of two columns beneath an arch with a star in the centre. Gandalf explained to everyone, pointing with his gnarled staff. "It reads 'The Door of Durin - Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter.'"

"What do you suppose that means?" Pippin asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, it's quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password, and the doors will open." Gandalf put his staff's end upon the glimmering star. "Annon Edhellen, edro hi ammen!" (Gate of the Elves, open now for me!) The Doors remained closed. Gandalf raised his hands. "Fennas Nogothrim, lasto beth lammen." (Doorway of the Dwarf-folk, listen to the word of my tongue.)

"Nothing's happening." Pippin spoke again, stating the obvious. Gandalf glanced at him, looking slightly annoyed. He pushed on the doors, but they remained fast.

"I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves... Men... and Orcs."

"What are you going to do then?" Pippin asked.

"Knock your head against these doors, Peregrin Took! And if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will try to find the opening words." Gandalf said angrily. Cat and I grinned and sat down together.

"You doing alright?" Cat asked.

"Fine, I guess. Well I suppose it's kinda scary, being here." I nodded. "Cat, do you wish that you were back home? Doing maths homework and all that stuff. Instead of being here, fighting mythical creatures?" Cat didn't hesitate.

"No. I mean, it's terribly frightening, fighting mythical creatures, but would you rather do maths homework?" She asked, her eyebrows rising. I laughed.

"Course not. I wonder how long we've been gone in Earth days."

"Could be the same." Cat said.

"Could be different." I countered. Cat sighed in defeat.

"How about we get a watch?" I nodded and then Cat's watch was in her hand. We both leaned over it, looking at the time. After a few seconds, Cat spoke again. "Is it just me, or does it seem to be the same time as we left?"

"Sadly, it's not just you." The second hand time was ticking, but staying in place. Cat strapped the watch to her wrist for safe keeping. "Suppose we'll find out later." Cat nodded. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Aragorn unhitching Bill's bridle (Bill was our horse).

"The Mines are no place for a pony, even one so brave as Bill." Aragorn was saying.

"Bye-bye Bill." Sam said sadly.

"Go on, Bill, go on. Don't worry Sam, he knows the way home." They watched Bill clip-clop down the shore through the night.

"It's a riddle." Frodo said. Cat and I both turned to look at him. "Speak 'friend' and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?" He asked.

"Mellon..." Gandalf replied. The stone doors slowly swung open, rumbling deeply. Gandalf put a rough-hewn crystal into the gnarled roots topping his staff.

"Soon, Master Elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves! Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone. This, my friend, is the home of my cousin, Balin." Gimli said. I wondered when Legolas and Gimli had become friends. Gandalf brought his hand to his staff, blowing upon the crystal. It started to glow. Gandalf leant the staff towards the dark halls that were ahead of us. "And they call it a mine. A mine!"

"This is no mine, it's a tomb!" Boromir told him. Gandalf's light revealed rotted, broken and battered forms strewn about, casting long shadows across the room.

"Oh! No! Noooo!" Gimli cried. The forms were clearly corpses. Legolas pulled out an arrow from the body of a fallen Dwarf, examined it and cast it away in disgust.

"Goblins!" Aragorn and Boromir drew their swords. Legolas fit an arrow to his bow.

"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here." Boromir stated. The four Hobbits were backing toward the door. Something stirred in the water behind them. "Now get out of here, get out!" We all started for the door, when Frodo was grabbed from behind and pulled off his feet.

"Frodo!" Sam, Merry, Pippin and Lizzy cried.

"Strider!" Sam called.

"Help!" Frodo was getting closer to the door.

"Get off him! Strider!" Sam called again, hacking at the tentacle with his little sword.

"Aragorn!" Merry shouted. The hobbits clutched at Frodo, attempting to keep him away from the water as the tentacles wrapped around him. The creature at the gate released Frodo for a split-second, and feigned disappearance under the waters. I wasn't fooled. Suddenly, many tentacles came boiling out of the water, slapping the other hobbits aside and grabbing Frodo around the leg. He was pulled out over the water and into the air. "Frodo!" Merry screamed. Legolas ran out onto the shore and shot. His arrow pierced a three-pronged tentacle wrapping itself over Frodo's face.

"Strider!" Frodo shrieked. Boromir and Aragorn rushed to the water with their swords, and they attacked the beast. I could tell Cat wanted to help, and so did I, but we couldn't. We huddled together in the doorway. The beast flung Frodo wildly in the air. Despite the Fellowship's efforts, the hobbit was lowered towards a gaping maw in the water, ringed with fangs. Aragorn sliced through the tentacle holding Frodo, who fell into Boromir's arms.

"Into the mines!" Gandalf bellowed.

"Legolas!" Cat yelled. Aragorn and Boromir retreated. Boromir ran for the gates with Frodo as a huge tentacle uncoils a hand-like limb, snaking after them. Legolas took aim.

"Into the cave!" Aragorn yelled. Legolas shot and his arrow ran deep into the beast's right eye, and it recoiled for a moment with a roar. "Run!" As we ran into Moria, the sea creature reached out and slammed the gates shut. Slabs of rock dropped and the roof of the passageway collapsed, crumbling. We stared in fear as the last rays of moonlight were obliterated. There was total darkness. I was trembling as this happened.

"We now have but one choice." Light appeared from Gandalf's staff. He knocked it on the floor and the light brightened, showing the startled and frightened faces of the Fellowship. "We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world."

Cat's POV

"Quietly now. It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed." Gandalf told us. Somehow I doubted that would happen. After a while, we entered a great cavern with a serpentine walkway running down through the middle. The path was rough and narrow, and rocky arches and boulder-like lumps appear in the half-light of the caverns. Gandalf rested his hand upon a rock with dark, silvery veins running through it. "The wealth of Moria was not in gold... or jewels..." The wizard tilts his staff down towards the pit. "...but in Mithril." I leant over to Legolas and whispered

"What's Mithril?" He chuckled quietly.

"A precious silvery metal, very lightweight but capable of providing extreme strength." Legolas told me.

"Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him." Gandalf said.

"Oh, that was a kingly gift." Gimli said in awe.

"Yes! I never told him, but it's worth was greater than the value of the Shire!" I noted Frodo looked quite astonished. We climbed up steep steps on the side of a cavern with many rows of tombs, all silent, all quiet now. A vast graveyard. I scrambled up the steps with no trouble at all. We then climbed another flight of stairs to a crossroads in the mine; three roads loomed before us. Gandalf held out his staff. He glanced from one to the other and back again. He whispered

"I have no memory of this place." I sat down heavily on a rock next to Lizzy.

"Well that's just great." She huffed. I grinned and nudged her gently with my shoulder.

"Don't worry. We'll get out. Hopefully." Lizzy grinned back at me.

"Course we will." I felt a faint pressure on my back. I looked behind me to see Legolas standing there awkwardly.

"Could I talk to you?" I nodded and gently pushed Lizzy off the rock.

"Go and talk to Boromir or something." Lizzy blushed, glared at me, and went over to sit next to Boromir. I shifted up so Legolas could sit next to me. "What did you want to talk to me about?" Legolas opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it again. I had never seen an elf this uncomfortable before. "What's wrong?"

"I don't like being underground, that's all." I raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the matter. I knew there was something else. After an awkward pause, Legolas spoke again. "Can you understand me?" I knew he was speaking Elvish, and I also knew that I could understand him. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that." I smiled.

"It's ok. And yes, I did understand you." Legolas, and the rest of the Fellowship for that matter, looked shocked.

"So, you can speak Elvish?" I frowned, trying to figure out how to.

"Yes..." I said haltingly. "Though I don't know how."

"Oh! It's that way." Gandalf said suddenly. I was slightly annoyed now. But hey! I had spoken Elvish... somehow.

"He's remembered!" Merry said joyfully. We all started down a dark stairway. Gandalf put on his hat.

"No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here." Gandalf rested a hand on Merry's shoulder. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose." The old wizard lent on his walking stick, breathing heavily. Legolas and I continued conversing in Elvish. I found that the more I did it, the easier it became.

Before long, we came to a more open space. Broken ornate columns lay tumbled across the floor. Gandalf lifted his staff.

"Let me risk a little more light." His staff illuminated a grand hall of stone lined with tall pillars and arched ceilings as far as the eye could see. Gimli gasped at the halls of his sires. "Behold: the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf." The halls were edged with silver light from the wizard's staff, shivering in a light not seen for years to grace their stones.

"Now there's an eye opener and no mistake." Sam said in awe. We all walked forward through the hall, and peered around a column. There was a ray on sunlight shining through a chamber where corpses lay scattered about.

"Haugh!" Gimli said, and ran into the chamber.

"Gimli!" Gandalf warned. But Gimli paid no heed to Gandalf. The dwarf stopped and knelt by a crypt in the centre of the room. Gandalf walked forward and peered at the tomb's surface.

"No! No! No!" Gimli sobbed. Boromir moved and placed his hand on Gimli's shoulder.

"'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It is as I feared." Gandalf said sorrowfully. I bent my head in respect. Gimli wailed. Gandalf gave his hat and staff to Pippin, bent down and took from the grasp of a corpse a large and battered book. The rest of the Fellowship crept into the room. Gandalf opened the book and cleared the dirt from its pages.

"Kilmin malur ni zaram kalil ra narag. Kheled-zâram ... Balin tazlifi." Gimli chanted softly.

"We must move on, we cannot linger!" Legolas spoke urgently to Aragorn.

"They have taken the bridge... and the second hall." Gandalf read aloud from the book. Gimli stopped sobbing, and looked up blankly. "We have barred the gates... but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes." Pippin backed away, still holding the hat and staff. "Drums... drums... in the deep." Gandalf slowly turned the smudged, bloodstained page. "We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark." I watched Pippin stumble back slightly and he spotted a corpse sitting by a stone well with an arrow in its chest. He turned towards it. "We cannot get out..." Gandalf glanced at the last, single line, a scrawl fading out at the bottom of the page. "They are coming!" The silence was broken by Pippin. Curious, he reached out and lightly twisted the arrow in the corpse. The skull fell off, falling into the well with a resounding crash. Gandalf whipped around, spooked. Pippin turned to face him, looking guilty. As he did, the corpse slid into the well, dragging with it a chain and bucket, its noise echoing from hall to hall far below. Where once was only silence, a ricocheting noise then filled every cranny. Pippin winced at each new wave of noise. Then, silence. The Fellowship began to relax. Boromir exhaled. Gandalf slammed the book shut. "Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" Gandalf pulled his hat and staff from the hobbit's hands. I grinned.

Boom…boom. Gandalf slowly turned back, and Pippin turned as well, staring down into the well.

Boom.

Boom-boom.

Boom-boom-boom. The beat paused. Like a heartbeat, it began again.

Boom-boom-boom-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM… I saw that everyone was very afraid.

"Frodo!" Sam cried.

"Orcs!" Legolas exclaimed. Boromir rushed to the doors to have a look. Arrows hissed into the door near his face. Aragorn dropped his torch and ran to Boromir.

"Get back! You stay close to Gandalf!" Aragorn told the hobbits. Legolas turned to Lizzy and I.

"Try not to get hurt. It may be too much to ask, but try and stay out of sight." He sighed, and turned back to the door. Legolas, Boromir and Aragorn worked the doors shut. Lizzy and I looked at each other. Lizzy rolled her eyes but we both ran and hid behind a pillar. We heard a bellow just outside.

"They have a cave troll." Boromir stated. I peered around the pillar, but immediately wished I hadn't. There was a pounding outside and many creatures beyond began breaking the doors down. Weapons crashed through splintering spaces. Legolas and Aragorn stood poised, ready to shoot; the Hobbits were also ready, though fear clouded their eyes. The first clear gap was gashed in the door and Legolas shot — a shrill cry rings out. The Elf notched an arrow to his bow as Aragorn shot another. Suddenly, the beasts broke through and the battle began. A wave of armour-clad Orcs charged towards the Fellowship, who engage the Orcs. Aragorn and Legolas pierced Orcs with their arrows while Boromir smashed another with his sword; Gimli caught one in the stomach. With a roar, Gandalf launched himself into the fray, and the Hobbits follow. I ducked back behind the pillar. I heard heavy footsteps and knew that the cave troll had entered the fight. I looked back, and saw that the troll was swinging his chain in circles above his head. He swung at Legolas, but thankfully Legolas dodged it. Again the troll swung, and his chain whipped around a pillar; my pillar; and caught. Legolas darted towards it and put his foot on the chain to hold it tight. I got out of his way. He grinned at me and ran along it onto the trolls shoulders. He shot it in the back of the head and jumped off.

"I think I'm getting the hang of this." Sam said, hitting Orcs with a skillet.

"Frodo!" Someone yelled. I saw it was Aragorn, trying to fight his way over to the Ring-bearer. After a while, I heard another shout.

"Aragorn? Aragorn!" Frodo shouted.

"Frodo!" I saw Frodo slash the troll's hand with his sword. I couldn't just stand there, I had to do something. The troll dropped Frodo to the ground, twisting his injured hand and staring at it. Frodo lay on the floor. The cave troll raised its mace and began to swing, but Aragorn leapt down into the recess. "Yaaahh!" Aragorn shouted. He grabbed a spear from the floor and stabbed the troll with it. It didn't penetrate its flesh, but held the beast at bay. Pippin and Merry began throwing stones at the troll's head. The troll, infuriated, swung his arm down and hit Aragorn, sending him flying across the room. He collapsed onto the floor. Frodo raced after him and tried to rouse him, but Aragorn was too stunned to move. Lizzy and I looked at each other once again.

"Shall we?"

"What?" I asked, confused. Lizzy rolled her eyes.

"I mean go and help! We did take martial arts lessons, right?" I grinned.

"Come on then!" I grabbed Lizzy's hand and together we ran out. I saw Frodo begin to run away, but the troll blocked his path with its spear, throwing Frodo back. The troll stabbed Frodo in the chest. Lizzy gasped and ran to Frodo. I let her and ran to help the rest of the hobbits. But they didn't need my help. There were fine.

"Yaaahh!" Merry and Pippin yelled, running up onto the troll and stabbing him.

"Frodo?" Sam asked from across the room. "Frodo!" Sam ran towards Frodo. Aragorn, Boromir and Gandalf started to fight madly to reach the little hobbit. Lizzy was nearly to him. Frodo slumped to the floor, the spear sticking out of his chest. I stopped watching the events and began punching some orcs.

Finally, there were no more orcs to kill. Everyone was huddled around Frodo as I went around making sure all the remaining orcs were dead. All the rest had fled. I walked over to Frodo just as he lifted up his shirt to reveal a kind of chain mail.

"Mithril! You are full of surprises, Master Baggins." Gimli said in awe. I smiled but then more orcs were heard from down the hall.

Disclaimer: I don't own LOTR, the Mines of Moria, Mithril or Orcs (thank goodness!)

This chapter is really long so be grateful! The next one might be a little shorter, but the Lothlorien chapter will be really long, don't worry. So please review, no flames. Oh, and I've made another story. It's about the Rise of the Guardians, so if you haven't seen it, then it will make no sense whatsoever. Merry Christmas!