irenEvenstar thanks for the awesome review! And Mrs Pierce, glad you're loving it, and my other story as well!
7
The Fellowship had reached the Gates of Moria and Gimli stared in wonder.
"The walls of Moria!" Gimli gasped. The cliff walls stretched high above them and the river of Sirannon flowed to the right of them. Remla looked around in interest.
Frodo slipped and almost fell into the river as they walked to the edge of the cliff walls. Remla wandered along behind the hobbits when Gandalf spoke suddenly.
"Frodo, come and help an old man."
Frodo and Gandalf started talking in hushed voices as Remla stared around the walls of Moria in awe.
"Dwarf doors are invisible when closed." Gimli stated proudly. Sathien almost laughed. Even Dwarves would have trouble finding them. Gimli started tapping the walls with his axe; even he couldn't find the entrance to the Mines.
Remla helped, searching the walls for any crack or fissure.
"Yes, Gimli, even their own Masters cannot find them, if their secrets are forgotten." Gandalf said quietly.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Legolas spoke, looking at Gimli. Gimli grumbled in annoyance, but said nothing. Sathien caught Legolas' eye and smiled, happy that she had a fellow Elf with her.
Gandalf approached a rock wall between two dead trees and ran his hand across the rock face.
"Now let's see…." Gandalf mumbled. "Ithildin…it mirrors only starlight. And moonlight."
With that, Gandalf turned and looked to the dark sky, a moon emerging from the clouds. The silvery lines on the rock began to glow and lit up with a wondrous silver light, revealing a breathtaking silver tree with Elvish carved above it. Gimli stared in awe as Gandalf pointed his staff at the writing which Sathien could read easily.
"It reads 'The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria'," Gandalf explained. "'Speak, friend, and enter'."
"What do you suppose that means?" Merry asked. Remla regarded the glowing door in wonder.
"Oh, it's quite simple. If you are a friend you speak the password, and the doors will open." Gandalf said, setting his staff on the silver star above the tree.
"Annon edhellen edro hi ammen!" Gandalf spoke loudly in Elvish.
Remla waited, watching the doors. They did not open.
"Fennos nogothrim lasto beth lammen." Gandalf tried again.
"Nothing's happening." Pippin pointed out. Gandalf glanced at him, looking slightly annoyed. He started to push the doors but they stayed sealed shut.
Sathien was getting hopeful that they would turn back and head to the Gap of Rohan, and away from this mine.
"I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves," Gandalf murmured quietly. "Men and Orcs."
"What are you going to do then?" Pippin piped up.
"Knock your head against these doors, Peregrin Took!" Gandalf cried angrily, finally losing his patience. "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."
Sathien sighed in disappointment. It looked like they were definitely going to go through the Mines.
Time passed slowly. Merry and Pippin eventually grew bored and started throwing stones at the river. Gandalf had gone through so many languages and spells that Sathien grew bored of listening to them and took a seat near Frodo. Remla walked along and took a space to herself, looking out at the moon and thinking of red meat.
Night grew closer. Aragorn and Sam were sending Bill away as Gandalf kept on trying to open the doors.
"Do not disturb the water." Aragorn grabbed Pippin's arm and stopped him from throwing stones. They went silent and Sathien watched the waters, seeing a huge wave move through them. Something was definitely swimming around in there, Sathien thought gravely.
"Oh it's useless." Gandalf cried, exasperated. He threw his staff to the ground and sat on a rock.
"It's a riddle."
Remla looked up at Frodo who was watching the doors intently.
"Speak friend and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?"
Remla looked at Gandalf and her eyes caught a big ripple in the water, as though something was moving quickly underwater. She started backing away from the river.
"Mellon."
With a grinding creak and deep rumbling, the stone doors swung open. Gimli laughed in relief and Remla quickly entered the dark mines, looking back at the rippling water.
Sathien ushered the hobbits inside, sharing worried glances with Legolas. Gandalf walked ahead and his staff lit up in a wondrous burst of silver light, casting the dark mines in soft white light, illuminating figures strewn on the ground.
"Soon, Master Elves, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves," Gimli spoke heartily. "Roaring fires, malt beer, red meat off the bone! This, my friends, is the home of my cousin Balin."
Sathien ignored him, not wanting any Dwarf hospitality. Then she noticed that the forms on the ground were bodies. Skeletons. Sathien stopped walking. Remla looked back at her friend and frowned.
"And they call it a mine," Gimli kept speaking. "A mine!"
"This is no mine," Boromir said quietly. "It's a tomb."
Remla looked down at the rotten, broken Dwarf skeletons. There were hundreds of them littered around the vast room. So this was what had happened to the Dwarves, Remla thought. She heard the others gasp in shock and fear, and now realized why Sathien had hesitated earlier.
Gimli uttered a strangled cry, running to a body and looking at it.
"NOOOO!" he roared. Legolas removed an arrow from a body and examined it, then threw it away in disgust.
"Goblins." Legolas announced, notching an arrow in his bow. Aragorn and Boromir pulled out their swords, looking around the Mines in caution. Sathien pulled out her own sword and entered a battle stance. Remla started backing away.
"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here!" Boromir shouted gravely.
"Now get out! Get out of here!" Boromir yelled, his voice echoing through the dead hall. Sathien started backing out, searching the shadows for goblins.
"Frodo!"
"Strider!"
"Aragorn!"
The hobbits were yelling and Remla ran over to help Frodo. Sathien turned to see a huge sea creature burst from the waters and grab Frodo in its tentacles. Sathien stared in fear, it was an ancient kraken. It had been guarding the entrance.
Sathien started running to the hobbits when the kraken seemed to disappear under the waters, releasing Frodo. The hobbits stayed alert, hoping that it had gone but then it burst from the waters again, throwing them all aside. Remla hit a wall, feeling her head hit the rock. She tried to get up, but her vision was fading and she felt warmth on the back of her head. She groggily tried to reach up to her head but stumbled and fell to the ground, her thoughts fading away as she slid into unconsciousness.
Sathien was caught in a flurry of tentacles and was thrown against the stone wall, dropping her weapon. Legolas started firing arrows at it and Aragorn and Boromir charged at the kraken with their swords drawn, hacking away at its tentacles.
Sathien quickly got up and Gandalf ran to her, placing his hand on her shoulder in comfort. She nodded and went to join the battle, grabbing her sword from the ground.
She ran out to the kraken to see that it had Frodo hovering above its mouth. At any moment, Frodo would be eaten. Frodo was screaming and the others were desperately trying to free him.
Sathien ran into the water and swung her sword, feeling it dig into the flesh of the kraken's tentacle. She pushed harder and severed it in half, then swung again to the other side, catching her blade in yet another tentacle. She pushed hard and cut clean through its thick, wet tentacle.
Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw Remla unconscious on the ground. That small distraction allowed the kraken to swing its tentacle and throw her to the side.
Sathien slowly got up, a bit shaken, as Aragorn cut through the tentacle holding Frodo. Frodo fell and Boromir caught him.
"Into the Mines!" Gandalf shouted.
Sathien ran over to Remla who weakly got up, dazed, and they both ran into the Mines.
"Legolas!" Boromir yelled.
Legolas fired an arrow into the eye of the kraken. It roared and recoiled, giving them all enough time to run deep into the dark mines and away from its reach.
The kraken swam at them, wrapping its remaining tentacles around the doors. They started to crumble from the strength of the kraken and the door began to fall apart. Slabs of rock fell from the roof as the passageway entrance began to collapse. The Fellowship continued running as darkness surrounded them, the collapsed passageway sealing off the exit.
Heavy breathing and frightened gasps sounded through the dark.
"We now have but one choice." Gandalf spoke grimly, tapping his staff and activating a dim white light, enough for them to see their depressing surroundings.
"We must face the long dark of Moria." Gandalf said quietly. "Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world."
Remla looked over at Merry and Pippin who looked nervous.
"Quietly now," Gandalf warned. "It's a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope our presence may go unnoticed."
Time passed as the Fellowship slowly walked through the dimly lit halls to enter a vast cavern with a stone walkway twisting into the darkness. Gandalf continued to lead them ahead as they passed rocky arches and big boulders. Remla felt her head throb and reached back to feel a large gash in the back of her head, but the blood had dried and she hardly felt any pain now. Remla noticed that Sathien had a gash on her head, but it was small and she seemed to not have noticed it.
Then they started walking higher until they reached a narrow walkway.
"The wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels." Gandalf ran his hand across a dark black rock with silvery cracks of metal through it.
"But mithril." Gandalf pointed his staff down the pit below, the light illuminating an endless wall of rock. There were old ladders and scaffolds stretching far below, where the Dwarves had mined. Remla stared in awe, glancing at Sathien who looked amazed, even though she had no interest of the Mines.
"Bilbo had a shirt of mithril rings that Thorin gave him." Gandalf said and they continued walking again.
"Oh, that was a kingly gift." Gimli gasped in wonder.
"Yes!" Gandalf smiled. "I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire."
Remla was surprised. The value of the Shire, she couldn't think of how much the whole Shire was worth and that the mithril shirt was worth more than the Shire. He would have been richer than all the hobbits in the Shire, even the Sackville Bagginses!
Soon they reached a long flight of stairs that stretched high above them, almost like a ladder. Remla reluctantly started to climb, feeling for a good grip and lifting herself up higher and higher. Sathien climbed up beside her and the Fellowship slowly made their progress up the stairs, growing closer to danger that Sathien could not get out of her mind.
Pippin almost slipped, the sound of crumbling rocks echoing through the silent cavern.
"Pippin!" Merry hissed quietly. Remla continued climbing and was relieved to reach the top and hoist herself onto flat ground, her hands sore from gripping the worn rock.
They continued walking only for Gandalf to stop at a fork in the passageway. He looked at the three entrances and frowned.
"I have no memory of this place."