Chapter 10

Kida knew where they were. She wasn't remembering much, but they had finally reached that downhill path against a cliff face, a lake ahead. Out of excitement, she didn't search the walls like Gandalf was for an entrance, because she knew where it was. She went ahead of them, practically bouncing with each step but careful of the slippery stones. Not that she was looking forward to what was going to happen next, but it beat walking for endless days, for now.

"The walls of Moria." Gimli spoke in awe and wonder as they got closer to it. By then Kida stood near the lake, but was a paranoid distance away, knowing what was in it.

Gandalf reached the smooth area Kida felt the door would be. The clouds began to shift, and in a much more amazing was than Kida expected, veins of light appeared on the face of the cliff, grooves etching themselves to match. It glowed bright, the design of a door, a tree, and words so very similar to everything she'd seen in movies.

"Itidin." Gandalf paused and ran his hands over it. "It mirrors only starlight and moonlight." He gestured to the words with his staff. "It reads, "The door of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter." "

Merry chimed. "What do you suppose that means?"

Kida only just moticed how confident Gandalf seemed as he answered. "It's quite simple. If you are a friend, speak the password and the door will open." He turned back to the door and put his staff to stone. "Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!"

Nothing happened save for the wind blowing a little harder, for a second. Kida watched his disappointed look and he went on, chanting more incantations. She couldn't cheat and tell him, she had thought this one through before they got here. This was something she could change, she was sure of it. If Pippin and Merry didn't disturb the water, and that octopus thing didn't attack, there was no way that Gandalf would agree to enter the tomb of Moria once the doors opened.

Knowing they would have to wait a while, though not exactly how long, Kida went nearer to the wall and sat on a rock. She had to shift twice to make herself comfortable on it. After a while Aragorn took a seat at her side. They were behaving incredibly normal around each other after their kiss, not speaking of it or acting out any more than that since. Though Kida did often have small fantasies like a teenage girl, and she kept reminding herself that she was twenty-two, not sixteen. She could behave, and would, despite her hormones.

"Do you know the password?" Aragorn whispered, leaning towards her. Their shoulders were pressed together and it was the most contact she had gotten from him in days.

Kida shook her head in a lie. "I've never been here before." She spoke vaguely.

He smirked. "But you knew we'd come here." His voice was low and his head bent down near her ear. Kida was hypersensitive to it all now, even though this was no different than how he acted before. "You've mentioned Moria, a few weeks ago now. I assumed you'd know more."

"Nope." Hoping to calm herself she shifted again, to cover that she was leaning away from him.

"Do you know anything of what's ahead?" Aragorn wasn't smirking anymore. There was no smile, no light to his voice. This was now a business talk.

Kida looked up at him. "Yes." She admitted. But she said that smallest detail coming up that she could think of. "Frodo is the one who figures out the door."

Aragorn looked at Frodo, who was talking with Sam, both of them resting heavily by the water. "I have never met a halfling as brave and bright as him." He mentioned nobly. "I will go with him to the end."

"I know." She smiled and put her hand over his. He gripped it in his rough fingers for a second before they both let go. "And I'll do my best."

Aragorn lifted his brow. "That isn't a very positive statement for someone who seems to know what will happen."

Kida slouched and crossed her legs. "Not everything, and the thing that sucks-" She stressed the word and he figured it to be used in the way she had said it before. Not good, not fun, a bad thing. "-about knowing the story without me in it, is that I don't know my own future. I may never see home again."

Sadness filled her, and Kida found herself looking at Boromir. He definitely wouldn't see home again, see his brother, his corrupt father. Kida had a good chance of, in comparison, being him. Not seeing her insane mother again, her sword fighting uncle and baking aunt, her nephew she hardly knew. She regretted not visiting them more now, spending all her money to travel to Renaissance fairs instead, buying swords, barely making rent half the time. Suddenly she also really missed Bonnie, and hoped that damned squirrel liked Rivendell.

Aragorn knocked her out of her review of regrets by kissing her forehead in a comforting way. She rubbed the spot as he got up. "I have to send the pony away. You should stop thinking bad thoughts from now on." He told her.

As Aragorn went to Sam and Bill, the pony, Kida only just remembered it. He sent away the horse, and then scolded Merry and Pippin for throwing rocks. Very soon they would be in the mines, after fighting off a giant octopus. She definitely forgot about what she was thinking about and got up. Kida adjusted her pack and went over to stand by Gimli and Gandalf.

She watched Aragorn comfort Sam about sending the little horse away, and then it trotted off. Several plops of rocks in water followed and Merry and Pippin started to throw stones in a very bored manner. The black surface of the water rippled and the little rings fanned out. Pippin picked up a stone and drew back to throw it when Aragorn gripped his arm quickly.

"Do not disturb the water." He spoke ominously, and Kida actually felt a prickle of worry run through her.

He and Boromir exchanged a look as the ripples grew. Kida hadn't noticed that, and it didn't look natural with how they had been throwing stones. Aragorn's hand was poised hear his sword, and Kida felt the weight of the swords on her hip, ready to be drawn when needed. Gandalf stopped coming up with words to chant then and sat next to Frodo.

Then Frodo was staring at the wall. "It's a riddle." He said quietly, and Gandalf raised his eyebrows while Kida tensed, mentally chanting come on, you know it. "Speak, friend, and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?"

"Oh." Gandalf looked ahead. "Mellon."

With that, the rock face finally divided, quiet as can be. The stone slabs swung outward and there was just black to see. Darker than the night, because at least out here they had star and moon light. Everyone merged together to go in, but Kida stood near the back, mentally prepared to protect if only her body would comprehend and let her grip her sword.

They hadn't yet noticed the bodies, and Gimli spoke cheerfully. "So, master elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the dwarves; roaring fires, malt beer, red meat off the bone." He was salivating nearly at the image in his mind. "This, my friend, it the home of my cousin, Balin. And they call this a mine... A mine!"

Gandalf spent time blowing light onto the stone tip of his staff, and as Gimli finished scoffing and cheering there was light in the chamber. Kida could see the death as well as anyone else. Old bodies, skeletons, covered in webs, armor rusted, arrows sticking out of them. Their weapons, axes and swords, were scattered on the ground upon death. It was more gruesome than she ever thought it would be, and the entire mine smelled of dust and slightly like rot.

"This is no mine." Boromir shook his head at the devastation. "It's a tomb!"

Gimli cried out and Kida felt the pain and sick he showed. "Oh no. No... No. No!" He yelled.

Legolas walked carefully around the bodies and knelt to take an arrow out of one. Kida could see the old tip as he held it in the light. "Goblins!"

Aragorn was the first to draw his sword, triggering everyone else to draw weapons. They backed up slowly and towards Kida, who stayed right in the doorway of the mine.

"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here." Boromir said.

Kida suddenly lurched to the ground and saw Frodo do the same, her elf-made sword fell out of her hand and she was dragged back. The octopus. What she failed to realize was that as another member of the fellowship, she was another target, and now she was hanging his above the black water with the hobbit it was meant to happen to.

"Holy crap!" She shrieked as a dozen, two dozen more tentacles snaked out of the water.

Suddenly she was glad for that second sword, as dull as it may be. It would still cut if she could get a good swing in. She drew it and stabbed upward to the tentacle wrapped around her right foot. The grip loosened and dark blood dripped on her before the monster let go of her. Kida screamed and landed on the thick part of another tentacle. It was hovering the ground and fighting fellowship, so she lashed out again, cutting the tentacle off and falling with the severed piece of the creature onto the ground.

Aragorn picked her up off the ground quickly and away from another grabbing, whipping tentacle. She re-gripped her sword as he lunged to the tentacle that was holding Frodo up in the air. Kida swung at whatever was in front of her until she saw Aragorn cut the sliming limb and Frodo fall. She didn't wait to see Boromir catch the hobbit before she ran to the door of Moria, picking up the sword she first lost.

"Into the mines!" Gandalf yelled just before she had picked up the sword.

"Legolas!" Boromir shouted as Kida turned, the hobbits running past her.

The thing was still attacking as Legolas shot it in the head. It made this horrifying sound that she didn't remember from the story she knew, and the rest of the men ran in, Boromir carrying Frodo. Aragorn grabbed Kida's arm and pulled her back from watching as many coiling arms reached out. They grasped the door and Kida stumbled back as they pulled. She fell, among the bodies and weapons, out of Aragorn's grip at the ground shook and the doorway was sealed off by endless rocks.

It was pitch black. Worse than before, when they at least had the open door of Moria to light the entry. Quicker than before Gandalf let his staff. The glow was creepy and Kida shrieked to herself when she saw her had was on a skull. She scrambled to her feet faster than she had ever moved in her entire life.

"We now have but one choice." Gandalf spoke ominously. Kida got goosebumps and if she had actually eaten recently she would have vomited. Any adrenaline she had when fighting the octopus had left her the moment the rocks had fallen. "We must face the long and dark of Moria. Be on your guard... There are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world."

They began walking down the steep stairs that led deeper into the mine. Kida wiped any dust from falling on bodies off of her with tremoring hands.

"Are you alright, Miss Kida?" Sam asked her, and she almost startled. She hadn't realized that he was near her.

She forced a smile and it felt tight. "I'm good." Kida was fine, generally, maybe not good but it was the answer she came up with first. "How are you?"

"I'm good as well. Just wanted to make sure you didn't need anything." Sam was comforting and even though he knew she was forcing her smile he ignored it and faked a smile in return.

They neared a very precarious bride. It looked thin and crumbling, and they would have to go single file across it, very carefully. Kida was at the back of the group, so as Aragorn waved everyone across carefully, he ended up behind her going across.

"Are you alright?" He asked as she over cautiously crossed it. Each step she took was sliding so she was sure of her steps, but she refused to look down.

A scared little laugh left her. "H-Horrible time to mention I'm d-deathly afraid of heights." She stuttered and kicked a rock off the bridge. "T-trees I can do, but straight falls down are really, really bad."

Gandalf spoke. "Quietly now. It's a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence will go unnoticed." The quiet words still echoed.

As he had said it, Aragorn placed his hands on Kida's sides and led her on. "You don't have to be that cautious." He whispered when the wizard ahead had finished. "I could catch you."

It really was helpful. To hear the words and feel his hands. Kida still didn't look down, but her steps were more sure and she concentrated only on the grip the ranger had on her waist. The last few steps off the bridge she practically ran, she was so anxious to be on solid ground. She would have to give up on her fear, and soon, because she knew a lot more horrible heights were to come.

They walked through a cemetery of dwarves. A real one, that had once probably been great, but the battle had wrecked them, more bodies lie about than graves, and there was graffiti in old dried blood likely written by goblins. It was disgusting and sinister and musty in smell and air. Not far after that, to Kida's relief, bodies seemed to stop and then the path forked. From where they were, there were three choices to make.

Gandalf paused from guiding than and looked at all three tunnels. "I have no memory of this place." He said and Kida, despite the implications of the words, felt a little excitement at one of her favorite lines from the story.

Defeated, the hobbits dropped what they were carrying first. They had been walking for the entire day, and however many hours now it was that they were in the mine. Kida joined in on the giving up nature as everyone sat about. She, personally, opted for a stair rather than a rock or flat ground. There weren't any bodies here, but one stray skull about four feet away from her that, unnerving enough, seemed to stare at her. She stared back like it was a contest.

Don't blink. Don't blink. Of course, she would blink long before the skull, but thinking of it as a game, as a contest, made her deal with the fact that it was a dead dwarf. When she did blink she realized she might be a little insane and blew a raspberry as she looked away from it. As she waited for something to happen she pulled at the end of her hair and realized it had grown. Not a whole lot, but it had. And it would grow even more. And she wouldn't have her mother to tell her that her face looked fat and make her cut it.

"I think I miss my crazy mother." Kida spoke in general, feeling a heaviness in her heart.

Boromir was the nearest, and looked over at her when she said it. "Is she really insane?" He asked her curiously, like it was interesting. Then again, family issues to anyone outside of the family were very popular. Just look at reality television.

"Um, I guess not." Kida tried not to think of Boromir's own father. "She breaks into my house annually. If I don't keep my hair short, she would cut it when I'm sleeping, which is really creepy. When I got Bonnie she actually made a bet with a few of her friends that I would be dead in a week."

Aragorn gave a scoff of a laugh. "How could that little thing kill anything? She would be more likely to befriend and orc than to kill even a bug." He mocked the little squirrel, who'd likely be forcing someone to pet her right now if she were still there.

The main thing about the death bet was rabies, but apparently that didn't seem to be a way to die here. Kida just shrugged. "She's paranoid." She didn't want to explain further than that.

"You sound like an only child." Boromir commented a bit forlornly, and Kida wondered if he was thinking of his brother, or his father, or both.

But either way his words brought up memories that she wasn't sure she wanted to remember. It had been a really long time since she thought of it. It was always a little painful, and her heart broke before she even opened her mouth to answer him.

"I had a brother." Kida's voice nearly cracked. At her sudden confession it wasn't only Boromir who was listening intently, but they were all staring at her. "We were very close, I wanted to be like him, strong and quick and make everyone laugh. My mother favored him."

She looked away from nine pairs of staring eyes, picking at the cloth of her pants. "He died in an accident." She meant car crash but they wouldn't know what that was. "I was twelve, and he was fifteen. After than I tried to be more like him to make my mother happy, and as soon as I got a sword I fought, because that was what he always wanted to do. But my mother still doesn't see me as anything but the daughter she was stuck with."

"Your brother." Frodo mentioned, not leaving her in the pause of silence. "What was his name?"

Kida smiled to herself. "Anton."

It had been nearly six years since she had been able to say his name. She had nobody to talk to about it for so long, that now, while it hurt, she felt better knowing he hadn't disappeared off the face of the Earth. Not like she apparently had.

Conversation carried on quietly, while Kida went back to having a staring contest with the skull of a dwarf.

AN/ Kida history a little more revealed! It's why I've often described her mother as difficult. Only after I wrote this did I realize that she is the Faramir of her family... That sounds bad, sort of. But Anton and Kida have been planned since the very beginning, but this was the only time I could mention him. Action in the next chapter though! You know, Moria is pretty damn awesome.

So yep. I have some writers block but that won;t effect any of you, because I have several chapters on reserve. So keep on reviewing and I'll do as I have been, posting every two or so days. I really love my reviewers and what they say, so pretty please keep it coming!