The Nuuruhuine
Chapter 11; The Depths
Two days after Caradhras
Harry had decided to stick close to Frodo since Boromir had handled the Ring and he kept his mind open to the Ring to see if it reach out for the human again but it did nothing. He could sense that Frodo was weakening ever so slightly every day but he knew that if anyone could carry the Ring all the way to Mordor it was him.
He'd spoken to Gandalf privately the last night they camped. Harry had wanted to know why Gandalf feared Moria so much. Both he and Gandalf had stayed within the Halls of Moria before and come to know harm, he remembered now what had been said.
"After you were diminished the Dwarves delved too greedily and too deeply into their mines. They awoke something there and were forced to close entire sections of their caves." Gandalf had told him with fear in his eyes. "I do not wish to lead this fellowship anywhere near what they found."
"Yet we have no choice." Harry had replied and as the great walls of Moria appeared over the peaks of the hills he still thought that. It had been hundreds of years since he had stepped foot in Moria or Gimli's home. What welcome would he receive in this mountain city.
Harry came back to the present as Frodo slipped on a loose rock and Harry caught his shoulder to steady him. Frodo winced and Harry remembered the wound in his shoulder. "How is your shoulder, Frodo?"
"It's getting better." Frodo sighed looking up at Harry.
"And the Ring?" Harry asked and Frodo's eyes became slightly darkened. "It's power is growing but you are fighting it well. It will draw evil to it from outside the Fellowship, and from within."
"Who then do I trust?" Frodo asked him pleadingly, obviously wanting nothing to do with this war.
Harry bent slightly and tapped Frodo softly on the chest just over his heart. "Your heart is strong. You must believe in it and listen to what it tells you."
Harry hadn't even heard Gandalf stop let alone that he had listened to the conversation until her spoke up. "Your heart must guide you where neither of us can."
"I don't understand." Frodo asked them both and Harry suddenly felt the two thousand two hundred years he was.
"There are many powers in this world, both Evil and Good. Some stronger than Harry and me. Some that we have yet to be tested against." Harry understood that he meant that which the Dwarves had awoken within Moria but Frodo only assumed they meant a worst case scenario.
Frodo nodded and continued to walk as they skirted a pool of water and came to a halt with the rest of the party by what Harry recognised as the Western entrance of Moria.
"The Walls of Moria!" Gimli announced with pride. "Dwarf walls are invisible when closed." He continued when the Hobbits gave him enquiring looks.
The Fellowship began to search alone the walls but Harry knew this entrance. Since Morchaint was in the west they had always used this entrance. Only accessible when moonlight graced its surface which wouldn't be for another ten or so minutes as the sentinel hills blocked the rising moon.
Harry stared at the moon as it rose and just as it was about to shine against the wall he turned and caught the attention of those searching for the entrance. "Stand back and watch." As the moonlight stuck the wall a glowing doorway appeared etched into the stone. A tree stood etched beneath the arch whilst Dwarf runes ran across the arch. Harry read them even as Gandalf spoke the words aloud.
"The Door of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak Friend and Enter." Gandalf recited.
"What do you suppose that means?" Merry chirped up.
"Oh, it's quite simple. If you're a friend you speak the password and the doors will open." Gandalf said whilst stepping away from the doors and looking at Harry.
"Don't look at me. Durin was after my time. He would have changed the password." Harry said with a shrug.
"What was it when you last came here?" Aragorn persisted.
Harry turned to the gate and without a care spoke. "Falakgundu!" He intoned and shrugged when nothing happened. Gandalf muttered under his breath before turning back to the wall and started trying to magically 'pick' the lock.
"What did that mean?" Pippin asked from Harry's elbow. It still shocked him how silently the Halflings moved within their camps.
"It is Dwarvish for Cave-Hewer." Harry told them simply. The mountain before him was giving off a menacing feeling that it had never done before. A group with an Elf, Wizard and one of the Nuuruhuine should've been confronted by the Guards by now.
He thought about it for a few more minutes before walking to the donkey which Sam and Aragorn were unloading. They wouldn't take it any further than this and would let it free to return to greener pastures and a peaceful life. Harry grabbed a bundle of cloth from one of the bundles and waved off Aragorn's enquiring look. Harry had requested it from Archie after the council meeting. He called Sam, Frodo, Merry and Pippin over to him and knelt. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli came to watch whilst Boromir wandered off towards Gandalf, uninterested in anything Harry was doing.
"I have a gift for you four." Harry told them with a small grin that vanished quickly. "I wasn't going to give them to you yet but you can never be too safe."
He met Aragorn's eyes as he glanced at Moria's magical doors. He unwrapped the cloth and revealed four ten inch blades within sheaves. The hobbits gasped as did the three onlookers.
"These are Wyrda Blades. Blades of Fate. To carry them makes you a friend to Morchaint and will get you aid with my people." Harry explained. "They are built through magic and will never fail you. They will piece anything except Mythril."
He handed them to the four Hobbits and watched as they slide them out of their sheaves. Legolas fingered his arm and Harry smiled at him. He had known all along that Legolas carried one of these knives, though he didn't know where it came from since they wouldn't allow anybody but their Masters to touch them and could only be passed on as a dying wish whether the Master knew he had passed it on or not. "Cut a finger with them and allow your blood to touch the gem on the handle." They did as he said and to their shock as soon as the blood touched the knife it soaked in. "No one else will see these now as long as you where them against your skin."
The grinned at him and started to clip them onto their left forearms beneath their sleeves. Legolas crouched beside the four opposite Harry and pulled up Frodo's sleeve. The others gasped as they saw nothing and Harry stood. "Nobody can remove them from you and you can never lose them. Care for them and they will care for you but don't use them lightly."
Legolas decided to teach them what Harry meant and instructed Frodo to hand him his new knife. Legolas grasped it with skill and with a quick gesture made to cut Frodo's palm. The blade glowed like the moon before it vanished into smoke. Frodo yelled out in shock but Legolas just grinned at him and gestured to the sheave where once again the blade sat as if it had never moved.
Legolas left the then to play with their knives before moving over to where Harry stood staring at the stars. "Mine came to me after my Uncle, Gradvire, was killed in an Undead attack on Mirkwood." Legolas told him.
"I remember him." Harry nodded. "A good Elf. I gave him that myself." Harry said gesturing at the blade Legolas had drawn with reverence.
"I have never used it in the two hundred years I've held it." Legolas sighed. "Though I believe just wearing it has saved me a few times."
"As Fate so often plays out." Harry grinned at his wording just as Frodo helped Gandalf open the door by speaking the Elvish word for Friend. Durin was obviously a fan of riddles. Harry checked his weapons before following the group inside. He quickly caught up with Gandalf but kept to one of the side walls.
"This is wrong. We should've been challenged by now." Harry spoke loudly to put everyone on guard. It was then that he saw something in the darkness. Bodies, a lot of them.
He swung his bow up and strung it in an instant and shocked Legolas and the others into doing similar things. The Hobbits drew their new blades and stood closer together. "This is no mine. It's a tomb!" Boromir gasped at the heaps of dead, decayed bodies.
Harry and Legolas both crouched as Gandalf and the others scanned the area. Harry grasped an arrow from a Dwarf skeleton. He chucked it to Legolas who cursed in Elvish and stood. "Goblins!" He snapped the arrow and threw it to the side.
"We make for the Gap of Rohan!" Boromir yelled. "We should never have come here. Now get out, get out!"
Before they could turn a startled cry rang out from behind them. Harry spun with his bow to see that only Merry, Pippin and Sam stood whilst chasing Frodo who was being dragged outside.
The scent of the Undead hit him in a powerful wave. "Undead!" He yelled at the others as they darted forwards. Harry leapt out of the cave in one lunge and severed a large tentacle that was about to sweep the Hobbits off their feet. He landed beside them but Frodo was already hanging above the water. An arrow swept passed him and embedded itself in the tentacle holding Frodo and it screeched before a huge, decaying, head erupted from the water and a dozen tentacle swept the area. Harry dodged them all but the others were swept away. Two more arrows thudded into the creatures head but it only screeched. It rose slightly and tilted its head back to regard Frodo.
"It's undead, aim for its heart if you can!" Harry yelled before throwing one of daggers into the top of its neck. It reared further out of the water and as soon as it's torso came clear of the water one of Legolas' arrows imbedded itself in it's chest. Harry followed the arrow with one of his curved blades and felt the creatures head implode under the double strike. It screamed out in pain and released Frodo.
Harry leaped up out of the water and grabbed the Hobbit before he hit the water and then back onto land in one smooth motion. The creature screeched on last time before it collapsed but Harry wasn't expecting to feel a build up of power, one that he hadn't felt in many hundreds of years. Nacraemeus was becoming more powerful if he could reach them here.
"Get in the cave, quickly!" Harry yelled as the power built. He threw Frodo like a bag of flour before swooping to grab Merry and Pippin and carrying them in in seconds. The others didn't wait for long before running behind him.
Harry turned as they all passed him not ten metres inside the cave and raised his hands. The rock trembled around the door as he slammed his magic into it. Gandalf hissed as he felt Harry's magic sweeping the air, thickening the air until it made their ears pop. With a final lash he wretched the supports around the doors apart and watched in satisfaction as it started to crumble.
He was only half a second too late as a ring of fire erupted from the pond outside sending first water and then fire through the falling rocks, blasting some apart but ignoring others. He hit him just as it died and threw him backwards into the wall just as the cave filled with rocks.
"Ouch." He groaned as he pulled himself to his feet.
"What was that?" Aragorn gasped as he rushed to help Harry to his feet.
"Nacraemeus used his creature to try to kill us with his magic. He has become more powerful than I believed." Harry said as he turned to Gandalf. "I felt him here, he wants the Ring for himself even as he pretends to aid Sauron."
"Did you bring down the cave?" Aragorn asked.
"I did, it was the only way to protect us." Harry sighed knowing that he had just trapped them within these dark walls. "We must move now. I know the way." Harry started walking up the stairs as he put away his bow.
"Wait!" Frodo gasped. "I lost my knife! It must have fallen in the lake!"
He looked rather upset. Harry turned to him and knelt to bring them eye to eye. He grasped the Hobbits hand and turned it palm up. "Call it to you."
Frodo frowned as if he didn't understand but he was already thinking about it coming to him. With a swish of air the blade reformed from a cloud of mist in Frodo's hand. "You cant lose these blades, Frodo. It is bound to your blood."
"Legolas, Gimli!" Harry ordered. "Say with the Hobbits." Legolas with his keener eyesight and Gimli with his stouter form were best to protect them. "Gandalf and I will take the front, Aragorn and Boromir will take the rear. Keep an eye out."
With that he swept into the darkness just in front of the light given by Gandalf's staff. The Hobbits, Elf and Dwarves followed next and then the two humans. Harry could remember the path like it was only yesterday that he had wandered these halls to help place magical protections upon them so it was with little effort that he led them deeper and deeper into the mountain.
They walked in this way for many hours before Harry heard a shuffling sound that didn't match any of the footfalls of their group. He stopped to allow Gandalf to catch up before talking. "We are being followed."
"Yes, by Golem." Gandalf sighed. "He held the Ring before Frodo's guardian, Bilbo took it. I fear he has a part to play in this."
"You keep speaking as if you wont leave this place. What is it that you know and I don't?" Harry demanded.
"I fear it is my fate to split from the Fellowship here. The shadow that roams these caverns calls to me and I do not know why." Gandalf sighed as they continued to walk through the silent halls where even Gandalf's whispered world left no echo. "If I fall you must leave me and bring the Fellowship safely to Lothlorien."
"And from there down to Rauros Falls." Harry nodded. "I feel as you do. Frodo must do this alone if he is to succeed yet there is another purpose to this Fellowship."
"What do you mean?" Gandalf asked surprised.
"For the first time since the Nuuruhuine arrived in this world a group fights together with members of all parties working together. Gondor and Morchaint fight together as do Dwarf and Elf. There is another reason for this, it signals to us that we will lose unless everyone fights as one." Harry said. "That is why a force of eight thousand Morchaints sail south to Gondor even as we speak."
"We do not know that is where Sauron will strike." Gandalf muttered after he got over his shock that a force so large was moving without even Lord Elrond's knowledge which meant that no other in Middle Earth knew of it.
"Gondor is weak, weaker than when we defeated their armies a thousand years ago." Harry sighed. "They are our weakness and even if Sauron doesn't know that, Nacraemeus does. Nacraemeus will always fear Morchaint and knows that Gondor is the only country that wont ask for our help."
"You're right." Gandalf sighed. "Don't leave them to die alone."
"I wont let Minas Tirith fall, even if I have to knock down its gates first." Harry chuckled before striding off into the darkness once more. They walked through the rest of what Harry's senses told him was a day and a half. They stopped a total of three times, once for sleep and twice for lunches at about the time Harry guessed were noon and night on the outsides.
Once they walked through an old mine that as soon as Gandalf's torch lit it spread the light across the walls and down into its depth in a manner that reminded Harry of the mirrors in Dras Arget. He heard Gimli tell the wondering Hobbits that it was Mythril, more valuable than gold.
"Dras Arget is imbued with this very metal." Legolas told them all since only he, Gandalf and Harry had ever seen the city. "It makes it almost invincible to attack and it glows with such beauty that every Elf in Middle Earth has dreamt of seeing it."
"A great honour from the Elves who love their trees and forest cities." Aragorn muttered under his breath.
"What's Dras Arget?" Harry heard Merry ask and he stopped to look at them.
"It's my capital city, we built it two thousand years ago. It's stands among the few cities that have survived the ages and all attacks." Harry told them. "It lies only a few leagues from the Shire. When this is over I'll take you all to see it if you wish." They seemed pleased with this idea.
Eventually Harry stopped and the group caught up to him in a chamber so large that even Harry couldn't see the cavernous roof far above them. Gandalf knocked his staff once on the ground and the light flared showing the wall to their back and miles of giant columns reaching into the darkness in front of them.
"Beyond, the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf." Gandalf announced. Harry listen but heard nothing in the distance. He started forward as he heard Sam speak.
"Now there's an eye opening and no mistake." He felt more than saw Frodo nod his agreement beside his friend but didn't pause in his stride. Harry knew where he was heading and evidently so did Gimli since not a minute later the Dwarf ran passed him and he was forced to speed the group up to keep the Dwarf from running off into the darkness.
Harry slipped into a side room and was forced to shield his eyes from the sudden glare of a light tunnel that sprayed the room, and more importantly the coffin, with light. Harry wandered to one side as Gimli cried out in sorrow at the sight of the tomb and the fallen bodies around the room.
"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria." He translated the runes. "He is dead then. It's as I feared." Gandalf sighed as he took off his hat in mourning before noticing a tome clutched in the hands of a Dwarven skeleton at the same time a strange skeleton caught Harry's eyes. It was a human skeleton, or at least a human sized one. Harry made his way over to it and hunkered down to study it. Legolas move over as well.
"They have taken the bridge and the second hall." Gandalf read. "We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums, Drums in the deep."
Harry looked at the skull of the human skeleton and let out a growl of fury. It had canines, it was a Vampire! He stood up and his wings lashed out on their own accord.
"We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark." Gandalf ignored him and continued. "We cannot get out, they are coming."
"They died fighting." Aragorn sighed. "Every Dwarf here."
"And these Vampires!" Harry snapped making the whole group, apart from Legolas who had already seen the sight of the skeleton, look at him in shock.
"How do we know they weren't the ones attacking?" Gimli rounded on Harry with rage in his eyes.
"No," Aragorn muttered as the group took in the sight of at least thirty Vampire skeletons among the Dwarven dead. "They died fighting together."
"How do you know that?" Gimli continued to glare at Harry as if it was his fault that his cousin was dead, which is what the Dwarf thought anyway.
"The Vampire's backs are to the tomb, they died protecting it just as the Dwarves did." Aragorn told the group succinctly proving Harry's feelings.
"I heard rumours from the Nuru Noste that before they formed a group of more than two hundred Vampires and Lamia were exiled and fled to the Dwarven realm." Harry sighed. "The Noru Noste tried to get word to them but failed. This must be why, they died here, in what they must have called home. I owe the Dwarves a debt of gratitude for taking them in." Harry nodded at the Dwarf who nodded in return.
Before anything else could be said they was a sliding sound and to their horror one of the skeletons fell noisily down the rooms well. Pippin stood guiltily next to it flinching every time it banged louder down the shaft.
"Fool of a Took!" Gandalf rounded on him. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!"
Pippin sidled closer to Harry so that his shoulder was against Harry's elbow and Harry placed a comforting arm around the rather pale and scared Hobbit. He had been surprised at how close the Hobbits had become to him. They trusted him like none of the others did. They were wary of what they were no matter what Boromir told them and they looked to him to protect them especially Merry and Pippin and most definitely since they had entered Moria.
The group was just about to forget about Pippin's mistake when a double drum beat echoed up the shaft freezing them all into place. More booms followed the first and Pippin gripped Harry's waist in fright. "Frodo!" Harry called attention to the Hobbit. "Your sword!"
True to Harry's warning when Frodo pulled Sting from it's sheave it was glowing blue. "Orcs!" Spat Legolas who hated the creatures more than all of the others.
The two humans rushed to the door and after narrowly missing two arrows the slammed it shut and dropped the damaged cross bar into place. Harry gestured to the Hobbits. "Stay near Gandalf." He sent Pippin running towards the well again and Gandalf touched him on the shoulder to show that he was forgiven. The four Hobbits took up defensive positions near each other with their normal swords in hand with Gandalf bearing both staff and sword in front of them.
"They have a cave troll!" Boromir told them all with faked humour lacing his words and a uplift of his eyes.
Gimli jumped onto the foot of the tomb in a vain effort to protect it whilst Legolas and Aragorn took one side and Harry and Boromir took the other. Harry and Legolas drew their bows and as soon as axes began chopping through the door they released them sending the attacks flying backwards away from the door even as the fired another.
"Let them come!" Gimli yelled. "There is one Dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath."
Suddenly the doors jerked and the crossbar splintered and a wave of armoured orcs poured through the doors. Harry loosed arrow after arrow at them even as Boromir helped carve them down. In this way the first wave fell as Legolas and Harry worked at the orcs with arrows and Boromir and Aragorn hew them down with swords to keep them away from the born archers.
Just as they thought they'd get a lull in the attack the cave troll decimated the stone door frame as it crashed through. It swung its club nearly smashing Boromir who dodged backwards at the last instant. Harry loosed two arrows into the creatures head but it only raged with pain and kept coming. Gimli was forced to dive from the tomb as the club obliterated it. Legolas attacked the troll with his own arrows but was forced to sling his bow to protect himself from the orcs now pouring in behind them. Harry did the same and began a deadly dance of two blades as he cut through the teeming orcs, but even some of them got through and soon they were all fighting for their lives.
Somehow in the confusion the troll managed to back Frodo into a corner and before Harry could realise what was happening it slammed a pike straight into Frodo's chest sending the small Hobbit slamming into the wall behind him and collapsing with the pike against his chest. "Frodo!" He heard Aragorn yell but his was too far away to do anything but kill the orcs trying to take advantage of the confusion. Harry took a bounding leap, using the destroyed tomb as a leg up. He held a hand out to Legolas who grasped it and with his strength and momentum and the inherent lightness of both Lamia and Elves he jumped them both onto the Trolls back.
The troll, who had just been about to smash Frodo with his club, staggered at the sudden appearance of two creatures on its back. Harry dodged the clubs wild swing and slammed both of his blades into the trolls spin to severe his spinal chord. Legolas then put two arrows into the Trolls brain and they rode it to the ground as it collapsed.
Harry realised then that all three Hobbits were standing between Frodo and the trolls body having obviously decided to take on the troll to protect their friend. Harry smirked at their shocked faces and turned back to the battle. After the troll fell it seemed that most of the orcs lost heart. Some fled the room whilst those that stayed simply fell to the Fellowships weapons.
As soon as the room all but Harry and Legolas ran for Frodo to try to save him. Harry held up a hand and yanked all of his and Legolas' arrows from their targets and they split them up into their separate piles. Legolas grinned thankfully even though he was obviously worried about the Hobbit. It was a shame to lose either the Elves fine tipped arrows that flew with perfect accuracy or Harry's mythril tipped ones which would penetrate even mythril armour.
Harry and Legolas both spun as Frodo groaned and tried to stand. "It's ok, I'm not hurt." He said.
"You should be dead." Aragorn argued. "That spear would have skewered a wild boar!"
"I think there's more to this Hobbit then meets the eyes." Gandalf smirked and they watched as Frodo slowly undid his shirt to show a mythril vest of Dwarven make underneath it.
"Mythril!" Gimli gasped. "You are full of surprises, Master Baggins."
"We cannot stay here and pondered Frodo's immortality." Harry told them sternly just as Orc cries echoed beyond the room.
"To the Bridge of Khazad-dum!" Gandalf declared and they rushed from the room through the back door. Harry paused as they ran off to collapse the ceiling behind them so at least they wouldn't be overrun from behind.
He caught up quickly afterwards and knew from the sound his defence had made that they knew where he'd been. They ran through corridors and down staircases and then they followed Harry as he ran through a great chamber, smaller than the one before but still large. Orcs poured through side doors as Goblins poured from holes in the ceiling and down the columns until their group of ten was surrounded by thousand of enemies and closed in to a standstill.
They had no choice but to stand and fight. Harry sent a wave of magic slamming into the first rank but they just pushed forwards again. Even Harry had a limit to how many times he could do that before they overwhelmed him. Harry was about to take flight and at least save Frodo so that they could continue their mission when a deep growl echoed through the room.
Harry found himself growling in response making the others look at him in surprise but he couldn't help it. His Thunderbird mind didn't like this new presence and wasn't making it's dislike known. The air filled with static but within such a dry place it would be difficult to draw a storm.
The glow of flames appeared at the end of the hall and all of a sudden the Orcs and Goblins started running away into their holes.
Harry almost started changing but Gandalf slapped him gently and got a shock of electricity instead but it did draw Harry's attention. "This is not your battle." Gandalf told him. Harry's Thunderbird growled again but Harry pushed it down and nodded succinctly. Gandalf was well aware of Harry's duel mind.
"What is this new devilry?" Boromir asked as he gripped his sword.
"A Balrog." Gandalf sighed. "A demon of the Ancient World."
Another deep growl echoed through the cavern and the Hobbits sidled closer to Harry and Aragorn.
"This foe is beyond all of you!" Gandalf cried as he whirled around. "Run!"
Harry didn't let anyone argue and just growled out his agreement before grabbing Merry and Pippin behind the neck and pushing them forwards. "Quickly!" Harry yelled as they ran towards the far war.
They ran into the corridor towards the twisting staircases. Harry ran out into the wide open space dotted with staircases to see both Legolas and Boromir lying on the ground. It seemed that Legolas had save Boromir from tumbling off the edge. "Keep going!" Harry growled out as Gandalf came clear of the corridor. His Thunderbird might be under control but it still wanted to stand its ground and fight the Balrog.
They ran for the next five minutes down the staircases until they reached a broken section. Legolas leapt first and landed on the lower side and shoulder his bow and gestured for the others to follow. Harry waited at the back as they saw flames glowing out of the corridor they had just come through. Stone fell from the ceiling at the whole mountain shook as the Balrog tried to carve its way through the pathways to reach them.
Gandalf jumped the gap next and was steadied by Legolas just as arrows skitter the edge of the stairs and make Merry and Pippin jump back from the edge. Harry surged out with his magic charged by the Thunderbird and a bolt of lightning flew from thin air and slammed through the alcove that the orc were firing from. He blasted another one with his normal magic and was satisfied as the rock above it crumbled down the side of the wall taking the orcs with it. Boromir leapt the gap with Merry and Pippin under his arms and they started running down the stairs behind Gandalf.
Harry struck out twice more as Aragorn threw Sam across the gap to Legolas who quickly sent him on his way. Aragorn was about to jump with Frodo when the rock below them gave out.
They managed to get clear the first time but Harry was forced to pull them back with his magic the second time it gave way. Before they could think about jumping the now wider gap a large section of the ceiling crashed down behind them, smashing through the staircase and leaving them on a rather perilous island in the middle of the chamber. Harry flung out his hands and sent Aragorn and Frodo across the gap as if on springs. Aragorn landed on his own two feet and Legolas had to catch Frodo but they were safe.
Harry shouted at the to run before spreading his wings just as his island fell to the side and fell into the depths. Harry glided over the heads and set down at the base of the staircase just as the others arrived.
"Thanks!" Aragorn told him but Harry just shrugged and pulled in his wings as they entered the last hall. Orcs crept across the edges of the room and goblin threatened to overrun them but they were kept back partly because of the growls following them and because of the web of lightning that hung in the air courtesy of Harry's still rather anxious Thunderbird.
They reached the Bridge and passed across it in single file. Gandalf brought up the rear and stopped half way across. Harry stopped also but was waved on by the Grey Wizard.
"This is my fight. Do what I told you." Gandalf ordered him.
"I can help!" Harry snapped though none of the others heard him.
"No, only I can do this!" Gandalf told him before spinning away from Harry. Harry leapt back into the doorway and ushered the other back just as the Balrog jumped through the length of the hall and landed at the edge of the bridge.
Gandalf yelled out a spell but Harry was too busy trying to control the Thunderbird and prevent it from changing him to notice what was said. He did notice though when the Balrog brought its flaming sword down on Gandalf's head. Lightning lashed out into Gandalf's sword and staff and just as the flaming sword met them it blasted the Balrog's arm as the flaming sword shattered. It staggered back and eyed first Harry and then the sparking sword with distaste.
Harry's Thunderbird had charged Gandalf's sword with lightning. It growled and Harry found himself growling back. "Go back to the shadow!" Gandalf yelled as it stepped forwards onto the bridge. "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" The wizard yelled as he slammed his staff into the bridge.
The Balrog grunted in amusement as nothing happened but as soon as it stepped forward again the bridge disintegrated under its feet and it fell into the darkness below. Gandalf turned with a smile. Harry felt it before it happened and cried out even as the creatures whip lashed out and caught Gandalf and flung him down into the shadows.
Harry thought about flying down to him but no less than ten arrows flung themselves against the walls. He couldn't carry a fully grown Wizard that far even without arrows being shot at him.
"Run!" Harry yelled at the others and they fled through the last corridor and onto a suddenly bright countryside. Harry gasped as the sight burned his eyes but he clamped them shut and was surprised when he opened them to find them wet. Whether from the burning sun or from Gandalf's fall he wasn't sure but for the first time in centuries he was crying.
XOXOXOXOXOX
End Chapter