AN: Sorry about how long this has taken me, but on the bright side, it's pretty long. Here's March's update!
Goddessofwarriorcats: Yes she does, and unfortunately that doesn't happen in this chapter yet - soon though! Thank you for your support!
Guest: Thank you very much! Aww, I'm jealous - I haven't watched/read any of them through (for fun) in a long time! I hope this wasn't too late... Thanks again!
Chapter 11
When we burst into the hallway, I wasn't sure what to expect. Shrill screeches echoed around the giant hall, and Gandalf had us running for our lives. On the bright side, I was somehow still alive, but while we continued to run from the orcs, a startling realization played through my mind on repeat. It went without saying that I desperately needed to be able to control and defend myself.
It was an unfortunate slap in the face.
The chilling shrieks, which were growing louder by the second, did nothing to soothe my racing heart. If I was being honest, I was tempted to sneak a glance over my shoulder, but my head knew better than to do that. If I risked a look, I would probably lose it again as I had in Gimli's relative's tomb. Additionally, sneaking a glance would slow me down. I couldn't afford to stop or panic, especially now of all times.
I could do this. I had run long distance in middle school. I could still run. Everything was alright.
At least, everything was just dandy until it suddenly wasn't again, which was no surprise. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see flickers of movement gathering, which was terrifying and not good. We couldn't have been slowing down.
No, they were crawling out of the ceiling. With a jolt, I watched as some of them slid down one of the pillars, grinning fiendishly at us. This was not good.
Within minutes, we were surrounded, the screaming reaching a climax. Someone — Aragorn? — quickly grabbed my forearm, pulling me behind them. The men created a circle, pulling around to protect Rose, the hobbits, and me. I didn't have it in me to be offended, but the circle strengthened my resolve to step it up and stop being a weakling. Somehow, I would learn how to fight, and I'd do it in my own time. If I managed to make it out of here alive, that was.
For some reason, none of the orcs charged us, but that didn't stop them from shaking their weapons at us while they screamed. Pippin tensed a little bit beside me, and I didn't blame him. Despite being in the center of everyone, I didn't exactly feel safe.
Off to my left, Gimli let out a bellow of his own as he shook his axe. Honestly, where did that fervor for battle come from?
Behind us, out in the deep darkness, a growl rumbled. The tension in the air split, and for a moment, the orcs forgot about us. Looking around, they chattered to each other as their weapons clattered. In the midst of their jabbering, a second, deeper roar thundered towards us.
Slowly, the determined fire in my blood began to turn to ice, which was a shame.
The orcs seemed to share my thoughts on the situation as their screams filled with panic. They quickly fled the scene, their armor clanking as they disappeared into the shadowy darkness. Not a soul stirred in our ranks, though, but Gimli did let out a laugh at the orcs' retreat.
Another snarl lumbered, and my head slowly turned to face the direction of its origin. A small pang of fear emanated from my stomach.
Why was the hall illuminated in the distance? Better yet, why did it look like fire? Unless my eyes were deceiving me, why was the fire moving towards us?
Even though there was a moving fire headed straight for us, no one moved. One of the hobbits let out a shaky breath off to my right. It didn't need to be said, but I knew we were all waiting for Gandalf to say something before we took action.
Oddly enough, it was Boromir who spoke first, asking the question that at least I was thinking, "What is this new devilry?"
Gandalf merely let out a breath and continued staring down the hallway. For a heartbeat, the fact that he wasn't responding worried me a lot more than the oncoming threat. Beside me, Rose pounced on the balls of her feet, then gave me a small smile when she met my gaze.
Another low growl came echoing down the hall. Finally, Gandalf stirred, eventually uttering, "A Balrog." For some reason, a chill went down my spine even though the words were just as meaningless to me as everything else in this world. "A demon of the ancient world." Another chill hit me, but this one had more context with it. An odd feeling sprung up in my stomach. Still droning on ominously, Gandalf murmured, "This foe is beyond any of you." Turning to the side slowly, he bellowed, "Run!"
There was no need to tell me twice. With Gandalf at the head, we tore down the hall, the noise of our footsteps bouncing off the pillars. While I had a naïve shred of hope that we'd go undetected, the loud skirmish with the orcs earlier probably hadn't done us any favors considering it was what had drawn this "Balrog's" attention anyway.
Gandalf ushered us inside a doorway at a new end of the hall. As I passed him, I noticed he was looking past us intently, his now-haggard face squinting at what was pursuing us. His eyes were glazed with uncertainty.
My astute observations brought me little comfort.
My feet tore down the hallway, and I somehow managed to stay upright as we flew down a flight of stairs. At one moment, I took a corner too sharply and went careening into the wall, but Rose was by my side in an instant. With a sharp tug on my arm, she balanced me enough for me to start running again.
In front of the group, Boromir let out a panicked cry, and the hobbits in front of me slowed to a stop. As I caught my breath, allowing my legs to rest for a bit, I noticed Legolas and Boromir were on the floor. Right in front of them was a steep cliff, likely a result of the mine deteriorating. No one had fallen, right?
Behind me, I heard Gandalf say something to Aragorn about leading. While it sounded important, most of my attention was now fixed on the fact that my legs felt like jello. Doubling over, I hadn't noticed how rubbery they felt, but then again, running for my life with adrenaline coursing through my system was a pretty big distraction. I sucked in another breath and tried to keep my legs under me.
Gandalf started yelling now and almost shoved Aragorn into me. "Do as I say! Swords are no more use here." What in the heck was he talking about?
I wasn't allowed the time to ponder his meaning as Rose pulled me into a run again. This time, I was more aware of the ache in my legs and the burning sensation in my throat, but Rose hadn't let go of my arm, leaving me no choice but to power through it.
Every stair I went down was agony, and my knees protested at the impacts of my footfalls. Running stairs in middle school had been bad enough, but throwing in a deadly monster made it that much worse. While the track coach certainly had seemed like a monster back then, nothing he'd done compared to this.
The people in front of me jerked to a halt, and from what I could tell, there was another gap in the path. With a shuddering breath, my brain processed this information. There was a gap in the path, and if I fell into it, I would die.
With little hesitation, Legolas leaped across, beckoning for others to follow him. Was he also offering to catch people? If not, then it was certain doom for some of us.
With that light voice of his, the elf called for the wizard to jump over, thankfully motioning that he was going to catch the older man. A grunt escaped his lips, but Gandalf jumped over safely, clinging to Legolas for support.
Something whizzed through the air at us, clattering against the stone stairs we were standing on. Another one hurtled towards us, but this time something gleamed. It was an arrow. That meant while on top of having to clear a gaping hole in our path, we also had to pray that we wouldn't get hit with an arrow.
This definitely wasn't anything like track practice.
A few more shots were fired in our direction. After a second, Legolas fired one in return.
A hand wrapped around my waist. Feeling a little startled at the sudden contact, I expected Rose's hand to be resting on my hip, but it was Aragorn at my side, his arm supporting my back. Without meeting my eyes, he murmured, "I'm going to throw you over, and when you land, start firing back. It doesn't have to be good. You just need to distract them. Believe me, you can do this." He let out a breath, then tensed his arm, throwing me across the gap with no warning.
Crashing into something solid, I morbidly worried that my body had splattered against the stairs, but there was some warmth under my cheek. Legolas steadied me, his arms wrapped around my back. "Are you okay?"
Nodding, my head spun, but I felt good enough to walk. After making sure I wasn't going to fall over the edge, he released me.
Aragorn didn't say my shots had to be good, and he'd said he believed in me. They just had to be distracting. I could probably do distracting.
Drawing an arrow with more confidence that I'd felt before, I reared my arm back, releasing the arrow with minimal kickback. Before I really realized what I was doing, another arrow was loaded in my bow, and I was braced to fire it. Just as I let go of the string, something cracked off to my left. I risked a quick glance to see what was happening.
A section of the stairs was collapsing after Boromir had leapt across, Merry and Pippin secured in his arms. Rose was still lingering on the other side, her face surprisingly — actually, it wasn't surprising — devoid of fear.
Now that there were more people on my side of the gap, I walked down a few more stairs to create some space, then launched another arrow into the air. I couldn't tell if I was hitting anything or even clearing the space between myself and the orcs, but it felt pretty good to be doing something productive. On top of that, this gave me the opportunity to practice shooting at a distance. It wasn't perfect or anything, because they were firing back, so it was still a pretty high threat level as they were better shots than I was.
I walked down a few more steps, firing arrows with even more ease than before. I wasn't claiming to be a master or anything as I could only really fire arrows when I was standing still, but the action felt more comfortable and less scary. Because of how much easier it felt, I could now watch my arrows fly a little bit more. Sadly, most of them weren't clearing the gap, but some of them did manage to at least hit the wall the orcs were standing on.
Someone was yelling, and for a scary moment, I was worried that someone had fallen off. Quickly glancing to the left again, I let out a breath when I noticed it was just Gimli throwing a fuss. I was about to return my attention to my arrows, but a loud crumbling stole my attention away again. What was going on now?
Aragorn threw Frodo behind him, then fluidly jumped back himself, narrowly missing the chunks of stairs plummeting to the ground far below. With another smaller sigh, a guilty wave of gratitude coursed through me. Rose hadn't been with them, but Aragorn and Frodo were still in danger.
An arrow whizzed over my head, briefly catching my attention before my ears were assaulted by the low growling of the fiery monster chasing us. Feeling a little dizzy, I tried to sort through my worry for Aragorn and Frodo and my general fear of the situation at hand, but then rocks started falling from the ceiling. One crashed into a section of the bridge across the gap, creating an island out of the stairs Aragorn and Frodo had the misfortune of inhabiting.
Beneath their feet, the rock started groaning. To my shock, their section of stairs started to wobble around unsteadily. Beside me, Rose gripped her hand on the hilt of her sword so hard her knuckles started turning white. Unable to do anything about the horror unfolding before me, I simply stared at our two companions.
Aragorn gave the command for Frodo to lean forward, to tilt their island towards ours. With worrisome speed, they hurtled towards us, and upon the collision of the sections of rock, they were safely caught by Legolas and Boromir.
Now that they were safe, Rose grabbed at my hand and pulled me down the rest of the stairs. Easily slinging my bow across my back with my free hand, I pulled out of her grip and safely tried to move aside because I wasn't qualified enough to lead the group.
A loud crash exploded behind us. As tempted as I was to look at what had happened, I didn't want to risk losing my footing on the narrow path. Another duller sound quickly followed, leaving me to assume that the stairs had fallen to the ground.
Before I knew it, I was both winded and at the bottom of the stairs. Despite the burning sensation in my legs, I was happy to be on a steadier path. Up ahead, Gandalf slowed to a stop but continued to usher us on, yelling, "Over the bridge!" Letting out a breath, he bellowed, "Fly!" A wall of fire flickering a few feet away brought out the urgency painted on his face.
A few moments after I passed him, a lion-like roar reached my ears. Around me, the others slowed to a stop, and I followed suit. Bent over and panting, I looked behind us.
Doing so turned out to be a mistake. The thing that had been following us emerged from the fire, ram horns twisting away from its almost reptilian face. It opened its mouth and let out another roar, but as I squinted at it closer, I could make out waves of heat pouring from its opened jaws. After staring at us for a brief moment with its bright eyes, it started chasing us again.
Pushing my hands off my knees, I forced myself into a run again. Luckily, I could see that the hallway we were in didn't last for much longer; however, as the end approached, the relief I'd started feeling was replaced with another dose of fear.
The bridge we were about to cross was only a few feet wide, and from what I could tell, it was likely a long way down if I stumbled over the edge. Another roar grumbled behind me, and that snapped everything into perspective. If I didn't attempt to cross the bridge, then the monster was going to eat me. I was dead either way.
The path started funneling into the narrowness of the bridge, so I kept my eyes fixed on Rose's feet right in front of me. Just like that, I was on the bridge. Time seemed to melt away, and for a brief second I worried that I was going to be stuck running on that bridge for forever, but then I crashed into something. As I lost my balance, my heart skipped a beat as I realized that I was plummeting to my death. I was falling over the edge.
All throughout this stupid mine, my luck had been in my favor, but now that we were leaving, my luck had run out.
Hands gripped my waist, and blond hair fell into my face. With a swift motion, Legolas hoisted me to my feet. I was no longer falling. I was safe on the other side. Just as suddenly as he'd grabbed me, he let me go, pushing me further away from the edge.
I didn't know how many more near-deaths I could take.
Behind me, I heard Gandalf growl something incoherent. As I made my way over to where Rose was standing — she probably had made it across without a problem — I turned to see what the commotion was. Gandalf hadn't fallen, had he?
Frodo let out an echoing cry, "Gandalf!"
When my eyes fell on the wizard, my heart stuttered. He was still on the bridge, but instead of running across it like he'd told the rest of us to do, he was standing there, facing the beast. He'd lost his hat somewhere in our escape, so his long grey hair fluttered around his shoulders.
With a racing pulse, my eyes slid to shadowy presence lingering on the other side of the wide gap. Flames danced along the monster's body, which did nothing to quell the anxious feelings stirring in my stomach. In a swift motion, it raised itself on its back legs, and while it extended its arms, the flames coming from its body grew and flared out.
What the heck was Gandalf doing just standing there!?
He lifted his staff, uttering words I couldn't hear clearly. The stone embedded in the tip started glowing brighter, and from where I was standing, the light seemed to encapsulate his body. Was he making a shield or powering up some spell?
The beast snarled and, with the sword it had conjured earlier, swung it down upon Gandalf's sphere of light. Upon the impact, a burst of white light mixed with fire exploded outwards. Even with my eyes closed, the brightness of it burned my eyes. When I opened them again, my gaze flew to the spot where I'd last seen Gandalf. Miraculously, he didn't appear to be harmed, so it must have been a shield. A bit of the tightness in my chest eased. Gandalf was probably going to be fine.
Its fiery sword missing, the Balrog leaned forward and roared directly in Gandalf's face. While my heart leaped at the noise, Gandalf merely stared the beast down, which was definitely something I would not have done in his situation.
He was going to be fine. Everything was going to be fine.
The Balrog didn't seem to appreciate that and took a step forward. My stomach plummeted, but Gandalf didn't so much as flinch. Only when the monster pulled out a whip made of fire did Gandalf take a few steps back. With a flick of its scaly wrist, the beast snapped its whip as if to prove a point. The end of it got a little too close to Gandalf for my liking.
With a sweeping motion in his arms, Gandalf roared, "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Bringing his sword and staff together, he slammed them to the ground.
Nothing happened. That was the best he could have done at a time like this? What was he thinking? That didn't do anything!
The Balrog flared his nostrils, then took a step forward, raising his whip above his head.
This is it, I thought to myself bitterly, bracing for the worst.
As soon as the beast took a step, the bridge crumbled under its weight. With a panicked scream, the fiery monster collapsed along with the bridge, its whip curling as it went.
So, that had done something after all.
Gandalf stared down the gap, watching as the Balrog fell, the wizard's shoulders rising and falling as he gathered himself. He didn't move for a time, then turned around to walk back towards us.
I couldn't believe it. He'd done it, he'd actually done—
A snap filled the air, and a coil of fire wrapped itself around Gandalf's ankle. With a crisp jerk, the fire yanked on his leg, pulling him over the edge.
A short scream filled my ears.
Somehow, Gandalf managed to grab hold of the bridge, but only his head was visible to us. Sweat trickled down his brow as he strained to adjust his grip. Faintly, I could hear Frodo yelling.
Gandalf let out a breath, then looked up at us. Silence fell, but I couldn't breathe. This wasn't happening. It couldn't end like this. Not after he'd fought so hard.
With a final breath, Gandalf uttered, "Fly, you fools." He let go of the ledge and fell out of view.
Gandalf was gone.
A scream tore out of me.