Chapter 12

Gandalf places a crystal into the top of his staff and walked into the mines. The rest of the Fellowship followed Gandalf, Aragorn follows last, casting a last glance at the water.

Gimli: "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."

Gandalf brings his hand around his staff, blowing upon the crystal. It started to glow.

"And they call it a mine. A mine!" Said Gimli
"This is no mine," Said Boromir it's a tomb!"
Light reveals rotted, broken and battered forms strewn about, casting long shadows across the room
[Legolas pulled out an arrow from the body of a fallen Dwarf, examines it and casts it away in disgust,
"Goblins!" he said.

Aragorn, and Boromir draw out their swords. Legolas fits an arrow to his bow. And Harry pulled out his wand.
"Lumos" Whispered Harry, and the tip of his wand started glowing.
"You really can use magic", said pippin.
"We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here." Said Boromir

The four Hobbits are backing toward the door.
"Now get out of here, get out!" Said Harry.
The company starts for the door. Suddenly, Frodo is grabbed from behind and pulled off his feet by a long, snaking tentacle.
Sam, Merry, and Pippin screamed: "Frodo!"
"Strider! Harry" shouted Sam

Sam hacks at a tentacle while yelling "Get off him! Strider!"

Merry: "Harry!"

The Hobbits clutch at Frodo, attempting to keep him away from the water as more tentacles wrap around him.

The watching creature at the gate
releases Frodo, and feigns disappearance under the waters.

Suddenly, many tentacles come out of the water, slapping the other Hobbits aside and grabbing Frodo around the leg. He is pulled out over into the air.

"Frodo!" Schouted Merry.

Legolas runs out to the shore and shoots. His arrow pierces a tentacle what was wrapping itself over Frodo's face.
"Strider!" Yelled Frodo

Harry Boromir and Aragorn rush to the water and attack the beast. It flings Frodo wildly in the air. Despite the Fellowship's efforts, the Hobbit is lowered towards a gapping maw in the water, ringed by fangs, set in a gilled
face.

Harry used a spell what sliced through the tentacle holding Frodo, who falls into Boromir's arms.

"Into the Mines!" Called Gandalf.
Boromir: "Legolas!"

"Into the cave!" Yelled Harry.
Legolas shoots a last arrow. His arrow hits the beast's right eye, and it recoils with a roar.

"Run!" Schouted Aragorn
As the Fellowship race into Moria, the sea creature reaches out and tears the gates shut. Slabs of rocks drop and the roof of the passageway caves in. The Fellowship stares back as the last rays of moonlight disappear.

Gasps and heavy breathing echo in the darkness.
"We now have but one choice." Said Gandalf.
Light appears from Gandalf's staff and Harry's wand, 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." Began Gandalf, "Quietly now. It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Time passes. The Fellowship enters a great cavern.

Gandalf rests his hand upon a rock with a dark, silver veins running through it. "The wealth of Moria was not in gold… or jewels…" he said, "…but Mithril."
"Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him." Said Gandalf
"Oh, that was a kingly gift." Said Gimli.

"Yes! I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire." Said Gandalf
[Frodo looks surprised.]

[They then climb up steep steps on the side of a cavern. Pippin loses his footing and slips onto Merry.]

Merry: "Pippin!"

The Fellowship climbs another flight of stairs to a crossroads in the mine: three doorways loom before them. Gandalf glances from one to the other and back.
"I have no memory of this place." He said then.

The Fellowship sat down to rests.

"Are we lost?" Asked Pippin, Merry answered "No."
"I think we are." Said Pippin
"Shh!" Said Sam " Gandalf's thinking."
"Merry?" Asked Pippin
"What?" "I'm hungry.."

Frodo looked down into the cavern and sees a small figure leaping from stone to stone. Startled, he walks over to where Gandalf is sitting.

"There's something down there!" Said Frodo.
"It's Gollum." Said Gandalf with no surprise
"Gollum?"
"He's been following us for
three days."
"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-Dûr!" Said Frodo.
"Escaped?" Asked Gandalf, " Or was set loose? And now the Ring had drawn him here. He will never be rid of his need for it. He hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself."

Gandalf: "Sméagol's life is a sad story. Yes, Sméagol he was once called. Before the Ring found him… before it drove him mad."
"It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance!" Said Frodo.

Gandalf glancing sharply at Frodo "Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?"

Frodo looks down, silently.

"Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can not see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill…" continued Gandalf.
"I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Said Frodo.

"So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought." Said Gandalf.

Gandalf looked towards one of the doorways "Oh! It's that way."
"He's remembered!" Schouted Merry.

The Fellowship starts down a dark stairway.
"No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here." Said Gandalf.
The wizard rests a hand on Merry's shoulder.
"If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."

The Fellowship comes to a more open space. Broken columns lie tumbled across the floor. Gandalf lifts his staff.
"Let me risk a little more light." He said

His staff illuminates a giant stone hall with tall pillars and arched ceilings.

"Behold: the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf." Said Gandalf.
The Fellowship walks forward through the hall, peering around a column. Gimli sees a ray of sunlight shining through a chamber and he ran to thbe room.

"Gimli!" Yelled Gandalf.

Gimli runs into the chamber. Bodies and weapons scattered about it. The Dwarf stops and kneels by a crypt in the center of the room. A shaft of light
illuminates it. Gandalf walks forward and peers at the tomb's surface.

"No! No!" [sob] "No!" [sob] cried Gimli

Boromir places his hand on Gimli's shoulder.
Gandalf translatedl the runes on the tomb "'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared.