Chapter 14: The Battle and Ridge
Lara slowly opened her eyes and heard the loud BANG coming from where Pippin was. Slightly jumping all the members turned to see Pippin still holding the bone of a corpse sitting on top of a well of some sort. The head having plummeted down into the darkness hitting the wall at least three times before a chain dragged the whole skeleton in. The loud banging continued for a couple more seconds before a tense silence descended onto the group.
Gendalf slammed the old script shut and briskly walked up to Pippin, "Fool of a Took!" he exclaimed taking his staff and hat back from the frightened hobbit. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!" he turned away from the wincing hobbit and stood still. For a moment nothing happened and they were about to release a sigh of relief. But then: BOOM… BOOM…
The sound was from somewhere deep underground, and Gendalf slowly turned back to Pippin who was already looking down the well.
BOOM-BOOM!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The beat grew louder and faster with each passing second until it resembled a heartbeat of a frightened beast: loud, fast, and unsteady.
A look of sheer terror crosses everyone's faces as they hear a new sound added to the beat, the sickening sound of screeching, exited orcs and goblins. Lara sees as Frodo pulled out Sting and glances up horrified as it glows a bright blue.
"Orcs!" she spat out. At this Boromir rushed to the door to see how close the creatures were, and narrowly missed an arrow as it flew by millimeters away from his face. Aragorn dropped the torch that he was holding and ran to the Gondorian. Lara quickly moved towards the hobbits.
"Get back! You stay close to Gendalf!" and rushed to pick up axes and give them to the two men and an elf to help barricade the door. As Gendalf and the hobbits pulled out their swords Gimli hopped onto the grave and gave out a fierce snarl.
"Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"
"They have a cave troll" stated Boromir when they finished barricading the entrance.
Lara and the three males rushed back to where Gendalf stood proceeding in taking out their own weapons: sword for Boromir, and bows for the other three. They stood in a ready position, all having arrows notched into place as the first visible gap shows. Legolas released his arrow and it pierced the flesh of the creature as its comrades gave out a feral screech and lunged at the door with more willingness then before. "Is it just me or are they suicidal?" asked Lara out loud causing smiles to appear on her comrades' faces. The next creature to come to the gap fell down with three arrow sticking out of its neck.
Then all of a sudden they burst in. The brief pause as they looked around their surroundings let the three archers kill five more orcs, however all to soon it became a hand-to-hand (or rather sword-to-sword) combat. Lara took out her sword and lunged at the orcs with Boromir at her side and Legolas and Aragorn right behind her. She slashed at everything that came her way, managing to kill at least ten before seeing Sam frozen in shock looking up. She followed suit and saw a giant thing that was roaring and swinging a huge wooden bat and had a chain wrapped around its neck.
"Hmm…" she cocked her head and smirked, and recited another line she knew all too well: "'ello beasty!" The thing (which turned out to be a cave troll) swung its bat at Sam who managed to dive right in-between its legs. Lara lunged at it with her sword just as an orc appeared right in front of her. Thankfully after years of adventures Lara's reflexes were very sharp. She dropped to the floor and kicked out her leg hitting the orc right on the legs thus successfully making it fall to the ground. She quickly sprung up and pierced it with the blade of her sword. Though it took her a mere couple of seconds to perform that, when she looked up the troll was already about to attack a cornered Sam.
She gasped and was about to throw her knife at its leg in an attempt to give the hobbit some time when she saw Aragorn and Boromir yank the "beasties" (as Lara called it) chain and pull it back. Lara ran forward slashing at the orcs yet spun around when she saw the thing destroy Balin's tomb and nearly smash Gimli who now had orcs running at him. She took out her bow and quickly notching an arrow, shot at the fast approaching orcs. It flew with such force that it managed to pierce right through the eyeball of one orc into the head of another.
She however was too preoccupied with that to notice as an orc crept up on her. "Lara!" she heard Aragorn call her name and she spun around seeing it and blocking his swing just in time. However, she did not have time to block it when the orc lunged a smaller blade into her outer thigh. "Oh, Crap!" she hissed. Pulling the offending piece of metal out and jabbing it into the orc's throat. A new wave of adrenaline overcame her, this time however coming with rage.
She took out her sword and lashed out with more anger than ever before. She watched as Legolas climbed up to the beast's head by the chain it lashed at him, and shot the thing in the head. As the thing whimpered in pain he jumped down and resumed fighting the orcs. All too soon Beasty was freed from the pillar and began limping over to where Merry, Frodo, and Pippin stood all shaking in fear. Lara seeing this ran forward but the thing hit her with its club and sent her flying across the room. She hit the wall with a painful thud and saw darkness at the edges of her sight. Trying to blink it off she shakily stood up just in time to see Beasty doing the same to Aragorn and "piercing" Frodo with a spear.
Lara knew he wasn't dead, but seeing it hurt Aragorn into unconsciousness caused a wave of new energy come to her. She picked up her sword and lunged at the thing just as Merry and Pip jumped on its head and began stabbing it. She nearly avoided another swing of its arms and decided a different approach. Taking a run start she lunged at the wall ignoring the looks sent to her by her comrades and ran up the wall (Prince of Persia style) grabbing hold of a nicely sticking rock, she pushed off with all her might and did a flip in the air as she landed onto Beasty's back. She took out her sword and jabbed it as hard as she could into its neck.
The thing roared in pain and Legolas took this as an opening to shoot it in the mouth, taking great care not to hit Lara's sword which seemed to have pierced it through all the way. The arrows hit their target finally getting the troll to give in and die. Beasty stumbled a great deal before finally falling onto its stomach sending Merry and Pippin flying to the ground whilst Lara thinking quickly took out her sword and jumped off before it hit the ground.
There was a moment of silence before everyone still conscious rushed towards Frodo. Lara whipped her sword on her cloak and went to check on Merry and Pip. They seemed to be alright and soon after joined the others who were gathering over the heavily breathing Frodo.
"It's alright, I'm not hurt." Frodo tried to reassure them, and Lara had to smirk at that: 'Mithril or no Mithril that hit could have caused internal bleeding even without piercing flesh…' she was reminded of the time when she foolishly went into a battle in a bulletproof jacket thinking that she won't have a scratch on her.
"You should be dead! That spear would have skewered a wild boar!" exclaimed Aragorn looking disbelievingly at the hobbit.
"If you boys don't back away from him, he will die of suffocation!" called to them Lara earning herself a couple of half-hearted and joking glares, however they did back up some.
"There's more to this hobbit then meets the eye," said the amused wizard.
"Mithril! You are full of surprises master hobbit," said Gimli clearly in a state of awe.
All of a sudden drum beats rose up again and the smiles fell off of their faces.
"To the Ridge of Khazad-dûm!" shouted Gendalf as they all rushed out of the chamber and back into the main hall. This time however the beautiful columns where covered in climbing orcs and goblins. The vile creatures seemed to appear from everywhere at once, and soon the Fellowship found itself surrounded. Everyone had their weapons ready but Lara. The leering faces of the orcs were enough to send anyone running, she however simply stood there in front of them, as if there was nothing there. She raised a hand up to her face pretending to be inspecting her nails receiving a weird look from Legolas.
All of a sudden a fiery glow appears at the end of the hall with a thundering, frightening roar. IT causes for the orcs to go running back into their homes and Lara to drop her hand and look coldly towards the glow. Within a matter of seconds they were alone, in the hall with that glow getting more and more intense.
"What is this new delivery?" muttered Boromir the question on almost everyone's mind.
Gendalf closed his eyes then opened them again all of a sudden looking old and tired, "A Balrog- a demon of the ancient world." At the tone of his voice they become more frightened and alert and understanding flashes in Aragorn's eyes. He looked at Lara and all the tomb raider could do was nod and drop her eyes. "This foe is beyond any of you. Run!" Gendalf turned and ran in the direction of the bridge once again leading the Fellowship on, for the very last time…
They reached a room filled with stairs and ran down until they reached a gap. Lara saw Gendalf and Aragorn running towards them and knew that the Fellowship was now in Aragorn's hands. Legolas made the first jump easily, calling Gendalf over next. Then came Boromir with Merry and Pippin, once he dropped the hobbits he caught Sam and set him on the ground near the others. Gimli jumped next, nearly falling and shouting something in dwarfish at Legolas who grabbed him by his beard.
Aragorn, Frodo, and Lara were the only ones left to jump. The earth shock beneath them and the males lost their footing. The stairs began to crumble and the piece that Lara still stood on began falling. Thinking on her feet she pushed off the piece of falling stair and reached up grabbing the ledge of the staircase that the others stood on. She pulled herself up very quickly and moved away just as the other stair came crushing at them.
They all continued down the winding staircase and Lara saw the crumbled entrance that they came through but there was nothing there but darkness. She ran up to the others as they crossed the narrow bridge and waited until only she and Gendalf remained.
"Gendalf please!" she begged fresh tears in her eyes.
"Lara, run! You cannot do anything here! You are needed with them!" He pushed Lara slightly towards the bridge but she didn't move, "Do as I say!" this time she obeyed and ran across the bridge. She turned back and looked at Gendalf's form standing there: a tiny grey spot in front of the fiery demon.
"You cannot pass," said the wizard holding his sword and staff at his sides.
The Balrog raises its arms and roars sounding like a crash of millions of thunders, the fire seems to almost envelope Gendalf. The wizard began raising his staff and sword slightly, "I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor…" He raised his staff and a circle of pure white light encircled him as he continues to chant, "The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!"
The Balrog raised his hand up above its flaming head and formed a sword that seemed to be made out of fire. It brought it down onto Gendalf with such force that the clang seemed to echo around the mines for hours before dying down. The white energy that was surrounding Gendalf failed and disappeared, but not before breaking the Balrog's sword. In response, the thing bent down and bellowed at the wizard, causing him to hide his face with his hand. At this, Aragorn began to move forward but soon stood stock still like the others, watching in horror, only this time knowing what was to come.
"Go back to the Shadow!" shouted Gendalf again, you could hear his teeth were clenched. All the beast did was step onto the bridge taking out a flaming whip that resembled a snake's tongue (broken in two at the end). Gendalf raised his staff and sword into the air once again summoning the last of his strength.
"YOU… SHALL NOT… PASS!" he slammed the staff into the ground causing a flash of blue to appear. The Balrog seemed even more enraged as it stepped onto the bridge completely, and causing it to collapse under the Balrog's feet and fall into the shadow below. Lara watched all of this horrified, feeling the tears already run down her cheeks, just as the Fellowship gave a sigh of relief and Gendalf turned whipping his brow, a string of fiery whip caught his ankle. He dropped his staff and sword in an attempt to hold on to something and hang of the ledge of the bridge.
"No! GENDAAALF!" cried Frodo running to the wizard, he didn't make it far before Boromir caught him and held him to his chest in a weak attempt to stop the hobbit from lashing out at him. Gendalf grabs at the stone but then looked up into Lara's eyes and stopped the struggle. Lara began shaking her head mouthing a 'no' to him, but he ignored her still keeping eye contact said the last words of Gendalf the Grey, "Fly you fools!" and let go.
Lara rushed forward to the bridge ignoring everything around her but was soon caught by someone and dragged outside. All that filled the Mines of Moria were Frodo's anguishing cries and the sound of arrows hitting stone. Once they reached outside Lara pried herself off of her captor's arms and numbly walked a few steps towards the edge of the cliff before collapsing to her knees.
The adrenaline was leaving her body and Lara could feel every wound she received in Moria, from physical to emotional, the last time she had felt like this was back in the Cradle of Life when she had to kill Terry. She felt hollow inside and ready to give up, all she seemed to be able to see and feel was the blood on her hands from all the people that she had hurt dripping down onto the ground below her. 'Lara, what are you doing?' she blinked at that all too familiar Alex West voice at the back of her head and seemed to float out of her emotion filled nightmare.
She slowly and shakily stood up and glanced around. Pippin was sobbing on Merry's legs as the elder hobbit stared off into space shock written all over his features. Legolas was standing and looking around, looking lost and vulnerable. Sam was sitting and crying next to Gimli who was attempting to run back into the mines but was held back by Boromir, while Frodo stood a little away from Lara staring at the edge of the cliff as if in trance.
"Legolas, get them up!" called Aragorn who seemed to have his stony mask back on, hiding any emotions that might lurk in that soul.
"Give them a moment for pity's sake!" cried out Boromir, his voice slightly breaking with sorrow.
"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with Orcs! We must reach the woods of Lothlórien. Come, Boromir, Lara, Legolas, Gimli, get them up!" Lara numbly nodded surprised that he talked to her at all. She went up to Frodo and stood silently next to him.
"You knew…" his mumbled voice was more of a statement then a question. All Lara could do was look at him and nod.
"That's why you acted so strangely… Is that why you stayed behind with him when we all crossed the bridge?" he looked up at her now, his eyes questioning but otherwise seemingly dead. Again all she did was nod. With a tired sigh Frodo turned around and walked off with Lara to where everyone was standing. They set out down the mountain to the woods of Lothlórien all the while having only sorrow on their minds. Lara however could not help but remember:
"Even the shadow will pass!.."
And voilla! Chapter 14 ready :) I am terribly sorry for the long wait, but unfortunately I will also be gone for the next week so i won't be ble to update the next chapter any time soon... Give it a week or two and it will be up! Thank you for reading and PLEASE REVIEW! :)