Chapter 27: A Journey in the Dark
Moments later…
The Fellowship found themselves in a completely dark cavern, panting for breath in fear and doubt as the last rays of moonlight were obliterated…
"…We now have but one choice," Tommy quietly announced in the dark…
THUMP!
The wizard knocks his staff onto the ground, lighting it, showing the startled, frightened faces of the Fellowship…
"…We must face the long, dark of Moria," Tommy concluded, as he proceeded forward, "be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world."
Everyone slowly and silently followed Tommy's lead as they carefully pick their way over the floor and up the broad steps…
"Quietly now," added Tommy, silently, "it is a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed."
The mines of Moria were very large… vast… and deep…
The path is rough-hewn and narrow, rocky arches and boulder-like lumps appear in the half-light of the caverns. Some feel that they'll go mad if they stay here any longer…
After 3 long days of trekking through the harsh caverns…
Through every dangerous and treacherous chasm…
Every steep climb of the stairways… finding Mithril, which value was worth even greater than the value of the Shire…
And even going through barrages of dead Dwarves…
Tommy finally led them towards a crossroads in the mine, at the top of a stairway…
…Three portals loomed before him. Tommy held out his staff. He glances from one to the other and back. His eyes slowly turn towards the left-hand passage…
"I have no memory of this place," Tommy said to himself, whispering…
Tommy sat near the passageways, using his wits trying to find out what the right passageway is.
Trent and Shane, smoked their pipes and cigarettes.
Hunter and Blake whispered to each other.
"Are we lost?" asked Blake.
"No," answered Hunter assuredly.
"I think we're lost."
"Shh!" Conner quietly interrupted, "Tommy's thinking."
"Hunter," said Blake
"What Blake?"
Ethan, out of curiosity, turned around and spots a small figure coming from below, leaping from stone to stone. He rushed over to Tommy.
"There's something down there," Ethan said.
"It's Gollum," answered Tommy, apparently not surprised. It shocked them all.
"Gollum?" asked Ethan in shock.
"He's escaped the dungeons of Barad-dûr?" Ethan asked Gandalf.
"Escaped," answered Tommy, "…or set loose? Now the Ring has brought him here. He will never be rid of his need for it. He hates and loves the ring, as he hates and loves himself. Smeagol's life is a sad story."
"Smeagol?" spoke Ethan.
Gollum clasped his dark, dirty fingers onto a stone implement. He looked up with his large, wet eyes that pierced the darkness, closely watching the Fellowship, overhearing them.
"Yes," said Tommy, "Smeagol he was once called, before the ring found him… before it drove him mad."
"It's a pity," said Ethan, as he looked back in Gollum's direction, with disgust in his voice, "Zack didn't kill him when he had the chance."
"Pity," said a shocked Tommy, "it was pity that stayed Zack's hand. Many, that live, deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?"
Gollum then left his hiding spot, slinking off into the darkness, to strike sometime later… if he gets the chance.
"…The pity of Zack may rule the fate of many," finished Tommy as he nodded.
Ethan sat down beside Tommy, with much sorrow within him.
"…I wish the ring had never come to me," he said, "…I wish none of this had happened."
"So do all, who live to see such times," Tommy consoled Ethan, leaning near him in a grandfatherly manner, "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, as any other world Ethan, besides the will of evil. Zack was meant to find the ring. In which case, you also were meant to have it."
