A/N: Hey all, sorry for not posting last night like I said, life happened...Also may have something to do with the face that I got distracted with looking at LOTR memes my husband. #Sorrynotsorry#Onlythedankestmemeswilldo#Couplegoals#JKhekeptteasingme.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Action scenes aren't really my favorite to write because I feel like I have a lot to improve on, but it will have to do for now. Like always, if you are wanting to keep updated on when the next chapter gets posted, don't forget to archive Starlight in your Favorites & Follow lists! Also, if there are any q's that you have for me, such as clarifications feel free to leave me a Review! Also, I'm trying to come up with more 'get-to-know-you' q's for Tori to ask Legolas. If you guys want to hear how the wonderful Prince would answer your questions, just leave it in a Review for me.

Thank you to all those who have added Starlight to your favorites and follow lists! Every time it's added, I receive a notification via email, and I just love it!

Namárië,

Tasarin

Chapter 25: Drums in the Deep

We left the Great Hall through the northernmost arch and found ourselves inside a wide corridor. There was a faint glimmer of light at the far end of the passage that brightened as we drew closer. The light came from a door to the right of us. Its door still hung on its hinges, although crookedly, and the light shined through the cracks in the splintered wood.

From being in the dark too long, the light was almost too dazzling and bright. Gandalf pushed the door in and stepped into the chamber as the door creaked at his passing. I held my hand over my eyes against the light as I stepped in behind Gimli.

A lone pillar of light shone straight down from a vent in the ceiling onto a slab of rock that sat in the middle of the room. Thousands of dust motes danced in the light as we moved into the room. This room had looked like it had been undisturbed from visitors for years. Dust coated almost everything in sight.

"It looks like a tomb." Frodo muttered softly as he bent closer to the table. We gathered around the table like stone as Gandalf bent down to wipe a hand against the stone to clear the dust. Bold dwarvish lettering appeared.

"There are Daeron's Runes, such as were used of old in Moria. Here is written in the tongue of Men and Dwarves: 'Balin son of Fudin. Lord of Moria'." Gandalf stood at his full height and looked over to the dwarf of the party with sad eyes. Gimli's head fell silently, helmet hooding his eyes as he knelt by the monolith of his kin.

We left Gimli to his grief in peace in search of some clue as to how Balin had met his end. Further inspection of the room revealed a slew of bones, broken helms, swords and shields over by the door that we came through. The room was in severe disrepair with large gaping holes littering the walls.

Some of the holes held dilapidated wooden chests and crates which had long been plundered and picked clean of their treasures. In a far corner, tossed precariously on a pile of rubble as an unwanted prize, sat a large and dusty tome. Gandalf gingerly picked it up and brought it to the tomb slab. It crackled and popped at the bindings as he opened the dusty and well worn book.

"It seems to be a record of the fortunes of Balin's folk," The wizard finally said, looking up briefly to catch Gimli's attention before reading again, " I guess that it began with their coming to the Dimrill Dale nigh on thirty years ago: the pages seem to have numbers referring to the years after their arrival." He scrolled through the page and stopped his fingers on a particular passage.

"Listen to this! 'We drove out the orcs from the ground from the great gate and guard'- I think...The next word is blurred and burned. Probably, 'room-we slew many in the bright'- I think- 'sun in the dale. Flói was killed by an arrow. He slew the great.' I can read no more for quite a while." Gandalf's eyes narrowed, willing the burned and blurred scrawling hand to become readable. He sighed in frustration as he turned page after page.

We waited on baited breath and patience as Gandalf flitted through the crackling pages, when he suddenly stayed his hand on a page towards the end of the book.

"Wait, here is something; a large bold hand using an elvish script."

"That would be Ori's hand," Gimli spoke, looking over Gandalf's arm into the book. His eyes were rimmed red and even his burly beard could not hide his blotchy and reddened cheeks, "He could write well and speedily, and often used the elvish characters." The old man patted Gimli's shoulder softly before looking back down at the book. The poor dwarf was trying his damndest to appear strong. My heart broke for him.

"I fear he had ill tidings to record in a fair hand," Gandalf looked back, as if waiting for permission. Gimli nodded and Gandalf continued, "The first clear word is 'sorrow', but the rest of the line is lost, unless it ends in 'estre'." He leaned closer to the book, squinting his eyes, "Yes, it must be 'yestre' followed by 'day being the tenth of November, Balin, Lord of Moria, fell in Dimrill Dale. He went alone to look in the Mirror mere...up from east up the Silverlode'. The remainder of the page is so blurred that I can hardly make anything out, but I think I can read…,"

His eyes skimmed further down the page, trailing a long bony finger down the stained page, "We have barred the gates', and then 'can hold them long if', and then perhaps 'horrible' and 'suffer'," He turned a couple more pages and frowned very deeply, "It is grim reading. I fear their end was cruel. Listen. 'We cannot get out. We cannot get out. They have taken the Bridge and the second hall. We cannot get out. The end comes' and then 'drums, drums in the deep'." He flipped another page, "The last thing written is in a trailing scrawl of elf letters: 'They are coming'. There is no-," A loud crash of metal and rock crashed and continued to echo throughout the whole room for several minutes.

We all stood frozen around Balin's tomb and waited for the crashing to cease before we all turned in unison to the origin of the sound. Little Pip had a nasty looking arrow in his hand and stood over an open and gaping hole in the floor with wide guilty eyes.

Gandalf stormed over to the hobbit, "Fool of a Took! Next time throw yourself in to rid us of your stupidity!" The wizard growled fiercely. Pippin shrank further, dropping the decrepit arrow from his tight grasp, "We need to move on for we have tarried here too long!" Gandalf motioned us to the doors.

None of us had barely taken a step toward the door, when a very light and faint, Dum sounded from the deep beneath us. Legolas gripped my shoulders tightly as another Dum dum sounded. My stomach filled with dread as it just seemed to grow louder and faster. The ground and walls around us vibrated with the drumming in the deep.

Some kind of horn rang out in the distance and then came the inhuman shrieks and calls with the stampede of thousands of shuffling feet.

"They are coming!" Legolas warned the company, pulling me further from the door before stepping protectively in front of me. Dum dum Boom. A rain of dust and some stones fell free of the walls as they shook with the beat of the drums. Their pace gained speed; keeping in time with my frantic heart. What were we supposed to do now? Were we trapped?

"Slam the Doors and wedge them!" Aragorn yelled over the noise to Boromir. Boromir bolted to the doors and pulled them shut quickly.

"No!" The wizard bellowed, "We must not get shut in. Keep the east door ajar! We will go that way if we get a chance." Another thunderous Boom sounded along with another drawn out horn call as the shuffling of feet began to fall in the corridor. The hobbits fell back behind Legolas at my sides, clinging desperately to the hilts of their dirks. I pulled my dagger close to my chest, before unsheathing it.

A chorus of rings sounded throughout the room as swords were drawn while Legolas favored his bow, notching an arrow. Gimli stood in front of his cousin's tomb with a look of pure fury etched into the lines of his face.

"Who comes hither to disturb the rest of Balin, Lord of Moria?" He gruffed deeply as he hefted his axe menacingly. Gandalf ran to the door, thrusting his staff out into the corridor while taking a quick peek before jumping back into the room.

"There are Orcs, and a great deal many of them!" Boromir peeked out and narrowly avoided a shoddy arrow through the face.

"They have a cave troll!" He said with desperate exasperation as he stacked another rusted sword onto our make-shift blockade, "There is no hope of escape if they come through the other door!" Boromir held his shield at the ready with his sword held high and poised.

"There is no sound outside here yet." Aragorn pointed his great sword, Anduril, at the door he stood by.

As the shuffling in the corridor became more tumultuous-How that was even possible, I have no idea-we retreated further back into the chamber. A cacophony of sick and twisted laughter bounced against the shaking walls, sending stabs of cold sweats all over my body. We cannot get out! The last words from the book bounced around my mind darkly.

Bam. I looked around frantically as the noise echoed. Bam! This time even louder the sound carried into the room along with the shaking of the blockade-door. Horror gripped my stomach in knots painfully as a massive green scaled arm crashed through the buckling and abused wood to reach into the room blindly.

Boromir charged in, swinging his sword savagely at the monster arm, only to have it notched into the inhuman flesh and wretched from his grasp. A large toeless foot kicked in from underneath the door, spraying bits of splintering wood to the ground before the door.

My stomach cramped further in fear and I doubled over from the fear, leaning heavily against Legolas' taut back to grip his tunic tightly. His muscles relaxed slightly as he leaned in against my touch, but he kept his bow strung and ready.

"The Shire!" Frodo surged forward so fast, that I almost missed as his glowing blue blade delved deeply into the green foot. The monster on the other side kicked wildly and its howl shook the wood of the door. Frodo held fast to his blade and pulled it free; sickly black liquid dripping from it and falling to the floor with thin smoke tendrils.

The door began to rattle and tremble, cracking the wood right down the center. Boromir and Frodo rerouted back right as the door buckled one last time from the opposition behind it and gave way to a line of nightmarish beings that entered the room one by one. They moved like skittering rodents and spiders, hunching low in a scuttling run, holding their crude axes and swords high in the air.

Legolas let arrows fly as Gimli, Aragorn, Boromir and Gandalf jumped into the fray. What felt like an eternity, when in reality a few moments, thirteen dirty bodies crumpled and littered the chamber floor, lying in pools of stinking black blood. I peeked around Legolas to see the Orcs retreating back through the hole in the door. A brief and unsettling quiet descended upon us.

Gandalf was the first to rouse, his staff clacking on the stone as his robed shuffled against the ground, "Now is the time! Let us go, before the troll returns!" He shouted. Before we could even get our frozen feet to move, a bellowing roar shook the chamber walls as an enormous troll burst through the remaining barrier; giant and daunting spear in a grimey clawed hand. I fell back from the sheer force of the sound, right into Frodo and time seemed to stop for a moment as the troll's coal black eyes darted about the room.

I slid behind Frodo as its pitch dark eyes landed on us and then chaos erupted. It charged, knocking Boromir's shield arm aside, brutally shoving him to the ground. The beast stayed its course, gaining momentum as a juggernaut wall of pure muscle and malice. It hoisted its spear, aiming right for Frodo and I and my heart lurched painfully as it threw it right for us.

Several things happened in that moment as I saw the spear hurdle toward us in slow motion: Aragorn swinging Anduril in a wide arc down on the troll's head, cleaving it in half; Gimli screaming on top of Balin's tomb for more challengers; and Legolas. His Silvery blue eyes met mine and panic flitted across his face right as the spear met its mark with Frodo and I felt searing pain flash through my body as I smashed into the wall behind us.

I crumpled to the floor with a motionless Frodo in my lap. I blinked furiously at the blurring before my eyes and passed out just as strong arms hefted me up and then I knew only blackness.

...

A/N: Oh dear, what has happened to our poor little Tori this time? Check back in next week to see what fate has in store for our beloved little elfling..I promise it will be something you aren't expecting...unless you've been catching onto my subtle foreshadowing...#probablynotthatsubtle