Chapter 13: Above the Mountain than Below
I sat on a rock watching Boromir spar with Merry and Pippin while everyone else was relaxing enjoying a moment of peace. Boromir was a good teacher and they were learning quickly but still had a long way to go before they could fight for an army. Suddenly getting fed up with loosing they both jumped onto Boromir sending him to the ground as we all laughed until Legolas came over.
"Crows in the distance." He said seeing Gandalf stand up quickly replying, "We must hide quickly."
I ran for under a boulder huddled beside Gandalf as it was quiet for a moment until we heard loud cawing above us and thousands of wings. Eventually, the sound died down seeing them fly off in the distance standing back up with everyone.
"Spies of Saruman, we must choose another path, let us take the path up the Misty Mountains." Gandalf said towards us seeing the narrow rocky path that eventually grew to snow.
It took us till nightfall just to get to the edge of the mountain collapsing on the ground feeling the cool air imagining how much worse it was going to be the higher we got. They got a little fire going as Aragorn and Legolas found some rabbits cooking them.
I stayed beside the fire nibbling on some rabbit meat watching Sam feed Bill the pony a carrot smiling lightly, they had grown fond of each other. I wrapped my cloak around myself fighting off the shiver that traveled up my spine closing my eyes trying my best to get some rest knowing we had a long trek ahead.
I ran through the tall grass getting lost since I was too short to look over it only going by my mother's voice in the distance.
I finally broke through the grass watching her kneel down putting her arms out as I jumped into them giggling, "Mama can we go on an adventure?"
She began laughing saying, "Darling you are 12 years old the only adventure you are going on is into bed."
"I want to fight a dragon like you though." I said looking up at her with wide eyes seeing her smile saying sternly, "You will do no such thing whilst I am breathing Marina."
I scrunched my nose stomping my foot saying, "At least teach me how to fight nasty orcs."
She laughed loudly grabbing my wooden sword handing it to me saying, "Well this won't kill an orc but it's a start, what's the first rule?"
I smiled confidently getting into my best stance saying, "Eyes forward."
My eyes opened suddenly groaning as the hard ground was not the most comfortable position sitting up seeing I had a second cloak around my body.
I looked around at my companions hearing a voice say to my side, "You were shivering… I figured you needed it more than me."
I turned to see Pippin giving me a small smile looking down at the cloak pulling it off handing it back to him saying softly, "Thank you…Pippin"
"We need to get moving up the mountain." Gandalf said to all of us as I saw Pippin give me another smile before walking over to Merry as I smiled lightly, maybe the Pipsqueak wasn't so bad.
I huddled beside Merry, Pippin, and Boromir trying my best to stay warm as the snowstorm raged on ahead of us. The hobbits, Gimli and I were having a hard time not getting blown away by the strong winds as my eyes stung if I looked forward so I kept my head down.
"How can you guys not wear shoes through this?" I yelled towards them as Merry replied, "Hobbit feet are surprisingly resilient to any weather."
I shivered saying, "Even with these shoes on they are soaked through from the snow so it seems I didn't inherit that trait."
Suddenly we heard a booming voice in the wind causing our party to stop hearing Gandalf yell back saying, "This is Saruman's doing, he has conjured the storm."
Suddenly a large sheet of snow began crashing down upon us all seeking shelter but huddling together coming engulfed by it.
I reached my hand up feeling it breakthrough digging myself up seeing everyone else's head begin to pop out too. Once I climbed out my skin felt like it was on fire from how cold the snow was feeling the others shivering beside me.
"We cannot risk this path, the young ones will not make it." Boromir yelled helping us to our feet as Gandalf said, "What would you have me do?"
"If we can't go over then let's go under through the Mines of Moria." Gimli said seeing the hesitation on Gandalf's face replying, "Let the ring barrier beside."
We all turned towards Frodo watching him stare around us all saying, "We shall take the mines."
Gandalf nodded still unsure as we made our trek back down the mountain feeling it get just a little warmer with every step.
Once we made it down the mountain we walked along a rocky flat path beside a large lake hearing Gimli talk about his home in Moria. It was dark before we reached the entrance seeing that it was unfortunately locked.
"Give me a moment, the password will come back to me." Gandalf said standing beside the door.
I groaned taking off one of my shoes sitting on a rock rubbing my aching feet while I watched Sam and Aragorn let Bill go since the mines were no place for a pony. Legolas stood near Boromir and Gimli as Frodo sat with Gandalf staring up at the large ruins in front of us.
My eyes traveled to the lake beside us as I frowned lightly, the water was so still and dark it gave me an unnerving feeling the longer I sat beside it. I watched a rock pass my vision seeing another get thrown into the water looking up to see Merry and Pippin throwing them to pass the time until Aragorn stopped them.
I suddenly heard rumbling behind me watching the doors open standing quickly not wanting to be near the water anymore. We all walked in slowly watching Merry and Pippin stare at the lake until we entered the dark cavern.
"This is no mine… it's a tomb." Boromir said shaken as I looked down and in the moonlight saw hundreds of skeletons littering the ground we were walking on.
Suddenly I heard Frodo scream turning quickly just in time to see a tentacle grab him pulling him to the lake. My eyes widened seeing a giant dark creature with many tentacles appear out of the water as we all tried to cut Frodo down. I tentacle smacked me to the ground but I got up slicing it off seeing Legolas use his arrows to shoot at the creature's eyes. Thankfully he shot the right tentacle seeing Frodo fall into Aragorn's arms as we all retreated back into the mountain in just enough time to watch the doorway out collapse into ruin by the creature, we had no choice now but to keep moving.
