The land was awash in darkness by the time the fellowship reached the Walls of Moria, as Gimli called them when he pointed them out. The dwarf had been the one to point them out – a tremendous cliff face whose sheer height made the fellowship nervous and faint to behold. Adjacent to the Walls was a wide pool of dark, stagnant water. Slivers of moonlight peered through the clouds, faintly illuminating the path ahead.
They now stood in front of a wall of smooth grey rock marked by two holly trees. Gandalf stood between them, passing his hands over the surface and whispering to himself, then stepped back. The clouds parted, uncovering the bright full moon and creating a clear path for the light. Everyone watched in awe as lines began to appear on the rock, gradually becoming clearer, until they formed a design that reminded Annúngil of Arwen's standard and Boromir's vambraces: two trees with a crown and seven stars above them, with the addition of a hammer and anvil. Above all was an arch of letters in Elvish script.
"There are the emblems of Durin!" Gimli cried, pointing to the anvil and hammer.
"And there is the Tree of the High Elves!" Legolas added.
"What do the words mean?" Annúngil asked. During the two months in Rivendell she had learnt a little of the elven-tongue, but the writing on the door was not in any Elvish that she knew. Surprisingly, Legolas could not read it either.
Gimli rolled his eyes. "If only we knew somebody who could read Elvish!" he said, deliberately looking at Legolas.
"For your information, Master Gimli," Gandalf spoke up, "this is a script which has not been used since the First Age. None now live who can read them, save for those who remember the Elder Days." Tracing the words with his staff, he translated them. "It reads: 'Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter'. It's quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password and the doors will open."
With his arms raised, the wizard chanted "Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!" To his confusion, the doors remained firmly shut. Gandalf tried another spell. "Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lamen!" Still, the doors did not move. Growing frustrated, Gandalf instead tried pushing himself against them, as if two heavy stone doors set within a cliff face might give against the strength of an old man. When this inevitably failed, Gandalf proceeded to recite every spell he could think of in the hope that one of them might open the doors. Realising it may be quite some time before they were able to enter the mines, the rest of the fellowship sat by the lake.
Sam became very upset when Aragorn announced he was setting Bill free. "We can't leave poor old Bill behind in this forsaken land!" he protested.
"He has been a useful companion," Boromir pointed out. "And there is a chance we shall need him still," he added, looking back at Gandalf.
Annúngil felt equally distressed. "Does he have to go? He's come so far with us, it would be a shame to let him go now."
"It certainly would," Aragorn agreed. "But mines are no place for a pony, even one so brave as Bill."
Sighing dejectedly, Annúngil and Sam helped Aragorn remove all the luggage from Bill's back and take off his bridle. With a gentle push from Aragorn, the pony turned and trotted away. Annúngil's heart sank as she watched him leave. To her, Bill was more than just a pony; he was her last reminder of Bree.
In their boredom, Merry and Pippin began casting stones into the lake. Pippin picked one up and took aim, but Aragorn grabbed his wrist.
"Do not disturb the water," he cautioned. "There are many nameless horrors that lurk within the depths of the earth – the likes of which would make even the Nazgul tremble in fear. For all we know, some of them may be in that very lake."
Annúngil and the two hobbits gulped. It would be just like Aragorn to say something so morbid.
"Don't you start telling horror stories!" Boromir retorted, glaring at the ranger. "We have enough reasons to be afraid in this place without you giving us another!"
As he spoke, a movement on the lake caught their attention. Where the stone had fallen, ripples began to appear in the water, moving slowly towards the shore.
"What is that? Some sort of big fish?" Annúngil suggested hopefully, looking at her father.
Boromir shook his head. "I think not," he answered and pulled her behind him.
Just then, they heard a crack and the grinding of rock. Turning around, they saw the two great doors swing outwards, revealing a dark passage beyond.
Gandalf was chuckling as he stood. "I was wrong after all! It was Frodo, of all people, who worked it out. The opening word was written on the archway all the time. I had only to say the elvish word for 'friend' and the doors would have opened."
Relieved, everyone followed the wizard into the shadows. A pale light shone from Gandalf's staff, illuminating the space around them. Taking a step forward, Annúngil's foot brushed against something and, upon seeing what it was, she recoiled with a cry. Laying on the ground before her was a blackened, withered corpse. It was dressed in long-rusted armour and clutched an axe to its emaciated body, which was stuck with three black arrows. Its mouth was frozen open in a scream. As everyone's eyes adjusted to the dim light, they noticed more bodies in a similar condition strewn about the place. Gimli's distraught cry rang out through the hall as he knelt by one of the bodies, mourning for his fallen kin.
Boromir looked around in disgust. "This is no mine. It's a tomb!"
Realising that whoever, or whatever, had killed these dwarves might still be in the mines, Aragorn and Boromir drew their swords, and Legolas and Annúngil readied their bows.
A shriek from Frodo made them jump and turn around. To their horror, they saw a giant, hideous creature with long, slimy tentacles emerging from the lake. One of its snake-like limbs had wrapped around Frodo's leg and was dragging him towards the water. Dropping her bow, Annúngil dove forward and helped Merry and Pippin pull him back. Sam hacked at the tentacle with his blade in an attempt to make the beast let go, but this only made it angry. Frodo screamed as he was lifted off the ground, and Annúngil and the other three hobbits were knocked down by the creature's seven other limbs. Boromir helped his daughter to stand before rushing out with Aragorn and Legolas to save Frodo. The two men stabbed and slashed at the creature, and Legolas shot arrows at it. With one strong swipe, Aragorn severed the limb holding Frodo and the hobbit landed in Boromir's open arms.
At a shout from Gandalf, everyone hurried into the mines with the beast on their heels. In its fury, the creature began tearing at the doors, sending them tumbling down over the entrance in a cloud of dust and rubble, trapping the fellowship inside. Annúngil's bow was nearly crushed by the falling debris but she scooped it up just in time.
"We now have but one choice: we must face the long dark of Moria," Gandalf said, moving to the front of the group. "Be on your guard; there are older and fouler things than orcs in the deep places of the world."
The fellowship scarcely dared to breathe as Gandalf led them through the hall and up a short flight of stairs. They walked with silent, cautious steps, glancing around them warily, as if they expected Sauron himself to leap out of the shadows with a mace and bludgeon them to death. Little did they know, the Dark Lord would soon become the least of their worries.