"Ew..." Anne said, edging away from the dark pool. "That is one gross lake."
I nodded my agreement and shuffled away from the edge of the dark water. It was late, and it was long dark, but the ring was still cold against my skin.
Gandalf stood in front of the door to the mines of Moria, a door illuminated in the moonlight. "It says," Gandalf began, "Speak, friend, and enter. We simply have to speak the password and - "
I glanced at Shannon, who smiled and gave me the double thumbs up. I strode to the front of the company, threw my arms open, and said in a low voice - "Mellon!" (I'd been practicing.)
The doors ground open. I turned back to the open-mouthed company and grinned. "That's elvish for 'friend.'"
"You saw the freakin' movie," Dan said, sullen. "Big deal. You act like you're such a hero, but all you saw was the freakin' movie." He picked up a rock and hurled it into the water.
"Dan?" my voice cracked. "I wouldn't do that if I was you - " He hurled another rock, and the water began to bubble. "Dan! Don't!" I screamed, but it was too late.
A huge, black tentacle rose out of the water and flopped onto the rocky shore. The pony broke lose and ran whinnying into the night. "Run!" I yelled, then screamed as I felt something cold and slimy wrap around my ankle. The ground fell away from me, and I screamed bloody murder as this... thing! hefted me into the air.
Arrows from Shannon and Legolas whizzed inches from my face, and Aragorn sliced threw the tentacle that held me. The end of the tentacle came off, and I fell to the ground with a sickening whack, then moaned in terror. The end of the tentacle was still wrapped around my leg, and it was still wiggling.
"Get it off! Get it off!" I screamed, and after a moment's hesitation Aragorn wrapped both his hands around it and heaved it back into the water. He dragged me to my feet and into the mines, where the doors were slammed shut.
There, in the darkness, I was royally sick all over the floor.
"What was that?" Aragorn asked.
I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, my voice trembling as I squeaked out - "Sorry."
I thought I heard someone else being sick. "Ann, is that you?" I asked, struggling to adjust my eyes to the near pitch-blackness.
"Yeah," she whimpered, sounding miserable. "And I thought the (blaarrrgh)... movie was bad."
With a sound that sounded like a match being struck, Gandalf's staff blazed into light, and I had my first look at the Mines of Moria.
Skeletons and old armor lay everywhere - there were bodies pierced with arrows and pinned up against the walls with swords. Spiderwebs and cobwebs draped over with dust clung to everything, and a steady dripping sent shivers all down my spine.
"It's a tomb..." Aragorn whispered, as Shannon bent towards one of the bodies. She grabbed an arrow out and examined the tip.
"Orcs!" she said with disgust, throwing the arrow away. She and Legolas put arrows to their strings and looked around warily.
"We must go on," Gandalf said, turning into the darkness. I took Peter's hand and followed him. Footsteps pattered after me in the dark, and I had a strange feeling it wasn't just my friends that were following...
After a long, long march Gandalf paused, and I sat on the cold stone floor without hesitation. Gandalf looked at the two tunnels in front of him, thinking deeply.
I sighed. "There were three it the book," I said. "Two in the movie, but both times they took the right hand passage. The left one smells bad."
Legolas and Aragorn stared at me like I was crazy, but Gandalf smiled slightly. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," I said, then stumbled to my feet.
"We go forward, then," Gandalf said, and strode into the right hand passage.
"Molly?" Ann whispered.
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
"Here," Molly said, rummaging in her pack. "I think I've got an apple or something." She passed the rather bruised fruit to Ann, who sank into it gratefully as they walked along.
We continued through the mines, stopping once to sleep and several times the next day to rest. It was on that second day that I stopped, and stared through an open door.
"What is it?" Legolas asked, following my gaze.
"I ... don't know..." There was an old wooden door off to the left, hanging open, and a shaft of dim light fought down to the floor. In the middle was an old marble table with strange markings on it. Curiosity overwhelmed me, and I stepped through the doorway.
"Megan! What are you doing?" The rest of the company followed me through the doorway, puzzled and frightened.
Slowly, I walked forward to the marble table - it was a tomb, covered in dust. I took a deep breath and blew the swirling gray away, then ran my hands along the top. The marks were carved deep, and they looked oddly familiar...
Ann pattered away from the group, walking over to a huge well behind the tomb. There was a bucket on a chain, and she peered cautiously over the rim, then yelled in terror.
There was a skull in the bucket.
Ann threw her hands up in disgust, and the bucket went hurtling down the well, bouncing off the stone walls and filling the entire guardroom with an earsplitting racket. The ricocheting noise dimmed, slowly, then died away deep in the depths of the mines.
When it was all over, Ann looked up from between her fingers. "Uh - oh."
"Fool!" said Gandalf. "Why didn't you just throw yourself down as well?"
Ann's lower chin trembled violently. "I - I'm sorry!" She started to sniffle.
Legolas rolled his eyes. Shannon frowned and poked him with an arrow.
*BOOM - BOOM* the sound came from deep in the mines. *BOOM-BOOM* It sounded like drums, only deeper and more threatening. I thought I could hear soft shrieks and the sound of footsteps.
"Oh, sh-" I started to say, but Gandalf cut me off.
"They're coming!" he yelled. "Bar the doors!"
We all ran to heave the wooden doors shut and drag beams in front of them, except for Ann. Trembling, she backed into a corner, her eyes so wide they seemed to take up her whole face. Her lips were moving, and it looked like she was praying.
Not that I blame her.
We stationed ourselves in front of the door - Shannon and Legolas standing side by side with arrows drawn, Peter, Dan and Aragorn holding shields and swords in front of them, Frances standing on top of the tomb with her ax raised, Veronica and I huddled close with hobbit-swords drawn, and Molly looking exceptionally fierce with a large frying pan.
Ann was still in the back
Then they came. Pounding on the door and breaking it down, they flooded the room - orcs. Yeah, they were gross in the movie, but in the movies you didn't smell them. Or hear the slime on their faces stretch and snap as they howled. Or see them charge at YOU, grinning with awful green teeth.
Arrows flew thick through the air, Shannon and Legolas killing orcs by the dozens. Dude, I didn't KNOW she could shoot two arrows at once.
Peter and Dan slashed out, chopping at the orcs and yelling along with Aragorn, whose sword was moving so fast it looked like a blur - orcs fell dead in a circle around him. Frances gave a terrifying battle cry and leapt into the fray - hewing down orcs like she'd done this before.
Veronica and I held our own, barely, against the screaming monsters, and Molly knocked one after the other out cold with a dull clang.
Then it got quiet - too quiet. There were footsteps outside the door, and everyone froze.
I gasped in terror as the troll entered the room. The stench was overwhelming, and as he roared and swung his mace I turned tail and ran. My friends went to the left, and I dove to the right, just barely making it underneath the swinging mace.
Panting, I pressed myself up against the cold stone. I heard the monster's breath on the right, and I scooched along the column to the left. Every nerve in my body ringing, I thought I heard him switch positions and I scooched back to the right.
Oops. The troll roared right into my face, and I was almost blown backwards by the force. Little flecks of saliva that hissed in the air splashed on to my face, and the smell nearly knocked me out cold. The troll raised his mace and flung it at me.
Everything seemed to go into slow motion. Well, this is the end, I thought - and then it hit. It felt like getting smashed by a truck. My neck snapped, my eyes rolled back into my head, and the shock of being flung backwards into a wall knocked all the breath out of me. I groaned once, then fell forward onto my face and stayed there.
Veronica and Molly exchanged one hurried glance, then leapt on the troll's back, yelling for all they were worth. Veronica stabbed him the back of the neck, and Molly whacked him repeatedly with the frying pan, cursing at the top of her lungs.
The troll reared and threw them off, then clapped one hand to his face as Shannon shot him through the eye. Shannon yelled as the troll threw an abandoned orc blade at her, and then Legolas shot him twice in the throat.
The troll gurgled, spat blood, and fell on his face.
Ann had been gathering up her courage, and now she ran from the shadows, her sword held high over her head. With a curdling yell, she smashed the blade over the troll's head. "Take! that! You! Stu! Pid!" she accented each syllable with a blow. "F---! Ing! Mon! Ster!" Then, with a growl, she went into rapid fire, like one of those chinese chefs. "AAAIIIII!"
"Ann!" Aragorn snapped. "It is dead!" Ann glared and it looked as though she might continue her slice-and-dice routine on him.
The Shannon did a double take, gasped and ran to my side. "No!" she yelled, turning me over, "Oh, god, no, no!" Aragorn started and came to kneel beside me.
"Is she - is she - " Shannon asked as Aragorn held a hand in front of my face.
My eyes flickered open, and I groaned, trying to inhale. After a second my lungs remembered how and I gasped and gasped at the putrid air.
"I'm okay - " I panted. "I can - " I looked up at Aragorn, who was staring at me with wide eyes. I glanced down and realized that my shirt was undone and that the mithril coat was gleaming in the dim light.
"Oh, yeah, that," I muttered, pulling my clothes back together. "Definitely a plus." I stood on wobbly knees. "We've got to get out of here."
"Quickly!" Gandalf agreed, gripping his staff with white hands.
Shannon was pale as we hurried out of the room. "Are you - okay?" I gasped. She nodded and bit her lip. I turned my attention back to the road in front of me.
I had a terrible feeling things were about to get worse.
I nodded my agreement and shuffled away from the edge of the dark water. It was late, and it was long dark, but the ring was still cold against my skin.
Gandalf stood in front of the door to the mines of Moria, a door illuminated in the moonlight. "It says," Gandalf began, "Speak, friend, and enter. We simply have to speak the password and - "
I glanced at Shannon, who smiled and gave me the double thumbs up. I strode to the front of the company, threw my arms open, and said in a low voice - "Mellon!" (I'd been practicing.)
The doors ground open. I turned back to the open-mouthed company and grinned. "That's elvish for 'friend.'"
"You saw the freakin' movie," Dan said, sullen. "Big deal. You act like you're such a hero, but all you saw was the freakin' movie." He picked up a rock and hurled it into the water.
"Dan?" my voice cracked. "I wouldn't do that if I was you - " He hurled another rock, and the water began to bubble. "Dan! Don't!" I screamed, but it was too late.
A huge, black tentacle rose out of the water and flopped onto the rocky shore. The pony broke lose and ran whinnying into the night. "Run!" I yelled, then screamed as I felt something cold and slimy wrap around my ankle. The ground fell away from me, and I screamed bloody murder as this... thing! hefted me into the air.
Arrows from Shannon and Legolas whizzed inches from my face, and Aragorn sliced threw the tentacle that held me. The end of the tentacle came off, and I fell to the ground with a sickening whack, then moaned in terror. The end of the tentacle was still wrapped around my leg, and it was still wiggling.
"Get it off! Get it off!" I screamed, and after a moment's hesitation Aragorn wrapped both his hands around it and heaved it back into the water. He dragged me to my feet and into the mines, where the doors were slammed shut.
There, in the darkness, I was royally sick all over the floor.
"What was that?" Aragorn asked.
I wiped my mouth on my sleeve, my voice trembling as I squeaked out - "Sorry."
I thought I heard someone else being sick. "Ann, is that you?" I asked, struggling to adjust my eyes to the near pitch-blackness.
"Yeah," she whimpered, sounding miserable. "And I thought the (blaarrrgh)... movie was bad."
With a sound that sounded like a match being struck, Gandalf's staff blazed into light, and I had my first look at the Mines of Moria.
Skeletons and old armor lay everywhere - there were bodies pierced with arrows and pinned up against the walls with swords. Spiderwebs and cobwebs draped over with dust clung to everything, and a steady dripping sent shivers all down my spine.
"It's a tomb..." Aragorn whispered, as Shannon bent towards one of the bodies. She grabbed an arrow out and examined the tip.
"Orcs!" she said with disgust, throwing the arrow away. She and Legolas put arrows to their strings and looked around warily.
"We must go on," Gandalf said, turning into the darkness. I took Peter's hand and followed him. Footsteps pattered after me in the dark, and I had a strange feeling it wasn't just my friends that were following...
After a long, long march Gandalf paused, and I sat on the cold stone floor without hesitation. Gandalf looked at the two tunnels in front of him, thinking deeply.
I sighed. "There were three it the book," I said. "Two in the movie, but both times they took the right hand passage. The left one smells bad."
Legolas and Aragorn stared at me like I was crazy, but Gandalf smiled slightly. "Are you sure?"
"Positive," I said, then stumbled to my feet.
"We go forward, then," Gandalf said, and strode into the right hand passage.
"Molly?" Ann whispered.
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
"Here," Molly said, rummaging in her pack. "I think I've got an apple or something." She passed the rather bruised fruit to Ann, who sank into it gratefully as they walked along.
We continued through the mines, stopping once to sleep and several times the next day to rest. It was on that second day that I stopped, and stared through an open door.
"What is it?" Legolas asked, following my gaze.
"I ... don't know..." There was an old wooden door off to the left, hanging open, and a shaft of dim light fought down to the floor. In the middle was an old marble table with strange markings on it. Curiosity overwhelmed me, and I stepped through the doorway.
"Megan! What are you doing?" The rest of the company followed me through the doorway, puzzled and frightened.
Slowly, I walked forward to the marble table - it was a tomb, covered in dust. I took a deep breath and blew the swirling gray away, then ran my hands along the top. The marks were carved deep, and they looked oddly familiar...
Ann pattered away from the group, walking over to a huge well behind the tomb. There was a bucket on a chain, and she peered cautiously over the rim, then yelled in terror.
There was a skull in the bucket.
Ann threw her hands up in disgust, and the bucket went hurtling down the well, bouncing off the stone walls and filling the entire guardroom with an earsplitting racket. The ricocheting noise dimmed, slowly, then died away deep in the depths of the mines.
When it was all over, Ann looked up from between her fingers. "Uh - oh."
"Fool!" said Gandalf. "Why didn't you just throw yourself down as well?"
Ann's lower chin trembled violently. "I - I'm sorry!" She started to sniffle.
Legolas rolled his eyes. Shannon frowned and poked him with an arrow.
*BOOM - BOOM* the sound came from deep in the mines. *BOOM-BOOM* It sounded like drums, only deeper and more threatening. I thought I could hear soft shrieks and the sound of footsteps.
"Oh, sh-" I started to say, but Gandalf cut me off.
"They're coming!" he yelled. "Bar the doors!"
We all ran to heave the wooden doors shut and drag beams in front of them, except for Ann. Trembling, she backed into a corner, her eyes so wide they seemed to take up her whole face. Her lips were moving, and it looked like she was praying.
Not that I blame her.
We stationed ourselves in front of the door - Shannon and Legolas standing side by side with arrows drawn, Peter, Dan and Aragorn holding shields and swords in front of them, Frances standing on top of the tomb with her ax raised, Veronica and I huddled close with hobbit-swords drawn, and Molly looking exceptionally fierce with a large frying pan.
Ann was still in the back
Then they came. Pounding on the door and breaking it down, they flooded the room - orcs. Yeah, they were gross in the movie, but in the movies you didn't smell them. Or hear the slime on their faces stretch and snap as they howled. Or see them charge at YOU, grinning with awful green teeth.
Arrows flew thick through the air, Shannon and Legolas killing orcs by the dozens. Dude, I didn't KNOW she could shoot two arrows at once.
Peter and Dan slashed out, chopping at the orcs and yelling along with Aragorn, whose sword was moving so fast it looked like a blur - orcs fell dead in a circle around him. Frances gave a terrifying battle cry and leapt into the fray - hewing down orcs like she'd done this before.
Veronica and I held our own, barely, against the screaming monsters, and Molly knocked one after the other out cold with a dull clang.
Then it got quiet - too quiet. There were footsteps outside the door, and everyone froze.
I gasped in terror as the troll entered the room. The stench was overwhelming, and as he roared and swung his mace I turned tail and ran. My friends went to the left, and I dove to the right, just barely making it underneath the swinging mace.
Panting, I pressed myself up against the cold stone. I heard the monster's breath on the right, and I scooched along the column to the left. Every nerve in my body ringing, I thought I heard him switch positions and I scooched back to the right.
Oops. The troll roared right into my face, and I was almost blown backwards by the force. Little flecks of saliva that hissed in the air splashed on to my face, and the smell nearly knocked me out cold. The troll raised his mace and flung it at me.
Everything seemed to go into slow motion. Well, this is the end, I thought - and then it hit. It felt like getting smashed by a truck. My neck snapped, my eyes rolled back into my head, and the shock of being flung backwards into a wall knocked all the breath out of me. I groaned once, then fell forward onto my face and stayed there.
Veronica and Molly exchanged one hurried glance, then leapt on the troll's back, yelling for all they were worth. Veronica stabbed him the back of the neck, and Molly whacked him repeatedly with the frying pan, cursing at the top of her lungs.
The troll reared and threw them off, then clapped one hand to his face as Shannon shot him through the eye. Shannon yelled as the troll threw an abandoned orc blade at her, and then Legolas shot him twice in the throat.
The troll gurgled, spat blood, and fell on his face.
Ann had been gathering up her courage, and now she ran from the shadows, her sword held high over her head. With a curdling yell, she smashed the blade over the troll's head. "Take! that! You! Stu! Pid!" she accented each syllable with a blow. "F---! Ing! Mon! Ster!" Then, with a growl, she went into rapid fire, like one of those chinese chefs. "AAAIIIII!"
"Ann!" Aragorn snapped. "It is dead!" Ann glared and it looked as though she might continue her slice-and-dice routine on him.
The Shannon did a double take, gasped and ran to my side. "No!" she yelled, turning me over, "Oh, god, no, no!" Aragorn started and came to kneel beside me.
"Is she - is she - " Shannon asked as Aragorn held a hand in front of my face.
My eyes flickered open, and I groaned, trying to inhale. After a second my lungs remembered how and I gasped and gasped at the putrid air.
"I'm okay - " I panted. "I can - " I looked up at Aragorn, who was staring at me with wide eyes. I glanced down and realized that my shirt was undone and that the mithril coat was gleaming in the dim light.
"Oh, yeah, that," I muttered, pulling my clothes back together. "Definitely a plus." I stood on wobbly knees. "We've got to get out of here."
"Quickly!" Gandalf agreed, gripping his staff with white hands.
Shannon was pale as we hurried out of the room. "Are you - okay?" I gasped. She nodded and bit her lip. I turned my attention back to the road in front of me.
I had a terrible feeling things were about to get worse.