Disclaimers: As usual, I do not own any of the characters of the Fellowship, but I do own Rietta, Nimir, and anyone that you have never heard of before. I hope you don't mind my odd little plot twists. I have combined parts from both the book and the movie. Please review as constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, and if you hate this I will still continue writing it...
*Note: Italics are parts from the book.
Legolas, Gimli, and the two humans readied themselves for battle, holding arrows to the bowstrings. The hobbits were stationed behind Gandalf, whose face appeared even more lined than usual. The Mines of Moria now did not seem so appealing a place. The girl had slipped behind one of the massive, intricately carved pillars in the room. She reached up, and finding a place for her fingers to cling to, began to climb, unnoticed by the members of the Fellowship. She crawled onto a ledge, near to the ceiling, and cowered behind a pile of rock.
And then the orcs were there. They swarmed into the room, hacking and clawing and biting and screeching. They were picked off one by one, hewn to bits in a bloody massacre. The cavetroll came behind them, roaring its primeval fury and swinging a huge mace.
The girl shuddered at the painful sounds echoing through the room. "Remember the promise, please," she muttered, her eyes wide in a blind panic. This was the first time the promise had ever been brought to light. Before, it had just been something to help her survive, so that they would not kill her...
Legolas managed, by some amazing elvish maneuver, to run across a chain from the very same ledge the girl hid on, to the cavetroll's back. He shot two arrows into the crazed monster's head and leapt down.
Then, the girl watched as if in slow motion as the cavetroll managed to trap one of the small hobbits into a corner. She screamed as Aragorn was tossed and fell limp like a ragdoll, but no one heard. "I'm sorry, I'M SORRY!" she was crying, and then Frodo was pinned to the wall. A great cry rose up from the Fellowship, and Legolas quickly finished the cavetroll off.
A stunned silence flooded the room, and the girl weakly clambered down off the ledge.
"Frodo, Frodo!" two of the hobbits picked themselves up off the floor and ran over to their friend.
"Oh, Mister Frodo, why'd you have to go and get yourself hurt?" cried Sam, dropping a dented saucepan and rushing over to his master.
In the panic, the girl was forgotten. But she was so secretly relieved when Frodo turned out to be alright. He smiled a watery smile at her when he noticed her. "We still don't know your name," Frodo mumbled.
"You don't deserve to know my name," cried the girl. With surprise Legolas noticed that there were tears running down her cheeks.
"Come, hurry!" yelled Aragorn, standing at the doorway. All carefulness and heed was disregarded now; the orcs already knew that they were there.
The Fellowship and unknown girl raced out through the city of Khazad-dum, fleeing their orc pursuers. They felt the fire coming rather more than saw it. It was like a dark, evil behemoth creeping up on them.
"It is an ancient evil - a balrog," Gandalf said grimly. "Run!"
Once more they ran, through the great hallways lined by massive pillars. And then the balrog was upon them, as they crossed the ancient bridge that now led to their freedom.
It was monstrous, a great shadow spouting flames and a dreadful fear. "You never said this would happen!" screamed the girl shrilly. "Never!" the words flew out into the darkness around them.
Who is she talking to? wondered Legolas as he ran lightly along, half dragging the screaming girl behind him.
It was then that Gandalf made his last great stand- death at the whip of the balrog, on the bridge of Khazad-dum. The Fellowship watched in horror as he plunged into the darkness of Moria. The girl could not bring herself to watch and instead turned away. When the arrows began to hurtle towards them, she began to run towards the faint sunlight seeping down a flight of stone steps.
The remaining members of the Fellowship fled under the arrows of the orcs of Moria, the new and final lords. Tears poured down the faces of each hobbit, especially Frodo. The strange girl ran over the empty gray hillside, away from the Fellowship. Legolas made as if to go after her, but Aragorn held him back. "Let her go," he said gruffly, holding back his own tears.
In a little while the eight were gathered together and setting off towards the forest of Lothlorien, where Aragorn said that hopefully they would find peace and some refuge. They came across the girl at the stream of Nimrodel.
"What are you doing here?" asked Aragorn.
"Washing," she replied, much more clearly and softly than in the mines. It was true; the grime in her hair and on her face was gone, and her hands were very clean. Without her previous layer of dirt they all noticed how translucent her skin was. Her eyes were very large, but not in an ugly, bulbuous way, and with a surprise, Aragorn noticed that they were not the luminous blue green, but a deep brown flecked with black and gold. She was absolutely soaked, and had shed her cloak, revealing herself to be dressed in a long grey tunic and worn, sacking trousers.
Sam, who had been about to refill his water canteen, now eyed the water very reluctantly. The girl noticed his look. "The water's still clean, hobbit. It's running water. I washed downstream." She stood up from where she had been crouched down by the bank of the stream. "What are you all still staring at me for?" she asked almost angrily.
"Who are you?" Boromir asked impatiently. "What were you doing in Moria, and why were you screaming out as we fled? Are there others in there?"
She sighed. "For now, you may call me Rietta." She glanced at each of them in turn. Most of them looked at her curiously, wondering what plight had made her live in Moria. But Boromir saw something else in her face- she was familiar, but he could not remember where he had seen her before. It was just something about the way her eyes were set over the high cheekbones, but he could not place it.
"I was in Moria because... well, I am an exile. I was given my life on such terms that if ever I return to Rohan, I shall be killed." She looked away.
"Why are you an exile?" asked Merry curiously.
"That is my own business!" she snapped angrily, glaring at him. "And as for your last question," she stared at Boromir, "I am sure you have seen the others of Moria," she said with a hint of sarcasm.
There was silence for several moments. Aragorn stared hard at the girl, a suspicious glint in his eyes. "Then I fear we must part ways. We wish you good fortune on your journey," he said, his tone clearly indicating that he wished her to leave while the Fellowship traveled on into the forest.
She stared back, equally suspicious. "I intend to travel into this forest, as I believe you also do. What, do you not trust me?"
"We trust you," Boromir broke in before Aragorn had time to speak. He needed to find out where he had seen this girl before; it was nagging at him like a sharp rock in his boot.
"For now, you may journey with us," Aragorn conceded. "You appear to be very malnourished, so we invite you to partake of our food." His features softened as he said this; he seemed to have realized that the girl was not a threat.
"Thank you," she said gratefully. Rietta was glad that no more questions were asked as she was handed some food. She listened halfheartedly as the elf – there was an elf? she had never seen an elf before – sang an extremely beautiful song about the stream. Rietta was surprised at the colour of the elf's hair, it was even brighter than that of the people of Rohan. I wonder who these people - she decided to use a general term - are and what they were doing traveling through Moria. She was more than a little surprised that they were kind enough to help her, but she feared that they would find out the secrets of her past... if they did, they would want nothing more to do with her. Although she said nothing, she recognized one of the humans as Boromir, Prince of Gondor. If anything happened, he would be the first to realize who she was. Then she would be banished from this group of people as she had been from her home. For now she would live off their food and protection, and when it was time, she would flee.