Chapter 5

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By nightfall they had followed the Fellowship all the way to the walls of Moria.

"Meet us on the other side," Alexia said to her horse, stroking its nose. Then he took off over the mountain.

"Isildin. It mirrors only starlight and moonlight," said Gandalf, looking up at a place on the wall, which framed by two trees. Then moonlight broke out from between

the clouds and the shape of a door appeared on the wall, with an elvish inscription above it.

"It reads, The Gates of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak Friend and enter," explained Gandalf.

"What do you suppose it means?" asked Pippin

"Simple," said Gandalf confidently, "If you are a friend, you speak the password, and the doors open."

Gandalf faced the door and spoke a password, but nothing happened. He tried another, and again, nothing happened. He continued to try passwords as Aragorn

and Sam began to unload Sam's pony.

"The mines are no place for a pony, even one so brave as Bill," said Aragorn, "Go on."

"Bye bye, Bill," said Sam sadly.

"Don't worry, Sam, he knows the way home," comforted Aragorn.

The pony trotted along and passed by Glory and Alexandria, who were hiding behind a bush.

"Let him find his way back home safely," said Glory holding a hand over Bill. The air between her hand and the pony shimmered for a moment, and then it faded.

Then there was a splash in the water and Glory looked up to see Pippin throwing stones into the lake.

"Don't disturb the water!" scolded Aragorn.

"This is useless!" sighed Gandalf, sitting down on a boulder. Frodo walked forward and stared at the inscription for a moment.

"It's a riddle," he said suddenly, "What's the Elvish word for friend?"

"Mellon," said Gandalf. Then there was a quiet rumble and the doors opened. The Fellowship entered the mines, but Alexandria and Glory held back to wait until

they were further in, so that they could keep a safe distance behind.

"Soon, mister elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the dwarves! Roaring fires, malt beer, red meat off the bone! This is the home of my cousin Balin. And they



call it a mine. A mine!" they heard Gimli brag.

"This is no mine, it's a tomb," said Boromir.

"No!" they heard Gimli cry.

"Goblins!" said Legolas.

"We make for the gap of Rohan! We should never have come here! Get out! Get out!" shouted Boromir. Suddenly a huge tentacle shot out if the water and grabbed

Frodo. The girls both automatically reached for their bows and began to shoot the monster, but it didn't seem to do anything. Sam cut off the tentacle that had a

hold of Frodo, but then more came out of the water and pushed Sam aside while one grabbed Frodo again. It pulled Frodo up into the air over the dark lake.

Then a large, ugly head emerged from the water and Legolas began to shoot at it. The girls joined in from their hiding place. No one seemed to notice the extra

arrows with all the commotion. Then Aragorn sliced the tentacle holding Frodo, and Boromir caught him as he fell from its grasp. One of Legolas' arrows hit the

monster in the eye, and Boromir and Aragorn ran back out of the lake.

"Into the mines!" shouted Gandalf. The Fellowship stumbled through the doors, and Glory flew in unnoticed as a fairy, and Alexandria used a quick invisibility spell



and snuck in. Then the door, which they had just come through, crumbled, trapping them inside.

"Now we have but one choice," said Gandalf gravely, "We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard! There are older and fouler things than orcs in the

deep places of the world. It is a four day journey to the other side. Let us hope our presence may go unnoticed."

They begin to make their way through the dark mines and Glory and Alexandria stayed a ways behind in the darkness. Then the girls heard a scurrying sound behind

them and turned around in time to see a small figure run behind a rock

"Who's there?" whispered Alexandria.

"No one. No one's here" said a panicky voice.

"Well obviously there is because you just spoke," said Glory, putting her hands on her hips. Then she saw two huge eyes blink in the darkness. Alexia stepped

forward to see what this creature was.

"Stay away from us" it said, "We has a rock and we knows how to use it!" then a small rock flew past Alexia's head from out of the darkness.

"We won't hurt you," said Glory, "Come out here so we can see you"

Then the creature slowly crept out of the shadows. He looked somewhat like a man, only very skinny and pale and was hunched over. He had huge eyes and no



hair on his head, aside from a few strands on the top. He looked very scared, but was trying to hide it.

"What is your name?" asked Glory crouching down to look the creature in its eyes.

"We is called Gollum," he said fidgeting with his fingers.

"And why are you here?" asked Glory "Why are you following us?"

"We is not following you," he said "We is following the hobbit. He has my precious"

"Your precious? You mean...the ring?"

"Yes! It was stolen from us and we wants it back!" he spat.

"You cannot have it back, Gollum, the ring is to be destroyed," explained Glory.

"No! Not the precious! We must have it! We must follow the hobbit..." he said, scurrying past he girls.

"Speaking of the hobbit. Where are they?" asked Alexandria. The looked down into the darkness and could no longer see or hear the fellowship. Gollum, however,

seemed to know where they had gone because he was heading confidently in one direction.

"I say we follow him," said Glory.



With following Gollum they eventually got to the bottom of the cliff where the Fellowship was sitting. Glory flew up to see what they were doing. They were sitting



around and seemed to be waiting for something.

"Are we lost?" asked Pippin.

"No, we're not lost," said Merry.

"I think we're lost," said Pippin again.

"Quiet, Gandalf's thinking," whispered Merry.

"Merry? I'm hungry."

"There's something down there," said Frodo, glancing down in Alexandria's direction. She ducked back into the shadows when she saw Frodo looking down at

her, but Glory quickly realized he was not talking about Alexandria, but about Gollum who was climbing up the ladder toward the group.

"It's Gollum. He's been following us for three days," said Gandalf. But he did not mention anything about the girls, which relieved Glory.

"He escaped from the dungeons of Barad-dur!" exclaimed Frodo.

"Escaped, or was set loose," added Gandalf, "Gollum hates and loves the ring, as he hates and loves himself. He will never be free of his need for it."

"Pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance," said Frodo, looking back down at Gollum.

"Pity?" scoffed Gandalf, "It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many who live deserve death, and some who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Do not be too



eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends, but my heart tells me that Gollum still has a part to play, for good or ill. Before this is

over, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."

"I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened," sighed Frodo.

"So do all who live to see such times," said Gandalf, "but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time we are given. There are

other forces at work in the world than the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring, which means that you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging

thought. Ah! It's this way."

"He's remembered!" said Merry excitedly.

"No, but the air smells less foul down here. When in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose," said Gandalf. The group followed Gandalf into the tunnel where he



had gone. Glory flew back down to Alexia and the both of them climbed up the ladder after the Fellowship. When they reach the top they heard drums beating

from down one of the other tunnels. They immediately pulled out their bows and ducked back against the wall. Gollum had already taken off in the other direction.

A huge crowd of Orcs along with a huge mountain troll began to try to knock down a door at the end of the tunnel. The girls heard familiar voices yelling on the

other side of the door and realized that the Fellowship was in that room. They started shooting at the orcs, trying to take down most of them before they could get in



That caused some of the orcs to start chasing them, which was ok because at least it was leading them away from the Fellowship. The girls turned down one of the



other tunnels, which led them up to what looked like a Balcony over looking the bridge. There were several other balconies around the room also. The girls turned

to face down the tunnel and began to shoot the orcs, but there were to many. Alexia let her guard down for a moment to long and soon an orc had its sword to her

throat.

"Such a shame to kill something so beautiful," he said slimily and grabbed Alexia's face to kiss her. Glory turned around to see her cousin in the hands of the orc.

She snuck up behind Alexia and took an arrow out of her bag. Alexia ducked down and Glory stabbed the arrow through the orcs head. The orc fell to the ground,

and Alexia jumped back up. She heard an orc coming up behind her, and she grabbed the arrow out of the orcs head, turned on her heel and shot the orc in the

chest. Soon dead orc bodies surrounded the girls.

"Look! There they are," said Alexia pointing down to the bridge. Then all of the other balconies were filling with orcs who began shooting at the Fellowship. Glory

and Alexia started shooting at the other balconies, and noticed that Legolas was doing the same, but did not seem to have seen them. Alexia lined up a shot, but

then noticed an orc arrow speeding towards her and she ducked out of the way, but in doing so she accidentally let go of her arrow sending it speeding towards

Legolas, who had his back turned. Alexia lost her head for a moment and screamed,

"Legolas!"

He turned fast and caught the speeding arrow millimeters from his forehead. He glanced up in the girls direction and Alexia ducked down, but she was sure he

saw her, and he definitely heard her. Glory, who was using the wall as a shield, was already out of sight, but saw the whole thing.

She was staring at Legolas with her jaw dropped, then turned to Alexia with the same face,

"Wow," was all Alexia could manage to say.

When the Alexia stood back up she saw Gandalf standing at the edge of the broken bridge, facing a huge fiery demon.

"You cannot pass," he bellowed

"Gandalf!" Frodo screamed

"I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor! Dark fire shall not avail you, flame of Udun!" yelled Gandalf.

The demon drew a flaming sword and swung at Gandalf, but Gandalf blocked it.



"Go back to the shadow! You shall not pass!" he yelled, slamming his staff on the ground. The demon retreated for a moment, but then it pulled out a fiery whip



and stepped out onto the bridge. But the bridge was not stable enough and it crumbled beneath the demon, and it fell into the darkness. For a moment, the girls



were relieved, but at the last moment the demon sent up the whip and grabbed Gandalf around the ankle pulling him down. Gandalf managed to grab the edge

of the bridge,

"Fly, you fools!" he said.

"No!" screamed Frodo, running towards Gandalf, but Boromir grabbed a hold of him. Then Gandalf let go of the edge, falling into the darkness with the demon.

"No!" Glory and Alexia screamed. But their cries were drowned out by the cries of Frodo and the others. Glory and Alexia watched in shock as the Fellowship

left the mines.

The girls stared into the darkness where their Great Grandfather had fallen and then Alexandria spoke,

"How do we get out of here?"

"I can fly, but you cannot," said Glory.

"There is no way," cried Alexia, "the bridge is gone."

There was silence for a moment, then Glory closed her eyes and spoke,

"Give me strength," she whispered to herself, and then held out her palms to Alexia.

"Let me give the gift of fairy flight," she said, and then the air between her palms and Alexia shimmered like it did with the pony. When she opened her eyes Alexia



was floating in front of her, about 4 inches tall. She gasped and smiled at what she had just done, then turned into her fairy form herself. Then the two girls flew out

after the Fellowship. When they found them, they were all sitting outside mourning over the loss of Gandalf. The girls landed behind a large rock and turned back into



themselves.

"Thank you, Glory," said Alexia grabbing Glory into a hug as her eyes filled with tears, "I can't believe he's gone." Tears began to stream down her and Glory's



faces.

"Legolas, get them up!" they heard Aragorn say.

"Give them a moment, for pity's sake!" cried Boromir.

"By nightfall these hills will be crawling with orcs!" said Aragorn, "We must reach the woods of Lothlorien. Gimli, Legolas, get them up! On your feet Sam. Frodo?"

Glory peered around the other side of the rock and saw Frodo, who had wandered away from the group. He stared, shocked, into thin air, tears running down his

cheeks. Then he joined the group again and then started down the mountain, on their way to Lothlorien.

"We should go ahead and tell Galadriel of their coming, for they may be killed without question in the woods of Lothlorien," said Alexia, whistling for Nurdilwen

again. He came galloping over the hill behind them. They got on and flew towards Lothlorien.

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