Chapter Eleven
"Are we lost?" Bao whispered to Chris as the Fellowship sat quietly, waiting for Chizuru to guide them on. Iori had already made the point that he too had no idea where to go next since he had very seldomly been into the Mines of Moria.
"No." Chris whispered in reply.
Bao looked at him from where they sat against some rocks. "I think we are."
"Kagura-sama is thinking."
A pause.
"Chris?"
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
Shingo Yabuki sat on the opposite side of them, shaking his head with a smile as he listen to his two friends. He cast a glance at the way they had come so far, which wasn't very far at all, when a movement caught his eye. He turned around properly to get a better view at the strange figure approaching them, before he ran towards Chizuru, sitting and thinking silently on a rock as she faced the three pathways.
"Kagura-sama. There's something down there." Shingo tilted his back towards the long flight of stairs.
Chizuru didn't shift her gaze, her face still deep in thought as she replied distantly "It's Choi Bounge."
"Choi?" Shingo frowned. Hadn't Chizuru recently told him that Choi Bounge had been captured by N.E.S.T.S.?
"He's been following us for three days."
"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-dûr?"
This time, Chizuru seemed to break out of her meditative-like state as she turned and looked at him, her voice still low. "Escaped? Or was set loose?" she gestured in the direction that Shingo had been motioning to. "Choi hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself. He will never be rid of his need for it."
"Should I alert the others?" Shingo asked, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that Choi was trailing them.
Chizuru shook her head. "No. My heart is telling me that Choi still has some part to play in all of this before it is all over. But for good or ill, I cannot tell."
Shingo was suddenly filled with a great weariness and he sat hevily on the rock next to Chizuru, sighing deeply. "I wish the Ring had never come to me," he looked at the ground. "I wish none of this had ever happened."
Chizuru placed her hand on his shoulder, comforting him. "So do all who live to see such times, young Shingo. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us," she glanced over in Kyo's direction as he sat clutching his bow tight against his chest whilst looking cautiously at a malevolently-grinning Iori. "Even the immortal Elves die one day," she squeezed his shoulder reassuingly. "Shingo. There are other forces in this world besides the will of evil. Saysiu was meant to obtain the Ring. And, in which case, you were also meant to have it," she quirked a smile. "And that is an encouraging thought."
To credit Chizuru, Shingo managed a faint smile.
"Ah," Chizuru seemed happier now as she looked at one of the stair pathways that lead down into the darkness. "It's that way!"
At the sound of her quietly cheerful voice, everyone else turned to look at her.
"You've remembered!" Bao said with a broard grin.
"Not really," Chizuru smiled back as she began to lead the group down the stairs. "But the air doesn't smell so foul down here. If in doubt, always follow your nose."
Four days had nearly passed and Chizuru reached the bottom of another set of stairs, peering cautiously out into the vast room before her, a smile creeping onto her face. It was still too dark to see everything, but she could tell immediately where they were.
She glanced at K', Iori and Kyo. "Let us risk a little more light."
The three obeyed without question, lighting their flames in their hands, illuminating the majority of the massive area, revealing countless numbers of rows of elaborately carved pillars of stone that rose hundreds of metres into the high ceiling, that left every member of the Fellowship feeling as if they were three inches tall.
"Behold!" Chizuru announced holding her arms up around her at the exquisite view. "The great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf!"
"There's an eye-opener and that's no mistake." Chris breathed, whilst Kensou leant so far back to look up at the pillars that he nearly fell over had K' not caught him.
Iori glanced around at the superb structures, feeling a warmth fill his heart. This was land that belonged to his cousin, Miss X.
Kyo, gazed up at the works of art in wonder, especially for an Elf who, before this, cared not for the Dwarves.
Andy's mouth fell open at the sight of the seemingly endless rows of carved pillars, and as he walked past him, Iori pushed Andy's mouth shut with an amused grunt. However, the look of entertainment quickly left the red-head's face as he spied something in the room off to his right, the purple flame in his hand going out as he raced into the corpse-littered room.
"Iori!" Chizuru and the others ran after him, finding him kneeling with his head bowed in despair at the foot of a large tomb, lit by a single column of daylight from a hole in the high ceiling.
Chizuru examined the Dwarfish writing on the top of the smooth stone sarcophagus, her hands lightly brushing away some of the dust that had collected there. "'Here lies Miss X, Queen of Moria'," Chizuru lowered her head in sadness. "She has been dead for some time. It's as I feared. I'm sorry Iori."
Iori continued to kneel at the coffin, keeping his head low, a sick feeling forming in the pit of his stomach as Chizuru's words hit him. His cousin had been dead for what could have been up to a year, and he might never have known had he not decided to join the Fellowship. He semi- consciously felt Andy place a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, but made no move or said no word, his mind still reeling from the cold, hard evidence before him.
Chizuru looked down at the skeleton of a Dwarf slumped against the coffin, holding a thick diary in it's hand. Carefuly, she shifted the shrivelled arm from the diary, picking the heavy book up in her hands, brushing away the dust before carefully opening the diary.
"We must move on," Kyo whispered to K'. "We cannot linger."
K' made didn't answer. Nor did he make a move as he and the others looked at Chizuru.
Old and tattered pages fell from the book but Chizuru ignored them as she flipped to the very last written pages, the last sentence of it had been hastily jotted down, old blood splattered on the crumbling paper. She began to read the account aloud.
"'They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming.'"
Whilst Chizuru had been reading the diary, Bao had gotten closer and closer to a skeletal figure sitting on the edge of the shaft nearby, covered in cobwebs with an arrow through it's abdomen. Curious at how Kyo had managed to identify different arrows, as he had done earlier when they had first entered the mines, Bao reached a hand out to pull at the arrow stuck into the corpse, still vaguely listening to Chizuru. As soon as she had finished, he tugged lightly at the blunt end of the arrow, but it didn't seem to budge. Instead, the decayed helmeted skull suddenly detached itself, falling backwards and down the shaft with a series of noises that startled the entire group.
Startled as well, Bao hastily jumped away from the decapitated body, which had suddenly decided to fall after the head, the armour making sonorous clangs as it tumbled down the shaft, Bao wincing with every noise it made.
There was silence as everyone let their heart rates resume normal paces, Andy letting out a small "phew".
"Fool!" Chizuru growled at Bao angrily. "Next time throw yourself in and rid us all of your stupidity!"
Bao looked guiltily at the ground, frowning as he heard a soft thumping noise. He looked at the rest of the group, wondering if it was just him hearing things. Sure enough, everybody else had heard it, the sound growing steadily louder.
Shingo drew his sword out of impulse, his eyes widening in horror as he and his friends found the blade was glowing blue.
"Orcs!" Kyo warned as the noise grew much louder and hellish screams could be heard approaching. In an instant, everyone had drawn their weapons, including the Hobbits and Chizuru, who drew her sword from her belt, ready to fight.
Andy ran for the open double doors immediately, sword in his hand as he peered out to see where the Orcs were coming from. A noise caught his attention and he ducked back just in time to avoid two Orc arrows that embedded themselves into the door where Andy's head had just been.
"Get back!" K' pushed the four armed Hobbits away from the doors as he rushed to help Andy close the heavy double doors. "Stay close to Chizuru!"
A blood-curdling roar made the two men work faster to close the heavy doors. "Oh great," Andy said sarcastically as he looked at K'. "They have a Cave Troll."
The two fighters pulled the plank across them to bolt the door. They knew it wasn't going to hold for long against the might of the swarm of Orcs. Let alone the Cave Troll.
Kyo tossed Andy some old Dwarvish axes to help hold the door with and Andy jammed the weapons into the same groove as the wooden plank.
Iori growled in anger as the doors shook with the force of the Orcs trying to get into the room. "Let them come!" he shouted, axe in his hands. "There's still one of Dwarven blood left in Moria who still draws breath!"
Orc axes began to hack at the door, the wood beginning to splinter as small holes were being formed.
K' and Kyo stood poised with their bows and arrows, waiting for the right moment to strike.
As soon as one hole appeared in the door, Kyo released an arrow, drawing another even as the Orc on the other side of the door screamed in pain. A second shriek was the evidence that K' was also using the same technique as the Elven Prince.
Suddenly, the two wooden doors were knocked down by a tide of blood- thirsty Orcs, all armed and with one intention: To kill every member of the tresspassing Fellowship.
K' and Kyo were still firing arrows as the Orcs swarmed into the room, taking down the Orcs in the front line with deadly precision. Andy, Shingo, Bao, Chris, Kensou and Chizuru had all drawn their swords, charging into the fray, their weapons slicing through the Orcs with force.
With a roar of "Shi-ne!", Iori Yagami powered up his purple flames, unleashing them at the crowd of Orcs, severly burning them as they approaced him.
Soon, the ground began to shake with the sound of great footfalls and everyone looked up just in time to see a massive Cave Troll being led into the vast room, the orcs forcing it along using the thick chain attached to the metal collar around it's thick neck. With a trmendous roar of fury, it was unleashed in the room where it attacked everything within its sights with it's huge club.
"Get out of the way!" Andy pulled Kensou backwards and out of the way of the Cave Troll bringing it's club down where the Hobbit had been standing. Andy spang up and at the great creature, attempting to use his Zan Ei Ken move on it, but it was faster, smacking him out of the way and into a pillar as Orcs swarmed to attack him.
The Cave Troll swung its grotesque form to see Iori Yagami standing on the other side of the room, the burnt bodies of Orcs at his feet. With a growl, the Troll raised it's club and thundered towards the unflinching Iori, who stood ready and grinning in anticipation of a bigger fight, his purple flames flaring in his bare hands.
However, before the Cave Troll could even cover half the distance between itself and Iori, two sharp arrows cut through the air, embedding themselves in the Cave Troll's muscular chest. The Cave Troll gave a grunt of pain and swung its chain in the direction of its new target on a nearby ledge, leaving a frustrated and disappointed Iori to deal with more Orcs on the ground, scowling at his snatched opportunity to kill the Cave Troll.
Kyo ducked and felt the rush of air as the Cave Troll's large chain sliced over him where his head had just been, taking out the orc that had been ready to attack from behind him instead. Running to one side of the ledge, he had to jump back to avoid another deadly chain lash as the Cave Troll approached. He barely moved out of the way as the long chain just missed him, wrapping around a support pillar on the ledge.
Moving fast, Kyo dashed up the trapped chain before the Troll could have a chance to free it, landing on the Troll's broard shoulders where he released an arrow into the creature's head, frowning as the arrow bounced off it's thick skull. He unsheathed one of his Elven daggers and was ready for a second shot at the Cave Troll when the creature finally managed to break it's whip-like chain free, knocking him off balance.
Somersaulting in mid-air, Kyo landed like a cat on the ground, his flames engulfing him, ready to continue the fight with the Cave Troll, when a crumbling sound snapped his attention to behind him.
The support pillar upon which the Cave Troll had caught it's chain around had been severed when the weapon was freed and great chunks of maisonary came crashing down. Trying to dive out of the way, Kyo found himself pinned to the ground by the falling rubble, his bow and dagger falling out of his grasp and the other Elven dagger now unreachable under the debris that covered most of him. An angry snort made him look up to see the irate Cave Troll towering over him, raising it's club for a killing blow.
Whoops. I've spotted the mistake I made earlier - yes indeedy, Terry is the older brother. My bad, gomen.
Please keep reviewing - It's the only way I know that you guys want more.
"Are we lost?" Bao whispered to Chris as the Fellowship sat quietly, waiting for Chizuru to guide them on. Iori had already made the point that he too had no idea where to go next since he had very seldomly been into the Mines of Moria.
"No." Chris whispered in reply.
Bao looked at him from where they sat against some rocks. "I think we are."
"Kagura-sama is thinking."
A pause.
"Chris?"
"What?"
"I'm hungry."
Shingo Yabuki sat on the opposite side of them, shaking his head with a smile as he listen to his two friends. He cast a glance at the way they had come so far, which wasn't very far at all, when a movement caught his eye. He turned around properly to get a better view at the strange figure approaching them, before he ran towards Chizuru, sitting and thinking silently on a rock as she faced the three pathways.
"Kagura-sama. There's something down there." Shingo tilted his back towards the long flight of stairs.
Chizuru didn't shift her gaze, her face still deep in thought as she replied distantly "It's Choi Bounge."
"Choi?" Shingo frowned. Hadn't Chizuru recently told him that Choi Bounge had been captured by N.E.S.T.S.?
"He's been following us for three days."
"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-dûr?"
This time, Chizuru seemed to break out of her meditative-like state as she turned and looked at him, her voice still low. "Escaped? Or was set loose?" she gestured in the direction that Shingo had been motioning to. "Choi hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself. He will never be rid of his need for it."
"Should I alert the others?" Shingo asked, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that Choi was trailing them.
Chizuru shook her head. "No. My heart is telling me that Choi still has some part to play in all of this before it is all over. But for good or ill, I cannot tell."
Shingo was suddenly filled with a great weariness and he sat hevily on the rock next to Chizuru, sighing deeply. "I wish the Ring had never come to me," he looked at the ground. "I wish none of this had ever happened."
Chizuru placed her hand on his shoulder, comforting him. "So do all who live to see such times, young Shingo. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us," she glanced over in Kyo's direction as he sat clutching his bow tight against his chest whilst looking cautiously at a malevolently-grinning Iori. "Even the immortal Elves die one day," she squeezed his shoulder reassuingly. "Shingo. There are other forces in this world besides the will of evil. Saysiu was meant to obtain the Ring. And, in which case, you were also meant to have it," she quirked a smile. "And that is an encouraging thought."
To credit Chizuru, Shingo managed a faint smile.
"Ah," Chizuru seemed happier now as she looked at one of the stair pathways that lead down into the darkness. "It's that way!"
At the sound of her quietly cheerful voice, everyone else turned to look at her.
"You've remembered!" Bao said with a broard grin.
"Not really," Chizuru smiled back as she began to lead the group down the stairs. "But the air doesn't smell so foul down here. If in doubt, always follow your nose."
Four days had nearly passed and Chizuru reached the bottom of another set of stairs, peering cautiously out into the vast room before her, a smile creeping onto her face. It was still too dark to see everything, but she could tell immediately where they were.
She glanced at K', Iori and Kyo. "Let us risk a little more light."
The three obeyed without question, lighting their flames in their hands, illuminating the majority of the massive area, revealing countless numbers of rows of elaborately carved pillars of stone that rose hundreds of metres into the high ceiling, that left every member of the Fellowship feeling as if they were three inches tall.
"Behold!" Chizuru announced holding her arms up around her at the exquisite view. "The great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf!"
"There's an eye-opener and that's no mistake." Chris breathed, whilst Kensou leant so far back to look up at the pillars that he nearly fell over had K' not caught him.
Iori glanced around at the superb structures, feeling a warmth fill his heart. This was land that belonged to his cousin, Miss X.
Kyo, gazed up at the works of art in wonder, especially for an Elf who, before this, cared not for the Dwarves.
Andy's mouth fell open at the sight of the seemingly endless rows of carved pillars, and as he walked past him, Iori pushed Andy's mouth shut with an amused grunt. However, the look of entertainment quickly left the red-head's face as he spied something in the room off to his right, the purple flame in his hand going out as he raced into the corpse-littered room.
"Iori!" Chizuru and the others ran after him, finding him kneeling with his head bowed in despair at the foot of a large tomb, lit by a single column of daylight from a hole in the high ceiling.
Chizuru examined the Dwarfish writing on the top of the smooth stone sarcophagus, her hands lightly brushing away some of the dust that had collected there. "'Here lies Miss X, Queen of Moria'," Chizuru lowered her head in sadness. "She has been dead for some time. It's as I feared. I'm sorry Iori."
Iori continued to kneel at the coffin, keeping his head low, a sick feeling forming in the pit of his stomach as Chizuru's words hit him. His cousin had been dead for what could have been up to a year, and he might never have known had he not decided to join the Fellowship. He semi- consciously felt Andy place a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, but made no move or said no word, his mind still reeling from the cold, hard evidence before him.
Chizuru looked down at the skeleton of a Dwarf slumped against the coffin, holding a thick diary in it's hand. Carefuly, she shifted the shrivelled arm from the diary, picking the heavy book up in her hands, brushing away the dust before carefully opening the diary.
"We must move on," Kyo whispered to K'. "We cannot linger."
K' made didn't answer. Nor did he make a move as he and the others looked at Chizuru.
Old and tattered pages fell from the book but Chizuru ignored them as she flipped to the very last written pages, the last sentence of it had been hastily jotted down, old blood splattered on the crumbling paper. She began to read the account aloud.
"'They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums. Drums in the deep. We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming.'"
Whilst Chizuru had been reading the diary, Bao had gotten closer and closer to a skeletal figure sitting on the edge of the shaft nearby, covered in cobwebs with an arrow through it's abdomen. Curious at how Kyo had managed to identify different arrows, as he had done earlier when they had first entered the mines, Bao reached a hand out to pull at the arrow stuck into the corpse, still vaguely listening to Chizuru. As soon as she had finished, he tugged lightly at the blunt end of the arrow, but it didn't seem to budge. Instead, the decayed helmeted skull suddenly detached itself, falling backwards and down the shaft with a series of noises that startled the entire group.
Startled as well, Bao hastily jumped away from the decapitated body, which had suddenly decided to fall after the head, the armour making sonorous clangs as it tumbled down the shaft, Bao wincing with every noise it made.
There was silence as everyone let their heart rates resume normal paces, Andy letting out a small "phew".
"Fool!" Chizuru growled at Bao angrily. "Next time throw yourself in and rid us all of your stupidity!"
Bao looked guiltily at the ground, frowning as he heard a soft thumping noise. He looked at the rest of the group, wondering if it was just him hearing things. Sure enough, everybody else had heard it, the sound growing steadily louder.
Shingo drew his sword out of impulse, his eyes widening in horror as he and his friends found the blade was glowing blue.
"Orcs!" Kyo warned as the noise grew much louder and hellish screams could be heard approaching. In an instant, everyone had drawn their weapons, including the Hobbits and Chizuru, who drew her sword from her belt, ready to fight.
Andy ran for the open double doors immediately, sword in his hand as he peered out to see where the Orcs were coming from. A noise caught his attention and he ducked back just in time to avoid two Orc arrows that embedded themselves into the door where Andy's head had just been.
"Get back!" K' pushed the four armed Hobbits away from the doors as he rushed to help Andy close the heavy double doors. "Stay close to Chizuru!"
A blood-curdling roar made the two men work faster to close the heavy doors. "Oh great," Andy said sarcastically as he looked at K'. "They have a Cave Troll."
The two fighters pulled the plank across them to bolt the door. They knew it wasn't going to hold for long against the might of the swarm of Orcs. Let alone the Cave Troll.
Kyo tossed Andy some old Dwarvish axes to help hold the door with and Andy jammed the weapons into the same groove as the wooden plank.
Iori growled in anger as the doors shook with the force of the Orcs trying to get into the room. "Let them come!" he shouted, axe in his hands. "There's still one of Dwarven blood left in Moria who still draws breath!"
Orc axes began to hack at the door, the wood beginning to splinter as small holes were being formed.
K' and Kyo stood poised with their bows and arrows, waiting for the right moment to strike.
As soon as one hole appeared in the door, Kyo released an arrow, drawing another even as the Orc on the other side of the door screamed in pain. A second shriek was the evidence that K' was also using the same technique as the Elven Prince.
Suddenly, the two wooden doors were knocked down by a tide of blood- thirsty Orcs, all armed and with one intention: To kill every member of the tresspassing Fellowship.
K' and Kyo were still firing arrows as the Orcs swarmed into the room, taking down the Orcs in the front line with deadly precision. Andy, Shingo, Bao, Chris, Kensou and Chizuru had all drawn their swords, charging into the fray, their weapons slicing through the Orcs with force.
With a roar of "Shi-ne!", Iori Yagami powered up his purple flames, unleashing them at the crowd of Orcs, severly burning them as they approaced him.
Soon, the ground began to shake with the sound of great footfalls and everyone looked up just in time to see a massive Cave Troll being led into the vast room, the orcs forcing it along using the thick chain attached to the metal collar around it's thick neck. With a trmendous roar of fury, it was unleashed in the room where it attacked everything within its sights with it's huge club.
"Get out of the way!" Andy pulled Kensou backwards and out of the way of the Cave Troll bringing it's club down where the Hobbit had been standing. Andy spang up and at the great creature, attempting to use his Zan Ei Ken move on it, but it was faster, smacking him out of the way and into a pillar as Orcs swarmed to attack him.
The Cave Troll swung its grotesque form to see Iori Yagami standing on the other side of the room, the burnt bodies of Orcs at his feet. With a growl, the Troll raised it's club and thundered towards the unflinching Iori, who stood ready and grinning in anticipation of a bigger fight, his purple flames flaring in his bare hands.
However, before the Cave Troll could even cover half the distance between itself and Iori, two sharp arrows cut through the air, embedding themselves in the Cave Troll's muscular chest. The Cave Troll gave a grunt of pain and swung its chain in the direction of its new target on a nearby ledge, leaving a frustrated and disappointed Iori to deal with more Orcs on the ground, scowling at his snatched opportunity to kill the Cave Troll.
Kyo ducked and felt the rush of air as the Cave Troll's large chain sliced over him where his head had just been, taking out the orc that had been ready to attack from behind him instead. Running to one side of the ledge, he had to jump back to avoid another deadly chain lash as the Cave Troll approached. He barely moved out of the way as the long chain just missed him, wrapping around a support pillar on the ledge.
Moving fast, Kyo dashed up the trapped chain before the Troll could have a chance to free it, landing on the Troll's broard shoulders where he released an arrow into the creature's head, frowning as the arrow bounced off it's thick skull. He unsheathed one of his Elven daggers and was ready for a second shot at the Cave Troll when the creature finally managed to break it's whip-like chain free, knocking him off balance.
Somersaulting in mid-air, Kyo landed like a cat on the ground, his flames engulfing him, ready to continue the fight with the Cave Troll, when a crumbling sound snapped his attention to behind him.
The support pillar upon which the Cave Troll had caught it's chain around had been severed when the weapon was freed and great chunks of maisonary came crashing down. Trying to dive out of the way, Kyo found himself pinned to the ground by the falling rubble, his bow and dagger falling out of his grasp and the other Elven dagger now unreachable under the debris that covered most of him. An angry snort made him look up to see the irate Cave Troll towering over him, raising it's club for a killing blow.
Whoops. I've spotted the mistake I made earlier - yes indeedy, Terry is the older brother. My bad, gomen.
Please keep reviewing - It's the only way I know that you guys want more.