Another several days of traveling brought them to another mountain-scape, except this one was empty of snow. Instead, they were barraged by winds. When they came to a small valley, centered with a lake, Azaelia and Ruby were happy to sit.

Ruby and Azaelia scaled the rocks above the fellowship and came down on their other side. Azaelia watched carefully as a door appear in the cliff wall. Gandalf stood before it for several hours, trying what seemed to be every word, phrase, spell, and incantation he knew in an attempt to get through, but each failed.

Sitting there, waiting for the doors to be opened, Ruby stared into the glass-smooth lake beside them. Something about it frightened her, which was unusual. She loved water. But this lake had an evil sort of darkness to it. Like it really was glass, and would shatter to a million pieces if it were disturbed, which would explain why she had to cover her mouth when the surface moved. Pippin and Merry were throwing rocks. Shuddering, Ruby turned away from the lake, but not before seeing something stir in its depths. She stared again, as hard as her green eyes could, but the movement had passed and there was nothing.

Finally smart Frodo said something about the Elvish word for 'friend', and this seemed to work. The wall opened and the fellowship walked in.

Azaelia grabbed Ruby's shoulder and pulled her toward the mines. In they went, before the fellowship had a chance to spot them. They huddled against the wall, waiting. A light suddenly pressed away the darkness to reveal Gandalf holding his staff ahead of him. Leave it to the clever wizard to add a light to the situation. Azaelia gave a squeak of fear and grabbed Ruby.

"This is no mine…it's a tomb." Said Boromir. And it was. Skeletons covered the ground.

"Goblins." Legolas studied the arrows piercing many of the dead. Ghimli let out a cry of pain and surprised; he must have known these people. The fellowship moved to leave the mine, but when they reached the door, something attacked them.

So she had seen something in the water! "Stupid hobbit, you should have studied that water more carefully!" Ruby yelled in her mind as she leapt to her feet, pressed against the wall, sword drawn. The creature, with its many seething limbs, had grabbed Frodo and was pulling him toward it. The members of the fellowship threw themselves at it, trying to save him. What could she do! She had personally assigned herself a protector to these people, and now she did nothing! Fear anchored her feet to the ground. Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself off the wall, slipping out of the mine and to the hiding place behind the rocks she'd just left.

She crouched there, wondering what she should do. Then she remembered something. When she was young, Pippin had taught her how to skip rocks. She looked around in the gravel, found several flat, sharp rocks, and began hurling them at the creature. At first, it seemed she was doing nothing to deter this thing from its mission, but one rock managed to wedge itself in its eye, and another down the throat of its gaping mouth. A tremor of pain racked the creature, giving the fellowship time to cut Frodo free. She ran back into the mine after the fellowship and grabbed Azaelia, pulling her after the fading light of Gandalf's staff, barely missing the creature's last attempt at grabbing hold at something alive.

Azaelia ran along, stumbling in the dark. At first they were able to follow the fellowship, but soon they got separated and found themselves wandering about. It was pitch dark in this mine, but in a few places light managed to travel through long, tunneled windows and into corridors and rooms. They picked about in the death strewn halls, listening with all their might for something…anything…alive.

As they passed down one hallway, something glinted in the corner of Ruby's eye. She grabbed Azaelia's arm, turning them into a little room with what looked like a tomb of some kind and a well placed in its center. Sitting at the base of the well was a skeleton, and beneath the skeleton lay a couple battle axes.

They stared for moment before Ruby gestured for her to get the axes, for you see, the skeleton was covered in cobwebs, as was everything else in the room. Ruby detested and feared anything that crawled. Especially spiders. Azaelia, very reluctantly, lifted the skeleton and sat it on the well and grabbed the axes. She handed one to Ruby and off they went, wandering down several flights of stairs, just missing the fellowship as they came up.

The silence of the place seemed almost physical. It consumed the two hobbits and all but stole sound before it even came to be. In this silence, Azaelia and Ruby heard something rattling around from above them. They looked up, frightened by the sudden loud noise. In the gloom, something smashed down at their feet. Then another something. And another. It was a skeleton, and a very old bucket and chain. With a scream, the two were no longer in this lower hall.

In their flight from the skeleton, Ruby thought she heard something...the sound of a thousand things…crawling. The sound echoed all around them. Then the sound of huge, thundering steps and roaring filled her ears. She clamped her hands down hard over her mouth, taking slow, deep breaths. Had to regain control. Had to be quiet. Couldn't think of herself. There were others that, at this point, mattered more. She began to feel her way through the dark, trying to find a staircase or something that would help her and Azaelia get back to their fellowship.

Eventually Ruby and Azaelia found the fellowship, but in the most unlikely of places. They ran out onto a ledge leaning out over a cavern deeper than the deepest of things they had ever seen. There was a big crack of light and they looked up and across the huge and expansive place, trying to make out what they saw in the distance.

There they were, standing at one end of a very long bridge, and in the middle of the bridge stood Gandalf, his staff held in front of him in a blaze of light. Goblins fired arrows from every imaginable direction. But the most frightening of all these sights, more than the size of the cavern, more than depth of its floor, more than the goblins, more than the danger the fellowship was in, was the creature standing on the bridge before Gandalf. It was huge-enormous! And every inch of its body was alight with flame and clouded by smoke. Horns curled around its head like a ram, but this monster was no mere sheep.

Ruby grabbed Azaelia and ducked behind a large chunk of broken rock just as an arrow about pierced through her. They watched in horror as Gandalf sent the other members of the fellowship ahead of him, turning back to confront the large, bull-horned creature of fire alone.

Ruby felt Azaelia's hand on her shoulder. "Look!" she cried, "Look what I found!" In Azaelia's hands laid a small bow and a quiver of arrows. Ruby nodded, a morbid smile on her lips. Finally, they could really help. Azaelia tossed the quiver on her back and began firing with expert accuracy. Ruby gawked at her.

"When did you learn to do that?" She cried.

Azaelia smiled almost bashfully in mid-fire, hitting a goblin in the dead center of its heart. "I went hunting once or twice with my father before he died, and he gave me his old bow and I practiced every chance I got on the haystack out back…"

Ruby let out a bark of laughter, looking down to check on her fellowship. Things were looking...at a stand still. Gandalf wouldn't move from his place before the monster and the others wouldn't leave without him.

"Azaelia...would breaking the bridge do us any good? If I were the shove this rock over the edge..." Ruby's voice trailed off and she chewed on her lip. It wouldn't take more than a bit of pushing; the thing was just teetering off the edge as it was.

"I say do it; it's possible that it might fall on that thing…can you do it?" Azaelia bowed down another goblin.

Ruby nodded. "I think so." She glanced at Azaelia, "Do you think all the wrestling and roughhousing when we were kids still left some strength in me?" she glanced at the quiver of arrows. There were probably only ten or so left. "And be careful with how you use those-we might run here real' soon."

Azaelia ducked as a few arrows were fired at them. Ruby crouched, positioning herself behind the rock. "I think I'll have just enough if they keep firing at us like this! Now hurry, who knows how long Gandalf can keep that thing back!"

Ruby looked back down at the fellowship and hiked her sleeves up. She dropped the pack and her cloak and bent low, placing her shoulder, cheek, and both hands against the rock. Taking a deep breath, she pushed with all the strength and force she could possibly muster together.

At first, the rock didn't budge and she feared she would not be able to push it just the few inches it needed to go. But then, with a loud cry, it did move, and off the edge it fell, smashing into the bridge and sending the creature plummeting straight down. Ruby grabbed her cloak and pack, as well as an armful of arrows and pushed Azaelia ahead of her.

"Move! We've got to get out of here!"

Azaelia fired one more arrow and started running, Ruby's hand placed firmly on her back, but stopped when she heard Frodo scream. She turned back to see Gandalf drop off the edge of the bridge.

"Gandalf!"

Ruby felt her knees start to liquify and she almost fell. Then, remembering where she was and what they were doing, pushed Azaelia toward to final tunnel, leading to bright daylight.

"MOVE!"