Chapter 14: A Journey in the Dark
The Fellowship stumbled up a few stairs to find a lake. Across the lake was a high stone wall.
Gimli gasped. "The walls of Moria…"
They crossed toward the wall, and Pippin slipped in the water.
"Ew…" he muttered.
Gandalf reached the doors first.
"Let's see…Ithildin." He brushed loose dirt off a thin, silver-like writing. "It mirrors only starlight and moonlight." He looked toward the cloudy sky, and the clouds drifted away from the moon. He looked back to the walls where the doors were revealed. "It reads: The doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter."
"What do you suppose that means?" Merry asked.
"It's quite simple," Gandalf replied. "If you are a friend you speak the password, and the doors will open." Gandalf set his staff on the doors. "Annon Edhellen edro hi ammen!" /Gate of the elves open now for me./ Nothing happened. "Ando Eldarinwa a lasta quettanya, Fenda Casarinwa." /Gate of elves listen to my word, Threshold of dwarves./ Gandalf sighed. "I once knew every spell of elves, dwarves, and Orcs."
"What're you going to do then?" Pippin asked.
"Knock on the doors with your head, Peregrin Took," Gandalf muttered. "If that does not shatter them, and I am given peace from foolish questions I will search for the opening words."
Valia smiled then dragged Pippin away so Gandalf could be left to his thinking. Sam was saying goodbye to Bill while Aragorn and Boromir were taking off all the packs. Frodo was sitting alone, and Valia sat beside him. He took her hand, pulling her closer.
How's your shoulder? he asked.
Better than it was. She gripped his hand. What of the Ring? He hesitated. "It's power is growing, isn't it?" she whispered.
"Gandalf warned me to be careful. I don't think there's much else I can do at the moment."
"Is it truly a good idea for Frodo to get so close to Sauron's daughter?" Boromir muttered.
"Valia is not like Sauron in any way save her abilities. Let the little ones be. Those two especially deserve such comfort as they can offer each other," Aragorn said.
Gandalf suddenly started laughing. "Mellon!"
The doors opened.
"So simple! Too simple for a wizard like myself," Gandalf said. "Merry, of all people, was actually on the right track. I should have translated it as 'Say friend and enter'."
The Fellowship walked into the mines. Gandalf set a crystal upon his staff, and it lit up.
"Soon, Master elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the dwarves: roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone," Gimli said. "This, my friend, is the home of my cousin Balin, and they call it a mine. A mine!"
Legolas shook his head and rolled his eyes.
"This is no mine," Boromir said. "It's a tomb!"
The light of Gandalf's staff fell upon rotting dwarves and Orcs. Valia screamed and backed into Frodo's comforting arms.
"No! No! NO!" Gandalf cried in sorrow, kneeling by a dead dwarf.
Legolas took an arrow from a dead body. "Goblins!" He dropped the arrow and set one of his own in his bow.
"We make for the Gap of Rohan," Boromir said as the Fellowship slowly began to back out. "We should never have come here! Now get out of here; get out!"
Frodo suddenly disappeared from Valia's side with a cry, and she turned to see him dragged toward the water with a tentacle.
"Frodo!" she cried, running toward him.
"Frodo!" Pippin followed. "Help!"
"Strider!" Sam called as he also ran.
The hobbits cut him loose, and Frodo backed away from the water. Many tentacles burst out of the water, slapping the hobbits aside while taking Frodo high in the air. Legolas let loose arrows while Aragorn and Boromir plunged into the water and slashed at the creature with their swords. A disgusting mouth appeared from the water, but Valia managed to push it back into the water with her abilities. The two struggled while Aragorn freed Frodo, and Boromir carried him toward the mines.
"Into the mines!" Gandalf shouted.
Valia and the hobbits followed while Legolas set cover fire.
"Legolas, into the cave!" Boromir called.
The elf let loose a few more arrows before running into the dark with the Fellowship. The creature from the water tore down the doors, blocking the way out and the light.
"We now have but one choice." Gandalf tapped his staff on the ground, and it lit up once more. "We must face the long dark of Moroia. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world." Pippin stumbled over a rock. "Quietly now. It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope our presence may go unnoticed."
"The wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels," Gandalf explained as they walked past a huge cavern, "but in mithril." He brought his staff to the cavern so they could view the mithril veins in the rock. "Bilbo had a shirt of mithril rings," Gandalf said as they walked on.
"Ah, that was a kingly gift!" Gimli said.
"Yes, I never told him, but it was worth more than the Shire itself," Gandalf said.
"Surely not the entire Shire!" Pippin said.
"Oh, yes," Gandalf replied, "and everything in it."
The Fellowship traveled up steps. While most of the members could walk up them, the hobbits and Valia had to crawl.
"It always has to be steps," Sam muttered.
Gandalf reached the top first and came to three passages. He sighed. "I have no memory of this place."
The rest of the Fellowship joined him and made camp.
"Are we lost?" Pippin whispered, sitting with the rest of the hobbits.
Gandalf sat smoking on a rock not far away.
"No," Merry replied.
"I think we are."
"Sh! Gandalf's thinking," Merry hissed.
"Merry…"
"What!" Merry muttered, growing annoyed with his cousin.
"I'm hungry."
Valia stifled her laughter as Merry stomped away. Frodo sat up suddenly and touched Valia's shoulder.
Do you see that? he asked.
Valia followed his gaze. There were two lights like eyes looking out from behind some old mining equipment. Without a word, she took his hand and hurried to Gandalf.
"There's something down there!" she whispered.
"It's Gollum," Gandalf said, removing his pipe.
"Gollum?" Frodo asked.
"He's been following us for three days," Gandalf mumbled.
"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-dûr?" Valia glanced toward the eyes again.
"Escaped, or set loose." Gandalf looked to the two sitting beside him. "He hates and loves the Ring as he hates and loves himself." Gandalf set his pipe in his mouth. "He will never be rid of his need for it."
"It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance," Frodo muttered.
"Pity?" Gandalf turned to him. "It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?"" Frodo looked down under Gandalf's reprimanding gaze. "Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of the Ring."
Frodo sighed sadly. "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened." Valia gently touched his shoulder, sensing the defeat in his voice.
Gandalf removed his pipe from his mouth once more. "So do all who live to see such times," Gandalf said gently, "but that is not for them to decide." All we have to decide is what to do with the time that's given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, beside the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought." Gandalf looked up. "Eh! It's that way!" He walked to the passage leading down.
"He's remembered!" Merry ran up to look down in the passage as well.
"No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here." Gandalf looked down at the hobbit. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."
Gandalf led the way down until they reached a large hallway with pillars hiding in the shadows.
"Let me risk a little more light," Gandalf murmured.
The light on the staff brightened, revealing old pillars rising high up and decorated with dwarven runes and designs.
"Behold the great realm of the Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf," Gandalf said.
"There's an eye-opener and no mistake," Sam whispered in awe.
A/N: Tada! Celtic, I might take your idea just so I could have Legolas have a girl. They might find her lying in the fields of Rohan or something. That would be cool, but I might just follow Frodo, Sam, and Valia. I'm tempted to make Sam go with Merry and Pippin instead. What do you think? Valia could latch onto Frodo and make him walk on the snow too because she's also partially a Maiar, a wizard. Sauron was a Maiar so she has special abilities because of his blood in her. Don't think on it too long. You'll give yourself a headache. :D And I love Saturdays too!