FIRST KNIGHT BY ASHA DREAMWEAVER
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Summary: BtVS/LotR. Buffy gets sent to Middle Earth to help bring down Sauron. Her duty, like the Istari, is not to confront Sauron directly but to help those fated to face him bring him down. More specifically she's to help the King of Gondor get on his throne. Will Arwen and Aragorn's love stand against the shadow? Will Legolas be able to keep a secret, that if revealed, could shatter the lives of those he cares for? Will Buffy be able to fulfil her duty? Will Denethor be able to put aside his animosity for the man who would supplant him? Will the ringbearer reach Mount Doom, or will he be cut down before he reaches his goal? And will Boromir resist the lure of the ring?
Author's Notes: to clear up a few things, Aragorn was not in Rivendell in the last chapter. When he visited Buffy in Rohan, he went a-travelling, but not back to Rivendell. Sorry about the mix-up.
Review responses:
Aimelee - Sorry, but I've never heard of those fics before.
Ally - It's Sunday, it's the weekend, here's the update….
Anna - Thanks! Aragorn's out in the Wilds. Where he's been skulking is more than apparent in this chapter. More monsters? (grins evilly) What do you think?
ChibiChibi - Thanks! Good call on Arwen!
Draco's Slytherin Vampiress - Sorry, but Aragorn is not in Rivendell. The watchers were Elladan and Elrohir. But yes, Buffy and Aragorn get plenty of quality time in the next
Chapter..
DragonStar - yes, the twins have to learn to be way more tactful.
Dreamer Child - geez, sounds like you had a hard time of it! About the mojo, it was supposed to be cryptic since it was related to the Three Elven Rings, and therefore top secret. Elrond used Vilya's power to enhance his own healing abilities and counter the poison in Buffy, while Gandalf shielded Elrond's use of Vilya from Sauron's attention. I hope that helps! And which book? C'mon! I can't tell you that as it encompasses all three. Sorry! And don't worry about the twins, everything will work itself out….
Eámanë Aldaríon of Rivendell - Thanks! This one's for you mellon nín! Yes, the monster was in the super beast category. And due to the extensive overuse of Buffy's lovely swan dive off the tower in relation to LotR fics and my personal dislike of Dawn, I try and keep references to it to a bare minimum. Yes, Denethor has a role to play in the future. (shakes head sadly) boy oh boy, is he in for it! Yeah, Gandalf will probably be the closest thing to a watcher she'll get. And NEVER underestimate the combined power of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir. Hopefully my take on Aragorn's dark memories of Moria from FotR will be enjoyable! And my Lady?! I could get used to that! :)
goldenshadows - I don't think Arwen was expecting it either!
Haley - No, Aragorn left Rivendell for Rohan in the last chapter, remember? The next chapter… read it and you'll see what I mean!
Herald-Mage Brianna - I think Valinor will be quaking as well…
Imp17 - the tide is turning? Well, that's up to you to decide… As for the twins, they decided that the direct approach usually worked better with Buffy. - not in this case.
Jania - Thanks! You're the first to say that.
JeanB - no, it's not a werewolf like Oz. It's a werewolf-type creature, ME style. In ME, there is no 'man into wolf once a month thing'. And the Mouth of Sauron is reputed to be the best and cruellest of Sauron's servants. Do you really think he's finished?
Lady of the Wood - Thanks! And yes, Aragorn and Buffy meet each other again in the next chapter under highly unusual circumstances. Though Elrond would probably disagree….
loz-179 -Eventually…
MaLooLa - I hope my version of Arwen isn't Miss Perfect! But I totally agree with you on what Aragorn feels. It's the classic star-crossed lovers thing, isn't it?
Mari - Even Buffy is going to be surprised by her extreme bad luck. Good psychic streak by the way. Something you mentioned WILL happen but not for a couple of chapters. I've had it planned for ages! (sniggers evilly) Good call though! And I don't end every chapter with a cliffhanger, do I?
Midnight - It's B/A all the way! And sorry, no Haldir loving. WAY too overdone unfortunately. Thanks for the review!
Miss Ai - Cliffhangers are always done on purpose. Most of the time anyway. As for who initiates the break-up? Three people, all working separately. Now isn't that cryptic?
Mistake I'm In - Surprise maybe?
N/A - Now, that would be telling, wouldn't it? And you get plenty of B/A action of a sort in the next part!!
Phoenix83ad - Thanks for the review! No, it wasn't an Oz-like werewolf. Buffy, Elrond and Gandalf don't really know what it was and Buffy just described what it most looked like. It's origins are meant to be cryptic, - to be explained in the future (decades). And I never liked Dawn, (she's far too whiny for my tastes), I didn't want to write any scenes including her. Also Buffy's second death was a willing sacrifice, her first was prophesied murder so I thought that fit better with the atmosphere I was trying to create. And as for your comments about the First, it's not it. But it's close. Here's a hint. In ME, the First Evil - aka, Melkor.
Restive Nature - Thanks! And your feelings of 'uh-oh' are incredibly justified. And Aragorn wasn't in Rivendell. Not to mention the 'kingly gift' thing really shouldn't be used until he actually acknowledges that he's gunning for the crown. By his own free will and without the Arwen prize at the end. Before that he's a hunter, after it, he's king. And yes, definite heaps of guilt for Legolas. But do you think Arwen's going to tell Aragorn? Thanks for the super review! :)
ShawThang - Thanks! The dreams have meaning but the answer will have to unfold slowly… sorry! Thanks so much for your lovely compliments! :)
Star - thanks! :) Yes, the twins will eventually learn tact. The excitement of having their prey within their grasp just got to be too much for them… And Aragorn has been on his travels.
And major thanks to:
BuffyandDracoLover, Charmedfanatic3000, cilou, EverAfter-01, gaul1, immortalwizardpirateelf-fan, Lunawolf, moonbunny77, ms8309, Night-Owl123, pamie884, Queen of the Myrmidon, Wild320, zayra.
By the way, this chapter and the next one (its continuing part) is dedicated to Eámanë Aldaríon of Rivendell, who mentioned the Moria thing to me, and sent my muse weaving plots. Eáman's question spurred me to think on what could have happened and made me write this chapter so thanks!
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: WELCOME TO HARD TIMES
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes,
And when sleep takes you tonight,
Will you wake to see the light?
The burning sweat of poison tears
The river flowing red with blood,
The cradle robbing hand of death
Caresses every dreaming head."
-- Bruce Dickinson, Roy Z, and Eddie Casillas, "Book of Thel"
This chapter is set entirely in the year 2985, of the Third Age.
Near the River Limlight, close to the Field of Celebrant, and Fangorn Forest. The month of Lotessë (May).
Buffy urged her new horse, a fine dappled grey mare called Andúnië (sunset) into a swift canter. After Elrond had finally been satisfied with her recovery, she had at last been given leave to depart from the valley once more.
She was returning to Rohan to fulfil Galadriel's cryptic request. Despite numerous attempts by both Buffy and Arwen to discern why the Lady of the Wood wanted Buffy to stay a while in the Riddermark, they had been unsuccessful in finding out anything of the Elf-Lady's reasoning.
And so a somewhat disgruntled vampire slayer was heading back to the Riddermark to play babysitter, or was it watchdog? But whichever it was, Buffy felt uneasy in Rohan now that she knew that something had been sent to hunt her down.
She had barely escaped with her life the last time round. She didn't want to lose it just yet to another monster taking advantage of the open plains to track its quarry.
And even as she thought this, she knew that as the only resident slayer, it was her responsibility to kick monsters' asses from wherever they were into the land of the freshly dead.
But enough of the morbid thoughts. God knows that the last time she'd dwelt obsessively on her all too frequent deaths, the baddies came right up to get her without her noticing.
Not this time.
No siree, this time Buffy planned on seeing them coming, and shooting them before they got within a hundred feet of her. You had to give Middle Earth its due; it was just so easy to carry an entire arsenal of weapons on her person without anyone batting an eye.
She'd never been good at the James Bond 007 stealth and secret identity gig.
And at least the Rohirrim knew how to party; they really knew how to let go. Plus, their humour was so weird that it really was funny. The Rohirrim could take perverse pleasure in death-defying stunts - the more chance of death on the job, the more they liked it.
It almost reminded her of Spike actually.
Also, knowing them and their bestest buds; they'd be more happy to see her new horse than to see her. And the Valar knew, that the spirited Andúnië would love the attention and would most definitely ham it up. She had the sneaking suspicion that Glorfindel had had his eye on her horse because Erestor seemed to be smirking a bit too much when he showed her to the stables.
It turned out, that naturally, Erestor had just wanted to see the fireworks.
But again, Buffy was left only to think on possible plots, since she had yet to find any damning proof regarding the sneaking, scheming counsellor, that only Elrond had stopped impending war. She'd seen him treat the Guy Who Was Fried By A Cranky Balrog to the 'Look', the 'Eyebrow' and the patented 'Deadly Glare Number Four' for no apparent reason.
As she was mentally replaying and laughing at the image of the fuming Glorfindel prancing off and away from his glaring Lord, Buffy was jolted back to reality when felt something sear through her brain.
Falling backwards off Andúnië, and landing with a big thump on her back, she found herself floundering hopelessly as her mind and senses reeled.
It was dark. It was barely past noon and it was already dark? Buffy felt foul play working its evil right about now. Taking as an example the mayor of Sunnydale's action packed ascension to demonhood, nothing good happened when an eclipse decided to happen out of nowhere.
Staggering up, her eyes struggling to adjust to the pitch darkness, her fingers scrabbled at cold stone and Buffy started in surprise. Stone! What on earth had happened?
As her eyes kicked over to slayer night vision, she noticed that there wasn't even the tiniest sliver of light, leaving even her enhanced eyes mostly blind.
Feeling her way around to amplify her reduced sight, she realised that she was in a corridor of stone. No, not a corridor, she corrected after a moment, a tunnel or mine of some sort. There was no way a cave could occur like this naturally.
And even as she realised she was underground, she felt herself shudder with fear.
She was the Vampire Slayer. She had experienced so much evil, including the First Evil, that she'd almost become a bit desensitised to the horrors it was capable of inflicting. But now… Now she felt the presence of overpowering evil… Not overpowering as in a single strength but overpowering in the sheer numbers that she was sensing….
An army of baddies waited here, lurking, waiting to hunt the unwary and destroy them….
But what scared her was the fact that she felt that her spider sense was only sensing the tip of the iceberg. There were things here that did not sleep, that waited for their chance to come and kill…
Trying not to panic, she took a few steps and felt something tingle at the back of her mind. The Buffy-dar that she'd deliberately tried to dampen and ignore for so long was back with a vengeance, practically screaming for her attention.
Surely the Valar wouldn't be so cruel as to shove her and Aragorn into this hell hole?
But as she stumbled through the long, dark corridors of rock and stone, following where her instincts led her, she came to an abrupt standstill as another person came into view around a sharp bend.
Tall, long scraggy dark hair, dazed grey eyes….. Aragorn….
The ranger seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see him, "Buffy?" he questioned tremulously, seeming to think she was an apparition of some sort.
"Aragorn? Where are we?" she asked.
Aragorn jerked back at hearing her voice, for some reason he seemed to be afraid of her, "In Khazad-dûm." he replied shakily, "I cannot get out, and they are coming."
"Who's coming?" Buffy asked, but she got no reply as Aragorn's eyes widened in horror and Buffy's spider sense went into overtime. Whipping around, she soon saw the cause of Aragorn's far.
Behind her on the tunnel she had travelled, a menacing orange-red glow was lighting up the murky tunnel, and Buffy winced at the sudden brightness of it. Aragorn looked at her once more, as if debating whether to reach out to her but as an arrow shot through her with ease, his eyes widened impossibly and he bolted…
And on the grassy plain of the Field of Celebrant, Buffy Summers snapped awake….
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Andúni's wet nose was prodding her as her new but faithful horse tried to help in her concern for her mistress.
Buffy flinched at the sensation as she tried to readjust to reality. What the hell had just happened? And that arrow had passed through her like she was a ghost! She had either fainted from her horse and had what was possibly the weirdest dream of her life or the Valar had decided to screw with her life a little more.
But as that tingling sensation in the back of her mind was still demanding attention and she was now inclined to give some to it.
Khazad-dûm, Aragorn had said, - the Mines of Moria. The same Mines of Moria that had seen a Dwarven colony destroyed under mysterious and scary circumstances. It had nearly as bad a reputation as the Hellmouth. And so in typical ranger boy fashion, he just had to go take a peek.
And it looked like her plans to return to Rohan would have to be put on hold until she sorted things out.
Swatting Andúnië away, she shuddered inwardly. She didn't like the idea of walking into that minefield of all.
By the Valar, why hadn't she been warned before she took this job that Aragorn was as trouble prone as Xander was with demonic girlfriends? She really was getting fed up of his capacity for mischief on her watch. Why couldn't he wait a while and torment Elladan or Elrohir? - or even better, Elrond!
Picking herself up off the ground and mounting Andúnië, she tried to temper the fear she felt at what she was about to undertake. She'd nearly died when she met the wolf-monster thingy, and that hadn't shaken her senses half as much as what she'd experienced in her fainting dream/vision thingy.
But it seemed that she would have no choice but to go and seek what lurked in the bowels of Moria…
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The East Gate of Moria in the valley of Azanulibizar, also called Nanduhirion . The month of Lotessë (May).
Don't curse darkness; light a candle. - anonymous
Buffy found herself lucky that after she had reached the Dimrill Dale, she had found the East Gate of Moria open. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she couldn't really say but it saved her the trouble of trying to kick in a door of solid stone.
Before entering, she had decided to sort out her pack, as she had to leave Andúnië to graze the valley of Nanduhirion and trust that the mare was smart enough not to get eaten by orcs, but almost all Elvish horses were. And after digging through her pack, she had gratefully removed one of the glow-balls of the Elves. Designed by the Noldorin Elves, the glowing balls of blue light were a very popular source of light in all the Elven realms.
It had been sheer luck that one had caught her eye in Rivendell and that Arwen had given it to her. Now, it would serve her well in the dark of Moria. She hoped.
She'd had one of the Elven-smiths of Rivendell fasten a sort of harness to the glow-ball so that she could carry it while still keeping her hands free, and so he'd made her a little belt that hooked around her waist which the glow-ball could dangle from quite happily.
Another quick adjustment of her clothes to make sure that Galadriel's gift of the mithril corselet that had been her daughter Celebrían's before she sailed West, having originally been a gift from the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm to the Lady of the Wood, and Buffy was ready to go.
Gaping at the very large ominous doors that stood flung widely open, Buffy the Vampire Slayer entered the Black Chasm with more than a little trepidation.
"Well, I like the place. Not much with the view, but it's got a nice Bat Cave sort of an air to it." Buffy muttered to herself as she looked at the imposing stone pillars and lovely evil lair-ish feel to the place. It was probably like vampire heaven, or should she be saying hell?
Descending a flight of steps that led downwards into the dark as coal lower levels, Buffy ignored the sinking feeling in her stomach that told her she was doing something very stupid and her overwhelmed spidey sense telling her that she could very well be walking to her next, and last, death…
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Cerin Amroth, Lothlórien. The month of Lotessë (May).
Over the years Galadriel had grown quite used to the ever more frequent flashes of premonition she received. She knew why they came; the biggest war of this age was approaching and she would have a test to pass, and would hopefully be able to guide those who had a part to play in this war to choose the right path.
That was why when this latest flash of foresight came to her, Galadriel was not so much surprised by its occurrence, but at what it told her. Surprised and horrified.
The scales had tipped in favour of the Dark Lord for the moment, and Galadriel was not sure they would change back to a more equal footing. Her vision had been most ominous, and made all the more so because it had contained images and words that Buffy had described in her nightmares.
'From beneath you it devours…' was one line that stood out, along with 'Beware what lurks beneath the ground….'.
Galadriel feared for the slayer's life, along with that of the only man who could unite the race of Men under one banner.
She had tried to warn them using mind-speak but had been unable to reach them, or even to ascertain whether they were alive or dead. They were lost in the bowels of Moria and for all her power, she could do nothing but wait to see if they returned from its depths, or were lost to them forever.
But she did not think that even the Slayer and Elfstone together could withstand Durin's Bane…
Greatly worried, she sent out an urgent summons for Haldir, her chief Marchwarden. She could do nothing but make sure her patrols watched out for them, and that they carried the message that had been sent to her…
Let the Slayer beware….
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The Mines of Moria. The month of Lotessë (May).
Hopelessly lost in the dark recesses of Moria, Aragorn son of Arathorn's situation was dire.
He had been driven into Moria through the East-Gate by a horde of orcs led by some of the Nazgûl. He knew not how many of the Nine rode with the orc troops but he had not cared to wait and find out. Especially not when he realised that the second in command Khamûl was amongst the party. Trapped in the Dimrill Dale and with no other hope to escape with his life, Aragorn had fled into the Mines of Moria, always hearing the howls of the orcs and the screeches of the Ringwraiths behind him.
Even as his foes hunted him relentlessly, he had been lost even to himself. Having no clue as to where he was going, he had plunged recklessly through tunnels and passageways, down stairs and up them, until he had become so confused and disorientated that he did not have even the slightest idea of where he could possibly be.
His desperate flight had started a week ago, and he was no closer to finding the way out than he had been since he began looking.
What was worse though, was that he had not enough provisions to sustain him for much longer. He dared not drink the water in the mines for fear it was tainted by Durin's Bane, whatever evil it was that had struck down the entire colony of Dwarves over a millennia ago.
He was running out of food and water or even a source to gather it from, he had no light to see where he was going, leaving him to stumble on blindly into the darkness, and no way out. He could not even get a decent rest. There were ghosts in Moria, malevolent things that did not sleep and seemed to have noticed his presence.
There was abundant evil in the mines. When he stopped for a break in his desperate journey, he could hear them. Hear the howls, the screeches, the thumping of many feet and the drums in the deep.
Of them all, the screeches of the Nazgûl and the drums were by far the worst.
The cry of the Ringwraiths chilled his very blood, and froze his bones. He had heard tales of men dying from fear of them, and now he knew them for truth. There were few even amongst the Eldar that could stand and face the Nine. What hope had the race of Men?
The drums were an ever present evil, constant and never-ending. The purpose of the eerie beat was to coordinate the hunt for him, he knew. The native orcs of Moria were welcoming their kindred from Dol Guldur and the Slaves of the Nine Rings, and their Master's most dangerous servants.
They would find him eventually, that he knew also. They knew how to travel these mines and would have all the exits guarded. He was but one man, and with no way to see his path and he was weakening daily.
He would die here. It was almost a certain fact.
They were coming for him, and he could not get out.
As he resumed his desperately futile attempts to find the West-Gate into Hollin, he remembered his beloved Evenstar, and mourned that she who had at last deigned to love him would lose him within five years of pledging their troth. Elrond would be happier; in her grief, Arwen would be easily persuaded to sail West, and in doing so, securing her the immortality of her people.
He hoped it was so. He loved her with all his heart and could not bear her fading for love of him. The peace of the West and her mother's embrace would soothe her, and maybe she would remember their love and look fondly back on it when she chose an Elf for her mate.
He also hoped that his dear friend Buffy was not too upset. When grieved, she was liable to take too many risky chances in battle. He had noticed this, but not yet mentioned it to her as she had been foul of mood these past few years. He dearly hoped that Galadriel would temper her, the Slayer was not meant to die yet.
It was almost a pity she was would fail in her task through no fault of her own, he mused. She had always had a tendency to take more than her fair share of the blame for anything. He had dreamed that she had been here, her golden hair looking red in firelight. It had been a strange dream but it had changed nothing. Buffy could have found her way out he was sure, but with so many foes to conquer, even she would have fallen ere the end.
And so it seemed that the Line of Isildur and Elendil was to end here, ironically so very near to the place where the Rings of Power had originally been crafted.
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Second Hall of Old Moria, on the level of the First Deep, near the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, in the Mines of Moria.
Buffy quickly crossed a thin stone bridge, wide enough for only one person and with no railings of any sort, crossing a seemingly endless black abyss.
She was being stalked. She knew it. She could feel malicious eyes boring into her, even if she could not pinpoint their location.
Walking quickly, her steady gait taking her silently across the stone pathways into a cavernous hall. It was enormous, and Buffy couldn't help but stare around in amazement. It was absolutely huge! The ceiling went up and up and the hall itself could easily have accommodated two football pitches! "Now this beats every other cave, crypt and underground whatever I have ever been in." she whispered in wonder.
While most of it ran away into darkness, Buffy stuck out like a sore thumb with her little light. Pulling her cloak close to her body, she used it to dim the bright blue light so that it only lit up the path in front of her. This way, she wouldn't be carrying a neon sign screaming 'Intruder! Intruder! In this darkness, she'd sense them way before she saw them coming.
Along the centre of the great hall ran a double line of hugely towering pillars. As Buffy took a second glance at them she noticed that they were carved like the trunks of massive stone trees whose boughs held up the roof with lots of little stone branches functioning as rafters.
The stone was black, smooth and shiny, like obsidian and they would be strangely pretty if the whole cave place didn't scream 'Evil!'.
As she walked across the hall, keeping close to the pillars to better hide herself, she felt strangely vulnerable and isolated. The eyes didn't leave her either and they made her skin crawl.
Even though she must have traversed hundreds of evil underground lairs in her time as slayer, only the lovely fetid pit that was the Hellmouth could rival this place for sheer might on the evilness scale.
Evil reeked from its every pore, there was no tunnel, no passageway, no chamber that Buffy could pinpoint as 'safe' because proving the rumours true, there was no safe place in the dark quarry of Moria.
This was a slayer death-trap if there ever was one.
There was no way in hell that she could take on all the nasties and monsters that were in this place and survive. Talk about Mission Impossible. She couldn't even try and run because she was looking for Aragorn, which meant having to go deeper into the mines, not running out of them.
And deep in her gut she knew that if she didn't find Aragorn snappy, there wasn't going to be much chance that he'd still be alive. Let alone her.
These monsters, her stalkers, they knew where they were going, they knew where the best place to ambush a person was and they had immense safety in numbers. And she knew for definite they were there. Even if she didn't trust her senses, she had proof.
Her Elven crafted sword, now engraved and named Dagnir en Úan (Slayer of Monsters) after it's owner, was glowing blue.
Orcs were close by, but not attacking. They couldn't possibly have been more obvious if there were signs up saying 'ambush, next corridor'.
She came to an abrupt halt though when a resounding boom rolled through the hall. The sound was almost deafening, as the echoes bounced around off the stone pillars.
She identified it as a drum beat quickly, and wasn't too optimistic about its purpose either.
She sensed the movements of something in the shadows and she nocked an arrow in her bow, "Come out, come out where ever you are…" she taunted in a sing-song voice, trusting in her senses and aiming her bow where they pointed her, "Whatever beastie you are, I know you're here… And I hurt beasties." she said conversationally.
From one corner of the hall, hidden deep in shadow, came a cry and a horn-call, and Buffy launched her arrow before it could bring more of its friends to the party.
The arrow struck true, and she mentally thanked Legolas for those lessons on the finer points of archery (or learning how to better skewer the baddies as she liked to call it). A body fell with a thud onto the floor, and Buffy slung her bow across her bag and legged it.
No point sticking around when the enemy reinforcements are about to show up.
Now all she had to do was try and find Aragorn somewhere in this colossal madhouse…
Easier said than done.
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Irkat-lukhud ma
katabrikihu
Ulfat-atam ma
tanakhi uduhu
bin-nât aznân tarsisi
Bazar udu agânî-furkhîn
Gurd!
Ma nîd sakhu!
Ma satf unkhai!
Atkât zatagrafizu
Zatablugi sulluzu
No shaft of light
Can breach it
No breath of air
Comes from it
Only an endless dark rises
Deep from the beginnings
Of the world.
Have fear.
Do not look down
Nor step too close
The Silence will take you.
It will swallow you whole.
- The Abyss, from the Two Towers.
Buffy had stopped for a rest near a place that must have had at least thirty flights of stairs. Couldn't Middle Earth have invented elevators already, for cripes sake! Her, alone, trying to climb so many stairs, would be practically inviting her hidden watchers to shoot her.
Unfortunately, she didn't have much of a choice.
It was chance the stairs, or plunge into what was probably a bottomless drop. The Valar just loved her so much.
It had just been so much easier when the big bads were egotistical idiots who liked big speeches, well known lairs, stupid lackeys and often presented themselves on her doorstep. 'Cos having to track them down herself really sucked.
Her sword hadn't stopped glowing since she'd entered the Dimrill Dale, and she was really sick of the hidden watchers. She really didn't want to know what sort of insidious plan they had cooked up for her. Especially since the glamhoth (orcs) were cannibals. Talk about eeeugh!
Pulling her pack on, she once more trekked into the gloomy passages. Stiffening, she dived to the side even as the first black arrow whizzed by. From nowhere, her watchers had decided to appear. "Oh, this is like a nightmare." she groaned.
Comprising roughly of about forty orcs in strangely jagged shaped armour, and a lot of crudely fashioned bows, it was not exactly the welcoming party she wanted to see.
Forty orcs without bows, - yeah, she could take them. Forty orcs with armour and nice little lethal bows - no way in hell if she didn't want to be shot.
Bolting, she took off at full speed down the passageway, fully aware of the loud pounding of feet behind her and the sudden resurgence of the creepy drum-beat. It was a call to arms, she'd bet her life on it.
Unfortunately, it was looking increasingly likely that she'd already bet her life and lost as she ducked, weaved, and rolled like a madwoman to avoid the orcish arrows.
Her goal was to get to the stairs, her chest was mostly protected by her mail-shirt but the rest of her was just prime for shish-kabobing. The only advantage she'd have was speed and the knowledge that orcs were dumb.
But as Murphy's Law (which practically summed up her entire life) dictates that what can go wrong will so most definitely go wrong, things didn't work out anything like she'd hoped.
She had been running a full ten minutes, her heart pounding with fear, as she tried to lose the rabid monsters on her tail. It was just so beyond belief that they could scuttle along the walls. Were they orcs or spiders?! she thought furiously.
But her flight came to an abrupt end when the staircase she'd been hoping to reach was separated from her by a nice big chasm-like hole in the floor of the tunnel. Buffy barely screeched to a stop in time as she spotted it, and ended up swaying dangerously on its edge, arms out for balance. "Okay, despite the rat-like chill that just crawled up my spine, I'm going to say this very calmly; hellllpppp…." she muttered to herself, quoting her once friend Xander.
Unfortunately, there was no one to save her this time.
And things once more went from bad to so much worse…
As Buffy concentrated on not falling to her death, the orcs had caught up. Gasping in agony as the arrow painfully sank into the exposed flesh between her hip and where the corselet had become caught up in the ties of her tunic; the arrow had landed squarely in the only unprotected space on her side, and now bad luck had just dealt her a potentially fatal ailment.
But the arrow also had another affect….
As she instinctively doubled over in pain, her precarious balance gave way, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's surprised scream echoed through the tunnel as she fell down the exposed shaft and fell into the bottomless dark…..
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Aragorn stopped in shock when he heard a faint echo of a scream and the sudden silencing of the orcish drum-beat. He did not know what had happened, but he dismissed it as the orcs deciding to kill some of their own. They did it often he knew, whenever they were in need of meat or when an orc annoyed one of his disgusting kindred.
Stumbling down a flight of stairs, Aragorn tripped over something in the darkness and tumbled down the remaining twenty or so stone steps.
Landing in a heap at the bottom, he got up painfully and noticed something strange.
The corridor was not cloaked in the same pitch darkness that had plagued him since he entered the mines. Instead, there seemed to be some light down the furthest passageway. Could it be that he'd found the exit at last? Or at very least some place where there was sunlight?
The air was hot down here and Aragorn sweated in his leather jacket but he dared not take it off.
Desperate to see the light, and perhaps the answer to his prayers, Aragorn ran on, trying to find its source.
Stepping into a cavernous chamber that was lit by fire, not sunlight, Aragorn's eyes were blinded by the sudden transition from near total darkness to bright light.
When they adjusted, he saw the myriad of tunnels that the Naugrim (Dwarves) had crafted when they still delved these halls. He looked around trying to see if there was any danger, and where the fire came from.
To the left, down a shadowed tunnel, came an ominous sound that Aragorn could not place.
Spinning around, his hand flying to the hilt of his sword, he hid himself in the shadows and tried to see what danger was approaching.
As it stepped into the hall, a red-orange glow filling the room as it entered, Aragorn felt a blanket of cold, blood-chilling fear settle upon him.
The creature was in clear sight of him. It seemed to be made of shadow and fire. It was more than four times the size of any man, it appeared to be of immense strength, as it practically radiated from it. The shadow about it reached out like two vast wings, at least fifty feet in length. Fire came from its nostrils as it breathed, and it held two weapons; a many thonged whining and crackling whip of pure fire, and a large sword made from the same.
For a time Aragorn was sure that his heart had stopped from fear. By Eru! Shadow and flame…. A demon of the ancient world…. Ai! A Balrog had come! Shadow and flame, Durin's Bane…. It was a Balrog of Morgoth!
The same thing that had killed Glorfindel of the House of the Golden Flower in Gondolin in the First Age…
He had to get out of there! He could not stand against a Balrog! Trying to hold his breath so that the demon would not hear his breathing, he waited even as sheer panic threatened to overwhelm him. This was a foe beyond him. To face it meant to come to an ugly death.
As he tried to shrink back into the shadows, the Balrog moved closer, its fiery whip swaying and crackling.
Its fiery horned head turned to look at him, easily spotting the intruder and Aragorn, knowing he was caught, took off at a dead sprint down the nearest passageway.
Behind him, the fires went out, and blank darkness fell again as the Balrog gave chase…
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A/N: So? Feedback please!!! Please READ and REVIEW!!!!
P.S - The Dwarvish song 'The Abyss' comes from the Two Towers movie, so I don't own it unfortunately.
P.P.S I have apparently been nominated for the My Precious Awards, so thanks to whoever did it! Please my darling reviewers and readers, vote for me!! (bats eyelashes and dangles free Aragorns…)
It's the 2004 MPA (my precious awards for LOTR fanfiction excellence)
The link is here: (just remove the spaces!): http : overlords . Net / MPA / mpa . htm
PLEASE VOTE!!!!! FOR ME OF COURSE!!!
Next chapter: The hunt resumes. Buffy and Aragorn's plight gets even more dire as they meet up and we have Durin's Bane in the guest star slot.
Elvish:
Lotessë - Quenya for May
Andúnië - Sunset
Dagnir - slayer
En - of
Úan - monster
Glamhoth - orcs
Naugrim - Dwarves
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Azanulibizar - the valley below the East-Gate of Moria.
Celebrían - Galadriel and Celeborn's daughter. Wife of Elrond. Mother to Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen. Sailed West in 2510 after being attacked by orcs in 2509.
Cerin Amroth - 'Amroth's Mound' in Sindarin.
Dol Guldur - 'Hill of Sorcery'. A treeless height in the south-west of Mirkwood, a stronghold of the Necromancer before he was revealed as Sauron returned. Houses three Nazgûl, led by Khamûl.
Durin's Bane - the Balrog of Moria. Killed Durin VI in 1980.
Khamûl - Ringwraith. Second only to the Witch-King. Also known as the 'Black Easterling'. Was perhaps the wraith with the strongest capability of thinking for himself but had the weakest powers during the day. In charge of Dol Guldur.
Mithril - 'true-silver'. Also called 'Moria-silver'. It was the foundation of the wealth of the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm. It was worth ten times the price of gold, and is now considered priceless, because there has been no supply of it since the fall of the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm in 1980.
Moria - 'The Black Chasm', later name for the great works of the Dwarves under the Misty Mountains. Called Khazad-dûm in Dwarvish.
Nanduhirion - the glen about Mirrormere between the arms of the Misty Mountains into which the Great Gates of Moria opened. Translation: Dimrill Dale.
Naugrim - 'stunted ones'. Elvish term for Dwarves.
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