Chapter 9: The Bridge of Khazad-dûm
We ad been walking for a while when Gimli spots a door to the sid eof us. It is strewn with the bodies of dead orcs. Gimli runs through the door into a chamber.
"Gimli!" Gandalf cried. We all run after the dwarf. We find him standing in front of some kind of stone coffin.
"No! Oh, no! No." Gimli weeps.
"'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared." Gandalf read off the coffin. Gimli is knelt on the ground. I put my hand on his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry Gimli." I quietly say. Gimli nodded, his head sinking lower.
"Kilmin malur ni zaram kalil ran arag. Kheled-zâram. Balin tazlifi." Gimli prays.
"We must move on. We cannot linger." Legolas spoke to Aragorn. Gandalf then started to read smething out of a book.
"'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.'" I gulped. Pippin then touched an arrow on a corpse, making the corpse fall into the well it was laying on, along with the bucket it held. It made a LOT of noise. We all held our breaths for a minute and then exhaled.
"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time, and rid us of your stupidity." Gandalf hisses. Suddenly, there are drumming noises coming from all around. Frodo unsheaths Sting to find the blade blue. Sam sees it so.
"Frodo!" Sam called.
"Orcs!" Legolas and I say in unison. Boromir runs to the door and two arrows from outside the door are shot, but they barely miss his head.
"Get back! Stand close to Gandalf!" Aragorn yells to the hobbits.
"They have a cave-troll." Boromir helps Legolas and Aragorn pick up a bar, and they bar the door. All of us stand against the coffin, swords and bows out.
"Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria that still draws breath." Gimli proudly states. More arrows shoot through the doors, but Legolas hits the orcs' forheads to kill them. Then, the door came down. Orcs flooded in, and we were fighting. I had killed about five when I looked to the door and saw a HUMUNGOUS creature come into the tumb. I think that is the cave troll! I had just sliced an orc's head off when I saw it.
"I think I'm getting the hang of this!" Sam yells.
"Frodo!" Aragorn screams.
The troll is after Frodo. The troll grabbed Frodo and dragged him.
"Aragorn! Shadow!" Frodo yelled.
"Frodo!" I and Aragorn shout in unison. I make my way over to the troll, about twenty orcs in between me and Aragorn, who is fighting the troll. Aragorn saved Frodo. Aragorn thrusts a spear into the trolls chest, but it does not pierce it's thick hide. Then the troll hits Aragorn, and he is thrown aside. Frodo runs to Aragorn's side and faces the troll. I am two orc away. Suddenly, the orc thrusts the spear at Frodo, who is now pinned against the wall. Merry and Pippin jump on the troll's back.
"Frodo! FRODO!" Sam yells.
"Frodo!" I then finish off my orcs and head to the troll. I slit the troll's knees and arms. Legolas shoots arrows into the trolls throat, and the troll starts to collapse, with me under it. Legolas throws me a chain, I catch it. He pulls me, as if he were Tarzan, to safety. The troll collapsed. Aragorn had crawled over to Frodo.
"Oh no." Aragorn whispers. Legolas starts toward Frodo and I follow. Aragorn turns Frodo over.
"He's alive." Sam points out.
"I'm all right. I'm not hurt." Frodo admitts.
"You should be dead. That spear would have skewered a wild boar." Aragorn said in disbelief.
"I think there's more to this hobbit than meets the eye." Gandalf questions. Frodo pulls down the flap of his shirt to reveal a coat of what seemed to be some sort of shiney material. How could that have saved him?
"Mithril! You are full of surprises, Master Baggins!" Gimli smiles. We hear orcs coming.
"To the bridge of Khazad-dûm!" Gandalf ordered. We run, but the grand hall we had been in before swarms with orcs. Soon, we are all surrounded. Legolas holds his bow out, ready, right in front of me, but soon lowers it. The orcs cower back to wence they came.
"What is this new devilry?" Boromir asked.
"Oh my gosh!" I say under my breath.
"A Balrog. A demon of the ancient world. This foe is beyond any of you. Run!" Gandalf commands. We ran.
"Quickly!" Aragorn yelled. "Gandalf!"
"Lead them on, Aragorn. The bridge is near." Gandlaf orders. He had stumbled and Aragorn was trying to help him, but he pushed Aragorn away. "Do as I say! Sword are no more use here!" We all move on, Legolas shooting at the orcs at the other side of the dwelling, killing most, but a lot of the stone is breaking. We are climbing down a slone stairwell when we come to a break in the rock. Legolas jumps the gap and stands ready to help the others over.
"Gandalf!" Legolas signals for him to jump the gap. Gandalf jumps and is helped over by Legolas.
"Merry! Pippin!" Boromir grabs hold of the hobbits he called, one of them on each arm, and jumps over with them. Legolas helps them over on the other side. More rock crumbles away as they jumped.
"Sam." Aragorn yells. He then tosses Sam over the gap.
"Nobody tosses a dwarf." Gimli praises. He tries to jump the gap, but almost falls into the abyss. Legolas grabs him by his beard. "Not the beard!" Gimli makes in.
"Frodo! Shadow!" Aragorn called. All three of us remain on the other side of the gap. The stone stairs are standing, but seem like they are about to collapse. Aragorn pulls me and Frodo to his chest.
"Steady. Hold on!" Aragorn tells Frodo and me. The rock we are standing on begins to sway. "Hang on!" The top of the stone breaks away from the bottom bit, and falls at an angle. I was only about three feet away from that stone.
"Lean froward." Aragorn called. "Steady."
"Come on! Now!" Legolas calls. Our stone hits against the other stone that the rest of the fellowship are standing on. Boromir catches Aragorn, Gandalf with Frodo, and Legolas caught me. We stumbled, but made it. We were now to move on.
"Over the bridge! Fly!" Gandalf summons. We move on. We race across a bridge, THE bridge, when Gandalf spins around to face the Balrog, then he sees we are waiting for him. We run across the bridge, and while we continue on, Gandalf remains in the middle of the bridge, facing the Balrog.
"You cannot pass!'' Gandalf hollars.
"Gandalf!" Frodo screams. We all stop.
"I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor! The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udun! Arrghh! Go back to the Shadow! YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" Gandalf slams hims staff on the bridge, an easy light surrounding him. The bridge breaks due to Gandalf's magic, causing the Balrog to fall. Gandalf turns to us and sighs, but as he does that, the whip of teh Balrog catches onto his ankle, and he is pulled down. He grabs onto the edge of the bridge, but cannot keep his grip. Ther is nothing we can do to save him. Boromir grabs Frodo, to stop him from runnin back onto the bridge.
"No! No!" Boromir urges.
"GANDALF!" Frodo whales. Legolas keeps hold of my arm, to make sure I don't try to run for Gandalf.
"Fly, you fools!" And Gandalf falls into what is to be my name.
"NO! NO!" Frodo screams. Boromir carries him away. We all leave, but I turn to see Aragorn still standing into the abyss. I run back to Argorn. Legolas stops to watch me. I put my hand on Aragorn's shoulder. I hear Boromir call Aragorn's name.
"There's nothing we could have done. I know Gandalf, and he wouldn't have wanted us to mourn." I gently said to Aragorn. Aragorn nodds and we follow the fellowship out of Moria, to find ourselves in brilliant light, in the mountains, where we stopped for a time. Sam casts himself onto the rock, head in hand, while Boromir comforts a shouting Gimli, who struggles, as though meaning to re-enter the mines. Merry consoles a weeping Pippin, with greif and sorrow in his own face. Nearby to me, Legolas stands, wearing a look in disbelief. I walk to him and whisper,
"We can not feel mourn. I have felt it once. We are lucky. We at least must be happy we are alive." I try to smile, but it doesn't work. Aragorn wipes his sword clean in a single stroke, then resheaths it.
"Legolas, Shadow, get them up." Aragorn ordered.
"Give them a moment for pity's sake!" Boromir stands in defense.
"By nightfall these hills weill be swarming with orcs. We must reach the woods of Lothlorien. Come Boromir! Legolas, Shade, Gimli, get them up." Aragorn himself walks over to Sam and helps him up. "On your feet, Sam." He sees Frodo, who has wandered away. "Frodo! Frodo!"
Frodo turns to us. A single tear rolling down his face. I run to him.
"We must move on. I know I didn't know Gandalf like you, but we must go on, for Gandalf's sake." I said. Frodo then hugged me. I held him. We finally pulled apart. I kneeled to look at my friend's face. "I know you can finish this! I have faith! I'm with you the whole way!" Frodo nodds. We leave the mountains and make our way to Lothlorien.
You don't know how much I enjoy writing this story! Please review!