Woot! So my computer is finally back and I have a fresh new chapter for all of you. It's going to be really long so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own lotr. I do, however, own Lena. That's about it.
We stood there in the dark for maybe five minutes before Gandalf finally spoke up.
"We now have only one choice. We must face the long dark of Moria," Gandalf announced quietly. Everyone in the fellowship drew a collective breath of fear. I wish there was a light, and almost as if he had read my mind, Gandalf's staff lit up. Legolas' face was pale and weary. There was a smudge of dirt on his forehead that was kind of starting to annoy me. Aragorn and Borimir were both soaked and shivering, and the hobbits were scared out of their minds. Except for pippin, who gazed around the tunnel with curiosity. I recognized that look and leaned down to whisper in his ear.
"Don't touch anything. No offense, but usually when you touch things, something bad happens," I warned him. He looked up at me indignantly, with one hand on his hip. I wanted to tell him how gay it made him look, but I kept my mouth shut.
"That's not true," he whispered back. My mouth dropped open incredulously.
"Yeah okay so why exactly did Frodo almost get eaten by the Watcher? Oh yeah. Because you got bored and started throwing rocks into the lake. That water was nasty looking dude. Why would you even go near it?" Pippin pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, but he didn't answer. I was a little disappointed at the fact that my only ally against Borimir was mad at me, but then I realized that Frodo didn't like Borimir either, so I felt better instantly.
"Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world," Gandalf continued, " It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed." He turned around continued down the dark path. I moved closer to Legolas, and felt the ball of terror rising up in my chest as I struggled to swallow my screams. I had to do something to take my mind off of my phobia of the dark and of the horror that waited at the end of this tunnel, a horror everyone but me might survive. After all, I wasn't really supposed to be here, so there was nothing to protect me from getting killed off. Legolas leaned down to whisper in my ear. His long blonde hair fell into my face and I suddenly realized how freaking thick it was. I couldn't even blow it out of the way! I removed the curtain of hair from my line of vision so I could still walk and talk at the same time.
"Another bad feeling?" he asked. I nodded silently and squeezed his upper arm. He left me to take the back of the line with Gimli. The hobbits and I were told to stay in the middle, especially me since I didn't have any weapons. They had tried to give me a sword before I left Rivendell, but I told them there was no point since I didn't know how to fight. Now all I had was a small dagger on my left hip. Aragorn and Borimir were walking up ahead with Gandalf, and the hobbits were in back talking amongst themselves. I felt a little colder. The Elvish suit I was wearing was really warm, but the chill sweeping through the dank, nasty tunnel made me positively freezing, so I pulled my sweatshirt out of my backpack and put in on.
"What's Harvard?" Merry asked, peering at my sweatshirt.
"It's a college. Like a school, but for adults," I said. Merry still looked confused. "Do you know what school is?" He shook his head and eagerly waited for me to explain it to him. "Well okay you know how rich people have private teachers or tutors? Well a school is a place where they have a bunch of tutors for a bunch of different subjects, and kids have to go there to learn. Well after kids are done with regular school, they can decide whether they want to go on to college and learn even more about 1 certain thing, or if they just want to go get a job and start their life. But in my world you can't get a good job unless you go to college, so a lot of people choose to do that." I let my explanation sink in.
"Do you go to college?"
"I wish! I'm not even done with regular school yet. This sweatshirt was my dad's. And I'm not going to Harvard. My grades aren't good enough." Merry was confused again, so I explained to him the process of grading and how if you get very good grades, then you get to go to really good colleges, like Harvard, but if you only get mediocre or pretty good grades, then you go to something easier to get into or the colleges don't let you in at all. This got the hobbits started on another level of questioning, like what you studied at college and what kinds of things you did and how long you had to stay there. They hadn't stopped asking questions by the time we sat down to take a break. Aragorn walked over and laughed when he saw me slumped against the wall.
"Hobbits can be quite the handful," he said. I shook my head and smiled.
"No they're fine. Just curious is all. I would be too if I were them. I mean, compared to my life, this is so simple," I commented. Aragorn raised an eyebrow. "I don't mean simple as in easy, but simple as in uncomplicated. In your world, war is just straightforward. A dude has wants a ring so he can rule the world. In our world, in times of war, people do the most insane things. And the scary thing in my world is that some of the assholes that start these wars think that they're doing what's best for everyone. At least Sauron knows what he's doing is evil and doesn't try to make excuses for it. Sauron will kill an entire village of people and say, 'I'm evil and I did what was best for myself.' In my world, one maniac will exterminate an entire race of people and excuse it by saying that he was serving a higher purpose or that it was best for humanity." Aragorn listened intently, nodding every so often. He sat down next to me and turned to look me in the eyes.
"Is there much war in your world?" Aragorn asked softly. I shook my head and made a disgusted noise.
"People in my world kill for the stupidest reasons. So much goes on in our world that would make your stomach churn. Every day, people are raped and murdered by the masses. In the Middle East children are born and sold into white slavery and 10 year old girls are forced to marry 50 year old dudes. And with as much technological advances and as much money and food as there are in my world, there are still countries ridden with disease and poverty, while others have so much wealth they have no idea what to do with it all," I muttered. Aragorn was silent for a moment.
"Your world sounds terrible quite frankly," he said, chuckling a bit. I sighed.
"There are bad aspects and there are good aspect. To people who have lived normal, happy lives it's not so bad. Other people tend to see the darker side of things. I guess I'm just one of those others," I whispered, staring off into the darkness. I suddenly realized how exhausted I was and I slumped against Aragorn's arm.
"We won't be here for very long, so you might not want to get too comfortable," he reminded me. I struggled to keep my eyes open.
"I know," I murmured into his shoulder, "I'm just resting my eyes." He laughed again, a soft grumbling sound, and stroked the hair back from my face.
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BTW, italics are Elvish.
Legolas glanced over at Aragorn and frowned when he saw Lena nestled against his shoulder. Aragorn was playing with his blade and kept on shooting looks at Lena to make sure that he didn't wake her up. Goodness knows, the poor girl needed her sleep. Legolas quickly wrapped up his conversation with Gimli and crouched down next to Aragorn. The ranger glanced up at the blonde prince with an amused smile on playing on his lips.
"Envious, my friend?" Legolas stared at Lena's sleeping form, huddled into Aragorn's side. Aragorn put the blade away and clapped a hand on Legolas' shoulder. "You know I am merely teasing, Legolas." Legolas grinned good naturedly at the man and pushed his hand away.
"I know, Estel," Legolas said gazing at Lena longingly, "She is quite pretty when she is sleeping." Aragorn smiled and held his breath as Lena whimpered and cuddled closer to him.
"She is a very pretty child. But she is just that. A child," Aragorn reiterated when she stopped moving. Legolas frowned at the ranger and stood up. "She stays with us for now, but when this adventure is over, what do you think will happen to her? That is, supposing she lives through it, of course." Legolas thought about it for a moment.
"She has no idea how to get back to her own world. Perhaps…" he mused. Aragorn cut him off sharply.
"You know as well as I do that Elrond would never let you take her back to Mirkwood with you. He will keep her safely in his palace to live until she has lived out her life or he finds a way to put her back. She is mortal, my friend. Even if you were to take her back to your kingdom, what would you do? With each passing day, you will watch her grow old and weak, her sweet blonde curls will fade to gray, the supple limbs turns crooked and bent-" Aragorn hissed. They were starting to draw looks from the rest of the company. Legolas cut him off this time.
"Perhaps this is something that you and Arwen should discuss," Legolas shot back, glaring at the man, his cold blue eyes fiercely clashing against Aragorn's normally peaceful dark blue ones. Aragorn was shocked that his friend would deal him such a low blow. Legolas walked away and sat down on a rock on the other side of the tunnel and refused to look at the ranger. Gandalf decided that this would be a good time to get everyone on the move.
"We will walk for another 4 hours and then make camp for the night," he announced, glancing back to see everyone getting up. Aragorn shook Lena awake, and she stretched her arms above her head and grinned.
"Dude, I'm like so effin starved. Not even kidding, yo," she muttered. Gandalf shook his head, wondering what in the world she just said. Half the time the girl never said anything, and the other half of the time Gandalf couldn't figure out what she was trying to say. He had a suspicion no one else knew either.
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Okay so there was most deff something wrong with Legolas and Aragorn. And of course because I'm a nosy bitch like that, I decided to take it upon myself to find out what the problem is. I started with Legolas since Aragorn looks kind of scary when he's mad. I hung back a little and walked next to Legolas, who looked down at me suspiciously. I tilted my head back and gave him my best look-at-me-I'm-so-cute look, which made him even more suspicious.
"Hi!" I said cheerfully.
"What do you want?"
"A million dollars and to get back home. But since that isn't happening right now, why don't you tell me why you and Aragorn are being stupid?" Legolas frowned at me.
"We are not being stupid. It was merely an argument between friends. It is nothing at all." I glared at him.
"Bullshit. Tell me why you guys are mad at each other," I demanded. Legolas rolled his eyes and ignored me. I put both hands on my hips and started to move next to Aragorn.
"Where are you going?" Legolas wanted to know. I stuck my tongue out at him and moved up to the front of the line. I gave Aragorn the same sunny smile I gave Legolas, and he gave the same suspicious look that I'd gotten from Legolas.
"Hello!" I said.
"What are you up to, alag firiel?" Aragorn teased. I groaned softly.
"People need to stop using Elvish around me. I don't understand it!" Aragorn chuckled and I felt his mood brighten considerably.
"It means 'impetuous maiden'" he elaborated with a grin, "Now what do you want, although I can probably already guess." I smiled back.
"Well then I don't need to ask. Now tell me."
"It is between Legolas and I and does not concern you," he said, looking straight ahead. I grabbed his arm and pouted. He laughed again.
"Child, leave it be." I sighed and let go of him.
"Fine, but I'll find out eventually," I warned. Then I had a sudden idea. "Maybe I'll ask Galadriel if I even make it to Lothlorien," I murmured to myself. I looked up and saw Aragorn's eyes widen.
"What did you just say?" he demanded. I gave him the most innocent expression I could manage.
"Nothing!" I chirped. He glared at me suspiciously and I fell back in line with the hobbits. The trip continued for hours until finally Gandalf stopped us.
"We will rest here for another hour or so and then continue our journey," I was incredibly starved, and Borimir and Legolas distributed a small portion of lembas bread to everyone. I took my share and crawled over to where the hobbits were sitting. I sat there and listened to them reminisce about the Shire, and the various pranks they pulled and the stories the older hobbits used to tell them when they were children. I actually managed to relax and fell asleep in a half hour. I was shaken awake in what seemed like only a few minutes, and we continued on. We passed through a doorway which led to a flight of old stone steps. As we were passing through, we all looked down to see shafts and scaffoldings. It looked like the dwarves had been in the middle of a huge mining operation when they were chased out of Moria. Our footsteps echoed loudly in the huge, silent cavern, and it was so deep we couldn't even see the bottom. Merry leaned over to take a closer look, his eyes wide as quarters, but Pippin put a hand on his chest and pushed him back.
"What happened here?" Borimir muttered. Gandalf looked at him and smiled faintly, his lips curling ever so slightly.
"This, Borimir, is a mithril mine. As I've already explained, mithril is very rare and precious, and the largest amount ever to be excavated from below the earth was found in Moria," Gandalf explained. We all stopped for a moment and just looked, and I suddenly realized how sad it all was. It looked unfinished. The dwarves hadn't even had any warning, no time to even try to escape. They were trapped.
"My God," I whispered, shaking my head sadly. Gandalf nodded at me, and I had a feeling he knew exactly what I was thinking. "Imagine, to see this place when it was still up and running." I could almost picture the glitter of the rocky walls surrounding us, the heat of the fire below which would be used for melding and shaping the mithril, the sounds of the dwarves hacking away at the walls, laughing and talking with each other in their own gruff language. Gandalf nodded again.
"Yes. It was most certainly a wonderful sight to behold in the old days," he agreed. We started climbing again, and suddenly I heard a cry from behind me. I jumped and looked around, just as Aragorn grabbed Pippin. I realized suddenly that he ahd only slipped. He grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry 'bout that," he said softly. Everyone rolled their eyes and I put my arm around Pippin and continued walking. We passed through another doorway and down another shorter tunnel before we came to three doorways. Gandalf halted and everyone looked confused. Gandalf looked around, suddenly unsre of himself.
"I have no memory of this place." He glanced at one doorway to the other, and my stomach tightened. I felt sick and I would've gotten sick right there if I had actually eaten anything that day. He looked at the rest of us.
"We will have to rest here for now until I decide which tunnel to use," he said. Everyone gave sigh of relief and threw down their stuff. I sat down with the hobbits and tied my hair back.
"Are we lost?" Pippin whispered. I nodded my head slightly, but Merry glared at me.
"No," he whispered back. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah we are," I interjected
"Shh! Gandalf's thinking," Sam hissed. I frowned.
"Well obviously not fast enough," I whispered. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Frodo, who was talking with Gandalf, grab the hilt of his sword and look behind him. I grew nauseous again when I realized that they had found Gollum. I groaned inwardly, wanting nothing more than to wake up and find out that this was nothing more than a very bad dream. Frodo and Gandalf got really quiet and serious, so I stopped paying attention to them.
"Merry?" whispered Pippin, shaking the other hobbit's shoulder.
"What?"
"I'm hungry." Sam and Merry both sighed and covered their faces with their hands.
"Me too," I mumbled. The other three hobbits looked at me, Sam and Merry incredulous, and Pippin grinning triumphantly like he'd won the mile. I heard a quiet burst of laughter and looked over at Legolas to see him smiling and shaking his head at me. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled sheepishly. I walked over and sat down with them. Gimli looked up.
"Well hello there, young lass. Master Elf and I were just speaking of you," Gimli said, nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders. "Actually, the princeling over here was doing most of the talking." Legolas blushed furiously and I grinned at Gimli.
"What exactly was he saying about me?" Gimli looked at me and grinned back as Legolas shook his head and blushed redder. Gimli stroked his beard and pretended to think.
"You know, my dear, I can't quite remember. Perhaps Legolas would like to remind me," he finally said. We both looked at the elf expectantly. He glared at Gimli.
"Sûl tôl o nîf gîn," Legolas hissed, and walked off to talk to Borimir and Aragorn. Gimli and I fell to laughing as quietly as we could, which was not very quiet at all. Legolas glared again, and Borimir and Aragorn looked back and forth from us to Legolas.
"We are enjoying this way too much," I whispered, wiping a tear from my eye. Gimli nodded, but before he could speak, Merry jumped up.
"Gandalf's remembered!" he cried.
"No I have not," Gandalf corrected as everyone gathered up their things, "but the air does not smell as foul down here." he rested a hand on the hobbit's shoulder and leaned down. "When in doubt Meriadoc, always trust your nose." Merry nodded wisely and we all followed the wizard into the tunnel. I tried talking to Legolas but he was still mad at me and Gimli, so I just decided to stick with the hobbits.
"What in the world is the matter with him?" inquired Pippin. I shrugged my shoulders.
"No idea. We were only joking around and he got mad at me. The kid seriously needs to learn how to lighten up," I said.
"I heard that," Legolas said from the back of the line. I rolled my eyes at pippin and he laughed. We walked for another few hours, rested for about 20 minutes and then started walking again. My legs hurt and I was getting so tired I could hardly walk. I don't know how long we were walking before it opened into a great hall. There were huge stone pillars and the sheer size of the hall was incredible. I felt tiny and insignificant compared to these amazing structures that had been here for hundreds of years and seen so much. Everyone in the company gasped.
"Behold: the great realm and dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf," Gandalf announced. Legolas stepped up beside me, and I could tell that even he was beyond impressed.
"Now there's a real eye opener and no mistake," sighed Sam. We continued on into the great hall. After about 15 minutes, Gimli peered around a pillar and saw a small beam of light coming through. The whole company started forward, but Legolas had to literally drag me into the room. The ceiling and walls were cracked, and there was a great stone sarcophagus in the middle of the room, with a couple of crumbling stone steps leading up to it. There was a well with a rotting corpse sitting on the edge over in the corner, and I looked around, panicked.
"We can't stay here!" I whispered. Gandalf looked at me.
"What is the matter?" I backed away towards the entrance until I saw Pippin curiously looking at the corpse.
"Peregrin Took if you even go near that well I sweat to God I will chop off both of your hands and maybe that will teach you form ever making any kind of trouble again!" Pippin jumped, shocked that I had spoken to him like that, but at the moment I couldn't have cared less. Legolas watched me carefully and then put an arrow to his bow, keeping it pointed at the ground but cautiously studying his surroundings. Gandalf took a step towards and put his hands on my shoulders. He leaned down to look me right in the eyes.
"Lena, please. You are safe for now. And there is no other way out of the mines," he explained quietly, like you would to a crazy person. I jerked out of his grasp and drew my little knife. I shook my head and started to cry.
"No no no! It's Balin's tomb! They're coming for us!" I moaned, shaking uncontrollably. Gimli looked at me, with his mouth hanging open. He ran up the stone steps and read the inscription on the coffin. He sobbed when he read it, falling to his knees and whispering quietly to himself in whatever language the dwarfs used. Gandalf went over and read the inscription out loud. I sat down on the floor, rocking back and forth, trying not to completely lose my mind.
"'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared," Gandalf remarked sadly. He then saw a book lying near the steps and picked it up.
"We must move on. We cannot linger," Legolas whispered urgently to Aragorn. Aragorn nodded in agreement, both men poised to draw their weapons at any second. I stopped rocking and glared up at him.
"No shit! That's what I said in the first place! That's what I said before we even made it up to Caradhras1 But no. We had to let the fucking Ring-Bearer decide," I exclaimed, wildly gesturing to Frodo, who looked completely miserable, "And now, because of you people, there is the possibility that at least two people in this company are going to die before we even make it to the other side. So I hope you are all fucking enjoying this because you did it to yourselves you stupid asses!" I yelled, not even bothering to keep my voice down. Everyone stared at me before the full horror of the situation sunk in. Gandalf shook his head sadly and sighed.
"You knew about this?" Borimir asked incredulously. I threw my hands up in the air.
"Of course I knew! Do you honestly think I would've agreed with you about taking the Gap of Rohan if I hadn't known what was going to happen?" I screamed. Aragorn ran over and shook me, hard.
"Keep quiet!" he growled. I glared at him.
"They would've come anyways. At least this time it's my fault and not Pippin's. We were never going to make it out without a battle!" And suddenly we heard it. Drums booming in the distance, and coming closer. I moaned with horror and cried even harder. I looked around and snatched up a sword from one of the dwarf corpses. The sword was shorter than a regular sword, but it was bigger than my knife, and heavier too, I realized with a sinking feeling. Sam looked at Frodo, who was staring at a glowing Sting.
"Orcs!" yelled Legolas. He put an arrow to his bow and pushed me towards the hobbits. Borimir ran to the door and was greeted by a couple of arrows which narrowly missed his face. Aragorn ran to help him, yelling at me and the hobbits to stay back, a plan that I had no problem with. A loud roar was heard from outside the doors. Borimir leaned against the doors and sighed.
"Wonderful. They have a cave troll!" he yelled sarcastically. The hobbits and I drew our weapons, as did Gandalf. We looked at each other in silent defeat.
"It was nice knowing you," I told Gandalf. He nodded his head.
"I should have listened," he admitted. I took a deep breath and laughed, which came out sounding more like a shaking sob.
"I wasn't trying to protect you when I tried convincing you not to go. I was protecting myself. You'll be fine," I whispered. He looked at me, his eyes widening ever so slightly. I took a deep breath and faced the door, prepared for battle. Gimli jumped up onto Balin's tomb, and brandished his axe.
"Let them come," Gimli yelled with rage, "There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"
We all waited, and finally the first hole broke in through the door, with clawed hands reaching through. There were screams as Legolas shot an arrow into the whole. And then I braced myself. The door's broke open, and as the little demons broke through, the battle finally began. The men, the dwarf, the elf, and the wizard all tried to hold them off, but the Orcs broke through the little makeshift circle and came right for the hobbits and I. I screamed and jumped up on a the tomb of Balin.
"ohmyGodohmyGodohmyGOD!!" I screamed as an orc made it's way towards me. In panic, I quickly sliced wildly as soon as he was near enough, making a gash in it's neck. The thing grabbed at the wound but didn't stop moving. I took the opportunity to put the sword right through it's chest. I felt completely nauseous as I looked at the body of the vile looking creature that I had just killed, but I didn't have enough time to get sick. Two more came for me and I let out another scream. They came at opposite sides, and I went for the one on my right. It brought down it's sword, but I easily managed to block it since I was on higher ground. What I didn't expect was the force with which it was attacking me. I lost my hold on the sword and I scrambled around trying to get it back. The one that was on my left lifted it's sword, but before it came down on me, it stopped with it's hand in midair. The sword dropped from it's hand and it fell face first into the ground, one of Legolas' arrows sticking out of it's back. I sighed in relief and waved at Legolas, who nodded and continued to help Aragorn fight of a large group that came right for them. There was a sickening crash coming from the door as I grabbed the sword of the dead Orc, and I realized with dread that it was the cave troll. Legolas took a wild shot at the troll and the beast grabbed at the wound that the arrow had made in it's shoulder. I jumped down from the coffin so the troll's attention wouldn't be drawn towards me. An orc came at me and I swung the sword at him. Again, he was only wounded, but it surprised him so much that I took another swing, this time at his legs. The orc fell to it's knees, but I realized I wasn't strong enough to cut through any body parts, so I gave up and stabbed it in the chest. A group of them were starting to gather around me, realizing that I was the only girl and easily the weakest fighter in the out of the 10 of us. Aragorn and Borimir were too busy handling the troll, but Gandalf jumped in and started hacking away at then, while Legolas shot into the crowd at lightning speed. I tried to do my part, but the sword was too heavy, and I just plain didn't know how to fight. Finally Gandalf and I settled on a system. He distracted them and wounded them while I came up behind them and plunged my sword through their backs. It was going pretty well until I heard Sam yell from across the4 room.
"Frodo!" I looked up and saw the troll had practically skewered Frodo with a long iron rod it had found. I was so busy paying attention to the troll that I only looking up when I felt a sharp pain in my upper arm. I screamed in pain and looked at the arrow that had been lodged in my shoulder. The creatures, seeing that I had been wounded, started towards me. Gimli jumped in from out of nowhere and began furiously hacking away at them with his sword, and he was doing a pretty damn good job. He got about 15 of them and even more were falling. The place was pretty much cleared except for the cave troll. Through a haze I saw Frodo slumped in a corner. Pippin was on it's shoulders, his sword sticking out of the monster's head. Legolas took aim and shot upward, the arrow going through the troll's mouth and into it's brain. The troll stopped and stumbled a little, grabbing it's mouth, and finally it fell. I got up and ran over to Frodo, along with everyone else. Aragorn shook the hobbit, tears in his eyes. Finally, Frodo sat up and gasped, clutching at his chest. Everyone let out a sigh of relief and I gave Frodo a knowing smile.
"I'm all right. I'm not hurt," Frodo said, holding up a hand. Aragorn stared at him in shock.
"You should be dead! That spear would have skewered a wild boar!" I grinned and pulled Frodo's shirt up to reveal the mithril. Everyone laughed and Gimli fingered the material.
"Mithril! You are full of surprises, Master Baggins," Gimli told him. Frodo grinned, but suddenly looked at me. I felt faint and the pain in my right bicep was unbearable.
"Lena! You're wounded!" Frodo exclaimed. Everyone looked at me, and Aragorn's eyes widened as he studied my arm. There was more booming, and I stood up.
"Come on. I'm fine. We can worry about it once we've gotten out of here. I'm just glad I actually made it through that," I said. Gandalf studied me.
"You're sure you can make it?" he asked. My arm felt like it was on fire, but I knew that I could walk.
"Yeah. My arm hurts like hell, but I can still run for it," I said, breathing deeply. Gandalf nodded and called out for everyone to move, and everyone ran for the door as quickly as possible. Next stop was the bridge of Khazad-dûm.