AN: I don't own anything of course, so yep.

Chapter 4

The fellowship made their way down the mountain, it was a slow ride filled with sharp edges at every turn. Gimli often spoke of his cousin and the dwarven ways of welcome, he made it sound similar to a weasel welcome. Hadrian paused at that thought, not understanding why he kept on comparing the dwarfs to weasels. That made him also wonder why he compared the elves to ferrets. Hadrian disregarded those thoughts in favour of stopping in front of a humongous wall that was in front of them. "The walls of Moria." Gimli said with a pleased voice. Overall the setting was rather creepy, a black pond that reminded Hadrian of things called inferi was next to a message that Gandalf claimed was there, despite their being no evidence. He then went up to the Walls and muttered about Ithildin and messages. Gandalf then made a show of making the moonlight hit the wall. It was easy for Hadrian to get enraptured by the rune like writings that glowed like a lumis spell. "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter." Was the translation that Gandalf provided.

"What do you suppose that means?" Merry asked with a curious tilt to his voice. Gandalf answered confidently, perhaps a bit too confidently: "Well it's quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password and the doors will open." Gandalf began his onslaught of multiple languages and nothing happened. Hadrian pondered whether or not he should use his magic to open the passage way but thought better of it, after all the spell might damage the wall; also Hadrian wanted to see Gandalf try. It didn't seem to happen nearly enough for comfort.

After some time, Hadrian began to ponder whether the true reason Gandalf was so reluctant to go into the mines was actually because he didn't know how to enter it. After a lot of boredom Hadrian began to watch the Hobbits send their pony off to safety, Hadrian watched as the pony left his companions behind. While watching Hadrian was hit with a wave of sadness; he remembered a time when he sent off a loyal friend. Hadrian then turned and watched as Pippin 'tossed' stones. But before Hadrian could correct him on the art of skipping stones, Aragorn stops Pippin. The water started to ripple in certain areas, something in the water causing the movement. Hadrian made sure he wasn't close to the pond and watched in thin concern over the men. "You should never step too close to something dangerous even if you are confident in tour own abilities" Hadrian warned them. While Hadrian was telling them this, Frodo figured out the password. The door opened slowly as if showing you a magnificent prize.

Once Gimli was sure that they would be entering the mines he started to talk to the elf, Legolas, Hadrian reminded himself, "Soon Master elf you will be treated to the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves. Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone. This my friend is the home of my cousin Balin, and they call it a "mine"." Gimli said incredulously, their arguments reminded Hadrian of weasels and ferrets. Hadrian watched as Gandalf lit a dim light. Hadrian didn't bother lighting his own since he did not the way. He looked down and saw bodies he heard Boromir mention the mine being a tomb. Gimli in his devastation ran to the bodies and started to sob. Hadrian looked at the weapons that killed the dwarves.

"Goblin arrows." Hadrian muttered, Legolas looked around bringing his own bow out. Aragorn and Boromir did the same with their swords. "We make to the Gap of Rohan. We should have never of come here. Now, get of here! Get out!" Boromir yelled. The Hobbits stepped back, something latched onto Frodo's ankle. It dragged Frodo into the pond. The Hobbits started to randomly attack the squid like creäture, Legolas shot bows and Aragorn stabbed it. It was a mess but eventually the squid thing dropped Frodo. Sam quickly went to help Frodo stand up, when running back into the mines the entrance fell, blocking them from exiting that way again.

Gandalf relit his staff, "We must face the long dark path of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world." They continued to walk Gandalf's reminder of the four-day travel still in their minds. They walked through the paths that were in rune; Hadrian half-expected the path to crumble down at any given moment. Goblins were not known to be the most careful of beings and he doubted that they would make an exception for some dwarf buildings. It did not help that there were corpses lying around, and steep steps. Finally, they came across a three-way path way. Now was the perfect time for a break while Albus was solving the puzzle of the paths. Pippin eventually asked the question that had been on his mind since Gandalf said that he had no memory of this place, "Are we lost?" Hadrian smirked a little, "Probably, Albus though will most likely find the answer and if not him than someone else in the Fellowship." This didn't exactly make Pippins very confident so he tried to push his thoughts onto another question that he was sure was burning into at least some of the other member's minds, "Hadrian, what species are you?" Hadrian paused and looked at Pippin with a baffled expression, "While wizard of course!" Frodo turned with a curious tilt in the head, "But you are not an istari." "No I'm not I'm a wizard." The slight confusion that showed on Hadrian's face prevented any more questions about it. Hadrian was baffled and a little peeved that they didn't really accept 'wizard' as an acceptable answer to the question, Hadrian had to remind himself that this is not his old world no matter the similarities.

Just when Hadrian conjured up some food for the Hobbits after some complaining from Pippin Frodo noticed a small slimy looking thing coming towards them. Frodo immediately went up to Gandalf, of course with a loaf of bread in hand. "There's something following us." Gandalf didn't pause to look away from the tunnels, "That is Gollum." Frodo just looked more concerned, "Gollum?" Hadrian jumped atop the rocks with a smile and cheerfully stated, "He's been following us for three days. It takes a lot of effort to move nonstop in his condition, you know. Definitely after he they released him from the dungeons." Frodo looked at him incredulously, "You mean to say that he was set free?" Hadrian smiled as if what he said wasn't concerning at all, "Yep, he'll never abandon the Ring willingly even though he has something of a love-hate relationship with it." Hadrian slipped off when he noticed the conversation was taking a darker tone and with nothing better to do he looked around. There wasn't much to see besides runes and darkness, the Fellowship was seemingly divided the men, were conversing together which was a surprise, or at least a surprise to Hadrian. The Hobbits all except for Frodo who was conversing with Gandalf were talking to one another, though most shockingly of all was the fact that Legolas and Gimli were conversing. Well the elf looked uncomfortable and the dwarf was speaking nonsense, while not a fluid conversation it was better than what was expected to happen.

Gandalf turned to one of the tunnels, "This is the path, it does not smell as foul in this one. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow tour nose. They went through the tunnel and eventually found themselves in the actual dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf. It was magnificent, though the empty hollowness of it made a rather disturbing mood. They then came across a tomb Hadrian guessed after Gimli's reaction. It was the tomb of his cousin, Balin. No Dwarves remained in Moria, which could which meant that the Goblins took over or something far worse was in their reach. Pippin turned and touched a sword that was owned by one of the many corpses, this ended with the head falling into a well which than caused the body to fall. Since the chains were wrapped around the body a bucket then fell in as well. Everyone stopped to listen to the loud noises echoing all throughout the mines. Pippin looked as if he was about to have a heart attack, the rest of the Fellow ship wasn't much better. Eventually, they slowly exhaled and Gandalf went up to Pippin and shouted, "Fool of Took! You should have jumped in and saved us from your foolishness!" There was a silence now, the rest of the Hobbits kept looking down knowing that Pippin wasn't exactly in the spot of defending. Hadrian decided to look down the well; it was a dark pit of abyss. It was impossible to properly define anything from the blackness.

Hadrian looked up, a rumbling was heard. It was not an echoing like the fallen bones but giant stomps and the sound of something being dragged. Not exactly what everyone wanted to hear, ever, and certainly not in a mine that was filled to the brim with bodies. Not that anyone was going to chat it up anytime soon of course, instead they were too busy bringing out their weapons. Even the Hobbits brought out their 'swords' which were really more the size of a dagger, but a weapon was a weapon after all. It took a second for Hadrian to notice that Frodo's blade glowed blue, rather embarrassedly long. "Orcs!" Boromir ran to the door, only to almost end up being hit by a couple of arrows.

Hadrian grabbed the nearest Hobbit and put him near the back, Hadrian heard Boromir talking about a cave troll. 'It can't be that dangerous than, after all three eleven year olds faced a troll and came out alive!' Hadrian thought to himself, which made him wonder how he knew this. Of course those thoughts quickly became disrupted by the orcs breaking through the quickly made barrier. Hadrian drew out his blade and joined the fighting, orcs fell quickly but they were not prepared for the orc that came. Hadrian quickly took away its club, though that did nothing to prevent the thing from smashing things with its fists. Arrows did nothing to deter it, so Hadrian kept to the orcs. Eventually the orc managed to corner Frodo, Aragorn luckily enough managed to get there before Frodo was butchered. Unfortunately, Aragorn got slammed into the wall by a meaty fist. Unconscious, Aragorn unwillingly left Frodo alone to face the beast. Frodo could not find any escape routs, leaving him cornered once again. Hadrian was completely surrounded just as Legolas, Gandalf, and Boromir were. Everyone stopped and stared as the Troll grabbed a spear and rammed it into Frodo. Time seemed was frozen, well for everyone except Hadrian that seemed to be the case. The first ones to snap out of it were surprisingly Merry and Pippin, they pet out a war cry and jumped into the Troll. Everything passed by in a blur; the orcs were dead then at last the troll. Of course none of this meant that Frodo would live, but Hadrian did not feel him die. Though Hadrian did not know why he would 'feel' Frodo dying.

Much to everyone else's shock, Frodo was not only alive but he was also perfectly fine, unless one counted a few scrapes, bruises, and a ring that was slowly driving him insane. But other than those minor details Frodo was healthy. Hadrian wasn't really listening but he did hear a little about something called 'Mithril." The small 'we're happy you're alive' party was quickly disrupted by screeching. "To the Bridge f Khazad-dûn!" Gandalf shouted to the rest of the fellowship. They all quickly ran to the expansive thing, Hadrian wasn't exactly sure what it was actually called and considering that thousands of Orcs were surrounding them he hadn't had the time to ask. Then something growled, it was farther away and the goblins all stopped they looked around frantically and Hadrian began to see a fiery light coming from a certain direction. Another growl came and all the orcs fled. The fellowship of course didn't flee, not that they could even if they wanted to. Bows and swords were directed at the growling noise. Hadrian started to walk away, slowly. He still heard what Gandalf said, "A Balrog. A demon the ancient world. This foe is beyond our capabilities." With that note Hadrian ran back grabbed the nearest Hobbit he saw and ran, his legs were longer then the Hobbits after all. Down the stairs they went stopping right in front of a large stop. Coincidentally there was another flight of stairs right next to the broken staircase. Rushing down the steps and immediately throwing the Hobbit in his arms over the chunk of stairs that crumbled down. Hadrian then jumped and stopped to turn, Boromir than jumped as did Legolas and when Gimli jumped his beard was latched onto by Legolas since Gimli slipped a bit when he jumped. Then came Sam and Pippin. The stone crumbled a bit more leaving the already gaping hole a bit wider. Only two people remained, Aragorn and the arguably most important person in the Fellowship, Frodo Baggins. Another terrifying screech came from the entrance way the rumbling caused a rather large piece to fall on the pathway, causing the staircase that Aragorn and Frodo were on the now become w piece of a missing puzzle. The ring bearer and heir to an important thrown crashed into the rest of the fellowship. They began to run once again, heading to the bridge.

At last they made to the bridge, Gandalf told everyone to cross and to fly. Hadrian stopped when he saw Gandalf stop and look behind. A gigantic terrifying mass of flame towered over the two, Hadrian stared at Gandalf and quickly shook his head in a silent message. Then they began to run once more, every member of the fellowship except for Hadrian and Gandalf had crossed. Hadrian quickly glared at Gandalf and weaved a few compulsions info Gandalf, and bot even Gandalf could quickly override them in his state. Gandalf ran along with the rest of the Fellowship leaving Hadrian alone with the Balrog. Hadrian quickly called upon his magic to weave a curtain of pure magic. It reflected the light causing it to seem as if everything was a fiery glow. The Balrog pushed itself against the barrier once again making it shimmer a blinding white light. Hadrian put even more energy into the shield. This caused the bridge to crumble, bringing the Balrog with it. Gandalf seemed to relax for a moment and went to greet Hadrian only to notice a moment too late that the flaming whip curled around Hadrian's ankle. Hadrian had fallen into the abyss.