One Day You'll Know

Chapter 18- Journey in the Dark

Suddenly, Gimli cried out and turned right into a room off to the corner.

"Gimli!" Gandalf called after him.

Noelle craned her neck trying to see what had upset Gimli, but she had a feeling it was something bad. His cry had been one of anguish. When they finally caught up with him, he was sobbing against a rectangular chunk of marble.

"Oh no..." Noelle knew immediately what was wrong. Balin was dead. The dwarf-carcasses littering the room and Gandalf confirmed her suspicions. He read the inscription on the tombstone.

"'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared." Removing his hat and handing it over to Pippin, Gandalf picked up a book up out of the hands of a skeleton laying against the tomb.

Noelle clapped her hand over her mouth to stop the scream coming from the back of her throat. The skeleton was Ori...

Distraught, she turned her back on the tombstone and wandered over to the corner of the room as Gandalf began reading from the book.

"We must move on- we cannot linger," Noelle heard Legolas whisper to Aragorn. He wasn't wrong, she mused. Staying in any one place wasn't exactly smart.

We cannot get out," Gandalf's voice kept going. "A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming."

Suddenly, there was a crashing sound from behind her. Noelle jumped, whipped around, and pulled out her sword, only to see Gandalf scowling at Pippin and everyone but Aragorn giving her a confused look.

The entire chained carcass of something went tumbling down a well, because apparently Pippin couldn't keep his hands to himself. The noise echoed throughout Moria.

Wonderful, just wonderful.

Gandalf slammed the book back down in anger and ripped his hat and staff out of Pippin's hands. "Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time, and rid us of your stupidity!"

Noelle didn't feel bad for the hobbit one bit. If they had gone undetected before, they weren't going to be now. This was the second time Pippin had almost gotten them killed.

Boom.

What was that?

Boom.

Noelle met Gandalf's eyes. They heard distant clamoring and screeching.

"Orcs!" Legolas shouted.

Boromir ran to the gate of the room, and shut the door.

"Get back! Stay close to Gandalf and Noelle!" Aragorn shouted to the hobbits. He ran over to help Boromir.

"They have a cave-troll!" Boromir cried as Legolas tossed him some axes to wedge into the door in an attempt to keep it shut as long as possible.

Noelle felt her heartbeat speed up in anticipation, as it always did before a fight. She gripped her sword handle, hoping she remembered how to properly fight orcs and trolls.

Gandalf drew Glamdring and the hobbits their short swords. Growling, Gimli hopped on top of Balin's tomb. "Argh! Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"

Legolas and Aragorn drew their bows, aiming them at the crack in the wooden door, which the orcs were steadily breaking into. Aragorn and Legolas released several arrows, receiving screeches from the other side of the door.

With an enormous crack, a horde of orcs burst through the door, and all of hell broke loose.

The first thing Noelle saw was an orc's blade heading straight towards the left side of her head. Moving faster due to her reflexes, she parried it lightsaber-duel-style and easily disarmed him, slashing the vile creature's head off. She then sensed an arrow coming towards her right and swung her sword downwards to block it- and it went flying back in the other direction. A dent had barely been made in the Elven-forged sword.