Red Haze (LOTR)

6

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-There's something down there!- Maria gets up and walks to Frodo's side who gives her a glance as she too looks down to see a thin and spider like body move along the walls of the floors below them.
-It's Gollum- says Gandalf.
-Gollum?- who was Gollum.
-He's been following us for three days- Maria was surprised she hadn't felt that... thing, following them earlier.
-He escaped the dungeons of Barad-Dûr!- the what of where she was becoming more confused the more she listened to this conversation -and now the Ring had drawn him here. He will never be rid of his need for it. He hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself.
-Sméagol's life is a sad story. Yes, Sméagol he was once called. Before the Ring found him... before it drove him mad.
-It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance!- Maria hadn't expected sweet Frodo to say such things, but she understood why he said it. That creature reeked of hate.
-Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?- another weakness that determined one's fate, pity.

She decides to leave the both of them to sort this out and walks back to Nat, laying back down on her lap and receiving odd looks from the males around them.

-Oh! It's that way- Gandalf's sudden remark makes her groan at having to get up yet again.
-He's remembered!
-No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here- Maria heard a small hint of amusement as Gandalf turned to look at her and sent her a wink -If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose.

-Let me risk a little more light- he says as they walk through -Behold: the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf.
It was indeed a nice room with arched ceiling and columns.
She heard Gimli give a cry and run forward into a chamber filled with the dead bodies of dwarves

-No! No!- the dwarf sobbed as he lay over a tomb in the centre of the room.
-Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared- Gimli usted know him.
-We must move on, we cannot linger!- she hears Legolas say to Aragorn, and she agreed with him.

-They have taken the bridge... and the second hall- Gandalf read drearily from a book he had taken from one of the skeletons -We have barred the gates... but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums... drums... in the deep- he stops reading to turn the page -We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark.

Nat watches as Pippin strays from them and nears an old corpse with an arrow in his chest. She's too late to stop him as he twists the shaft of the arrow slightly and the skull slips off of the rotting body and into the well besides it, crashing into it's walls and resounding terribly. She grabs the frightened hobbit's arm and pulls him away but it is already too late as the rest of the body fall. It was attached to the chain of the well's bucket which fell right behind it making an even louder echoing noise.

-Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!- Gandalf was angry and Nat understood why.
He pulled his hat and staff from the Hobbit's hands turning away when suddenly the sound of drums vibrates through the caves walls and makes a dreary noise. They had been discovered.

Maria watches as Frodo pulls his sword out a bit and sees it was glowing blue, alerting them of the danger they were now in.
Boromir rushes to the doors to have a look. Arrows hiss into the door near his face. Aragorn drops his torch and runs to Boromir with Natasha as Maria pulls out her already deployed bow and readies herself.

-Get back! You stay close to Gandalf!
-They have a cave troll- a what?
She watches as Legolas tosses weapons to Boromir and Aragorn to blockade the door while the rest prepare themselves for battle.
-Argh! Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!- his bravery makes Maria smile a bit until she sees the door starts to break.