Wander

XI. The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

Rowan whipped around to stare at the well, praying she had imagined the drum. The boom sounded again, followed by another beat, which progressed into a steady pounding, rallying all enemies in Moria. Distant cries echoed through the cavernous halls of Dwarrowdelf outside the door; the rustling and clambering of many goblins scrambling for the Chamber of Records shot up everyone's nervousness.

Her breathing became erratic as she panicked. This battle wasn't one of the tougher ones the Fellowship encounters, but the goblins would swarm through the only exit, furthermore, trapping them. And Rowan had no actual fighting experience—other than the skirmish with the Ringwraiths. These goblins were small, quick, numerous, their blades real, and they weren't just after Frodo and the Ring—they would kill them all. In the movie, they also bring a cave-troll.

"But the skeleton didn't fall down the well!" she cried.

Gandalf looked at her. "Tell us what happens!"

She knew what to expect. They would be fine.

As she talked, adrenaline took control, and she directed the others on where to be situated. Boromir and Aragorn set to shutting the doors and barricading it with the swords and pikes Legolas tossed to them. Gimli climbed up on Balin's tomb, growling, eager to kill the goblins. Rowan got beside Gandalf in front of the hobbits; he had already unsheathed his sword, Glamdring—glowing blue at the edges like her own blade.

The two men finished blocking the doors, then stepped back to join the elf—who already had an arrow notched—to wait for the creatures to break through.

The goblin cries reached a crescendo when they found the doors shut and rammed against them, trying to burst it open. Finally growing smart, they hacked away at the rotting wooden doors. Gleeful cheers following splitting wood announced the success of cutting a hole. A scream of pain soon sounded as one of Legolas' arrows shot through the hole. Arrow after arrow whizzed through the air, answered by another dying cry.

With wood breaking, the doors banged open, and the goblins streamed through. They were a mixture of heights and sizes, and helmets covered some heads, but all were green-skinned, hunched-over, wore dirty strips of rags and metal armor, and armed with wickedly edged blades.

The four warriors in the front held off the horde before the goblin numbers pushed them back. War cries sounded all around her as Rowan, Gandalf, and the hobbits ran into the fray. She easily deflected a goblin's thrust and drove her sword through its chest. Her blade ripping through flesh sickened Rowan, but she pushed the grossness out of her mind. She pulled her sword out of the dead goblin, then decapitated another.

Rowan parried, thrust, and swung her sword around like a choreographed fight. The goblins genuinely fighting back made her duck and dodge, but her experience in fake fights prepared her for this real one. She tried not to dwell on the grotesque sounds of swords hacking away at flesh, the horrid smell of death, and the slick black blood coating her blade and running across her hand—right now, she focused on surviving.

The stone doorframe suddenly exploded, and a cave-troll shuffled through, dragging its hammer behind it. Just as ugly and large as the one in the movie, it stood over ten-feet tall, wide, grayish-skinned, wearing nothing but a loincloth, and being led by a chain around its neck.

Per Rowan's instructions of aiming for its head, Legolas shot its eye. The troll released a howl of pain as it recoiled with a hand going up to its wounded eye. Jerking back like it did yanked the goblin holding its chain up to the troll's chest. It slammed into the troll and bounced off, losing its hold on the chain. Before the goblin recovered, a foot stomped on it as the troll lunged toward the elf.

His bow repeatedly twanged as he backed away; one arrow glanced off the troll's cheek but left a long cut, oozing black blood. The troll flinched at the wound and caught sight of the four hobbits fighting goblins.