The snow. Noelle's boots were tactical boots that she had gotten at the Jedi Temple, and thankfully, they could withstand like five feet of snow, even though Noelle suspected that it was probably more than that. They had been trudging uphill in the snow for about eight hours now- all morning. Everyone, not just Noelle, was struggling to keep their balance while walking.
Except Legolas, Noelle thought with a groan. That Elf could walk on the snow for crying out loud! She had been using the Force to keep her balance.
"You guys ok back there?" she called over her shoulder to the hobbits and everyone else. Noelle was leading the way right behind Gandalf.
No answer.
Noelle and Gandalf turned around.
Aragorn and Frodo, who were in the rear, were staring at Boromir, whose back was to the rest of them. He seemed to be gazing at something in his hand. Noelle's eyes widened in realization. Boromir was holding the Ring. Noelle's hand went immediately to her sword and she began to move towards him before she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Wait," Gandalf commanded.
Noelle stopped.
"Boromir!" Aragorn shouted. "Give the Ring to Frodo."
Boromir slowly handed the Ring over to Frodo, then ruffled his hair, trying to ease the tension. But it didn't get rid of the uneasy feeling Noelle had in her mind about him. Ever since the Council, Boromir had taken a special interest in the Ring, and the Ring, if Noelle was guessing correctly, was going to try and use him to Its advantage. It had already tried to use her and failed. Best to keep a close eye on him, Noelle decided.
~~~~~~
A gust of snowy wind blew into Noelle's face. Ugh. It had to be WAY below freezing in this blizzard, miles high on the pass of Caradhras. Huddling next to Gandalf, she wrapped Ahsoka's cloak tighter around her body and watched Legolas walk past her in annoyance. It was hard not to be jealous.
Gandalf plowed through the eight feet of snow with his staff. Behind Noelle, Aragorn carried Sam and Frodo, while Boromir held Merry and Pippin. The hobbits would have suffocated under the snow otherwise. In the back, Gimli tried his best to get Bill the pony to cooperate.
Suddenly, she heard a voice echoing. Was it the Force?
"Does anybody hear that?" she screamed over the wind.
"WHAT LASS?" Gimli shouted from the back.
Legolas, who was up at the front of the group, was the only one listening. "There is a fell voice on the air!" he cried.
What?
"It's Saruman!" Gandalf screamed.
CRACK!!!
Chunks of rock fell from above their heads. Everyone moved out of the way.
"He's trying to bring down the mountain!" Aragorn hollered. "Gandalf! We must turn back!"
"No!" Gandalf screamed back.
Aragorn was right. This was getting dangerous. Maybe they would be better off taking their chances near the Gap of Rohan... or Moria.
"Gandalf! He's right! This is foolishness, not perseverance!" Noelle yelled, grabbing Gandalf's arm, trying emphasize her worry.
"NO!" Gandalf screamed again.
Noelle stopped back in surprise at his forcefulness. Gandalf gave her a look that said "don't mention this again," and stepped up out of the snow ditch.
"Losto Caradhras, sedho, hodo, nuitho i 'ruith!"
In response all they received was another CRACK!!! A bolt of lightning seared above their heads, striking the mountain instead. Looking up, Noelle felt her heart stop.
An avalanche.
Clutching her cloak with her right hand, she raised her left one in the air, trying futilely to stop the tons of snow from burying them alive. But she felt a cold slam on her head, and everything went black for an instant.
FIVE MINUTES LATER:
"NOELLE? Noelle!!!" Gandalf's voice was in a panic. He had frantically dug around trying to find her, relieved to finally see the grey hood of her cloak
Noelle opened her eyes and struggled to focus on the blurry grey figure with the pointy hat and snowy beard. "Gandalf..."
"Yes, yes, Noelle! It's me! Are you alright?" Gandalf's eyes were beyond worried.
"Ohhhh..." Noelle placed her palm on her temple. It really hurt. This was the third time she had been knocked out before. First in that Gundark cave in Vanquor, and second by a shock-collar when she had been a play-acting slave on Kadavo. Her head was spinning, and she saw black spots.
"We must get off the mountain! Make for the Gap of Rohan, and take the west road to my city!" she heard Boromir scream.
"The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!" Aragorn argued back.
Noelle couldn't really focus on their arguing, or what she thought was a good idea. All she knew was that her head hurt.
"We cannot pass over the mountain. Let us go under it," Gimli offered. "Let us go through the mines of Moria."
Noelle, who had been using the Force to try and clear her head of her injury, had regained her composure enough to sense Gandalf's fear. She didn't just have to use the Force to sense it, or have that intuition that came after knowing him all these years. She could see it in his eyes. There was a reason he didn't want to go to Moria, and he wouldn't tell them why.
"Let the Ringbearer decide."
What! Had Gandalf gone insane! They were going to let (no offense to Frodo) an inexperienced, näive hobbit decide their course of action?
Frodo looked around at all their faces. Aragorn, Noelle and Boromir's concerned ones, Legolas's annoyed one, Gimli's hopeful look, Merry, Pippin and Sam's freezing faces, Gandalf's look of fear.
"We will go through the mines," he said.
~~~~~~
By nightfall, the Company was off Caradhras and making their way through the misty caves underneath the mountain. Noelle personally was beginning to wish they had taken the risk and gone the way of the Gap of Rohan. She had bad memories associated with caves. The Goblin-tunnels, the Elven-king's palace, Erebor, Vanquor. Trouble seemed to happen when she was underground. Which was why Noelle had a bad feeling about this.
She decided to ask Gandalf.
Gandalf, who was at the lead of the group, seemed to be struggling to walk over the rocky terrain.
"Gandalf! Let me help you!" Noelle jogged up to him and took his left arm.
"Thank you dear," said Gandalf. "I am getting older it seems."
Noelle snorted. "You seem the same to me," she said under her breath.
Gandalf smiled. He had obviously heard her. "That's what happens when you take on the body of an old man."
Noelle frowned and tilted her head at him. What was he talking about? But she shrugged it off, and changed the subject to what she really wanted to get to. "Gandalf, what's in Moria?" She knew something was down there he didn't want to talk about. Something he was afraid of.
Gandalf visibly stiffened at her question. "It's a path I feared we may have to take, yet I hoped we would never have to." He lowered his voice. "The Ring's power is growing. I'm sure you have felt it as I have. Evil will be drawn to the Ringbearer."
"I will do everything in my power to protect him," Noelle said earnestly.
"I know you will. But we all have our tests of strength, Noelle. They come around time and time again- for all of us."
"But-"
Before Noelle could finish her sentence, Gimli interrupted. "The Walls of Moria!" He pointed ahead. They had come to the end of the cave, which was marked by a murky lake. Across the lake, was the wall of the mountainside. The entrance to Moria.
Noelle thought back to what Gandalf had said. But I have already faced my trials. I made a huge decision coming to Middle-earth in the first place, and going to and leaving the Jedi. The way Noelle saw it, she didn't have too many paths left.
The Fellowship was working their way around the small lake, when Gimli began chattering away excitedly about the dwarf-kingdom. "Dwarf doors are invisible when closed," he was saying as he tapped the rock with his axe. He wasn't saying anything Noelle didn't already know.
"Yes, even their own masters cannot find them if their secrets are forgotten!" Gandalf said.
Noelle knew that too. She shook her head thinking back on it.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Legolas commented. Noelle smirked as Gimli made a noise of disdain. He and Legolas had barely spoken to each other for the whole of this trip in order to avoid arguing.
Gandalf came over to a clear spot on the wall between two dying trees, and placed his hand on it, searching for the door. "Ithlidin. It mirrors only starlight and moonlight." He turned around to gaze up at the sky. Behind the clouds, the moon was bright and full. The wall behind Gandalf began to glow. The image resembled an archway with vines winding around its pillars. In its middle was a star, and at the top of was crown surrounded by seven smaller stars.
Gandalf stepped back to read the inscription. "It reads: the doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. Speak friend and enter."
"What do you suppose that means?" Merry asked what they were all thinking.
"Well, it's quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password and the doors will open!" Gandalf explained. He touched his staff to the door. "Annon edhellen, edro hi ammen!" Nothing. Gandalf stepped back again, and raised his arms. "Fennas nogothrim, lasto beth lammen." Nothing.
Pippin glanced up at Legolas. "Nothing's happening."
Gandalf started pushing his body against the door.
Oh brother! Noelle rolled her eyes. All she knew was that she was not going to attempt to open the door with the Force. She didn't care what anyone said, she was not doing that again!
"I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves, Men and Orcs," Gandalf mumbled to himself.
"What are you going to do then?" Pippin asked,
"Knock your head against these doors, Peregrin Took!" Gandalf snapped. "If that does not shatter them, then I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions! I will try to find the opening words."
"Best not to bother him when he's frustrated," Noelle whispered to Pippin. "Believe me."
A half an hour went by as they waited for Gandalf to try and figure out the password. Unfortunately they had to let Bill the pony go. Noelle felt so bad for poor Sam as he watched Bill wander away freely from the Company. It had been like his pony.
Gandalf finally threw his staff on the ground in exasperation. "Oh it's useless."
Noelle suddenly had a weird feeling. She noticed Aragorn and Boromir watching the lake. She walked away from Gandalf, Legolas and the hobbits. "What's wrong?" she asked Aragorn, her eyes still on the lake.
"I saw a movement," he replied.
Noelle watched more closely. The disturbing feeling had grown. Something was definitely in that lake. There! She did see something. A ripple in the water.
By now Merry and Pippin were on their feet. They had to have seen it too. Suddenly she heard a creaking behind her. She turned around to see the doors of Moria opening up.
"What- How did... What was the password?" she asked, stunned.
"Friend," said Frodo with a smile.
Noelle, Gandalf, Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship who had been sitting down entered the darkness. Noelle didn't like the idea of not knowing where she was going... Going in blind-folded to say the least. Yet that's what she had always done, it seemed.
Gimli began rambling on to Legolas about how he was going to enjoy his visit in Moria. That dwarf sure enjoyed talking! "And they call it a mine, a mine!" Gimli laughed.
Noelle was behind Gandalf as he lit up his staff. Her heart stopped.
There were dead bodies of dwarves littering the stairs of Moria, just like in Erebor.
"This is no mine. It's a tomb," Boromir said gravely.
Gimli began crying out in grief and horror, as Legolas ripped an arrow out of one of the corpses. "Goblins," he confirmed. He pulled out his bow, and Aragorn and Boromir their swords. Noelle didn't really understand why. They hadn't seen anything yet!
"We make for the Gap of Rohan," Boromir said grimly. "We should never have come here. Now get out! Get out!"
"Frodo!!!"
"Strider!" Sam hollered.
Noelle whipped around to see Frodo hanging high in the air, being held by the tentacles of a giant octopus. Sam was chopping at it with his short sword.
"Aragorn!" Frodo screamed.
Aragorn came charging from out of the cave and slashing at the tentacles that held Frodo high in the air. Legolas pointed his bow near Frodo. Noelle was about to say something that he might hit him by mistake, until she remembered:
Legolas never missed.
The creature opened up its mouth and Legolas shot it in the face.
Using the Force, Noelle reached out her hand and held Frodo and the tentacle still, long enough for Aragorn to slice the tentacle in half. Frodo fell and Boromir caught him.
"Into the mines!" Gandalf yelled.
Legolas shot the monster's head several more times, but all he did was get it angrier.
"Legolas!" Noelle screamed. "Let's go!" She grabbed his arm- more gently than she should have given the situation.
Pulling Legolas into the cave, all she heard was the walls crumbling behind them, and she knew.
They were trapped.
Letting go of Legolas's arm, Noelle let out a shaky breath of relief.
"Are you hurt?" Legolas whispered.
"No, I'm fine... thank you, Legolas," she whispered back.
Gandalf's staff lit up suddenly like a brilliant lightbulb in the darkness. It actually reminded Noelle more of a flashlight.
"We now have but one choice. We must face the long, dark of Moria. Be on your guard, there are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world."