I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry it took me so long to update!!!
So, for my horribleness, I give you not one, not two, but THREE chapters!
Catch ya later! Don't forget to vote plzzzzz!!!!!!
1/3
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Four days in a cave sounded like the worst possible torture there was. Then we hit a really steep staircase. I was still too weak to walk, much less climb, so I had to ride on Strider's back. But that wasn't it. When we got to the top, there was a fork in the road.
There were three possible ways to go: The middle and left ones both went down, and the one on the right went up.
"I have no memory of this place," said Gandalf.
We sat in silence for a long time. It was dark and cold, and I was really tired. I sat by Gandalf, struggling to remember which way to go. My brain was so tired from the mountain that I couldn't even remember which way was right and which was left. I looked at Frodo, who was looking at something behind us. He looked frightened as he came to tell us what he saw.
"There's something down there!" he whispered.
"Its Gollum," Gandalf replied.
"Gollum?"
"He's been following us for three days."
"He escapes the dungeons of Barad-dûr?"
"Escaped . . ." Gandalf turned to look at Frodo. "Or was set loose."
We all looked back to see him quietly staring at us.
"He hates and loves the Ring," Gandalf explained. "As he hates and loves himself. He will never be rid of his need for it."
"It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance," Frodo said fiercely.
"Pity?" Gandalf asked, looking at him. "It is pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal with death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over."
I looked back. Gollum was leaving.
"The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many," Gandalf ended.
Frodo sighed and sat down by me. "I wish the Ring had never come to me," he said. "I wish none of this had happened."
"So do all that live to see such times," said Gandalf. "But that is not for them to decide."
Frodo looked up at him.
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."
Frodo looked back down.
"There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."
Frodo looked at me and I smiled, nodding.
"Oh!" said Gandalf, and we both looked at him. "It's that way!" he said, his head motioning to the middle path.
"He's remembered!" said Merry.
"No," said Gandalf. "But the air doesn't smell so foul down here." He put his hat back on and looked at Merry, who was behind him. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."
Strider put his arm under my shoulders and helped me down the stairs. I could probably walk at that point, but I definitely wouldn't test that on the stairs.
(I found, after getting off the stairs, that I could walk just fine.)
We came to a big, no, huge room with lots of collapsed columns, and I no longer needed help. "Let me risk a little more light," said Gandalf from the front. He held up his staff and it got brighter. "Behold," he said loudly. "The great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf."
I don't know what everybody else was doing, but I was concerned about how many colunms there were. They seemed to go on forever.
"There's an eye-opener," said Sam, "and no mistake."
We walked, and walked, and walked. Luckily, though, I didn't fall. So my legs were back, and in good condition. I still didn't know about running, jumping, or climbing stairs, though. We walked for a long time, in a straight line, I might add, until I saw a room off to our right. So did Gimli. He stopped walking immediately. "Hoh!" was what sounded like came out of his mouth, but either way, he ran to it.
"Gimli!" Gandalf called after him. I jogged after Gimli (and was fine), and saw that the room was actually pretty big. But there was a stone coffin in the middle of it, strange markings on the lid. Gimli came to the end of it and began mumbling to himself. "No..." he muttered, and kneeled down at the foot of it. "Oh, no...." He began to sob loudly. I read the markings in my head before Gandalf read them aloud.
"'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead, then." Gimli lay his head on the stone. Gandalf removed his hat from his head. "It's as I feared." Gimli began to sob harder again.
My gaze was on the book in the hands of a rotten body sitting beside the stone coffin. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Gandalf's gaze fall on me, then on the book I was looking at. Handing his hat and staff to Pippin, he moved the rotten hand off the book and picked it up. When he opened it, a page fell out, along with years of dirt and dust. He blew on the page and dusted it off a little.
Legolas leaned in to mutter to Aragorn. I heard what he said. "We must move on," he told him. "We cannot linger."
"'They have taken the bridge and the second hall'," Gandalf began. "'We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes. Drums, drums in the deep.'"
He flipped the page gently and began to read again. "'We cannot get out. A Shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming.'"
There was a split second of silence before the scraping of metal on stone behind us. Gandalf whipped around to face Pippin, who had just turned away from what looked like a well in the back corner of the room. There was another rotten body sitting on the edge, and by the time I had noticed that it didn't have a head, it fell down the well, too, making a metric ton more noise. To make it worse, there was a chain attached to it, and that chain was attached to a bucket.
I sucked in a lung full of air.
There was eleven huge clatters and bangs before it finally stopped. Gandalf was now facing Pip and had taken a couple steps forward. Pippin looked like he was going to say something, but instead just looked down at a rotten body in shame.
I released my breath when I heard nothing else.
"Fool of a Took!" Gandalf snapped, shutting the book and setting it down. "Throw yourself in next time and rid us," - he snatched his hat away - "of your stupidity!" - he snatched his staff away. Gandalf took a step back and Pippin looked desperately like he wanted to apologize, but he never got the chance.
There was a noise in the distance. The beating of a - "Drum," I whispered, and immediately hoped no one had heard me. Another one sounded, and all of us looked at the well behind Pippin. More beats, none of them in a specific rhythm, sounded in the distance, and also shrieks.
"Frodo!" Sam said suddenly, and Frodo pulled his sword from its sheath a few inches. It was glowing blue.
"Orcs!" Legolas hissed, and Boromir ran to the door. He looked to the left and then to the right, and moved his head back just before a couple of arrows shot into the wood in front of him. He looked back to the right.
"Get back!" Aragorn ordered. "Stay close to Gandalf!"
Gandalf grabbed my sleeve and pulled me back with the Hobbits. I wouldn't have it. I jerked my arm out of his grasp and went to stand just a few feet on front of the stone coffin, pulling my curved dagger out. I heard a loud roar in the distance.
Legolas, Aragorn and Boromir went to close the doors. Aragorn and Boromir leaned against it. "They have a cave-troll," Boromir said, annoyed. Legolas tossed an axe to Boromir and him and Aragorn used it to bar the door closed. They put about four or five weapons against it and then backed away.
Gandalf took out his sword and braced himself. So did the Hobbits. I heard scratching and beating against the door. Gimli growled loudly and got on top of the stone coffin, looking completely insane in the process. "Let them come," he growled loudly. "There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"
Aragorn and Legolas had arrows ready and Boromir raised his shield, twirling his sword. I felt my heart rate speed up dramatically as a hole began to appear in the door. Legolas released an arrow, and there was a high-pitched squeal from the other end. The Aragorn released an arrow, and another squeal sounded. Just as Legolas made another arrow ready, the doors burst open.
My body instinctively lowered itself, my hand raised the dagger, and everything sped up; My vision was clearer, I heard sound better, my heart rate was faster. I forced my breathing to even out and my mind to calm as the men I was standing between shot more arrows. Finally the disgusting, mangled, smelly creatures were close enough to fight and I forced myself to move.
Then things got blurry.
I couldn't see what was happening as I fought. I vaguely saw and heard that Gandalf and the Hobbits had joined the fight.
I was completely out of what I was doing; Until the roar sounded and the cave-troll's club broke a few rocks over the doorway.
It was huge, and an Orc was leading it by a chain around its neck. I was too busy fighting to get anywhere close to it. Too busy to try. Not that I wanted to be near it. I wanted to be as far from it as I could.