We were to set off right away, but Elrond gave us an hour to gather our things and say our goodbyes. I had gone back to my room to collect the rest of my weapons and gather some necessities.
I put my quiver and bow on my back when I found them on my bed, where Saydra had left them. I hesitated before walking out the door, but than decided to put my short swords behind my quiver, just in case. I than jogged back to the courtyard where I found Roanne and Saydra.
They were around my horse, Fayn, when they saw me coming. Roanne ran into me, crying hysterically. "Woah, woah!" I said. "It's fine. Trust me!" She didn't loosen her grip around my waist however, as she calmed down. "Just...just...don't get hurt!" She said to me. I paused. "I will try not to." she let go of me and I breathed in a huge breath, due to the fact she had been suffocating me. Ro laughed and dried her eyes "I'm going to miss you Ry!" I smiled. "And I, you." I than turned to Saydra who wasn't crying but looking very upset. "It's going to be so boring around here without you!" We all three laughed, drawing the attention of others around us. I looked down, embarrassed for the second time today when I saw Legolas looking at me.
After I was finished with all the mushy emotions, I kissed a goodbye on Fayn's nose and went to stand by the others.
We set off at once, winding our way out of Rivendell, and out in the 'unknown'. I hadn't been out of the city in a few years, so this was fascinating to me. As I walked, the three Hobbits came up to me and introduced themselves as Sam, Merry and Pippin. They were very sweet and adorable and were willing to share stories of their adventures together. They told me about Frodo and his ring, which in their perspective, sounded very frightening.
After a while, though, we reserved our strength and went to walking in silence. Once I began to notice them dropping behind, I turned to Aragorn. "Aragorn, some of us need to rest." He looked at me. "We must keep moving, Ryanne." I sighed and looked back at the Hobbits. They were panting and Sam was complaining about being hungry. I had a feeling that wasn't the first time we were going to hear that.
"Aragorn, the Hobbits...they are tiring." He looked back at them and saw what I had seen seconds before. "Fine." He said. "But not for long." We came upon a flat place with some rocks and bushes for shelter. Aragorn instructed everyone to rest, and eat if needed.
I sat down on a rock and watched as Boromir(Aragorn told me his name!) was attempting to teach the Hobbits how to fight. I smiled as I watched him hit Pippin accidentally and causing Merry and Sam to jump on him, bringing him to the ground. I walked over to see them wrestling with each other. "Very good you three!" I complimented the Hobbits. Boromir looked at me with a look on his face. "Would you like to try, m'lady?" He was mocking me. Very well than. "Me? of course I would!" I wasn't about to back down out of this. Gandalf, who was obviously listening to us, called out "Don't be rough on him Ryanne!" Boromir laughed. "I have nothing to be scared o-" He was cut off my me wrapping my foot around his ankle and pulling it out from under him. He hit the ground hard, but recovered quickly. I backed away two steps, knowing his next move already. He spun and tried to kick my legs out from under me, but I jumped up, and onto a rock just above. Stepping to the right, I swiveled and jumped down, landing in a crouch. Boromir got to me quicker than I thought he would, picked me up and tossed me onto the grass. Which made me very angry. I rolled and stood up. "That's cheating!" I called back to him. He shrugged. "Elves are very light!" I narrowed my eyes at him and sprinted towards him again. Reaching him in a surprising amount of time, I jumped on his back and hit down on his collar bone. Groaning, he fell, holding his shoulder. He would be fine. "Rule one." I said to a grounded Boromir. "Never take your eyes off your enemy." Gandalf chuckled at me. Helping Boromir up, I hopped back on the rocks and walked over to the Hobbits.
They had amused and impressed expressions on their faces. Our whole spar had lasted only a minute. "Is that was a real fight is like?" Pippin asked in his Irish voice. I shook my head. "Not at all. There would be blood involved." I left out some parts, not wanting to scare him. I turned to Gimli, Gandalf and Legolas to see their expressions. Legolas was standing on a rock, but looking up at the sky. I let him be, mostly because I was just to nervous to walk over and talk to him.
I came over by Gimli and sat down as he offered me some food. I declined, as elves were very energy efficient and didn't need to eat as much as others. I rested for about 20 seconds before I heard Legolas cry out. "Cerbian from Dunland! Hide!" Oh no. I looked around frantically, grabbed my bow and arrows and slid under a bush. I listened to them fly over us, screeching and flapping their wings.
They passed in a matter of seconds, so I climbed out and looked around. I turned to Gandalf when I heard him "Spies of Saruman!" He cried. "We are being watched! We must take the mountain pass!" He pointed to a mountain in the distance that was covered in snow, and I shivered. I hated snow. Hated it so much. But we had to go that way.
{~~Hours Later~~}
We walked with our cloaks pulled tightly against us as we leaned into the wind, trying to stay upright. Legolas and I were the only ones who could walk on top of the snow, so we were ahead of everybody else. He was behind me, watching my back carefully in case something were to happen. I found that sweet. I turned and looked back at the Hobbits, in time to see Frodo slip and fall. He was alright, but he felt around his shirt to find the ring missing. He looked up at Boromir, to find it in his hands.
"It is funny, how we are all so troubled by such a small thing!" Boromir said, twirling the chain in his hand and touching the ring, seeming as if he were in a trance. "Boromir!" Aragorn warned him. "Give the ring to Frodo!" Boromir shook his head slightly as he dropped the chain into Frodo's outstretched hand. "Take it! I care not." He ruffled Frodo's hair and began to walk again.
I turned back and began walking as well, but I heard a loud cracking sound above me. I looked at the sky to see a bolt of lighting hit the snow pile above us. I watched on, terrified to see the huge pile drop down on us. I suddenly felt someone pull the back of my cloak towards them, closer to the edge of the mountain. Than we were buried in snow.
It was black under the snow and very hard to breathe. I kicked my legs and worked my arms, trying to break the surface. I heard voices and knew I was close, but it wasn't enough. I than felt someone's arms under mine and pulled me up out of the cold, cold snow. I looked to see who it was, Legolas. I would have blushed if my face hadn't been so numb. "Thank you." "My pleasure." He replied. I looked at Gandalf, who was brushing snow out of his beard. I called out to him. "Gandalf! We must turn back!" "No! There is no other way!" At that time, Gimli decided to add his thoughts. "We could go through the mines of Moria! I have relatives there who would would give us a royal welcome!" Gandalf obviously disagreed but instead gave the choice to Frodo. We all turned to the little Hobbit who finally made his decision. "We will go through the mines."
~~~~~<~~~~>~~~~<~~~~>~~~~<
I carefully stepped over some rocks that were loose on the ground, and turned to check on the pony behind me.
We were advancing on the entrance of these mines, but in front of the door was a huge lake with rocks all around it. I was worried about Bill, the hobbit's pony. He might slip and hurt himself, and I wondered what that would do to Sam.
Gandalf had stopped walking and was now staring at a stone door carved into the rock that had blue markings in it. The markings read an elvish riddle that Gandalf read out loud. "What does it mean?" Boromir asked aloud. "Well it's easy." was Gandalf's reply. "If you are a friend, speak the password and you shall enter!" Great. That left....every single word in elvish. Figuring we would be here a long time, I sighed and plunked down on a boulder, where I could see Merry and Pippin and hear Gandalf trying to figure out the password.
I pulled out one of my short swords to sharpen it with a decent-looking stone, when I heard small splashing sounds in the lake. I looked up quickly to see Pippin throwing rocks in the water. I wasn't sure how great of an idea that was, but before I could do anything, Aragorn, who had just sent Bill back to the Shire despite a sniffling Sam, came over to Pippin and pulled him away. "Best not disturb the waters, Master Hobbit." He simply explained. Pippin dropped the rest of the stones he was holding obediently.
I turned back to my swords. Gandalf wasn't making any process on entering the mines, and I wondered how long we would have to wait here. I pondered the riddle myself. "Speak friend and enter." the riddle had stated. "Speak friend and enter." I dragged the stone up my sword. "Speak friend and enter." The stone came down the sword. "Speak friend and-" The stone dropped out of my hand as I quickly stood up. "Gandalf!" I cried out to him. He turned and looked at me, probably expecting enemies, with the way I screamed. "I think I have the answer!" "Well, do share it Ry!" I took a deep breath. What if I was wrong? That would be embarrassing. I decided to tell him, it couldn't hurt.
I sheathed my sword and began to explain. "The riddle says 'speak friend and enter', and its in elvish. So, what the elvish word for friend?" I knew the answer, but I wanted him to get it. Realization came to his eyes. He turned back to the stone door and whispered, "Mellon." The door opened with a huge creak and a triumphant smile came to my face.
"Good job." A voice to my right said. I turned to see Legolas looking at me. "Thank you, I surprised myself." I replied, giving him a small smile. He gave me a 'you-never-know' look and entered the mine. I followed him, trying to watch my step.
We had walked for only a matter of seconds, before we heard Frodo cry out. We all swiveled our heads towards him, only to see a huge creature with its head out of the lake water. I knew it was a bad idea to throw those rocks! The lake-monster had wrapped it's tentacle around Frodo's leg and whipped him up in the air. Frodo of course, had dropped his sword on the way up, so he could do nothing but yell.
Aragorn, Legolas, Boromir and I instantly rushed out of the mine to try to help the little Hobbit. Aragorn began cutting the lake-monster's lower tentacles, while Legolas shot the one holding Frodo, and I waded into the water, hoping to catch Frodo when he fell. I couldn't see what Boromir was doing, he was behind me, but I hopped it was productive.
Frodo continued to yell as he was turned upside down above the water. I was taken completely of-guard when I felt something around my leg(I sort of figured this would happen, it was just much more scary when it actually did).The lake-monster grabbed me and shot me up in the air as well, probably scaring Legolas as I flew past him.
I pulled out one of my short swords and begin cutting the tentacles around me. As I realized Frodo was very close to me, I leaned over and cut the one holding him, knowing he would be caught. I was correct, as I heard Aragorn grunt with the sudden weight of a Hobbit in his arms. Now it was my turn. I waited until the tentacle holding me was directly above the lake-monster's head, when I brought my sword back and chopped it clean off. I landed on it's head with a grunt.
I kept my head as I drove my sword into it's head and holding on to the handle, so I wouldn't fall into the waters. Which was the last place I wanted to be right now. I heard Legolas and Aragorn yelling my name, as Aragorn probably though I was insane, and Legolas was probably worried out of his mind. I didn't really know what to do know that I was on top of this thing, so I began to look for options.
Than I noticed one of the lake-monster's tentacles flying towards me. It grabbed me by the waist and dragged me off of it's head. I managed to pull my sword out of it's brain as I went. It whipped it's tentacle back and threw me towards the shore with a surprising amount of force. I was very glad when Legolas dropped his bow and caught me swiftly in his arms. He set me down on my feet, but held me for a long time. "Why did you do that, Ryanne?" He didn't say it in a disappointing tone, just a confused one. "I wanted to kill it...." I muttered into his chest. He sighed. "I'm just glad it didn't kill you." "So am I." He pulled away from the hug and picked his bow up. I looked towards the lake, but saw placid, smooth water. Weird.
Gandalf hurried everyone inside, and closed the huge stone door behind us. He than blew on the top of his staff, lighting it up with a beautiful blue light. Now that we could see, I stepped over the crunchy ground. Wait. Why was it crunching? I looked down and gasped. Bones. Skulls. They were littering the floor. I grabbed Legolas's arm as he walked past. He looked at me with a questionable look. "Look down." He did and a look of shock registers on his face.
By now, the whole Fellowship had noticed and they all had the same reaction. All except Gimli. He sunk to his knees and began to wail loudly. I felt bad, knowing this meant some of his relatives had been murdered. "This isn't a mine!" he shouted, his voice echoing of the walls. "It's a tomb!"
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A/N: sooooooooooooooooooo........how was it?????
This chapter didn't take as long for some reason. So far, I have really enjoyed writing this book!!! I would also really love love love if some of you guys could put some helpful comments in!!
Please?
I think I need advice.
But I'm not sure, so tell me what you think!! comment a smiley if you liked this chapter! and maybe....vote?
Next chapter will be up soon!!
Bullseyes,
XXbowsandarrowsXX