Sauron's Next Target

The path that Gandalf was leading us on was a very thin pathway, and was being supported by natural stone pillars. As we reached a set of steep stone stairs, I waited for everyone else to go up; while they were climbing I looked around, at the stone walls, and the designs engraved in the walls. When my focus went back to the Fellowship, I saw that everyone besides Gandalf, Gimli and the 4 Hobbits were waiting for me to go up the stairs. “Oh...” I said, a bit embarrassed. I noticed that Aragorn and Boromir were standing on the left, Legolas on the right. Aragorn lifted his hand, and gestured for me to go up the stairs. I gave him a weary smile, as I took his hand, as he helped me onto the stairs.

I kind of understood why, they wanted me ahead of them, because of what had happened with the Watcher of the Water. “Up you go, Aistaraina. Watch your step.” Aragorn cautioned me. I gave him a look saying, No...Really. He smirked, but then he turned serious again. I took a deep breath, and placed one of my hands on a step, and my foot, on the one below it. I lifted myself up, and I thought back to my childhood, scaling trees. I took myself upon that thought and began scaling the staircase like a tree, carefully trying not to step on the debris that was strewn across the stairs. I heard Legolas, Aragorn and Boromir start to climb behind me. When I was about halfway up the stairs, and I was a few steps away from Merry, who was the last Hobbit in line. I accidently slipped on a wet rock, I let out a soft gasp, as I began to fall backwards. I slipped down a few steps, until I felt an arm go around my waist, stopping from falling down any more steps.

“Careful, Milady...” A familiar voice said, softly. I knew who it was immediately. Once again, Legolas had saved my life. “Le hannon, Legolas, ten amin au…” I said, softly, as he set me onto the stairs again. I looked up to see, Pippin slip on an old book, and begin to fall. Luckily, Merry caught him. “Pippin...” I heard Merry scold him. Pippin held onto Merry’s arm, before continuing upwards on the stairs. I breathed in relief. Up above, I looked up to see that the Hobbits, Gimli, and Gandalf reached the top. That’s when I heard Gandalf speak, “I have no memory of this place.” I was confused until I myself reached the top of the staircase. That’s when I realized what he meant. There were small sets of stairs going off into three different directions. Each with a different design engraved in the arches of each of the doorways. Two lead into darkness, and one lead upwards. I saw Gandalf walk up a few more steps, and sit down on a nearby slab of flat rock, and looked at the ground, trying to remember which doorway to go through. I sat down on a rock and my legs up to my chest, and put my head on my knees, trying to figure out why the Watcher of the Water was trying desperately to kill me.
“
Aistaraina..?” I heard a familiar voice say to me, as I felt someone sit down beside me. “Ier lle alright?” Legolas asked, sounding concerned. “Amin Tereva…” I lied. “Mani Raika, Legolas?” I asked, sounding a little concerned. “Lye sha wanwa lle au’ Aistaraina...” He said, looking at the ground. I smiled, and patted his arm. He smiled at me. In the distance, I heard Pippin and Merry talking. “Are we lost?” Pippin asked. “No.” Merry answered. “I think we are.” Pippin said, insisting. “Shh...” Merry hissed to Pippin, before adding, “Gandalf’s thinking...” Pippin was quiet for a moment, before saying. “Merry…” “What Pippin?” Merry asked, sounding irritated. “I’m hungry…” From behind Legolas, Gimli made a sound, which sounded somewhat like a laugh. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Frodo had seen something that had caught his attention, but for a reason I chose to ignore it. My attention was just focused on the fire, I was mesmerized by it. I lost all thought, until I heard Boromir say, “Are you cold, Anneliese..?” He asked sounding concerned.

“Wh...What... Oh... No I’m fine, the fire is just comforting, that’s all...” I lied. Legolas was now sitting across from me, he was also staring at the fire, but occasionally, his gaze went from the fire to me. Whenever I noticed that his gaze was on me, I would blush, and look down back at the fire. Boromir looked at me, studying my face, trying to see if I was lying. When he saw that I wasn’t, his gaze went back to the fire. Aragorn looked at me, with a tiny hint of amusement in his eyes. I smirked when I saw that. Legolas shifted his weight slightly. All of a sudden, I heard Gandalf gasp. “Ah..” He exclaimed. He stood up. “It’s that way!” He said, making everyone turn towards him. Legolas seemed happy that Gandalf had remembered what path it was. For once, he took his gaze away from the fire and me. Surprisingly, it hurt me just a little to see his relief shown so openly.

“He’s remembered!” Merry said, taking his pipe out of his mouth. Aragorn and I quickly doused the fire, and everyone quickly stood up. I was glad to stand, but I was sitting for a while, so my legs were asleep. I stumbled a little bit, only to be caught by Aragorn. “Careful Aistaraina…” He laughed. I gave him a look, and when I regained my balance, I swatted his hand away. “Thanks Elessar…” I whispered, he gave me a look. I raised my eyebrows at him, saying that we were even. “No…” Gandalf said, getting up and walking over to the far left doorway. “But the air doesn’t smell as foul down here…” He said, leaning down and gazing into the darkness. Merry walked over to Gandalf, and stood beside him, as Gandalf put his hat on. “When in doubt, Meridoc, always follow your nose.” Gandalf said, placing a hand on Merry’s shoulder, for a moment before walking down into the darkness.

Merry followed Gandalf, followed by Gimli and the other Hobbits right behind him. I was going to take the rear, but Aragorn and Boromir beat me to it, so I was walking with Legolas. After a few minutes, the Fellowship was out of the tunnel and once again in open space. To the right of us was a fallen pillar. Gandalf walked a few steps ahead of us. “Let me risk us a little more light...” Gandalf said. With that, the tiny crown-shaped stone shone brighter than ever. I saw beautiful tall ground-to-ceiling pillars, each with beautiful engraved designs in each of them. We could see them for as far as our eyes could see.

“Behold,” Gandalf said, “The great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf…” He explained, shining his light higher into the air. “Well there’s an eye-opener. No mistake…” Sam said, looking around in awe. “This is beautiful…” I said, and it was too. Gandalf took us around the first long stretch of pillars. We walked until darkness covered up behind us. Gandalf’s staff was the only light source we had, so Boromir and Aragorn made a tiny barrier around me. I was fed up with their over protectiveness, especially Boromir’s, so I pushed through their barrier, and I turned back to face them. “I can fight for myself thank you…” I said, leaving them both a bit speechless. I smirked, and then I felt the light tread of an elf walking beside me. We walked farther down the way; a small open area appeared to our right. There were more dead Dwarf bodies, and what appeared to be an open door. Gimli stopped and stared at the door. With an urgent grunt, he took off jogging towards it. “Gimli!” Gandalf called after him, but it didn’t appear to faze Gimli. He just kept jogging towards the door. “Gimli!” I called out to him, leaving Legolas’ side, and jogging after Gimli. I just narrowly felt Legolas’ hand grab where my arm used to be. He sighed, as he jogged after me. I entered the room, and stood beside Gimli, who had stopped in front of a stone white tomb with a white light coming in from the outside shining in on it.