Beauty and a Beast

A few minutes later, the Rest of the Fellowship had awoken, and Arryn was waiting to find out what they were going to do next. When she heard what they were doing, she sighed. They had to use of the pass off Caradhras. When everyone else was ready, they set off.

The Fellowship climbed the snowy slopes of Caradhras. As they climbed through the glistening, fresh snow beneath the great blue sky, Frodo lost his footing and he fell back, rolling down the slope towards Aragorn and Arryn.

“Ungh!”

“Frodo!”
Arryn reached down, and she helped him to his feet

Frodo regained his footing and he put a hand instinctively to his neck for the Ring. His face scrunched up in worry, for the Ring was missing, Arryn looked back up the slope. She saw the Ring lying in the snow, its gold glistening. Boromir sees the Ring in the snow and he picked it up by its chain.

“Boromir…”
Her brother muttered.

But Boromir is oblivious, riveted by the Ring. His face seemed sad.

“Oh no…!”
Arryn thought.

“It is a strange fate we should suffer so much fear and doubt…over so small a thing. Such a little thing.” Boromir said, softly

Arryn watched as he reached out a gloved hand to touch it.

“Boromir!”
Arryn said, sharply, as she walked up beside Frodo, and she placed her hand on his shoulder.

Boromir looked up at Arryn, pulled from his trance.

“Give the Ring to Frodo.”
She said, coldly.

Boromir walked slowly down the slope towards the two Rangers and the Hobbit. Aragorn and Arryn’s hands on the hilt of their swords.

“As you wish…”
Boromir said, holding the Ring out to Frodo.

Frodo didn’t wait, and he grabbed the Ring sharply, Arryn turned to see a tormented expression on his face, and she gave his shoulder a soft squeeze

“Heh…I care not.”
Boromir said, as he jokingly tousleed Frodo’s hair, and then he turned to resume climbing. Frodo and Arryn both look on suspiciously; as Aragorn and Arryn release their grip from their swords.

As the Fellowship continued to labor onwards through the high snow banks, Arryn noticed that when she walked on the snow, the snow melted away underneath her feet, but when her foot left the snow, it covered itself back with snow. Aragorn looked at her with a questioning look, but she just shrugged. She saw Legolas run out ahead, and she followed him. Their step was light and they moved with ease across the top of the snow, staring into the blinding storm. A cruel voice rises on the wind.

“Cuiva nwalca Carnirasse; nai yarvaxea rasselya!”
*Wake up cruel Redhorn! May your horn be bloodstained!*
A voice chanted, and Arryn shuddered at the sound of it.

“There is a fell voice on the air!”
Legolas said, over his shoulder to the Fellowship.

“It’s Saruman!”
Gandalf shouted.

With a rending echo, a horde of rock slabs and boulders falls from the mountain‘s arms. The Fellowship shoved themselves flat against the sheer cliff wall to avoid the rain of stone.

“He’s trying to bring down the mountain! Gandalf, we must turn back!”
Aragorn yelled, through the storm

“No!”
Gandalf shouted back.

With determination coming off him, Gandalf stepped out onto the ledge, rising on the snow, chanting out a counter command to Caradhras. The old wizard’s voice bellowed into the air, attempting to calm the rage of the mountain.

“Losto Caradhras, sedho, hodo, nuitho i 'ruith!”
*Sleep, Caradhras, be still, lie still, hold your wrath!*

The wizard’s voice was drowned out by a more terrible cry in the maelstrom. Saruman stood on the Pinnacle of Orthanc and continues to command Caradhras, eliciting the mountain‘s anger. Away above him where he stood, a great black wall-cloud towered over Redhorn.

“Cuiva nwalca Carnirasse; Nai yarvaxea rasselya; taltuva notto-carinnar!”
*Wake up cruel Redhorn! May your bloodstained horn fall upon enemy heads!*

Arryn looked up to lightning strike the tip of Caradhras, sending a second avalanche of sheer white ice onto the Fellowship below. As the storm of snow falls, Gandalf continues to command the mountain, which does not help out at all. Legolas grabbed Arryn, and he snatched Gandalf from the edge, pulling him against the cliff just before the ice-fall hits. Arryn felt her body being covered by Legolas’, shielding her from the snow, and ice. The avalanche cascades over the Fellowship, and snow buries them completely. After a moment, Legolas helped Arryn stand up, and she found herself almost covered in snow

“We must get off the mountain! Make for the Gap of Rohan and take the west road to my city!” Boromir shouted, over the storm.

“No! The Gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isengard!”
Her brother argued.

“If we cannot pass over the mountain, let us go under it. Let us go through the mines of Moria”
Gimli said.

Arryn looked to Gandalf, and she that in his eyes, there is a shadow of doubt, of fear that lies unsaid. He was conflicted.
Arryn could hear what was going on through Gandalf’s mind. She could hear Saruman.

“Moria… You fear to go into those mines.”
She could see Saruman sitting in his study in Orthanc. He was reading a page in a book of lore written in a strange tongue.

“The Dwarves delved too greedily and too deep.”

Arryn looked back to Gandalf and his eyes glinted with fear.

“You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dûm…”
Saruman continued, as he turned to another page, revealing a mysterious form drawn as blackness and deep fire, with two sparks in the midst of the flame and dark, like eyes.

“Shadow and Flame!”
Saruman said, finally

Arryn left Gandalf’s thoughts

“Let the Ring bearer decide.” Gandalf said, grimly

“We cannot stay here! This will be the death of the Hobbits!”
Boromir shouted through the storm. Arryn turned to see that he was holding Merry and Pippin to him; they were both cold, and extremely pale.

Gandalf turned to face a shivering Frodo.

“We will go through the mines.”
Frodo shivered.

“So be it.” Gandalf said.