Beauty and a Beast

The Fellowship passed south. In the shadow of the ruins of a great aqueduct in the mist and ice of the mountains, Arryn heard Gandalf beckon to Frodo, but she chose to ignore it, what she was more concerned about, was how could she have been able to go into Gandalf’s mind, and see and hear what he was thinking, but her train of thought was interrupted by a gasp from Gimli

“The Walls…of Moria!”

They stood, and looked upon a vast cliff face, sheer and brooding, rising above them and before them, away into the mists.

“Dwarf doors are invisible when closed.”
Gimli explained, as he knocked his axe against a rock.

The Fellowship moved along the rock wall, taping and prying, searching hither and thither for a door.

“Yes, Gimli, their own masters cannot find them, if their secrets are forgotten…”
Gandalf said, as they continued to search

“Why doesn't that surprise me?”
Legolas said.

Arryn glared at him, sure she did not care for Dwarves, but Gimli was trying to be courteous.

“Be nice…”
She said, under her breath.

Gimli grumbled, but he said nothing.

A foot splashed into the shallow water, which caused Arryn to snap her head up. She saw Frodo gasp, as he pulled his leg back, looking up at his surroundings. It’s a great pool beside the rock face, with dead branches bearded with moss hanging damp above the water.

Gandalf approached the rock between two twisted, gnarled trees. The wizard ran his hand over the cliff face.

“Now…let’s see. Ithildin —“
He began.

Beneath his hand ran spidery silver lines, faint beneath the dirt of ages.

“It mirrors only starlight…and moonlight.”

He looked up at the black night sky; the moon appeared. Framed by the sharp shadows of the two trees, the silvery lines grew bright, shining with sheer white light. They outlined a door, formed of two columns beneath an arch with a star in the center. With writing in a strange tongue appeared in the arch. Arryn smiled as, Gimli stared in awe at the gate of his forefathers.

“It reads "The Doors of Durin - Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter.”
Gandalf explained, pointing with his gnarled staff.

“What do you suppose that means?”
Merry asked

“Oh, it’s quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password, and the doors will open.”
He explained, as he set his staff’s end upon the glimmering star.

“Annon Edhellen, edro hi ammen!”
*Gate of the Elves, open now for me!*

The Fellowship looked on, as the doors remained closed

Gandalf raised his hands.
“Fennas Nogothrim, lasto beth lammen.”
*Doorway of the Dwarf-folk, listen to the word of my tongue.*

“Nothing's happening…”
Pippin said, looking up at Arryn, who gave him a weary smile.

Gandalf glanced at him at him, looking slightly annoyed. He began to push on the doors, but they remain fast.

“I once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves...Men...and Orcs.”
Gandalf hissed

“What are you going to do, then?”
Pippin piped up.

“Knock your head against these doors, Peregrin Took! And if that does not shatter them, and I am allowed a little peace from foolish questions, I will try to find the opening words.”
Gandalf said, turning angrily to Pippin.

Time passed. The rest of the Fellowship seated themselves around the doors near the lake, waiting for Gandalf to open them. Night is deepening.

“Ando Eldarinwa…a lasta quettanya, Fenda Casarinwa…“
*Gate of Elves…listen to my word, Threshold of Dwarves…*
He tried again, sounding wearier

Merry begins to throw stones into the water. Pippin followed suit but right before his stone hit the water, Arryn snapped her head up, and the stone hovered above the water, and it began to float back towards the shore. Arryn opened up her hand, and the fell into the palm of her hand.

“Pippin…”
She said, softly. He turned to face her, and she tossed him the rock.

“Do not disturb the water.”
Aragorn warned, and Arryn nodded.

“Oh, it’s useless!”
Gandalf said, exasperatedly.

Arryn turned to see him drop his staff and sit down beside Frodo, pulling off his hat.
Meanwhile, Aragorn and Boromir watched as a ripple ran through the water.

Frodo stood up and looked at the writings of the glimmering gateway attentively.

“It’s a riddle…”
He said, abruptly.

The water continued to ripple ominously. The rest of the Fellowship watched

“Speak "friend" and enter. What’s the Elvish word for friend?”
Frodo repeated, as the water shivered again.

“Mellon…”

As if it was a command, the stone doors slowly swung open, rumbling deeply and the Fellowship enters Moria. The wizard placed a rough-hewn crystal into the gnarled roots topping his staff; Aragorn and Arryn followed last, each casting a last suspicious glance at the waters.

Moonlight flooded into a shadowy rock chamber. Led by Gandalf, hat and staff in hand, they moved towards the inky blackness at the far end of the chamber.

“Soon, Master Elves, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves! Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone. This, my friend, is the home of my cousin, Balin…”

Gandalf brought his hand around his staff, blowing upon the crystal as though to kindle the rock into light. It glowed, as though from some inner strength. With its light glimmering like stars in his eyes, Gandalf leans the staff towards the dark halls ahead, throwing into relief dirty, broken stairs and columns, upon which are tumbled many dark forms...

“And they call it a mine. A mine!”
Gimli scoffed.

“This is no mine, it’s a tomb!”
Boromir said, darkly as he looked around.

The wizard’s light revealed rotted, broken and battered forms strewn about, casting long shadows across the room. Arryn’s perked up when she heard, a strangled cry coming from somewhere deep in the mine.

“Oh! No! Nooo!!!”
Gimli shouted.

The forms are now clearly corpses.

Legolas pulled out an arrow from the body of a fallen Dwarf, examined it and he threw it to the ground in disgust.

“Goblins!”
He hissed.

Aragorn and Boromir drew their swords. Legolas and Arryn fit an arrow to their bows. Arryn walked away from Legolas, and she stood protectively in front of the Hobbits.

“We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here.”
Boromir said his tone still dark.

The four Hobbits are backing toward the door. Something stirred in the water behind them.

“Now get out of here, get out!”
His voice echoing throughout the dark, hollow, dead hall

The company starts for the door. Suddenly, Frodo is grabbed from behind and pulled off his feet. A long, snaking tentacle pulled him down.

“Frodo!”
Sam, Merry, and Pippin cried.

“Strider!”
Sam shouted, as he turned to the Fellowship

“Help!”
Frodo shouted, desperately.

Sam hacked at tentacle.

“Get off him! Strider!”

“Aragorn!”

The Hobbits clutched at Frodo, as they attempted to keep him away from the water as the tentacles wrapped around him. The watching creature at the gate releases Frodo for a split-second, and feigns disappearance under the waters. Suddenly, many tentacles come boiling out of the water, slapped the other Hobbits aside and grabbed Frodo around the leg. He was pulled out over the water and into the air.

“Frodo!”
Merry shouted.

Legolas ran out onto the shore and he shot at the kraken. His arrow pierced a three-pronged tentacle that was wrapping itself over Frodo’s face.

“Strider! Arryn!”
Frodo shouted

Boromir, Aragorn and Arryn ran into the water, and they attacked the kraken. It flung Frodo wildly around in the air. Arryn sliced at a tentacle, but as soon as she did that, she felt a slimy tentacle wrap around her ankle, and she was pulled underwater. She struggled against the tentacle, but she couldn’t seem to break free. She sliced at it multiple times, before it slipped off her. She couldn’t see through the murky water, so when she reached the surface, she gasped for air. She felt Aragorn grab her shoulder, and he pulled her out of the water.

“Into the Mines!”
Gandalf ordered

“Legolas!”
Boromir shouted, as he, Aragorn, and Arryn retreated out of the water

Boromir ran for the gates with Frodo as a huge tentacle uncoiled with a hand-like appendage, snaking after them.

“Into the cave!”
Aragorn shouted.

“Run!”

As the Fellowship raced into Moria, the sea creature reaches out and slammed the gates shut. Slabs of rocks dropped and the roof of the passageway collapsed, crumbling. The Fellowship stared back in fear as the last rays of moonlight are obliterated. Darkness fell.

Gasps and heavy breathing echoed throughout the inky blackness.

“We now have but one choice…”
Gandalf began to say.

Light appeared from Gandalf’s staff. He knocked it on the floor and the light brightened, showing the startled and frightened faces of the Fellowship.

“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.”
He said, grimly.

The Fellowship carefully picked their way over the floor and up the broad steps. The silhouettes of skeletal remains and black-fletched arrows framed them as they moved away by the light of Gandalf’s staff.

“Quietly now. It’s a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed.”
He added

Time passed. The Fellowship entered a great cavern with a serpentine walkway running down through the middle. The path was rough-hewn and narrow, and rocky arches and boulder-like lumps appear in the half-light of the caverns.

Frodo and Arryn’s eyes darted about them. A ladder hung on their right. Crossing their path past a dark stony doorway, they came to a narrow, curving stair. Ladders and iron chains rose from a dark pit to their right. On their left, rock walls rose. A chain swung slowly, back and forth, clinking. The noise reverberates. The light of the wizard‘s staff moved beyond the chains, glinting like some pale will-o‘-the-wisp.

Gandalf rested his hand upon a rock with a dark, silvery veins running through it.

“The wealth of Moria was not in gold...or jewels...

He tilted his staff down towards the pit.

“…but Mithril.”

The light illuminated the Fellowship’s faces, and they stared in awe at what is below them, a vast, seemingly endless rock wall dropped into the depths below. Row upon row of ladders and scaffolding, old and disused, disappear into the mining shafts below. Merry leaned forward slightly to look closer. Arryn put a warning hand in front of him, cautioning him. She saw Frodo stare down until the light faded the vision of a forgotten realm gone.

“Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him…”
Gandalf said.

“Oh, that was a kingly gift…”
Gimli said.

“Yes! I never told him, but it’s worth was greater than the value of the Shire…”
Gandalf said, truthfully.

Arryn looked to Frodo, and she was surprised that he had a faint look of surprise etched on his face.
They began to climb up the steep set of stairs that were at the side of a cavern with many rows of tombs lining up and down them. Everything was silent, it was a vast graveyard. Arryn placed her hands on the remains of the stone staircase. Her dark hair was plastered to her face. She looked up to see Pippin lose his footing, and he slipped onto Merry. She let out a quiet gasp.

“Pippin!”
Merry hissed quietly.

Pippin held onto Merry’s arm, before continuing upwards on the stairs.
They climbed another flight of stairs, and they found themselves at a crossroad in the mine. Three doorways loomed before them. Gandalf held out his staff, as he glanced from one to the other, and back again. She watched as his eyes as the slowly flickered to the left hand passage.

“I have no memory of this place…”
He whispered

The Fellowship rested beneath a peak of rough stone, Arryn noticed that Boromir was having trouble making a small fire. She stood up, and she knelt down in front of the small fire pit. She snapped her fingers, and a small flame appeared in her hand. She gently blew on it, and she lit the wood, and she sat down across from the fire, and she tried to wring her dark hair out, but it was no use.

Arryn overheard the Hobbits whispering among themselves

“Are we lost?”
Pippin asked.

“No.”
Merry answered.

“I think we are.”
Pippin shot back

“Shh! Gandalf’s thinking.”
Sam shushed him.

“Merry…”
Pippin whispered

“What?”
Merry said, a bit annoyed with his friend

“I’m hungry.”
Pippin said.

Arryn smiled, and Gimli made a sound that sounded like a laugh.
She didn’t pay much attention to what Gandalf and Frodo were saying, but she did manage to snag a comment that Gandalf made.

“So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. 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 also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

Arryn smiled at the thought, but she found herself shivering again, but she knew there was nothing that she could do about it

“Oh! It’s that way.”
She heard Gandalf say.

She looked over at Merry, as he stood up

“He’s remembered!”
He said, happily.
Arryn stood up, but she slipped on a wet rock. She felt someone catch her arm before she hit the ground. She looked up at Legolas, and she smiled.

“Le hannon, Legolas…”
She mumbled, before she stood up, and she collected her things.

She saw Boromir trying to extinguish the fire. She smiled, and walked near the fire. The fire followed her, and she turned around, and she scooped the fire into her hand, and when she clasped her hand over it, it went out.

The Fellowship started down a dark stairway, and Gandalf put on his hat.

“No, but the air doesn’t smell so foul down here…”
Gandalf answered, as he rested his hand on Merry’s shoulder.

“If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose.”
He added.

Arryn noticed that the old wizard was leaning on his walking stick, breathing heavily.
Before long the Fellowship came across a more open space. Broken ornate columns were lying tumbled across the floor. Gandalf lifted his staff upwards

“Let me risk a little more light…”
He said, quietly

His staff illuminated a grandiose hall of stone lined with tall pillars and arched ceilings as far as anyone could see.

“Behold: the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf.”
Gandalf said, breaking the silence that lingered.

“This is beautiful……”
Arryn said in awe, for she had not seen anything like it before.
She turned to see Gimli beaming.

“Not bad for the Dwarves of course…”
She whispered to Gimli, who just smiled.

The dark halls were edged with silver light from the wizard’s staff, shivering in a light not seen for years to grace their stones.

“Now there’s an eye opener and no mistake…”
She heard Sam say, and she nodded in agreement.

The Fellowship walked forward through the hall, peering around a column. Gimli saw a ray of sunlight shining through a chamber where corpses lay scattered about.

“Haugh!”
Gimli grunted, as he began to run towards the chamber.

“Gimli!”
Gandalf called after him, but Gimli paid no attention to Gandalf. Arryn found herself running after the Dwarf, and she felt Legolas’ fingers narrowly miss her arm, and she heard him jog after her.

The walls and recesses are scarred and broken, as were the bodies and weapons scattered about. Gimli stopped and knelt by a crypt in the center of the room where a single shaft of light spills down, illumining it. Gandalf walked forward and peered at the tomb‘s surface.

“No! No! No!”
He sobbed

Arryn moved forward and placed her hand on Gimli’s shoulder.

" ‘Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.’ He is dead then. It’s as I feared.”
Gandalf said, as he translated the runes on the tomb.

Gimli let out a wail. Arryn felt saddened, for a great sorrow had fallen on the Dwarf, and Arryn pitied him. She looked up to see Gandalf give Pippin his staff and his hat, and he bent down, and he pried a large and battered book out of the grasp of a corpse. He opened it, and he cleaned the dirt from its pages

“Kilmin malur ni zaram kalil ra narag. Kheled-zâram ... Balin tazlifi.”
Gimli chanted softly, as he sobbed.

“We must move on, we cannot linger!”
Legolas said to Arryn and Aragorn

"They have taken the bridge…and the second hall."
Gandalf read, and as he read Gimli stopped sobbing, and he looked up, blankly.

"We have barred the gates…but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes."
Gandalf continued.
Still holding Gandalf’s hat, and staff, Pippin began to back away.

"Drums...drums…in the deep."
Gandalf said.

He looked up slowly, and turned the smudged, bloodstained page. The Fellowship began to glance around uncomfortably.

"We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark."
Gandalf said, and Arryn felt her stomach clench

Pippin stumbled back slightly and he saw a corpse sitting by a stone well with an arrow in its chest. He turned towards it.

"We cannot get out…"

He glanced at the last, single line, a scrawl fading out at the bottom of the page. Gandalf looked up in the uncomfortable silence.

"They are coming!"

The silence was broken by Pippin. He reached out and he lightly twisted the arrow in the corpse. The skull slipped off, falling into the well with a resounding crash.

Arryn felt herself jump at the sudden noise, and Legolas placed his hand on her shoulder.

Gandalf whipped around, spooked.

Pippin turned to face him, with a look of guilt on etched on his face. As he does, the corpse slipped into the well, dragging with it a chain and bucket, its noise echoing from hall to hall far below. Where once was only silence, a ricocheting noise now filling every cranny. Pippin winced at each new wave of noise. Then, silence. The Fellowship, except for Arryn, began to relax.

“Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity!”
Gandalf said, angrily, as he slammed the book shut.

He pulled his hat and staff from the Hobbit’s hands, and he turned away from him, leaving Pippin standing still, awkwardly.

Boom…boom.

Gandalf slowly turned back, and Pippin turned as well, both of them staring down into the well.
Boom.

Almost as though seen from eyes darting upwards, the caverns below appeared from darkness

Boom-boom.

Boom-boom-boom.
The beat paused.

Like a heartbeat, it began again.
Boom-boom-boom-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM…

Terror crept into the faces of the Fellowship.

“Frodo!”
Sam exclaimed, for Sting was glowing a bright blue

“Orcs!”
Legolas growled

Boromir rushed to the doors to have a look. Arryn heard something, and she looked forward, just as arrows hiss into the door near his face. Arryn gasped, as Aragorn dropped his torch and ran towards Boromir.

“Get back! You stay close to Gandalf!”
Aragorn yelled over his shoulder to the Hobbits. Arryn ran over to help her brother and Boromir work the doors shut. As soon as they got the doors shut, a bellow was heard from outside.

“They have a cave troll…”
Boromir growled

Legolas tossed weapons to Boromir, Arryn and Aragorn to help blockade the door. The rest of the Fellowship drew out their weapons. Gandalf threw away his hat and pulled forth his sword.

The Hobbits followed his example and brandished their short-swords.

Gimli leapt atop Balin's tomb and brandished his axe.

“Aarrgghhh! Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!”
He growled.

There was pounding outside and many creatures began to try to break the doors down. Weapons crashed through the wooden door, splintering spaces.

Legolas, Arryn and Aragorn stand poised, ready to shoot; the Hobbits were also ready, though fear clouds their eyes. The first clear gap was gashed in the door and Legolas shot an arrow through the hole — a shrill cry rang out, and it rang through Arryn’s ears. The Elf notcheed another arrow to his bow as Arryn, and Aragorn shot another.

Suddenly, the beasts broke through and the battle began.
A wave of armour-clad Orcs charged towards the Fellowship. Aragorn, Arryn and Legolas pierced Orcs with their arrows while Boromir smashed another with his sword; Gimli caught one in the stomach. With a roar, Gandalf launched himself into the fray, and the Hobbits followed. Arryn realised that she was running short of arrows, so she folded up her bow, and she put it on her back, and she unsheathed her sword

Aragorn beheaded an Orc and black blood spewed forth. Arryn slit the throat of an Orc, and its black blood splattered onto her face. She turned to see, Sam pause in the heat of battle, his attention drawn upwards. Both Aragorn and Arryn look up. A cave troll smashed through the doorway, chains leading from his wrists to an Orcs hand. Legolas shoots the cave troll in the shoulder; the beast growls and it clapped a hand to the wound. Sam continued to stare too frozen to move, as the troll swung his mace down at the Hobbit — he dived under the troll's legs and crawled away as the troll turned, and sighted him again.

“Sam!”
She shouted

Cornered, Sam cringed.

The beast raised his arm to strike him, when, suddenly, he fell back. Aragorn and Boromir were behind the troll, pulling on its chains. The troll twisted its arm and whipped Boromir across the room. He landed in a recess of the wall, dazed. An Orc stood above him, ready to strike. Across the room, Arryn slung one of her knives into the Orcs neck, and, still dazed, Boromir stood up, and Arryn gave him a curt nod.

Standing upon the tomb of Balin, Gimli slung an axe, piercing the troll’s shoulder near Legolas’ arrow. The troll swung his mace into the tomb, shattered it and knocked the Dwarf off.

Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin pushed Frodo to safety behind a pillar. Gimli hacked at an Orc as the troll swung its mace at him. Gimli ducked, and the monster struck an Orc instead, and then another. From a corner among more of the vile goblins, Legolas shot two arrows into the mountain-creature, which caused it to reel back with a cry.

The troll was now swinging its chain in circles above its head. He swung at Arryn, and she narrowly dodged it. She pulled an arrow and she aimed, and she shot it in the neck. It looked down at her, and it growled at her. She looked up as the troll stumbled, snapping itself free from the pillar.

The troll raised its mace and brought it down at the other Hobbits, causing them to jump aside. Frodo was separated from Merry and Pippin. The troll looked for Frodo, who tried to evade its searches by hiding behind a pillar.

“Frodo!”
She heard her brother call out, as he tried to fight his way over towards Frodo.

Frodo dodged around the pillar. The troll peered around it. Not being able to see him, it peered around the other side, which caused Frodo to dodge out of its vision. It disappears back. Frodo carefully looked around the pillar — the troll had gone. He drew a deep breath.

Out of nowhere, the troll blasted around the pillar, bellowing in Frodo’s face. The Hobbit stumbled and he fell back behind the pillar into a corner. The troll found him nevertheless and grabbed him. The troll lifted and dragged Frodo off of the edge of a recess.

“Aragorn? Arryn!”
He cried, panicky.
Arryn picked herself up off of the floor, and she was breathing heavily.

“Frodo!”
Arryn and Aragorn called together

Frodo slashed the troll's hand with Sting. The troll dropped Frodo to the ground, and he twisted his injured hand. Frodo lay on the floor. The troll raised its mace and began to swing it, but Aragorn leapt down into the recess.

He grabbed a spear from the floor, and he stabbed the troll with it. Arryn knew as well as Aragorn did, that the spear would not penetrate its flesh, but it only held the beast at bay. Pippin and Merry began throwing stones at the troll’s head. The troll was infuriated, and he swung his arm down and hit Aragorn, which sent him flying across the room. He collapsed onto the floor. Arryn gasped, and something inside her, seemed to snap, and something, tried to get out of her, but she fought against it. She watched as Frodo raced after her brother, and he desperately tried to awaken him, however, Aragorn was just too stunned to move.

Frodo tried to run but the troll blocked Frodo’s path with its spear, throwing him back. The troll took aim and he was about to stab Frodo in the chest. Arryn jumped in front of him, and using her sword, and an ax, she blocked the troll’s blow, and she pushed against the spear. The troll roared, and he pushed against the young she-elf. Arryn tried to fight against it, but instead the troll hit away the sword and axe out of her hands, and he pushed the spear towards her. She doubled over in pain, and when the troll pulled the sword out of her stomach, dark blood poured from her wound. Not dark red, like a normal person. It was a thick dark black…

Something was very, very different about her……but what?