Dragon Rider in Middle Earth

IX

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Legolas runs out onto the shore and shoots. His arrow pierces a tentacle wrapping itself over Frodo's face.

Boromir and Aragorn rush to the water and attack the beast. It flings Frodo wildly in the air. Despite the Fellowship's efforts, the Hobbit is lowered towards a gapping maw in the water, ringed by fangs, set in a gilled face.
Aragorn slices through the tentacle holding Frodo, who falls into Boromir's arms.

Arya throws spells that cut through its tentacles rendering most useless.

-Into the Mines!- Gandalf rushes into the dark caves Aragorn and Boromir retreat not too far behind him.

Boromir runs for the gates with Frodo as a huge tentacle uncoils a hand-like appendage, snaking after them. Legolas takes aim and shoots. His arrow hits the beast's right eye, and it recoils with a roar.

Arya takes his hand and runs into the mines, tugging him along.

As they entered, the sea creature reached out and tore the gates shut. Slabs of rocks drop and the roof of the passageway caves in. The Fellowship stares back as the last rays of moonlight disappear.

-Argent? Argent?- she asked with a nervous tone in her mind. She relaxed as the dragon's consciousness brushed over her like a warm blankety.

-What is it Arya?

-We are stuck inside the mines. Gandalf will be taking us to the exit on the other side of the mountain. Meet us there.

-Are you sure?

-Yes. I'll talk to them after if they wish to listen.

Arya cut off their connection and sighed. She realised that the warmth she was feeling in her hand was because she had not let go of Legolas' hand.
She released it quickly trying not to blush as she felt a rush of warm blood go up her neck.

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Legolas watched the lady as she released his hand and smiled when he noticed her neck was slightly red. Arya brushed her hair behind her ear and the elf was as shocked as Arwen had been when the elleth had seen the girl's ear points back in Rivendell.

-We now have but one choice- the wizard said form the head of the group.
Light appears from Gandalf's staff, 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. Quietly now. It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed.

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Time passes and the Fellowship enters a great cavern.
Gandalf rests his hand upon a rock with a dark, silver veins running through it.

-The wealth of Moria was not in gold... or jewels...- Arya walks to Gandalf's side as the wizard tilts his staff down towards a pit -...but Mithril.

The light illuminates the Fellowship's faces.
And they look down to the vast rock wall drops into the depths below. Row upon row of ladders and scaffolding, old and disused, disappear into the mining shafts below.

Merry leans forward slightly to look closer but Arya puts a warning hand in front of him so he did not get too close to the edge.

Frodo stares down until Gandalf makes the light fade.

-Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him.

-Oh, that was a kingly gift- the dwarf says excitedly.

-Yes! I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire- Arya sent Frodo a side eyed look as the poor hobbit look extremely shocked.
She guessed he now had said shirt in his possession.

Gandalf leads them away from the chasm.

They were climbing up the steep steps on the side of a cavern when Pippin loses his footing and slips onto Merry.
Arya walked behind Aragorn as she spoke with Argent.

-When you reach the exit warn me.

-Don't worry I will.

They went up another flight of stairs to a crossroads in the mine: three doorways loom before them. Gandalf glances from one to the other and back.

-I have no memory of this place- Gandalf said.

The Fellowship rests and Aragorn sits beside Boromir. Arya sits in one corner of the room, surprised when Legolas sits right besides her.

-Are you alright my lady?- he asks.

-Fine. Thank you- they fall into a comfortable silence.

-Garjzla (light)- Arya holds out the palm with the dragon rider's mark and let out her magic causing blue fire to flare out from the tips of her fingers and accumulate into a small ball hovering above her palm.

The company looks at her in surprise as she stands up and the ball of light follows her through the air.

She walks over to Frodo who looks down into the cavern and they see a small figure leaping from stone to stone. Startled, Frodo walks over to where Gandalf is sitting while Arya extinguishes the light as the creature and her make long eye contact.

-There's something down there!

-It's Gollum- she hears Gandalf answer. But she does not take her eyes off of 'Gollum'.

-Gollum?

-He's been following us for three days.

-He escaped the dungeons of Barad-Dûr!

-Escaped? Or was set loose? And now the Ring had drawn him here. He will never be rid of his need for it. He hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself- another living thing affected by the ring's power.

Dark and dirty fingers clasp a stone implement. From the distance below, Gollum looks up, his large eyes piercing the darkness. Its emancipated body twisting as it tried to keep eye contact with her and slink away at the same time.

-Sméagol's life is a sad story. Yes, Sméagol he was once called. Before the Ring found him... before it drove him mad.

-It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance!- Arya tried to ignore that statement and slowly inched into the creature's mind. It did not fight her nor did it seem to notice her.

-Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?- Frodo looks down, silently -Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can not see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill...

Aragorn and Legolas do not miss the continuous stare Arya was throwing down the hole where the Gollum creature was supposed to be.
Arya finally entered its deepest thoughts and saw a thin hobbit like creature huddled up into a corner of his mind. Sadness and regret mingled with resentment and anger.

Closing her eyes tightly she with drew and Gollum pulls back into the darkness, wrinkling his nose.

-...before this is over- Gollum slinks off.
-The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many- Frodo sits down next to Gandalf just as Arya went back to her place besides Legolas.

-I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.

-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- Arya looked at the hobbit's face and knew he indeed did not find it as encouraging as the old wizard did.

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