O' weary traveler || lotr ||

17

So far six of the ten members of the fellowship had made it across the precarious bridge.

Legolas was providing covering fire but nothing he did seemed to make a dent in the goblin archers

"Sam!" said Aragorn before picking up the hobbit and throwing him into Ithils waiting arms.

Ithil put him down gently making sure that the hobbit was slightly in front as to shield him from the raining arrows but not too close to the edge of the gap.

Aragorn makes to do the same to Gimli but the dwarve swats his hands away, "Nobody tosses a dwarf!" he yells into the gloom before leaping across the chasm.

To Ithils sheer horror a vision flashes before his eyes of the dwarves jump falling short, startled he lunges forward catching him by the most available thing (which happens to be his beard), and heaves him onto the stone.

The dwarf stares up at him in shock as Ithil pants with the effort of saving him from certain death, Gimli nods briefly in silent appreciation but it earns him a smile from the elf all the same.

"jump, now!" Ithil shouts with hoarse vocal cords to Aragorn, he hears the creaking of the bridge before the man does.

Aragorn meets his eye for a second before he throws himself and Frodo backward away from the crumbling stone

Ithil panics on the other side of the bridge, hand outstretched for his brother

Fear clutched him further when falling debris knocks through the back of the bridge sending the part Frodo and Aragorn were standing one swaying dangerously

"Jump!" he screams, voice raw and scratched (from the unusual amount of taking he's been forced to do other these past couple of weeks)

Finally, using their combined weight to their advantage his two friends manage to leap over into his and Legolas's waiting arms. He sighs in relief but it is short-lived.

As they run, the burning in his veins grows stronger, it rings i. His ears and makes his eyes water. Then it dawns on him... The Balrog is right behind them.

Clutching the blonde elf's hand with a near-death grip, he pulls off his jade necklace to ease the high pitch buzzing in his ears.

He staggers as he numbly follows the rest of the fellowship guided only by Legolas's warm skin.

They make it past the bridge before his vision clears and he sees the terrified faces of his peers.

Theirs looking at something he realizes and turns in horror to see the grey wizard facing the balrog still on the bridge, words are said by Frodo but he doesn't hear them (he is too filled with dread to even consider the necklace)

Gandalf slams down his staff in what Ithil is sure would have been a mighty bang and a yell. For a second relief floods him, but it is short-lived.

Legolas and he see it first.

Their grip on each other tightens but even they are too slow to do anything about it.

The whip re-emerging out of the dark... And just like that... Gandalf is gone.

And Ithil didn't even hear his last words.

To be continued