One Geek to Rule Them All

Kheled-zâram and Nimrodel

"Alas! I fear we cannot stay here longer," said Aragorn. He looked towards the mountains and held up his sword. "Farewell, Gandalf!" he cried. "Did I not say to you: if you pass through the doors of Moria, beware? Alas that I spoke the truth! What hope have we without you?" He turned to the Company. "We must do without hope," he said. "At least we may yet be avenged—"

"If you wish to avenge the wizard then look no further. Those two knew what would happen from the start and did nothing to stop it!" said Boromir grimly, pointing an accusing finger at the two girls, glaring at Devin.

"Shut up!" Kitty snapped fiercely, holding the still sobbing Devin in a protective embrace. "You don't know a damn thing about us! Can you even imagine what it must feel like to know someone you care about is going to die, but also know there's nothing you can do to stop it? You have no idea how hard this was for Devin! It was like watching her dad die from cancer all over again! When she was fourteen years old, her mother died in a car accident. Her father survived the crash, but while operating—they found cancer in his spine. The doctors told him there was nothing they could do because the tumor was inoperable, and he only had a few years left to live. For four years, Devin had to watch her dad die a slow and painful death, and then he died our senior year of high school, leaving her all alone. Do you have any fucking idea what that's like!? And now she's in the same situation again! If you think she wanted to let Gandalf die, then you're a fucking idiot!" she roared angrily.

Her cries echoed through the mountains. The Company stood in a stunned silence and stared at the two girls in shock. They had no idea. Some of them had been aware of Devin's parents' passing, but they had no idea how much suffering had been involved. For a dreadful moment everyone was at a complete loss as to how to react to this heart-breaking revelation. But then Legolas silently approached the girls, knelt down beside Devin, and embraced her alongside Kitty, holding her head to his chest in an attempt to comfort her. The hobbits slowly got up and followed, turning it into a group hug. Gimli bowed his head and gave Devin an awkward but comforting pat on hers. Dwarves didn't really do hugs.

"... She did try to warn him," said Aragorn, glancing at Boromir. "I did not hear what was said, but she pulled him aside and spoke to him in great earnest during one of our watches, when we had been discussing the Mines. I think she wanted to put his fate back in to his own hands. It was Gandalf who chose this course, despite both our warnings." Upon hearing this Boromir bowed his head and looked away, suddenly feeling ashamed of himself. "Come!" Aragorn addressed the whole Company. "Let us gird our loins and weep no more! We have a long road, and much to do. By nightfall this land will be swarming with orcs."

Devin quickly forced herself to suck it up and dried her eyes as they all rose and looked about them. Northward the dale ran up into a glen of shadows between two great arms in the Mountains of Moria. At the head of the glen a torrent flowed like a white lace over an endless ladder of short falls, and a mist of foam hung in the air about the mountains' feet.

"Yonder is the Dimrill Stair," said Aragorn, pointing to the falls. "Down the deep-cloven way that climbs beside the torrent we should have come, if fortune had been kinder."

"Or Caradhras less cruel," said Gimli. "There he stands smiling in the sun!" He shook his fist at the furthest of the snow-capped peaks and turned away.

To the east the outflung arm of the mountains marched to a sudden end, and far lands could be described beyond them, wide and vague. To the south the Misty Mountains receded endlessly as far as sight could reach. Less than a mile away, and a little below them, for they stood high up on the west side of the dale, there lay a lake, broad for its depth. It was long and oval, shaped like a great spear-head thrust deep into the northern glen; but its southern end was beyond the shadows under the sunlit sky. Yet its waters were dark: a deep blue like clear evening sky seen from a lamp-lit room. Its face was still and unruffled. About it lay a smooth sward (an area of ground covered with soft grass) shelving down on all sides to its bare unbroken rim.