The Wizard's Daughter

The Wizard's Daughter-Chapter Ten-The Mines (or Tomb)

THE WIZARD'S DAUGHTER
CHAPTER TEN
THE MINES (OR TOMB)

     When we walked in I stepped on something that made a *crunch*. I pulled out my wand and said "kalina," the elvish word for light. What I saw made me gasp. I saw a whole bunch of skeletons who had decayed and looked awful and grotesque.

     "Goblins!" Legolas spat. He taken an arrow out of a corpse's skull.

     "This is no mine! It's a tomb!" Boromir exclaimed.

     "No! No!" Gimli shouted. He was kneeling down infront of a huge amount of corpses. He was shaking his head back and forth, as if he couldn't believe that this was happening.

     "Get out! Out!" Boromir shouted as he made for the exit. That was when we saw a tentacle like thing grabbing Frodo's foot and pulling him towards the lake.

     "Strider!" Sam shouted. Apparently he is still not used to Aragorn being Aragorn instead of Strider. We went to the squid/octopus and started slicing tentacles. Aragorn sliced the tentacle that was holding Frodo and Boromir caught him. Legolas shot the squid in it's right eye and I blinded it's left with magic.

     "elea," the elvish word for sight, I just hoped that was the right spell. It was! The beast screeched in pain and we all had no choice but to run straight back into the mines. We ran, but the beast hauled itself out of the water, but it caused the entrance to collaspe in on itself. It was now pitch dark. "kalina," my father and I lit our wand and staff.

     "We now have but one choice, we must face the long and dark Mines of Moria," Dad said. With that we started to walk through the mines.

     We were climbing up some very steep stairs when I heard a crumbling. I looked up and saw that Pippin had lost his footing, but with the help of Merry, he had found it again. When we got to a ledge, there were three archways, all leading to different paths. Gandalf stopped. "We shall rest here, until I remember the way," the hobbits collasped on the ground.

     "Are you okay?" I asked Pippin.

     "Yes, I'm fine, how about you?" Pippin asked.

     "I seem to be fine, but I didn't expect to see those skeletons," That made me think of Gimli. I walked over to him. "How are you doing?" I asked him.

     "I'm fine lassie, you should worry about yourself," he snapped. I raised my hands up in surrender and went to sit next to my father.

     "Gandalf," Frodo came up to him. "There is something down there," now that he mentioned it, I could sense a precence that I had not sensed before. It was dark, faintly, nothing compared to the ring.

     "It is Gollum," Dad informed him. "He has been tracking us," I walked away, I didn't want to hear anymore about Gollum. Whenever I heard about Gollum I felt sad and depressed.

     "You've been asking people if they are alright when we should be worrying about you," Legolas said, putting a hand on my shoulder to try to comfort me.

     "I'm fine," I waved him off.

     "You don't seem fine," He pointed out.

     "I guess it's just..." I paused, wondering if I should tell him. I decided it couldn't hurt. "Gollum is following us, and... well... whenever I hear someone say anything about Gollum, I just get so... you know... depressed," Legolas looked at me with those amazing eyes of his. I saw something in them, a hint of, was that... sympathy?

     "We'll be fine," he told me.

     "That's not what I'm worried about," I told him. "I'm gonna help my father figure it ou-" I was cut off by my father.

     "Ahh... it's that way," He said smiling.

     "He's remembered!" Merry exclaimed.

     "No, but it smells less foul down that way," He was still smiling. "When in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose!" I giggled a little bit at that statement.

     We had been walking for a while when I saw sunlight. I was drawn to it, my mother being the lady of light and all, I was always drawn to the light in a dark place. "Jemily!" Legolas exclaimed. But Gimli was also running towards the room. They all ran after us. When we were inside the room, I saw a big stone coffin in the center of the room. I could read ancient dwarvish, so I translated.

     "Here lies Balin, son of Undin, Lord of Moria," I read.

     "So he is dead then, it is as I feared," dad sighed. Then he picked up a book that was in a corpse's hands. Then he started to read from the book.

     "They have taken the bridge,

     "And the second hall,

     "We have barred the gates, but we cannot hold them for long,

     "The ground shakes,

     "Drums.... Drums in the deep,

     "A shadow moves in the dark,

     "We cannot get out!"

     Just then we heard it. *clang, clang, clang*. I looked over at where the sound had come from. Pippin had touched a skeleton, causing it to fall into the well, along with a bucket. Pippin and I cringed each time we heard a *clang*. It was then we heard the drums. At least, it sounded like drums, it echoed through the halls. Boromir and Legolas, along with Aragorn started to bar the doors.

     Boromir almost got hit by two arrows, if he had only moved a couple more inches, he would've been hit in the head. "They've got a cave troll," He said in sarcastic relief.