How did it come to this?
Loyal to her family, her lands and her people, Théadain, the illegitimate daughter of Théoden, King of Rohan, has little concern for the world that lies beyond her familiar grasslands. When all that she loves is threatened...
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Chapter 22
Théadain's muscles burned as she ran, her heartbeat matching the rapid pounding of her feet. Her hands were slick with sweat as her body struggled to cope with the rising heat around her, as if someone had set a fire beneath the very stone they ran on. The steps had once seemed endless, but she could see as they rounded a final corner, they had reached the bottom of the chasm. Below them the world still dropped off into an infinite darkness, but this was as far as the dwarves had furnished the mine.
Behind her she could hear that terrible roar echoing, the sound bouncing off the walls so she couldn't identify where it was coming from, for all she knew the creature could be in front of them, waiting to trap them just as it seemed they would escape. As they finally reached level ground, she gasped at the tall flames that burned unaided on the bare stone floor, climbing up the stone pillars that supported the steps above without any fuel.
"Over the bridge!" Gandalf commanded them, jerking her from her frightened trance, "Fly!"
She turned to see the narrow bridge stretching before them, taking a step towards it just as the heat at her back reached a burning crescendo, accompanied by a roar that pierced through her exhausted body. Turning back in horror, she cried out in fright at the creature that stepped from the flames. It towered over the Fellowship, greater in height than anything she had ever seen before, as tall as twenty men or more. Its body was almost that of a man, but its head was horned like the skull of a ram, its eyes burning hot white in its charred, black skin, which cracked to reveal flesh like smouldering embers beneath. As it stepped towards the Fellowship, reaching out a clawed hand, it splayed bat-like wings out behind itself, its entire figure framed and engulfed by flames that seemed to erupt from its skin. This was the demon Gandalf had warned them of, the Balrog.
She did not need another command to tell her to run, sheer instinct and fear carried her over the bridge, not even giving her a moment to consider being careful as she dashed over the great height – death by falling would be a blessing in comparison to what followed her. Aragorn clasped her shoulder as he met her at the other side of the bridge, his eyes fixed on the demon as it snarled in its pursuit. He pushed her in the direction of flight of steps, the first she had seen that led upwards in what felt like days. Up was good, they would lead them from the depths of the earth into the daylight, where the world made sense and demons did not stalk the shadows.
In front of her on the steps, Frodo hesitated, turning back to look at the bridge. As she followed his gaze, Théadain gasped in horror at the sight of Gandalf standing alone on the arc of stone, facing the creature as it took a step towards him.
"You cannot pass!" He cried in a commanding tone, his gaze set as he brandished his sword and staff. Defiantly, the demon straightened to its full height before him, flames erupting from its figure as it stared down at the wizard, making Frodo cry out for him in fright.
