We hadn’t gone too much further when Gandalf died suddenly of a heart attack! Then Aragorn died out of shock that Gandalf had just died! Then Legolas died, then the hobbits then Boromir… Gimli was just standing around looking smug. He’s so weird.
I just wanted to write everyone dying. Now that that’s done, they really didn’t all die suddenly. In reality we only stopped because Gandalf got lost.
"Imagine that, a wizard has lost his way." I mumbled to Katy. I hoped Gandalf wouldn’t over hear, but I couldn’t help myself.
He led us to a side room near by where we were going to spend the ‘night’. I really couldn’t tell if it was day or night as it was always this dark.
There was a deep well in the middle of the room and Pippin couldn’t help but throw a rock down it. Poor Pippin. Gandalf was so mad at him that he made him take first watch. Not that I really cared, I went to sleep as soon as I had lay down on the stone.
The next ‘day’ we made it to the grand hall type place that Gandalf remembered. The trip there had been mostly uneventful. Most everyone was quiet besides me and Katy who spent the whole time arguing about which coconut rock was better. That’s exaggerating a little I guess, we spent close to a half an hour complaining to Gandalf that we were tired, and for a little while I had fun with Gandalf acting all melodramatic saying things like ‘we should not have come this way’ or ‘this folly will lead us all to bad ends… Some more than others’ while eyeing him sadly. He ignored my comments though, and soon I was back to arguing with Katy.
But now we had come upon the grand hall and Gandalf, just to prove he was a wizard and he did indeed know where we were, let off a brilliant blaze throughout the hall. In the uncustomary bright light I hid my eyes and yelled, "Ah! ah! The light, it burns us! It burns us precious!"
Once I had recovered I yelled at Gandalf, "Fool of an Istari! Blind yourself next time and maybe the rest of us can finally rest our eyes!" (Yes, that was my pathetic attempt at mocking the wizard).
Everyone looked at me shocked at the blatant rudeness of the statement and Gandalf did his whole ‘grow into a powerful and intimidating wizard trick’… Then Legolas made me say I’m sorry. Stupid elves. By the way, I’m still not sorry Gandalf, so ha!
I lagged behind as everyone went in search for the correct way out the next morning. This time we knew it was morning because some light had shown through hidden windows.
We went off into a side room where Gimli got all teary over the grave of his cousin. I can understand he was upset, but I really wanted him to shut up as his moans and sniffles sounded worse than nails on a chalkboard!
"Poor Gimli," I said patting him encouragingly on the shoulder and earning a look from Aragorn and Sam who didn’t seem to understand how I could be so sympathetic now when I had no sympathy for Frodo earlier. They soon got their answer as I added, "Well, he ain’t getting any deader, come on guys let’s go!"
Gandalf gave me another glare and hit me over the head with his staff. I sulked and walked over to where Katy was holding the two coconut rocks. "Stupid wizards." I mumbled as I sat next to her.
Gandalf had to ignore my advice and read from a near by book he found, I’m sure he did it just to prove he doesn’t take orders from me. By the time he was almost through even Aragorn and Legolas looked as if they wished he had heeded my advice to leave.
Gandalf was just handing the book to Gimli to keep when all of a sudden the drums started. They were so loud they shook the very walls around us! I pulled out Katy (that’s my sword if you don’t remember) and saw that it wasn’t glowing at all. At first I was surprised; Frodo’s Sting was glowing, as well as Gandalf’s Glamdring. Then I remembered that my blade wasn’t wrought in the olden days by the elves of Gondolin for the Goblin-wars. Ah, well; Nothing’s perfect, right?
Everyone quickly got battle ready. Aragorn pulled out his sword Andúril (Andúril would be the blade oh so recently known as the Shards of Narsil… Until being reforged back in Rivendell); Legolas readied his bow, and Gimli his axe. The hobbits all unsheathed their daggers while Gandalf and Boromir pulled out their blades as well. Oh, and Katy pulled out her sword, Rachel, also.
To make a long story short, the orcs broke down the door then piled through the newly made openning. We somehow managed to kill them all and eventually they let up. During this mini-battle several of us beginners got hurt: Frodo got skewered, Sam got cut, Merry and Pippin had some scratches and bruises but nothing serious, my arm got cut but it wasn’t bad. Katy was the only beginner that hadn’t gotten hurt and I chalked that up to that she was skillfully staying very near to Aragorn. In after thought, that seems like a very good idea…
They all thought Frodo to be dead, but Aragorn picked him up to bring him with us anyway. Why he wanted to keep a ‘dead’ hobbit, I don’t know. He’s kind of weird that way.
We all ran out the back door with the exception of Frodo, who was being carried by the afore mentioned ranger and a certain dwarf, who despite being very much alive was being drug out by Legolas.
As we got about half way down the staircase, Frodo regained full consciousness and scared the living daylights out of Aragorn by noting that he was alright. I burst into laughter at the complete shock written all over his face which unfortunately only made it harder for me to run.
Gandalf stayed back to do the whole ‘lock the door with magic’ thing even though he was the wizard voted most known for quoting: ‘you should not use magic to solve your problems.’ Soon he rejoined the rest of us and we ran the rest of the way to the bridge.
Let me now voice my concern for the idea that we RUN there. Sure running is good for your heart and all I guess, but running for what must have been 100 miles (or maybe only 2) is nearly the equivalent of suicide. By the time we actually reached the bridge Katy and I were panting and felt like we couldn’t take another step.
This situation was not helped by the fact that there was a blazing fire on this level, or by the orcs shooting their nasty arrows at us. However we were not without help. Barely seconds after we had finally gotten here two giant trolls dropped slabs of rock over the flames and the Balrog proceeded to coming out of the shadows… Well, not so much come OUT of them as he kind of brought them with him, but you know what I mean.
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