Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Fellowship of the Gundam ❯ The Mines of Moria ( Chapter 9 )

Chapter 9: The Mines of Moria

In the morning, a steady snowfall drifted down out of a slate gray sky. Fluffy new powder already covered the ground knee-deep for the hobbits.

“The snow will let up,” Gandalf predicted. “Let's continue to the pass.”

They forged out into the freezing morning after a cold breakfast of bread and cheese. It didn't take long before everyone under 150cm was riding on someone's back to stay out of snow that was rapidly approaching chest deep for the shorter travelers. The snowfall did let up briefly, as Gandalf thought it would, but sometime after midday it started again, coming down in thick wet flakes that stuck to skin and clothing.

“How much farther is it to the pass?” Boromir asked. He was laboring along with Sam on his back, having taken over from Treize.

Gandalf peered ahead. “I think we're nearly there.”

“How can you tell?” Heero demanded. “We can't see three meters in front of our faces!”

“I'm quite certain that looming shadow ahead is a landmark I've been looking for.”

“You mean that shadow there?” Wu-Fei pointed.

“Yes.”

Wu-Fei shot a thick stream of flame in the indicated direction, sizzling snow instantly into steam and illuminating the way ahead. A black wall of rock faced them.

“What in Sauron's name was that?!” Gimli shouted in alarm. He whipped out his axe and pointed the sharp prong on the tip at Wu-Fei. “What manner of evil dragon are you?”

“The kind who will singe your beard off if you keep point that axe at me!” Wu-Fei snapped.

Gimli blinked and lowered his axe. “Never met a dragon that could be trusted,” he mumbled. “Always stealing treasure and driving decent folks out of their homes.”

“I have no interest in your treasure or your home,” Wu-Fei replied. “And I'm not a dragon. I just have one or two minor dragon-like traits.”

“I wouldn't call breathing fire minor.”

“But in this case it's useful,” Aragorn interrupted to end the argument. He turned to Gandalf. “That looks like a sheer cliff. Are you sure we're on the right path?”

“We may be a little further north than we should be,” Gandalf acknowledged. He faced to his right. “If we go this way, there should be a path around the face of the cliff and from there we can reach the pass.”

“Is he nuts?” Duo muttered. “He wants to take a path on the face of a cliff in a snowstorm?”

“I'll go first,” Wu-Fei said. “I'll melt the snow so we know we're walking on rock.”

They proceeded in the direction Gandalf said, with Wu-Fei periodically melting the way clear. But when they finally made their way around the cliff face to the so-called path, everyone with an ounce of sense immediately objected.

“There's no way I'm setting foot on that!” Gimli protested.

“What are you worried about?” Legolas said lightly. “There's nothing to it.” He took several paces out onto the path, his light elven steps failing to sink into the snow.

“Hmph!” Gimli snorted. “For someone without a proper man's weight like you, of course it seems simple.”

“I have a man's weight!” Legolas retorted. “I just don't stump along like a crippled moose braying at every step.”

“Would you two be quiet?” Quatre ordered. “Gandalf, Gimli is right. There's no way we can safely take this path in a snowstorm. There has to be another way.”

“There is!” Gimli said loudly, ignoring Quatre's orders to be quiet. “We should go through the Mines of Moria, which will take us all the way under the mountains.”

“The Mines are too dangerous!” Gandalf objected.

“Why?” Quatre asked.

Gandalf remained silent for several moments. “Frodo must decide,” he said finally. “It is the Ringbearer who leads us.”

Frodo started in surprise. An icicle hung from the end of his nose and snow flakes clung to his eyebrows. His cheeks were bright pink and he was shivering. “We should go through the mines,” he said quickly, glancing at the other hobbits for confirmation. The other three, looking as miserable as Frodo, nodded in quick agreement.

“So be it,” Gandalf sighed. He turned back rather reluctantly and began retracing his steps.

The snowfall got heavier as they progressed and it soon became impractical for Wu-Fei to melt it because it just turned to slush, which proved to be even harder to walk through than the snow, especially when it quickly refroze into slippery ice underfoot. So they slogged along through the deepening snow and growing darkness until they made it back to the cave from which they'd departed that morning.

“We need a fire,” Zechs said. “The children are freezing.” He had Alexa wrapped inside his cloak, with only the top of her head showing. Jett, wrapped securely inside Duo's cloak, could not be seen at all.

Without further prompting, Roku tumbled an enormous pile of firewood from somewhere inside his storage space. Trowa and Treize quickly assembled a bunch of it into a neat lattice structure, so it could draw air and burn cleanly, and Wu-Fei set it ablaze.

“Oh, thank goodness!” Pippin exclaimed. He quickly extended his feet to the fire. “I think my toes were about to fall off.”

“Me, too!” Sam agreed. He and the other hobbits crowded in close beside Pippin to warm their feet.

Zechs and Duo deposited their little girls beside the hobbits to warm up.

“That's definitely better,” Quatre said. “How long will it take us to reach the entrance to these mines? If it keeps snowing like this, we could be in trouble trying to get off the mountain.”

“Two or three days, I would estimate,” Gandalf said.

“That doesn't sound too bad, especially if we can get out of the snow.”

“There should be no snow near the mine.”

This time, Gandalf's prediction about snow proved more accurate. The morning after the snowstorm was clear, so they were able to hike down fairly easily. It took them all day to get off the mountain and find a suitable camping spot, but they were below the snowline, which made everyone happy. After another day and half of brisk walking, they crested a ridge and came into view of a towering granite wall with a still, dark lake at its base.

“Ah!” Gimli exclaimed. “That is the western wall of Moria! The entrance is somewhere beyond that lake.”

“We'll have to go around the lake,” Aragorn said. “It's bigger than I remember.”

Gandalf nodded. “I also recall that it did not used to be so close to the base of the cliff. We will have to be careful.”

They made their way down to the lakeshore and circled around it until they were walking along a narrow track at the very base of the cliff. By this time, night had fallen and a nearly full moon cast streaks of light on the unmoving water of the lake.

Gimli walked along with gleaming eyes, his hand sliding over the slick, damp stone. “Dwarf doors are hard to find when you don't already know where they are,” he said importantly. “They are designed to blend invisibly with the rock face.”

“Well, that's useless,” Legolas snorted.

Gimli glared at him. “It keeps out elvish trash effectively,” he snapped back.

Legolas started to reach for his knife with an angry scowl on his face.

Aragorn caught his hand. “Stop fighting, you two,” he said quietly. “And keep your voices down. The cliff causes echoes that amplify every sound.”

Legolas made a face, but he let his hand fall to his waist.

Gandalf meanwhile had come to a halt, staring at a stretch of unmarked rock with a couple of spindly trees growing on either side. He mumbled under his breath and slid his hand across the stone. Magically, an intricate design in glimmering silver shimmered into view, revealing the shape of a doorway with words written above it.

“That looks like elvish writing,” Frodo said. “What does it say?”

“It says `the Doors of Durin; speak, friend, and enter',” Gandalf replied. “I think it means you must say the password and the doors will open.” He proceeded to utter several different phrases in a variety of languages, but the doors remained steadfastly closed. “Bah!” he exclaimed finally. “This is ridiculous!” He plopped down on a rock in irritation.

While Gandalf was failing to open the doors, Trowa and Aragorn were unloading Bill's packs.

“We'll have to carry everything from now on,” Aragorn said, “so we should split this up into multiple packs.”

“We could just have Roku carry it,” Trowa said.

Aragorn pursed his lips. “I feel better when I can monitor the supplies personally.”

“Roku can give you a daily inventory. He always knows what's in his storage space.”

Aragorn thought about this for awhile, but finally shook his head. “It would be good for the hobbits to share the burden. It will toughen them up.”

“That's a good point.”

When Bill was completely unloaded, Trowa took off his halter. “I'm sorry to leave you on your own like this, Bill. But Gandalf doesn't think you will be able to navigate the mines.”

Bill tossed his head. “That's all right. I have no intention of going into some dark hole in the ground. That's where the evil stuff usually lives. I would advise against you going there.”

“I appreciate the thought, but it looks like we have to.” Trowa patted Bill's flank. “You should go back to Rivendell.”

“I was considering that,” Bill whiffed through his nose. “Those elves really know how to tend a horse.” He turned around and started back around the lake. Roku trotted after him and they touched noses briefly. Then Bill broke into a brisk trot and quickly disappeared.

Frodo stood up and stared at the unopened doors. “Maybe it's a riddle,” he murmured. “Riddles always seem to play a significant role in the life of us Bagginses. Gandalf, what's the elvish word for friend?”

“Mellon,” Gandalf answered. Immediately, a dark split appeared between the silvery outlines of the doors and the rock face opened, revealing a dark cavern. Gandalf smacked his forehead. “I read it wrong!” he exclaimed. “It says `speak friend and enter'! Foolish me!” He stood up. “Let us proceed.”

“Seems odd that an elvish word would be the password to a dwarf cavern,” Legolas said in an offhandedly loud voice.

Gimli grunted something guttural under his breath.

Roku sniffed the air. “Are you sure you want to go in there? There're dead people inside.”

“What?!” Gimli exclaimed, staring in horror into the cavern.

“Of course, there is the giant monster in the lake.”

“What?!” Gimli whirled to stare at the lake.

At that moment, a long tentacle snaked out of the lake and grabbed Frodo around the ankle.

“AH!” Frodo cried.

“Mister Frodo!” Sam shouted. “Strider! Help him!” He hacked at the tentacle holding Frodo, but was promptly knocked down by another one. Merry and Pippin rushed to grab Frodo's arms. More tentacles appeared to smack them away and a hideous monster reared up out of the lake, opening a giant mouth filled with glistening teeth and a horrendous stench. It snatched Frodo up into the air, dangling him over its open mouth. Aragorn and Boromir started hacking at tentacles, trying to cut Frodo free. Wu-Fei shot fire at the creature and Quatre pitched fireballs at it. The creature screamed and dropped Frodo.

“Into the mines!” Gandalf shouted. He led the way in at a dash and everyone raced after him. Wu-Fei and Quatre stood by the doors blasting fire at the monster while Aragorn and Boromir bolted through lugging Frodo. Then they dove inside as the creature ripped off the doors and collapsed the entrance.

When silence finally fell, Sam wiped a shaking hand across his face. “I hope Bill's all right.”

“He's fine,” Roku said. “I told him about the monster so he wouldn't dawdle.”

“And you didn't mention it to us?!” Duo demanded.

“Well, we were planning to leave, too, so it didn't seem that important.”

“Until the dead people in the cave turned up,” Zechs remarked.

“Yeah, until then.”

“Wait a minute!” Legolas said. “I thought you said your cousin lived here, Gimli! Why is this cave full of dead people?”

“No!” Gimli cried. He dashed about, looking at the rotting corpses. “These are my kinsmen! They've been slaughtered!”

Legolas pulled an arrow from a skull. “By orcs, apparently! We shouldn't have come here!”

“It's a bit late for that,” Treize remarked calmly. “We can hardly go back the way we came.”

“That's right,” Gandalf said heavily. “We'll have to go through the mines. It's a three day walk to the other side. Let's hope our presence goes unnoticed.” He tapped his staff on the ground and a light appeared at the tip. “Let's go.”

“That's a puny light,” Quatre noted. He held up his hand and produced a large yellow fireball that filled the cavern with light and revealed all of the dead in their rotting glory. “That's a proper light.”

“Such a bright light might be noticed,” Gandalf cautioned. “We must be careful.”

“Oh, fine!” Quatre toned his light down to a muted glow that just illuminated the members of their party. “How's that?”

“Much better.” Gandalf started up a flight of rough hewn stairs. “Stay close and watch your step. The footing will be treacherous until we reach the dwarf city.”

They climbed the corpse and muck covered stairs and proceeded into the dark, dank mine. Roku walked in the lead, despite Gandalf's repeated urging for him to hang back because he didn't know the way.

“It's a cave,” Roku shrugged. “How lost can we get?”

“Very lost!” Gandalf said stiffly. “These mines extend for miles in all directions, including down. We must travel with the utmost care.”

“Whatever,” Roku muttered.

“Did Roku actually say something rude just then?” Zechs murmured to Treize. “That's a first.”

“One can hardly blame him,” Treize replied. “Gandalf is a bit stiff, and he totally blew that call about going over the pass.”

“That's true.”

After going through a rather narrow passage, they entered a large cavern containing the smashed remains of several dwellings. The exit on the far side of the cavern was an extremely steep staircase into another relatively narrow passage. At the end of this passage was a small cavern with an old smithy in it.

“It's late,” Gandalf said. “We'll rest here for a few hours. We should avoid drawing attention to our presence. We cannot afford a fire.”

“Another cold meal,” Gimli grumbled. “How is a dwarf supposed to keep up his strength?”

“Would you like a roast chicken, Mister Gimli?” Roku asked.

“You have a roast chicken?”

“I have several.”

Quatre stared suspiciously at Roku. “Did you raid the kitchen at Rivendell?”

“They said I could stock up.”

“Did you mention that your storage space is infinite?!”

“It's not infinite!” Roku waved a paw. “Not quite, anyway.”

“Close enough! What did you take, you striped kleptomaniac?”

“Do you want a complete inventory?”

Quatre put a hand over his face. “No.”

“I'd like a roast chicken!” Alexa spoke up.

“Me, too!” Jett stuck up her hand eagerly. Her voice echoed around the chamber. She grinned sheepishly and put a hand over her mouth.

Roku produced three roast chickens. “Anyone else?”

When pretty much everyone was munching on roast chicken, Quatre shook his head. “Do you suppose there's any food left in Rivendell?”

“The elves will survive,” Trowa said.

“But still,” Quatre grumbled. “People shouldn't enable a kleptomaniac by saying `Go ahead! Take what you want!' Nothing will be left.”

“Roku isn't that bad.”

“How do you know? Have you checked his storage space lately?”

“This chicken is pretty good,” Trowa responded, completely off-topic. “Maybe you should try some.”

“Oh, fine!” Quatre accepted a leg of chicken from Trowa.

After a dessert of spiced apple turnovers, everyone settled down to sleep while Gandalf kept watch. Boromir and Aragorn weren't really sleeping either, and Boromir watched the Gundam pilots settle down with a scandalized and slightly superior expression on his face.

“Aren't you going to keep watch over your children?” Boromir asked Treize in a shocked tone.

Treize hooked a thumb at Roku. “He handles early warning.” He closed his eyes.

“Besides,” Zechs added without opening his, “Didn't you see Quatre flinging warding spells all over the place when we stopped?”

“Warding spells?”

“Flash-bangs,” Quatre clarified from where he lay with his head on Trowa's stomach. “I'd avoid stepping on one if I were you. They'll decay by morning. I think.”

“You think?” Trowa raised an eyebrow.

“Mostly. They shouldn't do more than pop in six hours or so.”

“That's encouraging.”

“Everyone should sleep,” Gandalf said pointedly to Boromir. “We may need all our strength ere we escape this place.”

“I wish he had said `leave' rather than `escape',” Duo muttered. “Freud would have a lot to say about his word choices.”

“Can't you just read his mind and find out what's so dangerous about these mines?” Wu-Fei asked.

Duo shook his head. “I tried. Gandalf's head is a cacophony. It's like twenty people all thinking at once really loud. Picking out one train of thought is damn near impossible.”

“Too bad.”

After a few hours sleep, Gandalf roused everyone. “We should move on.”

“Don't wanna wake up!” Jett complained sleepily.

Duo picked her up and draped her over one shoulder. “Damn! You're getting heavy.”

“Am not.”

“Then how come your feet are banging into my knees?”

“You're short.”

“Oh, thanks!”

“I still love you, Momma, even if you're short.” Jett's remark ended in a soft snore.

Heero snorted. “You are kind of short.”

“We're the same height!”

“I never said I wasn't short.”

“You're all short,” Zechs said. “Adolescents.”

“Smaller men make better Gundam pilots,” Wu-Fei retorted, a little offended.

“But I still kicked your butts,” Zechs pointed out.

“Would you all be quiet?” Quatre admonished. “We're supposed to be sneaking quietly through a dangerous cavern. And anyway, size doesn't matter.”

“It certainly doesn't when you're talking about your Gundam,” Heero agreed. “Then, only the size of your gun matters. Quatre's dinky and he blew up that colony.”

“Do you have to bring that up?” Quatre said testily.

“What? I thought that was pretty impressive.” Heero nodded approvingly. “You really drove your point home.”

“What's a colony?” Pippin asked curiously.

“It's like a town, you idiot!” Merry exclaimed before anyone else could speak.

“A town?!” Pippin squeaked. “You blew up a town?!”

“It was more like a large city,” Heero clarified helpfully.

The hobbits stared at Quatre in horror.

Quatre scowled. “Geez! You destroy one measly colony and it haunts you the rest of your life. There was hardly anybody in it!”

“It bothered you at the time,” Trowa reminded him.

“Yeah, it was a little upsetting, I admit, but I worked through it. Hey, is there light up ahead?”

Everyone looked ahead curiously as the passage they were following opened out into another cavern.

“Now this place is finally starting to look like a mine,” Hadeya remarked casually. “I worked in one for a few years after I left Asgard. What did they mine here?”

“Mithril,” Gandalf said. He raised his staff. “I'll risk a little more light.” As the light at the tip of his staff grew brighter, it was reflected by countless streaks of brilliant silver crisscrossing the rocks all around them.

“How pretty!” Alexa exclaimed.

“Yes, it is quite pretty,” Gandalf agreed. “It is also one of the hardest substances known to man, yet it is so light even you could wear a mail shirt made of mithril rings and not feel the weight. Bilbo had a shirt of mithril rings that Thorin gave him years ago.”

“That was a kingly gift!” Gimli exclaimed.

“Indeed.” Gandalf let his light fade. “Let us move on.”

They continued through the caverns and tunnels, going up and down staircases, until they came to an intersection at the top of a steep flight of stairs. Gandalf stopped with a grunt.

Frodo stopped beside him. “Gandalf, why have you stopped?”

His brow furrowed in thought, Gandalf stared alternately down the two more or less identical tunnels facing him. “I have no memory of this place,” he said. He sank down on a rock. “Let's rest for a minute.”

They all sat down and Roku passed out canteens. After a moment, Frodo blinked and fixed his eyes on something behind and below them. “What's that?” He pointed.

“It's Gollum,” Gandalf said. “He's been following us for a while.”

“You know what it is?” Heero snapped. “You could have said something! I was just about to go back and hack it up just to be safe.”

“You, too?” Zechs said.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Wu-Fei put in.

“Gollum is a sad creature,” Gandalf said. “Many who die deserve to live and many who live deserve to die. Are you prepared to give it to them?”

“Yes!” all seven Gundam pilots cracked out in unison.

“Um…” Frodo said.

“Listen to me,” Gandalf continued, frowning at the others. “Gollum has a role yet to play, I feel. We'll leave him alone for now.”

“That's stupid,” Heero said. “A dead threat can't bite you in the ass later.”

“We'll leave him for now!” Gandalf repeated sternly.

“Fine!” Heero grated. He sidled over to Roku. “Make sure he keeps his distance.”

“Yes, Papa.”