Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Fellowship of the Gundam ❯ The Balrog ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter 10: The Balrog

When Gandalf called another halt for what would hopefully be their last night in the mines, they made camp in an ancient dwarf mansion built into the wall of a cave overlooking a deep canyon glittering with streaks of mithril.

“What a beautiful home!” Gimli exclaimed. “I could happily live in such a fine dwelling.”

“It's a hole in the wall,” Legolas sniffed, unimpressed.

“Better than living in a hollowed out tree trunk!”

“We do not live in tree trunks!”

“Didn't Bilbo say that the Mirkwood elves lived in an underground cavern?” Pippin whispered to Frodo.

“I think I remember that from his stories, too,” Merry said.

“Aha!” Gimli exclaimed triumphantly.

Legolas glared at the hobbits.

“Would you all quit arguing so we can eat?” Alexa demanded in annoyance. “We've been walking all day and I'm hungry.”

“Me, too!” Jett grumbled, her lower lip stuck out petulantly.

Just inside the front door of the dwarf mansion was a large entrance hall. Roku and Wu-Fei quickly started a fire and Sam helped them prepare a meal. After dinner, Zechs looked at Treize with a speculative expression.

“I was thinking of doing a little exploring before bed,” Zechs said. “Would you like to join me?”

Treize smiled. “That sounds interesting. I wouldn't mind seeing more of this dwarf architecture.”

The two of them started up the staircase at the rear of the hall, but before they disappeared from sight, they began holding hands.

Duo grinned. “Say, Heero, feel like doing some exploring, too?”

“No.”

“But this place looks huge. I bet there are at least a dozen rooms. Let's check it out. Maybe we'll find a bedroom.”

Heero rolled his eyes. “You're so transparent.”

“Aw, come on! Let's look around.”

Heero sighed heavily and stood up. “Oh, all right!”

“Want to join us, Wu-Fei?”

“I'm asleep,” Wu-Fei replied.

“You just lay down!”

“I fall asleep quickly.”

“If you were asleep, you wouldn't be talking.”

“I sometimes talk in my sleep, I've been told.”

“I've never noticed that tendency in you.”

“That's because you're asleep and don't hear me.”

Heero stamped over, grabbed Wu-Fei by the arm and yanked him to his feet. “You're coming with us. He's in one of those moods and I'm not entertaining him by myself.”

“Dang it!”

The three of them went up the stairs and vanished into the darkness.

“Is it safe to let them go off like that?” Frodo asked Gandalf. “There could be anything hiding up there, or it could be structurally unsound.”

“A dwarf cave home is never unsound, no matter how old it is,” Gimli said.

“I would not have stopped here if I thought it was unsafe,” Gandalf assured Frodo. “Get some sleep. We cannot tarry long.”

“Say, Hadeya,” Trowa said. “Do you mind holding down the fort for a little while?”

Hadeya smiled. “Not at all.”

“Thanks! Quatre, let's go look around, too.”

Quatre heaved a theatrical sigh. “I wondered how long that would take. I'm just warning you now: I'm not doing anything weird.”

Trowa held out his empty hands. “See? No props.”

“Good.”

Aragorn watched them leave with a faintly amused expression, but Boromir looked scandalized.

“Such behavior is hardly appropriate for men of good breeding!” Boromir huffed. “Just where did you find these companions, Aragorn? Such men would never be found within the borders of Gondor.”

“They're good men in a fight,” Aragorn replied with a shrug, “and loyal to their companions. I do not judge them on any other grounds.”

Boromir shifted uncomfortably. “I did not mean to imply that their passions made them lesser men. I merely question the timing and location of their, ah, activities.”

“One should squeeze in moments of joy where one can,” Aragorn said. “In these times, joy is a rare commodity.”

“Well, I suppose that's true.” Boromir settled against a wall and wrapped his cloak around his knees. “I, however, will use the time to sleep.” He closed his eyes.

“That would certainly be a better use of the time,” Gandalf muttered under his breath.

Pippin edged closer to Roku. “Um… I don't mean to be indelicate, but are they really, well, you know, having relations?”

“Of course,” Roku said.

“In here?!” Pippin squeaked.

“It's been days.” Roku yawned and stretched out on his side so Jett and Alexa could snuggle up against him. “That's like forever for them.”

Pippin's cheeks turned red and he blinked several times. “I… uh, I see.” He scuttled back over to Merry.

Merry bopped him on the head. “You just had to ask.”

“Well,” Pippin shrugged, still blushing. “I was curious.”

“That's going to get you in trouble one day.”

Everyone soon drifted off to sleep, except for Gandalf, who sat by the door and kept watch over the others. After six hours or so, he stood up and shook out his robes.

Hadeya immediately sat up. “Is it time to go?”

“Yes. I should go get the others.”

“No need,” Hadeya said. He poked Roku. “Tell Duo it's time to go.”

“He knows,” Roku said. “They're on their way.” He rolled onto his belly, dislodging the girls. “I'm thirsty.”

“You have the water,” Hadeya pointed out.

“I know.” Roku shifted into human form so he could use his hands. He produced a canteen and took a long drink. “Want some?” He held it out to Hadeya.

“Thanks.”

The Gundam pilots appeared at the top of the stairs and thumped down looking tired.

“This is a real nice place, Gimli,” Duo reported. “Whoever lived here never moved out. All the rooms still have their furnishings and everything.”

Gimli frowned. “Whatever cataclysm occurred here must have driven out or destroyed the residents quickly.”

“As I said,” Gandalf interrupted stiffly, “the mines are not safe. We should eat quickly and get moving.”

After a few hours of walking through caverns that contained increasingly finer homes, they passed through a tall archway that led onto a wide landing.

“Would you look at that!” Merry exclaimed in a reverent whisper.

“Oh!” Gimli cried, his voice echoing loudly.

“Welcome to the great dwarf city of Dwallendelf,” Gandalf said gravely. He increased the light on his staff, allowing them to see more. Towering pillars stretched in neat rows as far as the eye could see, holding up a roof lost in shadows. “In its heyday,” he continued, “this hall would be filled with thousands of dwarfs dressed in the finest clothes and jewels.”

“That would have been something to see,” Gimli said, wiping a tear from his eye. “That's what my cousin Balin envisioned when he came here. I wonder what happened to him.”

“There's hardly much mystery there,” Legolas said casually. “He's probably a moldering corpse like those dwarfs we found at the rear entrance.”

“What?!” Gimli snarled. His voice echoed back from the pillars.

Jett's eyes gleamed. “Eeeee!” she shrieked.

“Augh!” Everyone cried, clapping hands over their ears.

“Jett!” Heero snapped. “What the hell are you doing?!”

“It's super-echo-y!”

“And we're all super-deaf! Don't do that again.”

“Sorry.”

“We should try not to draw attention to ourselves,” Gandalf said sternly. “We don't know who else might be listening.” He led the way down a staircase into the hall.

“I wish Gandalf would quit being so mysterious,” Pippin whispered to Merry. “He makes it sound like there's worse than that Gollum creature following us.”

“Maybe there is,” Merry whispered back.

The group proceeded down the hall, walking quickly along between two rows of pillars. They had not gone far, however, when Gimli spied something ahead of them.

“Ah!” he cried and dashed ahead

“Gimli, wait!” Gandalf called after him.

“Dammit!” Zechs exclaimed and he raced after Gimli.

The others followed at a brisk trot. They caught up with Gimli in a large room built in the middle of the hall. Gimli rushed forward to collapse at the foot of what appeared to be a large coffin or crypt.

“Well,” Gandalf sighed, “now we know what happened to Balin, for here he lies.” Gandalf picked up a heavy book clutched in the rotted hands of what must have been a scribe and read from the final page. Everyone listened with looks of increasing concern.

While he read, Pippin crept closer to a corpse perched on the edge of a well, an arrow protruding from its side.

“I don't think you should touch that,” Alexa whispered.

Pippin started. “I'm not touching it!” he exclaimed, but his hand bumped the arrow anyway. Slowly, the corpse slid off the ledge and crashed into the well, dragging a wooden bucket and a chain with it. Pippin flinched repeatedly as the cacophony of its crashing fall echoed up out of the well.

“Pippin!” Merry cried. “What did you do?”

“I didn't do anything!” Pippin cried back. “And anyway, who puts a well in the middle of a mausoleum?!”

“I think the room was used for something else before Balin's crypt was put here,” Treize said. His words were interrupted by a deep boom from somewhere below their feet. It was followed by several more booms that everyone immediately recognized as drum beats.

“Now you've done it, fool of a Took!” Gandalf exclaimed. “We must go now!”

“Too late!” Boromir reported from the crumbling doors of the room. “I hear them coming.”

“Frodo, your sword!” Sam said in alarm.

Frodo half-pulled the weapon from its sheath and now everyone could see that it was glowing bright blue.

“Orcs!” Legolas snarled. He snatched an arrow from his quiver.

Boromir ducked back through the door. “They have a cave troll,” he announced calmly. He slammed the doors and blocked them closed with whatever was handy. Then he backed out of the way so Aragorn and Legolas had clear lines of fire with their bows.

Everyone drew swords, except for Quatre, who crossed his arms. “It seems pointless to block the door when there's a giant gaping hole in the back of the room.”

“Orcs aren't very bright,” Aragorn said. “If they broke in through the doors once, they'll do it that way again.”

“Right,” Quatre said with no agreement in his voice at all. “Trowa and Hadeya, watch the hole at the back. Treize and Roku, keep an eye on the hobbits. Zechs, Duo and I will protect the girls. Heero and Wu-Fei, you get to fight.”

“All right!” Heero smiled grimly.

“How come he gets to fight?” Duo complained. “I want to fight, too!”

“You can fight the next time.”

“It's not fair! Heero always gets to fight.”

“Just get over here and protect your baby.”

Duo stuck out his lower lip, but he immediately moved to stand beside Zechs and Quatre in front of Alexa and Jett, shielding the two girls against the wall. Just then, Aragorn and Legolas released arrows and the fight was on. It did not take the orcs long to break through the doors, mainly because their cave troll smashed them to bits with a giant stone club. Since the hobbits appeared to be holding their own, Treize and Roku jumped into the fray, slashing through orcs with deliberate efficiency.

“I rather like the way their heads explode when you smack them with your paw, Roku,” Treize complimented him.

“Thanks!” Roku pounced on another orc and bashed its head open. “Their skulls are a little thin so I get a real nice pop.” He demonstrated on another orc, spattering orc-brains everywhere.

“It does make the floor slippery, though,” Wu-Fei commented as he skidded through brains and blood, sliding under the cave troll's swing.

“True,” Roku agreed. He brained another orc. “But it's fun.”

“I can't deny that,” Wu-Fei said. He lopped off the top half of an orc's head, spilling more brains on the floor.

“Watch out, Frodo!”

“Unh!”

“Shit!” Treize exclaimed. He dashed to the rear of the room, where Frodo had been skewered by the cave troll and Aragorn was staggering groggily to his feet.

The cave troll was the only creature left, so they ganged up on it and quickly brought it down. Gandalf hurried to the back to lean over Frodo.

“I'm all right,” Frodo wheezed. “I'm not hurt.”

“How is that possible?” Aragorn exclaimed.

Frodo pulled open the front of his shirt, revealing the gleaming mithril shirt he was wearing underneath.

“Ah!” Gandalf said. “That explains it.”

“I think we should spend less time discussing it and more time escaping,” Quatre said pointedly.

“Quite right,” Gandalf agreed. He led the way out the giant gaping hole at the rear of the room and broke into a loping run.

Zechs scooped up Alexa in one arm and plopped her on his hip. “Hold on tight.” Duo did the same with Jett and they sprinted along with the others.

Heero looked behind them. “They're like fucking ants!” he exclaimed in irritation. “They're coming out of every crack in the floor and ceiling!”

“And yet they failed to find the giant gaping hole at the rear of that room, which they probably made in the first place,” Quatre muttered. “They're worse than stupid.”

“We're going to be surrounded,” Wu-Fei said. “Running is pointless.”

They skidded to a halt as the thousands of orcs closed in on them, shrieking with eager bloodlust.

“It might be time for some big magic, Roku,” Quatre said.

Then a distant boom made the ground shake and the orcs fell momentarily silent. They shifted about nervously and then a second boom shook dust from the ceiling. With squeals of terror, the orcs broke and ran, scurrying back to the cracks through which they'd entered.

“What scared them off?” Alexa said worriedly. She clung to Zechs' neck. ”I'm scared!”

Gandalf closed his eyes. “A balrog!” he announced after a moment. “Run! You cannot fight this!” They raced for the exit, passing through high arched doors and ending up on a steep, rail-less staircase.

“Who builds staircases like this?!” Heero screamed in irritation. “Is it some kind of macho posturing?! Stupid, fucking shit!” They came to a gap in the stairs and Heero and Wu-Fei leaped across it without slowing down. Some of the others jumped, too, before the edge of the stairs crumbled away, widening the gap.

“This is so annoying!” Quatre growled. He mumbled under his breath and held out his hands. Instantly, several stones floated up from below and positioned themselves in the gap. “Get across!” he snapped and skipped down his magically created temporary stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, Gandalf pointed to a spindly stone bridge arching over a deep, black chasm. “The Bridge of Khazad-Dum!” he cried. “You must get across! Hurry!”

But as they raced toward the bridge, the walls shook and stones rained down. A wash of heat and light made them all pause and look back. A giant winged creature apparently made mostly of flame howled at them in fury as it shouldered its way through a solid wall of rock. Aragorn started to pull his sword. Gandalf caught his hand.

“No!” Gandalf cried. “You can't fight this! Run!”

Everyone started to run, but Roku looked back over his shoulder as he galloped along. “Interesting,” he murmured, “but the flames would be hard to do.”

“Don't even think about it!” Quatre ordered.

“Yes, Mama.”

As they dashed across the narrow bridge one by one, Gandalf brought up the rear. Boldly, he stood in the middle of the span and denied the balrog access. The creature screamed at him and produced a flaming sword. It stepped onto the bridge. Gandalf smashed the tip of his staff into the rock.

“You shall not pass!”

The rock cracked and the bridge collapsed under the balrog, carrying it into the abyss. But before it was completely lost from sight, a whip of flame flashed back up, caught Gandalf's ankle and yanked him over the edge.

“No!” Frodo cried. He started to run back, but Boromir grabbed him.

“He's gone!” Boromir cried. He urged the other hobbits up more stairs and out of range of the arrows that orcs were shooting at them from the far side, lugging Frodo under one arm.

Within minutes, they came to the exit; a tall doorway carved into the face of a cliff. The hobbits immediately collapsed in tears.

Heero scowled. “Well, that was pretty useless. He should have let you deal with it, Quatre.”

Quatre shrugged. “Some people like the melodrama. Aragorn, do you know where he planned to go next?”

Aragorn shook his head. “He didn't plan to come this way. But the woods of Lothlorien are just ahead.” He pointed. “We can get there before sunset if we run, which I recommend since the orcs will overrun these hills once it gets dark.”

Frodo scrubbed tears from his cheeks. “Do you think Gandalf foresaw what would happen here? Do you suppose that's why he didn't want to go through the mines? It's all my fault!”

“He obviously knew something bad was in there,” Wu-Fei said, “but it couldn't be helped. In all likelihood, more of us would have died trying to cross the mountains in a blizzard. Since we only lost one person going through the mines, I'd say we came out ahead.”

“But how can we do this without Gandalf?!” Merry cried. “He was a great wizard! We needed him!”

“He had a few middling skills,” Quatre said, “but I think we'll make do. Roku, lead the way. We need to be in that forest by nightfall.”

For once, the hobbits didn't complain as they ran beside the others, their little legs churning to keep pace with the longer strides of the big people. When they finally reached the trees, Aragorn sighed with relief. “The orcs will not enter these woods,” he said. “They are protected by the Lady of the Galadrim.” He slowed to a walk.

Gimli scowled. “I heard these woods are ruled by an elf witch. It's said she can cloud your mind and lead you astray.” He lifted his chin. “But I shall stand proof against her evil powers.”

Legolas snorted.

Duo's brow wrinkled and he tipped his head to one side.

“Who are you listening to, Momma?” Jett asked.

Duo didn't answer. He shook his head slightly and pursed his lips.

Jett tugged on his ear. “Momma? Who is it?”

“What are you talking about, little one?” Boromir said. “These woods are empty. No one is speaking.”

“Except you,” a silken voice interrupted. Suddenly, elves appeared on every side, the arrows of their drawn long bows pointed at the travelers.

Aragorn quickly stepped forward. “We are friends!” he said, addressing himself to the speaker. “Surely you remember me, Haldir!? Gandalf the Gray sent us.”

“Gandalf?” Haldir looked around disdainfully. “I don't see him.”

“Sadly, we lost him in Moria,” Aragorn said. “But now I crave the council of your elders. Will you please take me to them?”

Haldir frowned and approached Frodo. “I sense great evil here. I cannot let you into our woods. You must go back.”

“To where?” Gimli growled. “The orcs? Is that how you elves treat strangers, by sending them to their deaths?”

Haldir looked down his elegant nose at Gimli. “Not strangers, certainly, but enemies, yes.”

Gimli reached for his axe.

Aragorn put a hand on Gimli's arm to stop him. “Please! We are on a great mission commissioned by Elrond himself. I must speak to Celeborn and Galadriel.”

Duo rubbed his head. “The lady says we should come ahead,” he said.

Haldir stared at him. “What did you say?”

“The lady said we should come ahead,” Duo repeated. “Let's do as she says so she quits shouting at me. I'm getting a headache.”

Haldir tried to recover his dignity. “The Lady Galadriel does not shout.”

“Maybe you're just deaf,” Duo muttered. “If she thought any louder, she'd strip the leaves off the trees. Sheesh!”

“Very well.” Haldir started up the trail. “Follow me and do not stray.” After walking for several minutes, he glanced at Legolas. “Our brother from Mirkwood is welcome here. We do not see enough of our northern kin.”

Legolas smiled. “It is true we do not often leave our woodland home, but to see the glory that is Lothlorien is surely worth the trip.”

“You will find no place more beautiful,” Haldir assured him. “It will be my pleasure to show it to you.”

“Geez, get a room,” Duo grumbled.

Walking beside Duo, Hadeya blinked. “Is Haldir having impure thoughts?”

“You could say that, although maybe someone should tell him that Legolas there hasn't found his inner uke yet.”

Hadeya groaned. “Please tell me I'm not going to get jumped by these elves, too!”

“I can't make any promises,” Duo replied. “But look at the bright side. These elves are wearing trousers. Maybe we'll be able to tell the boy elves from the girl elves before they get naked this time.”