The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

Inside the Mines of Moria

Aragorn POV

We looked around us, still panting heavily after our sprint away from the monster in the lake. But there was nothing to see. We were surrounded by complete and intimidating darkness. It was pitch black, I had never before on earth witnessed such a lack of light and life on that part. It felt like we had entered the middle of earth, where no creature can survive, not even the light. I searched for Legolas' hand with outstrechted arms. The elf was standing right beside me, panting heavily, but I knew it was not from exhaustion. Elves don't get tired. 

"Ilqua na teréva (Everything's fine)!", I whispered in his ear and took his hand. He squeezed it slightly, thanking me for my support. Then Gandalf conjured light with his staff and slowly turned around, to give him a view of what were the Mines of Moria. And in his eyes was fear, disgust and fright, something I had never seen in his eyes before. So I turned around too.

Death. It lived here. It had extinguished every living soul and made the place into a giant mass grave. Dead bodies of dwarfs and orcs were scattered on the ground, and in every direction the stone walls led into more darkness, the smell of rotten flesh and fear hanging in the air. The slaughter must have been enormous. 

I heard the hobbits and Boromir gasp in shock, and Gimli let out a terrible cry of pain at the sight of his dead ancestors.

"No!", he yelled, "No, this can't be true! We had contact with Balin, just lately no answers have come anymore. They can't be dead! They can't!"

"Gimli, calm down. We need to be careful", Gandalf interrupted him gently, and patted one of Gimli's shoulders. "There may still be orks around and we don't want to be discovered that easily."

Gimli did calm down a bit, but the way he was holding his axe with two hands and in front of him made clear, that he was devastated and frightened. I realised, that I still had Legolas hand in mine. Giving him a look, I made sure he was fine, and as he assured me he was, I let go. Not because I wanted to, but because of what I had told Gandalf about my knowledge of the elven prince. If we appeared to close to each other, the wizard would find out I had lied to him about Legolas and my first meeting, and I didn't want him to ask. If I had to tell him about the way we parted, I wasn't sure my heart could bear it. 

I felt cold, now that I didn't have Legolas warm hand in mine anymore. As I glanced to him, I saw hurt and hopelessness in his eyes. Even though I felt empty too, I couldn't do anything right now. Just the hopelessness confused me a bit. But then I thought of Arwen again, and I understood.

Our group made our way deep into the mountain, discovering more dead bodies on the way. We were all on the watch, and our moods were dampened. The danger loomed somewhere here, it just hadn't found us yet. Yet.

---

Before us was a big stone stairwell, that seemed to never end. Pippin groaned quietly, apparently not wanting to climb any more stairs, but Gandalf didn't want to lose any time, so he just began hurrying upwards. I followed closely behind, Legolas and Gimli on my heels. Boromir tried to chase the hobbits upstairs too, playfully making them endure the exertions of the trip. He was constantly making fun of them, but at the same time would never leave anyone of them behind. Most interest he showed in Frodo though.

Finally we reached the end of the stairs. We were in a big room with nothing in it than more skeletons and a massive block of stone. It seemed to be a tomb. One single stray of sunlight fell on it, from a small window in the stone walls. Out of the corners of my eyes I saw Gimli tremble. Then he rushed forwards and fell on his knees before the grave. 

"It looks like a tomb", Frodo announced, but was shushed by Legolas almost immediately. 

I stepped forwards to read an inscription on the grave:

"Balin Son of Fundin

  Lord of Moria"

Suddenly a loud clanging noise made them all jump. I quickly scanned the room. Gandalf had been reading an old and dusty book, which look like it had bloodstains on it. Gimli was still before the grave, eyes opened in shock. Everyone else was standing next to or behind me, waiting silently. Except Pippin. He stood right beside a deep well, and looked guitly. Then, the body of a headless skeleton slowly fell into the well, and another loud noise erupted. 

"You fool!", Gandalf cried.

A few seconds later, loud drumbeats were heard from the depths of the kingdom under the mountain. Legolas gripped my arm. 

"We shouldn't linger", he whispered.

But it was too late. Battle was unavoidable, and we prepared for the fight.