The Elfling || A Frodo Baggins Love Story

Through the Mountain Pass

“We now have but one choice,” said Gandalf in a low voice. “We must face the deep darkness of Moria. Come, quickly. It's a three-day journey to the other side. Let us be on our guard. There are older, much more fouler things than Orcs and goblin-men that roam the places of the Earth. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed.”

We didn’t know how long we travelled through Moria. We didn't know the time or hour. But we made sure to be careful with each step we took. Gandalf looked around. I noticed that there were no glittering jewels, which you would usually find in a dwarf mine.

“The wealth of Moria was not in gold, or jewels for that matter. But Mithril.” He was silent before adding, “Bilbo had a shirt made of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him.”

I couldn’t help but smirk slightly. But Frodo looked a little bit uncomfortable.

“That would have been a kingly gift,” said Gimli in awe.

“Yes,” Gandalf agreed. “I never told Bilbo this, but its worth is greater than the entire value of the Shire.”

We delved deeper into the mines for several more hours before we came to a halt. Gandalf looked from one door to the other before saying, “I have no memory of this place.”

We stopped for short a rest while Gandalf thought about which of the three entrances we should go through. Finally —

“Oh! It’s that way.”

“He’s remembered!” said Merry with much enthusiasm.

“No,” Gandalf answered. “But the air doesn’t smell so foul. When in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose.” We walked through the tunnel before we were greeted by a large room. “Welcome to the great halls of Dwarrowdelf,” Gandalf announced.

“Now there s an eye-opener right there, and that's no mistake,” Sam muttered to himself. But we all heard him.

We continued to make our way through the Dwarven halls until Gimli let out a shout of shock and horror. He sped ahead of us into a room that had light flooding through it.

“Gimli!” said Gandalf in a sharp voice. But the dwarf didn’t even listen. Gimli finally stopped and knelt down in front of some sort of tomb. Gandalf read the Dwarf runes off the marble tombstone. “‘Here lies Balin, son of Fundin’. He is dead, then. It is as I’ve feared.”

“We must go,” I heard Legolas saying in an urgent whisper to Aragorn. “We cannot linger!”

But nobody seemed to be paying any heed to Legolas's demands. Gandalf bent down and picked up a very old book. He blew the dust off of it and began to read it aloud to us.

“‘. . . . We cannot get out. We cannot get out. They are coming’!” Gandalf finished.

On cue, the sound of something crashing was heard. We whipped around to see that Pippin had been messing around with a skeleton that sat on the edge of a well. We listened for a few minutes as the skeleton crashed to the depths beneath us. Finally, there was silence. We all breathed a sigh of relief.

“You fool of a Took!” Gandalf spat. “Throw yourself in next time and get rid of yourself and your stupidity!”

Pippin looked really guilty. But his guilt soon vanished when there was the sound of drums beating in the depths of the mines. The triumphant sound of laughter was heard, causing us to tense.

“Mr. Frodo!” said Sam in a warning voice. Frodo took out Sting and instantly looked horrified.

Boromir thought that it was a pleasant idea to see how many Orcs and goblin-men were headed our way. But that resulted in almost getting killed by an arrow. He reacted quickly to avoid death. He turned to look at us.