Ashes ⇝Legolas

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CHAPTER TEN
FIGHT AFTER FIGHT PT.1

"No! No!" Gimli cried softly, sobs as if louder than anything in silence they had faced, a grave above which he wept lit with a track of bare light, yet so painful was to look at its ominous shine which had broken through a small window precisely in the middle. Nesryn kicked away the skeleton which, alongside many others in unnatural positions and their weapons readied by their sides lay littered throughout the small room, smashed over a slab of gray stone or pieces broken down from where the attack happened. The woman mumbled incoherent words to herself, strode up to a rusty machine part that had began to stink of rot and mold as she placed a hand to her chest briefly a prayer of barely a few words hitting her heart harder and harder- Balin was not her friend yet it hurt to find he had died a horrible death as the one of Orcs being responsible for not only his death but other of his kinsmen as well.

"Here lies Balin, son of Fudin, Lord of Moria." Nesryn heard the words Gandalf had spoken, his yet solemn tone had instilled the woman with no special emotion, her face after the silent prayer not able to change. "He is dead then. It's as I feared." Another sob echoed through, strained and rather filled with pain as poor dwarf had leaned over a stone grave.

Nesryn yet still paced, for she could sense many things stood deeply wrong with Mines of Moria, not only the eerie silence that hadn't only followed them until the moment they were found to be wandering that rather small room, but since the fight Nesryn would not so soon forget. She was relentless, nothing strong enough to stop her from thinking they had walked straight into another one of traps as by her side Legolas spoke quietly to Aragorn. "We must move on, we cannot linger."

"Legolas is right," At last she braved her thoughts to come out loud. "This place is foul." Nesryn turned to the sight of Gandalf, expectant he'd consider the presumption she had stated, yet the wizard was found not to be caring as he blew off a whiff of years worth of dust that lingered upon the old pages of a book he had taken from skeleton's bony, dried hand.

"They have taken the bridge and the second hall. We have barred the gates but cannot hold them for long. The ground shake. Drums, drums in the deep.
We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming."

Nesryn considered the words, a small yet visible smirk making it upon her features for she had been correct the whole time- Moria was not and will not be a place of magnificense anymore, only danger lurking in the depths of its abysses, the mines Dwarfs had dug. But as the woman brought upon herself to think of their current situation her smile had faded into a bare frown as Pippin, the Hobbit holding Gandalf's staff and hat stumbled backwards, gripped the dried hand of a skeleton perched above the well before had its head fallen into an abyss, following a chain as both things crashed painfully loud down the stone walls and further down. Echo, it echoed as loud as ever, a sound that would wake up a bear from its sleep.

"Fool of a Took, throw yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity." Gandalf snapped the book shut, urgently and angrily grabbing his possessions from Hobbit's hands. Nesryn shook her head disappointedly, rather wanted not to spend anymore time pondering recent events, yet didn't even have a second as a loud thump echoed through- it wasn't loud and clear. Rather like a...drum.

Thump. Once again, even louder. Thump. Thump.

By the time Nesryn had realised it was indeed no bucket crashing down the well, battle cries echoed only as a painful crying making her draw the daggers which still braced by black blood of that monster looked like darkness itself- she was not the only one, for Frodo had drawn his sword as well its blade a shining blue color indicating there were truly enemies nearby.