Lady Hope of Middle Earth

Chapter 10: The Balrog

Hope's POV:

After Legolas' discovery Boromir sprints to the door. He goes to look out and is just missed by an arrow. "Get back and stay close to Gandalf." Aragorn orders the Hobbits as he races over to help Boromir shut the doors. Once they get them close Boromir explains what he saw.

"They have a cave troll." I sigh in frustration. "Hope, can you do a sealing spell?" Gandalf asks me. I shake my head. "There's no time."  Once Aragorn and Boromir secure the door they run over to us and we make a wall.

"Let them come. There is one dwarf in Moria that still draws breath." Gimli growls. I draw my bow along with Legolas and Aragorn. I don't know if I'm good enough to make it through the tiny holes in the door, but I can try.

Once the holes are big enough from the orcs tearing through them the three of us start firing. I'm on autopilot. Shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot. Then the door is down. I fire one more arrow before putting my bow away and drawing my sword.

"Stay close to me." Is the last thing Aragorn tells me before we are overrun with orcs. They're disgusting creatures in real life. I've only seen drawings in books. I slice through the enemy one by one. Not long into the fight I feel the thudding of footsteps. I look to see the cave troll.

Holy shit. It's massive. Legolas shoots it, but it does nothing. Troll walks over to Sam and is about to smash him to a pulp when Sam dives between his legs and escapes. I continue fighting as Boromir and Aragorn grab hold of the troll's chain and pull it away from Sam.

When the troll whips around to face them Aragorn is smart to let the chain go, leaving Boromir to hold it on his own. The troll yanks the chain sending Boromir flying with it. I then see the troll separate Frodo from Merry and Pippin, leaving him alone. "FRODO!" Aragorn yells. "NO!" I yell.

I drop my bow and quiver, sword, and cloak to the floor. I run forward. "HOPE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" I hear Aragorn yell. I don't listen and I stop where there are no orcs to stop me. I scream as my bones begin to break. Guess my secret will be out. "HOPE!" Aragorn yells again.

I'm lucky my shifting is quick because of me being a tribrid. Soon I am a large white wolf. I snarl and leap onto the troll's back. I start ripping into it's nasty flesh with my teeth. It howls in pain as I do so. I soon have the troll on the ground, weakly trying to fight me off. Soon, it is dead.

I then turn to the orcs around me and help my friends finish them off. Soon all the opposing creatures are dead. I look over to see everyone kneeling in front of Frodo who has a spear in his chest. I whine a little and run over, shoving the boys out of the way.

I nudge him over with my head and he gasps. Completely fine. "He's alive." Sam announces. Everyone lets out a breath of relief at this. "You should be dead. That spear would have skewered a wild boar." Aragorn says, unbelieving fo what happened.

"I think there's more to this Hobbit than meets the eye." Gandalf says. He pulls his top shirt aside to show a sparkling under shirt. "Mithril. You are full of surprises Master Baggins." Gimli says. Then they all turn to me. "Hope?" Aragorn asks me. I nod my head, panting.

"That's Lady Hope? What is she?" Boromir asks, terrified. "No time to explain, I'll tell you on the way, right now we need to get going." "Aragorn is right. There is no time for explanations right now. We must hurry. There will be more coming soon." Gandalf says. Legolas and Aragorn nod.

"Where are your things?" Aragorn asks. I nod my head to the pile behind the pillar. He races over and grabs them for me. He knows that our best shot is with me in wolf form. Suddenly we hear more orcs headed this way. "Quick, to the bridge." Gandalf says. We all take off.