Gimli: "Dwarf doors are invisible when closed."

He knocks his axe against a rock. The Fellowship moves along the wall, searching for a door.

Gandalf: "Yes, Gimli, their own masters cannot find them, if their secrets are forgotten."

Legolas: "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

Aurora gives out a little chuckle. She is walking next to Legolas.

Gimli grumbles but says nothing. A foot splashes into shallow water. Frodo gasps, pulling his leg back. A great pool sits beside the rock face. Gandalf approaches the rock between two trees and runs his hand over the cliff face.

Gandalf: "Now... let's see. Ithildin —"

Beneath his hand run spidery silver lines, faint beneath the dirt.

Gandalf: "It mirrors only starlight... and moonlight." As he looks up at the black night sky, the moon appears. The silver lines grow bright, outlining a door formed of two columns beneath an arch, with a star in the center.

Gandalf: "It reads 'The Doors of Durin — Lord of Moria. Speak, friend, and enter.'"
Merry: "What do you suppose that means?" Gandalf: "Oh, it's quite simple. If you are a friend, you speak the password, and the doors will open."
Aurora: "Opening doors and never simple Gandalf."

Gandalf sends Aurora a look, which she returns. She then walks up to the door and whispers softly.
Aurora: "Mellon..." The stone doors slowly swing open, rumbling deeply. The Fellowship enters Moria. Gandalf places a crystal into the top of his staff; Aragorn follows last, casting a last glance at the water.

Moonlight floods into a shadowy chamber.

Gimli: "Soon, Master Elf, you will enjoy the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves! Roaring fires, malt beer, ripe meat off the bone. This, my friend, is the home of my cousin, Balin."
Aurora: " I fear we will not" Gimli sends her a questioning look, Legolas turns to her.
Legolas: "what do you mean?"

Just as he asks that the Light reveals rotted, broken, and battered forms strewn about, casting long shadows across the room.
Boromir: "This is no mine, it's a tomb!"
Gimli: "Oh! No! Noooo!"

Legolas pulls out an arrow from the body of a fallen Dwarf, examines it, and casts it away in disgust.

Legolas: "Goblins!" Aragorn and Boromir draw out their swords. Legolas fits an arrow to his bow. Aurora also draws her sword.
Boromir: "We make for the Gap of Rohan. We should never have come here."

The four Hobbits are backing toward the door. Something stirs in the water behind them. Boromir: "Now get out of here, get out!"

The company starts for the door. Suddenly, Frodo is grabbed from behind and pulled off his feet by a long, snaking tentacle.

Sam, Merry, and Pippin: "Frodo!"
Sam: "Strider!"
Frodo: "Help!"
But before the others can run to help, Aurora leaps out in front of them. She slashes a tentacle and blows fire on the other.
Aurora: "Don't just stand there! Help!"

Sam: [hacks at tentacle] "Get off him! Strider!" Merry: "Aragorn!" The Hobbits and Aurora clutch at Frodo, attempting to keep him away from the water as more tentacles wrap around him.

The watching creature at the gate releases Frodo and feigns disappearance under the waters. Suddenly, many tentacles come out of the water, slapping the other Hobbits aside and grabbing Frodo around the leg. He is pulled out over into the air.
Merry: "Frodo!"

Legolas runs out onto the shore and shoots. His arrow pierces a tentacle wrapping itself over Frodo's face.

Frodo: "Strider!"
Aurora then switches to arrow.

She shoots the creature earning a screech from it.
Strider: "Yaghh!"

Boromir and Aragorn rush to the water and attack the beast. It flings Frodo wildly in the air. Despite the Fellowship's efforts, the Hobbit is lowered towards a gaping maw in the water, ringed by fangs, set in a gilled face.

Aragorn slices through the tentacle holding Frodo, who falls into Boromir's arms.
Gandalf: "Into the Mines!"

Boromir: "Legolas!"

Aragorn and Boromir retreat. Boromir runs for the gates with Frodo as a huge tentacle uncoils a hand-like appendage, snaking after them. Legolas aims.

Aragorn: "Into the cave!"

Legolas shoots. His arrow hits the beast's right eye, and it recoils with a roar. Aurora runs back with the others.

Aragorn: "Run!"

As the Fellowship race into Moria, the sea creature reaches out and tears the gates shut. Slabs of rocks drop and the roof of the passageway caves in. The Fellowship stares back as the last rays of moonlight disappear.

Gasps and heavy breathing echo in the darkness.

Gandalf: "We now have but one choice."

Light appears from Gandalf's staff, showing the startled and frightened faces of the Fellowship. Gandalf: "We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs, in the deep places of the world."

Gandalf: "Quietly now. It's a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed."

Time passes. The Fellowship enters a great cavern. Gandalf rests his hand upon a rock with dark, silver veins running through it. Gandalf: "The wealth of Moria was not in gold... or jewels..."

The wizard tilts his staff down towards a pit.

Gandalf: "...but Mithril." The lights illuminate the Fellowship's faces.

A vast rock wall drops into the depths below. Row upon row of ladders and scaffolding, old and disused, disappear into the mining shafts below. Aurora then suddenly starts glowing slightly. She sighs softly as the power of her pulse in her veins. Legolas notices this and steps to her side.
Legolas: "are you okay?" Aurora nods and gives him a kind smile.

Merry leans forward slightly to look closer. Pippin puts a warning hand in front of him. Frodo stares down until the light fades. Gandalf: "Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him."

Gimli: "Oh, that was a kingly gift." Aurora gives a knowing look to Frodo but stays silent. Only her voice is heard in Frodo's mind.
Aurora: "I saw Bilbo give that shirt to you. You bear it with pride my dear, as Gimli said, it was a kingly gift." Aurora's voice fade out and Frodo cast a glance at her. She only gives him a warm smile and continues to walk on.

Gandalf: "Yes! I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire." They then climb up steep steps on the side of a cavern. Pippin loses his footing and slips onto Merry.
Merry: "Pippin!"

The Fellowship climbs another flight of stairs to a crossroads in the mine: three doorways loom before them. Gandalf glances from one to the other and back.

Gandalf: "I have no memory of this place."

————————————————————————

The Fellowship rests. Aragorn sits beside Boromir.

Aragorn: "Hmm."

Aurora is a few paces beside them, sitting with Legolas. She plays her hands in her air, a small fire erupting from them. It takes the form of a little dragon. The fire dragonflies around and brush warm against its master. Aurora giggles softly and reach her hand out. The fire dragon lands on the tip of her finger.
Aurora: [softly] "disappear, my flame spirit" the little fiery spirit of the dragon disappeared.

It seems like none of the fellowship noticed this so she just continue to sit and gaze down at the stone floor.

Pippin: "Are we lost?"
Merry: "No."
Pippin: "I think we are."
Sam: "Shh! Gandalf's thinking."
Pippin: "Merry?"
Merry: "What?"
Pippin: "I'm hungry."

Frodo looks down into the cavern and sees a small figure leaping from stone to stone. Startled, he walks over to where Gandalf is sitting.
Frodo: "There's something down there!"
Gandalf (without surprise): "It's Gollum."
Frodo: "Gollum?"

Gandalf: "He's been following us for three days."
Frodo: "He escaped the dungeons of Barad-Dûr!"
Gandalf: "Escaped? Or was set loose?"

Gandalf: "And now the Ring had drawn him here. He will never be rid of his need for it. He hates and loves the Ring, as he hates and loves himself."

Dark and dirty fingers clasp a stone implement. From the distance below, Gollum looks up, his large eyes piercing the darkness.

Gandalf: "Sméagol's life is a sad story. Yes, Sméagol he was once called. Before the Ring found him... before it drove him mad."
Frodo: "It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance!"
Gandalf: [glancing sharply at Frodo] "Pity? It was a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live to deserve death, and some that die to deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?" Frodo looks down, silently.

Gandalf: "Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise can not see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill..."
Aurora: " Gandalf tells true words young hobbit." Aurora is seen behind them, her eyes following Gollum.

No hate is seen in them, only pity. Gollum pulls back into the darkness, wrinkling his nose.

Gollum: "Gollum."

Gandalf: "...before this is over."

Gollum slinks off.

Gandalf: "The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."

Frodo sits down next to Gandalf.
Frodo: "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."
Aurora: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought." Aurora is now beside Frodo. She has a hand on his shoulder, pressing it softly.

Gandalf: [looks towards one of the doorways] "Oh! It's that way."

Merry: "He's remembered!" The Fellowship starts down a dark stairway. Gandalf puts on his hat.

Gandalf: "No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here."

The wizard rests a hand on Merry's shoulder.

Gandalf: "If in doubt, Meriadoc always follows your nose."
————————————————————————

The Fellowship comes to more open space. Broken columns lie tumbled across the floor. Gandalf lifts his staff.

Gandalf: "Let me risk a little more light."

His staff illuminates a giant stone hall with tall pillars and arched ceilings. Gimli gasps. Gandalf: "Behold: the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf."

Sam: "Now there's an eye-opener and no mistake."
Aurora: "You are right, master Sam"

The Fellowship walks forward through the hall, peering around a column. Gimli sees a ray of sunlight shining through a chamber.
Gimli: "Haugh!"

Gandalf: "Gimli!" Gimli runs into the chamber. Bodies and weapons scattered about it. The Dwarf stops and kneels by a crypt in the center of the room. A shaft of light illuminates it. Gandalf walks forward and peers at the tomb's surface.

Gimli: "No! No!" [sob] "No!" [sob] Aurora places her hand on Gimli's shoulder.
Gandalf: [translating the runes on the tomb] "'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared."
Gimli: [wails]

Gandalf gives his staff and hat to Pippin, bends down, and takes a large and battered book from a corpse's hands. He opens it and clears the dirt from its pages.

Gimli: [chanting softly, sobbing] "Kilmin malur ni zaram kalil ra narag. Kheled-zâram... Balin tazlifi."

Legolas: [to Aragorn] "We must move on, we cannot linger!"
Aurora: "He's right. They will come, soon." Aragorn looks at the two elves. Well, one elf and one shapeshifter;3

Gandalf: [reading] "'They have taken the bridge... and the second hall.'" Gimli stops sobbing and looks up blankly.
Gandalf: "'We have barred the gates... but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes.'"

Pippin, still holding hat and staff, backs away.

Gandalf: "'Drums... drums... in the deep.'" He looks up slowly and turns the smudged, bloodstained page. The Fellowship begins to glance around uncomfortably.

Gandalf: "'We cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark.'"

Pippin stumbles back and sees a corpse with an arrow in its chest, sitting by a stone wall. He turns towards it.
Gandalf: "'We cannot get out...'" [He glances at the last, single line, a scrawl fading out at the bottom of the page. Gandalf looks up in the uncomfortable silence.] "'They are coming!'"

The silence is broken by Pippin. Curious, he reaches out and lightly twists the arrow in the corpse. The skull slips off, falling into the well with a resounding crash.

Gandalf whips around. Pippin turns to face him, looking guilty. As he does, the rest of the corpse slips into the well, dragging with it a chain and bucket. The noise echoes from hall to hall far below. Pippin winces at each wave of noise.

Gandalf: [slams the book shut] "Fool of a Took!-" but before he can continue to scold Pippin, Aurora steps between them. A stern look on her face as she turns to Gandalf.
Aurora: "It was not his fault. He dint knew the course would fall." Her words are smudged with understanding and pity for the young Hobbit.

Gandalf steps away. He does not argue with Aurora because he knows it's folly to argue with a dragon.

He then pulls his hat and staff from the Hobbit's hands. Gandalf turns away. Pippin stands still, awkwardly. Drums are heard booming. Gandalf slowly turns back, and Pippin turns as well, staring down into the well. More drums are heard booming.

Sam: "Frodo!" Frodo lifts the sting and sees it glows blue. Alarmed, Aurora draws her sword. It also glows blue.

Legolas: "Orcs!" Boromir rushes to the doors to have a look. Arrows hiss into the door near his face. Aragorn drops his torch and runs to Boromir.
Aragorn (to the Hobbits): "Get back! You stay close to Gandalf!"

The doors are shut. A bellow can be heard just outside.

Boromir (in sarcastic relief): "They have a cave troll." Legolas tosses weapons to Boromir and Aragorn to blockade the door. The Fellowship draws out their weapons. Gandalf throws away his hat and pulls out his sword.

Gandalf: "Yah!"
Aurora then starts transforming. Scales grow on her skin, shifting her into a great black dragon. She growls loudly as the ground shakes. The Hobbits brandish their short-swords. Sting quivers, glowing blue. Gimli leaps at Balin's tomb and brandishes his axe. Gimli: "Argh! Let them come! There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!"

Aurora answers with an angry short roar. Creatures begin breaking the doors down. Weapons crash through splintering spaces.

Legolas and Aragorn stand poised, ready to shoot. The first clear gap is gashed in the door and Legolas shoots — a shrill cry rings out. The Elf notches an arrow to his bow as Aragorn shoots another. Aurora sends out a small flame towards the orcs. They cry in agony as the fire kills them.

Aurora stands before the hobbits and Gandalf, her wings spread out. The orcs stop short as they see the dragon. One of them suddenly kneels to the ground. Confused, Aurora growls and bares her teeth.

Untetefind orc: "The great creation of Morgoth! Stop with the attacks, wait for her order" the orcs stop and the cave troll stands still outside the door.

Aurora stands up, confused.
Aurora: [deep soft vocie] "Why aren't you attacking us? Aren't we your enemy?"
The orcs stand up and shake their heads.
Orc: "No my lady. You're our queen. Morgoth greatest creature. Why do you wish to defy your creator?" Aurora smirks and steps forward.
Aurora: "I do not have a master, my creator is The Valar. My mentor is Gandalf. My friends are The fellowship. I do not belong in the hands of the dark lord, nor the god of evil."

Then she blares purple flames on the orcs and the cave troll, burning them to crisp. The fellowship stares at her in wonder and slight fear. The great dragon turns around to face them.
Aurora: "Where to now, Gandalf?"

Gandalf: "To the Bridge of Khazad-dûm!"
——————
So that's all for this chapter! I will be continuing on the other one soon, I just wanna take a small break. Until then!
-Saph