Chapter soundtrack: 'Blitzkrieg Bop' by The Ramones.

† Chp. XI †

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The fellowship run through the enormous halls of Moria, orcs hot on their tail. Just Robins luck, she looks up to see the roof crawling. Wretched creatures spiral down the stone columns from every direction, and soon, the fellowship find themselves to be encased within the large mob of ghastly orcs.

With her weapons drawn and wide eyes, Robin looks in every direction, only to be met by the beady mauls of the horrendous creatures. All thoughts on her cold are completely forgotten, only to be replaced by a matter much worse.

"Any bright ideas Gandalf?" She questions, gripping onto the handles of her daggers for dear life.

Suddenly, as if both lucky and fatal, the orcs scatter away with loud shrieks and shrills. There is no arrow fired, not even an attempt to attack the fellowship. They just crawl up the stone columns and disappear.

Gimli laughs at their weakness, as everybody else looks to Gandalf with puzzled expressions.

"Good job, Boromir." Robin remarks with a smirk and a sigh of relief. "You should show your face more often."

But the look on Gandalfs face tells Robin that the atmosphere is definitely not light. He grips his staff, staring with remorse at the orange glow which emerges from the end of the hallway.

A deep gurgle echoes throughout the stone walls, causing the floor to vibrate and the fellowship to hold their breath.

"What is this new devilry?" Boromir utters to Gandalf, and the silence of the grey wizard causes a chill to rack down Robins spine.

As another harrowing gurgle is heard, the orange glow grows bigger, illuminating the hall and spreading towards where the fellowship stand.

"A balrog. A demon of the ancient world." Gandalf explains in a low voice.

"Great, so we've awoken my mum." Robin retorts.

"This foe is beyond any of you... Run!" Gandalf orders, and nobody complains as they take off towards the nearest doorway.

Boromir takes the lead as the fellowship exit the cavern of columns, but he comes to a sudden stop as he meets the edge of a deep chasm, his balance failing as he tries to stop himself from falling in. Robin grabs the back of his armour, and tugs him away from the edge.

"Lead them on Aragorn, the bridge is near." Gandalf orders the man, grabbing him by the shoulder and pushing him off into the right direction. Robin looks around the corner of the stone wall, then averts her eyes back to the others.

"The coast is clear!" She yells, and off they go down the enormous stairs which tower over the gaping chasm.

The orange glow draws closer as the fellowship sprint, their hearts racing with both fear and adrenaline. Robins cold has seemed to temporarily disappear due to the amount of action, but this still leaves her short breathed, and she struggles to keep up as her body aches from exhaustion.

Suddenly, they come across a large gap between the stairs.

Legolas jumps the distance effortlessly, and Robin follows, looking nowhere near as elegant as her foot catches the edge and she hurls her body back up.

The rest of the fellowship look across the gap with wide eyes, and Legolas beckons for Gandalf.

"You catch them, I'll hold off the orcs." Robin inquires, and Legolas nods, helping Gandalf as the wizard jumps across.

Robin aims her bow towards the orcs which line the edge of the walls from afar, and fires her arrows, successfully hitting her targets.

Boromir takes Merry and Pippin under his arms as he jumps across, all three successfully landing on the other side with the help of Legolas, but causing a chunk of the staircase inwhich they jumped from to fall away.

"Sam!" Aragorn calls out, picking up the hobbit and throwing him across to the other side, Boromir and Legolas assist in catching him.

Gimli is next, and as Aragorn goes to pick up the dwarf, he raises his hand in protest.

"Nobody tosses a dwarf!" Gimli barks, before taking a mighty leap, but barely making the edge. Falling back, the dwarf reaches out, only to be welcomed by a tug on his knotted beard.

"Mind the beard!" Gimli squabbles, and Legolas pulls the dwarf to safety. He then looks up expectantly towards Aragorn and Frodo, the last two remaining on the other side.

Robin continues to hit orcs with her arrows, only stopping to see who has made it across, when a sudden loud crack attracts her attention. She turns her head to see another chunk of the staircase falling into the depths of the chasm, leaving Aragorn and Frodo with an impossible jump.

"Bloody hell." She murmurs beneath her breath, dodging and arrow and firing one back. Her throat begins to tingle again, and she breathes through her mouth as her nose returns to its blocked state.

The man and hobbit back further away from the gap, Aragorn ordering to hold on, and the daunting orange glow creeps once again into sight. The staircase begins to sway side to side, causing everybody to hold their breath.

"Lean forward" Aragorn yells, and the hobbit obeys. With another crack, the staircase begins to fall forward, heading straight towards the rest of the fellowship.

Aragorn and Frodo jump just in time, landing safely in the arms of their catchers, and everybody seems to sigh in relief. But the relaxation doesn't last long, as the orange glow now illuminates most of their previous path.

Robin fires one last arrow, before joining the rest of the fellowship as they bolt down the remaining steps.

~Røbins P.Ø.V~

"Out of the frying pan and into the- holy shit!" I holler, as I turn my head to see a massive beast emerging from the flames which engulf the room. It lowers its ugly head and lets out a roar of pure fire before charging in our direction, and I take the hint to keep on running.

Snapping my head back around, I almost trip over Sam who has stumbled to his knees. I grip the hobbits shoulder and tug him to his feet, pushing him forward as I run behind the fellowship. The smoke seeps its way into my lungs, and combined with my sickness, keeping up is almost impossible.

Big scary creature behind you. Massive, terrifying balrog. I remind myself in order to keep my legs moving.

My eyebrows furrow as the fellowship form into a single file, but then a hint of relief occurs at the sight of the bridge up ahead. Only a hint, as this big ugly creature still remains hot on my tail.

Gandalf moves to the side, letting me run infront of him, and I nod in appreciation. The expression on his face is unreadable due to the fact that my vision is blurred from exhaustion.

Usually I'm pretty good at long distance since I used to travel around as a child, but this cold is eating up all of my energy.

"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down." I mutter to myself as I reach the end.

I accidentally bump into Aragorn on my way up the second flight of stairs which lead to our escape, and he grabs my shoulders, steadying my balance.

"You don't look so good, Robin." He remarks through short breaths.

"What do you mean? I look amaz-" My statement is cut off by Gandalfs booming voice, causing both Aragorn and I to snap our heads in his direction.

"You cannot pass!" He bellows from the centre of the bridge. The rest of the fellowship look on with wide eyes, and Frodo shouts the grey wizards name as if he'll just turn around and walk away.

I knew this was going to happen, you could tell from the moment we entered the mines. Gandalf will do anything to protect the fellowship.

Standing still causes my head to feel incredibly light, but I fight off the feeling as my nerves are set alight from the balrog which goes into a power stance. Flames erupt from behind the beast, and its smouldering stone body cracks into place, but the move is not enough to frighten off Gandalf.

Lets be real, can anything frighten off the wizard? He's got a good set of balls.

Yeah, probably not the best way to put it, Robin.

Gandalf continues to utter out words inwhich I cannot make sense of, but my eyes widen as his staff glows and the beast pulls out a flaming sword.

The weapons collide, causing an immensely bright light to erupt, and the next twenty seconds go past in a whir of cracks and fire.

"You shall not pass!" Gandalf shouts, and my vision adjusts just in time to see the wizard bring his staff forcefully against the stone bridge beneath him.

A bright force pushes the beast back, and with a snort, the balrog steps forward to attack. But the instant it stomps its wretched feet onto the bridge, the stone formation gives way, sending the balrog hurdling into the chasm below.

"Ha, fatty." I grin, and Gandalf turns to walk away like the badass he is. But alas, with one last whip of its blazing rope, the balrog manages to catch Gandalfs ankle and bring him dangling over the edge.

Both Frodo and I run forward to save the wizard, but we are held back by strong hands.

"Come on, we can't just leave the man hanging!" I remark, no pun intended. He's not even that far away, this should be easy!

But the wizard fails in pulling himself up, and just stares at us with wide eyes.

"Fly you fools." He orders, before releasing his grip. Frodo wails as the wizard plummets into the chasm, and I swing around, hitting whoever was holding me back right in the nose.

Legolas.

"We could have helped him!" I seethe, not even feeling sorry as one single drop of blood drips from his nose.

"Robin!" Aragorn scoulds as Legolas steps back in shock, but there is no time to argue as arrows come flying in our direction.

I ram my shoulder into the elf as I run past him and towards the exit.

Being one of the first out of that ghastly place, I shield my eyes from the insanely bright sun and take a step to the side, crouching over as I cough up my lungs. The cool breeze relieves my sweaty body, and I'd like to say that the air smells nice and fresh, but that would be a lie considering the fact my nose is blocked. Lets just say that the air tastes nice and fresh.

As I look around, I see despaired bodies strewn across the rocky landscape which surronds us. Pippin cries in the arms of Merry, Boromir embraces a furious Gimli and Sam sits by himself, running a hand through his messy mop of hair.

I walk over to the weeping hobbit, kneeling beside him and placing a hand on his back. We haven't gotten to know each other yet, but I do admire the hobbit and think that he deserves alot more appreciation than what he gets.

I'm also not very good at comforting people, so here goes nothing.

"He is a good leader." I whisper, moving my hand from Sams back and placing it on my knee. "He persisted despite all the odds, and I'm sure that he wants us to do the same."

"You speak of him as if he isn't dead." Sam whimpers, another tear rolling down his cheek.

"He's a wizard, Sam. Do you know how hard it is to kill a wizard?" I reply, placing my hand on his. "As if some dumb mass of smouldering stone is going to kill him."

Sam lifts his gaze slightly, tears still gathering in his eyes.

"I have hope, Sam. Do you?"

The hobbit finally looks up and makes eye contact, a hint of a smile playing at his lips.

"Legolas! Get them up." Aragorn orders, and I furrow my eyebrows, averting my gaze to the man.

"Give them a moment for pities sake!" Boromir exclaims, stepping away from Gimli who now mourns for the fallen wizard.

"For once I agree with the man." I add on, before letting out another cough. My body has lost its adrenaline high, meaning that all symptoms of the cold are creeping back.

"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with orcs!" Aragron remarks, sheathing his sword. "We must reach the woods of Lothlorien."

Taking in Aragorns information, I see that he has a point. And after that long commotion in the mines, it could take awhile to get everyone back on their feet if we allow ourselves to rest.

Standing up, I offer my hand to Sam.

"Hey, atleast now I'm not the only one with a runny nose." I grin, and a daggy smile breaks its way onto Sams tear streaked face.

He places his hand in mine, and with a rattle, I pull him to his feet.

-

Don't be mad at Robin for punching Legolas, she just gets really frustrated when someone dies and she could have prevented it, especially someone from the fellowship.

All will be forgiven with time. Except for that bastard who stole Robins chicken wings, he will never be forgiven.