POV narrator

Gasps and heavy breathing echo in the darkness. "We now have but one choice," Gandalf says grimly. Light appears from Gandalf's staff, showing the startled and frightened faces of the Fellowship. Silveria gets the meaning of the wizard's words and says, "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 nods to her. "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. "The wealth of Moria was not in gold... or jewels..." Gandalf says. The wizard tilts his staff down towards a pit. "...but Mithril." He ends. 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. Merry leans forward slightly to look closer. Pippin puts a warning hand in front of him.

Frodo and Silveria stare down until the light fades. "Bilbo had a shirt of Mithril rings that Thorin gave him," Gandalf says, and Silveria hums, knowing of what he speaks of. "Oh, that was a kingly gift," Gimli exclaims. "Yes! I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire."

Frodo looks surprised. They then climb up steep steps on the side of a cavern. Pippin loses his footing and slips onto Merry. "Pippin!" Merry calls and pushes pippin up. Silveria yells a handout, and the young hobbit takes it. 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. "I have no memory of this place," Gandalf says quietly to himself.

➳

The Fellowship rests. Aragorn sits beside Boromir and Silveria. "Are we lost?" She hears pippin ask. "No." merry says. "I think we are."

"Merry?"

"What?"

"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. "There's something down there!" He says. Silveria is suddenly beside them. She sits down beside Gandalf. "It's Gollum." She says. Frodo looks surprised at her. "Gollum?" He says. "He's been following us for three days." Gandalf answers. "He escaped the dungeons of Barad-Dûr!" Frodo exclaims. "Escaped? Or was set loose?" Silveria says, glancing at Gollum.

"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." Gandalf says. Dark and dirty fingers clasp a stone implement. From a distance below, Gollum looks up, his large eyes piercing the darkness. "Sméagol's life is a sad story. Yes, Sméagol he was once called. Before the Ring found him... before it drove him mad." Silveria says, a sad look over her face.

"It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance!" Frodo says. Silveria glanced 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?" She says. Frodo looks down silently. "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..." Gandalf continues Silveria's words.

Gollum pulls back into the darkness, wrinkling his nose. The smell of the dragon's too strong for him. "...before this is over." Gandalf starts. Gollum slinks off. "The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many." The gray wizard ends. Frodo sits down next to Gandalf and Silveria. "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened." He says. "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 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." Silveria says and lays a hand on his shoulder.

Gandalf looks towards one of the doorways. "Oh! It's that way." He exclaims. "He's remembered!" Merry says. The Fellowship starts down a dark stairway. Gandalf puts on his hat. "No, but the air doesn't smell so foul down here."The wizard rests a hand on Merry's shoulder. "If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follows your nose." He says.

➳

The Fellowship comes to more open space. Broken columns lie tumbled across the floor. Gandalf lifts his staff. "Let me risk a little more light." He says, and His team illuminates a giant stone hall with tall pillars and arched ceilings. Gimli gasps. "Behold the great realm and Dwarf city of Dwarrowdelf," Gandalf says. "Now there's an eye-opener and no mistake." Sam breathe.

The Fellowship walks forward through the hall, peering around a column. Gimli sees a ray of sunlight shining through a chamber. "Gimli!" Gandalf calls. Gimli runs into the section. 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.

"No! No!" Gimli says between sobs. Boromir places his hand on Gimli's shoulder. Gandalf translates the runes on the tomb as Silveria looks aorund, her blue eyes glinting. "'Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria.' He is dead then. It's as I feared." Gandalf says.

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Chapter's up

-Saph