'…He's drunk again, it's time to fight.

She must have done something wrong tonight.

The living room becomes a boxing ring,

It's time to run when you see him…'

Nickelback Never Again

Chapter Five – Revelations

'Where the hell did that pony come from?' Yunalesca thought as Aragorn and Sam said their goodbyes to Bill. 'I swear he wasn't there on Caradhras, or when they were attacked for that matter Or the last month and a half. Strange, it was there when they left Rivendell…I'm getting too old for this.'

Ignoring this, she concentrated more on the situation at hand. It had been about three hours since they had first arrived. Yuna was beginning to wonder whether or not she should simply stand up and yell: "It's MELLON, you idiots!" A few random ripples in the water seized her attention. Merry and Pippin had grown tired of waiting around for the wizard, and were idly skimming rocks across the placid lake in an attempt to entertain themselves. Thankfully, Aragorn stopped them after a while. She had heard tales of a strange creature inhabiting the depths of the murky waters, and she hoped for the Fellowship's sake that they were just tales and nothing more.

"It's a riddle." The words broke through the entourage of thoughts that bombarded her mind and shone like a ray of light in the dark. 'Come on Frodo, carry on.' "Speak friend, and enter. What's the Elvish word for friend?" Her inner-cheerleader leapt with joy as the Grey Pilgrim slowly said the word she had repeated to herself so many times it had lost all meaning.

"Mellon." With a creak the doors swung open. Yunalesca felt like crying tears of rapture. Once the Fellowship was, she assumed, some distance into the mines, it was with some effort that she managed to convince the muscles in her legs to work and allow her to stand. Listening intently to the conversation that was taking place inside; one statement hung in the air.

"This is no mine, it's a tomb."

So it was true, the great Lords of Moria had been overthrown, and the place was now nothing more than a graveyard for the dead dwarves and goblins that had fought. She had hoped against it, however little she wanted to see the dwarves again, it was a better fate then having to wade through piles of dead Orcs. Same number of smelly, unwashed creatures, she mused, but that wasn't the point.

"Get out of here. Get out!" An alarmed voice yelled, casting an echo around the hollow tomb. Yuna looked up to the entrance to the mines to see the fellowship hurriedly backing out of the stony cavern and looking around the interior apprehensively. She glanced down to the rippling water and cursed under her breath as a tentacle shot out from the murky depths of the lake and firmly grasped Frodo's ankle, dragging him towards the water's edge as he cried for help.

His fellow Hobbits rushed to his aid, trying in vain to slice of the offending tentacle amidst calls to the Ranger. After a short while, Sam had freed his master and briskly tried to get back into the mines with the rest of the Fellowship. Another ten grey-blue arms shot out from the water, glistening with moisture, and grabbed at the Hobbits. Once again, Frodo was swept off his feet by the creature, and was left dangling a short distance above the water's surface held by his ankle.

Yuna made a split-second decision, it was worth making herself known and having a small section of her pride shattered if she could save Frodo's life. She rose from her position and leapt onto what she assumed to be the creature's head as it emerged from the water. It wasn't so much of an elegant bound as it was a lucky fall, but she wasn't much worried about putting on a show at the current moment. The head itself resembled a piece of old, knobbly bark, and wasn't at all inviting.

After she had regained at least some of her balance, she looked up to see the Hobbit's face. It was a white mask of fear, his eyes were wide and he looked petrified, he seriously thought he was going to die. True, she had been involved in many near-death experiences, but to see the look of sheer and utter terror in this innocent hobbit's eyes almost made her hold his gaze for a millisecond longer. Aragorn and the others were outside by now, and busied themselves with hacking away at the many arms of the Watcher, desperately trying to get to Frodo.

Frodo cried out as the huge jaws of the beast parted to reveal a set of dripping, yellow teeth and a throat that could swallow any hobbit without chewing. Not wishing to become the main course, Yuna swivelled round and released the catch on her crossbow, sending a number of bolts directly into what she hoped were it's equivalent of eyes. It worked, the animal groaned and snapped its mouth shut, almost taking her foot with it in the process.

The only problem was that it only resulted in enraging the creature further. It's mouth opened a little way again, but shut as soon as a heel was dug firmly into the newly established week spot. Taking the initiative, she unsheathed a foot-long knife from her belt, and dug it into the base of the arm that held Frodo. The tentacle flailed wildly for a while, before the Gondorian came forward and sliced it off completely, sending Frodo directly into Yuna's unprepared arms, she caught him, but only just, and fell in the water in the process. Boromir was ready and waiting to take Frodo up and out of the water, and as he retrieved the stunned hobbit, Yuna concentrated on her own safety. The Ring-bearer safe, their primary objective was now to get away from the lake, and into the mines.

Boromir shouted something, but Yunalesca was more concerned with the fact that she had just been caught by one of the seemingly hundreds of tentacles, and was now being held captive by the creature, who didn't seem to like that fact that she had just sliced off a number of its limbs. An arrow was fired directly into the offending arm, and this gave Yunalesca the seconds of distraction she needed to free herself from its slippery grasp. Holding on to the arm, she tried to slide down it as fast as she could, but her plan was foiled as another arrow disabled the limb. She slipped (and quite gracefully too, she thought later on) and almost surfed down the remaining four or so yards of the arm onto dry land.

'Well, there you go, possibly the most death-defyingly stunning thing you'll ever pull off and the only one who saw it was that stupid elf.' Her subconscious scolded. In truth, she was quite glad for the elf, even if he had messed-up her plan somewhat, at least he had given her a chance to get away, but now he, along with the rest of the Fellowship, had made their way through the rapidly collapsing doors of Moria. She didn't care about what the dwarf or the wizard said, they were about two metres high and the inscriptions weren't that impressive anyway, she wouldn't recognise it as a gate. Now Mordor had impressive gates, as did Minas Tirth, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered was getting through the doors before she was buried in the rubble. This didn't seem like much of an option, so she opted for getting through the doors before she was crushed or mutilated horribly by either the beast in the water or the collapsing walls. She mustered as much strength as her already tired body would give her, and sprinted through the doors as they gave way around her.