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Originally Posted by Kuruharan
The Balrog was there to hide, not anything else.
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That's a Balrog with very limited ambition.
It is possible that he was simply woken up from his ugly sleep with a sore head and a bad attitude and just wanted to work out some of his aggression before returning to catch another forty million winks. But it is equally, if not more, possible that, once roused, a powerful being like him would have plans. And, if he did, those plans would surely extend beyond the realm of Moria.
Never mind whether he had wings or not. The real question is whether he had hopes and dreams. What was his motivation? Why did he feel the need to pursue the Fellowship (to the Bridge at least). Why not just ignore this irksome intrusion and get back to his slumber? He must have sensed that there was an equal or greater power present when Gandalf brought the door down on him. Why risk a confrontation with such a being when (unlike the Dwarves that he had "dealt with" previously) the Fellowship was on its way out anyway, unless he had a particular reason for catching or preventing them? Perhaps it was just "evil instinct". Perhaps he was just following his prime directive to eliminate the good guys. But I suspect that there was more to it than that.
I would still not rule out the lure of the Ring. It is possible that he would sense the presence of Sauron's evil will in the Ring, whether the Ring willed it or not. But why should the Ring not profit from finding its ways into a Balrog's hands (claws, talons, whatever)? Assuming that the Balrog did have some ambition, it could promise him many things - perhaps even dominion over Middle-earth. And it surely would not have been beyond the power of the Ring to trick him at an opportune moment, when it was in a position more easily to find its way back into his Master's hands.
There are a number of examples of evil beings making straight for Frodo during the initial stages of the Fellowship's journey. The Watcher is one. The Orc Captain in the Chamber of Mazarbul is another. So, one way or another, it seems that evil things are drawn to the Ring, just as the Orcs who attacked Isildur at the Gladden Fields were (see footnote 20 to
Disaster of The Gladden Fields). In that case, the Ring is portrayed as calling to them, even though they did not know of its presence. Admittedly, Orcs would be easier to manipulate than a Balrog with a sore head but, as I said, I don't think that it would have been beyond the wit of the Ring to find its way back to its Master via the Balrog.