𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐒:𝑴𝑶𝑶𝑵 𝑺𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑬𝑺 | slow updates

Tomb of Durin |𝐜𝐡.20

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"The wealth of Moria was not in gold or jewels but mithril," Gandalf says as he touches a shining substance on the wall glinting like diamonds or... something else. I remember Bilbo having this once thorin gave it to him. I look as Gandalf holds his staff over the expansive drop beside us. We all lean over to see the vast echo of darkness below us. We then continue forward, Gandalf telling us about a shirt of mithril rings that I knew of. I smiled. "Bilbo had a shirt of mithril rings that Thorin gave him." behind me, Gimli gasped. "Oh, that was a kingly gift." I hummed loud enough for him to hear, and Gandalf smiled. Will you do the honor? He asked, and I frowned. Do what, Gandalf? he chuckled in our link. tell them about the shirt; what else? I shook my head and said, "Yes. Gandalf and I never told him, but its worth was greater than the value of the Shire." longer behind, I felt frodo stiffen as his eyes widened. 

I smirked. We continued on a steep stair, passing through a dwarf cemetery. The graves are despoiled, dwarves are strewn about, and the obscene graffiti of goblins is scrawled on monuments in dried dwarf blood. I shiver at the grotesque. Even us shifters pay respect to our enemies when we bury them. We never let them die alone. Soon our e path splits into three passages ... each disappearing into a dark tunnel. I pause beside Gandalf as he frowns and mutters, "I have no memory of this place." I sigh and sit down, neither knowing the way of this mine as I've never been here before. I heard of Balin's crowning, but that was it. I didn't wake when it was due time. My true purpose wasn't with him anyway.

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You sat beside frodo as he heard something down in n the tunnel behind you all. You smiled as you heard Pippin and Merry's voices. Even during times like this, they found joy in being in each other's presence and letting others feel the same pleasure. "Are we lost?" you heard Pippin ask, and Merry sighed from beside him as if he was uncertain how to answer. "No. I don't think we are. Gandalf's thinking: " you shake your head and look towards a  sudden glimpse of a creature darting in the darkness. Frodo seems like he's noticed it too, and he glances nervously at you. "There's something down there," he whispers in your ear, and you look at him, nodding. "It's Gollum." you hear Gandalf perk up at the sound of the creature's name. When you woke that day, you had met Gollum, the animals in middle earth. The day you had decided that the dwarves needed you. 

"Gollum!" frodo exclaimed, glancing behind and down to the creature hiding spåot. "He's been following us for three days," you said and looked up as Gandalf approached you two, sitting down. "He escaped from the dungeons of Barad-dûr?" frodo asked in disbelief, and Gandalf puffed on his pipe. "Escaped ... or was set loose. And now the Ring has 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. Sméagol's life is a sad story." the grey wizard said, and you both looked at him. Gollum hadn't told you that his name was Sméagol. in fact, Gollum was the only name he had gone under in your eyes. an emaciated, leering creature with pale blue eyes that showed hurt and hate towards something you coudnt place. 

But he was kind not to kill you, not that he could. Gandalf catches your look of surprise and the space out you just had. "Yes ... Sméagol he was once called ... Before the Ring came to him before it drove him mad." your brows furrowed in anger and pity. "It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance." frodo stated grimløy from beside you. You looked up at him meeting his eyes now getting Gandalf's meaning with his words, "Pity? It was 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?" the hobbit looked at you awhile Gandalf smiled proudly that he had learned you such. "Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment ... even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many." you continue and reaches out to Frodo's hands as he sits down. 

Gandalf stands, patting your shoulder as he walks towards the doors, still thinking of what way it could be. "I wish the Ring had never come to me ... I wish none of this had happened." the curly-haired hobbit mumbles as he leans into you as you wrap an arm around him, kissing his head softly. "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." you then pull back, and frodo notices the slight glint in your eyes and frowns a little at the finality in your voice. "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." you say and smile. 

Gandalf suddenly speaks up from the doors smiling, "Ah! It's that way." you stand and frodo follow you as the fellowship makes over to the wise wizard. "He's remembered!"  Merry cries, relieved, but Gandalf only chuckles and pats the young hobbit's shoulder as he comes up to him. "No. But the air doesn't smell so foul down here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose!" he gestures for you all to follow him, so you do. 

♛

We enter a chamber filled with darkness, just like the others. Gandalf pauses, making us all do the same "Let me risk a little more light." he says and taps his staff. for a brief moment, a light blazes like a silent flash of lighting, and the shadows in the room spring up andflee. "Behold! The great realm and Dwarf-city of Dwarrowdelf." Gandalf declares as our eyes wander into the great room; before us, a vast empty hall with black walls,polished and smooth as glass. "Well, there's an eye-opener and no mistake!" sam says, and I smile, but it falls as my eyes see something ahead of us. A wooden door has been smashed. Black arrows areembedded in the timbers. I growl as I see two goblin corpses lie in thedoorway. Suddenly I hear the patter of feet and see Gimli rushing ahead. "Gimli!!" Gandalf calls after him, but the dwarf doesn't listen. 

We all follow him into another vast empty chamber lit with anarrow shaft of sunlight from a small hole near theroof. My nose scrunched up at the foul smell of goblins and dwarves who were piled high. In the farcorner sits a stone-walled well. A shaft of light falls directlyonto a stone table in the middle of the room: a single oblongblock, about 4 feet high, topped with a great slab of whitestone. the redhead dwarf falls to his knees. "No...no...oh, no!" he sobs, and I walk over to him, placing a slender hand on his shoulder. Gandalf comes to us and quietly reads an inscription of runes carved onto thewhite stone slab. " "Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria." He is dead, then. It's as I feared." I bow my head as I pay to respect my old friend, one of the only dwarves that didn't see me as a monster after I showed them who I was. 

I hear Gimli chant softly in his tongue, making me tighten my grip on his shoulder as I sigh, crouching down. "he died not of vain, Gimli. he died defending their last home. He was an honorable man, a dwarf of great deeds. may he rest in teh halls of Mandos," you said and stood up, making the dwarf stand up with you. he glanced at you, a silent thank you in his eyes. "We must move on. We cannot linger." you hear legoals say to Aragorn behind you as you walk over to Gandalf, leaving Gimli's side. " "They have taken the Bridge and the second hall: we have barred the gates ... but cannot hold them for long ... the ground shakes ... drums in the deep ... we cannot get out. A shadow moves in the dark. Will no one save us? They are coming." " he reads. Unnerved, Pippin backs away nervously. He stumblesagainst the well, sending a precariously balanced armored skeleton tumbling in. 

we all freeze in stunned silence as the armored skeletonclatters down the deep well echoing loudly. "Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time, and rid us of your stupidity!" Gandalf hisses as he turns to Pippin, and you sign, closing your eyes. this can't be good, you think. 

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