An Unexpected Addition (Thilbo - Bagginshield)

Punishment

"Do they still have a king in their homelands?" Bilbo inquired.

"We assumed them to be similar to the likes of Nori," said Balin with a smile. "A group of misfits or petty criminals who'd not mingled well in their own kingdoms. It'd be simple to remove them, if need be. Several left Erebor within the first few weeks, not too pleased to be living within a kingdom of strict laws again. We expected as much, since an assemblage of such sorts rarely lasts for long, internal backstabbing and profiteering often destroying them well before they ever become a threat to powerful outside forces like our King or the Bowman. But a few dozen have remained and both Thorin and myself have begun to suspect that an ulterior motive may be behind this."

"Foreign reconnaissance?" hazarded Bilbo. "It would make a good bit of sense, if you ask me. I saw firsthand the way dwarves react to gold, so it'd only be logical that a rival dwarf kingdom would wish to prey upon Erebor and the new King while numbers are still so few. No dragon to keep them away anymore. And Dale's still in shambles. Just a few hundred exhausted humans and pigheaded dwarves who did all the hard work of killing said dragon and reclaiming it themselves."

Balin gave the hobbit a cunning smile. "Great minds think alike, my boy. We've a network of loyal dwarves from the Blue Mountains keeping a close eye on them. And for all of the complaining Dori does about him, Nori's skills have come in mighty handy over the last few months."

"Nori's a good dwarf with a huge dash of trickster in him," said Bilbo with a fond smile. "But I've a question, aside from the awful politics behind all of this. What did that other dwarf, Kozul you said his name was, say that infuriated Dwalin so much?"

The elderly dwarf sat further back in his chair. "According to my brother, he said that the hobbit child should be given to the King as kalinak shul. This is neither a term nor a ritual that is practiced by dwarves in our era. If you were to ask most dwarves, especially our woman-folk, they'd tell you that they'd prefer the word simply be removed from Khuzdul altogether and forgotten in the sands of time."

"So, it's really, really bad, then?"

"The practice itself, during ancient times in the far east, involved the torturing and eventual beheading of a child from rival clans. The child's head would then be sent to his king atop a pike, the other severed body parts placed inside a chest with the royal insignia on it."

Bilbo paled, eyes darting around the room. He quickly located Frodo near the left-side drawing table, his toy of Beorn doing battle with Glóin's toy of himself. If he hadn't been so upset by the information Balin had just given him, Bilbo would've probably been smiling at his nephew's playfulness. But at that moment, all the older hobbit could see or picture was Frodo's head being given to Thorin on a blood-covered pike, the remainder of his tiny body stuffed in a disgusting trunk.

"Now do you understand the reason for my brother's fury?" said Balin. "Making a statement like Kozul's in dwarvish society is tantamount to premeditated kidnapping and child-murder. No one speaks of kalinak shul in present times. It's a great source of shame for our kin. History classes only briefly mention it, and even that has died out in recent decades."

"How can they even joke about such a horrible practice?"

Balin's face became even more grim. "That's where the problem lies, along with a great amount of my brother's fury. Our languages differ quite a bit, but I do believe that I can firmly say that many Khuzdul words contain less flexibility to them than in most of the common tongues. The word choices that Kozul used could not be mistaken for joking by any dwarf who possessed even rudimentary lessons in our mother tongue. Dwalin may not be an academic of any sort, but he heard and recognized the purpose behind each of Kozul's words. And he's paid the price with his tongue."