One Geek to Rule Them All

Hollin

"But the mountains are ahead of us," said Pippin. "We must have turned eastwards in the night."

"No,"  said Gandalf. "But you see further ahead in the clear light. Beyond  those peaks the range bends round south-west. There are many maps in  Elrond's house, but I suppose you never thought to look at them?"

"Yes, I did, sometimes," said Pippin, "but I don't remember them. Frodo has a better head for that sort of thing."

"I  need no map," said Gimli, who had come up with Legolas, and was gazing  out before him with a strange light in his deep eyes. "There is the land  where our fathers worked of old, and we have wrought the image of those  mountains into many works of metal and stone, and into many songs and  tales. They stand tall in our dreams: Baraz, Zirak, and Shathûr.

"Only  once before have I seen them from afar in waking life, but now I know  their names, for under them lies Khazad-dûm, the Dwarrowdelf, that is  now called the Black Pit, Moria in the Elvish tongue. Yonder stands  Barazinbar, the Redhorn, cruel Caradhras; and beyond him are the  Silvertine and Cloudyhead: Celebdil the White, and Fanuidhol the Grey,  that we call Zirak-zigil and Bundushathûr.

"There the Misty Mountains  divide, and between their arms lies the deep-shadowed valley which we  cannot forget: Azanulbizar, the Dimrill Dale, which the Elves call  Nanduhirion."

"It is for Dimrill Dale that we are making," said  Gandalf. "If we climb the pass that is called the Redhorn Gate, under  the far side of Caradhras, we shall come down by the Dimrill Stair in  the deep vale of the Dwarves. There lies the Mirrormere, and there the  River Silverlode rises in its icy springs."

"Dark is the water of  Kheled-zâram," said Gimli, "and cold are the springs of Kibil-nâla. My  heart trembles at the thought that I may see them soon."

"May you  have joy at the sight, my good dwarf!" said Gandalf. "But whatever you  may do, we at least cannot stay in that valley. We must go down the  Silverlode into the secret woods, and so to the Great River, and then—"  He paused.

"Yes, and where then?" asked Merry.

"To the end  of the journey in the end," said Gandalf. "We cannot look too far ahead.  Let us be glad that the first stage is safely over. I think we will  rest here, not only today, but tonight as well. There is a wholesome air  about Hollin. Much evil must befall a country before it wholly forgets  the Elves, if once they dwelt there."

"That is true," said  Legolas. "But the elves of this land were of a race strange to us of the  silvan folk, and the trees and the grass do not now remember them. Only  I hear the stones lament them: deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high they built us; but they are gone. They are gone. They sought the Havens long ago."

"Whoa. You can talk to nature?" Kitty asked.

"Well, he is an Elf, Kitty," Devin reminded her friend. "They can all do that, remember? It's kind of their thing."

"No,  not really. I kind of forgot that bit," Kitty answered honestly.  Gandalf shook his head. No wonder she and Pippin got a long so well.

That  morning they lit a fire in a deep hollow shrouded by great bushes of  holly, and their supper-breakfast was merrier than it had been since  they set out. They did not hurry to bed afterwards, for they had  expected to have all the night to sleep in, and they did not mean to go  on again until the evening of the next day. For the first time in a good  while, they all finally had time to relax and have a proper  conversation with each other.

"You seem to know much of our world,  but we know next to nothing of yours," Boromir said to the girls as  they all sat around the cheerful little fire. "This has been weighing on  my mind for some time. Why not tell us tales of your land for a change?" The two girls exchanged a glance, wondering if they should.