To Repair Augir's Broken House

Ulfhìrth has changed a lot since the first time Bob came here, young and full of ambitions of idleness.  The air reverberates with more echoes than before, or so it seems.  The old Durin's Folk Hall up at the pinnacle of the neighborhood has been let out to other tenants, who've put up trolls in the yard, and other nasty things.  

On his way past the many empty houses from the Gamilzahar, the melodies from band practice still dancing in his brain, Bob pauses by the snowy house to the east of the spire of meeting. It looks so dark and empty of life now that his friend Augir Hammerfist went missing and was presumed dead. He ventures further, hoping for a glimpse of the happy memories of a time when it was such a haven of warmth and mirth.

He's surprised to find a dwarrow sitting on the cold doorstep in the gloom, a book dejectedly propped open to his side. Bob can barely recognize him, but it's Augir, himself, returned, like a ghost.

'Well met's are exchanged. Compliments on the new length of Bob's beard and the new silver streaks Augir's beard are exchanged. On the surface it seems like old times, but clearly it is not. The house is empty, and there's obviously something that has died in Augir's absence. Eventually, and Bob was bracing himself for it, Augir asks (with a twinge of tired desperation), the whereabouts of his family.

Bob doesn't know what to say. Should he be polite or should he hit this dwarrow with the full force of the truth, when clearly he's wavering close to exhaustion and despair?  Bob sighs.

"You were declared dead, Augir"

"But you never found a body: I was only missing!"

"You were gone too long. Kandral had a remembrance for you – and your goat-uncle, Skarril – and that red-headed step-child of yours."  

Augir doesn't seem to listen, and just repeats what he'd said before. "But I was only missing!"

"Hanfrere mourned you. She lost hope..." It's hard to tell from under Augir's hood, whether this information is sinking in or not. Bob continues, reluctantly. "She insisted on staying here with her friend, trying to rekindle the warmth of her life here, her life before you left. But, Augir, she nearly went looking for you in Mahal's halls! She nearly took your daughter with her!"

Bob sighs. He straitens up and steels himself for what he must express. "When you left, you exposed your family to true danger. If it weren't for Norgi, and his duty to his cousin and your house, I would be standing and telling you right now, that you have no family to return to." Augir is silent and like a stone, unresponsive, or like an axe that leans propped in a corner; at rest but capable of falling down in a last blow.  

Bob sighs again and betrays the crucial bit of information at last, the piece he could not bring himself to withhold. He hopes Norgi will forgive him. "Hanfrere and Zhidili are in Needlehole, dwellers in Norgi's halls: that is where your family is."

Augir turns and instead of going down the lane towards the road that leads to the Shire, he picks up a broom and starts sweeping all the snow from the front step with renewed vigor. Bob leaves him to his work with a 'mithril dreams' and a jolly wave goodbye. He hides inside him a trepidation, and a heaviness, knowing what Augir must truly repair. Houses are much easier to fix than broken hearts.