Hilfar's expedition in Khazâd-Dum had turned from bad to worse. What exactly transpired is not known. Not many live to tell the tale, and those that do are likely not willing to tell you. Rumors are all that remain. The tale described hereunder is a collection of the aftermath of Hilfar's venture in Moria.
1. Blurred memories
Darkness, pain, blood, hunger. There was no light in this place, the hope of this expedition has faded into darkness. The defiling orcs have demolished our halls, tainted our treasures, we have failed..
Mahal has heard our payers...
Through dark corridors and chittering horrors the only light in Moria shines upon me. A solid column of pure mithril, as big as the eye could see. Mahal be praised! Its smooth surface sends shivers down my spine, its reflection sends tears down my beard. Perfection.
Letters of the king, daring to lay claim on our treasure, break the harmony. Fell voices gut my ears. "To Angmar! To Angmar! To Angmar!" Darkness crawls back, slithering over the ground. The light of the Mithril diminishes. One by one, his comrades are devoured by the shadow "Angmar...". Kandral's voice became louder by the minute, the darkness turned his old friend into a beast. Kandral raised his axe "...by Mahal I will slay you here and now!". The light of the mithril had almost gone black.
The axe did not strike. The darkness was repelled and the mithril regained its glory, shining stronger again. The fell voices "Traitor! Triator!" faded. Tears of despair. Mahal's gift stands firm, the only light, the only purpose. Perfection.
Strong hands bury my shoulders. A force so strong drag me away from the light, into darkness..
2. Ullfar's departure
Silence never was so loud. Every drip of water falling from the ceiling sounds like a boulder. The damp air in the Dolven view was choking him. Ullfar had made up his mind "I will go back home son, with or without you". Hilfar stood there as a shadow of his former self. "I miss your mother, I miss the smell of mountain air, and the ale. Come with me!".
Hilfar looked down "I...I cant go back..". Ullfar shook his head "forget that Kandral! No need to follow a halfwit scholar!". Hilfar sighed "he is my friend...". Ullfar almost exploded "Friends do not try to put an axe in your skull!".
"Forget that bloody trade company! What did it bring you!? Court cases! Treason! Death of good dwarves! We had a good thing going son, have you forgotten our trading days!?"
Hilfar was small under the fury of his father "I followed you son, but no more! There is nothing wrong with a simple life!"
Hilfar looked at his father knowing he spoke true words, all that bothered his father came out like a thundering river. At the end of his 'speech' Hilfar manned up "I will come home father, let me just finish this my way. If I leave now, I will regret it forever..".
They grabbed one another firm and hugged firmly before Ullfar left without looking back.
3. Despair on paper.
Hilfars journal, Dolven view
After a few days I still cant grasp the reality I find myself in. What in Durin's name happened! As if an elf had played sorcery on my mind, I saw only what I desire most, mithril. Wealth and fortune, but I have none of that. Oh Mahal, I am weak, greed took away all I held dear. Shame and misery is all that remain, what hope is there for redemption? If it was not for Hosgrim the fury of the Uzbad would have ended my life.
Maybe that would have been better, but Mahal wanted me to stay. But for what? Those that accompanied me here now march to the shadows of Angmar. Could this truly be the will of the king? Apparently greed is not my problem alone. Doubt ever gnaws me, what am I to do now?
I must resist the urge to return to the mithril column. How I want to behold its magnificence once more. I cant stay here in Moria, if the orcs do not kill me it will be my endless desire. Neither can I return home, or can I? Mahal show me the way!
4. Think before you act
Hilfar closed his journal. A folded note dropped out of his journal on the stone floor. He picked it up and saw it was from Kandral stating the coordinates of the mithril column, it was almost a week ago since he received it. Hilfar stared at it for a while "one week ago.. So they must have discovered the column about 10 days ago. They guarded it a couple of days if I recall."
Hilfar frowned mumbling to himself "but if the mithril column was discovered 10 days ago, how could the Kings order arrive here in such a short notice?".
Hilfar rubbed his beard in thought "attending the king of this discovery, how long would that take?. Lets see.. A runner needs to go to the western exit and send the message by Raven all the way to Erebor. That alone would take 10 days at least. And then the kings letter has to be brought back..".
Hilfar leaned back "So the kings message did not come from Erebor. So that means.. King Dain is here in Moria? But surely such news would spread. So maybe a representative of the king made the claim on mithril? Aye, that is possible".
"But... could a representative order a group of dwarrows to Angmar, without approval of the king? This isnt right..."
Hilfar jumped up and grabbed his sword and backpack "21th Hall.. here I come...".
5. Alone in the dark
"Go northwards to pass the bridge, then turn left and then right. Look carefully, the chamber of the crossroads is easy to miss" As silent as possible Hilfar left the Dolven view and followed the directions of the guard. Evil could rise from every corner here. Hilfar made it past the bridge where the stone dwarrow lords of old looked down upon him.
He dared not to look down for what seemed an endless shaft. The tunnel that followed was dark in the absence of underground crystals. He held his breath and listened to the silence in the tunnel. Hilfar was not the most silent beings in middle earth, after a few steps he could hear grunting of some beast. It gave an odd screech. With a sword in hand he tried to pass by it "shoo.. Shoo!". It was quite a big one and would not budge.
A light of fire came closer, two guards with torches came near from a side tunnel. The beast withdrew itself from the light, skulking deeper in the dark. Hilfar sighed with relief. "Thanks..". The guards smirked "thats allright traveller, one should not wander alone in Moria though, follow us if you like".
The way was now clear and and the chamber of crossroads was found. Hilfar pulled up his hood inside the hall hoping not to draw too many attention. The hall was bustling with dwarrows, traders and miners for as far Hilfar could tell. He tried to overhear some conversations..,
"... must be already extracting the mithril by now. I wonder if we get to see any of that, what ye say Fundi?"
"Forget it, the area is restricted now, totally of limits, you heard what happened to Borimi? He got himself locked up, only for trying to see the mithril, can you believe it?"
Mithril, all of them were discussing it..
6. A new clue!
After spending some hours listening to the dwarves in the chamber of the crossroads Hilfar had found a miner that may have some more information. The dwarf looked beaten down and introduced himself as Likmund. Hilfar was very cautious and introduced himself under a false name..
Hilfar came up with a story "I heard that there is mithril found in the Redhorn lodes, I eagerly want to help digging there. Do you know where I can sign up?"
Likmund looked up at him "Oh spare your energy lad, they wont let you! Believe me I have tried everything to get near that site, but its impossible!"
Hilfar tried to look suprised "Care to explain?"
Likmund shrugged "You see they say the king has send his own delegate down here in Moria to see the mithril come to him. The new foreman is even worse than the previous I tell ye. So no, only they select the dwarrows lucky enough to mine that mithril. And if you keep pressing your luck you end up behind bars".
Hilfar thought for a moment "what happened to the former foreman?"
Likmund sighed "I dont know, he went missing they say".
Hilfar frowned "missing?"
Likmund started to look a bit annoyed "Say, are you going to keep firing questions at me? I'd rather be left alone allright?"
Hilfar backed off "Of course, of course, I am sorry to bother you".
A missing foreman, a king's delegate. This was worth looking into. Hilfar had a bad feeling about this, something was off. Did the mithril make every dwarrow mad? Including the king? Or was there something else going on? A long and winding road took Hilfar at a familiar place, the 21th Hall...
7. An unexpected turn
The 21th Hall was full with activity. The news of mithril had drawn many miners here in hope to see any of it. That hope was in vain but as a result the hall was full of gossip, something Hilfar hoped to use in his favor. Sneakily he tried to inquire who the representative of the king was and where he may find him. It turned out that he resides in a chamber not far from the 21th Hall, and that he accepts no visitors, not even the high ranked ones. All the appointments were handled by the foreman, who had a day task to turn down all the eager miners that showed up before him.
Hilfar sat down quietly and tried to work out a plan. His initial plan was to sign up as a miner and get close to the mithril lode again, but as so many participants are already denied, this plan was folly. His second plan was to confront the kings representative, but his door was sealed for any outsiders. There was one other plan, yet it was a risky one, lure him out..
The unrest between the frustrated miners just needed a little spark. Hilfar tried to rile up some miners who were very angry about the current way the foreman handled their requests. "Why are we denied!? We worked hard for it didn't we!? Why do they shun us, we are no criminals!!". Other miners soon gathered around the shouting "Yeah! Where is the king anyway? Are we not all working for him!". Soon everyone was shouting and fists were balded and raised in the air. Hilfar withdrew himself from the gathering crowd and tried to see if the representative would come out of his office. The guards appeared an tried to quell the unrest, a brawl started pushing, shouting, pulling, punching.
It worked, the door opened a host of guards appeared followed by a dwarrow with a thin stature dressed in a royal gown. Hilfar tried to get close to him but could not get past the mob. Hilfar took a good look at him, he had never seen him before. For one moment in the chaos Hilfar met the eyes of the Kings representative, a glimpse of recognition shot through him "Those eyes..".. Hilfar couldn't recall to who those eyes belonged to but he saw that the representative did recognise him! The first offenders were arrested while the others scattered back. Hilfar had to get away, he fled away from the mob trying to get past the guards. The thin statured representative pointed at Hilfar "Get HIM! STOP HIM!". He heard two guards run after him.
Hilfar ran as quick as he could, he ran to unfamiliar halls, running ever running, he took a turn right and right again. The guards were mounting up on goats. Soon he would run out of breath, after what seemed an hour running Hilfar stopped in one dark corridor. He collapsed and dropped on the ground, hoping the guards would not find him, nor any other foul beast.
8. The escape
All was quiet. Hilfar had recovered his breath, the sound of patrolling guards had been absent for at least an hour. I need to get out of here, away from Moria. But there is only one exit, how can I pass the guards unseen? I am not the sneaking type. Hilfar sat down looking tired, "look at me now, scurrying like a criminal. How did it come to this...".
It took quite some time before he found the courage to go on again. He peered around the corner, nothing. Step by step Hilfar tried to find the way out, but in fact he had no idea where he was going. In some hallways he heard distant goblin activity. One hour later he turned left and his mouth dropped in amazement "By my beard.... what is this place...?".
Slowly Hilfar stepped into a new place of wonder, Durin's garden.
“Its like one giant greenhouse in here” awestruck Hilfar walked around the garden of Khazâd-Dum. He watched the plants, the water streams and the statues. “If only I had the time to study here, I could stay an eternity..”. Hilfar had to keep quiet, giants bats were flying around sometimes. “A plan, I need a plan. There is no way I can escape without being spotted, not via Durin’s Threshhold at least, they would search for me there no doubt". Hilfar looked at himself in the water reflection “I can no longer be myself…”, that’s when the idea struck him.
Hastily he started to search the plants, the bushes. For half an hour he carefully inspected the different plants “Aha! Blackberries of some kind, perfect!”. Hilfar started to collect the berries and crushed them under a stone, black grease started to come of it. In his backpack he found a pot of beard wax. Very gently he started to mix the wax with the black fluid. He removed the braids in his beard and hair and started to smear the black wax over his hair. Bit by bit his hair became darker “not to forget my eyebrows”. Hilfar let the dye sink in for a time and looked at himself in the water “Not even my father would recognize me. This may just work!”.
He had to take his leave of the garden, a place he would not soon forget. The maze of tunnels and hallways that followed were mind-blowing, he got himself lost and walked in circles. It was striking how deserted these halls were, every hall looked the same as the other. A full day he wandered around, until he finally found his way back to the Dolven-view. None of the iron garrison seemed to recognize him, even those that he talked with quite a few times. Confidence returned and within two days he found his way back to Durin’s Threshold. It was a place of memory and hope, here they eagerly started their venture to find mithril, many of them were good friends. Now it is but a memory.
Hilfar stocked up on rations, and got some more supplies. Silently he left Moria and made his way back to the marsh. The black pool lay there motionless, while flies were starting to swarm around him. “And so starts my life in exile”. As he past an old camping place his thoughts went back to the hobbit that shared the journey “Penny.. what has become of you I wonder?”. The black pool was behind him and he walked until his eyes fell upon a cave entrance “What is this?”. A tunnel and some underground rivers greeted him “a perfect hiding spot..”. Apart from a few lizards he found no-one. He went outside again“Every caravan coming from Moria must pass here, past this cave..”. Hilfar smirked “Even the caravans holding the mithril…I think I am going to stay here for a while.”.
9. Hilfar's decision
For a week Hilfar stumbled around in that cave. He tried to capture a lizard and get a decent meal out of it, failing utterly. He was not cut out to be alone like this, taking care of himself was not something he was used to. Hilfar was always surrounded by dwarrows that took care of things, when danger came he had his guardsman when hunger came there was a cook or hunter nearby. Now no-one was nearby, and still hunger and danger may come. He belonged to the markets, the stalls, the mining camps, the riches! What he lacked in skill, he compensated in determination.
Days crept by, doubt struck "shouldn't I just return?". He feared to go out there all alone, he hated the wilds. All those unpredictable animals everywhere trying to gnaw a leg off. South he knew not what was south, neither did he know what lay east of the mountains other than what skalds or greybeards had told him. It was 12 days he spent in that Brackwater cave when he heared rumor outside. Silently he crept close to the entrance and tried to peek from the dark. He saw a wagon with metal chests on it securely locked. The cart was pulled by goats and around it marched a handfull of dwarrows armed to the teeth. "C'mon! Hurry up lads, 't is a long way to Gloin's camp!".
Hilfar muttered "Gloin's camp... thats a bit north from here. Those chests contain mithril, or I am no dwarf..". Hilfar hastily grabbed a coal and wrote a hasty letter to his father, second to that he wrote a note.
Father,
Please do me a favor and post the note in this envelope on the note-board of the kin hall. I will be away from home somewhat longer, please do not worry. See you soon.
Hilfar.
After an hour waiting Hilfar had packed his belongings and readied himself for a long walk "Here goes nothing.."
((The following chronicle will be the price of mithril, starting in spetember.))
