"What strange fate has brought you all the way hither, sleeping on a hilled glade in Taur-nu-Fuin, master Búrfi?"
I rubbed the weariness from my eyes when I said;
"Seeking elf wisdom through misery and misfortune, elf Tinnurion. I would have deemed it very strange indeed if it were any other dwarf, but mine is a quest of secrecy which requires expertise hardly found now-a-days."
A faint grin appeared on Tinnurion's face.
"I feel honoured that you should think of me, and I am glad that the trinket you carry has found purpose at last", he said pointing at the black whistle in my hand.
"Do not feel honoured too quickly, elf. For the road was harsh and you failed to make it any easier. What by Durin's name were you thinking coming to such a remote place like this? And how on earth did you even hear this whistle? It is voiceless!"
Tinnurion's faint grin turned into a full fledged smile. "I must say I have dearly missed the company of dwarves. Come friend", he beckoned, "and I shall tell you all you wish to know and learn from me in the comfort of my own home."
I slipped the whistle in my pocket, grumbled - as I hate having to wait for clear answers to direct questions - and moved along.
"Pray, this place you call home, it doesn't happen to have any meat and ale ready on the table, does it?"
Tinnurion smiled once more.
We walked about 3 miles eastward, at least I think it was eastward. It is hard to read the sun in a forest that hides it from sight. The trees here seemed to huddle together more closely than they did before, their leafless branches overhanging the path onwards, creating something akin to a tunnel.
"Is it much further yet elf?"
"Please call me Tinnurion, Búrfi. Surely we know each other quite enough to use each other's names?"
"Is it much further still, Tinnurion?"
"Not much."
And his words were true, for but a moment later we came out of the tunnel of branches into a space of larger trees, bundled together neatly around a large wooden house. All the trees hid the house from the sky, except for a small circle not far behind it where the stars were now clearly visible. I heard the sound of a babbling brook and could hardly see it running its curling path through the trees. There were fireflies everywhere and clear white mushrooms that lit up the ground between the trees like white gems in a rock wall. I felt somehow at ease in this place, as if I was back underground in some grand hall. Tinnurion bade me enter his home and I did. The house had few walls, and a soft breeze blew its way through it. I could see a garden of silver flowers in the back, with a basin of water next to a pitch-black pond. Then I smelled the familiar scent of a burning smithy. I could not mistake that smell for any other fire!
"You have a smithy here, elf?"
"Please, call me by my name dear dwarf."
"You have a smithy at the back I believe, Tinnurion?"
"Aye, I do Búrfi. There I work a secret metal of which I will reveal little, only that it is as supple as a vest of mail, yet resilient to any blow."
"Don't tell me you found mithril", I asked astounded. I would have taken some for my own if he wasn't looking!
"Nay friend Búrfi, the metal I work is called Rodeol, though it was once called Galvorn."
"Never heard of it. You sure it isn't mithril?"
"I am quite certain. I have seen mithril being mined and molded in days long passed and I carry a valuable tool made of mithril myself. The smithing hammer Silivrentil. I would recognise the cold silver glint of mithril from miles away. The metal I speak of is black as night."
"Odd that I should not know of this metal", I said rather annoyed.
"It is a long kept secret Búrfi, one that only one particular elf knew about till I discovered it."
Tinnurion guided me towards a room with oddly shaped seats. There was a table too, low enough to the ground for a dwarf to feast at. I saw no food though.
"Please sit friend. I will fetch you something to eat in a moment."
I sat down in the strangely shaped chair and hoped that whatever Tinnurion would bring to the table would be better than what I had been offered in Felegoth.
