Through the course of Arassien’s fate, the missing grove is found! It has thrived through the years, large enough for the dwarves to ensure a supply of timber when the numbers of Falathlorn are too few to continue their tithe to the Havens. There is yet more to be overcome before we can return with the good news, but I can now be assured that the remaining groves of the Ered Luin need not be endangered to fulfil the demands of the White Ships. At least, not whilst we still dwell there.
But first, I must explain the crate-maker of Gamwich. Hobson Stavehand’s sole occupation was using saplings from the surrounding forest to construct wooden boxes that were often used to transport goods to and from the village. As I understand it, he was considered a ‘respectable’ hobbit among the people of the Yondershire for the quality of his woodwork and his simple dedication to any work order. It was to ask about such an order that I visited him in the morning.
‘A few days ago a merchant – one master Greencloak – requested some custom-made boxes for his produce. Would you be able to remember anything about them?’
‘Oh yes, he had about a whole cartload of them. All made according the same measure, seventeen by eleven toes. That’s, I’d say, about half an ell to a third from what the folks in Tighfield tell me. Oh, and he wanted a half a plank missing for them on the left side. Not the best idea for carting food across bumpy hills, if you ask me, but I’d never tell a customer his business.’
When I told Lorin’s company it did not take them long to understand.
‘So that’s how he did it’ said Lorin. ‘A classic merchant’s trick, to be sure, but where does that leave us?’
Some of them were in favour of taking the fortress of Ost Lagorath from what were certainly bandits. Personally, I wanted to avoid starting a conflict so close to a village of the Shire. Besides, once the local hobbits had learned of a band of men lost in the woods without food their first plan was to gather a basket of leftover taters. And afterwards, perhaps, to politely request the big folk to leave.
The other task I had before setting out for the forest was to bundle the letters I have written since arriving at the Shire. I asked Wingard Puddifoot to leave them hidden at the place of meeting we had visited the other day.
‘There are friends of mine who sometimes gather there when no-one else is watching.’ I explained ‘I have left them a few messages, for I may be gone for some time.’
‘Are your friends the birds? Do they change shape at the end of the year?’
‘No, although they are certainly friends of birds also. I promise to post more letters if I can to tell of where I am going. The dwarves will be sure to compensate you – I would ask them but they aren’t quite as skilled at climbing trees’.
Should some of you come searching for me, if you have not already, Gamwich will likely be the first place to look. And in truth, I thought it was probably better to have word delivered by the hobbits than by dwarves.
The men were waiting for us, of course, by the waterfalls. Only two this time, standing by the cover of the trees. Lorin had brought with him the whole company. That, they liked not at all.
‘Have you brought it, then?’
‘I have not, for we don’t have it’ Lorin said, ‘and neither do the hobbits. But if you wish, I would like to talk about who does.’
One of them looked wide-eyed at the company of Broadbeams. ‘A trap – no, you want to talk, you come with us. Without the rest of them.’
‘Given the nature of what was taken, it would be best if I spoke to your leaders as well’ I suggested.
‘Only the two of you then, the rest don’t go any further’.
In other words, these men did not know what had been stolen either. Only that it was important.
I suppose some would say that I should have left alone this matter between men and hobbits. Yet I have the feeling this concern is not entirely removed from our own. And having already begun to interfere, it would have been improper not to see it through to the end.
Now, to write of the timber-grove.
We followed the two men along narrow paths along the valley cliffs that would have taken days to find. It was by one such cliff that I saw the first white tree. Its curved branches swayed in the valley air yet the trunk remained firm. On the other side of the path, closer into the hills, there was another facing it of similar shape and size. As the path rose higher to the peak of the hill we passed another pair, then yet more within a plateau. I nodded towards Lorin. Timbers of such shape would not have grown without aid in this part of the hills. They were planted for eventual use in the building of ships.
I did not expect the grove to still be this size. True, the preservation of Narya had sustained the large oaks over the centuries, those old ones whose faded markings I had been following. But even that could not have protected short-lived timber trees for so long. The ones standing there must be the descendants of the ones originally selected and nurtured by Edhelion. It has been over six hundred years since then.
But these men had no knowledge of what the grove meant. They walked through it to the waterfall, the large falls coming down the mountains from the stream such men call the Swiftbrook. Perched above was the old Arnorian fortress, the heraldry of the seven stars still visible in the stone.
One of them gave a signal in the direction of the battlements, and soon an assembly of haggard-looking faces were peering down at us.
‘They are more than just a lost band of woodsmen, if they have the numbers to man that fort’ I said to Lorin.
‘A few more of them, yes, but starving and likely more afraid of us then you are of them. If we had prepared the village-people I still say they could have been driven out. Ah, well. Negotiations then.’
A group had come down from their stronghold. One of them, a man who moustache he was trying to grow into a beard, seemed to be their leader.
‘What do the elves want with us?’ he asked.
‘It is the dwarves who have business in this forest’ said Lorin. ‘I don’t suppose you will be letting us in?’
‘No. We won’t be making the same mistake as last time’
‘Ah! let’s talk about that time. You hungry bunch of men spied a lone hobbit pushing a cart full of food in the valley below and thought dinner had been decided. Only to discover all of it was rotten, yes? So when the merchant came here demanding begging for his goods to be returned you demanded he help you steal an equal amount of good-quality food in return. And as it happened, he had on him certain papers that could allow you to swipe honey-cakes without raising alarm.’
‘We didn’t give him a whole cart just for scraps of paper. Just let him take a few worthless crates then and maybe more if his plan worked.’
‘I’d say it did. He’d planned this before he ever ran into you. For there’s a woodcarver in that village who will produce crates of any design. That cart was loaded with boxes identical to the much more valuable one you’d been keeping behind those stone walls. And I’d wager he’d made a swap when he came to fetch his rotten potatoes.’
Now the man was truly angry.
‘Alright, so where is it then? Did you put the halfling up to it? Have you got hidden in those wagons of yours?’
‘It’s a book isn’t it?’ I said.
When I did not receive an answer I continued on.
‘In that case, by now it’s likely at Nobottle – the people of Gamwich know nothing of most of this. I doubt you are ready to raid that far into the Shire. But I can return to you.’
‘You would just give it back?’
‘If you leave the hobbits be – and the dwarves.’
The man sighed. ‘Fine. This isn’t worth it, I don’t care what Mal says. But we’re keeping an eye on the wagons.’
He gave the same sign at the fort gate. Finished talking, the men shuffled back into the fort. Soon, I was left standing alone with the dwarf.
‘I told you, those men are cowards. Why bother at all? Whatever they said, they’re not going to cause trouble now that we know where they live’.
‘Those men do not want to be here.’ I said. ‘Which means they are in these woods for a reason. And that does not bode well. We should send notice to the Thain’
‘The Thain! You elves are living in a different land. As if that would mean much to the folk here.’
‘Yes, in this part of the Shire it’s a Reeve who manages the Watch isn’t it? While I’m gone you should make contact with them in any case, now that we know where the grove is.’
‘That’s true enough, I should let the officials know we intend to stay awhile. So then, that was the place we were searching for?’
‘Yes, they were the trees Edhelion planted long ago, to ensure a supply of timber from Arassien in times of need.’
‘And since my kin are responsible for Edhelion’s fall, that need will now have to be given by us. No, its fine, I understand. After all, I am getting a new line of trade out of this. Tell me, are you actually going to Nobottle?’
‘Yes, to visit Mr Clayhanger’ I said. ‘I need to speak with Yondershire Antiquarian Society about some rare books’.
