An Old Amulet
Prologue
I had never done anything spectacular in all my life. Let's just get that out of the way. And yet, here I am writing a story about what my life was, before all of the adventure. See, my life would get interesting, for a time, and I'll get to that part soon enough. Just be patient for a bit. It had nothing to do with my presence at all, but somehow I got thrown into it. It's not my fault that I wasn't taught Khuzdul as a child. I had no idea what that even was. And yet because of that slight oversight, my life changed entirely. There was so much tragedy, so much danger and chaos. Sometimes it was too much for a girl like me to handle. Even so, I think I did pretty well despite how useless I was to start.
For the record, my name is Rivera Bronwyn Stole. I was born to a pair of metalworkers. I was made fun of in primary school for my ridiculous name, and- well. That's about it. Most people just call me River, or Wynnie. I make jewelry in my spare time from the spare materials my parents bring home. I get average grades, have an ordinary boyfriend that doesn't even notice when I go on vacation for weeks at a time, and I spend most of my weekends baby-sitting my great-grandmother and stopping her from starting war with the neighbors.
I'm not special, as you can see. I can't sing a high note, can't woo the pants off of anyone I so choose, I'm not all that smart, and I'm pretty sure I put my pants on backwards this morning. I guess I'm pretty attractive, but I didn't do much with it. There isn't much I'm good at, there isn't much I'm even average at, and it's that one thing I was able to do that got me into trouble in the first place.
I was at my great-grandmother's one weekend, helping her around the house, pulling things from the basement, putting away things she'd managed to get out. Being more than 100 years old, I wasn't quite sure how she could even walk, let alone build a dining table complete with chairs during the days I didn't see her. Knowing what I know now, I've stopped questioning why that old bat was even alive, or how she could still swing a hammer like she could.
But I'd gone up into the attic for some old book she'd been looking for. I couldn't tell one from the next. They were all the same to me. Musty, faded, useless. I didn't see a point for them. Books. I preferred to work with my hands, rather than sit on them. Still, they granted my gran some comfort, and I didn't like her having to climb up all of those stairs, even though she was perfectly capable to do so.
Pilfering through boxes was one of my favorite pastimes when I stayed with gran. I'd found everything from battle axes to shields to whatever else you could think of in a perfect Camelot paradise. There was an old helmet, much too small for me, made me wonder who it was for. I really did hope that gran wasn't enslaving kids to form her own little army. And yet I wouldn't put it past her. Crazy old loon.
About a dozen or so boxes later, and I wasn't any closer to finding whatever gran was looking for. I'd forgotten by that point. So I was searching for much more interesting stuff that I knew I was bound to find. I'd actually managed to find a chest full of gold doubloons, of all things. Still, I wasn't surprised. The rubies, the diamonds, I'd seen enough of it as it was. My grandmother mined it every single day. That didn't stop me from pocketing a couple of them. Gran wouldn't miss them. Probably. I'd seen her pocket the neighbor's silverware once. Twice. At least twelve times.
And yet there was this amulet that caught my eye in the horde I was presented with. I looked over the gold without a second thought. It was silver, engraved with some silly writing that I couldn't quite read, it being chicken scratch. It really- spoke to me. In this weird way gems and precious metals always spoke to the women in our family. We were a bunch of gold diggers. I couldn't argue that. I might've been bit of one myself.
So I wore the amulet. Tucked it underneath my shirt and continued on with my life. Weeks, months, years, everything passed in a blur and nothing really changed. I graduated school and headed off to university without much of anything happening to cause me to wonder, to question what would happen next. I'd marry my idiotic boyfriend, more than likely, join some construction firm, and live out the rest of my days kicking my useless husband around. That was the ideal life for the tiny women I descended from.
Of course my mundane life wouldn't last. It was probably just after I got back from spring break when I was dropping my purse down on my bed and I suddenly found myself on a dirt country road. No warning, nothing at all. There wasn't a flash of white light, I didn't pass out, no angels coming to greet me to tell me my time had come. I was simply in one place, and then suddenly in another. A place quite different from what I was used to.
Green grass all around, fresh clean air, clear blue skies above me. Nothing like the cities I've lived in. Nothing to see aside from a bit of woods to my left and a wide valley to my right, and a path that continued on into the distance. I spun around, entirely confused. I looked up, I looked down, I looked- back down. I was naked. Completely and utterly bare. Nothing but that amulet dangling around my neck. I made sure no one was around and I fled for the woods, squatting behind a bush, and hoping to high heaven that no one would see me in such a state.
Knowing that I probably would not be found for some time, I gripped my amulet tight in my hand, always finding comfort in silver and gold, and I waited. There was nothing else for me to do since I had no clothes. Just a minute before all this nakedness I was getting back from my Biology lecture, tired and spent from the long day and ready for a well-deserved nap. Not whatever the hell was happening on that damned dirt road!
Rubbing my thumb over the inscription on the back of the amulet, I wish I'd known how to read the script back in the day. Instead I wrote it off as illegible dribble. I can speak, write, and read the language now, so I'll tell you what the inscription read.
A trick of magic and here we lay
No hope to return, ne'er again to be seen
Yet with this amulet, if the King's in need
If bearing the blood, we creatures of clay
The wearer shall return, til Durin's Day.