So I'm sick and in bed and having a case of mysterious appearing Balin feels, so I typed this out on my tablet. Does anybody else get feels for Balin? No?
Well, my headcanon is that Balin died fighting, so I wrote this. Beware the feels!
I really wish I owned Lotr or The Hobbit, but I don't. I'm not that excellent.
Balin was old. Balin knew this. Balin had outlived many of his old friends. Balin had even outlived his young king.
Thorin. A dear friend, dearly departed.
But Balin had been old for a long time. He had been old when Erebor was taken, he had been old when Thorin died, he had been old when he left Erebor and recaptured Moria. He liked to think that he was blessed by youth during the battle to recapture Moria, but his musings about this subject always eventually ended in the fact that he was, and would stay, old, no matter the circumstnces.
Balin would die soon, he knew. It had been a long time since his expedition with the other thirteen, and his hair was white then. He gathered that if he was a Man, his hair would be transparent now, but he was a dwarf. Yes, his life was nearing its close.
But when he was hit with an arrow outside Moria, an orc making a gruesome face at him, he figured he'd best not die yet.
He struggled to his feet, and fought.
See, Balin was old, but he remembered, unlike some of his dear friends. He remembered his king's death like it was mere minutes ago, felt the pain like it was now. No matter how much time passed, Balin could see Thorin's bright eyes and fading smile, his courage and determination and care, and he remembered how it soaked out of him like the blood from his wounds and passed into darkness.
And he remembered what kind did that to him.
So Balin fought, feeble as it was. He fought for his kingdom, his friends, his departed brothers, but more importantly he fought for his king, the dwarf who had been slain at the hands of these folk that threatened to slay him and his brothers this very moment, the dwarf who he loved as a king, a brother, and damn near a son. He fought because if these orcs thought they were going to take more from him, then he'd better take something from them in the process.
He took down two of them before he fell, and as the rest of Moria came running at them, he smiled as he fell into darkness, feeling at peace.
He would have a tale or two to tell Thorin soon.