Stone and Fire

(Dislaimer: JRRT owns the creatures and lands of Arda! I don't make a single coin with this tale!)

They have been murdered! They died after eon-spanning torture, until they could not endure anymore of it. Now only I remain. And I am called The Cruel!?

This maggots arrived after the Sun rose for the first time. They called us beautiful. They gave us names and wanted to live with us! Few did we know about this misbegotten race!

They „crowned" my brother? They chiseled and hammered at his fair face and ate their way into his heart. They violated us in the most horrifying way possible! Now the screams of my brethren ring only as a soft whisper in my ears. These fiends crushed our bones, moulded our flesh into perverted forms and called it „fair art" - but for us their art wasn't „fair", it was mindless slaughter!

They carved holes in our skin and hammered plates of metal on our wounds. Of course I can understand that! I was so very happy when they worked in marvelous harmony with the lovely Elves of Eriador and closed a carved hole in my body with unbreakable steel and glittering silver! And how the fair metal gleams in the starlight! I would gladly thank them all and return this favor – I would love to stick steel and silver into their soft and squishy bellies, too!

I thought I would die like my brothers. But after years of torment and lamentation a sudden and unexpected change happened:

Something from the far West was drawn to me. It was weakened and needed protection. A dark place to sleep and to wait for better days. It reminded me of my poor brethren, who could never seek refuge – who could only weep and suffer and die at last. So i sheltered it. I protected it from the greedy maggots crawling in my entrails! Until it becomes strong again. It dreamed of my kin: dark and tall and marvelously beautiful. A mighty fortress of steel and fire within them, but different from anything I witnessed in my life! The master of this realm did not hurt my brethren, he gave birth to them and raised them to protect his house. They thundered and roared like mighty lions and belched smoke and fire at their fathers enemies! And He was tall and mighty, dark and fearsome, terrifying and oh so powerful!

But then Elves came! And these tiny maggots and hairy men and shining ships and they shattered my kin and slew them and their friends, whom they sheltered in their embrace for so long! And their loving father was dragged away and never seen again.

Such cruelty, such infamous cruelty! And they drove my sweet child away from its home! Unforgivable! Now I bear it in my heart and nourish it so it may become strong and fair and fiery again and drive those slayers of my kin away from our realm! They murdered my thundering cousins, they slaugthered my brothers, they broke the beautiful palace in the far West and these crawling worms and hairy apes hurt my fair child! I won't forgive them! I WON'T!

I will wait and watch and when it is time, we will have our revenge! And then we seek friends who hate them equally and who will help us find the marvelous lord who was gruesomly removed from his three tall children!

We will avenge my brothers, the lost towers of white and silver! We will avenge my kin, who were slain in the far West!

I know we will. The maggots may find you, my sweet child, but your fire will cleanse my violated body from this dwarven filth! You will save me, I know you will, my precious child of fire and smoke!