Chapter 10

The next day he began to prepare for his trip to Rivendell to see Bilbo. He told Dain of his plans to head out with his Brother at the end of the July, it's about five hundred Miles to Rivendell and they estimate making it twenty miles a day to be there by the end of August. Dain gave his blessing he didn't feel it would cause any issues with the kingdom going thru stable times.

Bombur headed back to his room shortly after. Near noon, he grabbed his notebook to start writing down a list of things he would need, just before heading down to meet his brother for lunch. He had several things he wanted to discuss the preparation in the coming month, there were also several things Bofur wanted to discuss with him. As Bombur got to the dining hall Bofur was already there with lunch on the table, he sat quickly and in his excitement started going over his plans. He told his brother that he wanted to make a mithril inlaid walking staff for Bilbo, and a set of silver daggers as a gift for Elrond. But he wanted Bofur to take him down to the mines so he could select the ore himself he had a few ideas for the insets but wanted to mix raw and processed minerals so he needed to find just the right shapes of raw ore and gems.

At this request, Bofur took a long slow drink of his mead, swallowed, with a frown, and heavily set the stein on the table. He told Bombur he would only take him if he was finishing his lunch. He had noticed him avoid most the dinner last night and was still eating lean at breakfast. He wouldn't take him down into the mines if he wasn't well prepared for the day. He reminded Bombur that he had to eat a normal amount, that the whole reason he hadn't had to tighten his belt in two weeks was that their was nothing left to loose.. literally. He had reached his goal, and at this point starving himself could kill him in the mines or the forge.

"I am your brother, I have made it my duty to look after you when needed, and right now I think I need to keep an eye on you until you have figured yourself out. I want to tell you a story of the last Dwarf that didn't take care of himself in the mines."

At this Bombur let out an exasperated sigh, and waved for Bofur to continue.

"Back home in Ered Lindon when we were still young, I had just reached my 160th year. I knew a Dwarf named Deenile. Deenile, like you had been a larger Dwarf and he decided to ,. .. reduce... ….and like you he had trouble figuring out when it was time to stop. One day after yet again skipping breakfast Deenile got a call from his Foreman to head down to the deep caves for a large haul of Iron. The deep Caves are a treacherous place where the mine was stripped deep inside the mountain in a wide deep shaft that had been chipped away from the guts of the mountain for a very long time. The path to the lower levels was a scaffold spiraled down the sides the the shaft. The path was narrow, not much wider than the 3-foot carts used to push coal, ore and gems up from the bottom. A glance over the unguarded edge would make and dwarfs head spin as it trailed down to the depths where you could no longer see the bottom. Deenile ended up on the thin warn path in the forth mine, he slipped a first time , getting a glimpse of the edge down to the depths. He had already pushed himself that morning, since the work site in that mine was further than any he was used too, he felt dizzy and weak and after another two flights down it was all he could take, and Deenile passed out right there on the tier, he made it to his work site faster than anticipated though, having plunged quickly two miles into the earth , and landed on a stalagmite. "

Bombur, somewhat horrified, Started agape at his brother for a moment, than stammered out that he would finish his lunch...

After this interlude, he shook it off and awkwardly continued talking about his plans. Bombur went on, in detail, of how he as going to craft Bilbo's walking staff. He gushed about the design in his head right down to the braided mithril inserts, and all the way up to the carvings he was planning on the oak branch, something he wanted to source from the mountainside after he found his Ore.

Bofur listened with half an ear , taking in bits and pieces but more making sure Bombur finished his lunch which he had to point out a few times to hurrying him along. The hour was nearly up, and if they wanted to get this Ore today they would have to head down their shortly.

Finally done, Bofur sent his brother to his room for more appropriate boots and a shoulder bag to collect materials in. Bombur hurried to grab these items an meet his brother, who had his own small bag of gear and a lantern, at the west entrance near the Farmine. After this, they started there long decent into the mine, where the richest deposits of mithril were found. It was a long way down, at first they were met by dwarves picking away at veins of copper and gold in the walls of the mountain, these were younger dwarves in training.

Bombur remembered when Bofur had started his apprenticeship in the mines, he would sneak away at times and grab him from his position in the forges and they would head to abandoned parts of the mine in the Blue Mountains and get into trouble exploring. Or Bofur would sneak off to see Bifur and they would work on making tinker toys. Bombur smiled at this memory.

He must of chuckled to himself because Bofur stopped. "What are you thinking ?"

"oh" he started as they turned a cornering down a long shaft. " Just remembering your first summer in the mines back in the Blue Mountains . ."

Bofur smiled, "yeah , although I think I learned more about toy making from our cousin that first year, than wielding a pick. But tinkering was more fun. Although those afternoon exploratory adventures helped out years later when the shafts were expanded into those areas. " Bofur let his mind wander back for a bit as they continued down the dark passage. "Still... I wasn't half bad at reading the rock for locating the best spots to dig for iron ore."

The passage turned and opened into a larger cavern, more miners here picking silver and gems from the walls, track laid for mine carts crisscrossed the floor of the room. It smelled of sweat and wet and damp, but it was a familiar smell for the ground-dwelling races. The odor of smoke from the oil lamps, greasy soot mixed with mud on the damp walls.

Bofur breathed it in an felt right at home, But it made Bombur remember other adventures in the mines. Bombur and Bofur stepped aside as a mine cart came their way , heading into the passages in the walls and away to deliver it's payload to the workers far below them in the forges.

Chuckling again to himself "Bofur, remember when we were still very small and would sneak down to ride the carts all the way to the forges to see dad?" he asked.

"I do,we had a few fun trips down the old shafts , Do you remember why we had to stop?" Bofur had an incredibly stupid smile on his face, remembering the incident.

"Oh" and now Bombur remembered. .He kept quiet, turning a little red behind the ears ,still a tad self-conscious about it even now. "Yeah, I, ...uh,... I remember." He stammered out .

Most Dwarf children are small enough to ride the carts thru the smaller tunnel passages for quite a while, and even some of the more diminutive adults will occasionally hop in an empty cart if they need to quickly get to the sorting room in forges. In the mines of the Blue Mountains, all the carts are funneled into a relatively tight tunnel before they reach the forge. On this particular day Bofur and Bombur had been riding the carts for a few years, and although Bofur was a relatively standard sized child, Bombur wasn't, and over the past few months, he had been less and less of a standard size. Bofur had warned him of that earlier that day after a tighter than normal squeeze thru the tunnels they used to get to the mines, Bombur didn't want to admit it. Boys being boys, they had been betting each other in play all that day , one thing led to another and they ended up challenging each other to a cart race. This was a mistake. As they selected their carts Bofur hopped in without much issue, although Bombur huffed a bit and eventually squeezed into his cart and they were off. They took a long tunnel down at greater and greater speeds until they were neck and neck to the splitting room tunnel. They did what they always did place their heads down for clearance and tucked their hands in the cart, Bofur was in the lead and made it thru no problem, but just behind him he heard a thunk, and then silence. When Bofur got to the forge he stood waiting for Bombur to show up. A few minutes went by and he never came. Finally a team was sent in, they found him, wedged between the cart and the tunnel, his girth too thick to fit in the narrow entrance spilled too far over the edge of the cart and stopped him like a cork in the tunnel. The rescue team had to send to the kitchens for pounds of butter to grease Bombur up to slide him out. Bufor was concerned until they found him but realizing he was "ok" he had laughed the whole time … but after that, the boys were forbidden by their parents to ride the carts again.

Bombur was now deep in thought again, absent mindlessly rubbing a hand over his belt, sulking a bit remembering the embarrassing story. This rather annoyed Bofur, who both hated when his brother sulked like this, especially over such silly things, and he needed him to be alert the path down this mine was dangerous and one misstep could cause either one of them to fall miles down to the jagged rocks below.

The Brothers traversed the cavern and started down another passage this one along a ravine. The hollow in the mountain reached up above them a few hundred feet and was pierced by shafts of light where the ceiling of the cave met the top of the mountain outside. The path wound low, much deeper than they could see and down in the inky blackness was where the most experienced Dawrven miners sought the rich deposits of Lapus Luzi , Diamond and Mithril.

Bofur stopped, holding his hand up to forcibly catch Bombur who wasn't paying attention to where he as going. This surprised Bombur who stumbled to a halt. "Look, " Bofur took a deep sigh , " I know your going through some absurd internal guilt trip. I don't know why, I have no idea why you still feel like you've done something wrong or need to atone for things that happened years ago. But right now I need you to focus. We are in one of the most dangerous mines, on a narrow scaffold that runs down into the pit. Can you at least focus on why we are here and stop ruminating over why you were a fat ass when you were 30? Seriously, brother, I need you to be attentive to your surroundings while we are here. Can you promise me that before we go any further? Also it wouldn't kill you to just enjoy the hike, this trek goes a lot quicker if you can at least attempt to enjoy it."

Bombur shook off the gray cloud that was hovering over him again, and promised to not dwell on gloomy thoughts from the past that he couldn't change.

They continued down the narrow path that wound its way down , shafts branched off into the mountain at intervals, and mine carts would occasionally be pushed to the mouth of the caves by the dwarves that worked this section of the mine. They needed to be aware of them so they didn't get hit by one and knocked into the pit. The carts from these shafts were dumped into vats that were picked up with a conveyer belt that stretched all the way to the bottom of the mine. That took the deep minerals and gems to the carts on the upper floor and than sent to sorting.

Once they were back on the path Bofur began to hum an old folk tune to try to lighten their spirits but eventually decided to ask his brother about the items he was planning on crafting. Bombur brightened at this topic, the thought of what He wanted to make for others gave him purpose and a reason to look forward since the past made him feel uneasy. They talked about what Bombur wanted to make in detail as they walked, occasionally dodging a mine cart from the shafts, until they reached the bottom levels about an hour latter.

Here Bofur stopped and took from his bag a plumb, a medium sized pick and a small shovel. "and now," Bofur said pointing down a dank ill-lit tunnel to the right, " We head down that shaft and start digging."