Understanding The Dragons
When Bilbo and Thorin met the elves and the wizards at the Council Room, they weren't expecting to be given a drawing of four arrows, each no more than a few inches in length. From what Bilbo could see the arrows were all the same, so why draw four? And why arrows?
"I thought that we weren't going to kill the dragon?" He asked, puzzled.
"We're not." One of the blue wizards answered.
"Then…?" He queried.
"These will be magic, made totally of a counter spell."
"Counter spell?"
"Alatar. You're confusing him. Let's go back a bit further, shall we?" Pallando waited for Bilbo and Thorin to agree before continuing.
"Dragons were not created by Morgoth as most believe, they were in fact amongst the first beings that Morgoth corrupted. Prior to this they were simple creatures used as guards, mostly to royalty, but some ambassadors would have them too, their other main use was as treasury guards."
He paused a moment for have a sip of water from a crystal tumbler in front of him.
"When Morgoth captured an ambassador and his entourage, from Arnor to Khand, which is considerably south-east of Gondor, he saw the potential of dragons as both a beast of burden and a weapon in their own right. He killed the ambassador and took the dragon, we believe Glaurung was the first of many, to Angband and his fortress there. Over centuries he altered, tortured and corrupted the creature, finally he placed a Curse on the very blood of the beast, for a beast it had become. A beast of massive size, able to fly, breath fire and speak the tongues of Men, He removed a scale from it and using Dark Runes and Unholy Fire he burnt the Curse into the skin of the beast, knowing that eventually the scale would be regrown and the dragon invulnerable again." He took another sip of water and sat back in his chair.
Alatar took up the tale.
"The dragon was now, as much as any could be, controlled by the will of Morgoth. He sent it out into the world, it's task was to bring to him all other dragons. Given its changed size, capturing the other dragons wasn't of much difficulty for Glaurung. Smaug was hatched and reared to be a breeding sow, but her will was strong and after watching her first clutch be tortured and used as little more than training tools to teach larger dragons to kill and maim, she waited until she was next gravid with eggs and convinced her mate, Ancalagon, to help her break out of the breeding cages. They fled to the north and at a later point Ancalagon was killed by Eärendil during the War of Wrath. Smaug herself stayed hidden in the north until she was near to clutching, many times, Morgoth, and after his fall, Sauron tried to re-capture her, her eggs incredibly valuable to them. The Mouth of Sauron, believing that she could be reasoned with told her of the risk to her eggs that the Arkenstöne held." Here Alatar stopped and Pallando went on.
"The Arkenstöne was a gift of the Valar, the Heart of the Mountain. It was placed there by Aulë and Yavanna to guide and protect the people of Erebor, it guided them to the wealth of the Mountain and protected them from Darkness. When it was removed from the body of the Mountain, it became dormant, a heart without a body cannot beat. As a Gift of the Valar the stone only exuded peace, but once it was dormant, Sauron desired to destroy it, for it could oppose his will. He corrupted the mind of Thrór, if Smaug hadn't attacked, Thrór would have become little more than a Wraith, controlled by Mordor, and would have handed Sauron the Arkenstöne and the last of the Seven Rings. But Smaug attacked."
The other blue wizard spoke again.
"This is where our research falters a little. We cannot determine if Smaug attacked Erebor to destroy the Arkenstöne or if she attacked in the hope that the stone would destroy her or if she believed that the Arkenstöne would break the Curse. What we do know is that none of these happened. What did happen is that the attack woke the Arkenstöne and it did what it could to shield the Mountain from Evil and because evil was within the Mountain, the evil was blocked, held in a kind of stasis. While she and her clutch stay in the Mountain they will not fall into the control of Mordor. The eggs will not hatch until the evil that is the Curse she wears is removed from the Mountain, but without her the clutch will be unprotected and likely be destroyed. She will not leave her eggs vulnerable."
Here Radagast spoke for the first time.
"Smaug is the last dragon controlled by Mordor, all others are dead. If we can break the Curse on Smaug, she will be free of Mordor and the eggs can hatch. Now, because the eggs have not hatched into the Curse, they will be as nature intended, small, gentle-if-not-threatened, guardians again. They hatch roughly the size of a cat and can take up to 50 years to reach their full size and live for roughly 300 years. At maturity they are no larger than a pony or small horse, they range in colour from red to blue and all variants in between, from the palest near-white to so dark to be almost black. Gender is random and a sow can clutch without a breeding partner, the hatchlings genetic replicas of their parent. Because in breaking the Curse on Smaug's blood all evil will be removed from the hatchlings, they will be creatures containing no malice."
Elrond indicated for Radagast to sit.
"That which we would do tonight is in equal parts Elven magic, Gift of the Valar and Maia spell-craft. We will each use our skill and power to blend with others to cause an enchantment to have a solid form. We will use these drawings to make four Arrows. We decided on four as you still have a difficult journey in front of you and dangers to face, there is a possibility that one Arrow could be lost. Initially we thought to only have three, Thorin, you, Fíli and Kíli are all princes of Erebor by blood, until the Mountain is reclaimed, when you will be King. The Arrows are tied to both the blood of Durin's Line and the Curse of Mordor. It was Galadriel who reminded us that as Bilbo has claimed Kíli as Kin, he is tied to Kíli and through Kíli to the Line of Durin, enabling him to also carry an Arrow as well. So four Arrows will be made. When you meet with Bard of Dale you must give him all the Arrows, only in his hand will they swell to a usable size, until then they will remain this size, to be worn on a chain as jewellery and jewellery they will appear to be." He paused a moment to wet his throat. "To create the Arrows we must have blood from each of the four of you to enable you all to carry an Arrow, if we don't do this then, no one may touch their skin to an Arrow. This would make it extremely difficult to carry them on your journey."
"All we require is one drop of blood from each of you onto each Arrow drawing. After this you need not be present when the Arrows are brought into being." Galadriel added.
"What will happen to the dragons after this? To Smaug? To the hatchlings?" Thorin asked.
"They will be Bound to the Line of Durin, those of it's blood and those to whom they are Bonded. They will be as they once were, simple guardians. We do not know how many eggs there will be in her clutch, anything from three to twenty are possible. We would have the Mountain and it's allies become their home." Galadriel answered.
"Hmm… I would speak with my Company. This is unexpected and there may be objections."
"Of course, Thorin. It will take us time to gather our strength to do this. If you would, I would have you take the drawings and this crystal pin. If you decide to do this, simply spike the finger of each of your nephews and yourselves, allow a single drop of blood to fall on each Arrow and bring the drawing back to us here. We will perform the Rites of Erú one hour after sunset." Alatar handed Bilbo the crystal and Thorin was handed the drawing by Pallando.
The hobbit and the dwarf walked the paths of Rivendell, debating, they needed to come to a decision themselves first, before they spoke to the rest of their travelling companions.
"I do not like the idea of the dragons staying in Erebor." Thorin said.
"Nor do I. But the won't be the same. They'll be smaller, gentler. They may not even look the same."
"Hmm…There is much hatred. I doubt that the dwarrow of Erebor would approve."
"Agreed." Bilbo sighed.
"Perhaps we can say she is the victim of Morgoth, that she came to Erebor to seek the protection of the Arkenstöne for her eggs."
"But the fire?"
"The hatching was close. The pain of labour and the fear of Mordor controlling her babes drove she insensible." It was plausible.
"The only thing clear in her mind, 'get the Arkenstöne to protect the eggs'. It would take some spinning. Do you think you can get Daín and Dís involved? Have one of them leave a letter where a courtier could read? Start a rumour that way?" Bilbo suggested.
"We need more input, more ideas."
"Let's find the Twins then, when it comes to pranks and rumours, they have had hundreds of years experience."
"We need Fíli and Kíli, too. The Twins may have the experience, but they're not dwarrow, we need dwarrow input too."
"Then, let's get a move on, we're going to run out of time, if we don't." Said Bilbo grabbing Thorin's hand and hurrying off down a path.
Thorin looked at the Twins and his nephews.
"Well? Your mother travelling, her 'office' is open to just about any dwarf in the Blue Mountain. Would it work?" He asked.
The Twins had the first reply.
"You'd need to send two letters. The first actually explaining what and why you are doing this. The second would be the one to be viewed to the start of the rumour."
The two princes added to this.
"Nori has some underhanded people still in Ered Luin and the Blue Mountains. Surely he has someone that can drop a couple of hints somewhere." Said Fíli.
"No. I've a better idea." Kíli butted in. "What if we come at this from multiple sides. Uncle sends those letters to Amad and she leaves the second one where it can be found. And if we get Ênod to do the same in the Blue Mountains, you know his wife is the head of the 'rumour guild' there and Borud's travelling with Amad, we can get him to sneakily deliver a gift from us for her birthday later this month, you know he couldn't resist reading a letter from you, I swear he's got a crush on you, Uncle and he's a dreadful gossip. I know we said we would send a raven to Tláli and get him to do it, but this would be just as good."
"Yeah, but do we want to upset Tláli by cutting him out?"
"Fíli? What if you got Tláli to present your Mother with my gift, instead? Would that assuage his feelings?" Thorin put in.
"Oh, yes, Uncle. He would be beside himself to deliver a gift from you to Amad." Kíli crowed.
"Pardon me?" asked a Twin. "Who is Tláli and why is it so important that he not be upset?"
The two young dwarrow looked to their uncle for permission and when he nodded they endeavoured to explain.
"Tláli is our age, a cousin on our father's side, but he was... hurt… in a landslide some years ago. He was trapped under rocks for hours. When he was found he has some of the worst head wounds that Oín had ever seen." Said Fíli.
"Yeah. He was never the same again. As we all grew older, so did his body, but his mind stayed the same, his mind will always be that of a dwarfling, no matter how old he gets. There aren't many people that understand and fewer still that accept him. His parents were killed in the accident and he would have been abandoned if Amad and Uncle hadn't stepped in, Amad claimed him as kin and he's lived with us ever since." Added Kíli with tears in his eyes.
"Oh, the poor lad." Said Bilbo. "Will he be coming to Erebor?"
"Yes! We couldn't live without our Tláli." Both princes exclaimed.
"Of course, he is. Tláli is family now." Added Thorin. "I think that we should find the rest of the Company and speak to them before we act on this. They may have more ideas or may wish to set their own rumours, particularly Nori and Balin."
The other five agreed and the group briefly returned to the forge and after explaining a little of their predicament to the smiths, excused themselves for the afternoon. The smiths happily accepted their apologies and stated that all the preparation work was complete and on the following morning they would be ready to start actual forge-work on the new weapons. A final design had been agreed on.
Once they found the rest of the Company and explained what the wizards had come up with to render Smaug non-threatening, they listened to the objections and ideas for setting rumours in place.
The objections were pretty much as they'd thought. Prejudice, anger, fear and distrust were the most prominent. These were however soothed by the reminder that Smaug was an abused mother in the throws of labour, seeking to protect her young from that same abuse. Many of the dwarrow had heard tales of dwarrowdams and the pain they went through to bring new lives into the world. Dwarrowdams carried only one child at a time and Smaug was gravid with as many as 20, the discomfort would have been monumental.
In the end they decided that multiple sources would be spiked with rumours. They would use Borud in the caravan, Ênod in the Blue Mountains, Daín would be responsible for starting a similar, but not too similar, rumour in the Iron Hills and Nori would alert his cronies in Ered Luin with slightly different information. They spent a few hours making notes and trying to give Dís, Ênod, Daín and Fadin as much information as they could, Thorin uncertain of whether Ênod and Fadin should be given as much information as Nori wanted, but in the end, all three would be given the same details.
Ori and Balin spent the rest of the afternoon writing the letters, real with lots of details, as well as the rumour-seeding letters. Fíli, Kíli and Thorin each wrote a short letter to Tláli, the lads telling the impaired dwarf about their adventures so far and how they looked forward to seeing him in Erebor and to not forget Mother's birthday later in the month, because they weren't there it would be up to Tláli to see that Mother got all the hugs and kisses they would have given her. Thorin asked Tláli if he would present Dís with her birthday gift from Thorin and told Tláli exactly where to find it. He also said the when Dís brought Tláli to Erebor, Thorin had would have a special surprise waiting for him.
Nori and Bofur took the letters and went up into the foothills of the mountains around Rivendell to call one of the Ravens that had been following them since they left the Blue Mountains. These Ravens would carry their messages and re-join the Company further along the way.
While they were gone Thorin stated his intent, that once the dragon's eggs hatched and if they were what the blue wizards hoped them to be, to match a hatching with Tláli as a guardian. Tláli being as young as he was mentally would always be vulnerable to abuse or danger, a dragon guardian might be just what was needed to give the young dwarf a sense of worth.
The was great joy and cheer that evening at an early dinner when Elrond announced that Bifur had come through his surgery well and looked to regain control of most if not all of his language centres. He had spoken in Khuzdul and in Westron, or the Common tongue was it was often called. He would be able to join the Company the next day, with Oín and the Twins seeing to his care and would be quite ready to travel when they all departed in a few more days.
When Thorin handed Elrond the drawing of the Arrows and the bloodstained crystal, Elrond warned them that it would take he, Galadriel and the wizards many hours that night to perform the Rites to make the four Arrows and that Thorin, Bilbo, Fíli and Kíli would be presented with the Arrows after the elves and wizards had a chance to rest and recover, either at lunch or dinner the next day. Bilbo responded by informing Elrond that Thorin and his nephews were to spend the next day in the forge with the smiths making new weapons for Fíli and Kíli. Perhaps the Arrows could wait until dinner when everyone would get a chance to view them, as Galadriel would often join them for that meal.
Dwalin wasn't the only dwarf in awe of the pale elf, Oín, Gloín, Balin, and Bombur in particular were often speechless at first whenever she joined them, but soon after would be found to have regained their tongues for a chance to talk with her. Ori was ecstatic that she would sit and talk with him about the dwarrow of old, telling tales of arguments and epic drinking contests. She had often attended meetings between elves, dwarrow and Men in centuries past. She had known Durin III and Durin IV as well as Nain I and Thain I, back when there were many alliances between their races. She fondly remembered the wife of Durin III, a lovely blonde dwarrowdam who travelled with him and his household, which, he was surprised to note included a dark blue dragon-guard. After Durin I was killed by a Morgoth dragon, no king travelled without a dragon-guard, the dwarrow unaware that Morgoth had instructed his Cursed-dragons to abduct any natural dragon they came across. Durin III was the last king of Erebor to have a dragon-guard, loosing his to Scatha, the Ice-Drake, not long after their last visit to Rivendell.
The Company eagerly looked forward to dinner the following night, Bifur joining them, Thorin, Bilbo, Fíli and Kíli being given the means to remove the threat of the dragon, meant that the meal was almost a celebration. Fíli, Kíli and the Twins pleaded with Bilbo to make his spiced apple tarts for dessert and when he agreed, the cheers were resounding.