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The men from Gondor stood around the corpse they have found deep into Mordor. The corpse had been laying there for many years and had rotten, but the skin was still intact.
One of them said; "this was a man from Gondor but the bandage around his leg seems of a strange fabric."
Another removed the man and the cloth. The skin fell off and the man's thighbone was exposed. They noticed the arrowhead still sitting in it.
"The arrowhead is not from Gondor either," another man said.
"Someone attended to this man leg, but he died anyway," a third man added.
He looked close at his skin; "see these strange dots on this man skins. This is not the work of sun or wind. And no animals have eaten this man flesh. The arrow did not kill him, something else and sinister did."
The men from Gondor feared the signs the corpse had. Thus, they buried the soldier where he was found.
They reported their findings when they returned.
This year saw the dead of king Tarondor of Arnor. He was followed by his son Valandur. King Turambar of Gondor met the new king of Arnor in Angrenost. It had been several generations since the last meeting there, and almost no guards remained in the tower.
Turambar told about his father and grandfather who both had died violently in the land of Mordor.
Valandur said; "the north has been in peace for centuries. We do not seek to expend our borders as they are vast enough. The house of Elrond is our friends and his sons Elladan and Elrohir often check our borders and there are no enemies."
However, Valandur was worried about the news. When he visited Rivendell next year to see his young son Elendur, he met with Elrond and told how Gondor had carried the Palantiri out of their hiding and used it to defeat the enemy, and the unsolved death of one of their men.
Elrond replied; "the seerstone must never fall into their hands. They will use them as Gondor did, but even worse they will know that we are up to."
The wisest of the Eldar again met in Lindon, and Glorfindel promised to take upon him to prevent the Nazgul to get to the Palantiri.
Elrond said; "if they get hold of the stones, they will be able to attack us both in the north and the south"
Cirdan said; "I see no enemies in the north."
Elrond then said; "the events in the south was a small hint of what awaits us! We are outnumbered."
Cirdan said; "the aide from the west is coming soon. They will send these shadows of men back to the east."
A strange silence filled Middle Earth. The threat to Gondor had seemed to vanish, and the land of Mordor laid in silence. In the realm of Valantur and Turambar no hostility was seen. For fifty years the peace ruled, but Cirdan waited for the arrival from the west…
Shelob starved in her cage, the short supply of men from the east was gone and her powers diminished. She often looked down at the castle below and upon the men who manned the wall and felt hunger.
One day, almost a hundred years after the death of Romendacil, she noticed a spider crawling on the mountainside. She immediately noticed this was no ordinary spider, but one how had lived in the dark lands south of Middle earth, which her master once ruled. Shelob gained new hope as she had found a way to satisfy not only her hunger, but other pleasures as well.