Title: A tale about friendship, Part 3?

Author: Dís Thráinsdotter

E-mail: Overall rating: M, for violence and orctorment. This chapter: M

Summary: A group of children are told the tale of their friendship with the dwarves in general and the Folk of Durin in particular.

Warnings: The overall rating of this fic is M, as parts of it deals with violent battle and torment. There are also Original Characters in the fic, but no Mary Sues. Unbetaed, all mistakes belong to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own any one of Tolkien's characters, never have, and never will. The only ones I own are the people you have never met before.

Chapter 3, Searching for Thrór son of Dáin

"The journey back to the village was uneventful, save for one incident that shook all of them even though they were certain would be able to shock them any more. One morning they were going through a forest when they suddenly heard the clang of weapons and Orchowls. Huor sent the riders ahead while the rest of them came with the wagons. ´Whoever is under attack needs our aid he said to them as Orcs are the enemies of all, and it didn't take long for the riders to come to a clearing where a hoard of Orcs had attacked a group of travelling Dwarves who were hard pressed to keep the Orcs at bay. The riders were skilled at firing their arrows from running horses and immediately attacked the Orcs. Between them the two groups made short work of the enemies and although a number of them were injured none was killed, to the great relief of all."

"Orcs, are they truly real?" Thrór asked, and as the others looked at him in amazement he added, "I thought that they simply were something to scare naughty children with".

"They are real" Thranduil answered "horrible creatures made by the great Dark Lord in mockery of Elves. We Elves have always been at war with the Orcs and will be, as long as one Orc is still living." He described the Orcs to the children who gave a glance to Balin and Dáin, who simply nodded in agreement. "When the rest of the group came with the wagons all Orcs lay dead on the ground and while the women treated the wounded under the supervision of Morwen and Rian, the Men and Dwarves piled all Orcs in a heap and burned them. Huor then turned to the chief of the Dwarf group, who named himself as Bivor son of Bavor and asked him about the attacking Orcs. ´They simply came at us in the early morning and took us by surprise. Your aid came none to soon he answered and gratefully accepted Huors offer to go with his people to their village which was only three days journey away.

When they came to the village Húrin looked at the Dwarves in astonishment and asked Huor if some of the people of Iron Hills had come with them. Huor then explained what had happened to his father who shrugged in a 'now I have heard it all'-manner. He then told Bivor that it was a pleasure for him to house them all in the village for as long as they needed to stay. When Bivor asked how they could pay for bed and board, Húrin asked them to teach the children who were interested about smithying, and Bivor and his people agreed to do that. They stayed for one month and when they left they were given many parting gifts and the promise that their people would always be welcome in the village." Gandalf added

"I met them later. I was visiting their city at the time and was speaking with the Father of their Folk about a trading group who were missing, ´they should have come back at least one month ago he said when suddenly a clamour was heard in the passages and the group arrived. Some of them wore garments in their proper colours but in strange weavings. ´What on earth or under it happened to you? We have been worried the Father, named Sarin Elfmallet asked, and Bivor told him that they had been attacked by Orcs but that a group of travelling Men had aided them. They had spent one month in their village, while the injured recovered. Sarin then said ´the people who aided you shall always be welcome here and Bivor answered that the people of the village extended a similar welcome. They showed all in the city the parting gifts they had been given by the children who had been their pupils, and everyone agreed that they had been made with love and fondness."

"Morwen fulfilled her promise to Grór, where ever she went she always sought tidings about any Dwarf groups that had been seen and whenever travelling Elves or Men came to the village they were asked about any Dwarf groups that they might have met on the roads. At times Morwen was quite angered at the Elves she met. ´Elves are strange people. They know a sparrow from a finch one league off but they can't see the differences between two Dwarves, even if they are standing a mere three feet ahead of them she wrote in her account, and there are several references to that notation in the book." The children gave a glance to Thranduil who simply shrugged eloquently. "In spite of all her efforts, she had no tidings about what had happened to the people of Thrór for many years. In the meanwhile she had a number of children, of whom Melian was the second daughter and the fifth child. It was Melian who finally gave her the tidings she had been seeking for so long.

Melian daughter of Huor was a warm-hearted and kind person and it was clear to all who saw her, even in her earliest years, that she had the makings of a great healer. She was treating patients at the early age of ten, and at twelve years she was considered a qualified Healer. And if that wasn´t enough to marvel at, there was her great strength to consider. No child her age was able to even lift the loads she could carry with ease, and also many adults found it hard to handle them. It gave the village great renown but it also arose the envy of a neighbouring chieftain, named Beleg son of Beren but better known among their people as ´the Half dragon. He had long been seeking a way to hurt Morwen because he had also proposed to her, being forced to do so by his father, but she had turned down his advances since she knew of his temper and disposition. He now started to spread rumours among the people that Melian was in fact the eldest child and named Grór or Bivor as the father. The matter finally came to the attention of the Council of Chieftains and Morwen was able to prove that Huor had fathered all her children. ´You aren't only insulting me but the named Dwarves as well, if you think that they would ever force anyone to break their Oaths of Marriage, the Dwarves consider such Oaths to be so sacred that they only marry once in their lives she said to Beleg who was fined for the insults. Melian had never regarded him with any greater kindness, not since she learned what kind of person he was, but this event made her feelings for him even colder.

The following year, one month before the Council of Chieftains was due to take place in the village of Huor; Melian went into the forest around the village to gather herbs for medicines. Huor went with her because he wanted to be able to speak with her about a birthday present he planned to give to Morwen without the youngest children listening. They were good children but they were simply unable to keep a secret, anything they heard was known all over the village in the time it takes to say ´Elf. As Melian gathered the herbs that should be harvested that season, she and her father discussed suitable birthday presents as her skilled hands and eyes meant that she was able to divert part of her attention to that matter.

It was midafternoon when they heard the sound of running feet approaching them. At first they looked worried and both of them drew their weapons, Melian wore ´the dagger of Grór as it was named that she had been given when she started to go out on her own to gather the herbs she needed, but after a while Huor said to her that he could only hear one set of feet and Melian agreed with him so they sheathed their weapons and waited for the runner to approach. They were quite surprised to see a Dwarf coming into the clearing, looking very determined to get to a certain place. Melian called out to him, naming herself and asking him if she could be of any assistance. The Dwarf then halted, as he hadn't seen either her or her father until then, bowed before them and named himself as Fundin son of Farin. As Melian wrote in her book of her life ´He asked me if I was a healer and when I answered that I was he asked me to come with him to another glade not far away. Father and I went with him and came to a glade where a group of Dwarves were gathered. As soon as Fundin came to the others he told them that he had found a healer and named me to them. It was then I saw that one Dwarf lay wrapped in a couple of blankets and as close to a fire as he could possibly get without being in it. I went to him, bowing before him and lay my sheathed dagger at his feet as a token of friendship. With the aid of my father I was able to examine him and found that he had caught pneumonia. As Dwarves rarely become ill, according to what my mother told me, I found it strange that this Dwarf had become ill in the first place.

Father asked me if I thought that the ill Dwarf would be able to walk and I answered that he was unable to do it in his condition, so father said that he would go to the village to get some men and a litter. At that moment a fairly young Dwarf came to us, asking what we intended to do with his father. When my father told him he looked at me with amazement and also with a good deal of doubt, but then the ill Dwarf asked what was the matter and after listening to both his son and me declared that they should go with us. Before father left to organise everything he reminded me that I should consider what I said before I said it, to which I answered that if I had been able to speak politely with the Half dragon then I would also be able to speak politely with the Dwarves. I also advised father that the litter should be set so that the ill Dwarf could sit up on it in order to ease his breathing. Father simply laughed at my answer before he left, leaving me alone among them. "

Thranduil looked at Melian with amazement. "So your forefather left his child alone with a Dwarf group? Wasn't he afraid then?" and Melian answered

"He regarded it as unlikely that the Dwarves would treat her harshly unless she acted haughtily towards them, the reason he reminded her of her manners in the first place. He also remembered that the peoples of Grór and Bivor had treated Morwen and Rian with respect and so was completely calm when he left in order to get to the village, prepare the litter and make sure that the guesthouse was prepared to receive the guests."

TBC