Hello me again! Thanks to all my reviewers! Especially to Arilyn, YoginiGal, and Kara Adar! And everyone else! From here on in the story gets even better; not that it wasn't good before, but it gets better! The fellowship and my character meet Grey Dwarves, and you learn more about Kirrath, and lots more; I offer my particular thanks to Arilyn who gave me the idea for this chapter, Thelsina who introduced the one ring idea, and Kara Adar for the constructive criticism. I will try to meet all of you're standards, note I will not be able to post intro's this long all the time, as they are very distracting so I say thank you to all now. I don't own anything but Kirrath! And please review, need another 5 reviews before updating.
The winding tunnels were beginning to get on Legolas' nerves; there were just so many of them, and he had no sense of where he was, how deep he was under the earth, and that strange black skinned elf seemed bent on choosing the hardest paths available to them, and was strangely suspecting that they were going in circles. Legolas was starting to worry about the hobbits, especially Frodo; Legolas had a feeling that he would suffer more then any of them, but this was not a surprising thought.
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Kirrath would be laughing if he could, but the fact that he had to keep his façade up as to keep fooling this group of surface dwellers kept getting in the way of that emotion. He wasn't really leading them to the surface, Loth forbid that! No, he was leading them in circles, but slowly leading them towards Menzoberanzan. Kirrath for the first time in his life was truly enjoying himself; and after spending most of his life in the winding paths of the underdark, alone and unfeeling, it was a feeling he wasn't going to ignore.
Jarlaxle, the leader of Bregan'Deathre would have reveled in this situation; Kirrath served him, at the moment he had been assigned as an assassin to kill off a Drow priestess in Chead'Nasad, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up, and besides did it really matter if he served the eccentric Drow leader? He could be his own boss, and didn't have to listen to anyone, in fact he could rule the Drow; he was strong and cunning enough.
Kirrath stopped dead, where had those thoughts come from? He felt them nagging inside his head, they weren't his, he knew that. There was a tugging in his mind; that feeling pulled him towards the one Halfling; he was the quietest of the lot, aside from the surface elf, with big blue eyes and black hair. Kirrath's thoughts were interrupted as one of the hobbits stumbled and fell on top of the dwarf.
Kirrath's sensitive eyes could easily see in the pitch blackness of the underdark, the infared vision of the Drow permitted him to see things in the heat spectrum, but he had forgotten that the surface dwellers could not see, at all, without the light from the wizard's staff; which Kirrath had used his magical darkness to keep it's blinding light at bay.
Kirrath marched over towards the hobbit and pulled him up off the ground, he ignored the dwarf, who was cursing; none, not even the dwarf, could see through the darkness. This would be a problem Kirrath sensed.
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"You alright Pip?"
"Yes Merry, but I can't see down here."
"Yea, we have got to get some light, I don't trust this dark elf"
Kirrath overheard them, and suddenly the fellowship found them engulfed in a bright blue fire, that did not burn them.
"What devilry is this?" Boromir exclaimed, startled.
Kirrath gave him a confused look, "It is what we call Faerie fire; it illuminates things, without burning. It is still dangerous to have any light at all, but I had forgotten that you surface dwellers need light to see by."
"Wait just a moment!" Sam exclaimed "What other tricks can you do? You seem to be able to do a lot, are you a wizard of some sort?"
Kirrath grinned, but there was no mirth in his small smile "I can do many more things, but I will not tell you what they are, but every Drow can do those things with ease; so get used to them. And no, I am not a wizard."
A low noise rumbled through the caves, the surface dwellers ears, even Legolas', couldn't hear it, but Kirrath's could, he pressed himself against the tunnel wall listening very carefully. The noise came again, and this time he was certain, Grey Dwarves. Strange, Kirrath thought; Grey Dwarves didn't usually come this far into the underdark, perhaps he could use this to his advantage; but he would have to be careful as he didn't know how the group he was leading would react to them, but if all went as planned he could have some fun with both sides.
"Quiet" He told the fellowship rather harshly.
The fellowship fell silent, curious, and more then a little nervous. After a moment Gimli spoke up.
"Well? What is it?"
Kirrath looked at the dwarf suppressing his annoyance "Grey Dwarves approach." He said simply.
"Is that all?" Gimli asked sounding unconcerned.
That put Kirrath back a step, he was beginning to think that these people weren't from Faeraun, as they didn't seem to recognize anything that was familiar with most people of Faeraun.
"Master Dwarf" Kirrath had noticed them using 'master' as a title if they had to get a point across to one particular person, "I don't think you understand, hard as it is for me to believe, that you understand; Grey Dwarves are supposed to be you're worst enemy or so they say, they are evil." Kirrath decided to let them think he was not evil, just a dark elf, it would be much more enjoyable in the end.
"And why should they be my enemies? Master Drow"
Kirrath was about to answer when a dozen Grey Dwarves swarmed into the passage they were in, for a moment no one moved, and then the dwarves swarmed forward battle axes raised high angry battle cries in their voices. Kirrath took the opportunity to slip away and vanish among the rocks; this would be interesting if he played it out right.
Thanks again to all my reviewers! Please update, need 5 before updating! What do you think? Any ideas? Tell me and I will do my best to meet them. But mainly enjoy this story!