*Note: Apologies for any issues with my non-canon dwarf names.
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The Jewel Smith
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The daylight shone dim through the small entryway behind her, where her comrade stood by watching cautiously with a sword in hand. Morfindel crept along the walls of the dark room, not yet ready to dare the risk of a lamp. But she had the keen sight of her people, and the little bit of sun that made it through the tree canopy and onto the floor by the door was plenty for her. Slowly now she crept along with an arrow pulled ready at her bow, scarcely daring to breathe - and elf breathing cannot be heard by mortals even when they are not mindful of the noise it might make - alert for any sounds or movements or signs of life.
In the middle of the floor was a small circular space that looked as if it had been brushed and swept clear of dirt and gravel. Suddenly the sound of shuffling scarcely to be heard caught her attention at her right. Morfindel whipped around and focused her sight, and her partner sprang forward toward the noise, blade held up for a strike. But they saw there near to the ground the outline of a small little lump of a creature scurrying along toward the door.
The archer and her comrade sighed, and let their shoulders slump as they let down their guard. Morfindel loosened her arrow from its string, and pulled out her little Noldoli lamp. The deep gray walls of the small room lit up in its bright blue glow as they stood getting a clearer look at their surroundings.
The mid-morning sky was overcast when the two emerged from the cave. "Just another bear den," said Morfindel. "At least the beasts are abroad for the season and not at home tending young."
"We have checked half a dozen such caves so far, sir," said her comrade Rodhiril. "All have been homes to such creatures of the woods. Are you sure this place still even exists?"
"My father told me the entrance was plain and unassuming," said their leader Celebrimbor. "Wise precaution indeed; thus did King Finrod also once keep his own cave realm as hidden."
"Yes," agreed Elenim, one of his uncle Celegorm's people who survived the Battle of the Guarded Plain long ago. "I lived in those caves as a young elf before the fall of that kingdom. Even the most keen-sighted elves had difficulty finding the entrance without the aid of a guide. We have not gone very far yet, my friends. There is hope."
Celebrimbor and his company picked out a path south along the foothills of the mountains. The rounded peaks along their right-hand side grew higher here, where they were bare of trees and gleamed in grayed blues and lavenders by day - giving the range its namesake - with a few tall enough to still bear crowns of snow even in the peak of the warm season. Up in the hills they were obliged to forge a new trail, for if elves or dwarves had once trod here any path was long overgrown. They could not be far now, for the dwarf haven in the mountains, where lived many survivors of the lost dwarf kingdoms of the First Age, was said to be near to the pass through the Blue Mountains where the gulf and its new elf towns now lay.
The master smith and his team walked along quietly for days, carefully scanning the terrain for any sign of what they sought. Eventually early one afternoon they were stopped by the sound of a whistle. It came from Dúrlos, the most farsighted of the group, who had now spotted high up on a mountainside what looked to be another cave entrance. It was much larger than the others they had tried so far, and from within issued the source of a creek which spilled and splashed over cliffs and boulders down the western slopes on the other side of the range toward the sea. They all perked up in hope.
Morfindel the archer and huntress was looking around them at the trees and scanning the ground. "Sir," she said to their leader. "Look!"
Now they all turned to see what she was talking about. Suddenly the group realized they were standing on a gravelly patch of smooth flat ground, wide enough for several to walk abreast, which stretched out before them like a ribbon draped around the jutting hills and outcroppings of rock. It was an old road, littered with fallen branches and invading roots and patches of moss - little used in many years from the look of it, but still clear to see. And it wove through the heights to the cave entrance high up onto the mountain shoulder.
They were very relieved to have found a road to follow at least, which helped their speed. Still it was far, and it took half a day to come within speaking distance of the entrance. The trees grew thin, and soon were only pines, as they climbed higher up the mountainside. The shadows were growing long as the sun sank behind the mountains toward her rest for the night when at last they approached their destination.
Suddenly the buzzing swoosh of quick fierce wind rushed past their ears, followed by the thunking sound of metal piercing wood. The team turned and saw an arrow now stuck in one of the tree trunks close by. In the blink of an eye several elves had already strung arrows to their bows, as another arrow flew past them into another tree. The others had pulled their blades, including Rodhiril who sprang in front of their leader holding up a shield. "Stay back, sir!" she called.
"Stop! Stop!" cried Celebrimbor in a whisper. "They are not trying to hit us I think. We do not wish to start another war already. Lower your weapons." His team pointed their arrows toward the ground, but would not loosen their bow strings. Rodhiril stepped aside, lowering her shield.
Dúrlos peered through the shade of the pines into the great dark hole in the hillside. "The entry is sealed with a wall of some sort," he said, "iron maybe, behind which their archers must be standing. I can see no door. But their arrows fly through embrasures that disappear when they are not firing. Some sort of dwarf enchantment maybe. We cannot hope to hit them."
"You may be quick draws at the bow, elves," a deep bellowing voice suddenly called out from within the dark entrance, as if through some device of echo and amplification they could not see. "But we are sharp enough shots in our own right. Not that such targets would be a challenge at this range. Declare yourselves, and what business you have in our realm, if you would not find that out for yourselves!"
Celebrimbor stepped forward, and held up his hands, baring his palms in the direction of the cave entrance. "We come in peace!" he called out. "I am Celebrimbor, son of Curufin, son of Fëanor! My father and his brothers once had the friendship of the fortress realm of Belegost when they lived near these mountains long ago. I seek an audience with your lord!"
Then for a good while the elves waited there in silence before the entrance, looking back and forth with uncertainty between each other. At last a door appeared and opened, and the short broad form of a dwarf emerged into the fading light. He rendered a bow of courtesy to the leader of the visitors.
"Greetings, Celebrimbor son of Curufin! I am Nurim son of Bundin, the door warden, at your service. Our lord has agreed to let you come in, and say what you will to him - unarmed. The rest must remain out here," he said, for twelve armed elves were too much yet for his lord to suffer in his halls.
At that the rest of the team shifted uncomfortably where they stood, and looked warily on their host. But their leader, anxious to achieve his goals now that he had found what he sought, gave a deep bow and rendered the custom courtesies in turn. Then he handed his sword to Dúrlos.
"Good Nurim, may I at least bring along my kin Elenim and Rodhiril here?" Celebrimbor requested. He nodded at his distant cousins to follow his lead, and they handed off their weapons and gave the customary bow and greetings. "They come from the people of my uncle Celegorm," he continued, "with whose realm I believe your kingdom also had friendship. The mighty warriors among your forefathers came to his aid in the Battle of Many Tears."
Nurim looked at him for a few moments, flattered by the fair words of the valor of his forefathers. He stroked his long beard in thought, seeing that all three indeed had the deep jet hair and bright piercing eyes and fair faces of the house of Fëanor. Then he nodded in approval. "I will risk the liberty of allowing it. My great-uncle Dwáin, my lord's brother, shared his craft knowledge with your uncle personally. I think my lord will be pleased."
This put the rest of the team somewhat more at ease, and they were more agreeable to wait outside while their leader met with the strangers within the caves. Celebrimbor fished out a box from his pack, and handed it to Nurim. "Here, master Nurim," he said. "This gift I have brought for your lord, in the hopes of a renewed friendship."
Inside, Celebrimbor and his cousins were led through a tall hall lit with bright lanterns ensconced along the walls. Many small doorways leading from the main way were cut into the walls of rock, and the relief murals and columns were cunningly wrought and quite a sight. At last they came to a grand tall room adorned with many dazzling jeweled chandeliers and gleaming displays of weapons and armor, and candelabras and figurines and toys and instruments wrought of gold and silver and steel and brass. The sconces in this room held the bright blue flames of the Noldor - gifts from their elf-friends when they traded in goods and knowledge long ago, and through shafted windows dug into the hillsides the fading sunlight still peeked through and caught in the chandeliers, which cast its rays in wondrous rainbows on the walls. At the far end of the room sat a pair of dwarves on their thrones. Nurim now with great flourish and ceremony introduced them as their lord Báin and his wife Findis. It turned out that in the great battle against Morgoth their last king and his closest kin had fallen, and none had the heart to take another, choosing from among them one to be their chieftain with only the title of Lord. The fair halls were only a small part of the caves, most of the rest were the depths of their mines there.
Their elf guests gave again the customary dwarf courtesies, and the dwarf lord welcomed them as close kin of their old friends among the sons of Fëanor. Celebrimbor gave them his two requests: for assistance in creating a new crown for his king - also a son of the Noldor, and also for any news of the wider world that his people would do well to be aware of.
"And for such services as I am requesting," he said to them, "I have brought you, Lord Báin, this offering." He turned to the door warden and nodded toward the box. Nurim went up and presented it to his lord with a kneel and a bow. Báin received it, and found inside to his great wonder and delight a horde of those jewels which his folk prized above all others: the shellfish pearls found beneath the waves of the sea where no dwarf ever dared go. In this box there were many, of different sizes and shapes and colors.
The dwarf lord now felt inclined to grant the request, and hold his people paid in full, but he was still hesitant. "And did those from whom you acquired these jewels approve of its recipients?" he asked.
"The master of the havens understands that the dwarves of Belegost were not party to the war with the elves of the Forest Kingdom," answered the elf leader. "And besides, he gifted them to me, and so they are mine to do with as I will."
"You offer a generous gift for the services you request," replied Báin. "It has not been our custom to accept elves into our tutelage for many years, not since that war you speak of in which the dwarf kingdom of Nogrod all but perished. But, as you are descended from those elven smiths out of the West who had friendship with us, and who were also not involved with that war, we agree to your terms, and will instruct and assist you in creating a crown for your king, and give you such news as we can provide."
At last they welcomed all the elf visitors and hosted them with honor. At the lord's table that evening Báin told his guests what he could. "We have little news of late that could guide you, Master Celebrimbor," he said to his guest. "For it is long since we left our keep here at the western edge of the lands. Certainly, none that could shed any light on the whereabouts of Sauron the wicked. But we are overdue for a visit to our kin in the Misty Mountains. That place is quite a marvelous sight to see, if I may say so. It is so large and fair that it makes our halls here look like a woodman's hovel. They have greater contact with the other dwarf kingdoms and various folk of the wider world, of which many may be found east of the mountains. More useful news we may be able to gain from them, and we can send messages as we are able."
Celebrimbor was enthralled by such a description, and resolved in his heart to see the grand realm of Moria one day. The next day he sent much of his company on the return trip back to Lindon, except for a few that desired to stay and learn alongside him from the dwarf masters all they were willing to teach, including his two cousins. With them Morfindel remained also, for though she had no interest in smithcraft, she and Rodhiril were loath to be parted. But Morfindel was grim and quiet and enjoyed solitude, and was content to go out hunting in the woods while her friends worked in the smithies, and bring offerings of game to their hosts, and at times would leave to visit the gulf town and bring back tidings of their people.
And the dwarves grew to love their gracious guests, impressed with their passion for learning their craft, and in return for the treasure of pearls they provided all materials they desired - gold and silver and all manner of gems. They spoke to their guests in more detail of the marvelous halls of their kindred kingdom in the Misty Mountains, and Celebrimbor in his great wonder at their tales persuaded them to one day guide him there for a visit.
Now the crown he forged was made of gold and delicately set with many small gems (including a few pearls), so that it gleamed with many colors, and it could cast the rays of the sun to give its wearer a crown of colorful radiant light. It was long in the making, and so it was a good while before Celebrimbor and his kin at last returned to his people dwelling by the Gulf of Luhn. Many other lovely gifts as well his companions also made for their friends and family: necklaces and rings and cuffs and brooches and bejeweled nets to adorn the hair.
By this time the returned elves discovered to their great wonder that the town of Lindon had grown much, with beautiful mansions of stone built for the king and the shipwright along the banks of the inlet nearly complete. Large piers there now were, with more under construction, and to each were tied many marvelous white boats. But now that their jewelsmith had finally returned with his gift, at last the elves there held an official crowning ceremony, on which day they also decided to mark the founding of their lord's kingdom, and for many years after it was a joyous day of annual festival.
Celebrimbor told them much of his time with the dwarves, and how they had hosted him well and taught him much. With much excitement he regaled them with the dwarves' tales of their kindred in the mighty kingdom of Moria across the fields and forest in the Misty Mountains, where there could be found rich ore of rare metals that could create weapons and armor exceeding the strength of anything the elves had yet wrought. He told the king and his court that his new dwarf friends had invited him to accompany them to visit this wondrous place, and so he would soon return to them to make the journey.
"Perhaps there is a land near to it that might be suitable for one of these haven realms the Lady has recommended," he said to Gil-galad and Galadriel. "Then might the two races benefit from each other both in the learning of craft and in defenses."
Galadriel was most pleased to hear that he had such a mind to follow her wisdom, and commended him in his initiative to build such alliances, even if she could see he was far more motivated by a desire to learn and perfect his skill in smithcraft than by any worry of Shadow growing and taking shape again to trouble the free peoples of the world. And after a while the jewelsmith and his friends, this time with several more of his people who desired to go and learn from the dwarves all manner of craft subjects from jewelry and tools to weapons and armor to stone masonry, departed again for their neighbors to the south.
