Coming Of Age – Chapter 19
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The air was stale when Thrain and Thorin began their descent into the stone steps. It went for a long time. Thorin estimated that they were about five or six levels beneath surface before they came before to a leveled surfaced. It opened to a large cavern that tunneled onwards in front of them. The two men continued to walk slowly forward as they did not know what to expect what was before them. The tunnel was long and large, along the walls Thorin saw wall torches lined along the ways. He did not light them as they did not want to use them yet until they were sure how far they had to go.
Thrain looked about him in wonder, "All these years, we have been living in the palace, and we did not of its existence beneath us. Durin V had done well to hide it."
"Too well, it seemed, thank goodness he thought to record it."
"Why did he use the wood elves' language to record it? Why not in Cirth?"
"He was afraid the text script might fall into the wrong hands or someone had found out the secret. Who in any dwarf clan learned about this ancient Silvan language?" Thorin asked as they continued their mysterious journey.
Thrain looked at his son, the fire of his torch reflecting on his face, giving him an eerie glow, "Your ThoraLee did."
Thorin's face softened at her name, "Yes, we were fortunate she did, or we would not have gotten where we are at now."
Thrain nodded. "She is an amazing young lady."
"Indeed, sire." He was grinning widely.
"You like her very much, don't you?"
"No sir, I love her very much."
"Ah!" Thrain nodded.
They walked on in silence as they looked about the tunnel which as wide, as wide as they could fit more than five dwarves walking abreast.
"Where do you think we are at?" Thrain said as he glanced above him, looking at the ceiling.
"If we were to walk to Dale, we would be halfway by now." Thorin said.
Thrain nodded
Half an hour more Thrain saw the Durin sign carved into the wall on his right. Casting the torch, Thorin saw the notch in the corner of the carving and put the ring into it, and like the wall panel in his father's chambers, he was able to push into it. It was a door! A big stone door, Thrain and Thorin used their might to push it open, it slowly opened with a loud groan. Finally it opened up and both men walked within the pitched dark room.
Lifting their torches above them, they gasped aloud! The entire room was illuminated by their torches to show them what was before them was stacked from floor to ceiling, and the ceiling was well above their heads, gold coins. Thousands, upon thousands of shiny gold coins staring back at Thrain and Thorin! Father and son exchanged looks and began to laugh out loud, they fell to their knees and continued laughing for a while as they held on to each other's shoulder's for support. Tears of joy seeped from the corner of their eyes.
As their laughter subsided, they stood up and began to look about them. Wordless at the amount of gold before their eyes!
As they walked further in, Thorin estimated the room to be twice the size of the Receiving Halls in the palace of Erebor! He swallowed hard as he gave a mental calculation of the amount of gold in this room and almost staggered; they literally could buy all the dwarven clans and twice more! He bent at his knees and began to take deep breaths; what he would give to see Lee's reaction!
"Are you all right, son?" Thrain came over to him, his face were concerned for him.
Thorin nodded, "Yeah, just give me a few minutes."
Thrain continued his way, "Just take slow breath, slow and easy."
"Leave me alone, father."
Thorin glared at the back of his father when he heard his sire laughing too happily, "Fathers!" He groused.
One hour later, they found three more rooms similar in size, equally in amount of gold coins. There was another larger room filled with silver coins with three metal chests filled to the brim with gemstones; emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and diamonds and other lesser value gems.
"How are we to transport them to Erebor?" Thrain wondered as he hefted a handful of gold coins in his hands.
Thorin shrugged, "We can use the ponies here for transporting. The tunnel is large enough to fit the animals and wagons…"
They began to discuss many things regarding the gold and bringing the gold to Erebor as they made their way back to the palace.
….
ThoraLee was napping in the Queen's private quarters when she was awakened, feeling that she was been watched.
Whoever it was came near her and began nudging her rudely with his booted toes.
"Hey you, get your lazy bones up!" The strange voice said annoyingly. Lee kept her eyes closed, pretending to be still sleeping.
The stranger would not leave her alone but nudged her harder; Lee was now thoroughly annoyed herself; she was having a rather pleasant dream about Thorin when she was awaken by this person. Queen Nur had permitted her to rest in her quarters while waiting for Thorin and the King's return, the Queen herself was tending to Dis.
All right, whoever you're, nudge me one more time, you'll wish you'll never touch me at all! Lee thought to herself.
Of course, her annoying nudger did it again.
Before he could do it again, Lee's nudger found himself being smacked flat on his stomach, his left cheek pressed hard against the floor by the divan she was lying on, her dagger pointed on his neck, his hands held tightly up by her hand hard behind his back.
"Oi! Wha! Who are you?" Her nudger was wincing hard, the unexpected impact jarred and stunned him.
Lee leaned close to his ears as she growled at him, "Someone who was having a very pleasant nap and did not appreciated being awakened by your stinking boot."
"Do you even know who I am?"
"I don't care if you're the king of the mountains or …"
"Ah! Frerin! I see you've met my intended!" Thorin's voice cut in. "My dear, please do not hurt my brother too much, he's mother's favorite you know?"
Thrain's amused voice said, "I'm sure Frerin deserves what's coming for him, right Lee?"
Lee smiled as she looked up at Thorin and Thrain, she still had a grip on Frerin, "Oh, hello! How did your journey went?"
"Um, please…let me go?"
Lee looked down at Frerin, "Not until you apologize for being rude to me."
"But I thought you were a servant and you were being lazy…ow! Alright, alright, alright, I'm sorry I was being rude to you…er…?'
"Her name is ThoraLee." Thorin grinned as he shook his head.
"I'm sorry I was rude to you, ThoraLee. Now, will you please let me go?"
"Hmm, he looks pretty good lying that way, if you ask me." Thorin said.
"Thorin!" Frerin cried aloud.
But ThoraLee had pushed him off her as she released him. She walked to Thorin and he gathered her in his arms.
Frerin was rubbing his neck as he stood up, glaring at her, "Where did you find her anyways"
Thorin ignored his brother as he pressed a kiss on her lips and whispered, "I missed you, my dear."
Frerin arched a brow at the scene before him and turned to his father, "Is that my brother? The same one that said he won't fall in love that easily not long ago?"
Thrain nodded, "That's him."
"Frerin!" Nur came in with her arms opened, her face lit up to see her youngest son.
Frerin rushed to his mother and gave her a tight hug as she laughed, "Oh dear, not too tight!"
"Mother! How have you been?"
"I am well, now that you're home," Her smile faltered when she saw a nick on his neck and frowned. "What happened to you?" she pointed at the wound.
Thorin laughed as he looked at their mother, "Lee happened, that's what." He quickly told her what happened.
Nur shook her head as she grinned and put her hand on her son's shoulder, "Never approached an unsuspecting person, you never know they may be armed."
Frerin shook his head, "I thought she was a maid and she had fallen asleep on her work."
"It's all right Frerin, when I first met her, she gave me a black eye and a broken nose."
"And you threw me into the dungeons," Lee added.
Frerin stared at her, "Wait a minute, I remember you! You were at the…the Coming of Age party and you were involved in the fight and oh yes, you punched Thorin! Oh!" Frerin began to guffaw. Nur who had not heard about the incident were laughing hard at his son.
Thorin blushed hard as he held onto Lee who was laughing as well, he tried to glare at her but she shook at him.
"Not funny, my dear, " he growled at her.
Later, Thrain sat Frerin down and told him all that had happened.
Frerin's eyes were wide as he tried to absorb the size his father and Thorin told him about the gold. "I want to see it."
"Tomorrow Frerin, we will show you." Thorin said. "It's getting now."
Frerin nodded, "What about the Arkenstone? Any idea about it?"
They shook their heads but Lee stood up and walked up to the wall panel. "What about this?"
Thorin stood up as well, he removed his ring and like before, he put the ring into the small corner of the raised carving of the small Durin name.
Again it fit and turned. The panel moved but this time instead of sliding like the one in the King's chambers, this panel flipped around, from left to right, it came to a stop after it spun one hundred and eighty degrees. The panel clicked to a stop. All four of them gasped and ooh'ed at the same time. Directly behind the runic word of Durin was the Arkenstone! It shone as bright as if it was a living stone. Just as it was described in the text script, the Arkenstone was bigger than the size of a dwarf's heart! There were over a hundred facets on the face of the Stone.
"I don't believe it, I just don't believe it…" Thrain was muttering to himself, Nur had moved to his side, he gripped his wife's hand for assurances.
Frerin was laughing as he said, "The Stone has been in your chamber all these years, mother! All these years! Ha!" He stooped slightly down with his hands on his knees as he continued to laugh. "By Durin's tomb…no wait, Durin's panel!" He was reduced to another bout of laughter.
Thrain and Nur turned to look at their youngest son as Thrain eyed at him, "I think someone took the mattock too hard in the head." Nur nodded in agreement as they turned back to admire the Arkenstone.
"You did it again, rúzín." Thorin whispered as he led Lee out of the queen's chambers and walked down to the palace gardens.
"We did it together, Khazad-zukȉn." She looked at him adoringly.
….
Much later, when they sat down for supper, the Durins had agreed that they would wait for the arrival of Thorin's and Frerin's distant cousins Oin's and Gloin's arrival from Dunland near the southern part of the Misty Mountains. They were to be at Erebor within the week.
Oin and Gloin were also from the Durin's family line, as well as Balin and Dwalin; they would have a very wealthy share of the Durin gold and they would be assisting in removing the gold from the sub terrain chambers to Erebor.
Now there was one more thing they had to do before they could rest; to find the treaty between Durins and the Nogrods.
Nur and Lee decided to visit Dis while Thrain busied himself with his daily reports; the princes were left on their own for a private reunion but they were still excited about the find and all that happened that afternoon.
Thorin was recalling the translation, "'The treaty was carved into a wall for all to see in case the Nogrods descendants tried to rescind the treaty from the Durin descendants'. It had to be in a public place…like the Receiving Halls?"
Frerin stood up and began to walk towards the Receiving Halls and looked about him. Thorin who had followed his brother did likewise.
"…for all to see…" Thorin muttered as he moved about the Halls.
The guards were eyeing at the two young princes as they were walking about looking around oddly, wondering if the two were feeling all right. They began to feel worried for them as they kept their hands on the hilt of their swords.
"Anything Frerin?" Thorin asked arms akimbo.
Frerin shook his head, "No, nothing. I think we should call this off till the morn, I'm all for a mug of beer or two at the moment, what say you, brother?"
Thorin nodded and smile, "I'm of the same mind." He walked towards Frerin and wrapped his arms around his shoulders and walked away from the Halls togethe. "And you can tell me all about your weapons training."
Frerin grinned, "And you can tell me about your intended and how she agreed to wed you."
"You wish." Thorin shook his head as he smacked his brother.
It was very late in the night when Thorin came into Lee's bedroom and gathered her and brought her into his bedroom and laid her with him in his bed, Lee nuzzled into his neck as she smiled and sighed contentedly as they fell asleep in each other's arms.
….
End of Chapter 19
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