Post
by Boronind » Thu Dec 31, 2015 9:14 pm
Though lost in his own thoughts as he stares into his mug of ale while stroking his long now pre-maturely greying black beard, Bláin still manages to chuckle approvingly with appropriate dwarven gusto so not to offend Fuin, an elder of Úri’s folk (aka the Firebeards) and head of this caravan of goods (mostly fine crafted weapons and armor from the two great dwarven halls in Ered Luin, Belegost and Nogrod) on its way to Erebor, Bláin’s “new” home since his father Balin, sent for him the following late spring after the Battle of Five Armies in the late fall of 2941.
Bláin, of Durin’s Folk (the Longbeards), who was born and grew up in Ered Luin among Úri’s and Linnar’s folk (the Broadbeams) has travelled this East-West route between these great dwarf mansions almost every year on trading missions at the behest of his father, former member of Thorin Oakenshield famous “quest for Erebor” and now chief counselor to King Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain, since the retaking of Erebor. Of all those trips, the most memorable was the one of 2949 when he and his father, joined by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, stayed for some time at Bag End, as guests of Bilbo Baggins. There he heard, from three perspectives no less (!), the greatest adventure of his people in the Third Age, the Quest for Erebor: a tale of trolls, goblins, wargs, skin-changers, eagles, elves, and of course, dragons. As Balinul (son of Balin), he is a rightful “heir” to that adventure, though after so many years of trading between dwarf halls he doesn’t feel as if that is true anymore. All trading expeditions and no adventure have made Bláin, as the Men of Bree say about “Jack,” a “dull boy.”
But perhaps something will happen to change Bláin’s rather boring existence as a trader of fine dwarven goods. After all, it was right here in Bree, right here in the Prancing Pony, perhaps even at this very table, where it all started, when Thorin Oakenshield, his father’s distant cousin several times removed in line of Náin II, and Gandalf the Grey , in early spring of 2941, first birthed the plan to retake Erebor, so that Durin’s folk would be an exiled people no more. Though the Longbeards now had a place to call “home,” after losing not just Erebor, but Khazad-dûm (Moria), as well as Gundabad (twice!), it would seem that the many of his kindred over the last decade or so have lost the “edge” that they had had when they had next to nothing and no place of their own. Surely, Durin’s folk could not grow as “fat” Bombur, a true scion of Linnar’s folk; not if Bláin could help it.
While still feigning attention to Fuin and his comrades at his table, Bláin raises his head and looks around the tavern for somebody who might tell him of some adventure worth taking him from this monotonous albeit pleasure existence….