Title: Tale of Journeys Past
Author: LillaMyy
Rating: S
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit
Characters: Gimli, Legolas, Fíli & Kíli
Betaish: Saappaaton
Genre: melancholic drama
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters except the ones I’ve made up, and I don’t claim that this ever happened. Neither do I get any monetary profit for writing this. That one longer part in italics is a straight quote from the extended edition of
The Fellowship of the Ring.
Summary: Gimli recounts his adventures to his friends after he has returned to Erebor.
Challenges: Kieliterttu (englanti) and FF50 (13, ystävät)
A/N: Umm, I saw a picture once that gave the idea to this (picture found later in the notes for spoiler-reasons) and then I watched the EE’s of LotR for a thousandth time which inspired me even further and finally I had a discussion with
Saappaaton at IRC about this idea and, well, here I am with the story. I was supposed to write this in Finnish, but in the end decided against it, because I wanted to post this on AO3 as well… Anyways, I hope you like this and hopefully I won’t break too many hearts with this, try to enjoy the story. (:
Tale of Journeys Past
When Gimli returned from his journeys to Erebor, he returned surprisingly with an elf. And with not just any elf, but prince Legolas of Mirkwood. Glóin and several other dwarves wondered what on earth had happened to Gimli when he of all of the Dwarves had befriended an elf. However, before Gimli explained anything to anyone else, he made his way to see his friends as was his habit after every journey.
“Hello again, my dear friends! It’s been awhile since my last visit, but this time I have a great tale to tell you”, Gimli began shivering a little since the air inside the chamber was chilly as was usual.
“I told you already before I left that it was going to be a very important quest and I wasn’t far wrong! There were all manner of Men, Elves and Hobbits in Rivendell; Aragorn, a King of Men, Boromir, whom we lost but who was nonetheless a mighty warrior, brave masters Samwise and Frodo – a Baggins no less! I also met your burglar in the council! I wasn’t particularly keen on the elf of our company at first but later I grew to like him. Young Merry and Pippin, two hobbit-rascals, were always running off into trouble. I think, lads, that you would’ve liked the two of them”, Gimli chattered away in the silence of the chamber.
“Our fellowship of nine turned South from Rivendell and tried to go through the pass of
Barazinbar but that failed so to my joy we decided to go through
Khazad-dûm instead. I thought it would be fun to see Balin, Óin, Ori and the rest again, but they were all dead, we found only the journal that Ori kept with him at all times where he recorded their time in
Khazad-dûm. It was grim to hear when Gandalf read parts of it aloud. And I saw Durin’s Bane! O, it was horrible! That was why Gandalf fell”, Gimli said leaning on his axe. He took a moment of silence before continuing his story onwards.
“The remaining eight of us fled from
Khazad-dûm to Lothlórien. I wasn’t that keen on visiting some more Elves, and they didn’t much like me either, but it turned out better than I had expected. We received some well needed rest and counsel before we continued our journey onwards by boats on the Anduin. And O Kíli, you should have seen the Lady Galadriel! You of all Dwarves would understand me now! I took my worst wound at that parting
having looked my last upon that which is fairest. Henceforward I will call nothing fair, unless it be her gift to me”, Gimli sighed at that.
“We reached the falls of Rauros and that was where the Uruk-hai caught us and Boromir was slain. At the time we did not know all that happened but Aragorn deduced from the tracks that Frodo and Sam had taken a boat to the other side to continue to Mordor without us and that the Orcs had taken Merry and Pippin captive. Hence, Legolas, Aragorn and I followed the tracks of the Uruk-hai. We followed their trail to the Forest of Fangorn, where we found the burning carcasses of the Orcs but no sight of our friends. That was also when Gandalf miraculously returned to us!” Gimli took a moment to gather his thoughts before he continued.
“Gandalf told us how he managed to slay Durin’s Bane and was brought back to life. He told us we were needed at Edoras, so we rode with him to Théoden’s halls. We fought together with the Rohirrim at Helm’s Deep and that is where I found the most magnificent place you could have ever imagined. The Glittering Caves they were called by the Rohirrim but if there ever was a place that looked less like a cave and more like a palace it would be this. Ah, the Glittering Caves, if only I could do them justice by describing them to you! But no, my words would fall utterly short of their greatness; you would need to see them to believe me. But now I digress again… What was I saying? Ah, yes, the battle, the Battle of Helm’s Deep was won and I beat Legolas by one Orc!” For the longest time since beginning his story Gimli smiled and his face light up a little at the memory of his competition with Legolas.
“After the battle we travelled to Isengard where we at last met our young hobbit friends again. They told us of their adventures with the Ents who are talking trees if you only can believe me and we told them of the battle. Young master Pippin took one of the ancient seeing stones and looked into it, which is why Gandalf hurried him off to Minas Tirith. Merry stayed with the rest of us on the return journey from Isengard. When we were making our way as secretly as we could to Helm’s Deep we were caught by Aragorn’s people, the Dúnedain rangers who came to join us.”
“Along with the rangers, we took the Dimholt road to awaken the Army of the Dead. Of that journey I will not tell you for it would simply disgrace me and all Dwarves when even Elves were less afraid underground than I was then”, Gimli said shuddering at his memories.
“However, we did stop the Corsair ships as had been our intention with the passage through the mountains in the first place and with our aid the Battle of the Pelennor Fields was won. We marched onto the Black Gate to give Frodo and Sam the diversion they needed to get to the Mountain of Fire to destroy the Ring and I was already sure it would be the end of me. But it was not, and I had the chance to see Aragorn crowned King Elessar and his wedding to the Lady Arwen. And now I am finally home again”, Gimli ended his story with a crooked smile that did not fully reach his eyes.
“I’ll come back later again to see you, but now I think I need to go tell Dáin about the colony in
Khazad-dûm”, Gimli said touching the cold hard stone of Fíli’s tomb with the palm of his hand.
“Not to mention telling
adad that uncle Óin is dead. What I dread the most, however, is telling Dori about little Ori, he’s never going to forgive himself for letting him go to
Khazad-dûm with Balin and the others”, Gimli’s voice trailed off as he gave a tap to Fíli’s tomb on his left and then that of Kíli’s on his right side. Then he nodded, said his goodbyes to his old friends and took his leave of them. He turned to face the tombs from the door of the chamber as he felt a cold breeze touch his shoulder. A slight smile reached his face as he said:
“I know, lads, I miss you, too!”
A/N2: Translations from Khuzdul to English: Barazinbar = Redhorn (Khuzdul name for Caradhras), Khazad-dûm = Delving of the Dwarves (Khuzdul name for Moria), adad = father. Also the inspiration to this came from
this image and the reason this is found at the end is because, well, spoiler alert!
