The Arda Post - "The Haunted Dagger"

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	"The Haunted Dagger" - Chapter 1 By Bronwyn Published: May 31, 2005 Updated: May 31, 2005 Print CHAPTER 1. INTO THE GLOOM The twins, Anborn and Anoreth carefully made their way from the cavern, in which they had found themselves along a narrow, dark corridor of hewn stone. It resembled a mineshaft although they had never really seen a real one. One of the museums, which they had visited, in school had a fake one. It had been a representation of the mythical Dwarven mines contained in the many stories read to them by their teachers and parents over the years of their childhood.“Whew, this place smells bad!” croaked Anborn. “I wonder if it’s safe for us.” “Well, I’m not feeling dizzy or sick,” replied his sister. Wouldn’t that be a sign of poisonous air?” “I guess so. Shh, did you hear that?” and Anborn stopped suddenly putting his hand up for silence. “I’m sure I heard something up in front of us!” “I didn’t hear anything. You’re just trying to scare me. And I’m scared enough as it is!” returned Anoreth. “No I’m not!” argued her brother. “I really heard something. Let’s be real quiet for a few minutes and see if I hear it again.” The twins inched along in silence. Anoreth had the mysterious stone she had found. It was their only source of light, and although bright it made everything seem more eerie with moving shadows in front of them. Anborn still held the sheath and dagger that he had found earlier before the ground had given away beneath them and they had fallen into the cavern. He had fallen on it when it dropped with him. Now he clutched it tightly wondering if he might have to use it as a weapon! Sounds echoed around them eerie and strange, yet they could see nothing as they made their way from one tunnel into another. The place was honeycombed with both tunnels and small chambers, but no writing of any kind until they turned an abrupt corner and suddenly found themselves in a huge, vaulted chamber. There were what appeared to be runes in several places, but also a type of writing with which they were not familiar. “I’ve seen some of the manuscripts in the museums at Minas Tirith that were said to be written in Elvish. This looks something like those but not the same,” whispered Angborn. “I know that the runes over there are said to be ancient.” “Whatever they are I wish we could find our way out of here!” choked his twin. “It smells awful!” “Yeah, I’ll agree with you there,” returned her brother. “I wonder why it smells so bad.” As they continued through the large cavern they came upon what looked like bones, but they had almost turned into dust. They began to find metal fragments that could have been weapons, but they too had turned into unidentifiable pieces. Suddenly Anoreth let out an audible gasp. “Anborn you’d better come over here and see this!” They stood together and stared at a horrible sight. It was the remains of a creature of some type. In the glow of the rock, which Anoreth held it looked like some sort of dinosaur. It was long and seemed to have had wings of some kind. “Do you think that the stories they tell of dragons was real?” squeaked the girl. “This sure looks like what used to be a dragon to me!” “Look, let’s just try to get out of here, huh?” Said Anborn as he looked around. “There’s a tunnel that seems to have a little light coming from it. Let’s try it and see.” He pulled Anoreth along to the tunnel. As they entered they heard and ear-splitting screech that stopped them short. Because of the echo they couldn’t tell whether it came from in front or behind them. Should they go forward or try to hide in the cavern behind them? Anoreth bolted forward into one of the tunnels which ran to the left, and her brother followed. He had no choice. He couldn’t let her go alone and she had the light. As they rounded a curve a large shadow confronted them. The shadow looked huge and it was waving some sort of weapon. They then heard it shouting in a deep, gruff voice but couldn’t understand what was being said. They froze where they were not knowing what else to do. Around the curve the shadow came ever nearer until …there it was. A small man with a full beard. He wasn’t quite as tall as Anborn but he was much stouter in build. He had an odd helmet and a double headed axe. The apparition stopped, seeming more surprised than the twins! All three stared at each other in silence. Anoreth was the first to speak. “Who are you? Where is this place?” the questions tumbled out, but the small man dressed in such an odd way just stared at them as if he couldn’t understand them. “Anborn, I don’t think he understands what I’m saying. Maybe he’s a foreigner and can’t speak our language.” “Oh, young lady I certainly can speak,” he sputtered. “I might add just who are you? What are you doing in this place? And what has happened to your clothing?” he added. “Our clothing! I was about to ask you the same thing!” answered Anborn. “Please, where are we?” “Yes, please tell us what this place is,” pleaded Anoreth, near to tears. “We seem to be lost. The mound caved in over us and we found ourselves here and we found this,” and she held out the crystal. The strange little man seemed to calm at this and looked at the crystal in awe. "And I found this," broke in Anborn holding out the sheathed dagger. “Why, that is Lady AiyaCalime’s stone of magic. Her vision stone that she was to leave here in this cave,” he said with wonder in his voice. And I believe that dagger belonged to one of the warriors, although I can't remember which one now. My mind is all muddled with these happenings!" Turning from the stone to the twins he hesitated before answering their questions. “I am called Kelim Naugrim and am of the House of Kemen Naugrim. We are Dwarves of the Iron Hills.” Anborn turned to Anoreth. His eyes were big and wondering and hers were about the same. At times, as most twins, they knew what each other were thinking and this was one of those times. ‘Dwarves’? ‘AiyaCalime’? Anoreth sat down where she was. She was tired, thirsty and hungry and they didn’t know where they were. Now here was a strange person… Dwarf… dressed in strange clothes and talking about their ancestor! Their father had told them stories about AiyaCalime since they had been barely old enough to walk! Now they were hearing a strange tale of this crystal being hers. The Dwarf warrior continued his explanation. At least what he knew. “I was with a group of warriors who were accompanying Lady Aiya to put her crystal in this cave. We entered, she put it in a small niche in the wall and we were coming out again. I must have lagged behind because I found myself locked in. The cave entrance just disappeared. And here I am. I thought you were a cold-drake or a Longworm!” “What are they?” whispered Anoreth and her brother broke in. “Father showed me some of the ancient drawings of the monsters in our fables at Minas Tirith. They were sort of …dragons or something. Maybe that’s what we saw in that cavern back there. Or at least what’s left of them.” “A cavern, you say. Show me this place. And believe me those ugly creatures are not fables. I've fought my share of 'em. What do I call you two?” put in the Dwarf, and added “You two certainly look almost the same except one is a girl and one a boy.” “We’re twins,” they answered together. Anborn then continued. “You said something about a Lady Aiya. We have an ancient ancestor named AiyaCalime. I wonder if it’s the same one?” “Well, she couldn’t be an ancestor young man. She is alive and somewhere outside of this accursed cave!” growled the Dwarf in a rather testy voice. “Now, please, show me this cavern you talked about. And you young lady. Hold that crystal up so we can get more light. I have been in the dark for too long. Didn’t know where I was going. Had to feel my way along these tunnels until I saw the glow of your light. The two retraced their steps along the tunnels until they came back to the cavern. Kelim looked closely at the runes that were etched in the stones at various places. It seemed he was studying them. He would direct Anoreth to shine it here and them some other place, always looking closely and making little ‘Hmms and ‘yes I see’ comments. He then turned to the twins and announced, “I know how we can get out of here!” “How,” asked Anoreth. “How do you know? Can you read those ancient writings?” “Those may be ancient,” answered Kelim, “but that is the written language of my people. It is Dwarvish and not meant to be told to anyone else. But in this case I will make and exception. We need to get out of here.” He took Anoreth by the shoulder and guided her, Anborn and the crystal she held through various narrow tunnels. “My people made these, you know. Centuries ago they mined in these area until they were forced out by Sauron’s Orcs.” Again the twins were confused. Of course they had both heard about the Orcs, and the evil Sauron. The stories of Mordor, Barad-dur, and the battles to free Middle Earth from the evil Sauron were tales that would be told forever. But to them the tales were mythic, and they really didn’t consider them as real history. Now it seemed that the mythological tales had at least some truth to them. They both wished that their father was with them. This was what he had told them since they were old enough to understand. That was why he had received permission to excavate at this ancient site. He wanted to prove that some of the story about their ancestor as well as other stories had some truth behind them. Now, if they could find him, they could tell him he was right! At a sudden turn in another black tunnel there was light. They could see just a sliver but that was enough to make them hurry even faster which was why they didn’t see the chasm in front of them. Anoreth screamed as she pitched over the side, but Kelim grabbed her before she had completely fallen inside. With his strong arms he pulled her up as if she didn’t weigh anything and they carefully inched their way around the deep crack continued to climb up a small grade and popped out of a hole into fresh air. “Oh, that feels good,” cried Anoreth, “and thankyou for pulling me out of that hole, er.. Kelim? I’m sorry, it’s a strange name that I’m not used to and I haven’t remembered it yet,” she confessed. “Well, I’m used to it being called strange in some lands that I have traveled, I’ll have to admit,” and the Dwarf laughed heartily. He was much relieved at being out of that cave. “Now where do we go, Kelim?” asked Anborn as he looked around him. “I don’t see anything familiar.” “We’ll have to trail the troops. That’s what we’ll do,” stated the Dwarf and they followed him down a path with an assurance that made the two feel much better than they had felt for sometime. “The troops?” whispered Anoreth to her brother. He just hunched his shoulders in answer and shook his head. Discuss this article in the Forum!

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