“Gandalf?
Gandalf the Grey? The wizard?” Thorin replied, and joining in the unison rattle
of weaponry that was being lowered and dropped on the soft, lush grass. “It seems like you have come upon quite an
interesting place..” Gandalf continued, stepping closer to the dwarves, even while
knowing they would probably not be able to see him. Muffled taps of his
staff upon the grassy soil, and a small breeze passed the company by, that
shifted and moved the fog. Another series of taps, a stronger breeze. After the
fifth series of taps, a gust blew by that was strong enough to let them see
each other, a handful of steps away from each other. “Well well, it finally
worked as it should’ve. Do you believe me now?” The baffled dwarves slowly nodded,
one by one. Gandalf took a step back to look up at the stone wall which the
dwarves had at their backs. “Hm, this building here..I have heard of it, but I’ve
never actually seen it..” The dwarves scrambled to their feet and stepped up to
the wizard, turned around to look at the wall. It looked like any other stone
wall you would see from buildings. But it was incredibly long. “So what is this
place, Gandalf? Do you know? We’ve travelled here before and never come upon
this before..There’s never been a structure here!” Thorin said.
Gandalf
huffed and grumbled under his breath, all the while thinking. “I need to
confirm my suspicions at first. Would you be willing to accompany around the
wall?” He asked the others, and without waiting for an answer, he turned around
and walked parallel to the wall. Then the wall turned, in a gentle, round
curve. “It took you fellows a bit of time to come down from the mountain, but I
had been informed this was the route you would be taking. I figured following
this trail would be a safe wager.”
Around the curve and the wall suddenly stopped. And lead to a gated
slope upwards, with small towers on each side of the gate. “Wait, what is this
even? I can’t even see the entire thing..” Thorin grumbled, and took a few
steps back, not quite fathoming what it was that he was looking at. Rat-tat-tat
on the ground, and another gust swept by, causing the fog to be pushed off.
What they then saw was a series of ruined, towers past the walls and the gate,
and through the gates, ruins of buildings. Homes that once existed. “It seems,
my friends”, Gandalf said, “That we have come upon the citadel of Hethuost.”
