“Oh my…” whispered Falco. All around were treasures of gold and silver, but they looked dim and cold in the light. Ama looked further on, her eyes falling upon eight stone slabs placed neatly in a semi circle. She caught her breath and suddenly the air was filed with a song. A bitter mummer, falling and rising. The voice appeared distant, rasping but filling the air all around them. The hobbits stood still rooted to the spot, they wanted to move but could not. The space around them froze their bones, and as the distant melody grew closer one by one the hobbits fell to their knees.
As Ama’s knees hit the ground, she fell to the floor knocking her head on the icy, stone floor. As she came to she looked up at the swirling patterns above her. As it all came in to focus a shadow leaned over her and two faint, greenish eyes loomed at her.
“Olo!” she choked, her throat cold with horror, “Where are you?”
“I am here,” replied a voice, but it did not belong to Olo. No, that was no friendly kind voice. It was evil, harsh. Then a firm and frozen grip took her body, her blood ran chill and her bones seized up, and then darkness.
~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@ ~@~@~@~
A green light broke through her shut eyes, and then they gently opened. It took her a while to get used to her surroundings, but she found her arms were placed across her chest and her head thumped persistently against the freezing stone she lay upon. Ama looked around to see her companions, their faces pale, nearly as pale as the white they now wore. And they were overly dressed in the gold and silver that was set on the floor when they had first entered.
And now the song began again, chilling Ama’s heart. And as she listened the words got louder, clearer and more deathly.
Cold be hand and heart and bone,
And cold be sleep under stone:
Never more to wake on stoney bed,
Never, till the Sun fails and the Moon s dead.
In the black wind the stars shall die,
And still on gold here let them lie,
Till the dark lord lifts his hand
Over dead sea and withered land.
Her heart jumped at the ending of the song and all was silent.
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"...still, we lay under the emptiness and drifted slowly outward, and somewhere in the wilderness we found salvation scratched into the earth like a message."
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