WWXXXV: Werewolves among the Wolf-men

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

It was still deep night and Mîm the Dwarf had finished his work. "We go to sleep now," he said to his son. "Take these arrowheads, we will hide them on a safe place." Ibun took several fine-shaped arrowheads they made during this and the previous nights and quietly they crept out of the room. Together they passed through empty and silent corridors. Suddenly Mîm stopped. A sound of soft voices was coming from nearby chamber.
Mîm looked at his son, then beckoned to him to stay in place with the arrowheads, and he himself took a turn and with his lamp's light dimmed he entered the room. "Do not the Men yet sl-"
But he did not finish the sentence. In the dim light of half-covered lantern, two large beasts in wolf-form were sitting there, their eyes staring at him. Mîm gave out a loud cry and turned to run, but he was too slow. At the same moment something big and furry knocked him down from behind, and he fell to the stony floor. Sharp-fanged jaws opened to inflict the deadly bite, but suddenly retaliated, and the wolf gave out a sound of pain, as a thrown sharp piece of metal hit his side. The beast turned, and saw Ibun standing in the nearby entrance. He was just preparing to rush forth to his father's aid, but faster than eyes could see the wolf jumped over Mîm's lying body and ran to Ibun, nailing the Dwarf against the wall. Half-shaken by the pounce, Ibun struggled to set himself free, but instantly he felt terrible pain, as sharp fangs pierced his throat. The Dwarf's death rattle echoed the empty corridor, followed by annoyed growl and Mîm's scream.

But there was no time for the old Dwarf to wonder. The second wolf came out of the room, preparing to finish off the second witness of the monsters' presence. But before he could move toward his helpless prey, a hooded figure appeared in the corridor entrance. There was a plunk of bowstring and an arrow nearly missed the snout of one wolf. The newcomer was already pulling the string of his long black bow for the second time, but the monsters understood the peril quickly. Swiftly, both wolves turned and disappeared in the other empty entrance.

Before Mîm could lift himself from the floor, swift steps were heard and from the other side a man came with sword drawn and a torch in hand, and he stopped at the terrible sight. The hooded figure, still holding the fine carved black bow, turned to him.
"What is this evil work, my friend?" said Túrin. "What happened here?"
"It is as I told you," answered Beleg, taking off the hood, "you brought the evil with you. This is the deed of Morgoth's servants. I saw them: they are werewolves. They are hiding among the outlaws."
Now Túrin saw again that his choice lead him to peril, and that Beleg was right. But the Elf said: "Alas! You may do well to pity that you rejected my counsel, son of Húrin, but too late. The evil is here."
Mîm did not listen to the talk of two men. Crawling on the ground, he moved to his son's dead body, lay his head on Ibun's chest and soaking his beard in son's blood he wept with voiceless cry.
"Stand up, Mîm," said Túrin. "You are alive, thanks to Beleg, though it is too late for your son."
"I pity I came too late," said Beleg. But Mîm looked up, and there was a red light in his eyes. "Late!" he said. "You should have let the beasts kill Mîm as well, then! For what is now left for me here? My sons are dead! Yes, you came too late, Elf, as your kin always does!"
"Do not be hasty in your sorrow and anger, Mîm," said Túrin. "You are alive only because the beasts were disturbed. But with your aid, we can make revenge on those who caused you this pain."
Now Mîm looked at Beleg, but was silent. "Speak to us!" said Túrin. "How many did you see?"
"Two," answered the Dwarf.
"I saw two as well," confirmed Beleg. "I doubt they will do anything more tonight: they surely want to cover, now that they know their presence is revealed. In the morning, we should move the others to seek for the threat in our ranks."
"And how shall we learn?" asked Túrin. "How shall we discern the werewolves from innocent men?"
"We must hope," said Beleg. "But we should not reveal ourselves to the others, not yet. I am sure the Enemy wants you, Túrin, more than anyone else, and if the werewolves learned, they would waste no time to harm you."
"But Nienor!" said Túrin. "She is in danger too! And how can I save her? I do not even know who she is!"
"Then you have to find the werewolves and destroy them before they find you - or her," answered Beleg.
"So it shall be," said Túrin and turned to the old Dwarf. "Mîm, we appreciate you told no one about the two of us. Keep this knowledge in secret still! But I swear I will avenge your son, and once this is done, I will pay you even greater ransom, for I owe you my life now."
And Beleg said: "Do not swear when you cannot see the end! But now you will do well to sleep. I am going to stay awake for the rest of the night and guard, as well as tomorrow and other days if it is needed. I may watch you or another one whom you choose to trust, to protect him from danger. I can stay awake and alert at nights, but you, Túrin, are a Man and have to sleep."
"Nevertheless, I will keep my sword close," said Túrin.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Mîm did not sleep at all that night: after the talk with Túrin and Beleg he took the dead body of his son together with the arrowheads they forged that night and carried it through the empty corridors to his secret room. He was downbent by his heavy burden, but carried it all the way. Then he buried his second son's body, as it was a way among the Dwarves; and when the stars were beginning to fade, he left his secret room and blocked the entrance with a stone.

And it came when the outlaws awoke in the morning, Mîm spoke to them in the great hall and, as Túrin asked him before, told them what happened at night. And when the men and women heard about werewolves being present among them, some were afraid. And one of them, a long-haired woman dressed in dark green, expressed the feelings of some: "If there are werewolves among us, we should leave this place!"
But another one, a grumpy-looking man, said: "And how do you want to survive in the woods if there are such monsters around? No, we have to stay here. And if these beasts go out, they will bring their friends."
"You are right," nodded another, shorter man. "The location of our hideout should not be given away."
"And you remember the way inside?" asked a woman in worn-out clothes, with long black tangled hair. "I think no one of us does. There is quite a maze of rock out there."
"But what are we going to eat?" asked a very young-looking man, almost a boy. "We surely cannot let this place's location be revealed, in this I agree with the short guy. But from what I saw, there is not much food here for the lot of us, or is it?" he said, turning to Mîm.
"Truly, there is not," said the old Dwarf. "For a few days, maybe. But Mîm can bring food from the outside."
"No, no!" said the grumpy-looking man. "We will not allow this, surely? We would never see the old rascal again."
"Why should he betray us?" muttered a young woman in gray cloak. "This is his home, after all."
"Someone should at least watch him," proposed the man in blue-hued cloak. "If we send someone with him, he cannot simply run away."
"But we said that no one should leave!" shouted the short guy.
"If we send just one," said the boyish-looking man, "then even if he were a werewolf, he would not want to leave his fellow here alone. And as someone said, he could not find his way back without the Dwarf's aid."
"Then the only question remains – who will go?" said the woman in dark green.
There was a moment of silence.
"I will," said the woman in gray cloak after a while. "I trust the Dwarf, but for your sake I am going to look after him. We'll be back at sunset, good?"

As no one obliged, the Dwarf and the woman took each one bow and a sack and went off. The others watched them, until they disappeared among the rock...

The inhabitants of Amon Rûdh - dead:

Ibun son of Mîm, killed by a Werewolf on Night 1

The inhabitants of Amon Rûdh – living:
Mîm the Petty Dwarf, outside on the gathering of food
Rikae
Shastanis Althreduin
Nogrod
Macalaure
Isabellkya
Brinniel
Lhunardawen
xyzzy
Gil-Galad
the guy who be short
Mithalwen, outside on the gathering of food with Mîm

Day 1 has begun. Everyone stop PMing. Everyone start to talk.

[Nogrod]

Old Nogrod woke up with the general hassle. He had thought that this dwarf Mîm was no good and should be done away with anyway. The way Mîm presented the case of the Night was not going to make him thinking better of the shortling.

“C’mon! You said there are two werewolves of Morgoth inside here, but how come you tell us that:

[I]In the dim light of half-covered lantern, two large beasts in wolf-form were sitting there, their eyes staring at [me]. [I] gave out a loud cry and turned to run, but [...] was too slow. At the same moment something big and furry knocked [me] down from behind, and fell to the stony floor.

So you saw two but still one came from behind? And what is your part in this you cobbler of a dwarf? As soon as we realise who of us you are, I say we bring you to the gallows just to be sure with you.”

Nogrod drew breath and watched the others as they tried to come to grips with his strong accusations.

“Just listen to what he tells us and think for yourselves. There is something rotten there. Either there are more Morgoth’s servants around here and he lies to us deliberately or then he himself is a lesser baddie and wants to mislead us with cunning schemes. Both ways I’d like to see that dwarf getting the blade as soon as possible.”

Nogrod streched for his pipe and after reaching it and the tobacco started filling it.

“The Two Captains should stay concealed for their own good... and lady Nienor, if she really is here... I do fear that her fate is tied to the fate of our Dragon-helm of Dor Lómin. But how can we avoid jumping on the child of Húrin or the renowned Beleg Cúthalion, or Her? That is the puzzle for us to begin with in concerto with spotting these cursed Morgoth’s apes.”

After lighting his pipe Nogrod set it aside and took his blanket to fold it neatly. Then he looked around for the others in the chamber and grasped his pipe puffing a few smoke-rings from it.

“Mith is away for toDay as she is out with that dwarf. I would not think her suspicious just for the reason she will not have a possibility of defending herself toDay. But the dwarf I would really like to hang. So let’s see who is the one that will not take part in our discussions toDay and reason out the dwarf’s identity that way? Or do you have better ideas?”

With that Nogrod leaned back and fell into his thoughts. He was puzzled and waited in eagerness for the others to contribute their thoughts.

[Nogrod]

After a moment's silence Nogrod coughed pardoningly and managed to utter the next words against his personal pride.

"Oh... after some thinking I must say that the dwarf actually said that he had turned around before someone ran over him from behind. But I still wonder how he managed to stay alive albeit being run over by a werewolf. So is he telling us the truth? It's easy to allocate brave deeds to those who do not speak any more... And anyhow I dislike these dwarves so I would rather see them gone first."

With that he grumbled and fell to his back again...

[Nogrod]

After a while of napping Nogrod woke up again just to realise that no one had said a word.

"Now what's wrong with you guys? Don't you think we have something to do?"

He bursted and relit his pipe that had went off. Adjusting himself to a better position he scanned the people around. Most of them seemed to have fallen asleep yet again even as it was a high morning outside. He cursed silently to himself... well, being the only one who doesn't need so much sleep around as I'm old enough and have slept my share already, or what? Or the cunning of Morgoth to lay us down and not to even try?

As a sudden reaction he threw a small rock on the short guy.

"Hey you! You we're busy telling us things a while ago when the morning broke... How about you cleared your mind now? Or you blue-hued cloak-man? Or the woman in dark green? We don't get anywhere if you just stay quiet and I'm the only one to talk in this wretched cave..."

His words were absorbed into the silence of the cave and not even the echo answered him. Nogrod sat still for a moment puffing his relit pipe before he rose up and took to the doorway to look at the bright daylight outside.

The morning had actually broken and the sun was travelling quite high already. The forest around Bar-en-Danwedh was glimmering in the day that was already nearing it's peak. Nogrod sat down on a boulder by the entrance of Mîm's hall and looked around him.

The different hues of greens of the forest that danced in the daylight were enchanting and carried Nogrod's thoughts out of the present to the days of his childhood. But then he suddenly came back to the here and now. Darn fools... how do you think to catch the slaves of Morgoth by sleeping on it...?

EDIT: language-affairs...

[Gil-Galad]

Gil rolled his eyes and sighed

"noggie you old coot, why must you always go into those long paragraphs, maybe our readers would like you as the strong silent type"

Gil smiled at the thought of his own joke then begisn to stretch

"so what is our plan for today now that it is less safer my lads?"

[Brinniel]

After some time, a boy hooded in a dark cloak stepped out from the shadows. Sunlight splashed on his face revealing unusually soft features. He looked about the others almost hoping someone else would say something, and when no one did, he cleared his throat.

"I am normally one who prefers to remain quiet, but when no one else but Nogrod will speak, I will no longer stand to stay among the silent. This is an important matter we are discussing...all our lives are at stake. How can we go about seeking out the werewolves when everyone is quiet?

"We may outnumber the wolves now, but one by one they will pick us off. It is important that we find a strategy on how to capture them, and we must have a plan before the day is over or else we might well jump off a cliff, for certainly that would be a better fate than falling into the hands of an Enemy."

Brinn spoke these words quietly, but surely. He hoped that others would follow and step out from the shadows as well.

EDIT: X-ed with Gil-Galad

[Shastanis Althreduin]

Awaking from his much-needed sleep, the young man crawled out from under his sapphire-hued cloak and sat up, reaching for his boots. Picking one up, he paused, then overturned it, shaking it vigorously. A large insect fell out, righted itself, and skittered off.

"Damn cave vermin," he muttered, pulling on the boot and tying the laces. Looking up to see just who was awake, his gaze landed on the old man. He grinned, yanking on the other boot and hopping to his feet.

"What ho, old man! Keeping watch over the rest of us? I'm grateful, truly; perhaps, though, another, more able to fight off a beast, might sit up tonight? I, for one, volunteer, if there are no others courageous enough..."

He trailed off, waiting for a protest... and looked a bit confused when no one did.

"Very well, that's settled. Have that dwarf and the lady come back with provisions yet? I'm about to die of hunger!"

True to form, a growl let out across the cavern, originating from the young man's stomach.