The Grey Ship

Part 1: Memories

Legolas and Gimli stood on the dock, facing opposite directions. The waves crashed against the dock supports, gulls cried overhead, the ships ropes could be heard creaking…
Gimli stood facing the way they had come, a look of sadness briefly passing over his face, and is gone. He whispers,”Farewell Aragorn. Farewell Merry, Pippin. Three of the bravest souls i had ever met.” He turns toward the sea,watching Legolas.
Legolas stands just ahead of him, facing the sea and the Grey ship that will take them away. Softly,” Listen Gimli, the gulls are crying.”
“Aye, they are.” Gimli replys dryly, ” Are we getting back on that boat yet?”
“Yes my friend, we are.” Legolas said sadly, ” We are both battle-weary and heart heavy…” he trailed off, eyes misting with grief.

“Aragorn was a fine man, and a great King. And the Laddies were stout hearted little fellows to the last. I too shall miss them.” Gimli said gruffly wiping his eyes, and looking up at Legolas.
“Come my friend, it is time.” Legolas leads the way to the ship, looking back only once as they board.
As they boarded Gimli looked back one last time and wispered his wifes name quietly to himself.
” What was that ?” asked Legolas as he caught his friends sorrow, knowing it was greater than that of friends lost.

Gimli said nothing until they were aboard the ship, he simply stared at the shore in heartbreaking sadness. He looked at Legolas as they began to sail away. “Tell me something I don’t know about you Elf, and I’ll tell you something about me that none but a dwarf would know.” Before Legolas could begin Gimli started speaking in a low voice. His mind travelling back to another time, another life.
He stood staring at the familiar door, he could smell supper on the other side, he could hear the sounds of home. He opened the door and was greeted by the warm glow of the hearth and the smiling face of a dwarf maid. As soon as he crossed the threshold a tiny voice cried out. “Papa!!”
A dwarf lad of about the age of four ran forward and leaped towards Gimli, he caught the young boy, laughing, and lifted him up.
“Ah, my little Balin! And how has your day been? Have you behaved for your mother?”
” Yes Papa. I had a good day, Mama let me help her bring home the dinner things. I carried a bag all by myself, and didn’t even drop it!!” Balin grinned up at Gimli, practically jumping with excitment.
The image faded, turning into the attack by the orcs…. “Balin!!!!! Run laddie, fetch your mama to the safehouse!!!!” Gimli yelled to his son as he struck hard with his axe at the orc that stood closest. He could still see Balin running for the tunnel that would lead him home, he could still see the arrows flying towards his most precious treasure, his son. “PAPA!!!!!” Balin cried over the noises of battle, tears marking his young face, “It….” He watched again in horror as an orc cut his sons life short….
“Gimli? GIMLI!” Legolas grabbed his arm, shaking him hard. ” Gimli, what is it you see? Tell me my friend…” Legolas watched Gimli’s pained face as a strangled whisper escapes him.
” Not my son, not Balin.”
Tears streak the proud dwarfs face as he turned in blind fury, hacking at any orc that was within screaming distance. So intent on his rage was he, that he missed the half-score of orcs heading down the tunnel that lead to his homestead. He didn’t even hear his wifes battlecries as she faced them alone…and lost.
The battle scene faded into the day he buried Varin and Balin. Gimli had had the finest tombs made for his wife and son. Engraved upon his wife Varin’s tomb he’d had written;”Varin, daughter of Nim, mother of Balin, wife of Gimli” and the date of her death. And engraved upon Balin’s tiny tomb; “Balin, son of Gimli, and Namesake of Balin of Moria” and the date of his death.
Gimli, Gloin’s son wept bitterly as they laid his famliy to rest. His father Gloin, and his uncle Oin, looked on sadly as the tombs were covered; mourning the passing of both Varin and Balin, though not as bitterly as Gimli.
That scene faded too and Gimli was left standing on the deck of a ship, sailing away from Middle Earth. Legolas looks at Gimli, puzzled and asked, ” Gimli? Who was Varin? And who was Balin? You spoke those names just now.”
Gruffly, “Let us go where we can sit, and I will tell you.” Gimli once more stared at the shore, the grief marked clearly on his face. Legolas led the way to a cabin, he opened the door and they entered. “There is a table and chairs here.” Legolas said quietly.
“Fine, fine, let us sit.” Gimli said, starting his tale before either of them sat. ” Long before the Fellowship I was married. My Varin was a beautiful maid. Loved her work, loved to cook, and loved Balin, our young son.” He paused, seeming to be searching for the words, “We were too close to where Orcs had been seen, but I was stubborn then. I thought that a safehouse would be enough to protect them. My father, uncle and I, as well as a few cousins, were working in the tunnel just before the one that lead to my home. Balin was with me that day…he had his own little tools, oh but he was proud of them…and himself. We had no warning, the orcs attacked us. I yelled at Balin to fetch his mama to the safehouse, he never made it into the tunnel, I watched in horror as an orc killed him. I don’t remember anything after that, my father said I went berserk, screaming and hacking at orcs with my axe. No one saw the half score of orcs heading down the tunnel that lead to my home.”Tears began to well up in his eyes, “No one heard Varin’s battlecries as she faced them alone…my bonnie lass took a few of them with her though.” A faint smile touched Gimli’s face. “I vowed that day that I would kill orcs whenever I got the chance….” He looked out the window. ” And I have, traveling with the Ringbearer, searching for Merry and Pippin when we thought they were lost, at Helm’s Deep with you, and on our journies… I can leave this world knowing I didna fail in my vow.”