Sulûn (The Falling) [Tolkien Dwarf FanFic - Third Age]

Prologue

It was dark, utterly black. The moon and stars were veiled and rain pelted Aldís as she lie upon the banks of Kheled-zarâm. Her clothes were soaked and caked in filth, no longer a recognizable color. Her hair was wild, barely contained by the hood on her cloak, her beard roughly shorn. Her steel gray eyes were wide in fear barely contained, her lips slightly bloodied.

She had almost made it.

She was within sight of the gates of Khazad-dûm. She was so weak, but she knew she must continue. She glanced down at her life's blood leaking through her fingers as she held the wound in her stomach closed. It stained the grass and mixed with the rain, running in pink rivulets into the black lake. Her jaw tensed in determination. Aldís rolled onto her stomach and with her free arm, and began to claw her way toward the gate.

The danger was still too near. She had to make it to the gate.

But she was utterly spent. Her vision wavered, grass and sky melding into one. Melding into the darkness. Tears wet her cheek; it was over. Here on the banks of Kheled-zaram she would meet her fate.

"No," she whispered to the darkness as it took her, "I have failed. I am sorry."

From the pack on Aldís's back came the loud wail of a child.