Many months the learned and the reckless ventured north, far into the uncharted and snowy mountains of the farthest Forodwaith. At last they reached the remains of what was once Utumno, now a devastated landscape of pits and craters filled with ice. In ruin lay all the mighty walls and doors, destroyed in the victory of the Valar many ages ago.
It was difficult to find an entrance in the frozen debris, and they might have been forced to turn around and go back, had they not two rangers leading them who had searched the place before. Eagerly they climbed through the broken stones that half-covered what once was a tunnel covered by many feet of earth.
Had they been less eager, and more wary, maybe they still would have decided to turn again - for as they passed into the darkness, a dark shape passed over the faint stars of the breaking night. At its sight, maybe the learned would have found wisdom again and the reckless would have come to reason, but it did not come thus.
*~*
Utumno was exceeding deep, and once its pits were filled with fire and great hosts of the servants of Melkor. Now, no fire burnt save the torches of the adventurers from the south, and no evil being seemed to linger there anymore. The deeper they climbed, the less the cold became, and soon they were taking off all garments they brought against the eternal winter. They were looking for the deepest hall, where they deemed the secrets of Morgoth to be hidden.
The light of the torches flickered on the walls of the tunnels and stairways and once they left the wrecked paths behind, the fire revealed the ghastly figures carved into the stone - gruesome faces and devices of torture. Some noticed shadows that did not seem to move with the fire, but on their own. Doubting their eyes, they remained silent.
*~*
At last they reached a vast hall from which no further tracks outwent. One last door they saw on the other side, and they were drawn towards it. A single pedestal made of black stone stood there in the middle of a small chamber, and on it lay only one item glimmering as if a dark fire burned from within, and red gems hemmed into its round shape. They had found what they had been looking for. The one thing with which they thought the marring of the world could be undone.
Morgoth's Ring! one exclaimed.
Morgoth's Ring! in others followed in wondering voices.
Morgoth's Ring! all joined.
It's only a metaphor....
Shhhh!
*~*
Now that wehave what we came for, let us seek the way out again. I fear these forsaken places are not as deserted as they seem. Rikae advised and was agreed with.
I do not recall how long we have been journeying these dark and timeless corridors, with all the wrong turns we took and dead ends we encountered, but it will take many... Days and Nights... until the sun will shine on our faces again. Mac explained.
And if some things still linger in this maze, now that we hold their old master's treasure, they might come to hinder us. Who knows what powers still linger here - at the source of darkness. Rikae cautioned their group.
But even the two travelled rangers would not have guessed that the powers they were wary of listened to their very words and already waited to take their turn, once the first Night fell.
*~*