[Tevildo]

It was Athwen who pulled her husband into the group and, taking the stone from Vrór, entrusted it to Dorran. The young man cradled it in his hand and carefully ran his fingers along its etched surface. He stared at the stone intently as if mezmerized, seemingly unable to turn away. Dorran's eyes held a faraway look, as if the man of Rohan was remembering something hidden and secret from his own boyhood past, some tiny spark of life that had persisted even in the bleakness of the Black Lands.

After what seemed like an endless silence, Dorran glanced at his wife and spoke, "I had never thought to see one of these again. I knew men and women who carried such stones with them in their pockets or secured by a leather thong. They carved them at night in the few moments they had for rest. They would take a rock with a sharp edge or sometimes the blade of a scythe to etch and remember what was dearest to them. They made symbols of home or family, usually someone who had been wrenched from them, or sometimes they recorded images from the stories that were told around the campfires.

Dorran shrugged his shoulders, "As to why this was left in the vicinity of the caves, whether by accident or intentionally, I can not say. But I do know that a rock of this type is a token of remembrance. Slaves kept such stones as personal reminders of who they were. But I have also seen slaves leave behind an etched rock as if passing on a dream or tiny seed of hope to someone who might come later. I remember once...." Here Dorran stopped, his words slow and broken. "It was so long ago. A young woman was forcibly taken to another plantation. The last things she did was toss a small rock like this onto the ground. She hoped her son would see it and understand that she had left him the only piece of herself that she could."

"One way or another, that is what this stone represents: something that was too important for someone to forget. So now this becomes our job to bring together the dream and the dreamer. " Dorran turned to Lindir, speaking almost like the child he had once been, "Please, let's take this stone with us. Perhaps we will be able to put it back into the hands of the man or woman who crafted it and even to help that dream come true. That at least would be worth doing."