Snippet #2262462

"Ah love..."

Thorin said with a knowing sigh as he leaned back in the saddle. His mind already beginning dive back into his memories of his experience with the emotion. The thrill of it and the warmth it gave. A simple chuckle, short and tender bubbled out of Thorin's throat as if he was remembering something that had amused him once years ago.

"Yes good Zaldir. I have loved, long ago in my youth.... I was barely a man and she was barely a woman but I loved her... in my fashion, and she loved me."

Thorin's eyes seem to stare off now, as if he was seeing sights visible only to him. His mind falling completely into his past as his voice gave word to the tale.

"I had just finished a hunt with a friend of mine, a wizard of some skill. He had suffered an injury that nearly crippled him so to ensure his safety I strapped him to my saddle and led the horse myself. He lived in a small village near the top of a mountain where the villagers made their living mining the precious ore and minerals from within the rock. Once we arrived the snow had already begun to fall, winter was coming. I had but one window to escape the village before being snowed in for the season yet something held me there..."

Thorin smiled as a serene smile etched it's way on his face as if he was looking at her again for the first time.

"Her name was Alaina and she was his cousin. I had dropped him off at her home, her father, his uncle was the town doctor. As he tended to my friend she approached me."

Again Thorin paused this time to laugh ever so slightly.

"She was so frightened of me, the big ugly brute dropping off what remained of her kin. She was meek, and innocent and beautiful. Like a perfect dove she was, Zaldir you should have met her. She spoke with me for a time, asking about my adventures. So curious she was, she had never left the village. My life must have seemed so astounding to her. We spoke for hours that day, and hours the next. She was tender, and caring, sweet, kind, loving, genuine and pure... and I loved her. For once in my life the fire had burned out in my veins and I was left with only warmth, blissful warmth and I was happy. So as the snow rose up around us we found warmth in each others arms. Then in the spring we were married."

The smile on Thorin's faced changed ever so slightly to one of pride as he recalled the ceremony.

"Ah you should have seen it Zaldir. Mountain flowers hung from the trees on long banners. Drink for all in massive kegs and the food, food as far as the eye could see. A wedding, a grand wedding for the two of us was held. Her friends and family all dressed in their best, the whole town turned out. Good folk mostly merchants and miners and their wives. While my party had little family for they all had died in battle my friends arrived, not a one looking respectable enough for the occasion."

Thorin said with a chuckle.

"Well there was one, a knight friend but that was it. Mostly ruffians and scoundrels but we enjoyed the company. We drank, and ate and were merry and all the while I counted my blessings for finding someone who loved me so. She was precious to me, something to cherish and protect. Yet..."

The joy in Thorin's voice began to fade and in it's place sorrow was heard. Full of pain and loss yet it was in his eyes that the void left behind could be seen in the single tear that began to form.

"...I failed. Fall had come and gone and she had fallen ill. Some sickness took her. Her strength gone, her vitality drained, her skin had become pale and cold to the touch."

Thorin's eyebrows furrowed with the memory as his latent anger rekindled at his helplessness to save her.

"I searched in vain, reached out to every source available yet none could save her. I would have killed a thousand dragons, suffered a thousand deaths to spare her her fate... But I could not."

Thorin grunted as the emotion threatened to stop his story, he sniffed and blinked away the moistness in his eyes before continuing.

"Three months after our wedding she died in my arms. She passed with a kiss on her lips from her husband... I mourned for many years, perhaps still. Never again has a woman touched my heart as she had. Perhaps I will not find love again... or perhaps I have just not found that one person to save me once more."

Thorin's warm smile slowly returned to his face as his mind did not dwell on the sorrow of his loss but the joys he shared with her, the happiness they had and it was in that way he wished to remember her.

"Love... Good Zaldir, is a wonderful thing. More powerful than the most ancient magic, more valuable than the rarest of gems. It warms you and gives you a home and you find happiness can be yours. For in the arms of the one you love no evil can touch you. If you find it friend protect it, at all costs."

The emotion was still raw in Thorin's voice and it was then he realized that both Leena and Zaldir were staring at him intently as they listened to his tale. A bit embarrassed at the show of emotion Thorin coughed roughly to clear his throat and rubbed his still moist eyes with his fingertips.

"Well would you look at that, suns gone down. We better make camp, don't wanna steer this horse into a ravine. Go and kill us all."

He said with a nervous chuckle as he trotted the horse into the grass off the road a ways before dismounting and helping Leena out of the saddle.