Title: Suggestions and Messages
Series: The Reclaiming of Khazad Dum
Fandom: The Lord of the Rings
Author: Endaewen
Rating: G
Disclaimer: None of the settings or the basic premise of the story belongs to me. All of it belongs to J.R.R. Tolkien and his family.
Summary: The first in a series of short scenes concerning the re-colonization of Khazad Dum.
Note: The idea for this story/series comes from the Peoples of Middle-Earth: And the line of Dain prospered, ... until there arose again for the last time an heir of that House that bore the name of Durin, and he returned to Moria...(HOME XII.278)

Scholars note: I am gathering together an account of these important times in our past from the numerous partial records from the archives in the hope of making one volume in the form of a narrative for those who are interested in our history. I mention this here because I am starting to quote from the records themselves.
Burrin, Junior Archivist of Khazad Dum

As was foretold many years in the past, back during the final years of the Third Age of the Sun, one called Durin would be born among the Dwarves. It was to be his destiny to lead the successful recolonization of their ancient home, Khazad Dum.

With the birth of the one who was given the name Durin the Seventh, descended from such figures as Durin the Deathless, the first of their line and Dain Ironfoot who fought in both the Battle of the Five Armies, reclaiming their home in Erebor and later in the War of the Ring, the time for this prophecy seemed to be coming due, though it was not yet widely known.

Soon after his coming of age, the murmurs started. No-one knew who started them, but it was presumed to be one of the scholars, as the prophecy was no longer widely known. “He is the one... Durin, the one foretold.” Or, “he will lead us to our old home...we will be returning to the oldest of our ancient homes.” It only took a short time for the prophecy to be widely known once again to all the dwarves of Erebor. With that knowledge, the interest in a return grew sharply.

Returning to Khazad Dum, the home of the first Durin, Durin the Deathless, which for centuries had been a place of dread, more often referred to as 'Moria', the Black Chasm began to be something which was no longer merely talked about in a desultory fashion, as it had been for so long, but something to be seriously planned.

Of course, the leading figure in these plans, Durin himself, could not long have remained unaware of his people's hopes and dreams. The idea wasn't something he was un-interested in himself. Every young dwarf had dreamed of it from the days when they had been driven out of their home and had to find other places. Seeing the written prophecy as studied by the scholars was simply the final piece in his decision to make a go of a serious attempt to re-colonize the ancient mines.

With that decision made, the messengers went out. The Iron Hills. The Blue Mountains. Aglarond, the Glittering Caves. After The Lonely Mountain, Durin's home, though not the oldest, Aglarond was considered the greatest of the current Dwarven Mansions. In fact, given that it was really the most recently founded of the major Dwarven homes, to be seen as one of the greatest was quite the honor. Mostly it came from the incredible natural stone formations that had been discovered by Gimli, the founding Lord during the War of the Ring. His prediction came true.

While waiting for those messengers to return, Durin, who had rapidly taken the lead in the planning, sent out messengers and scholars to Minas Anor, which now had the greatest repository of history for the Second and Third Ages of the Sun. They were to search for information pertaining to the layout and structure of the ancient home for Durin's folk. It was disappointing, but there was little surviving in the archives at Erebor. The coming of the dragon Smaug, now almost legendary, had destroyed the archives stored there, and they had been the main archives since the claiming of the Mountain as their home by Thrain. All that survived in the archives under the Mountain concerning Moria were copies of the messages sent in that short-lived attempt by Balin before the War of the Ring, along with copies the book brought out by Gimli and a few documents which had survived the ravages of the dragon.

The returning messages were overwhelmingly positive. All were agreed. “The time had come!” In the early Spring of the next year, the expedition set out from the Lonely Mountain. About two hundred Dwarves representing most of the settlements scattered throughout western Middle-Earth were present, though the majority were descended of the house of Durin. Despite the fact that the group was mostly made up of warriors, there were a number of scholars and historians going along to see history made.