Regrets: A memoir of the events leading to the forming of the Fellowshi of the Ring

Regrets

If I had known the trouble that the escape of those dwarves from the woodland cells would cause I would of killed them as they hung there in the spider webs. My father, the current leader of the Woodland Elves felt a disturbance in the forest and sent out a reconnaissance party to see what was upsetting the spiders. Much to our surprise it was twelve dwarves. The spiders had captured them in their sleep and trussed them up for future meals. It appeared that the spiders plans were disturbed by another being releasing some of the dwarves and then taunting the Spiders with an old human rhyme that they considered and insult. (quote Bilbo here) We arrived on the scene to see most of the spiders rushing off to find the culprit that had released their meals. We made quick work of the guard spiders and freed the dwarves. Marching them into our fortress. As, the door closed, my friend said he thought he had seen a shadow pass through the closing door but when he went to investigate there was no one about. Several nights later all of the dwarves were freed from their cells and smuggled into empty storage barrels and floated down the river to the city of Water town.
After the Battle of 5 Armies, the world settled down to it's same old self, with the dwarves ruling the Lonely Mountain and the men of Dale once again making the best toys and gifts money could buy. Thus past sixty odd years in peace and prosperity, only to be upended by the abrupt arrival of Mithrandir to consult with our ruling council. It appears that Sauron was rising in power again and no one knew why or what he was after. Mithrandir suspected that the ring of power was still extant and that was what Sauron was after. Following the meeting I told him of the mysterious disappearance of the dwarves from our cells and the invisible being that taunted the spiders. He thought a while. He then excused himself to attend a Birthday party of an old friend. Really, this party was more important than finding the One Ring! Several human years passed, we received word that there were many disturbing happenings in Mirkwood. My father sent myself and 2 others to Rivendale to find out what help if any we could have from the other elves. As Woodland Elves we did not mess in the affairs of men.
I rode out to Rivendale with my companions on a bright sunny day but as we approached the Misty Mountains the weather started to turn as if it were the dead of winter. The sky clouded but no snow fell, just an ever darkening sky to the East. We debated taking shelter in case of a bad turn in the weather but thought better of it as there were still trolls living in the mountains and they often set traps in the larger caves.
We skirted the mountains and after several weeks of travel we reached Rivendale just after a large delegation of dwarves. I immediately recognized the oldest of them as one of our former prisoners.
Unlike the Elven race dwarves age like the humans, so he was quite infirmed but still held sway over his group as an elder should.
Late that night two groups of men came in to Rivendale ,also. One was expected, the ranger Strider and the sons of Galadriel but the other was not and his credentials caused quite astir among the elves and the rangers. He was the oldest son of the Stewart of Gondor. We ere all put up for the night and told that there was to be a meeting of all the next morning.

Morning came and with it the restlessness of waiting for something to happen. After what seemed like hours we were summoned to the meeting garden and there to my surprise was two halflings. The last time I saw a halfling was after the Battle of 5 Armies at the funeral of Theodan and his twin nephews. I did not speak to him,as he was whisked away by Mithrandir before the end of the day. I wondered if the elder of them was the same halfling from that day. He was so frail as to be almost transparent. Elrond and Mithrandir told the gathering of the re discovery of the One Ring. This lead to much debate as to the disposition of it. Mithrandir and Elrond insisted that it must be destroyed in the mountain of Doom. The dwarves felt it could be smashed but when one impulsive young one tried he never killed us all with the shrapnel from his shattered mace. Boromir, son of Gondor wanted to take it to his father to be able to keep it from Sauron and to defeat him with it's power. A very bad idea according to both Elrond and Mithrandir.

I and my delegation wanted to have Elrond keep it in Rivendale. Rivendale was considered a protected enclave. Strider and the hobbits just sat back and if they had opinions did not express them. Everything was becoming very heated, I refused to even consider the dwarves proposal, Boromir insisted that he take it, and both Mithrandir and Elrond wanted it destroyed. It seemed that we were about to re enact the battle of 5 armies when one of the hobbits spoke up saying he would take it to the mountain and destroy it. Thus began the greatest adventure of my many years and the downfall of the 2nd age.

As I write this I must revise my opening statement. Even if I had killed all the dwarves that day the holder of the ring would have still been alive and quit possibly would have been captured by the servants of Sauron thus ending the 2nd age right then and there. Sometimes hindsight is a dangerous thing.