Remus & Heartgrim

[Jalking]

"Oy Remus lad... you are growing to be a strong stout lad like your ancestors" Giles, Remus father lay an arm around his son. "About time you get to hear why you was born here in Tharbad and not in the halls of glorious Erebor".

"This is a great shame of our family Remus, you see a long, long time ago your ancestor Gondo, the founder of our family got himself a jevel encrested axe... got it from Durin himself as the story goes... Heartgrim it was called and a beauty it was, a heavy waraxe made by the best smiths, tempered by a flame hotter than the belly of a great dragon. This is why we got an axe as a mark on our shield lad.

This axe was passed from father to son for as long as the longbearded have existed until your great grandfather lost it *sigh* a tribe of goblins came upon him, cowardly and in numbers they did slay him and left him for dead son.. they stole the axe from his dying hands and ran with it. With the last breath in him he swore that never should his family return to the dwarven halls unless carrying the symbol of our family honour... Heartgrim.

me father, and I, have searched the realm for the axe, but never prevailed. Now - my son, I turn over the search to you... restore our familys honour and bring the axe with you to the halls of erebor, taste the sweet ale of the master brewers, dig the mines there and raise your son there if your able..."

"Aye father" Remus swallowed nearvously.. "I swear to continue the search for Heartgrim and will prevail or die trying..."

[Jalking]

later that spring word came to Tharbad that Remus now was fatherless... orcs knicked him so hard that he never recovered from the wounds...

With gritted teech he set out to fullfill his destiny, travelling towards Bree and a small place called the shire, for words were that in the shire there was a man that had travelled the world and wrote with greatskill about it. The mans name was Bilbo Baggins.

Dissapointed was he when he found out that Bilbo had left the Shire travelling east towards the misty mountains and a place called Rivendell.

[Jalking]

after much trouble and many adventures Remus now sit at the fires of Rivendell, shown to him by an elf named Unen, Skinny as he called him seemed to turn up at the oddest times and many adventures they had shared.

Remus have found old Bilbo and was exited when he was suggested to look into the old songs for information. It seemed that the goblins in mirkwood had migrated into the misty mountains - maybe Heartgrim have migrated with them to those parts.

[InVinoVeritas]

And Skinny himself would call Remus "Beardy" jokingly but Beardy knew the elf didn't mean to offend him. And Skinny knew as well that Beardy didn't mean to offend him by calling him Skinny. The dwarf had a heart made of gold. He would become moody now and then and wasn't very outspoken but he wasn't like some dwarves Skinny had met during his journeys either - rude and bad-tempered. Skinny would think of Beardy as of "a dwarf with pedigree". They met in Tharbad long time ago - when neither Beardy nor Skinny had as many scars as they have now.
Skinny, having seen Remus passing through The Southern Gate - and who was perched on top of it himself one day - was having a bit joviality over there - with all his sto... - borrowed spirits. Playing "innocent pranks" - as Skinny would call them - on the passers-by by dropping down small stones that would now and then find their way to keepers' helmets with formidable accuracy. Not very polite you would most probably say dear reader but Skinny was certainly amused by it as you can imagine.

Such are elves - some of them wise and thoughtful yet not all them I assure you - and they love playing jokes on others - especially on dwarves. More then making jokes about dwarves in general they love making jokes about dwarven beards! They love making fun of themselves too to break the chains of old conventions.
Skinny thought that the dwarf was an excellent opportunity for more fun and Tharbad was such a lonely place for Skinny's kind. It's made him feel very surly recently so when he spotted the dwarf crossing over far below he gave him a shout:
"Come up father if you kin and we'll have a party!" - he was obviously playing an unpleasant joke on the poor dwarf.