The carriage slowly made its way along the rugged mountain road through the Rocky Mountains. Barin sat inside, clutching the World Map tightly in his arms, his expression complicated.
The admiration and shock he had felt when leaving Arda had now transformed into a heavy anxiety. What he had brought back was not merely knowledge of what he had seen—it was a warning concerning the future of the entire dwarf race.
The carriage stopped at the entrance to a valley. Barin said goodbye to the driver Paul had sent to escort him, then entered the depths of the Rocky Mountains alone. When the familiar stone walls of Fireplace Fortress appeared in the distance, he drew a deep breath, suppressed his turbulent emotions, and continued forward.
Fireplace Fortress still looked just as it did in his memories. Black smoke poured from the chimneys of its massive furnaces, stone houses were built along the mountainside, and clan members carried ore through the streets. Yet in Barin's eyes, this home that had once made him feel utterly secure now seemed unbearably small.
As soon as he entered the fortress, a guard approached him and said in a loud dwarven voice, "Barin, the Young Chieftain has been waiting for you in the council hall. The elders have all arrived as well."
Barin nodded and followed the attendant along several stone-paved roads, entering the front hall of the stone tower where the lord lived.
Balash was sitting on a stone chair, his fingers tapping unconsciously against the armrest. When he saw Barin enter, he immediately stood and asked anxiously, "You're finally back! How is things in Arda? Can we still proceed with the joint military campaign we discussed with the other clans?"
Balash's barrage of questions instantly made Barin sense the clan's urgent curiosity about