“We found nothing of value in the river,” the captain of his searchers told him, “but in the valley of an unnamed tributary we found a settlement of very small folk, half the size of Men, living together in a single great burrow dug into the banks of the stream. And in one room we found a Man’s bones, and with it, this.”
A leathern bag, once dyed green, bound with a dried lock of dark hair. And inside----
“The Elendilmir!” he breathed. “And what of those who had it?”
“We dyed the river red with their blood, my lord.”