Balin
Legacy Name: Balin

She had lived in the cave for as long as she had memory. She didn't know if she had been left there or if she had found it on her own. She only knew that it was safe, as no one else ventured here. She was alone except for the mice, the insects and the spiders. They didn't seem to mind her presence and she didn't mind theirs, because they left her things alone.

The cave hadn't always been empty. Someone had lived there, although it had been long before she arrived. There were rooms and columns carved into the stone. Buried under thick layers of dust were old things that mostly appeared to her to be garbage. Long ago, she had found an old axe in one of the deeper caverns. It was small and she imagined it had belonged to a child. The axe had the letters B-A-L-I-N carved onto it. She liked the way the word sounded when she said it aloud, so she took it as her name, as she couldn't remember if she'd ever had another.

Balin didn't stay in the cave all the time. There was a town of human folk a short flight away. She liked to visit them. Of course, they didn't realize this. Balin only visited at night and she made sure to stay out of sight. She wasn't there to make friends. She was there to find treasure.

The first time she had laid her eyes on a sparkling object, she became obsessed. She had to have it. Had to bring it back to her dark cave. She had lain awake staring at it all night. It filled the cave with its dazzling presence and made her feel as if she wasn't alone. One wasn't enough. She had to have more.

Every night, as darkness fell outside the cave, Balin would leave through the small, hidden entrance on the rocky face of the mountain and make for the human village. She would fly over every street and peek behind every house, in the hopes that someone had left out a treasure for her. She didn't always find something. She had once been so desperate for a new treasure that she reached through an open window for an object that had been left on the ledge. This was very dangerous, though. She had seen what the humans did to the creatures of the forest and knew they would have no mercy for her. But her biggest fear was knowing that if she were caught, she would be separated from her treasures forever.

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Story by Blythe