I'm sort of pumped to be updating today, I had ordered last week the series Toriko on DVD and have been binge watching them! Toriko was the real first Anime that I just kept watching again and again and could easily find myself going to back to watch it on Hulu. The Dubbed version was my absolute favorite because I loved the voices and it allowed me to multi-task, something the subbed version couldn't really do...though I just about have the story memorized because I've watched them so much.
I will admit, for the longest time, I've just not had the drive to do any typing, since getting this DVD set, I've been pumped to the max!
I don't own Harry Potter or the The Hobbit.
Bilbo watched two members of the Company closely as they neared the mountain, wincing internally at the awkwardness. Their conduct and how they interacted with each other began to turn sour and cold, he certainly couldn't find him completely at fault with regards his reaction to the attitude and action of the younger one, but one thing was clear:
Thorin and Fainas were at odds with each other, and there wasn't much any of them could do.
Now, Bilbo could understand where Thorin and every other remaining member of the Company was coming from, even he was flabbergasted at the thought of where Fainas was the other night. There was also some talk about beating Bofur with his own mattock and making him eat his own peculiar hat and while he certainly didn't want to have any part in that, he wouldn't be averse to watching a bit of it.
To think that their youngest member was drunk to such an extent that he had gotten into the bed of an older woman… and to not even know her name!
"What do you mean you don't know her name?" Dori nearly shouted at the young man, his face red with indignation.
"She never really told me, not that I really remember or have the opening to ask." said Fainas scratching the back of his head, having at least the decency to look embarrassed. "Hey, these things happen…"
"It's…It's…" sputtered Dori, his face finally taking on the color of one of Bilbo's own prizewinning tomatoes.
Thorin tapped the ground harshly with the butt end of his axe and glared over at Fainas, his stare like ice and the very air had a feeling of dominance. Bilbo had thought for a moment they were back in his own smial when the dwarves were refusing to consider Bilbo joining them on the quest just before Gandalf had spoken with such unknown power. No doubt Fainas wouldn't be so flippant after this exchange.
"When this quest is all done, you will introduce me to this…woman." said Thorin, the grip on his axe tightening.
Fainas gave a slight chuckle and continued to scratch his head. "Don't think I can now…and frankly she was already panicking at the thought of her…suitor? Yeah, her suitor finding out."
"She had a suitor!" said Dori now clasping a hand to his chest. Ori had to stand up and try and calm him down.
"'Has', He handled it rather well, after his first initial shock anyway…" said Fainas thoughtfully, moving his hand to rub his hand over his chin. "Have to give him credit…huh I think I feel…"
"I did not say 'will you', I said 'you will'." said Thorin coldly with a growl.
Fainas froze as he rubbed his chin and cheek and looked over at the dwarf King. "And now, suddenly I forget what she looks like." he responded coolly.
The Company was eerily silent. Bilbo was shocked that he would talk back to Thorin. He had had, as the Company fondly referred to, given so much sass back to Thorin that he was quite the rambunctious young man and certainly would be considered quite the hellion back in the Shire. But Thorin had never, NEVER had that sort of tone before with Fainas, it demanded compliance, obedience, but Fainas wasn't giving it.
All Bilbo could do was wait for the argument to start, and then hope it would come to an end before too many thoughtless things were said.
Thorin and Fainas stared hard at each other for quite some time till Thorin broke the silence.
"You are my son. Start acting like it." spat Thorin darkly.
"You took me as I was, accept who I am! I'm not a dwarf!" retorted Fainas looking down at Thorin from his much greater height. "It was just a one night stand, my first time…"
"Oh Mahal…" said Balin covering his eyes.
Even Bilbo winced, it was his first?
Fainas groaned loudly as he turned away from the Company. "As much as Fudge and I didn't like each other, he didn't have this sort of reaction, didn't you see that?"
"More of a reason for us to take some sort of action." said Nori with a twirl of one of his knives as he watched Balin pull Thorin away and talk to him in a hushed tone. "Now I don't really have much ground to stand on, but you might want to see it our way just a bit, you're still a baby by our standards, not even old enough to leave the house unattended. To hear that you've had…well, had shared a bed with a…woman…it's little unsettling."
"But I don't have the lifespan you all have, I could and most likely will die before you all. Hell, I could suffer from magical exhaustion, that itself could kill me….wait no…never mind…" said Fainas swiftly waving his hands quickly.
"'Magical exhaustion'? What's that?" asked Nori quickly.
"Nothing, never mind, shouldn't we be…can't believe I'm saying this, let's get back on topic…." said Fainas stammering. "Not that I want to talk about that either…."
"Lad…" said Dwalin slowly, his face stern.
"Listen, I get it, I do…but you're just…overreacting, just a tad." said Fainas.
"And you're not appreciating the gravity of the situation." said Thorin sharply. "She could become heavy with child if you don't know…."
"Ugh, I know where babies come from." Fainas groaned covering his eyes.
"What will you do if she does become pregnant?" said Dori, his face not nearly as red as it was a few moments ago.
"She, her suitor and I talked about it, after they both calmed down a bit…had to nearly douse him in water to get him to talk clearly." said Fainas with a slight smile.
"That's that couple you mentioned to the Master." said Ori looking shocked piecing it together as fast as he could.
Gloin looked over to Ori and then back to Fainas. "So, you never plan to see the child." his expression full of disappointment and disapproval.
"If I can…yes, but…we've planned on me never seeing…" said Fainas.
"Not acceptable, you will bring her and the baby to the mountain when we reclaim our home." said Gloin swiftly. "Do you agree, Thorin?"
Balin was still trying to calm Thorin as the rest of the Company spoke to the young wizard, he had heard the exchange and nodded. "She will be brought to the mountain."
"Then you can go find her if you can. I've already sent the pair of them off to somewhere a bit friendlier than Lake Town." said Fainas. "And if you think you can catch up to them, you're in for quite the rude awakening, they're much farther away than you think."
"You used that black shadow thing to evacuate them, didn't you?" asked Nori remembering the question that had been burning in his mind since that evening. "What is that anyway? How did you get us out of the armory that way? How does it work?"
Fainas said nothing, much to the annoyance of many of the Company, Bilbo only stood on the edge of the camp watching everything unfold. He could tell that there was a lot that Fainas was not telling them about the woman he had spent the night with. It wasn't to be flippant or terribly ignorant to the situation, but there was something else that was going on, something he couldn't quite fathom.
"It's…just something to help me go back, when going forward is impossible." said Fainas.
The Company fell quiet, till Dwalin grumbled. "Blasted wizard's rubbing off on you again."
Fainas' only gave the guard a slight smile.
The Company did not stray back to the conversation about Harry's love life, much to his relief, but he could tell that there was still the inkling to talk about it. Thorin and he had not gotten to talk together since the argument, nor had they had much desire too, but Harry wasn't all that terribly concerned, he had a lot going on right now, especially with the end of their journey so close, that and Thorin was probably drowning in all the nostalgic memories after returning home for the first time in a hundred years.
There wasn't much he could tell the dwarves that wouldn't make him out to look mad or even have them call him out on some of the other things that had happened on the quest. He was going to be a father, and he was never going to see his baby girl, who would then turn into Anya's mother. Well, that wasn't quite the truth, he could attempt to come and look in on her, but it would be a bit hard to explain how the hell he didn't age as much as time went on. It might take a bit of careful planning to figure out to work around that; he couldn't help but feel a little bubbling sensation in his chest that he was going to be a father… absentee father unfortunately, but he had given them enough money to care for his daughter and then his granddaughter… his old "girlfriend" now that he realized and that made him feel uncomfortable. Wasn't his fault though…well…it was…but yet wasn't…
Dumbledore or Hermione's insight would be a boon right now.
He felt quite lucky that he managed to deflect the dwarves and hobbit about the whole 'magical exhaustion' slip up he did. Granted, he had not suffered from such exhaustion since his first year after he had faced Voldemort in the battle for the Sorcerer's stone…but that didn't mean that he couldn't fall to it using these stones. But he had to admit, they were watching him like a whole flock of hawks now.
The Turquoise stone itself seemed to drain him a lot faster than the other stones did, while the power behind it increased quite a bit since he had taken on the crown, it still couldn't bring back the dead and he had healed himself quite a bit in these past months. He would not admit it to any of the Company, but he was still feeling a bit fatigued just from healing himself after the fight with Beorn. Then traveling thought Mirkwood, doing all those tasks for Fudge.
He was reaching his limit, but as long as he took it easy for the next few days, and they didn't need any sort of magical assistance. He may get enough rest to aid in the defeat of the dragon.
As they traveled towards Dale and then finally the mountain, Thorin's mood would almost flit back and forth between what would pass for excitement on Thorin's face and then the sullen expression that he would sport more and more frequently.
Harry walked back with Bifur as they followed the rest of the Company in silence, looking around the surrounding area and (in Harry's case) reflecting on the success of the quest getting to this point all in one piece. Bifur wouldn't really talk, except if Bombur was around to translate, but the two of them merely enjoyed each other's company.
Bifur would tap on Harry shoulder and point out something of interest and Harry would do the same if he happened to see something odd or peculiar. These quiet moments, he would miss these once it was all said and done.
Suddenly, they heard Thorin shout for the two of them as the path led up a hill and then down the other side. Harry and Bifur ran up the side of the hill to join the rest of the Company, not realizing that they had fallen that far behind. When they arrived, they saw just beneath the outcropping that stood over Dale, there were great streaks of burnt landscape, and several grooves in the scarred ground, and the burnt ground was blanketing the area before Dale and seemed to go on past their line of vision.
"What are those marks in the earth?" asked Ori.
After a moment of silence, Harry spoke up. "Some dragons roll around in fire…cleans their scales." he said absentmindedly, remembering some of Charlie's dragon keeping stories from his fourth year.
"You know about dragons?" asked Ori, staring at the young man in awe.
"Not sure if your dragons are the same kind as ours, also not too sure that they would be so desperate enough to get inside a mountain. They see a door, if they can't burn it down, they go away." said Harry.
"Sounds like yours are easy to manage." said Dwalin with a snort.
"Well, we have people that actually tend to them, like they're horses or something. We don't ride them though, good way to get incinerated." said Harry taking a step down towards the desolation. "I'm not sure about the differences, but I don't recommend stepping on or picking up any scales you may find on the ground."
"Is there a dragon that has…poisoned scales?" asked Gloin following the young man down the hill.
"The Common Welsh Green's are a kind of dragon, and they have hot acidic scales, but the acid only lasts a few weeks after they drop them." said Harry keeping his gaze on the ground.
"Acid?" said Dori. "What is that?"
"Ah, it's sort of like a poison, only it'll eat away anything it hits, metal, ground, rock, ice, flesh, bone…just about anything. Sort of like a liquid fire and poison combination." said Harry absently, looking around intently. "The scales could also still be hot, or really cold, I'm not terribly sure…whoa."
Harry stopped dead in his tracks and looked down. Just in front of them, he could see the ground littered with dark shards sitting down in the dirt. Harry reached into the small herb pouch on his hip and with a flick of his wrist a small daisy blossomed out of his palm. He reached down and ran the posy gently along the side of the nearest scale. It didn't erupt into flames, it didn't freeze, but the blossom did sever itself from it's stem and the side of the stem was burnt.
"Well, need to go around. Find a different way." said Harry standing up and tossing the now headless flower down on the darkened soil and watched it catch fire at last.
"Why?" asked Balin coming up from behind.
"The scales, they'll cut our feet to ribbons, especially Bilbo's." said Harry pointing down at the scattered scales on the ground. "And while they're not as hot as they were when they were first dropped, they're still hot enough to burn right through our boots if we linger too long."
"Can you not move them, or give us access around this scarred land, it would take far too long to travel around if the worm rutted around all around the mountain." said Thorin.
Harry looked around at the charred ground, seriously it would only take maybe three quarters of an hour or maybe even an hour to go around it, there was no point in using magic if they could just go around the damned stuff and it made him a bit uncomfortable that after all this time, Thorin was encouraging him to use magic for something that could easily be maneuvered around.
"Couldn't we just go around it; will it really take so much time?" asked Harry gesturing to the blackened ground.
"We cannot waste time, surely you can move the scales away." said Thorin quirking a brow. "You were quite willing to help us throughout the quest, what is stopping you now?"
Harry raised his own eyebrow in retaliation, but sighed. "Just wondering what brought about the change, I suppose." He waved his hand and a fresh path of stone cut across the blackened ground and to the safety of the ruined safety. "Stay on the path, don't step off…can't promise there isn't something else worse hidden in the dirt.
What Harry didn't hear as he led the Company towards the Desolation, was Balin and Gloin taking Thorin aside and chastising him.
"Don't you remember what he said, 'magical exhaustion'?" said Balin.
"He's fine." said Thorin gruffly taking a step towards the rest of the company, but Gloin caught his arm in an effort to stop the exiled King.
"Aye, now he is, but if we push him too far…Oin is down there with the lads. What if he gets sick?" said Gloin. "We can't tend to him properly, we can't have him healing himself, it'll only make it worse."
"Speaking of which, we'll have to see how much of a strain it is on Fainas to heal magically, if we must…it will be beneficial to refrain from using any of his energy except to heal." said Balin watching the young man lead the dwarves and hobbit further away, until Fainas stopped and realized that there were some missing.
"What's going on?" he called back.
"We're coming!" shouted Gloin.
"You'd better pick up the pace, Bilbo says that the ground was getting hotter the longer that we walked on it." called Fainas.
Balin ushered Thorin and Gloin on to follow the rest of the Company, hoping that the youngest of their Company wouldn't have to wield too much magic…
And that their Burglar wouldn't perish by dragon fire, he was quite fond of the both of them.
That night, they made their camp far away from Erebor's destroyed front gate and towards where the secret door was thought to be. The fire they had was kept low and nothing was cooked on it, the direction of the winds were changing quite frequently and they couldn't risk the smell of cooking food to find it's way somehow into the nostrils of either orcs or worse yet the dragon.
Harry kept his back to the giant rock that stood along the edge of the camp. Despite all the walking he had done with the Fellowship and all the insanity he had gone through with the dwarves, it was always such a relief to get off his feet after a long day's marching.
Another thing he was quickly adapting to was knowing just about when his limits were going to be reached in regards to the stones, and he was going to approach it pretty soon if he didn't adjust something immediately. He'd have to keep quite a bit of strength in reserve just in case everything went right off the rails where the book that Gandalf and Percy put together were concerned.
A few things that had happened on this adventure were never mentioned in Bilbo's tales, Taureithil for instance. He absently patted the pocket where the still fragrant handkerchief was kept stashed away, away from curious dwarves.
Despite the slight possessiveness he's exhibited towards the token, he didn't really know much about the elven princess, or remember much about her, which sort of made him feel a bit like a creep in Harry's mind. He wanted to know about her, but he didn't think that the dwarves would be all that receptive about him asking about her, and he was certain that Bilbo didn't know about her, as he was probably too busy to find a way out of the dungeons.
There was no time since they arrived in Laketown for Harry to really ask how they got out, especially when they wanted to keep their escapades from the elves in front of Bard and his children. Then when Fudge discovered he was in town, Harry was sent out every day from sun up to sun down to do the various tasks, there was not a lot of time to talk about what had gone down in the forest.
In his musings, he didn't realize that Thorin had sat down beside him, placing his axe on the ground and kept his gaze firmly on the area before him.
Harry blinked a few times, looked at Thorin out of the corner of his eye and then back to the rest of the Company, who suddenly seemed to be focusing quite unrealistically on their preparations for settling in for the night.
A few minutes pass in silence till Thorin speaks first, it was quiet and low, but Harry could still hear.
"I'm sorry."
Harry blinked once more in shock, turned over to Thorin and stared at him. "What for?"
Thorin's mouth twisted into a scowl. "You know what for."
"Should I pick something at random?" said Harry plainly.
Thorin turned and glared at the young man.
"Sorry." said Harry quickly.
"I'm sorry…that I was…harsh with you." said Thorin, his voice low, yet firm. "About your relations with that woman."
Harry looked down at his knees. "I'm sorry about that too, I see that you just want me to…err…make right choices, and you've never had many people to fight back against you."
"You forget, I have a sister and a brother, there was no listening to me from either of them." scoffed Thorin.
The both of them were silent for a moment, but then Thorin once again broke the silence.
"I've never had a son before." said Thorin lamely.
"I don't remember what it's like having a father." said Harry, his voice echoing the same tone.
Thorin sighed, "I… this isn't as easy as it once was…why is that?" he thought aloud.
Harry shrugged. "I don't have a definitive answer."
Thorin sighed once more and then turned his torso towards Harry. "Let's take your braid out for the night." he reached up and began to undo the adoption braid and bead.
"Lad, take your bubble down, can't have you tiring yourself out…" came Dwalin's voice from the across the camp, Balin tried to shush his brother but was too late.
"There's no bubble." said Harry slowly as he felt Thorin's fingers undo his braid. "There hasn't been once since…well…for a good long while."
Bombur frowned, bent over and picked up a pebble and tossed it out past the campsite, staring at distance it went, nothing impeding it's travel.
"Lad?" said Balin carefully. "Are you feeling alright?"
"Just…trying to save some energy." said Harry quietly. "I'm going to call it a day…"
After Thorin was done with taking the bead out, he settled down into his bedroll and fell asleep almost immediately. Thorin looked over at Gloin and Balin, feeling a bit guilty, it would appear that they were right…he made a silent vow, no more magic…he was not going to ask the lad to use magic again.
But he had a feeling…a horrible, terrible feeling, that it may not be that easy to keep that promise.
Thanks for reading please review!
Question Time! What movie/show are you most eager to watch this week?
You already know it's Toriko for me, but I'm also super eager to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! I didn't get to see it in theaters, but I'm going to buy it tomorrow! Also, I bought Doctor Strange (A great movie with excellent visuals, but I knew how he injured his hand so I just breezed through the beginning a bit. I just adore his cloak!) And Sing!, if you haven't seen that one, it's just too cute for words, my favorite is Johnny!
