CHAPTER 7 – A Father, and Son (Two lives now come Undone).
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The Company of Thorin Oakenshield was following their Blacklock kin to the larger group's camp. Thorin's conversation with Lady Andromeda had revealed that the Blacks had nearly missed meeting with the Company entirely, if it hadn't been for them almost literally walking into the flank of an orc hunting party. After dispatching the orcs and their mounts, the more battle-trained dwarves had gone off to investigate what precisely the orcs had been hunting, while the civilian and underage dwarrow had stayed behind to finish setting up camp.
So far they had learned that Amelia, the dam that had killed a troll with her crossbow, and her daughter Sussan were guardsmen; the psychotic twins with the chain were engineers geared towards weapons of war, and two of seven children; Rôn was their younger brother and a newly minted career soldier; Charli was the twins older sister who used to breed battle rams for the military and had hatched a plan to try to domesticate the 'Azn'abbad wyverns as war steeds (and thank Mahal the families had had to leave before she could make an attempt!); Nev was pink-haired Nym's younger half-brother, and a magic-trained acolyte Healer; Mia was the scribe sworn to the noble Black family who defied all stereotypes by wielding an absolutely massive battle-axe, and had stollen every irreplaceable book and scroll she could smuggle out of the Shadow Mountain library; Victor wasn't a Black, but was Harilaos' long time brother-in-arms, so stuck with the family for him; and young Harilaos (Hari to his friends) had heart-breakingly been an active duty soldier since he was fifty.
Thorin watched as Dwalin started twitching as soon as that had come out. Having been child soldiers themselves at 'Azanulbizar, both Fundinsons, and Thorin himself, were a little sensitive about the issue.
The younger cohort had soon swallowed Fili, Kili and Ori into their mass. Ori and Mia were walking, talking, and writing as they traded tales and histories, as the Longbeards and Blacklocks hadn't had much contact in an exceedingly long time. There were some things he'd overheard Miss Mia mention that Thorin wanted to hear the whole story about later.
Victor, Harilaos, Sussan and Rôn seemed to trade off scouting duties between them, while Fred and Jorge compared pranks with Fili and Kili. The king had signalled to Balin to keep a close eye on the foursome who were getting rather excited about string, the inner workings of fireworks, glue, and carrots. Thorin really, really didn't want whatever those four were cooking up to end up being his problem.
Charli had realised Bilbo was not in fact a shy dwarfling hiding behind Bofur and was now assuring the halfling that he'd get on well with her brother Perseus 'just call him Percy, everyone does' as he worked in legalities and arbitration, since Bilbo had claimed to being the Arbiter of Hobbiton when describing his hometown to the curious Blacklock.
Near the edge of the Blacklock camp, Sirius and Victor hurried forwards and each tapped a large, engraved stone on the ground with the heads of their staffs, then stood to the side of the path.
"Walk between us if you would. Otherwise, the alarm on the wards will wake the whole forest." Sirius advised, giving a theatrical bow as his sister lead the way through. Andromeda flicked his forehead as she passed.
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The remainder of the night had passed quietly, with one Longbeard and one Blacklock on guard at all times, despite the perimeter wards that would create a screaming cacophony should anything larger than a fox cross them. Needless to say, Fili, Kili, Fredrik and Jorge were not put on guard rotation together, in any combination. There was much disappointed pouting.
Due to the excessively late night previous, most of the company and their hosts had a late start in the morning and planned for a 'rest day' so that Thorin and Andromeda could hammer out a contract for the alliance of her family with the Longbeards under Thorin's rule.
Moli, a greying red-haired dwarrowdam who was the mother of seven and had taken the two underage distant Black-kin under her wing, quickly corralled the earliest risers into checking trap lines and foraging whatever they could find.
Bilbo Baggins was among the foraging party that otherwise consisted of Harilaos, Victor, Ori, Sirius, Fili, Kili, Fred, and Jorge. The hobbit would not have normally been up so early after such a traumatising and exhausting experience, however hunger won over the need for more sleep. The greater than usual number of snoring dwarves certainly didn't help. Master Alastor's snores were even louder then Dwalin, and that was quite the achievement.
While the dwarves took turns flitting back and forth to the camp with animals from the traps, including a young deer that had broken a leg tripping on a snare that they lumped onto Kili to carry back, Bilbo set to looking for wild potato and herbs for flavouring.
It was while the hobbit was cheerfully cutting some basil with a dagger handed to him by Fili, that something else caught his eye. A dark purple berry. In actual fact, a late season blackberry! The berry itself was rather squashed and overripe, but if he could locate the plants it came from then Bilbo and his little foraging crew might be able to have a little pre-breakfast snack. Young dwarves, as he'd found out last night, were much like young hobbits - always hungry. And young dwarves that used magic even more so.
His excitement at the find must have attracted attention because the hobbit was soon joined by the dwarves in his searching, though most were more of a hinderance than help. Bilbo did eventually find the cluster of bushes and hurried in to investigate. Most of the berries were like the previous one he'd seen, overripe and squishy, good for jam and attracting fruit flies, and not much else. However, a few left clinging to the branches were good for eating, and he soon had them divided up between the group.
The distraction of the little berry treats did not last long, and wherever Fili and Kili were, (and Fred and Jorge, though Bilbo didn't know this yet) mischief was sure to happen. It started with Jorge looking to the overripe fruit on the ground, then looking to Kili, raising his eyebrows with a challenging grin, then flicking his gaze over to where Harilaos was playfully defending the last of his berries from his uncle Sirius. Kili grinned in return.
Swiftly, before Bilbo as the nominated adult could stop him, Kili grabbed a berry from the ground and lobbed it at Harilaos' head. With preternatural seeming senses, the smaller dwarf dodged the fruity projectile, and the berry hit with a wet 'splat' on the cheek of Victor, who had the bad luck to have been standing behind his comrade.
Victor swiped the moisture off his face and looked to the juice now staining his fingers, then to the blackberry on the ground, and then towards the four troublemakers, whom had mostly had the good sense to hide. Except for Fili who Kili was hiding behind and holding in place. Victor glared and snorted, before seeming to drop the issue of having been attacked with an overripe blackberry. Kili, Fred and Jorge let out sighs of relief and congregated together again, while Fili punched his brother for using him as a shield.
Victor wandered over to the blackberry bushes, seemingly checking the deeper branches for any missed berries, but grabbed a handful of squishy fallen fruits from the ground while no one was paying attention.
With a war cry that startled birds from the trees he leapt at Fili and squashed the gooey, juicy handful on top of his head, dying the bright blonde hair a rather unique shade of purple.
"Kili threw the berry, not me!" Fili screeched, bending to grab a handful of retaliatory ammunition.
Thus began the great Blackberry Brawl of the Trollshaws.
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Thorin and Dwalin heard the foraging parties move off, and then miraculously 'woke-up' from their slumber, early enough to achieve something before breakfast, but too late to take part in the finding of food with the other youngsters (or young-at-heart).
Moli attempted to give the dwarves censuring looks, but it was rather ineffective as her lips kept twitching. Several other Blacklocks had done the exact same thing after all.
Balin sat down with Andromeda and the Black family scribe, Mia, to begin the writing out of the contract.
Thorin and Dwalin convinced Amelia and Sussan to take them to the battlefield where the Blacks had defeated an orc hunting party the previous day. The two dwarrow wanted to see what breed of orc were hunting them, and maybe get a feel for what sort of warriors their new allies were. They were quickly followed by Nori, as Ori was off checking trap lines, and Dori had found kindred spirits in the Art of Fussing with Moli and Percy. There were plans for a lot of very proper tea that Nori wanted no part of.
The recently made clearing they were led to was nearly one hundred meters long, and fifty-plus wide, littered with upturned rock, the charred remains of trees, and a smoking pile of orc remains. Brownish, greasy smoke still drifted up into the otherwise clear sky. Nori whistled, impressed by the sheer breadth of destruction.
"So, this is what Blacklocks and four U'zugh Zardel can do, huh?" He asked. Thorin and Dwalin frowned in concentration and headed towards the orc pile to look for evidence of who might be hunting them.
"Nope. This is what two U'zugh Zardel can do." Sussan laughed. "Victor and Master Alastor were on containment, and the rest of us were guarding Denis, Colin and Gyni. This is pretty much all Hari and Sirius' work. They're both pretty fond of fire."
"Master Harilaos." Amelia corrected. "He may be your friend, Sussan, but Harilaos does have his mastery in Battle Magic and is a well-respected career soldier – at least do so when speaking of him to others." Sussan rolled her eyes when her mother wasn't looking. Nori smirked at the girl.
"That how the Warriors usually work? Two do the damage, two on containment?" Dwalin asked as he stomped back over. In his hand was a dwarven crossbow bolt the Blacklocks had missed retrieving the previous evening. Sussan smiled in thanks at the big warrior.
Dwalin quite liked that the Blacklocks hadn't seemed apprehensive or nervous in his presence in the slightest. Then again, they lived and travelled with Alastor, whose scars and general demeanour made Dwalin look like a curious honey-bear being compared with a rabid grizzly.
"Traditionally, the U'zugh Zardel are arranged in squads of three - anything more would be overkill, and they'll just get in each other's way. Then since they aren't the best at self-preservation, each squad is assigned a magic-trained medic whose responsibility it is to keep their Warriors alive until they get back to the mountain." Amelia explained as she began guiding the directionally challenged king back towards camp. "Master Harilaos and Victor have been brothers-in-arms for twenty years. Their third squad member was killed in action nine years ago, and their medic took the loss personally. She's a non-combat healer now."
"So who would Lady Andromeda be sending with us to face the dragon?" Dwalin mused. "Harilaos, since he's most powerful, and Victor since they've worked together so long."
Amelia shook her head.
"If you want Harilaos, then you'll have to take Alastor." The Blacklock ex-guard captain rationalised. "He's about the only one who can keep Harilaos in line. Not that he's a bad soldier or uncontrollable or the like, he's just young, somewhat emotionally stunted, and gets crazy ideas that he has to fight everyone else's battles as well as his own. Alastor was Harilaos' original Master and has his respect, while Victor's turned into a bit of an enabler over the last few years."
"So, you'll likely get Harilaos, Alastor and Sirius, with Nev acting as their medic for all he's over-qualified by now." Amelia nodded to herself. "Rôn is a career soldier, so him as well. Moli will insist on one of his older brothers coming, since he's not yet reached 80. And of course, Sussan and myself."
Dwalin stopped walking.
"We're not taking any dams."
"Yes, you are. Sussan and I are some of the best fighters the Blacks have. I was a Guard Captain much like yourself Mister Dwalin, and my daughter has been fighting at the side of our U'zugh Zardel for two years now. We're going with you, and you'd best get your head around the idea before we have to leave tomorrow."
Thorin, the unhelpful sod, sniggered. He was far too used to Dis to think to argue with an armed and decisive dam. A roar echoed through the forest, halting the foursome in their tracks.
"That's Victor." Amelia muttered, turning to face Sussan. The strawberry blonde dam dropped to one knee and placed her bare palm to the rocky ground. Her eyes flicked back and forth unseeingly.
Suddenly she laughed. Jumping to her feet, Sussan announced, "The Great Blackberry Brawl is on!" and charged off into the undergrowth.
"She also has an almost unrivalled Stone Sense." Amelia informed the two dwarves smugly. "So long as the ground is sufficiently rocky, or at least sandy, my Sussan can track any one, any where."
"A blackberry brawl," Thorin muttered. "Why do I have a feeling my sister-sons are responsible for this?"
"Probably because you don't know Fred and Jorge very well yet."
"What do you bet all four of them are responsible?"
"No bet."
"Yeah, we're not taking the twins with us. Fili and Kili are enough trouble." Dwalin interrupted. Amelia, amused, agreed.
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By the time the Blackberry Brawl had been ended by Moli calling everyone for breakfast, the original number had grown to include Sussan, Charli, Nym, Nev, Colin, Denis, and a thoroughly unrepentant looking Remus. Andromeda had sighed at her brother and bonded both, and proceeded to ignore them for the entire meal. Apparently, Sirius and Remus had been quite the pranksters in their youth, and some things dwarves just don't grow out of.
Following the meal, the girls were sent to the stream to clean themselves up first, while the boys stayed in the camp. Fili, Kili, Fred and Jorge were 'volunteered' for extra training for starting the mess, as well as Victor and Hari for being either old enough or high ranked enough to have known not to respond in kind when attacked with a squashed blackberry.
When Thorin had turned on Bilbo for why he hadn't even tried to stop them, the hobbit had shrugged and proclaimed, "Your company threw food around inside my home. This time I didn't have to clean it all up since we're outdoors, and it looked like fun anyway."
Fili laughed and patted the hobbit on the shoulder, accidentally sending the smaller male crashing to the ground.
Thorin thought to punish his nephew for 'encouraging insubordination' by matching him up to spar with a younger, but far superior opponent. Not only were Blacklock dwarven soldiers known for their outstanding ability, but their home mountain was also often under attack by Mordor orcs or the wild Shadow Mountain wyverns, so for them Active Duty actually meant active.
Harilaos and Fili stood across from each other, the prince taking out his two swords, and the young Warrior both his staves. Alastor had very firmly re-iterated that this was a spar only, so no real damaging hits and definitely no magic.
Thorin watched the two begin to face off – Fili with his matching swords and Harilaos with unmatching staves, one an old master-work, the other much newer and less elaborate. The scribe, Mia was happy to inform everyone within hearing distance that the older weapon her friend wielded was the Therkar Khagalamrâl'aban, the legendary Sapphire Staff that once belonged to the Blue Istari Romestamo, whom the Blacks could name as their ancestor. Apparently, this proved that although Hariloas was adopted, at least one of his birth parents was of direct Black blood.
On hearing about the staff, Gandalf suddenly took a much greater interest in the current goings on. Ori turned to Mia to ask if anything was known about the boy's other parent, because there was something strangely familiar about his appearance, for all that the young Longbeard had never met a Blacklock before. A few others of the Company agreed.
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Fili and Harilaos came together in a clash of steel on stone. Within a minute the Golden Prince found himself flat on his back, the other dwarf kneeling astride his chest, with both knees digging painfully into his biceps, and one of the staves pressing threateningly across his throat.
"Hi there." Harilaos smirked, leaning forward to put more pressure on Fili's arms so he couldn't throw Hari off. The movement let his untied lower dreadlocks swing forwards around Fili's head. They smelled like apples and coconut.
"Hey." Fili answered, "You know, this position would be much more fun with less clothes on." He added a suggestive eyebrow wiggle.
"Fili!" Thorin snapped.
Hari, however, laughed, a light blush coming to the surface on his cheeks as he let the other dwarf up, and readied for another attack.
This time Fili did his best to counter the speed that the smaller dwarf moved with, but still ended up in a position of defeat within minutes. Instead of getting embarrassed and angry at being beaten by a younger and smaller opponent, Fili grinned widely. Not only was he good looking, shorter than Fili, fit, and his hair smelled nice, he was an amazing fighter. Harilaos was perfect.
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Harilaos, being a young dwarf, confident in his abilities, with a captive audience, began to pull out more and more flashy moves. Nothing he'd use actually fighting orcs, but stunts he had used before to intimidate his opponents in an organised tournament. Several of the less trained fighters cheered his more over-the-top stunts, including using a staff to vault over the crown prince's head to attack from behind, and dodging a sword slash by executing a back-flip. Fili soon joined the show, adding unnecessary twists and spins of his blades, making them flash in the sunlight, and getting his own cheer-squad of Colin and Denis.
Victor was laughing along with the twins and Rôn, Sussan had somehow gotten Gloin, the collective 'Urs and Nori to give points out of ten for each stunt, and Alastor, Dwalin and Thorin were not amused.
"Could you be serious, the both of you!" Thorin shouted, stopping the competitive showboating the spar had turned into.
"I'd really rather not." Fili just couldn't help himself, "He's sitting back there, critiquing Captain Dwalin's behind with Nym. And between you and me Uncle, Dwalin looks uncomfortable enough as it is without me joining them."
Kili, Fred and Jorge fell to the ground, positively howling. Sirius cheered on the prince for having made a serious/Sirius joke and most of the Blacklocks groaned at the over-used pun. Hari threw his head back and laughed.
"Alastor, you take that idiot," Thorin pointed to his nephew who was still looking rather proud of himself, "Dwalin, the other idiot," He pointed to Harilaos, "Amelia, with Kili. Lady Andromeda, control your brother. I'll take the twin hyenas."
"Be mean." The king ordered. "I want no more ridiculousness out of this lot today."
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That morning's training was brutal.
Thorin circled around and went up against most of the battle-trained Blacklocks even if for just a short while, and spent some time coaching the enthusiastic but not highly skilled Colin and Denis. The only one the king didn't get to spar against, even briefly, was Harilaos, who Dwalin positively hogged.
The big warrior was having the time of his life versing a highly skilled opponent with an unfamiliar fighting style, who learned and took direction well, and even better, when he got knocked down, he just kept getting back up.
"Alright, that's enough." Thorin called off his cousin and friend. Harilaos saluted the Captain as a sign of respect from one soldier to another, then went and collapsed on a log in the camp next to where Ori was sitting drawing in his latest notebook. When the other dwarf looked to him, he gave a sharp yet tired smile.
"That!" Ori jumped up pointing at the now confused dwarf. "That smile. It's really familiar, along with your eyes."
"I'd hope you find him familiar." Bifur commented from across the fire pit, in Khuzdul as usual. "He's Nori's son."
Everyone who understood froze. Bilbo, sensing something serious had just been said asked Bofur what Bifur had said, but didn't get an answer. The hatted miner was looking back and forth from Nori to the young soldier.
Harilaos frowned and stood.
"I was told my Amad was foreign, and my Adad a Black." Harilaos mentioned quietly, taking a step closer to Nori who regained his feet as well. "Unless Sirius and Remus remembered wrong."
"I'm no one's Adad." Nori argued.
"Don't get drunk, dressed as a 'dam, If you're from the line of Durin." Dori added to the conversation. Ever since he'd first seen those familiar eyes the previous day, he'd been keeping a tally of the physical similarities between the young, orphaned dwarf and his brother. Seemed like Bifur at least, noticed the same things Dori did, and had come to the same conclusion.
"What?" Hari asked, trying to work out the white-haired dwarf's meaning.
"That's one way to put it." Oin muttered to himself, knowing well about the Durin Fault. Thorin looked like he couldn't decide if he found Dori's description of his family's medical condition funny or horrifying.
"Thanks to the Durin Fault, yeah I birthed a kid in 'Azn'abbad. Gave him away too." Nori admitted, "Then him and the couple I gave him to were killed. My son's been dead for 68 years, so he ain't you."
"My adoptive parents were killed by orcs 68 years ago. Lili was a healer who took in a foreign charity case, and Jamis was a guardsman from the House of Black." Nori shook his head repeatedly, while Harilaos spoke, as though denying his words. "Jamis chose the name 'Harilaos' for me because it was the only star he knew of, that was in any way similar to the name 'Hari' I was given at birth. Lili had green eyes and red hair and was of Stonefoot and Firebeard descent. Jamis was all Blacklock, all the way back to Romestamo. So, no one outside of the immediate family even realised I was adopted, because I looked enough like them. But Aunt Tuni always said my eyes were wrong, and I was too short to be Lili and Jamis' kid."
"No." Nori cut the approaching dwarf off. "I know that my son, my Hari, was killed along with his adopted parents. I got told about his death, and then I picked myself up and got on with my life. I don't know who you are, and I don't care who you think you are, my son is dead. And that's it. The end."
The dwarf turned and stomped away from the camp. Dori stood to go talk to his brother.
"Don't you follow me, Dori." Nori's voice floated back to the camp, and the elder 'Ri brother slowly sat back down.
Harilaos turned to find the whole of the camp staring at him.
"I've been orphaned near seven decades so far. I guess that hasn't changed any." He gave a self-depreciating smile and a shrug. "Well, I'm still covered in blackberry juice, and now dirt and sweat too. Anyone else heading to the stream?"
First Rôn, then Victor jumped up to join their friend. They were soon followed by Fred and Jorge, who took Hari's cue to move right on to another topic.
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And there we go. That was a mammoth chapter, and I nearly split it into two, but I did promise everyone Nori/Hari interaction. Chapter title is from Trivium's 'Scattering the Ashes', which I listened to quite a few times while developing the adult!Hari/Nori conflict plot line.
Fili's got a crush. Hari has one too, but as Amelia stated, he's a bit emotionally stunted. He'll get there.
Yes, Nori is in denial, mostly because he's spent nearly seventy years grieving for a son he's just found out wasn't actually dead, and he can't process that yet.
Thanks to all the people who fav'd and followed. Comments make me update faster.
-Vengeance