Chapter 185: A Fate Touched in Middle Earth chp1 part 2
Like the some fics before this the first chp of this fic was too long so I am forced to divide it into two parts
That evening they stopped early, Thorin not wishing to push the manling too far while he was still recovering. While Thorin went hunting for some food to bolster what little he'd brought along, small biscuits and dried meat. More than enough for a single dwarf to subsist on but not for both of them, Harry stayed around the area that Thorin had chosen for their camp.
He busied himself by taking out large flat stones and inscribing two or three runes on each of them before setting them out in a pattern around the camp. As he came back laden with a large raccoon Thorin looked at the stones with interest, and Harry explained that he was putting down an aversion field to keep animals and anyone else from noticing the camp.
At that explanation, Thorin looked at the rocks far more closely, using all his self-control not to gape. His people made use of runes to imbue magic into items, calling upon Mahal to power them, but the process was slow, often times ponderous. The effects they could achieve varied, from weapons which never needed honing, or armor that was far lighter than even dwarven mail could be, to the famous lights of Khazad Dum or the self-propelled carts, which would run continuously between the lowest mine and the forges above.
Defense too was something the dwarves used runes for, creating magical doors, hiding them from any attempt to find them or enhancing their strength magically. No army could break such doors until the magic in them was destroyed, as had, alas, been the case with Erebor's own doors. Dragonfire destroyed magical bonds like that as fast as it did the wood of the door itself.
Yet the use of runes was also something of a vanishing art amongst them, much of the knowledge lost after the fall of Khazad Dum or even before in the Age of Wrath. At its height Erebor had two dozen rune-carvers, those men, and even one dam, who had learned how to enhance the runic letters with magic, the mightiest of their kind in all the dwarven kingdoms. Thorin's grandfather had sent more than half the remaining warriors of the mountain to the Iron Hills to guard the six surviving rune carvers barely weeks after Erebor fell, so precious were they. They remained there now, guarded by Dain and his people.
But to see runes used in this manner, so quickly and with such an effect, that was beyond startling to Thorin. For one so young for his people to know such a skill, aye and be so open about it, what kind of society did Harry Potter come from where they teach rune-craft so young, without teaching the need to guard the knowledge? This Human is a mystery… but could he also represent an opportunity?
But using them in this manner, so quickly and so haphazardly but yet with such an outcome was astonishing. "Do you really think these little stones will be imbued with enough power to do what you say you wish them to?"
"Oh yes, it's not so much in the stones themselves as in the runic array, each of them feeding upon one another." And magics strong here, he thought to himself shaking his head internally. It felt like he was at Hogwarts, the entire world seemed to be heavily imbued with magic. It was fascinating. Once Thorin crossed the boundary, Harry traced his finger over the much larger stone he had set up as the center of the ward. "Activate." With that there was a bright shimmer in the air for a moment, which dissipated as quickly as it appeared.
Thorin's eyes widened at this show of power, noting yet again that Harry was willing to throw more magic around than Gandalf ever had, or indeed any of the Istar was supposed to. He shook off his awe quickly, hiding his inner thoughts with the ease of long practice. "That was only half your portion of this deal Harry Potter." He held out the raccoon to Harry.
"I never agreed to be the one preparing the meat, but it's all one."The two of them both set to work on the animal, skinning it quickly and then cutting out the meat from the bones, which they set aside. With Harry's wards up, no scavenger would be able to come close to them.
With that done Harry began to sprinkle them with pieces of fennel leaves that he had found on their journey through the day, before once more wrapping them to the meat in basil leaves. "We'll need to find some kind of vegetable or fruit to go with this you know."
"Bah, said Thorin scoffing. "Vegetables and fruits weaken the body, all you need is meat. Mind you, I'd prefer to have more spices to add to it."
Harry laughed. "I see that dietary needs aren't exactly known here." Frankly, he was starving at this point so anything was good to him. "I remember this one argument I had to stop, Hermione…" Harry paused, his face crumpling up for a moment while he fell silent. Thorin looked at him, but did not speak, leaving the Human youth to his grief.
For a few moments the two sat in somewhat companionable silence waiting for their food to finish cooking, each to his own thoughts. Then Thorin reached into a small pouch and pulled out a flask, taking a long pull before sighing in satisfaction. "What's that?" Harry asked, glad for something external to concentrate on.
"This?" Thorin said holding it up then laughed. "This is good dwarf mead my young human. Strong enough it would knock you right out, and I've already carried you enough."
Harry frowned, then conjured up a cup of his own and filled it with water via an Aquamenti spell. "Fine, be that way."
Thorin nearly coughed on the mead in his flask at the sight of yet another amazing spell, then shook his head and looked off into the woods. "A bit of free advice Harry. You should be wary of throwing magic around like that, I've never heard of a wizard being so open with his talent, nor heard of magic used in that manner. Creating something out of nothing?"
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Still works though. I could even create food, bread and other things but you wouldn't get anything out of it. Water though is water, the spell pulls it from the environment and pulls it into wherever you need it. As to being wary, meh. I'm of no mind right now to care about whatever anyone think of my magic. I cared about what other people thought for far too damn long."
Several hours later Thorin was astonished anew when Harry conjured up a full bed for himself. It sat there incongruous in this camp and the wilds around them, while Thorin stared at it agog. Harry laughed and waved his fingers. "You want one?"
Thorin scoffed, though his lips twitched slightly. Being around Harry Potter reminded him all too easily of his two rambunctious nephews. "Dwarfs are hardy folk, we laugh at irritations such as sleeping out in the cold."
"In other words you do but you're too prideful to ask right?"
Thorin scoffed again looking away but he couldn't quite keep the longing edge out of his voice as he looked at the bed. "Believe what you want." Then he gasped as a bed appeared beside him though he scowled angrily as he noticed the size of it.
Harry smiled at him beatifically. "I had to make it to size of course." He said in a butter would not melt in his mouth tone.
Thorin grumbled, but couldn't keep his smile from widening slightly. The boy was obviously somewhat crazy, alone and with no way of getting home and he still made jokes? Still, he was good company, and the conjured beds gave Thorin some more peace of mind when it came to the runic arrays around them. Plus, made camping out more comfortable, not that he would admit to such aloud.
Later that night Thorin was roused out of his incredibly comfortable bed by noises in the forest. He quickly rolled out of the bed, coming up with his blade ready as he stared out into the forest. A goblin came out of the woods then, sniffing and moving around trying to pick up a trail of some kind, but not crossing the ward zone, staring directly at Thorin for a moment before turning away, as if he hadn't seen him at all. Potter's magic worked!
Now he could see numerous goblins moving around the camp, but they never noticed it or its inhabitants, avoiding the area automatically thanks to the power of Harry's runic array. They spoke one another in their guttural tongue, which Thorin only knew a few words in. The word 'hunt' he knew, and "Longbeard', that was mentioned practically every other sentence the goblins spoke, and he thought he also caught his common name, Thorin a time or two. Are they looking for me? Or did they just spot me and decide to have some fun?
He moved over to rouse Harry, only to find him sitting up as well though he had not left his bed, simply staring out at the goblins. "So these are goblins here? They look vaguely similar to the ones at home, but not quite the same. These are larger, dirtier and darker, less civilized too."
Thorin gasped, turning back to stare at the goblins, who it seemed hadn't heard Harry. Before he could put this down to luck Harry spoke up. "Don't worry, the Notice Me Not field will cover sound as well. Are such parties like that normal in this area of the world, or do you think they're after you in particular?"
Gripping his sword Thorin pulled out his pack and pulled on a helmet and armored greaves. . Wish I had a shield as well, but I've borne worse. "I don't know, and I don't care." Thorin growled.
"Is there any way to tell? I could use the same language spell I used on you on one them, but I'm afraid they'd noticed that if they're at all magically sensitive."
"How do you feel about wiping them all out?" Thorin said growling angrily, being this close to the hated enemy Thorin's hands shook in rage, his fury tingeing his voice. "Too many good dwarves and good dams have gone to their deaths from such creatures for me to let any of them pass peaceably if I can help it!"
"Might wish to curb that in the future." Harry said with a shrug, though his eyes had noticeably hardened, watching Thorin closely, before turning to the goblins. "But right now, yes I can definitely get behind that idea so long as we take one of them alive to question. But there might be more of them out there than we can handle at present if you're so set on attacking the whole crew..."
"I am." Thorin said, his temper continuing to rise while Harry watched. Harry made a note that his new acquaintance had one hell of a temper on him, one that very obviously made him throw caution to the wind.
Still that was for pondering later. Right now Harry simply nodded. "Then let me hit the entire area with a sound dampening spell. We'll still all be able to hear one another, but no sound will travel beyond a certain point. That way if some of them think to call for help and there are others around, they won't be heard."
"Do it." Thorin ordered and Harry scowled, resisting the urge to change the dwarf's hair color or make his beard disappear just to show that he was not under the dwarf's command. But right now he had other guinea pigs for his magic.
"Very well give me a second."Concentrating Harry pulled up his magic, then raised his hand into the air and intoned "Muffilatio". He had no idea how wide the area that spell would cover was, but he watched it expand through the night for a moment, possibly as much as a league in every direction. Once he the spell settled into place, disappearing to his sense for now, he nodded over at the dwarf. "So how are we going to do this?"
In reply Thorin simply ran out from the camp, appearing as if from nowhere to the goblins' senses on their flank. "Baruk Khazad!" His sword flashed, cutting one goblin's head off entirely, before whipping back to slice into another's side as he roared a battle cry. "Tanar Durin Nur!" The axes of the dwarves! Remember Durin's Folk!
Harry gaped at him then shrugged, his eyes glittering with battle light. "That works."He raced forward shouting aloud. "If you were a student at Hogwarts, you'd be a Gryffindor, no doubt!"
With that he plunged the sword of Gryffindor into one goblin, pulling it out quickly and making a shallow cut on another goblin's cheek, who jumped back in time to avoid the full slash. He turned away, concentrating on to others and using magic now that he had won himself some space outside the camp while behind him that goblin he had nicked fell screaming as the poison of the basilisk did its work.
"Snorcack Grex!" Laughing suddenly Harry conjured up huge creatures, the snorcacks that Luna had always been going on around about, simply creating them from his imagination by following her descriptions of them. They barreled through the goblins all scattered through the woods around the wizard. Shrieks and bellows of astonishment and fear abounded while Harry also sent out offensive spells. A Bombarda spell blew a goblin apart, another spell swiftly grabbing all of the bits and pieces of said goblin before hurling them at another with bone crushing force. Then Harry began to throw around transfiguration spells, the ground and forest coming alive.
Thorin's and his opponents all stopped and stared at the sheer carnage the wizard had created, but Thorin laughed and began to hack at the goblins with renewed vigor. Whatever strange chance had brought Harry to him, Thorin was suddenly beginning to wonder if maybe, just maybe his quest, the quest of his people had suddenly gained a powerful ally.
By this point most of the goblins were trying to get away from the fearsome twosome, desperate to get some distance to use their bows and arrows. Thorin didn't let them escape, rushing after the goblins hacking and slashing while Harry's conjured beasts continued to make a mockery of the battlefield as he used magic and even sword against those few goblins willing to close with him.
Moments after the battle was begun it ended, with only one goblin still alive, stunned and Immobilized. Thorin came back through the woods towards the fire of the camp, noticing that he could see it easily enough, including the two beds that were still there, even though Thorin himself was now out of that field.
"Magnificent magic," he said, only speaking half about what Harry had shown in the battle. "Did you take a prisoner?"
"Seeing as you didn't seem to be any kind of frame of mind to do so, yes." Harry said with a laugh, though there was a grim note to his voice. He had enjoyed that fight, the goblins were quite patently evil going by the stories Thorin had shared, and Harry had also noticed the trophies some of them carried, skulls, bones and other souvenirs. In particular he had noticed that some of them were tiny, like those of babies or extremely young children .
Thorin shrugged, looking away uncomfortably at the memory of the fact that he had been taken by battle-lust like some green warrior. "Wake him up and use that spell on him then. I'm interested now, since some of these goblin scum shouted my name and the name of my father when they saw me."
With Harry translating Thorin questioned the goblin closely, making Harry wince occasionally when he went through with his threats of cutting off toes every time the goblin tried to not answer a question.
"The white Orc, he's dead!" Thorin said standing up and moving back rapidly once he had gotten a bit of the truth out of the creature. "Azog is dead, dead and gone! There's no way he could've lived through that wound!"
"Evidently he has and has it out for you."Harry shrugged. "Is there anything we can use right now, he said something about a base didn't he?" Even with his spell allowing him to understand the words, the Goblin's snarls and use of local locations made the directions impossible for Harry to follow.
Thorin nodded. "Aye, I know the place, but are you certain you're up to go looking for trouble?" Thorin had no idea about the long term effects of spell-made wounds, and the Human had handled himself well, but still, Humans were normally much weaker and less durable than his own kind.
"I'm up for it." Harry smiled grimly, touching the goblin's chest, were two skulls and a few bits of jewelry hung, taken in some raid or other. "I most definitely am up for it.
Thorin smiled equally grimly, then sliced the goblin's throat neatly. Harry's eyes widened slightly at the act, but he made no comment. Those skulls and other souvenirs were making his fingers twitch. "Then we'll leave at first light for this gathering point of theirs. I'm interested in seeing your magic in action once again Harry."
Realizing his tone might have given too much away, Thorin glanced at Harry's sword. "I was astonished that one goblin you scratched with that died. Poisons rarely if ever work on goblins or orcs."
"Yes, well as I said, the sword of Gryffindor is rather special. The poison from a basilisk was able to dispatch a soul imbued into a book, and I read afterwards that it is one of the deadliest substances ever discovered in my world."
"Really? Interesting." Thorin said now looking at the blade with far more interest than he had shown even when he realized its craftsmanship.Poison, not an area any dwarf knows much about, but, if the dragon yet lives, could such as that work on him, at least to weaken the beast?
"There is a lot of meaning behind that 'interesting'." Harry said looking at the dwarf quizzically. "Care to share?"
Thorin looked away again scowling. "It is not an easy thing to share. To share our fate, our shame. We might have fought together Harry Potter, but that does not make us close." And my hope for the future is too precious to share so easily.
"Thorin, you helped me when I arrived, you could've left me for dead. Instead you welcomed me and gave me food and carried me for two days." Harry said. "You've told me about this world, gave me information I would have had to take weeks to acquire otherwise, I owe you. If you need my help, ask and I will give it."Harry smiled. Gryffindor's charge!
Thorin stared at him for a moment then looked away. "Let us burn these bodies then retreat into your protected array. We leave at first light. And after we destroy that I, I will decide on if you are trustworthy enough to learn more about my people"
End chapter
Now, this Harry isn't as well-trained as the Harry in ATP was before his trip into the Negative Zone, nor did he have as much time alone to train and research, those his combat spells, especially transfiguration are close, and he is something of a runes prodigy. Mind you he does have a mokeskin pouch and books within, as well as a talent for Runes and runic arrays. His power level however is far lower than ATP Harry, and his leadership skills haven't been tested. His skills with the sword and in hand to hand are practically nonexistent, but the poison of the blade makes up for some of that shortcoming. He is also suffering from somewhat less all-consuming grief, though it is far more present in his mind.
I think my Thorin is a bit more talkative than the original, but I hope other than that aspect I nailed his personality well enough.
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this story, and have a happy thanksgiving.
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