บท 70: Chapter 70: Meeting the company
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As expected, the night was terrible. He was thankful his clothes could wash themselves, or he would have been wet all over for the entire day.
Fortunately, the wait wasn't too long for him as early the next morning, about an hour and a half after dawn, he saw a group of ponies led by a couple of horses arrive in the city.
The ponies were mounted by a bunch of dwarves, they all looked quite stocky and most had large beards and long hair, and of course, they were only half as tall as a man.
One of them stood out though, he wasn't nearly as stocky as the others, nor did he have a beard. He was as short as them, but he was… definitely not a dwarf. Probably a Hobbit. But not Frodo or any of the others who were part of the Fellowship of the Ring. He hadn't seen the movies for a while now but he was sure this wasn't any of them.
And finally in the lead was Gandalf, on one of the two leading horses. The other was empty, meaning Gandalf had most certainly prepared it for him.
With a leap, Edward moved down from the roof and landed in front of the group. Gandalf smiled as he stopped his horse, but the dwarves had already taken out their weapons.
Edward ignored them for now and greeted Gandalf, "Gandalf the Grey, pleased to meet you. I am Edward, and I am here to help."
Gandalf nodded, "So I have been told. Let me present you to the group," he turned around to look at the dwarves and pointed at their leader, "This is Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain. He is the one leading the company."
Edward got closer to the dwarf, who was still slightly shorter than him even on his pony, and the later raised his hand to tell the others to draw their weapons. He then said, "Why should we bring you with us? We don't need an additional mouth to feed or a burden in our fights."
Edward smirked at that, and proposed, "I understand. You see, I am quite a special person, and for a reason privy to me I won't eat anything in the next month. So why don't we do this? I have this one month to prove my usefulness, during which I won't eat a single crumb of bread."
The dwarves, the Hobbit and even Gandalf were looking at him in shock, and after a few seconds Thorin chuckled, "You are either a fool or very confidant in yourself. Fine, Balin! Give him the contract!"
The oldest of the dwarves, a white haired and bearded one, took out a parchment and handed it to Edward. He pointed at the bottom of the parchment and clarified, "If you agree with all the terms of the contract, then just sign there."
Edward nodded and read the contract quickly. Once he was done, he did not immediately sign though, making Thorin frown, and he said, "About the reward…"
Thorin's frown intensified, and Balin smiled instead, "There are fifteen of us, don't you think it's only fair to receive one fifteenth of the loot?"
Edward chuckled, "You misunderstand me, I don't care about gold and silver, I don't want any of the money trapped with the dragon. To be honest, I am only here to slay the dragon."
Thorin's face eased as he heard this, and he asked, "So you are after the glory?"
Edward shook his head, "Not really, I share Gandalf's goal. To be honest, I don't really care about getting any reward out of this anyway, I doubt you can offer me anything that would be worth it. Instead, the journey will be much more rewarding for me."
Thorin stared at Edward for a few seconds after he finished explaining himself, and eventually said, "You are a strange man, Edward. But fine, I would be a fool to refuse such terms."
Edward grinned and shook his hand before mounting the horse next to Gandalf. Thorin then addressed the entire group, "Let's go, we won't be staying in this town any longer!"
Like this, the group moved out of Bree, and continued along the East Road.
As they travelled, Edward kept close to Gandalf and asked, "Gandalf, I wonder, are you capable of performing elemental magic?"
Gandalf looked surprised at the question, and asked back, "Are you interested in magic?"
Edward nodded, "Actually, I am a magician myself. I can't use my magic for now because my power is sealed, but as long as I regain it I should be able to use it."
Gandalf sent an inquiring look at Edward, "Very few humans are capable of wielding magic here."
"In my place too, but I am a different kind of magician," Edward explained, but quickly stopped and said, "So, are you interested in exchanging pointers? We use two very different systems of magic, and I have learned quite a bit about elemental magic from a goddess in my place, so you won't lose out."
Gandalf laughed, "It's fine anyway, it is not often that I get to speak of the wonders of magic with someone else."
Edward chuckled too, and the two talked about magic for the rest of the day. The dwarves behind tried to listen in to their conversation, but they quickly stopped when they heard terms they never heard about.
At sunset, the group arrived below a rather large tree, and Thorin hollered, "We will camp here for the night!"
The dwarves quickly got onto their feet as they gathered the ponies together, and Edward decided to use the opportunity to introduce himself to the company.
Kili, Fili, Nori, Dori, Bofur, Gloin, Dwalin, Oin, Bombur, Bifur and Ori. And of course, Thorin and Balin, whom he already met.
That was a lot of names to remember, and some were more memorable than others. Kili and Fili were the nephews of Thorin, Balin was the 'sage' among the dwarves, Dwalin was a brute, Bombur was the fattest and Ori was the youngest.
But of the company, there was one that was really interesting, and that was the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.
Bilbo was the thief of the company, and his job was to steal the Arkenstone from the dragon. The Arkenstone was a precious jewel that would grant it's possessor the title of King under the Mountain, which was what Thorin was after.
Bilbo was not a fighter like the dwarves though, and obviously was missing his calm life in the Shire. After speaking with him for some time, Edward understood the Hobbit was here because he wanted to find some excitement in his life.
In the following days, Edward understood for the first time the luck he had to live in the 21st century. For days, the company did not cross any town or village, and simply followed the road.
Gandalf told him it was because the region surrounding the Shire was quite bare, but still, it was only on the tenth day after they left Bree that they finally found a place to sleep in.
Weathertop was the highest hill in Eriador, the region they were in, and a watchtower sat on it's peak. By the time they reached the top, it was already night, and everyone was tired after more than a week of sleeping under the stars and travelling non stop.
The dwarves quickly fell asleep, while Edward meditated, as he always did, every night. With his weakened body, it was hard to go on for an entire month without eating, but meditating helped.
Since it had been ten days since he didn't eat though, Edward could feel he was starting to get weaker, but he held down because it was the key to opening the Solar Plexus Chakra.
Edward had made a lot of research on the Chakra every since the battle against the Kronans, and until recently he thought it was all useless and he really needed to fight to the edge of death every time to open the Chakras.
But then, he opened his Second Chakra before reaching Themyscira. He had thought about what happened during the last ten days, and asked Gandalf's opinion, not directly of course, and adding to that his former knowledge, he came to a conclusion.
The limiters were set by the brain, and so maybe the answer to opening them laid in the same place. He had been under the misconception that him nearly dying had been what opened the Root Chakra, but with the event preceding the opening of his Sacral Chakra, he understood the truth.
Seven was an interesting number, and used for many, many things. As for when it relates to the brain, to the spirit… Edward remembered reading about the Seven Deadly Sins.
It was nothing more than a theory, but the seven chakras were said to possibly be related to the Seven Deadly Sins.
Root, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye and Crown.
Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, Envy, Greed, Sloth and Pride.
Seven Chakras for Seven Deadly Sins. However, Edward had scratched that theory at first because he wasn't really angry when he fought the Kronans. Even when he was about to die and opened his Root Chakra, he didn't feel Wrath.
But when he opened the second one, he finally understood that the theory was not as baseless as he thought. The Chakras were indeed related to the Seven Deadly Sins, but only indirectly as one needed to live by the opposite of them to open the Chakras.
When he was about to die, he did not feel Wrath but Patience. When he was lured by the mermaids, he did not feel Lust but Chastity.
And so to confirm his theory once and for all, he stopped eating. According to that theory, the Solar Plexus Chakra was related to Gluttony, so he decided to go for Abstinence. Now it remained to see whether he was right or if he was starving for nothing.
But a few minutes after the group fell asleep and Edward was started meditating, Edward suddenly felt movement from his Chi Sense. He did not recognize the Chi of the intruder, meaning it wasn't Bofur who was guarding them.
Several more presences entered his Chi Sense, they were on the floor right above them, and they had stopped right above the members of the group…
Edward's eyes shot open as he bellowed, "ENEMY ATTACK!"
The dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo woke up confused at his scream, but before they could really wake up they saw figure crash through the ceiling to attack them.
The dwarves hurriedly took out their weapon, but they saw something fly at the intruders and bisect them.
They didn't have the time to wonder what that was though as more of those things jumped from above. They took out their weapons and began fighting, while Edward rushed to Bilbo's side to protect him. The Hobbit didn't even have a weapon.
It was dark in the abandoned watchtower, so the company couldn't easily see what was attacking them, but after a minute the monsters stopped attacking, they either had all been killed or the rest escaped.
Bofur suddenly came in running, a torch in hand, and asked, "What's happening?!"
His question was ignored though as the light revealed the attackers, and Dwalin, one of the biggest dwarves, angrily kicked the head of one of the monsters as he growled, "Damn fellers!"
Bilbo and Edward looked a little confused at the term, so Kili recited, "From the armies of Morgoth they rose, down to your head they fell."
Bilbo looked spooked, so Fili added, "Neck becomes hose, so they tell."
Thorin grunted from the side, "If you think this attack is a joke then have fun carrying their corpses out!"
The two mischievous brothers looked down as they did as they were told, and the old Balin smiled at the confused duo, "A little poem made to describe those beings of the dark. Really, they get their name from their lifestyle, they ambush their targets by jumping down on them and decapitating them. Quite the nasty fellows."
Author's Note: The Fellers are my own creation. It was to add something to the adventure, throw in something a little unexpected. Also, if you think just following the company will make this arc boring, do remember that Edward's mission isn't to help the dwarves get to the mountain, but to slay the dragon and push back evil. He will accompany the company, but he will also interact in his very own way with the world around him and influence it. Well, I can't say much more, so you will need to read on your own. Still, last thing I can tell you, is that this is probably my favourite arc for this story until now.
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