Chapter Text
“All right, lad,” Balin huffed as he stopped on a ledge along the path up to Ravenhill. “I need a bit of a breather. Are you all right with stopping?”
Ori shuffled his feet as he looked up at Balin. He nodded before he turned to look out from the path they were climbing. The valley that Dale rested in between the mountain and the lake looked glorious in the evening light. “Do you think we’ll make it down before dark?”
“Even if we don’t, we’ll be all right.”
Ori nodded at that as he fiddled with the cuffs of his jacket. “Is it hard to call down the ravens?”
“No,” Balin replied before he cleared his throat. “Ori, your brother wasn’t entirely wrong about my intention for asking you to join me, or I should say that his reasons for wanting to join us gave me an idea.”
Glancing over his shoulder, Ori frowned at his companion before he turned away to look back down to where the others were moving between the wrecked houses of Dale. “I figured,” he muttered.
Balin lifted his brows as he studied Ori’s slumped shoulders. “I only wanted to make something clear.”
“What is it?”
Balin sucked in a deep breath before he got up and joined Ori in looking down at the ruined city. “Dwalin is my brother. I would die for him.”
Ori nodded as he bit at his lip.
“But I’ve always liked you more.”
Spluttering, Ori turned to Balin. His cheeks heated as he shook his head. “You can’t mean that!”
Bemusedly, Balin watched Ori as he continued to try to deny a truth that wasn’t his to verify. “Ori, my lad, my brother is uncouth and rough. He often speaks without thinking and would rather grunt than use words most days. He lets his actions speak loudly and doesn’t care if he steps on any toes as he does what he believes is to be right.”
“Are you,” Ori started and then stopped. He licked his lips and found the courage to look at Balin again. “Are you trying to convince me to refuse the courtship?”
“Heavens no,” Balin said firmly as he reached out and placed one hand on Ori’s shoulder. “I should consider myself lucky to call you brother. I simply wanted to warn you that Dwalin’s heroics on this quest will not be what it is like every day. There won’t be orcs to fight or goblins to kill once this battle is over. We’ll be back to rebuilding the mountain, and that is far more dull than wrestling with trolls.”
Ori couldn’t help but smile as he dropped his gaze to his boots. He scuffed the toe of one of them against the ground as he peeked up at Balin from under his lashes. “He was rather dashing while doing those things.”
“Ori.”
“But Dwalin’s fighting prowess is not what I find attractive about him.”
Balin slowly closed his eyes as he pinched his brow between his fingers. “I don’t think I want to know.”
“It’s his loyalty,” Ori admitted quietly. “To you and to Thorin. To Fili and Kili and this quest. To all of us as soon as we agreed to join. He and Nori have had their disagreements in the past but as soon as we were in the company Dwalin acted as though they never happened. He isn’t petty and he doesn’t let the past cloud his judgment. I admire that about him a lot.”
“Well,” Balin said before he shrugged. “If he proves himself worthy of you then I hope you are very happy together.”
“Thanks, Balin,” Ori said quietly as he looked back up at Balin once more before he turned away again. “Your blessing means a lot to me.”
Balin cleared his throat and blinked a few times to make certain that his emotions would not get the better of him. “All right, enough of that. I’ll show you how to call down a raven so we can send a couple to Dain.”
“You want to send more than one?” Ori asked as he fell into step behind Balin once more. “I thought the ravens of Erebor were the brightest in all of the kingdoms?”
“They are,” Balin assured him as they continued to climb. “But it has been some years since any of them have had to carry a message that far. And in this instance, we desperately need our message to reach Dain.”
Ori paused for just a moment to look out from their path once more. In the distance, though he knew it was just a trick his eyes were playing on him, he thought he could see the army looming over them. “Yeah,” he agreed quietly as he turned to look at Balin still making his way up to the top of Ravenhill. “We cannot fail now.”
“Ori,” Balin called from further up the hill. “Come along, I have no doubt that your brother will already be questioning the amount of time we take. We cannot dawdle.”
Ori rolled his eyes at the thought of Dori waiting for them to return with his hands on his hips. “I understand why Bilbo put Dori in charge of the rest of us but I wish he hadn’t.”
“Your brother will be perfect,” Balin said without hesitation as he crested the hill. They were nowhere near the ruins of the watchtower or the aviary where the ravens were housed before the fall of Erebor. But they didn’t need to be. “Never mind anything about that.”
Ori nodded at Balin despite his confusion as he watched the older dwarf stop in the open space. Balin lifted his arm and held it out at chest level with his elbow bent. Then he tipped his head back and whistled a short sharp sound.
Ori gasped as the ravens that had been circling above them started to caw at one another. “What are they doing?”
“They’re deciding who will carry the message,” Balin answered. “Just wait.”
Ori kept his gaze up on the birds as a few of them continued to circle high above. Two began to drift downwards, still cawing at each other. “They get to decide?”
“The smartest birds,” Balin reminded him. “Now, hold out your arm same as me so they can both land. They’ll be the two we send.”
Ori made a small sound in the back of his throat as he quickly raised his right arm so that it mimicked what Balin was doing. He braced himself as the two ravens descended faster once they realized that they didn’t have to argue about who was going to go.
Ori’s arm dipped under the weight of the large bird before he stabilized his shoulder. He blinked several times as the large raven tilted its head back and forth as if studying his face to see if he was worthy. “Balin?”
“Ravens of Erebor,” Balin said in a solemn but firm voice. “We have a message of urgency that must be delivered to Dain. You must fly swift and true. The journey will be treacherous for there is an army marching toward us and they will do anything to prevent aid from arriving.”
The raven on Ori’s arm shuffled its weight but did not take off from its perch.
Balin’s raven studied him for a moment before the large bird opened its beak and let out a loud caw. Then it dipped its head. “The message,” it croaked. “We will take it.”
XXX
“Well?” Bilbo asked as he leaned back against the wall of rock behind him. He bit down on his pipe as he let his gaze slide off of Gandalf’s pensive face. Only after he told the story of what had happened to the company after Gandalf had gone off to investigate the sickness over the forest did Bilbo realize just how insane the last few weeks had been. And he couldn’t even remember most of what happened in Mirkwood before they ended up in Thranduil’s dungeons. “Can your story top that?”
Gandalf snorted before he fully realized what Bilbo had asked him. He hummed as he cleared his throat. Then he lifted his pipe to his lips but did not drag in a breath as he stopped to study Bilbo for just a moment. “Has Thorin said anything to you of his family?”
Bilbo frowned as he tucked one of his arms around his middle so he could rest his other elbow on it and hold his pipe up as he looked back at Gandalf. “What do you mean? I know he has a sister and that Fili and Kili are his nephews since they’re her children. He hasn’t mentioned his brother so I’m not sure if he’s still alive or not. Balin told us a story about a war. I know that Thror was slain and Thrain along with him.”
“Thorin’s father is not dead,” Gandalf said before he took a long drag of his pipe. He let the weed sit in his lungs for a moment before he let it out slowly. While he could have breathed it out into different shapes, he was far too tired to make that sort of effort. “I met with him when I went to investigate the maliciousness invading the forest. My path took me to Dol Guldur. I know you have no need to know of such a place but it is a stronghold of great evil.”
Bilbo could only sit and blink at Gandalf for several minutes. He barely managed to bring his pipe back to his lips but did not take a drag from it as his mind spun through the information that Gandalf had just given him. “He lives?”
“He was alive when I saw him last,” Gandalf said before he looked down off the side of the mountain. All those months ago, he would not have thought to be sitting where he was smoking with Bilbo and speaking of such horrors. “But I was taken captive and did not see him again.”
“Captive!” Bilbo sat forward as his eyes widened. He forgot about the lit pipe in his hand for a moment as he stared at Gandalf in shock. “How did you escape?”
“The White Council does have its merits,” Gandalf said as he looked down at Bilbo with a grin on his lips. “Even if you don’t always agree.”
Bilbo huffed as he sat back against the rocks behind him once more. “They came to free you but not Thrain?”
“Bilbo,” Gandalf said slowly as he let his gaze drift away. “I cannot fully explain to you the horrors that we saw there. The Lady Galadriel was barely able to banish the darkness that dwelled there. My hope is that it is gone but in my heart,” Gandalf trailed off as he stared off into the darkness.
“Your heart is what I trust,” Bilbo said gently as he tightened his grip on his pipe. “And if there is fear in your heart that this evil is not gone then I do believe you should not think it so.”
Gandalf turned his head to say something to Bilbo but was distracted by movement on the side of the mountain. It was far below them but he knew without a doubt that he was watching a horrid creature skulking about. At first sight, he thought maybe it was a goblin. It was only after watching for a bit longer that he realized he was seeing something altogether different. “Bilbo, my lad, I know the light is dim but you have far keener eyes than I. Can you see something down there?”
Frowning, Bilbo got up from his rock and stepped over to Gandalf’s side. He looked down over the cliff they were on and did his best to take in the dark side of the mountain. “Something like what?”
“Something moving,” was all Gandalf said as he allowed Bilbo to lean on his shoulder.
Bilbo blinked hard before he just sat and looked. The bit of moonlight that they had made some of the rocks on the side of the mountain glow. He almost forgot that he was supposed to be looking for something as he took in the beautiful sight. “I see it,” he breathed as a dark shadow passed over one of the rocks he’d been admiring. “Or should I say them? Do you think that’s an orc or a goblin coming to scout the mountain? They’re far ahead of the rest of the army, unless they’re a lot closer than you thought.”
“That’s no goblin or orc,” Gandalf muttered to his companion before he sucked in another breath through his pipe. He once again let the smoke sit in his lungs before he let it drift slowly from his nose and mouth. “He’s something else. I’ve heard rumors of a creature that lives in the tunnels beneath the goblins but I haven’t had the chance to investigate them yet.”
Bilbo went still. It took every bit of his control to not move his hand from Gandalf’s shoulder to touch his pocket. “There was a creature in the tunnels,” he said softly before he cleared his throat and stepped back from the edge. Determinedly, he kept his fingers away from his pocket. He flexed them in the air before making a fist that he pressed against his thigh. “I saw it. It came out of the darkness, moving almost like an animal on its hands and feet instead of walking upright. It dragged the goblin that fell with me off before it started to eat it.”
Gandalf made a noise as he turned to look at Bilbo. “I beg your pardon?”
Bilbo shrugged as he sat back down on his rock. He pressed his knuckles against his thigh to prove to himself that the ring could not control him. He would not fall to its urges. “The goblin fought back but whatever it was, it ate it alive.”
Gandalf opened his mouth. Then he closed it before looking at his pipe and then down the side of the mountain again. “But what would draw it here?”
Bilbo flexed his fingers but didn’t otherwise react to Gandalf’s question. “You said that Azog and Bolg cleaned out the goblins to bring them to war. Maybe it is following its food supply.”
Gandalf fixed an unimpressed look on Bilbo before he lifted his pipe to his lips. He made sure that Bilbo met his gaze before he used it.
Bilbo rolled his eyes at the wizard before he stared up at the moon. “I think it followed me.”
“Good heavens,” Gandalf murmured.
Sighing, Bilbo looked down at his pipe. He frowned before he tapped it to see how much weed he had left in the bowl. Satisfied that he’d make it a while yet, he brought it back to his lips to chew on the stem for a moment. When he was ready, he looked back at Gandalf only to find the wizard quietly watching him. “I found something in the goblin tunnels. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it. But now that we’re here, I know it is something evil.”
Gandalf’s brows furrowed as he studied his friend. “What was it?”
Bilbo drew in a shaky breath before he pressed his fingers against his pocket. He could feel the shape of the ring through the cloth. “Will you trust me in this, Gandalf? I know that it is something that we must deal with, but I am afraid that if we begin to discuss it now then we will shift our priorities.”
“You cannot expect me to disregard it if it worries you so.”
Bilbo bit his lip before he looked back up at Gandalf. The moonlight cast strange shadows across the wizard’s face. He felt the need to snap and tell Gandalf to kick rocks but held his tongue. Slowly, he breathed out and reminded himself that they were having a conversation. There was no need to get defensive. “There is an army coming this way,” Bilbo said slowly. “If what I have turns out to be something terrible then I worry that you will wish to solve that problem over the first one. I cannot leave them.”
“Bilbo-“
“No,” Bilbo said firmly. He drew in another breath as he closed his eyes. “No, Gandalf. These dwarves, they’re mine. They’re my family. I will not leave them to such a terrible fate. I could not stand it if I left and was not here to protect them. Whatever it is, it will keep.”
Gandalf studied Bilbo for another moment in silence before he grunted. “All right then, keep your secrets. For now.”
“For now,” Bilbo echoed as he looked out into the night. He could not see the creature crawling around the side of the mountain but he knew that it was there. And he knew that he was going to have to deal with it sooner rather than later.
XXX
“Can all the ravens of Erebor speak both Basic and Khuzdul?” Ori asked as he followed Balin back into the house they were sharing in Dale. “The fact that they can speak one language is already amazing. Two would be incredible.”
“I told you,” Balin said as he passed through the doorway into the house. “The smartest ravens in all the kingdoms. Dain will know the importance of the message because it’s in our language.”
“Well,” Dori said as he came out of the back room with his hands already planted on his hips. “How long does it take to send a message?”
“Dori,” Ori started in a voice that was clear he was about to complain about his brother being too bossy.
Balin held up his hand to cut Ori off. “We had to make the journey to the top of Ravenhill and then call the birds down, Dori. That process takes a bit of time. Not only because we had to hike so far up but because the ravens are the ones who decide who will carry the message and we had to wait for them to figure it out.”
“It was really amazing,” Ori told his brother as he clasped his hands in front of his chest. “They were circling so high up but as soon as Balin raised his arm and signaled them they started talking to one another and deciding who would go. It’s been so many years since they’ve had to take a message but they all remembered exactly what to do.”
Dori smiled at his brother before he turned his gaze on Balin. He frowned a bit as he studied the other dwarf. “The message was sent?”
“Aye,” Balin replied with a dip of his head.
“Then there is other work to do. Ori, you’ll be joining Bombur. The process will speed up if you write down everything he is able to gather so he doesn’t have to keep stopping to jot down notes. I can barely even read what he does write.”
Ori perked up a bit at that. “I can help him.”
“I know,” Dori said kindly as he smiled at his little brother. “Bard gave him an empty building down the road from here to use. He’s gathering what he can there and when the others are done in the mountain then we’ll start moving it there. Please, go find him.”
Ori left with a nod and a grin on his lips. His pen and paper appeared so suddenly in his hands that the others were sure he could do some sort of magic.
Balin shifted his feet as Ori left. He turned his gaze from the closed door to Dori’s frown once more. “And me?”
Dori spent a moment looking at Balin in silence. “Oin found a few women and a couple of men who have an interest in learning a bit of medicine. They’re having a rough go of it since Oin’s hearing isn’t great.”
Nodding, Balin made a considering sound. “You want me to help him with that?”
“Yes, please.”
Balin shifted his weight but didn’t make to leave to find Oin and the men and women he was working with. “Have you heard any news from the mountain?”
Dori sighed as he shook his head. “No, none of them have returned or sent any sort of signal about how things are going. I’m sure they’ll be back soon since it’s getting late.”
“They’re inside Erebor,” Balin gently reminded him. “They might not have any idea that so much time has passed.”
“True,” Dori admitted before he huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I only hope that I’m doing what Bilbo wants.”
“I think you’re doing a wonderful job,” Balin assured the other dwarf. “Everyone is staying on task and working toward the goal that Bilbo laid out for us. You’re reassigning us as we need and I’m sure you’ve already solved a few minor logistics problems.”
“Yeah,” Dori said as he nodded. “Some of those men were a handful but I was still able to throw them right out the door when they didn’t want to listen to my answer.”
Balin chuckled at that. “Then we’re doing just fine. Bilbo will be proud when he returns. You’re doing exactly what he would have done if he were here.”
“Maybe,” Dori said as a little grin stole onto his lips. “But I’m sure Bilbo would have done it with more flair.”
“And probably one of those little sayings that Gloin absolutely adores but the rest of us struggle to understand,” Balin agreed with a laugh. “Come on, buck up. You’re doing marvelous. I’ll be off to find Oin to make sure that tonight ends in such a way that the people he found come back in the morning.”
Dori waved him off as he turned to go back to the task he assigned himself. The mountain might have things already in it and Bombur might be working to gather what he could for them to eat and all the utensils that came with it but Dori wasn’t a fool. He knew that the blankets and clothing in the mountain were old and most likely reduced to rags.
Gathering blankets and clothing was the least he could do. Any that could be found in Dale, he piled to move into the mountain when they took the women and children there. Erebor, he learned from their short time inside of it, was a cold place. And he wasn’t about to let the first people to live in there in so many years freeze.