Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Stone Trolls
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Edward listened with rapt attention to their story. From the discovery of the Arkenstone, to the migration of the dragons from North to South. Erebor hadn't been the only mountain to have been attacked by the fire breathers of the North, some others had been attacked, like the Elves.
Erebor was particularly important though because they were the center of riches of the entire North of Middle Earth.
Middle Earth could first be split in North and South. The North itself is split in two by the Misty Mountains, with the peaceful Arnor and Eriador in the West and the rougher Rhovanion in the East.
Erebor used to be the center of riches of Rhovanion, and probably of the entire Middle Earth, and although the elves of Mirkwood were a powerful force, they did not move from their mountain, so the region was ruled by the dwarves.
Their fall caused the entire region to suffer, and although there was still Dwarven presence in the further east, Iron Hills, they were too far away and not nearly as rich as Erebor.
Anyway, after the fall of Erebor to Smaug the Terrible, the dwarves of Erebor, Durin's Folk, searched for a new home and their king, Thror, attempted to go back to the Moria.
However, after three days, the general of the Orcish forces hiding in Moria, tossed King Thror's body out of the Moria with his name, Azog, carved onto the dead king. Azog henceforth became known as Azog the Defiler, and this started the War between Orcs and Dwarves.
King Thror's son, Thrain, led Durin's Folk through this war and they attacked all the orc settlements along the Misty Mountains, from Mount Gundabad to the peak of Methedras.
Excited to learn more about the incredible world of Arda, and the region of Middle Earth, Edward asked, "How did this war end?"
The faces of the dwarves turned proud as Balin said, "It was the battle of Azanulbizar, fought outside the Eastern Gates of the Moria. After years of tracking, we had finally found Azog, and attacked the fortress."
Edward titled his head and asked, "Wasn't he always in Moria?"
Balin shook his head and replied, "He always moved that snake, like the coward he was. We underestimated the troops he had with him though, and our forces took a huge hit. But as the battle seemed lost, our brothers of the Iron Hills, led by Thorin's Cousin, Dain Ironfoot, finally arrived!
"The battle was harsh, and many died, but Azog was finally killed. Thorin, who had lost his shield, took up a broken piece of oak and used it as a shield to battle against the pale orc, and after a bitter battle, severed his head from his neck."
Edward looked at the dwarves, but only saw sad faces. Balin continued, "That day, many of our brothers, fathers and children died. Our king, Thrain, disappeared too. The war was over, and we dispersed, most of us moved to the Blue Mountains."
Edward curiously asked, "You didn't settle in the Moria?"
Dwalin intervened, "We couldn't. The orcs weren't the only obstacle, there was also Durin's Bane."
"Durin's Bane?" The name sounded familiar to Edward, but he couldn't remember where he heard it.
Gandalf explained, "One of the remaining of Morgoth Army in his battle in the First Age, a Balrog."
Edward finally remembered, and gave Gandalf a look. That was the monster that elicited the legendary 'You Shall Not Pass'.
Those were among the most memorable stories the two sides told each other, and the rest was more trivial stories. But even though they were distracting themselves with stories, the long travel was wearing down on the members of the company, and their mood were turning for the worst.
For most of the journey, they managed to get past it, but as they reached the Last Bridge of the East Road and stopped before the unnamed forest, Gandalf said, "I think it would be wiser to move on. We could go to the hidden valley."
Thorin only frowned and replied, "I told you I'm not going anywhere near that place."
Gandalf tried to reason the Dwarven leader, "The elves could help us. We could get rest, food and advice."
"I do not need their advice…"
"We have a map we can't read! Elrond could!"
"While my people were devastated by the dragon, the elves only looked. When the orcs took the Moria, they only looked. What help could those damn help give?"
Gandalf frowned at Thorin, and walked to his horse. Bilbo panicked, "Gandalf? Where are you going? Gandalf?!"
Gandalf spat back, "I've had enough of Dwarves for the day!"
Gandalf galloped away under the eyes of the company, and Thorin grunted, "We're all hungry!"
The dwarves quickly started a fire as they understood they shouldn't ask about what happened.
As for Edward, he felt concerned at the issue, but the moment Thorin talked about food, his stomach protested and sent a jolt of pain at him.
It had been 30 days now since they left Bree, meaning he hadn't eaten in a month. His body was still only at the limit of the Body Strengthening Realm, so 30 days without food was really approaching his limit.
The torture of hunger was terrible, and although Edward spent most of his days meditating now, he could feel his sense of smell had sharpened as he could smell food from tens of meters.
His body was weak, and even getting up and down his horse was proving to be a challenge. He persevered though, as he could feel the gate that was his Solar Plexus Chakra weaken as the days passed.
Like always in the recent days, Edward sat down and sealed all of his senses as he entered meditation, so he wouldn't have to suffer the smell of the company's food.
While Edward plunged into a death like state, the dwarves looked at him worriedly as he had thinned out quite a lot in the past thirty days, but let him be.
Edward was, as he said, one less mouth to feed, and he did not slow them down in the slightest. Instead, he was being quite entertaining for their journey.
Unlike him who was making such a long journey without anything to do for the first time, the dwarves were used to it, they had been wandering for a long while after they were chased out of Erebor, and it was quite the experience to have such a travelling companion.
However, as the jolly company were having their dinner, Kili and Fili came running in and warned, "Bilbo has been captured by a group of Trolls!"
The dwarves laughed, thinking they were joking, but Kili and Fili were serious. Seeing this, Thorin ordered loudly, "Take up your arms!"
As they walked away, Bofur, the fisherman, asked, "What about Edward?"
The dwarves looked at the motionless Edward, and Thorin said, "Have you seen the state he's in? I doubt he could be of any help to us."
The dwarves sent a few looks at Edward, but they quickly followed behind Thorin.
The group of dwarves hid in the bushes as they watched the three trolls talking about how they should kill and eat Bilbo.
Kili suddenly jumped out of the bushes, and slashed his sword against the nearest troll's calf, making him squeal in pain.
The trolls looked at Kili and said, "What's a dwarf doin' ere?"
Kili shouted, "Drop him!"
The trolls, thinking he was on his own, laughed and tossed Bilbo at Kili, making the two fall to the ground. Picking up their weapons, the trolls were about to attack the two when the rest of the dwarves ran out of the bushes, and attacked the trolls.
The dwarves were much shorter than the trolls, but their weapons were sharp and they were battle hardened soldiers. However, as the injuries started stacking up on the trolls, their leader saw the burglarhobbit was isolated, so he swung his mace around to clear up the way and jumped onto Bilbo.
The later jumped away, but before he could touch the ground found his body caught by a giant hand. The Troll grabbed his entire body in his palm, leaving only Bilbo's head out.
He turned to the dwarves and threatened, "Take down your arms or I will squish his head into pulp!"
The fighting abruptedly stopped, and the dwarves looked reluctant. Thorin, seeing their burglar was in fatal danger, hesitated, before deciding to drop his weapon.
As he was about to do so though, Thorin saw something, and kept his weapon.
The Troll sneered, "Fine, if you don't care then…"
Before he could finish, Edward appeared behind him, and with a first swing of his sword, he cut off the troll's right arm at the shoulder, and as the troll screamed in pain, a second slash cut off his head.
Thorin grinned and the dwarves attacked the remaining two trolls. Under the joint assault of 13 angry dwarves, the Trolls did not last a minute before they were both killed.
As the fight was over, Edward had already slumped down and watched the fight, he was too tired to move. Actually, he had noticed the dwarves leaving nearly immediately, but he was so tired he took more time to arrive, resulting in his late arrival. It seemed it had helped them in this instance though.
Balin looked at the corpses of the three trolls and remarked, "Those are Stone Trolls, it's strange for them to have arrived to these parts."
Bilbo asked, "How so?"
Balin replied, "They turn to stone under the sun, but there is not enough cover for them in this forest, they are too big."
Thorin cut in, "There must be a cave. But we don't know if there's another troll in there, so let's wait until dawn before going there. Everyone, we're going back to camp!"
The rest of the dwarves nodded, and took the ponies who had been abducted by the trolls back to camp. Thorin sent a disapproving look at Bilbo, making him look down, before walking away.
Getting up with difficulty, Edward went to pat Bilbo's shoulder, and said, "Sometime, it takes failure to achieve success."
Bilbo smiled, and Edward walked away, his steps heavy. As he returned to camp, he sat on top of a relatively big rock, and went back to his deep meditation. This time, even his Chi Sense returned to his body, or rather he could not care any longer about it's feedback.
That night was the hardest of all the ones he went through. Edward felt like a hole had been drilled into his stomach, and all traces of energy were slowly dying out, like the last embers of a fire.
Even his Chi was turning sluggish, it was as if he was hibernating.
But while all this happened, Edward finally felt the constraints on his third Chakra become loose. Day by day now the Solar Plexus Chakra was getting closer and closer to be opened, but it was still there and looked as strong as ever.
That night though, cracks slowly covered the metaphysical gate, and Edward sent all the Chi available to him onto it, trying to crack it open.
Because his Dantian was sealed though, he only had very little Chi available throughout his body, and one charge at the chakra would deplete all his Chi. Thanks to his ADC though he recovered his Chi quickly, and entered a cycle as he tried to destroy the gate.
And finally, after what felt like days of hard work, the Chakra was burst open. A surge of Chi trapped behind it for 26 years was released and spread to his internal organs. All of them were getting rapidly strengthened, with the exception of his heart, as it lay behind the next Chakra.
At the same time, a part of the released Chi moved to his Dantian, and a part of the seal was lifted. As Edward got access to more Chi, he felt a surge of power as he opened his senses and immediately smelled food.
He opened his eyes and saw the dwarves and Bilbo gathered around a large cauldron, about to serve themselves their breakfast.
The large rock beneath Edward burst into rubble as he jumped from the spot and arrived in front of the cauldron. Then, not caring about the complaints of the others or the scalding hot cauldron, he grabbed it with both hands and began gulping down the broth inside.
For a normal starving person, eating too much would harm them instead of helping them, but Edward's stomach was reinforced by the opening of the Solar Plexus Chakra, and since Edward's body was empty of nutriments it quickly digested whatever was thrown into it.
As for the dwarves, they did not raise any objection and only watched in silent wonder as a single man drank an entire cauldron meant for 14 people.
Author's Note: The encounter with the Trolls was a little different from the movies, but don't worry this is not what I meant by not following canon too closely, the true divergence will come later.
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