I reforged the glory of the magic ring in Middle-earth

Chapter 79 Brown-robed Radagast

Gandalf exhaled another puff of smoke and said to Tanis, "Do you remember the trolls we encountered not long ago? Those three trolls must have come south from the Ettenmoor in the north. When did these mountain trolls dare to travel so far south? It has been many years since they did so. The last time was when the Dark Forces were rampant."

Tanis, taking off his White Wolf Warrior Helmet, made a "How should I know" expression and replied, "I don't know as much about this kind of thing as you do, Gandalf. But I believe what you said. Something bad is definitely happening. Take David, for example. If we hadn't stayed with him overnight, I'm afraid that after the trolls had eaten all the sheep in his sheepfold and the chickens in his henhouse in a few days, it would be his turn."

Gandalf took another drag from his cigarette and said, "So we must lead these dwarves to Rivendell. I have matters to discuss with Lord Elrond. I am deeply uneasy, Tanes. Thorin is wanted in the Dark Whisper, the trolls have moved south, and now we have discovered a whole army of Orc-Worg riders here. I have a feeling that the things I fear are falling in the direction I fear, like a dwarven minecart on its tracks."

"Dwarf's mine carts never slide on the tracks! If we can recapture the Lonely Mountain, I will let you see what dwarf mining technology is." Thorin's voice came from behind Tanis, and it was obvious that he heard what Gandalf said.

Gandalf saw Thorin and thought of his quarrel with him during the day. He couldn't help but feel a headache. He took another deep drag on his cigarette and said, "It's just a metaphor, Thorin. If you don't like me using the dwarf's mine cart as a metaphor, I can also change it to the elves' fallen trees. In short, I just want to express that something serious is happening in a place we don't know about."

Thorin smiled faintly when he heard Gandalf change his metaphor: "Oh, the elves' fallen trees, that's a good metaphor, wizard."

Gandalf shook his head. "It would be much better if you could be less hostile towards the Elves. Or if your fellow Dwarves could leave one alive when they hunted down the Orcs so we could interrogate them and find out who brought this Orc army here, eyeing your head."

Thorin's expression changed slightly. "An army? Aren't these Orcs here to attack the village?"

Gandalf looked at Thorin unhappily and pointed his staff at the corpses of the Orcs. "After the Battle of Moria, do you not recognize the clothes these Orcs are wearing?"

Thorin took a few steps forward and saw the armor on the Orcs clearly, and his face became gloomy.

Balin, a dwarf who had also experienced the Battle of Moria, hurried over when he saw Thorin's gloomy face.

He was worried that Thorin would quarrel with Gandalf again, after all, the expedition still needed the help of wizards.

But when Balin saw Oak's body, he also fell silent.

He and Thorin seemed to have returned to that uncelebrated war, with countless companions' bodies exposed in the wilderness. After the bodies were collected, the fire burning the bodies burned for seven days and seven nights.

"These Orc armor styles are only used by the Orcs under Azog. We haven't seen them for many years." Balin returned to reality from his memories and said in a sad tone.

Thorin nodded silently.

After hearing what Balin said, Gandalf said, "Yes, Azog, the pale orc. Tell me, Thorin, who else did you tell about this expedition?"

Thorin raised his head, fixed his eyes on Gandalf, and replied seriously, "I assure you, I only spoke of this to Tanes and invited him to join the expedition."

Tanes spoke up at this time: "No, there are also dwarf representatives from the Seven Kingdoms."

Thorin said to Tanes in a loud and excited voice: "Are you trying to say that someone has betrayed me? Even if it is you, I would be unhappy if you dared to question the loyalty of my people, Tanes."

Tanes raised his hand to signal Thorin to calm down, and said gently, "I'm not saying anyone has betrayed you, but there's no guarantee that those dwarves might reveal your plan while drunk and be overheard by those with ulterior motives. After all, not all people living in the Blue Mountains are dwarves, right?"

Balin also tried to comfort Thorin at this time, whispering in his ear: "Thorin, calm down. Tanes will never question the loyalty of the dwarves."

The excitement in Thorin's eyes gradually faded, and he seemed to realize what he had just done.

His gray-blue eyes trembled slightly, and a guilty expression appeared on his face. He said to Tanes in a dry voice: "I'm sorry, Tanes, I didn't mean that. I was thinking of Azog... I'm sorry..."

Thorin's voice dropped to a low note, and he turned to Gandalf and said, "And Gandalf, I shouldn't have been so angry with you during the day. You didn't have to keep the key and the map for my father, but you did it anyway."

Gandalf looked at Thorin, sighed and asked, "So you can go to Rivendell with me obediently?"

Then Thorin shut up and turned his back on Gandalf, leaving him sitting and glaring over the warg's corpse.

"Damn the dwarf stubbornness!"

Gandalf muttered.

Tanes came over, patted Thorin's shoulder gently, and gave him a reassuring smile.

Then Tanes said to Balin, who was looking worried beside him, "Balin, take Thorin back and let him rest first. It's getting late, otherwise it will affect our journey tomorrow."

Balin nodded quickly, took Thorin's arm and left.

Gandalf watched Thorin and Balin depart, took another puff of his cigarette, and asked Tanis, "You've seen how stubborn Thorin is. He's hopeless. Even now he's still fuming with the elves he imagined. How can you convince him, Tanis?"

Tanes also showed a headache expression: "Actually, I saw Thorin going out alone during dinner tonight, so I chased him and wanted to talk to him about this. I feel like I almost know why Thorin is hostile to the elves, and I just need to convince him. But the sudden appearance of the wolf scout interrupted my conversation with Thorin. I'm afraid it will be difficult to find such a good opportunity next time."

Gandalf also stood up at this time and walked back with his staff.

Tanis asked, "Gandalf, where are you going?"

Gandalf said without turning his head: "Of course I have to go to bed. If I don't go to bed now, I'm afraid the dwarves will be so angry that I won't be able to sleep!"

The next morning, the hazy morning light shone through the mist, still shining on Tanes, Thorin and others who had already gotten up.

Because of what happened last night, Thorin realized that his expedition to Lonely Mountain was not safe, so he set out early in the morning.

For this reason, he also rejected the village chief's invitation to host them for a few days.

Bilbo yawned and looked sleepy.

He didn't sleep well yesterday. He was worried all night whether the Orcs would come back again. Even though Tanis told him very confidently that the Orcs would not come back to the village, it did not ease Bilbo's tension.

The dwarves did not have this psychological burden. Except for the two brothers Oin and Gloin who were responsible for keeping watch at night, the other dwarves slept soundly, snoring one after another, as if they were not the ones chasing the orcs at night.

Well, the snoring of the dwarves was also one of the reasons why Bilbo couldn't sleep peacefully.

After all, even when they were in the wild before, Bilbo always slept in a tent by himself.

"Hey, wake up, we're leaving."

Bofur held out his hand and waved it in front of Bilbo's eyes, which were about to close. Then he held the hobbit's shoulders and shook him, forcing Bilbo to open his eyes.

"Ha ha ha ha."

The dwarves laughed at the hobbits' appearance, except for Thorin, who looked very calm at this moment, as if nothing had happened last night.

He first glanced at Bilbo, then glanced at Tanis, Gandalf and the others from the corner of his eye, and then he said loudly: "Let's go."

Bilbo yawned and asked, "Shouldn't we say hello to David?"

Bofur said, "No, they are still asleep. Thorin meant to set out while the villagers are still asleep."

Bilbo could only nod. As he rode his pony, he asked, "Well, it's a good thing you were up so early after drinking so much ale last night. I thought you would sleep until noon."

Bombur burped and said, "That wine is not enough for me to drink alone. Don't underestimate the drinking capacity of dwarves. Last night's wine was at most just an appetite."

Bilbo looked at Bombur in disbelief, and then Bofur said with a smile, "Don't listen to Bombur's nonsense. He can drink so much even among us dwarves. But the wine we drank last night was certainly not enough to give us a hangover. What do you mean by that, Bilbo?"

Bofur asked curiously when he saw Bilbo's frightened expression.

Bilbo patted his chest and said, "Because I think that although you ate a lot of food at Bag End, you didn't drink too much of my wine. In a way, shouldn't I be grateful to you?"

Bofur shrugged. "Oh, if you insist on thanking me, we're not unwilling to accept it. I hope to have plenty of drinks ready next time I visit you, so you can see what a dwarf's drinking capacity is."

Tanis heard the banter between Bilbo and Bofur and laughed silently.

But when he saw Gandalf's sad expression, he immediately returned to normal.

Gandalf saw Tanis's appearance and said, "It's okay, you don't have to worry about me."

Tanes curled his lips and said, "But the expression you showed is really worrying."

Gandalf sighed. "Because I am racking my brains to think of how to persuade Thorin, Tanis. If you were in my position and knew clearly the stubbornness of the dwarves, you would have the same expression on your face."

Millicent's voice came, and she gently comforted the seemingly old wizard: "Old Mr. Gandalf, please believe in Tanis. He will definitely be able to convince Thorin to go to Rivendell."

Tanes, Thorin and the others continued their journey to Lonely Mountain. In the next few days, they were lucky enough not to encounter the same rainy days as before.

But as time draws closer to the end of the year, the weather becomes increasingly colder. The severe cold descends silently like a ruthless king.

When leaving David's village, you can still see some green along the way.

However, now, the cold winter wind is like a sharp blade, cutting through every inch of land, eroding the remaining green into a withered yellow.

The dwarves also changed into winter clothes and wrapped themselves up in thick cotton jackets.

But Bilbo could only wrap himself tightly in three layers of autumn clothes. Although he was already very bulky, the winter chill still penetrated through his collar and cuffs.

"Ah!"

Bilbo sneezed and rubbed his hands together, trying to get some warmth.

Tanes saw Bilbo's appearance and said with concern: "You need a winter coat, Bilbo. No matter how thick your autumn clothes are, they won't keep you warm."

Bilbo looked embarrassed. He rubbed his red nose and said, "I know, but I didn't expect it to be so cold outside in winter, so I only brought some clothes without fleece. If I had known earlier, I should have brought my gloves, so I would have been warmer."

After all, the book he read did not tell him that the winter temperature in other places was much lower than that in Hobbiton, which made the hobbit fall into trouble.

Then he asked somewhat embarrassedly: "Um, Tanes, I mean, can I still use that magic you cast on that rainy day?"

Tanis nodded, and the next moment a holy seal appeared in his hand. "Yes, it is possible, but prayer can only last for a while. You will need a winter coat to solve this problem."

"Wait, Mr. Tanes, wait a minute! The winter clothes are here!" Bofur's voice came from the front.

He rode on a pony, wearing a felt hat and holding a clean dark green velvet winter coat in his arms, and hurried to the side of Tanis and Bilbo.

Bilbo eagerly held out his hand to take the winter coat, and then with the help of Tanes and Bofur, he put it on on the horse and breathed a sigh of relief: "That's much better. Thank you, Bofur."

Bofur smiled and shook his head. He raised his hand and pointed behind him with his thumb. "This isn't my winter coat, and I didn't bring a second one. If you want to thank someone, thank Thorin. He saw you didn't have a winter coat and gave you his spare one. His exact words were: 'We can't let our burglar get down from the cold.'"

Bilbo was startled, then he looked down carefully and found that there was the emblem of Durin's royal family on the cuff of his dark green winter coat.

He raised his head and saw Thorin's calm gaze on him. He hesitated for a moment and raised his hand to wave as a thank you.

Tanis smiled. "It seems our dwarf leader is very concerned about the thief he hired, don't you think, Gandalf?"

Gandalf said, "I have never doubted Thorin's kindness, but it would be better if he would listen to my advice and go to Rivendell."

At this moment, there was a commotion in front of the team, and Thorin shouted loudly: "Someone is approaching quickly!"

Tanes frowned and looked over, and found that there was an old man with a hunched body sitting on a sled, and he was being pulled by a group of huge hares.

After seeing Tanes, Thorin and the others, the old man seemed to have thought of his target and immediately changed direction and rushed over on a sled-like thing.

Just as Tanis subconsciously wanted to draw his weapon, Gandalf's voice spread throughout the team.

He said, "Don't get excited. That's my old friend, the brown wizard, Radagast."

Thorin and the others in the front finally quieted down again.

Gandalf glanced at Tanis and said, "Come with me and meet this old friend of mine, and let me introduce you to him. Although I don't know why he didn't stay in his forest, but came to us instead."

　PS: I wrote 4K words today, but I still need 2K. But I feel much better today, I don’t have a cold.

　　I had such a bad headache yesterday I thought I was getting the flu.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)