Of Swords and Fire (Percy Jackson/LOTR)

Chapter 16: Transport

That was when, of course, the voices within his head began to speak to him. "There is another exit here. Find it, and you will save the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain." The voice whispered.

"Oh, of course. Which god or goddess are you now? And why can't you tell me where the exit is?" Percy said out loud, giving him strange looks from his companions and the dwarves surrounding him. In the recesses of his mind, where the psionic link was, the sound of crumbling erupted inside of his head, and shouting could be heard. The name Orume was shouted. "Melkor! He comes as a servant... He was only a servant all this time... Good Luck, Percy."

"Melkor?" The other dwarves looked confused. One was whispering: "Has he bin conked on the 'ead too many times?" But Gandalf looked like he was hit in the face with a heavy-duty frying pan. "Wait, come back!" Percy whispered to the air. But the voice was gone. The dwarves around him were nodding their heads and making swirly fingers near their heads.

"There is another exit in the mountain. We have to find it." Percy spoke to Gandalf. "Impossible. The dwarf stronghold has only 4 entrances. 3 are known and the fourth only a few dwarves know about. And Melkor? Do not-"

"Trust me, Gandalf. Remember the ice wall?"

"And another thing about that-"

"Come on! We must find the exit." And Percy was already out of the door by the time Gandalf finished his protesting. Gandalf sighed, told the dwarves to look after the population, and ran after Percy like the fool he was being.

Why am I doing this? He thought inside his head. "Percy! The orcs are already plundering the mountain. Maybe if we could fight our way to the secret passage-"

"The secret passage is blocked. There is no way we could get past." Percy continued running, looking in random hallways and clutching a figure in his hands. A winged shadow swooped out from a corridor and aimed for Percy's head. Gandalf didn't even have the time to warn Percy, though Percy didn't even flinch.

"Owlie, search the left corridor and return to me if you see any rock walls." The owl hooted and left his shoulder, flying at abnormally fast speeds for a wooden owl( Well, wooden owls usually cannot move, so any speeds are quite abnormal).

Gandalf didn't even want to question on why or how there was an enchanted wooden owl flying around, an enchanted wooden owl which appeared to be Percy's pet. It will be folly to ask, he thought, when a person has not answered the previous 3 questions.

So, he kept on running. After a few more minutes of running, he shook his head and said:

"Percy, this is useless. We cannot find anything, and even if there is another exit, it will take a week to search the mountain."

Just as he was finished saying that the wooden owl swooped down from who knows where and chirped. Percy stopped. "Where did you see it?"

Gandalf could speak many languages, including Horse and Moth, but he was sure wooden owl wasn't on there.

The owl chirped again and flew towards yet another hallway that looked identical to the last. Percy was pretty sure he could smell smoke, and he was right.

They emerged into a roughly oval room with huge, bellowing forges and red-hot furnaces glowing in the heat. But no one was there. The owl hooted, obviously pleased with itself. "But there's no exits here..." Then he frowned. "Unless...." He looked at the furnace, and there was some type of pipe leading upwards. "Gandalf, where does that pipe lead to?"

Gandalf's face turned white in the red light. "Percy, you cannot be serious..." He sighed and turned towards a huge furnace. "The smoke dissipates at the very top of the mountain, but it is hidden by camouflage spells and a guardian. And a couple of spells that will blow you to bits. And maybe some grills and sharp pointy spikes on the way down."

Percy's face was unreadable. "Anything else?"

Gandalf considered this question for a moment and shook his head. "No, no more."

Percy cracked his knuckles. "Nothing I haven't been through before." Gandalf looked exasperated. "Okay, I will see what I can do."

A few minutes later when Gandalf finished examining the furnace (from a distance) he spoke. "Percy, can you extinguish the fire by... summoning water? And do you have any other powers that I have not seen or heard of?"

Percy thought about summoning a hurricane at the Battle of New York, or causing an earthquake to shake the entirety of camp because someone stole the last of the blue cookies. It was later revealed by the Hypnos cabin that no one stole the cookies, but Percy ate them himself when he was sleepwalking.

"Just water, for the moment." Percy's face was struggling to maintain an innocent façade. He wanted to burst out laughing but compromised to biting the inside of his cheek, so he looked constipated.

"I don't like the last part," Gandalf decided, "But we are in a hurry. We REALLY need to talk about this later."
Percy nodded his head and ran out to the corridor where he burst into laughter. That was good, because he thought he was going to burst a blood vessel holding it in.

Gandalf stuck his head out. "What's so funny?" He said suspiciously. "Just a funny memory." Percy said, still smiling. Gandalf still looked suspicious, but said: "Can you get the entire dwarf population here? It will be easier to address them as a group."

And so, Percy ran out, as fast as he could back to the main citadel. That was, of course with the help of Owlie, because he would have been lost (and possibly dead) if the owl didn't have a perfect memory.

"Where did you go?" Demanded Farund, as Percy staggered into the room, out of breath. "We have been waiting for you and Gandalf! We need to fight our way to the entrances."

Percy shook his head. "Gandalf and I have found another exit."

"I reckon the Axe is- "Farund froze. "What?" He kicked Percy in the shins since that was about as far his legs could go up. It also did not hurt Percy in anyway since he was wearing shin guards forged by the god of blacksmithing. "That was for being ridiculous. Now, as I said, the axe- "

"The furnace has an exit. You must go up to reach the top of the mountain." Now Farund was listening. "But that way-"

"We can disable the spells, and the guardian as well." Percy felt a feeling of elation rush through him. Somehow, he was sure this was going to work. "I have a feeling this will work. We just need time."

"But the way up – well, its straight up! It is 300 metres of sheer rock. Dwarves would need at least a week to carve a way up!" Farund was wringing his hands. "Percy, this is- "

"I've got something that can do that, in less time as well. Way less time." Percy grabbed Farund by the shoulder, looking him in the eye. "I know I am asking a lot, putting your people in more danger. But Farund, I know what I am talking about. Trust me."

Farund looked at him for a moment. Then he called out to the warden. "Move the people!" He cried out. There was a murmuring amongst the crowd. Surely this was madness? But the people of the Lonely Mountain were trusting and loyal to their command and did so willingly (although with a lot of complaints). Many were eyeing the newcomer as they walked past. Surely this human was not influencing their commanders thoughts? Maybe not. Maybe so.

Farund looked at the line of dwarves walking out the door, with every few metres a guard accompanying them. "You better be right Percy, otherwise I will be presenting your behind to the orcs." He stared at the line. "More than 4,000 dwarves, Percy. I do not know where you come from, but surely, surely that is a number big enough to lose. Is it not? We must escape."

Percy nodded his head. Back at camp, there were less than 400 campers there, and at camp Jupiter, even though their forces were considerable, they must have less than 4,000. He couldn't imagine what it would feel like to lose an entire population. "I am certain of this plan."