Once Upon A Contract

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 19: 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖔𝖗𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝕿𝖗𝖔𝖑𝖑𝕾𝖍𝖆𝖜

Arda sang. Bilbo wasn't sure anyone but his kin knew that fact. Arda sang. To him, she sang of contract and power, of words and oath. To him, she sang of his people.

Each step he took gave Bilbo a note to the song. It was a rhythm, a natural sway that he marched in time to just as much as he followed along beside the dwarrow.

Part of him had grown used to the hum, to the sway of Arda. Between sleeping upon the earth and walking across it, Bilbo had begun to hum the tune under his breath. He had never been so exposed to the song. The Shire had her own tune, her own presence, and Bilbo had spent nearly all his life in her borders.

If anyone had asked him, anyone that was a hobbit that is, he would have confidently said there were only two songs. The low hum of the Shire and the crooning cacophony of Arda. (He had never heard anything else before.) That the paths, the twisted paths, had their own song was neither here nor there. In fact, Bilbo would rather have liked to pretend that song did not exist at all, instead lumping it in with the general racket of Arda and calling it a day.

There was a similar thought in the Shire towards Courts. The Shire had a border and every Baggins could trace the boundary half dead and blind. Their court was their land, and she protected the hobbits well. It was generally held true that there was no other court out there. Or at least, not anymore. Humans did not seem to have enough presence (too ready to wander, that species. No respect towards the earth or their properties) and the Inbetweener certainly reeked of a court that was not from here but no Baggins would dare to ask.

Dwarrow, like Men, found the Shire difficult to navigate, but that was no indication of Court. If they had the same presence of the land that the Baggins did, they hid their reactions to Shire threats well.

The only other species that might have a claim to Court, were the elves. But that was a debate worthy of generational spats and feuds, for Elves were rarely found anywhere but their homes and no respectable hobbit would go off to find out.

So, when there was a discordant screech in the song and Bilbo's heel struck the boundary line of something else, no one was more surprised then the hobbit. Perhaps a screech was too strong a word, but there was certainly a shift and Bilbo stopped beside it instinctively. If the Shire border was welcoming and comfortable, then this border was all frayed ends and stone.

However, for all the stone and jagged edges of the border under his feet, it was nothing like dwarrow. Bilbo knew what dwarrow felt like, he had been traveling with them for weeks by this point and he could point them out half blind and deaf. So, that meant there was something else out there. There was something else that felt like stone and...

Bilbo took a step back.

Up ahead, Toymaker pulled his pony up short and twisted in his saddle. Bilbo could just barely make out the way he gestured something to Bifur before the two of them were both tossing their leads to Baker and sliding out of their saddles. Their booted feet hit the ground simultaneously.

Bilbo wasn't sure what he had expected, but for the two of them to place their hands against the ground and whip around to stare off into the fields was not it. Ignoring the disconjordent song under his feet, Bilbo forced himself to move towards the two frozen dwarrow.

He hadn't had the pleasure of interacting with Guard all that much. The older dwarrow was spirit-touched from what Bilbo could tell. The axe in his head was intimidating, but more so because Bilbo had seen enough Took wounds over the years to know that the dwarrow should not have gotten back up.

Dwarrow could talk about hard heads and stubbornness all they wanted, but that was a five pound axe head embedded in a skull. If the Guard hadn't had the will to live, he wouldn't have stood back up, no matter what the Valor had wanted. But that still didn't change the fact Guard had to have had some god on his side. The way Toymaker and Guard hovered over the earth and stared off with glazed eyes only compounded the idea.