windemere: (cookies and tea)
[personal profile] windemere
Disclaimer: Tolkien. Peter Jackson. Need I say more? There are quite a few lines from TH: AUJ in here, which of course belong to Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro.


At dawn they set out to climb the pass. It was slow going for all involved, though Bombur seemed to suffer the most. Bilbo, though he was certainly a homebody, managed to keep up well enough, and for the morning the going was fairly easy. They broke for a quick spot of lunch and then continued on. The path narrowed and one side of it fell away to a valley far below as the afternoon wore on. It began to darken much sooner than expected.

‘I can’t be sundown already!’ Bofur pointed out.

‘No, that’s a storm coming. We need to keep going,’ Balin explained. Renewed eagerness to reach the other side increased their pace as the sky darkened further and the winds got up. It started to rain in the late afternoon, quickly soaking all the members of the company and making the still narrowing path slippery and treacherous.

The thunder was so unexpected that Nori nearly took a nose dive off the cliff. It was getting too dangerous to continue on.

‘Hold on!’ Thorin shouted from ahead. ‘We must find shelter!’

Fili sighed in relief. ‘Thank Mahal for that.’

‘Watch out!’ Dwalin cried and everyone look up, wondering what had caught his attention. The site of the boulder hurtling towards them was a surprise. It hit above their heads and tumbled down in pieces. Every dwarf ducked.

‘This is no thunderstorm, it’s a thunder battle!’ Balin cried and then they saw them, the rock giants in the mist of the rain.

Beside Fili, Bofur muttered, ‘Bless me, the legends are true. Giants! Stone giants!’ Fili was thinking similar thoughts. This was not a story he’d ever given any truth to, but it seemed that all the legends he had ever heard were coming true on this quest.

The ground beneath them moved and began to fall away. It took Kili a moment to realise his corner of rock was splitting away from where he stood next to Fili.

‘No Kili, grab my hand,’ his brother said, just as the rocks shifted apart completely. It was too late. ‘Kili!’ Fili’s scream rent the air, but there was nothing Kili could do except hold on tight. The ground continued to move as the giant they were perched on flung a huge boulder and then was smashed by another giant in turn. Their perch began to rush towards the mountainside much, much too fast.

Balin flung an arm around Kili’s shoulders. ‘Hold on tight lad,’ he muttered, seconds before the rock beneath their feet made contact with the mountainside. Kili was flung forwards and crashed into the rock before him with bruising force.

‘That hurt,’ he commented as rock began to shift all around them.

‘Kili!’ the scream was loud enough to be heard over the thunder battle around them. Thorin came racing around the edge of a rock and stopped dead.

‘We’re all right! We’re alive!’ Balin called over. The relief on their leader’s face was noticable.

For a moment, at least. Bofur spotted the missing member of the company first. Ori managed to catch Bilbo just as he slipped from his white-knuckled grip on the rock, but then Ori began to slip forward on the wet rock too.

Before anyone else could intervene to help, Thorin was over the edge of the rock and lifting the Hobbit up to safety.

‘No,’ Fili breathed out as their uncle lost his own footing. He was pretty certain his heart failed to beat for the time it took Dwalin to pull his king back up to safety.

‘I thought we’d lost our burglar,’ Dwalin joked.

Thorin was clearly not in the mood. ‘He’s been lost ever since he left home. He should never have come. He has no place amongst us.’ Fili opened his mouth to say something, but Thorin didn’t allow anyone to argue. ‘Dwalin, we must find shelter.’

‘That was unkind,’ Fili resorted to muttering to Kili instead. Behind them Balin, sighed heavily.

‘It’s not his fault he slipped on the rocks; how can he walk at all without boots on?’ Kili echoed.

The company slipped under an overhang and into a dry, if cold cave. The wind fell away behind them and the thunder could barely be heard inside.

‘Search to the back,’ Thorin ordered Dwalin as the rest of them settled around the rock strewn dirt.

‘Right then! Let’s get a fire started,’ Gloin announced. That sounded really very nice indeed, but the thought lasted only a brief moment.

‘No fires, not in this place.’ Gloin sighed in defeat. ‘Get some sleep. We start at first light.’

In the confines of the small cave everyone can heard Balin’s reply to this. They have all been wondering the same thing.

‘Plans change,’ Thorin barked out instead. Kili nearly flinched. Gone is the uncle that was so proud of them the night before. Thorin Oakenshield, dwarf king in exile was with them again. Kili didn’t like the change. ‘Bofur, take the first watch.’

Kili sighed and settled down near Fili. ‘It’s not Bilbo’s fault,’ the fair haired brother whispered.

‘It’s no one’s fault,’ Kili returned. ‘We’ll deal with it in the morning. Maybe Gandalf will find us on his own. He probably has some magic or other than can track us.’

‘Good point,’ Fili agreed.

***

[I lied about the exciting bit.] To Be Continued in the very exciting bit.

Date: 2013-03-07 01:01 pm (UTC)
shirebound: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shirebound
‘It’s not his fault he slipped on the rocks; how can he walk at all without boots on?’

That's a good point. I suspect everyone was thinking that, but no one wanted to bring it up.

Date: 2013-03-07 01:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eldanna.livejournal.com
I was thinking that when I read the book originally! I mean, bare feet? I get that a hobbit's soles are thicker, but it's still skin. Walking in rain must be a nightmare!

Date: 2013-03-08 06:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] grey-wonderer.livejournal.com
I like observing the changes in Thorin as things get more difficult. Oh, and there at the end, is it wrong that I want Gandalf to show up with a GPS in hand that is saying, "Turn left into the cave. You have reached your destination!" : )

Looking forward to more.

Date: 2013-03-08 10:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eldanna.livejournal.com
That would make for a hilarious story!

Of course, possibly following the GPS is why Thorin gets lots on the way to Bag End at the beginning of the movie anyways. Those GPS' are notoriously unreliable.

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