A Sword and A Shield [The Hobbit X OC]

14 - Over Hill

All was well up on the mountain path, until we met a thunderstorm. A terrific meeting of two great thunderstorms. Nothing could compare to being in the middle of thunder and lightning, at night. The lightning splintered on the peaks, and rocks shivered, and great crashes split the air and rolled and tumbled into every cave and hollow; the darkness was filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light.

Our trail stood high up in a narrow place, a dangerous place, with a cliff on one side and a dreadful fall into a dim valley on the other. It was barely wide enough for us to step down one at a time. Certain sections proved more difficult for myself than my companions, no thanks to my usually advantageous height.

The sky dumped buckets and buckets. That heavy crying made the stone beneath our boots slippery and dangerous like a frozen lake. Then came a wind, and more rain, and the wind whipped the rain and the hail about in every direction.

An overhanging rock was no protection at all from the elements.

"Hold on!" called Thorin. He slowly inched forward, leading us through the storm, careful not to be taken by the sheer drop at his side.

Just in front of me was Bilbo. I saw his legs move in a funny direction.

"Bilbo!"

A rock beneath his furry feet gave out, and he started falling. The others cried in alarm. I reached out and yanked him back against the wall at my side. From then, he kept a tight grip on my cloak, and refused to let go.

"We must find shelter!" I heard someone call. Maybe Thorin? It was hard to tell.

Oh, how I hoped there'd be a cave soon.

Suddenly, Dwalin called out, "Look out!"

A massive boulder hurtled through the air. It smashed against the mountainside, just above our heads, and crumbled into dozens of pieces, causing rocks to fall all around. We pressed ourselves up against the cliff, just under the overhang, to avoid them.

"This is no thunderstorm!" cried Balin. He had a bit of trouble speaking as his beard kept flying up into his face. "It's a thunder... battle! Look!"

Peeping out in the lightning flashes, we saw that across the valley the stone giants were out, and hurled rocks at one another for a game, and caught them, and tossed them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang.

One giant reared up and tore a boulder right out of the mountainside.

"Well, bless me, the legends are true. Giants!" Bofur exclaimed. "Stone giants!"

With a roar, the towering figure launched the rock like a mighty baseball player.

A second giant appeared from just around the corner. It took a direct hit to the head. Some of the rock pieces flew off and crashed into the mountain over our head. That debris pelted down on us from above.

"Take cover, you'll fall!"

Bofur quickly pressed himself to the wall before getting knocked down into the chasm. We all screamed together and braced ourselves and held on as rocks flew past our faces. They avoided us, but not the pathway under our feet, which began to crumble away from the vibrations and impact of the falling rocks.

Then, an almighty crack rent the air and the mountain shuddered, shifting sharply with us all clinging to the rocks.

We're on one, I realized with horror.

"What's happening?" I heard Kili say.

My heart clenched in sudden fear when I saw the group being separated in half. Fili and Kili reached for each other over the divide as the gap between them widened, a yawning cavern of empty space and a deadly fall if you didn't hold on.