Our Song Lives On

Homesick

Just before dawn they left, happy and unhappily so. Some answered questions, and some questions to answer still. They trudged through the dry wilderness of Eriador, over ranges and under waterfalls as the Misty Mountains, capped with snow, grew nearer with every step. The sky that framed their journey wasn't always on their side, as they happened upon a fierce thunder storm.

Lightning struck here and there, and rain poured mercilessly down, as if walking on dangerously narrow trails wasn't a feat of its own. On one side a cliff limited them, threatening to push them over the the sheer drop in front. Still their king barked them to move to on. 

The royal dwarves were used to hardships since the time they'd been driven homeless, but the poor little hobbit was still afresh of adventure, more vary than they others. Fate seemed to test him as the stone beneath him gave way, only for Dwalin to catch him in the nick of time.

"We must find shelter!" Thorin finally thundered to his half-drowned company.

Dwalin stared up in the wild sky, looking at something in the distance.

"Look out!" he shouted as a massive boulder came hurtling their way. It hit the mountainside above the dwarves, sending rocks crumbling around them as they pressed against the mountain for cover.

Balin was next to notice something up ahead.

"This is no thunder storm! It's a thunder battle! Look!"

The company watched as a massive stone giant reared up from a nearby mountain. It ripped a giant chunk of stone from the top of the mountain.

"Well, bless me!" One of the young princes gasped in wonder. "The legends are true! Giants; stone giants!"

The stone giant threw the rock across the valley into another stone giant. The dwarves watched, hopelessly caught in the middle.

"Take cover, you'll fall!"

Debris began to fall over the Company once again and the dwarves held onto the mountainside as the ground beneath them cracked and split, dividing the group in two.

"Kili, grab my hand!" The older prince reached for his younger brother but he was a moment too late, as the two halves of the broken mountain began to separate away.

"Kili!" Fili desperately cried out for his brother as Ellie held Kili back from falling over. She, Kili, Oin, Gloin and Thorin drifted away from the others as they stood on the knees of a third stone giant, who rose slowly to the fight. The second stone giant lumbered over, head butting the third. As the giant fell backwards, Bilbo and the dwarves went swaying forwards and back, hanging onto the mountainside for dear life. 

Fatefully, luck seemed to be on the side of the dwarf king and the knee carrying Thorin, Oin, Gloin and Kili and Ellie happened to hit a flat ledge and the party managed to jump onto the still side of the mountain.

Their other halves were not so lucky. As the third giant rose back up again, the first threw a mean rock, beheading it and sending it falling back into place as Thorin and the others watched helpless, the rest of the Company seemingly crushed between the stone.

"Fili, NO!" The worry struck uncle screamed as he ran forward across the ledge towards the others. His wasn't the only voice screaming for the heir of Durin, but Kili was in too much shock to utter a word. 

Ellie ran behind Thorin as he ran along the path to the spot the knee had crashed into the cliff. The king dwarf only breathed when he saw the others scrambled on a ledge, his gaze resting contently on his precious burglar. It was Kili's cries that pulled him from his spell.