A Place to Belong

Chapter 12: Close Calls

The company made slow progress across the high peaks of the misty mountains. The rains clouds were dark and ominous and had moved faster than they had first thought they would.

They came fast and heavy and before they knew it they were being drowned in the heavy downpour. She wore her hood up as far over her face as she could pull it, but it did nothing to combat the biting cold winds that wiped her hair about.

After the rain had come the dark of the late hours set in fast. The only light illuminating their path was from the frequent flashes of lightning. They were clung to edge of an almost completely vertical cliff; there was a long way to fall if they slipped, and after the days earlier happenings it was the last thing they wanted.

They moved carefully along the rock in single file, headed in one direction.

"We must find shelter!" Thorin stated, trying desperately to yell over the relentless thunder. Braerka couldn't have agreed, more she moved forward shuffling with the group before her.

Braerka froze suddenly a loud cracking of rock echoed from the next peak.

'What on earth?' She thought. 'It couldn't have been the lightning could it... Unless...'

Her train of thought was cut short by Dwalin's troubled yells, "LOOK OUT!" He bellowed, spreading his arms and pushing Bilbo back against the hard jagged rock.

Out of nowhere a boulder the size of a small house came hurtling towards them, it slammed into the mountain face just above them and splintered the rock, Braerka was pulled back by Bofur, just in time to miss an avalanche of rocks.

'Where on earth had that come from?!' She wondered, and then her suspicions were answered.

Balin stood forward as much as he dared to the cliff edge.

"This is no thunderstorm, it's a thunder battle! LOOK!" Braerka would have followed his gaze had she not already be looking. A titanic stone man broke itself away from the neighbouring peak. Rocks fell from its already crumbling sides as it straightened.

"The legends are true! Giants! Stone Giants!" cried Bofur, struggling to hear or be heard over the screeching towering wreck.

The giant stone being, took what was its equivalent to a pair of hands and, tore a huge chunk off the peak of the mountain, and threw it away past them. It hit another giant stone golem, also awakening from the sharp rock face. The sound of the collision was almost deafening, Braerka brought her hands to her ears. The high-pitched whir emanating from the mythical daemons tore through her ear drums and seared into her head. They spoke to her in tongues, languages she didn't understand.

They whispered in a spectral hissing, images flashed in her head, the company, Thorin, Bilbo, images of a town ablaze, smoke like a beacon of black, then she saw Erebor, the ground before it swarming and wriggling, roars of dark beings filled her hears, screams of innocents then drowned them out. Then the sound turned to static; she forced her eyes open and uncovered her ears. The ice cold rain stung her eyes, masking the tears that swelled within them.

The others seemed oblivious to the screeching and the coldness it brought. Why her? Why show her images of what was to come? She wasn't special, or that important was she? Why did these godlike beings believe she could help at all? What could she do?

Her mind darted back and forth trying to make the pieces of the puzzle fit, few would. In the milliseconds of calmness her mind reeled then, she felt faint she could feel herself falling. She battled her subconscious as it failed to comprehend what was happening but still she toppled forward though she battled for control. Gravity pulled at her limbs; she felt like lead, she had no control over herself. She let the numbness take her and she fell.