Homeward Bound Part One: An Unexpected Journey

Chapter Twenty-Nine

She stood in a barren wasteland in the midst of a starless night. Around her a violent wind blew, bringing with it a deep cold.

In the far off distance she could make out the barest flicker of a light. At first she thought it was a star but then realized it was shades of red and orange instead of brilliant white.

A fire.

A strange muttering reached her ears. She cast about for its source and soon realized it came from near her feet.

She looked and saw a bright spark winking near her right foot.

It was WHISPERING.

Fear gripped her, though she didn't know why. She looked up and knew, without a doubt, the spark was calling to the fire.

And she knew just as surely it was vitally important the fire never heard.

Too late.

The fire was coming, growing larger and larger.

She fell to the ground, throwing her body over the spark.

A roar and cracking thrummed through the air. Intense heat washed over her, blistering her skin. White hot agony ripped through her and she screamed. She looked up and felt as though her eyes would melt out of her skull.

A massive wheel of fire stood almost directly on top of her. In the center an area of deepest black seemed to bore into her very soul.

I SEE YOU .

She shrieked again turning to throw herself back over the spark.

Only now the spark was gone.

Instead she found herself lying across a prone body. Her hands met a chest and then fell IN. Wetness spread across her arms and chest, slippery, soft objects bumping across her hands.

She gagged, struggling back, and automatically looked up toward the head.

Dead eyes gazed at her in horror, a mouth open in a scream that could no longer be heard.

Thorin.

She screamed, sobbing and scrambled backward, only to trip across another form.

She raised her eyes, trembling, and the ground around her was no long empty.

In a spiraling arc, with her as the center point, lay the sprawled corpses of her friends.

She spotted Kili, his eyes fixed over his head and Fili flung over him as though he'd died trying to protect him.

The Ri brothers, or what was left of them, Balin collapsed near his own brother.

The rest.

Even Gandalf, seated with his back against something she couldn't make out in the dark, his eyes open and sightless.

She screamed again, the sound closer to that of a wounded animal than a person.

Overhead the fire laughed and drew closer, the heat so intense she felt she would disintegrate before it.

Without warning a brilliant, blistering white light flooded the scene.

The fire and the whispering both paused.