The Three Women Of Durin

Thunder Battle

The girls naturally awoke before dawn due to their training sessions over the past two weeks. They dressed in their old clothes since the only clothes the elves could provide were dresses. They repacked their bags and slipped weapons wherever they could, they were ready. They sneaked downstairs, careful not to awake the elves, sticking to the plan that Thorin had drawn, the company were to sneak out whilst Gandalf was conversing with Saruman.

They met all met up and set off, leaving Rivendell behind. They began climbing away, the girls feeling upset of leaving such a beautiful place behind, however, onwards and upwards. If they were to make it to the very end of the story and further then they would one day revisit Rivendell.

"Be on your guard! We're about to step over the edge into the wild, Balin you know these paths lead on," Thorin said, there was something in his voice, it appears he was affected by Elrond's words more than the girls had thought. The girls kept near the front of the group conversing with Fili and Kili as they did so. The view was stupendous and at some point during a break they stopped to take photos.

"What are you doing?" Balin asked as Frankie held up her phone to a beautiful view of the mountains.

"Taking a photo, look," Frankie said showing Balin the screen of her phone which now showed the mountainside before them. "Now I have that, so if I have my phone, I can remember what it looked like," She smiled warmly. Balin nodded, he was very impressed.

They continued.

Hills of rolling grasslands, trees as tall as skyscrapers, waterfalls demanding to be heard with their wild rush of water, mountains dazzling with sparkling snow, rocks weathered and beaten but still standing. No place on earth could amount to the beauty that was middle earth.

It wasn't soon before they found themselves travelling along a mountainside as a tempestuous storm took place above their heads. They had warned the company of this and the fight of the mountain giants, unfortunately since Thorin understood that no one gets hurt during this particular chapter, they chose to still plunder through. The girls had not yet told the company of the goblin cave, and were not intending to, sticking to their own plan of letting Bilbo meet Gollum.

The girls had their cloaks billowing around them as they stuck close to the mountainside, frightful of falling. The storm clattered overhead, the thunder so deep and strong it rattled through their bones. The rain beat down on them so harshly that a drop of rain to the bare skin would sting.

Thorin shouted words of encouragement from the front of the company, the girls were not far behind, the order was Frankie, Kili, Rosie, Fili and the Cece, the five of them sticking like glue. The company trudged on aware that this was to be no thunderstorm, but more of a thunder battle in the words of Balin.

"We must find shelter!" Thorin called back again.

"You think?" Frankie called back, she was a little pissed off by the fact that all Thorin was doing was stating the obvious.

"Look out!" Dwalin called. Oh shit, here we go Rosie thought as a dark figure from the mountain broke away, looming above them. A large chunk of rock was thrown from the midst of the figure and slammed into the mountain not too far above their heads. Cries and shouts erupted from the company as they watched the rock splinter and crumble away. Whatever threw that must have had some serious strength. They cowered against the mountainside, careful not to get hit by any falling stone.

"The legends are true!" Bofur called as a mountain giant stood and casually tore off some rock, they had all expected this from Frankie, Rosie and Cece's predictions, but no words could aggregate what they saw before them.

"Remember, we are on one! I can't remember where it splits but-" Cece called to the company as she gripped onto Fili next to her. Just in that moment a deep groan emitted from the mountainside behind them and a sickening cracking noise was heard. Rosie looked down with fear as the rock between her feet fell apart. She gave a short scream as one of her feet fell through but the prince brothers on either side of her grabbed each of her arms.

"Rosie!" A voice called out in distress, but she couldn't be sure who, she was pulled up onto Kili's side, wait, wasn't this the side that...

"Kili!" Fili called as the two ledges of rock either group was standing on was pulled away from each other. The rock began viciously falling away and another deep sound erupted from the mountain. Soon they could see the mountain giants form in the darkness, they watched as it stood up, gripping on for dear life.

The companies poor mountain giant suffered harshly as another slammed it's 'head' against its own, our mountain slithered away, their legs flying somewhere else. The girl's voices screamed and screamed just like everyone else. It was like being on some sick park ride, but with the knowledge that you weren't strapped in.

Cece and Fili's group managed to land next to another stone ledge, clumsily they jumped off and began running alongside it, Fili's hand never leaving the small of Cece's back.

"Frankie! Rosie!" Cece called to her friends as she heard their screams. She knew they would be okay, but what if...The small group watched in horror as the rest of the company hanged on for dear life yelling and screaming as they were flung side to side as the mountain giants continued to battle it out.

As the mountain giants continued to fight there came a point where each of the groups passed by each other and Rosie had a very, very stranger urge to laugh, the sickening feeling of being a rollercoaster was stronger than ever. Cece saw her friends and saw that the jagged stone had cut the cheek of Frankie, her worry doubled. Frankie and Rosie screamed again as their mountain began to collapse, they knew what they had to do, they had to jump at the right place and time or they would fall and for the second time in a few months, die.

Rosie twisted her head and saw Kili pull Frankie by the hand as they jumped to the ledge. Rosie looked around and in milliseconds grabbed Bilbo, picked him up and jumped making sure that they would land on her back. Rosie felt herself slam into the ground, her head jarring and everything for a moment lit on fire, and for a few seconds, there was darkness.

Cece watched in trepidation as the mountain giant's leg slammed into the stone to their left. She saw Rosie jump with what looked like Bilbo in her arms but she saw nothing of Kili or Frankie, this caused her to almost burst into tears right there on the spot.

"Kili!" Both Thorin and Fili called as they ran over to the side.

"Frankie! Rosie!" Cece shouted, feeling something hot finally spill from her eyes, she scrambled after the group and there found a group of dwarves, Frankie lying on top, not too far behind her was Rosie who had crumpled on the floor Bilbo in her arms.

"Rosie!" Thorin called before Cece could and ran over to her, it was understandable, out of everyone she looked like she had been hurt.

"I'm okay," Came Rosie's faint voice, Cece sighed before pulling Frankie and a frazzled Rosie into a hug.

"Never do that to me again," She managed to get out, tears now streaming freely from her eyes, all her friends could do was nod as they made their way into the cave following the company. Rosie groaned as she entered, the company had already set up a camp, they were far too good at that.

"Rosie!" Bilbo called running across the cave and into her arms. "Thank you," He breathed in her ear making her smile although her head was throbbing.

"It's okay," She whispered back and stood up.

"Oin, take a look at her," Cece said sitting Rosie down in front of Oin's bedroll.

"I'm fi- "Rosie began.

"Don't argue with me," Cece hissed, her inner mother coming out. Oin nodded and checked Rosie over whilst the company gathered around.

"Will she be okay?" Ori asked, full of worry.

"She'll be fine lad," Nori said, "Just a bump on 'er 'ead," He smiled at Ori.

"How is she?" Dwalin asked.

"She will be okay, you took quite a landing their missy," Ori nodded as he handed her something to drink. "This will help with the throbbing," Rosie nodded and downed it in one.

"Come now, we must rest, the storm will pass by tomorrow, we must get a good night's sleep," Thorin announced.

The girls glanced at each other, a good night's sleep was the least of their worries.