Dawn (A Hobbit Fanfic)

Chapter 12 - Enough rain to drown a whale.

I pulled my hood lower over my head, but it was of no use. The rain on the Misty Mountains was cold and fell down hard.
"Hold on!" Thorin encouraged us. We were half-drowned by now and even I couldn't see more than a couple yards ahead of us, I even had to strain my ears to understand what Thorin was saying above the thunderous sound of the rain.
I did manage to see as the stone beneath Bilbo's feet crumbled away. He would have fallen to his death if Balin hadn't caught him by his collar.
"Dawn!" yelled Fili above the rain. "Can't you magic this storm away?"
"I am a healer! I don't control the weather! I have told you before!" I called back.
"We must find shelter!" bellowed Thorin.
"You think?" I yelled.
"Look out!" Dwalin pointed somewhere in the distance. My eyes widened as I saw that he was pointing at a builder the size of a small house that was hurtling towards us.

Fast.

It landed on the mountain wall above us. We braced ourselves as rocks came raining down. When the rocks stopped falling Balin stepped forward pointed at a point in the distance again.
"This is no thunderstorm! It's a thunder battle! Look!"
Lightning blasted and illuminated a massive Stone Giant ripping a chunk of rock from another mountain.
"Well, bless me! The legends are true! Giants; Stone Giants!" Bofur yelled excitedly.

I was less than thrilled when the giant threw the the rock away. It hit another giant on our other side. It reared up and grabbed a mountain as as well.
All we could do was watch, stuck in the middle.
"Take cover! You'll fall!" yelled Thorin. We didn't get much time to take cover however. Debris began to fall over us and we braced ourselves against the mountain again. Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet cracked and separated. I Jumped aside and someone caught me, I'm not sure who. I did thank him. The company was separated as a third Stone Giant rose slowly.
"How many of these fuckers are there?" I yelled in frustration.
"Kili! Grab my hand! Kili!" screamed Fili. The gap grew ever wider. One of the Stone Giants headbutted the one with a part of the company on it, making it fall over backwards. Thorin, Oin, Gloin and Kili managed to jump to our side of the mountain, which wasn't moving, thankfully.

I had thought it was over too soon. A rock slide fell upon us. It carried me over the edge. I managed to grab onto something but I couldn't climb back up again. The rock was slippery with the rain and it's jagged edges cut into my fingers.
I saw Bilbo slide down above me.
"Bilbo!" I screamed. I tried to get voice to carry over the sounds of the clashing stone giants so I would catch his attention.
I let go of the ledge with one hand to catch him.
I did, luckily, but my other hand was now trying to support both our weights and it started to slip away.
I looked up to see the company trying to reach us. I clawed with my feet trying to get some foothold. When I did I tried to boost Bilbo up. It wasn't enough.

"You must climb me," I ordered him.
"What?" Maybe he had misheard me.
"Climb me! That is about the only route with grip!" I yelled.
I guided him in where to place his hands and feet until he was standing on my shoulders, where the company could hoist him up.
I tried to climb up but I couldn't.
"I can't reach you!" I yelled at them. "I'll have to jump!"
"Have you left your mind at Rivendell?" Fili yelled back. "If we don't catch you, you'll fall to your death!"
"What'll you have me do then? I can't climb up any high-"
I was cut off by fingers slipping away and my heart about exploding out of my chest, but instead of falling, I felt myself being boosted up. I stretched out my hands and got hoisted up by Bifur and Kili.
The Dwarves celebrated by cheering while Bilbo and I were looking at eachother, trying to control our erratic breathing.
"I thought we'd lost our Elf and burglar," said Dwalin with a rare smile.

"He's been lost ever since he left home. He should never have come. He has no place amongst us," said Thorin, who was probably the one to boost me up, as he stood a short distance away from the rest of us, slightly out of breath. "Now, we must find shelter."
The Dwarves nodded and started following Thorin.

"Now just you hold up!" I know he probably got startled really badly, but I still was not okay with him chewing Bilbo out like that, and was planning on making that known to him. He may have saved me from certain death, but I was going to defend my friend until the end of the line.
"Bilbo is just as essential to this quest as you are, your majesty!" I spat the title like it left a bad taste in my mouth. "If it wasn't for Bilbo, we'd all be eaten by Trolls. None of us were smart enough to think of playing for time! Besides, if there's a place for me, there's a place for him too." I stood protectively in front of Bilbo who still sat on the rock, and gave Thorin my best death stare as I helped Bilbo up and ignored Thorin completely as we strode past him.

"Thanks for that," Bilbo murmured. "Now he hates both of us."
"I could care less about what he thinks of me, one does not simply speak to or about my friends that way." I didn't bother keeping my voice down. "Are you hurt?" I asked him, changing the subject. "I can heal you once we find shelter."
He brushed me away, saying he was fine.

When we finally found a cave, I was exhausted and drenched to the bone. My cloak hadn't done anything to keep the rain out and I was shivering.
"It looks safe enough," said Dwalin.
"Search to the back; caves in the mountains are seldom unoccupied," ordered Thorin.
Dwalin went in, and after a moment that took me too long, he came back.
"There's nothing here," he said.
We all shuffled in. I found a nice level legde a bit to back of the cave and plopped down.
I wrung out my hair and lot of water came out. "Holy shit," laughed Fili.
"Have you seen the weather outside? Any longer and we'd have drowned," I defended. Dwalin's hair and beard were probably carrying even more water.
"Right then! Let's get a fire started," Gloin said, rubbing his hands together after he'd dropped a bundle of wood.
"No. No fires. Not in this place. Get some sleep, we start at first light," said Thorin.
"We were to wait in the mountains until Gandalf joined us. That was the plan!" I snapped at him, still shivering.
"Plans change," Thorin turned to Fili. "Take the first watch."
I groaned in frustration. I tend to do that a lot around Thorin as of late.

-~-

I woke up to soft footsteps and the rustling of leather.
"Where do you think you're going?" I heard Bofur's tired voice ask.
"Back to Rivendell." It was Bilbo.
"No, no, you can't turn back now. You're part of the Company. You're one of us."
Bofur wanted him to stay and so did I. But I couldn't find a way to tell him, so I stayed quiet and listened to their conversation.
"I'm not though, am I? Thorin said I should never have come, and he was right."
"Dawn ate Thorin alive for what he said."
"I'm a not a Took, I'm a Baggins, I don't know what I was thinking. I should have never ran out my door."
"You're homesick; I understand." Bofur's voice was compassionate and pained.
"No, you don't. You don't understand, none of you do. You're Dwarves! You're used to this life, to living on the road, never settling in one place, not belonging anywhere." He sounded harsh, I was almost going to say something about it when Bilbo apologised.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" He stopped, Bofur had stopped him.
"No, you're right, we don't belong anywhere." His voice sounded hurt. "I wish you all the luck in the world. I really do."
I heard Bilbo turn on his heel and walk off, until Bofur stopped him once again.
"What's that?" he asked. Then I saw a blue glow fill the cave.

Goblins.