*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Chapter 7*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Some of the Dwarves acted as though Megan were under quarintine, which made the bodyguard wish the wizard had come with them. 'At least I don't FEEL like I'm changing.' She thought. To make sure, she held out her left arm and flexed it. Twisting her wrist and waggling her fingers, but nothing felt out of the ordinary.

"Everything alright?" Bilbo asked. Megan had spent the morning telling him about Travelers and Merging. The little Hobbit took it suprisingly well, considering how Thorin, Dwalin, and Gloin were acting. "You're not feeling any, er...different...are you?"

Megan smiled at him. "Nah, I feel fine. Just a little, uh, disconnected from everybody else."

To distract Bilbo and herself from this depressing conversation, she started to open her bag of cherry sours. Then suddenly it was gone, snatched from her hands by a sneaky starfish-haired Dwarf.

"AY! Swiper no swiping!" She shouted, though Nori just laughed.

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The cliffs were getting narrower. Soon everyone had their backs hugging the mountainside, hardly daring to breathe.

"You ok over there, Bilbo?" Megan asked. She was between Fili and Bofur, the latter in front of the Hobbit, followed by Dwalin, Ori, and Bombur. Bilbo just nodded, too nervous to speak. The bodyguard continued. "How 'bout you Dwalin? Ori? Bomby?" They also nodded, Bombur too busy with not falling to point out that he didn't care for the nickname. "K, here we go!" She gulped.

Not long after that exchange, it began to rain. Rain is something best avoided when scaling a mountain path no wider than a small-town sidewalk. But the company had no choice. They would have to make it through these damned moutains before they could continue to with the rain came the thunder and lightning. It made hearing her companions very difficult, and Megan wished harder that Gandalf was there to give her advice, or help them find shelter, or whatever wizards did on adventures!

It was these thoughts she was broken from as Balins' voice barely came from up ahead, "This is no thunderstorm, IT'S A THUNDER BATTLE!" He cried. As they looked, a gimormus dark figure rose from the mountain across from them.

"Bless me, the legends are true!" Bofur said as he stepped forward. "Giants! STONE GIANTS!"

"Bofur get back here!" Megan shrieked as she and Dwalin hauled him back as the first giant threw a boulder at a second giant. "Damn damn damn damn!"

A paticularly large boulder smashed above their heads, smaller (though still quite big) pieces rained over them, taking out a bit of their path in front of Bilbo. The Hobbit went white, or green, it was hard to tell right then. Suddenly, the path beneath them began to tremble, then it started to break away from the mountain!

"It's another giant!" Fili shouted.

"No shit!" Megan retorted. The third giants' knees happened to be their path, so when it stood, the company was seperated. Fili and Kili reached for each other.

"Kili! Grab my hand!" Fili shouted. Too late. Kili watched in horror as the giant stood to its' full height. Everything was going too fast, it was hard to keep up with everyone. The giants started some sort of rock war, throwing boulders at each other and nearly hitting Thorin and co. who held on for dear life.

After a while of this, Ori shouted, "Look!" They looked. Their giants' head had been knocked clean off. As both groups watched, their giant started to fall into the abyss. Bofur grabbed Megans' arm, and she soon saw why. They were about to be squashed against the cliff face! She immediately reached over and gripped Bilbos' wrist as the mountain rushed up to meet them...

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A/N: Ok, it's not NEARLY as long as originally planned.. But I'm trying. I just lost a family member & my laptop's gone AWAL, but thanks to everyone who's been hanging in there! And any new followers, I hope this lives up to expectations! TTFN Loves 3