I lay in bed tired but not yet asleep. My thin nightgown wrapped around me with the sheets of my straw bed. In my arms was my favorite doll.
A loud thud echoed through the stone around me and jostled me up.
"Mama?" I called out before I slid from my bed to the cold floor. With my doll in hand I walked to my door and opened it. There was a loud boom that rang through the hall and threw me to the ground.
"Find her! Find the guardian!"
"Tarra! Run!" Da shouted, "Take Kàra and go!"
"Rodan!" My mother's screams sent fear straight through me. Deep throated cackles and sounds of splintering wood reached my ears.
"I'll find you! I swear I'll find you! Just get out of here!"
"Mama!" I screamed while still paralyzed with fear, "Mama!"
"Kàra!?" I heard her shout back. I could see an orange glow appearing from the end of the hallway and a dark shadow passing it.
"Mama!" She appeared at the end of the hallway, sprinting at full speed towards me. I moved out of her way as she slid in to the room and slammed the door shut behind her.
"Are you okay, jewel?" she asked as she knelt down in front of me frantically searching for any wounds. I nodded but pulled my doll closer.
"What was that noise?"
"Bad people," she replied as she reached over to where I had discarded some clothes, "We have to go."
"Go where?"
"Away," she hissed as she forced the dress onto me.
"What about Da?" She stopped.
"He'll find us."
"Where were you off to?" The voice took me off guard as I hung up my old snow covered coat on the small rack beside the door. I should have been expecting it but my mind was on other things.
"I was out," I replied sternly I turned around to see my father was sitting at the table with an empty mug in front of him.
"The sun is beginning to set, the day is almost over," his gruff voice scolded.
"I know," I snapped.
"I could have used your help in the shop, today. I was swamped with orders, I'm already behind." His eyes were narrowed and his arms folded as though he were reprimanding me. I glared at him before breaking the gaze and shouldering my way past him to the loft.
"I had something important to do," I hissed.
"Important? What could be more important than your daily bread?" I could hear anger growing in his voice.
"Family!"
"We have no family left! You know that and as long as you live under my roof you will obey me!"
"It's not as though I have a choice in the matter. You wouldn't let me leave even if I wanted to."
"And why don't you want to if this place is so horrible? There's a whole world out there! Lots of trolls and goblins and orcs that would love to make a stew out of you!" I shut my mouth and bit the back of my lip.
"I can handle myself," I hissed as I turned and began climbing the ladder.
"No you can't! You know nothing of this world and its dangers! If it weren't for me you would have been dead years ago!" I said nothing as I swallowed the rage in my throat and I continued up the ladder onto the loft. I then began to undress and prepare for bed. The journey to mother's grave was a difficult one and exceedingly tiring but I persisted to make the journey each year in good weather or blizzard. It was a tradition we used to share but once father moved on, he wanted nothing to do with it. Too painful for him I suspected but it was painful for me too. My last memory of her was her anguish filled screaming of my name over and over. At least father didn't have that on his conscience.
I slipped off my thick tunic and thick pair of pants my back aching. I draped them off the edge to dry from the hardships I put them through. I then continued to undress and proceeded to unbind my breasts. It was always a slow and painful process and I hated doing it but father wouldn't let me out of the house if they weren't. I was forbidden to reveal my femininity to anyone. Da said that it was for my own protection. My sideburns were long enough to be mistaken for a lazily deformed beard and my hair always a mangled mess. I would rip out half of my head whenever I tried brushing it. And a bath was hard to come by despite my begging and pleading.
Finally stripped down enough to begin to relax I laid down on my bed and pulled the blanket around me to smother the cold that I felt. Winter was always the hardest time of year for us; this house had phantom drafts that we could never find so we spent all our time at the shop. It was almost like a second home to me but lately I had just been getting so frustrated there. I didn't want to go anymore. Father was getting too overwhelming to handle. I was seventy-seven and he still treated me as though I was the scared little dwarf-child he carried into town fifty eight years ago.
I awoke to a firm knock at the door, there was only minimal light pouring into the windows. I rubbed my eyes with irritation as I crawled to the edge of my loft and hung my head over the side to see if my father had heard the sound. After a soft snore from his room I grabbed the ladder and quietly climbed down as another knock echoed off the walls.
After slipping into my large coat that wasn't quite dry from my trek the night before, I opened the door to a hooded figure facing the road; they turned to me quietly and bowed their head.
"I am 'ere to speak with Rodan."
"What business have you with my father?" I inquired politely as he removed his hood. This dwarf had an eye patch over his left eye and years of aging on his face. He stood taller than I with a mangy beard and dark brown hair. His eye sparkled in the dim morning light and I could only imagine what it looked like in better lighting conditions. And the way he looked at me, even with one eye it looked as though he was going to cry. His hand lifted from his side and moved towards me. I flinched a little at the gesture until it landed on the top of my head.
"You've grown," he whispered as I saw a small water droplet dropping from the corner of his eye. Without warning he instantly rushed in and wrapped his arms around me, the door slipping out of my grasp and shutting behind him. It clattered as it always did.
I was speechless as he eased up on his grasp and put his hands on my shoulders. I was too much in shock to say anything.
"I knew ya would look just like yer mother except for them eyes, they're Rodan's and mine. 'ow I've missed ya, lass!" He pulled me back into a hug and I could feel him trembling as I heard the floorboards creaking behind us.
"Brother! You had better have a good explanation for why you're here!"
"Brother?" I whispered as he pulled away and looked at me once again.
"Yes lass, don't ya remember me? I'm yer uncle, been t'ere since the day ya was born," he replied as he brushed my hair away from my face, "I do brother! Calm yourself! Let me 'ave a few moments with my niece that you've been 'iding out 'ere all this time."
"Bordan! You shouldn't be here!" my father snapped as my uncle gave me one last look before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small note and handed it to him, "What is this?" He ripped it from his hand.
"I found it in the pocket of a bandit after 'e attacked me on the road," he said solemnly, " 'e thought I was you." My father's face went white.
"They're still looking?"
"Look and see," my uncle gestured to the note before looking back at me, " 'ow 'ave ya been faring?"
"W-wait?" I stuttered before clearing my throat, "Uncle? You're not dead?" I was skeptical at first but he seemed genuine in his feelings. I did remember someone like him, although not very well.
"Course I'm alive! When was the last time ya bathed?" my uncle chuckled as he lifted a strand of my hair, "Yer a mess, lass."
"When did you get this?" my father interrupted.
"A few 'ours before sunrise."
"Why did you lie to me?" I asked, "Why did you tell me all our family is gone? And who's looking?" His face furrowed in deep thought as he sat down at the table and put his head in his hand.
"Are you sure that this is true?"
"I do not know, brother, but we can't afford to take that chance. They're still lookin'."
"Looking for what?"
"She's not safe 'ere anymore, Rodan. Ya know that, they'll be coming for ya both."
"We'll move."
"Ya 'ave to go back," Bordan insisted, "The mountains security is better than it was then."
"We've been doing just fine here! The mountain wouldn't be any safer even with posted guards covering it all! I lost my wife in that raid…"
"And I lost my bride!" Bordan snapped interrupting him, "Don't think that yer the only one to 'ave lost someone. I came because I don't want to lose what's left of my family!"
"Father what's going on?" I asked as his angry face shook and he leaned back in his chair.
"Kàra go open the shop, I'll be there in a few minutes," he muttered.
"Why? Who's coming?"
"Just do as I say!" he shouted.
"I'm not doing anything until I get some answers!"
"For once, will you just do as you're told?"
"What do they want from us?"
"Kàra!"
"You tell me now!" I demanded, "Not later. Not in a little while. Not when I'm older. Now, father! What in Durin's name is going on?"
"I see she inherited Tarra's stubbornness," uncle stated solemnly earning a cold stare from my father, "Just tell her Rodan, she's not a little girl."
"Don't you tell me…!"
"No! Father, I'm 77 years old! I'm not a dwarfling anymore!" I snapped.
"But you're still my daughter!" he replied angrily, "Now do what you're told!"
"If you won't tell her I will!"
"Bordan!" A scornful look of defiance covered my uncle's face.
"Do you still 'ave your mother's necklace?"
"Her necklace?"
"The one with the large diamond and silver fitting," Bordan asked, "It's a…" My father moved from his seat and landed a punch on Bordan's face. He staggered and fell into the wall.
"I never should have made it!" my father shouted as he turned to the table and threw it against the wall, "I should have destroyed it years ago! It's cost me everything! My wife! My home! I can't lose my daughter too!"
"She'd be safer if she knew what you were up against! Her ignorance was the reason they found you! Read the note again brother! If it wasn't for the blizzard last night they would 'ave taken her and made off with her and you never would 'ave known!"
"Who are they?"
"They're like a cult, they call themselves the Observers," Bordan answered from the ground, "They 'ad been after that necklace since the fall of Erebor. She should know this already Rodan."
"What's so special about it? It's just an old antique!"
"They want what it protects," my father whispered as he wiped his face and took a deep breath, "He's right, it's time you know."
So...Attempt 3 at this story. I'm hoping I'll get it right this time.
If you're new to this tale then please let me know what you think by leaving me a review. Otherwise thanks for stopping by and I hope to hear from you next chapter!