As always, I hope you enjoy...

Though often viewed as noble heroes by the common people of Tempestas, the truth was that most Storm Riders operate similarly to mercenaries. Those who weren't sworn to eyries often peddle out their services, usually in the form of security escorts for trade routes or general security of smaller settlements. Those who were sworn to eyries often get paid in tribute to protect the eyries and any of the eyries interests, though they could still be hired by other eyries for the right price.

In short, a Storm Rider's loyalty usually goes to the highest bidder. Often, small wars would break out between different groups of Storm Riders over their tribute and business operation territories.

One notable exception would the Storm Riders of the Iron Roost.

Torwald had often advocated that the Storm Riders return to their ancient duties as guardians of the people of Tempestas, not profiteering as glorified sellswords. In deference to this ideal, the Storm Riders of the Iron Roost would send out their Riders to protect the smaller and weaker settlements from raiders, while still accepting payment for security escort work.

But always, their first priority was to protect, not to profit.

The day they forget that, the Thunder Bearer had cautioned, was the day that the weak of Tempestas would become truly helpless.

II II II

Thorondor and Gwaine had fought in numerous skirmishes against the raiders. It was the practice of Storm Riders to place new Storm Riders into squads of five under the leadership of a senior Storm Rider, but Garuda, being the largest and mightiest of the Storm Eagle, had refused to bow to any other Storm Eagle, and none of the other Storm Eagles had wanted to cross him.

Instead, Torwald had allowed the creation of two new squads, with Thorondor and Gwaine in charge of each of them, under the strict condition that they report to him before undertaking any action. There had been some protests over the decision, but given Thorondor and Gwaine's outstanding abilities and Garuda's angry glare, the decision had been accepted, albeit grudgingly.

With the outstanding achievements of the two new squads under the two, the acceptance had quickly turned from grudging to admiration.

II II II

One day, after returning from a mission where both their squads had worked together to take out a particularly tough group of raiders, Thorondor and Gwaine had found out that a messenger raven brought pleas for aid from Left Peak, which had come under attack from raiders.

Thorondor and Gwaine's squads had been the only ones available to respond, but with Torwald away, they could not go without violating their orders not to act without the Thunder Bearer's permission.

Thorondor and Gwaine went anyway, leaving their squads behind to prevent them from getting into trouble.

II II II

When they arrived, they found that the raiders numbered a little over a hundred, with roughly two dozen aircrafts circling Left Peak. Smoke was rising from Thorondor and Gwaine's home.

Without hesitating, Thorondor and Gwaine urged their mounts to descend upon the aircrafts.

Garuda's massive wings knocked eight of the aircrafts out of the air, causing them to crash into the sea or the rocky surface of Left Peak while Deor, at Gwaine's urging, methodically took out several of the bigger aircrafts by descending on them and tearing out their wings.

Taken by surprise, and far too slow, the raiders' aircrafts were unable to even fire upon the two Storm Eagles that had descended amongst them.

Once they cleared away the aircrafts, Thorondor and Gwaine descended upon the raiders on Left Peak. The raiders fired up at them, but their bullets were unable to pierce the Garuda and Deor's steel-like feathers. Some of the raiders had weapons that fired explosive ammo that were capable of at least injuring a Storm Eagle, but the Eagles were too quick and mobile in the air to be hit by such clumsy weapons.

With a swoop, both Garuda and Deor had slain more than half of the raiders on Left Peak's surface. What they had dropped in their midst cleaned up the rest.

As Garuda and Doer and swooped down, Thorondor and Gwaine had leapt off their mounts' backs and into the raiders. Their power-glaives sliced effortlessly through the raiders' ramshackle armour, and their wrist-guns roared, the bullets tearing through raider skulls. None of the raiders came close to harming the two Storm Riders.

Within moments, all of them were dead.

Gwaine was breathing heavily, but Thorondor hadn't even broken a sweat. Near one of the entrance leading into the tunnels of Left Peak, they could hear gunfire and shouting where the raiders had gone in after the inhabitants.

Without a word, Thorondor entered, with Gwaine close behind.

II II II

Gwaine had known Thorondor for a long time. He had been with Thorondor throughout all their adventures (or misadventures) together, every dangerous situation and every battle and skirmish since they became Storm Riders.

But for the first time ever, Thorondor scared him.

He had seen Thorondor in battle, and as always, the only display of emotion on his friend's face had been the familiar (and at times, irritating) smile. The smile would change in subtle ways depending on what Thorondor felt, and even in the heat of battle, it was still there, grim for certain, but still a smile.

Right there and then, the smile scared him.

Thorondor's smile had become cold and menacing as he carved a bloody path through the raiders in the tunnels. The power glaive had proven to be too long to wield in the narrow space, so Thorondor and Gwaine had discarded them in favour of the chainswords they obtained from the slain raiders. Thorondor's skill with the chainsword was no less than his skill with the glaive and the dismembered, bloody torsos of the raiders were testament to that.

Before long, Gwaine found himself slipping in the blood and filth running down the tunnels from the corpses of the raiders. Thorondor marched on, unperturbed.

The whole air around Thorondor had become so foreboding that Gwaine found himself keeping his distance.

The raiders, so many of them felled by Thorondor, had started pleading for mercy.

Thorondor gave them none.

The last of them, a young man only a few years younger than Gwaine, had soiled himself, dropping his weapon and to his knees as Thorondor had advanced on him. He had managed only a brief cry for mercy before Thorondor clove him in half in bloody splatter.

Thorondor had stood still for a long while after that, and Gwaine had found himself unable to approach his friend; fear had completely paralysed him.

Thorondor was covered in blood, and his smile remained frozen on his face, menacing and cold and his eyes blazed as though the Eternal Storm itself raged within them. To Gwaine, it was as if the ancient daemons from the stories told by the elders had come to life. Yet, it also felt right...as though it was how Thorondor was always meant to be.

"Thorondor?"

The soft voice made Thorondor start, as though out of a dream. He turned to see the surviving inhabitants of Left Peak emerging from the other tunnels, led by the local guards.

Firiel was with them, and it was her voice that woken Thorondor from his murderous trance.

"Mother..."

Thorondor strode towards her, embracing her in his massive arms; he had grown so large that she only reached his midsection. Around them, the others had given Thorondor a wide berth.

Firiel embrace her son back, ignoring the blood.

"My son, you came back," she said.

"Of course," said Thorondor. "I would never abandon you."

He looked around at the people gathered around them.

"All of you."

II II II

The elder Storm Riders at the Iron Roost had been furious when Thorondor and Gwaine had returned, but none of them had quite dared to reprimand Thorondor; not when he was covered in gore from head to toe, and certainly not with Garuda hissing menacingly from behind his partner.

Torwald however, had faced both Thorondor and Gwaine without even flinching and confined them to their quarters as punishment.

Both Thorondor and Gwaine had accepted their punishment without a word and obeyed.

They were both silent as they made their way to their quarters. Gwaine kept shooting glances at his friend, but didn't dare to say anything and Thorondor seemed to have retreated deep into his thoughts.

When they reached the junction in the corridors that led to their respective quarters, they turned to part ways.

Gwaine wanted to say something, anything, but he didn't know what. He felt as though something between him and Thorondor had changed...or worse, broken. He felt that if he didn't talk to Thorondor about what had happened, a terrible distance would open up between them.

"Gwaine."

Gwaine halted and turned.

Thorondor had his back to him, standing still in the corridor, filling it with not only his immense size, but also with his presence. It seemed to roll of him in thunderous waves, and Gwaine wondered at how he had never felt it before.

"Are you afraid of me?"

The questions casually, but Gwaine could hear a plea beneath it.

Gwaine was surprised. It sounded as if Thorondor himself was frightened. Thorondor turned to face him, and Gwaine saw a hint of uncertainty in his face despite the smile on it.

The big brother instinct of Gwaine had him wanting to reassure Thorondor, to make a jest that would dispel the terrible tension between them. But he couldn't find it within himself to do so. Not when he was so close to soiling himself in fear.

"I...I don't know, Thor."

II II II

Confined to his quarters, Gwaine had spent most of his time maintaining his armour and weapons. Occasionally, Deor would visit, perching himself on rock outcropping just outside the single window of his quarters, squawking at him or dropping a fish or two for him.

The general solitude gave Gwaine plenty of time to think about what had happened at Left Peak.

He wondered why the events had shaken him so. The situation had been straightforward; civilian had been attacked by raiders and as Storm Riders, they had done their duty, albeit without the official sanction of their leaders.

Was it the violence with which Thorondor had fought? Was it the mercilessness that he had shown?

Before the events of Left Peak, Gwaine and Thorondor had fought together numerous times; and while Thorondor had always fought with deadly strength and skill, the smile on his face had always been one of cool detachment; as though he had felt nothing for his adversaries.

The smile Thorondor had worn at Left Peak though, that had been full of rage. It had leaked out of Thorondor's very being, it had gone into every stroke of his weapon, and it had been vented with every life he had taken that day. It had been almost...natural.

As though it was what Thorondor had been made to do, and that was what scared Gwaine most of all.

The more he thought about it, the more Gwaine realised how different Thorondor was to the other people of Tempestas. His rapid maturity, his strength, his intelligence, his fortitude and his unnaturally fast healing rate; none of it was what could be called natural. At one point, Gwaine could match Thorondor in almost every way, but Gwaine had seen just how large the gap between them had become.

Thorondor was so far above him in every way, and Gwaine had gotten used to it. He had realised as they had been growing up that he would never be able to keep up with Thorondor, but he had always pushed himself to pursue Thorondor, to try to reach the lofty heights that had come so naturally to Thorondor.

Thorondor was the benchmark against which Gwaine would always fall short.

Yet, the way Thorondor had looked at him when he had asked if Gwaine was frightened of him, it had reminded Gwaine of another memory, one that he had almost forgotten.

It was when they had first met.

II II II

Thorondor had only been a year old then, but he was already as big as the children five years his elder. He was the strange child, the one who had fallen from the Storm and some had even whispered that he was a daemon.

Gwaine, only eight at the time, had first met Thorondor while he had been doing his chores, collecting some of the edible lichen that had grown around one of the openings in the side of the rocky surface of Left Peak. He had seen Thorondor leaning out one of the neighbouring openings, reaching for something below.

Gwaine had tried to call out a warning, to tell Thorondor to get back in before the waves get him, but the waves had got him first. Gwaine had leapt out, letting out his safety harness so he could catch up with falling boy. He had caught Thorondor just before they had both hit the sea and had dangled there as the waves sprayed them.

It had taken them awhile to get back in, but when they did, Gwaine had glared at Thorondor.

"Just what the hell were you trying to do?" Gwaine had demanded. His anger however, had melted away upon meeting Thorondor's gaze. The younger boy had been gazing at him with gratitude and awe.

"Thank you for saving me," Thorondor had said.

Gwaine had nodded. "So what were you trying to do?"

Thorondor extended his hand towards Gwaine, showing him what was in his palm.

It was an injured raven, and it was bleeding.

"I saw it just beneath the opening," explained Thorondor. "I couldn't just leave it."

Gwaine had been struck speechless by the earnest and innocent sincerity in Thorondor's words.

"Foolish boy," said Gwaine, but without any venom. "You need someone to look after you, to stop you from doing something stupid. Do you have a brother?"

"No," answered Thorondor.

"Well you do now," said Gwaine, tapping him roughly on the shoulder. "I'm Gwaine, I'll look out for you from now on."

"Really?" said Thorondor, looking happily surprised.

Gwaine nodded. "Your name?"

"Thorondor," answered the younger boy had answered.

II II II

Gwaine shook his head as he remembered those days. He still didn't know what had made him say that all those years ago. There had been something so disarmingly innocent in Thorondor then, and something in Gwaine had wanted to protect him.

But after what had happened at Left Peak…

Maybe that was what truly bothered him, thought Gwaine. That Thorondor didn't need his protection. That Thorondor had completely outgrown him.

Then, he remembered how Thorondor had asked if Gwaine was scared of him. How there had been a faint plea in Thorondor's voice and on his face.

Gwaine smiled; he was being foolish. Thorondor was still his brother, no matter what.

He stood and paced the room. He wanted to go and talk to Thorondor, but he was still confined to his quarters.

A squawk caught his attention. He turned to see Deor, peering in at him through the window.

Gwaine grinned.

II II II

Thorondor had spent his time in confinement mostly brooding. He had remembered the gazes of the very people he had saved.

He remembered the fear in their gaze.

It had left a sick feeling in his heart, especially when he remembered the fear on Gwaine's face.

Gwaine and Firiel were the two most important people in Thorondor's life; the thought of causing either one of them to fear him…it was too much to bear.

"Thor."

Thorondor started and looked around. There was no one in his room.

"Over here, pup."

Thorondor turned towards the window of his quarters and saw Gwaine just outside, waving at him.

"Gwaine, what...how?" asked Thorondor as he made his way to the window. He saw that Gwaine was standing Deor's back, who in turn was perched on a rock outcropping below the window, keeping still to avoid upsetting Gwaine's balance.

"Good thing I'm still small enough to slip through the windows," said Gwaine jokingly.

"We're supposed to be in confinement," Thorondor chided, though his smile had brightened.

"Yes, well, we've never been much for following rules," retorted Gwaine. "Let's not waste time arguing about it. How have you been?"

Thorondor shrugged. "Well, I suppose. I've had a lot of time to think about what had happened."

Gwaine looked closely at Thorondor. "Do you feel bad about what had happened?"

Thorondor looked away. "No. They would have killed mother and everyone else. I don't regret killing them at all."

"Good, because you shouldn't."

When Thorondor turned to look at him, surprise evident on his face, Gwaine quickly continued.

"You protected our people by killing the raiders didn't you?"

"We protected our people," corrected Thorondor. He paused, looking a little uncertain. "But they were afraid of me. You were afraid of me."

"By the Storm, Thor, of course we were!" said Gwaine. "You fought like a monster! You fought with such brutality that would've had Master Adalgrim pissing himself."

While Gwaine spoke, Thorondor had looked away, his smile growing smaller and smaller.

"But it doesn't matter," said Gwaine softly. "Because at the end of the day, it was because you wanted to protect our people. That is what matters. Not the way you fought, by why you fought."

Thorondor looked up at Gwaine, and there was a hint of tears in his eyes.

"Really?" asked Thorondor softly, and Gwaine suddenly realised how lonely it must be to be in Thorondor's place; to be so different from everyone else, whether physical, mental or even the scale of brutality. He realised that the approval of people around him was what made Thorondor feel accepted; that he belonged.

"Of course," said Gwaine, smiling. "It doesn't matter if you're a giant or that you fight like a daemon when you're mad. You'll always be my foolish little brother."

Thorondor smiled gratefully as he reached over to clasp Gwaine's hands.

II II II

Several meters away, from a platform opened to the sky, Torwald had watched the exchange. He couldn't hear what was being said over the roar of the sea and the rumble of the Storm, but he instinctively knew that it was something he should let be, even though he knew he should really have punished Gwaine.

He knew that something had happened at Left Peak that had strained the relationship between Thorondor and Gwaine, and whatever was happening below would most likely address that.

Our brotherhood is all we have in the face of the Unending Storm, was what he said to them when they had first arrived.

He was glad to see that they have learned the lesson well.

Beside him, Tor nibbled at his ear and chirped questioningly.

Torwald turned away and walked back into the tunnel leading back into the Roost.

"Let them be," he said more to himself than to his Storm Eagle.

Tor cocked his head, and took the sky.