The Avalanche (Song)

The Avalanche (click to listen)

The deadliest forces in some parts of Middle Earth were not anything malicious or violent, but just nature at work. The caravan was on schedule and it was unusual for the melt to have lasted so long in one part of the mountains. The winter had been harsher than usual.

They all had the ill feeling, journeying through. The snow was traversable but still too deep. There was no choice, even so. They had done the sensible thing and chosen to delay as long as possible, but with such a large group and time already not on their side, they had to press on. It was risk of hazardous terrain versus guaranteed starvation. 

The landslide came suddenly, heavily laden with mud, torn terrain, half melted snow and ice. Ryheric saw it shift, almost smoothly from such a distant view, something graceful and agile that came free from the mountain. But the noise was terrible, and the following devastation was so quick and final as it buried what was once a slim ravine, that he was more shocked by his own lack of reaction at first, than by what had happened.

It did set in, over time. Most of the caravaners had survived, too far back from the event and well clear of the mountain's sudden shift, but four or five had been buried in the ravine, including Ryheric's dwarven comrade.

The dwarf was a good natured artisan and trader, and had kept Ryheric company many a night while plucking his lute strings by fire, or drank with him when one of the brewers brought out a new keg to bolster spirits for the next day of long travel.

Ryheric was not accustomed to missing anyone. In his life there had been a great deal of letting go, and no holding on enough to pine or miss. But the recollection of the avalanche during his time in Bree, led to this piece of music that had come out of his lute when he remembered.

Whenever he plays it, there is usually a pause - a moment of silence for a good, stalwart companion lost and buried by nature as the tumbling, scattering notes hail down across the strings and trip over one another in a flurry of expression with no words.