As a massive, two-meter-long ballista bolt began to give off a faint silver glow, Allen let out a soft breath of relief.
Adapting the engravings on the Noldor Rune Arrows for ballista bolts had not been as easy as he had imagined.
Scaling them up proportionally was the first problem, and tracing the enlarged patterns in one continuous stroke had required a great deal of experimentation.
Allen had worked for ages, yet he had only finished about twenty-still not enough for the twelve heavy ballistae on the wall to fire two full volleys.
Thud, thud, thud! Thud, thud, thud! Thud, thud, thud!
Tremors crept up through the ground beneath Allen's feet, little by little, while rings of ripples spread across the Ithildin in his bowl.
Then the snow atop Mount Gundabad began to crack and creak before cascading down its steep cliffs, burying countless dead branches and loose stones along the way.
What kind of terrifying monster could make the earth shake like this with its footsteps?
Everyone working on the wall stopped what they were doing. Confusion gave way to alarm, then their faces shone with determination.
"Wooo-wooo-wooo!" An urgent horn call sounded from the north.
With a sharp rush of air, Allen sprang high above the wall and flew north as swiftly as an arrow loosed from a bow.
At this point, the only creatures capable of causing such a disturbance were probably the fire-drakes Gandalf had mentioned.
In the distance, three enormous plumes of white mist rose from the endless glacier, like fierce winds sweeping frost across the snowy ice fields with explosive force.
Three huge, hideous shapes loomed within the rolling mist. Even from afar, they dwarfed Smaug, the winged dragon.
*Were they so fat because they couldn't fly, so they had piled on blubber to