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The mountains reared above their heads like an unbroken fence as far as the eye could see. With nothing else to do, the party journeyed south, but their eyes were ever looking to the left as they went, scouring the high walls of this mysterious fence that seemed to have sprung from the earth specifically to bar them access to the riches that they were all now sure lay beyond. Hænir trudged along at the rear of the group where he could keep a ready eye on the newcomers. The Elf and the Man had been quiet and well disciplined during the march south, but still they were strangers to Hænir and not Dwarves – two very distrustful things in his book. The third stranger, Gortek, while a Dwarf was clearly not entirely right in the head. He seemed, in fact, to be on good terms with the Elf and the Man, which was proof enough, to Hænir at least, that his wits had turned at least partly.
The first sight of the mountains had plunged Hænir’s heart, normally so sturdy, right through the bottom of his gut and into his boots. He had glared openly at Bali as though the mountains had been his fault, and he continued to stare at their leader balefully throughout that day. Nerin had noticed this and tentatively asked what was wrong, but Hænir’s sharp reply, so uncharacteristic for him, had effectively concluded that conversation. Hænir, more than usually quiet on the subject, kept his thoughts to himself and did not know what the others thought of this turn of events. Some, he could tell, were disappointed, but he did not know if any shared his now very low opinion of the leader who had led them so far to find only an impassable road.
They had been marching south for several hours when the Dwarves spotted a high waterfall roaring from the top of a cliff. The spur of rock from which the water fell was apparently a far-flung shoulder of the mountains, and it swept out from them in a long, gently sloping plain that ended abruptly in an almost sheer cliff on all sides. It looked for the world like the prow of a huge low-lying boat settled into the earth that lay about the mountains. Hænir could see clearly that the plain at the top of the cliffs extended high into the mountains, where it narrowed into what appeared to be a high pass between two mighty peaks. It was possible that through that pass lay the way into the hidden realm of Rhûn – but only if they could find a way up the cliff…
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