Far within the depths of the last great Dwarven city of Middle Earth, under stone carved into large cavernous halls and sealed behind great wrought doors, lay the wealth of gold that had once supported the Fire Drake of the North. Here, crouched within the sea of riches that the Great Beast horded before his fall, was found the next Heir of Erebor, Son of Dis and Descendant of the First King, Durin the Deathless.

It was one of those rare nights that he had wondered off alone within the Mountain, his brother having passed out mere hours ago from an exhausting day of what Dwalin liked to call 'training'.

Fili had to listen to Kili complain about the fact that the Captain of the Guard took way too much enjoyment in kicking their asses to the ground. This time, the Eldest had to agree with the statement.

However, the treatment may have been due to the stunt Kili had pulled the day before, involving arrows and the kitchen's supply of apples. That hadn't gone down as well as it could have, in all honesty.

But, training aside, Fili's mind had been restless throughout the rest of the day, whirling from one direction to another, from this problem with snooty elves to that problem with the trade of men. It should have been enough to comatose him like it had his impulsive little brother. But, as he had settled down for the night, his mind just would not let him rest.

After fruitless attempts to sleep, the blonde Dwarf had resorted to walking the quite halls of the upper floors, avoiding the guards that passed by on their rounds. He hadn't wanted to deal with being followed around his home. Not tonight.

He had just needed to walk, with nothing to distract him except the soft fall of his feet barely echoing off the walls.

Some way or another, he had ended up in the treasury, looking uninterestedly from goblet to gold to finely cut gems. It was an awe inspiring sight to be sure, but although it sung to him like all gold did to a dwarf, he had learned from a dear hobbit that there were more important things to life then riches. The threat of the Gold sickness was always in the back of his mind though, dragging with it memories of his Uncle when he had almost been completely consumed by its madness, resulting in the endangerment of their bugler. All in the past though, as it should be.

Fili had been about to turn back and try his luck at slumber once more, having enough of the aimless wondering, when that object had caught his eye. Well, more like objects.

These were obviously not something that should be found in a treasury, shattered as they were and half submerged in coins. They were something -on closer inspection- that should be found in a nest.

A dragon's nest, to be exact.

Fili felt his blood run cold as he stared down at the remains of what was once going to be Smaug's offspring. He didn't understand how, being no expert on the ways of dragons aside from loving gold, living a long time, and breathing fire. That, and being hard to kill with that scaly hide of theirs.

Crouching down, he flicked off a few coins and picked up a shard of the dark shell, the outside rough like that of stone, while the inside was smooth and iridescent in colour.

He wondered how it had come about that the shells laid shattered here, for Smaug wouldn't have tried to kill his own offspring, would he? Bilbo had made no mention of dragon eggs, let along breaking them. No, these looked older than that, to before they had taken back the mountain. It was a wonder no one else had found this glimmering grave earlier.

A shift in the gold caught his attention in that moment, and what his blue eyes locked onto made his whole world freeze over.

What was he thinking? His people had been either forced out or slaughtered by the massive fire Drake of the North, not to mention the sickness that the beast had left upon the treasure horde of Thror, which had almost wholly consumed his Uncle. And the destruction of not only Dale, but Lake Town as well, should also add the final nail in the coffin as to why he shouldn't be doing this.

But alas, it seemed that his brother's knack for doing things he really shouldn't was rubbing off on him. It wasn't like he hadn't helped his little brother pull off certain stunts before, but this time there was no Kili in the equation to forge this decision forward. It was just him and the tiny scaled creature that curled within the palm of his hand, stuffed down his pocket as he strode out of the treasury and towards the rooms him and his brother shared.

Nodding to Nirdu and Kemmek, the new guards for night shift posted outside his door, he slipped into his chambers and shut out the world with a sigh of relief. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm his conflicted thoughts.

What in Mahal's Name was he doing? This was in no way a good idea. This was worse than a BAD idea. What would happen if Thorin, or his mother, discovered the creature trying to leech the heat out of his hand at this very moment? He knew she still had Nightmares now and then from Smaug's attack all those years ago, and even after seeing the dragon's corpse pulled from the ruins of Lake Town, she still hated any mention of the beast. And yet here he was, smuggling out of the treasury one of Smaug's hatchlings that he had found still sticky from the shells membrane. It had cowered into one of the many goblets littered throughout the horde, making the mistake of shifting too far to one side and causing the goblet tip and roll down the dune to its base. Fili had drawn one of his blades at the sight of the scaly hide, however, upon getting a closer view at the little thing, he couldn't make himself kill it. It had been so helpless, curled there and watching him slowly approach with frightened eyes, scales a ruddy red colour seeping into a black brown belly. And then Dwalin had entered the hall looking for him, and he had just-

"Fili! Hello? Khâzash?"

The Crowned Prince blinked up and back into his surroundings after getting carried over with recaps of what he had just done. Kili stood before him, the worry-like frown he had been sporting disappearing when he discovered he had gotten his brothers attention finally.

"Are you ok, Khâzash? You seem a little…out of sorts? Too many hits to the head from Dwalin in the training yard?" Kili bore an impish grin, white teeth flashing, and yet there was an inkling of concern in those eyes.

"That may have something to do with it" he replied, thinking back on the training earlier that morning. Maybe it had knock all of his sanity from him?

"Are you sure?" Kili was watching him carefully now, grin still partly holding on, picking up on the tiny twitches his Brother made when he was in a situation he was uncomfortable with or stressed about.

"No, Kili. I don't think I am…" Fili looked up at his brother, eyes like a clear summer sky clouded over in darker clouds of panic. "I found something, Kili. In the treasury just now. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Even after everything! It was so helpless, and so small! And if Dwalin had seen it when he walked in, it would surely have been killed. And then there's Mother and Uncle, and the rest of the inhabitants of the mountain! What am I going to do? I don't want it to die. I can't explain why, but the little thing reminded me of you when you were very young, and I…I just-"

"Fili! Hold on, slow down for me" Kili tried, having no idea what his brother was even going on about. It was not like Fili to get shaken up like this, unless it just happened to be Kili in a situation of potential death. "Now, tell me-" he grabbed onto Fili's shoulders, looking him in the eye as he searched for the reason for this sudden burst out of Fili. "-what is this 'Thing' you're going on about? It can't be that…"

Kili trailed off, staring down at the scaly lump coiled in the palm of his brother's hand, which he had pulled out of his pocket while Kili had been talking.

"What…is that? Fili, is that what I think it is?" Kili sprung back a few feet at the nod of confirmation. "Durinu-me turg! But How? There was only Smaug? How did you end up with…?"

"A dragon hatchling?" Fili finished for him.

"Yeah."

"I…I don't know. I don't understand how it got there. Smaug was male, wasn't he?"

"More importantly, if there was one…" Brown eyes lingered on the little lump still in Fili's hand.

"There were other shards, old ones all cracked. It didn't look like there was any other survivors…" Fili rubbed down his face with his free hand, as if trying to rid himself of the memory.

"Are you sure?"

Translations: (I hope these are right)

Durinu-me turg - By Durin's Beard

Khâzash - Brother

A/N: Right, so I'm a little new to posting this. I've had this idea in my head, and a friend encouraged me to just go for it. So here it is. Hope people enjoy it! Bilbo will show up in the next chapter too. Can't imagine what with...

Anyway, Disclaimer: The Hobbit and it's characters belongs to Tolkien

Mine are my own etc.