Author's Note: Hey guys! So, I got a break between my assignments and whipped this up for you! YAY ME! :) This was originally half of the original Chapter 8 in my plan for how this story will unfold, but I decided that I would split it up so that I could drag this story out for as long as possible (without making it boring and unnecessary I hope) so while this has a bit of filler IT IS STILL IMPORTANT FOR LATER ON! And on the plus side, you guys have been giving me awesome reviews so I decided to give you this as a reward. Keep the reviews coming in, I love to hear your feedback and much appreciate any review.
For this chapter, would just like to shout out a huge thank you to Fuchsia Grasshopper for the song "Humbling River" by Puscifer and Ellie's Imagination World for the poem. For the other Song, if you want to type into google "Benedict Cumberbatch - The Angel Sings" it is awesome and gives me chills! I know that neither of the songs are Tolkien or Middle-Earth (as all songs have been in previous chapters) I felt that they fit for the mood.
Oh and one more thing, I don't have Tumblr or Twitter or Youtube accounts, so if anyone can spread the word about this story across the internet I would be most grateful - this is actually one of my projects that I'm proud of so far. Thank You!
Chapter 8 – Magic
"It may only be given,
Not taken or bought,
What the sinner desires,
But the saint does not
- Forgiveness"
The darkness thinned as Kathryn slowly came back from the land of her dreams, her mind feeling heavy, her thoughts slow as sleep slowly faded and she became more aware of her surroundings. She felt the warmth that enveloped her, making her face flushed from the heat. It was delicious, and she snuggled closer, hoping to get comfortable and fade back into unconsciousness. As if in response, her bed shifted slightly, wrapping tighter around her.
Kathryn frowned slightly, her eyes still closed, as she shifted, trying to get comfortable. Her bed was rough, hard and bumpy, but it was wonderfully warm. It was much more comfortable then sleeping on piles of gold or stone, for this had a little bit of give to it, but the way that she laid on it made her body ache slightly. She shifted again, and as she did, once again her bed shifted with her, responding to her movements as if to get a better hold of her.
Wanting to see what kind of rodent or critter was in her sheets, she blinked her eyes as the world blurred but slowly came into focus as she tried to sit up and look around her groggily.
And then she saw that she was surrounded by red scales.
Her eyes widened and she froze, her body instantly coming awake, all traces of sleep banished from her body as she sat ridged, staring at the scales. Her mind couldn't seem to comprehend what was going on as she struggled to rationalise her surroundings.
The crimson red scales formed the long, snake like tail, that was wrapped around her, the heat of the flesh enveloping her. The blade like end of the tail was placed across her waist, almost pinning her down as the coils held her, and each time she shifted or moved, they would move with her, always keeping her there.
Blinking partly in panic and partly in wonderment, Kathryn followed the trail of the tail with her eyes up to the body that she could see was nestled beside her, the huge mass dwarfing her until she felt like the size of an ant. The huge body flowed down to the serpentine neck and the ferocious head of the dragon Smaug that lay not three feet from her. His eyes were closed, but behind them she could see his eyes shifting as he dreamed, his snores were a dreadful noise as it echoed around the massive chamber, soft growls emitted here and there to accompany his rapid eye movements. He was mumbling in his sleep.
Kathryn was stunned for several moments, her breath caught in her throat as she didn't know what to do. But then… the memories started to filter back into her mind. She remembered the vision, the horrible nightmare, Smaug appearing in the dream, he helped her escape it, and then, when they were brought back he helped to calm her until she fell unconscious. But… this? Kathryn didn't know what to make of this; she awoke in his coils, had he… had he allowed her to sleep beside him?
Her mouth fell open as she realised what had happened. She had expected Smaug to move away from her, to drop her where she lay and have his own peace. Perhaps he had been too exhausted by the ordeal himself and had not had the energy.
Suddenly feeling guilty for making him uncomfortable (and she had to double check that she wasn't going mad for thinking this), Kathryn decided to move so that he wouldn't have to wake up to her touching him. Although that wasn't a good confidence boost, Kathryn almost found it normal to think that he would be disgusted by her. After all, he was the mightily dragon, and she was the lowly mortal.
She braced herself as she thought about how she would get herself out of this predicament. As a predator, Smaug would naturally wake on high alert if she forcibly moved him even an inch. Besides, his tail was almost too heavy for her to lift on her own. So she slowly eased herself to an angle, freezing in place as she allowed him to adjust to her new position, and then slowly wriggled so that his tail end slipped further down her waist and then down her legs until it nestled on the floor around her. Now she was standing, but still had a wall of scales between her and freedom.
Groaning inwardly, Kathryn lifted her skirts as she lifted her leg in an attempt to step over the first coil which was just higher than her knee.
But suddenly, she heard Smaug rumble in his sleep as he shifted to get comfortable, ruffling his wings and his tail twitching. But as he moved, his tail came into contact with nothing. And like a blind man reaching for his spectacles, his tail shifted as if it were searching for something. Kathryn inhaled sharply when the tail brushed against her ankle and then suddenly the coils were shifting to seize her and wrap her once again within their embrace, pulling her back down into her previous position. As she was pulled back sharply to the ground, Kathryn couldn't stop herself from yelping in surprise.
It was enough; the dragon grunted as he was awoken from his slumber, his eyelids fluttering as he drowsily came back to consciousness. He mumbled and growled, and then a soft sigh left his lips, so quiet Kathryn struggled to hear what it was at all.
"Kathryn…" he whispered; Kathryn felt something shiver down her spine as her heart did a little flip as she watched him with mounting anxiety. He blinked away the sleep in his eyes, rearing his head back as he yawned, flashing his gigantic teeth as he did so and stretching his claws, before he shut his jaws with a loud 'snap'. He then turned, and his eyes settled on the human wrapped firmly within the coils of his tail.
They stared at one another.
"I see you have finally awoken," Smaug grumbled, as if in irritation. Kathryn restrained herself from commenting how she had been awake first. Smaug then removed his tail from her, and Kathryn suddenly felt a slight chill from the absence of his warmth, but said nothing.
She would have gotten up, walked off and gotten on with her normal daily routine. But what had happened last night… what had happened? She could remember everything that happened, from the vision and Smaug appearing in it, but as to the "why" of it all… she had no explanation to give…
"S-Smaug," Kathryn said, stumbling over the word a little nervously. The dragon watched her, glowing fiery eyes narrowing down at her. "What happened last night?"
"It appears your memory is as lacking as your stupidity is surprising," Smaug growled. "You lapsed into a vision, or did you forget that?"
"No, that's not what I meant," Kathryn stammered, an odd feeling of hurt at his words. "I mean… what did you do? And why?"
"You wish to challenge me?" he said testily, his claws flexing as if in preparation for a fight.
"No!" Kathryn said quickly. "I didn't mean that at all, I swear; I meant… that-that I know so little of magic compared to your vast wealth of knowledge, I was only curious as to what powerful magic you used,"
Yes, her flattery had been a little over-the-top, but if it got him to talk then she was going to. After living with the dragon for a few months now, she had learned that in order to get any information out of him in this kind of mood, she either had to appeal to his ego or challenge him in just the right way to get him to show off. And frankly, after waking up in the creature's monstrous coils she was a little too shaken in order to challenge him.
But Smaug seemed satisfied – if a little suspicious – at her flattery.
"That vision was killing you," he stated simply. Kathryn felt a cold touch settle down her spine as she tried to process that thought, remembering the unimaginable pain that had consumed her before she had collapsed into the vision. "Some magic can prove to be too great, and a lesser mind would have been completely destroyed by the mere onslaught of such a vision. As it was, your mind was slowly crumbling to the raw magic the vision induced, and would have killed you eventually… or worse.
"So I intervened," Smaug continued, a boast beginning to enter his voice. "My mind in more complex and we dragons are part of the ancient magic itself. All I did was link our minds, therefore the magical energy was shared between us, giving me enough time to find you and take you out of the vision to another part of your mind, where the vision, the magic and the danger would have ceased. Which was easier said than done, considering your stupid, stubborn fear." He grumbled.
"I…" Kathryn began, utterly at a loss for words. "I didn't even know I could get out of a vision… I always thought I had to let it run its course. When I resisted before it just caused more pain,"
"That is where you were wrong right from the start," Smaug huffed condescendingly. "The answer was never to fight it, but to out-think it. When you fight against it you're only forcing the magic to overtake you by much more brutish force. The answer, is to give in, and then simply slip away and wait it out."
"Well, I…" Kathryn said, suddenly unsure of what to do now. The dragon fixed her with a glowing eye.
"You what, human?" he snapped impatiently.
"Thank you," she said.
Smaug watched her unblinkingly, not saying a word as he continued to stare at her. Kathryn would have sworn that she saw something in his eyes. Smaug may have been confused by her words, but she wasn't. He had gone out of his way to help her, and in so doing, he had saved her life. She had not asked him, he certainly wasn't obligated to, but he had done it all the same. And in her opinion, that was enough for her to thank him. Most sincerely.
"Thank you," she said again, before slowly walking away.
Smaug watched her, his eyes never leaving her form as she milled about the great chamber doing her usual routine: search through the treasures, explore the chamber, read various scrolls and books, etc. But today, there seemed to be an almost heavy awkwardness in the air between them. neither of them knew what to do now, a line had been crossed and neither had been aware that one had ever been drawn.
Smaug snorted and settled back onto his pile of gold, ruffling his wings in order to scoop and bury his middle in the gems and gold, the way it setted over his body was heavy and delicious. He feigned sleep for most of the day, when really he was paying close attention to the human that he had gained as an unlikely companion. With the fact that she had almost died the previous day, he was waiting to see if her mind would fall prey to other assaults of the same nature.
He knew that the second she fell would be the second after he would delve into her mind once again. She was part of his horde now, so that made him swear to care for her the same as he would his precious gold. She was one with his treasure, and no one would steal it from him, not even death or magic itself.
That was why he had decided that that night when she fell asleep, he would go into her mind in secret and simply observe. She had said once before that she sometimes had visions in her sleep. He would be there, and he would be watching from the shadows, and even in her mind she would be completely unaware of his presence. And it would stay that way until something forced him to reveal himself. Now that their minds had been opened and linked together once before, he no longer needed the eye contact in order to focus his energy to hers, or to find her consciousness, he would simply snap to her like a compass needle pointing to the north.
He continued to watch her, and she was completely unaware of his eyes always on her.
A few weeks had passed, and now, Kathryn lay asleep in dreams.
She was standing upon stone steps that led up to a solitary peak overlooking a valley, and even as she looked up to the top she could see someone sitting on the top looking out to the west. The figure was huge, with massive broad shoulders and gigantic arms. She couldn't make out much detail as the darkness of the night was only broken by the moon that was setting behind the silhouette of the mountains in the west… exactly where the figure was looking.
And then, the voice began to speak in a language that Kathryn had never heard before and didn't understand, but some part of her knew what he said: "The day will come when they will perish and I shall go back!" he growled in a voice that was so deep it was like the snarl of a wild animal, but there was such longing, yearning, grief and old hatred…
Some part of Kathryn knew this was a vision, and knew that she was about to see what had happened to this strange figure before her. But then… she felt something shift in the reality of the vision. Feeling her world change slightly like a physical part of her, she turned, finding that she had the will to change her focus in the vision. She looked back down the stone steps leading down to the forest below, and… somehow she knew that she could walk away from this. It was as if she had been in a room with no windows or doors, and then suddenly a door appeared, giving her the option to leave.
Kathryn felt her lips twitch slightly; she knew he was there.
She walked down the stone steps and into the forest.
For the past few weeks, Kathryn had been aware of a presence in her dreams, always watching her. She had constantly had the feeling that eyes were watching the back of her head, though she could never quite place it. But during the few small visions that she had had, miraculously escape routes had been provided for her, allowing her to leave the nightmares far behind. That was when she had known it was him, though she never saw him, never heard him, but she knew he was there.
And she could feel him now, following, watching, waiting…
Kathryn walked through the forest until she came to a meadow, and she smiled as the moon shone down upon her, bringing the forest alive with a silver shine.
"I know you're there," she heard herself say. She felt an answering presence in the air around her, and although she turned to try and find him, she could not see him. "Why are you here?"
"In case you were foolish enough not to help yourself again," she heard the voice, undoubtedly his, but still could not see him, but rather, she felt him.
"May I see you?"
"If I allow it…" she could hear his amusement at her frustrating attempts to try and see him.
"I won't talk to the air, Smaug," Kathryn glowered at the sky angrily.
"You are in a dream," he muttered irritably. "Not everything has substance!"
"Yes, but you do," she countered.
"And what will you do if I don't?" he challenged her mockingly.
Kathryn merely crossed her arms, looked to the floor and said nothing.
"What is this?" she heard him mutter.
Kathryn didn't look up, she just continued to stay silent.
"What are you doing?" he snapped impatiently. When Kathryn remained silent, she heard him growl a warning. "Do not play games with me, human! Are you trying to mock me?!"
Kathryn had to bite her tongue and continuously remind herself that this was a dream, that he couldn't hurt her in her dreams.
But he could when she woke up…
She heard a gigantic roar, like the boom of an earthquake, making the forest around her shudder. It took all of her restraint to keep looking at the floor.
"Fine!" he snarled. Kathryn felt a small breeze, and when she looked up, the human version of Smaug was standing a few feet away from her. His arms crossed over his pale chest, his fiery eyes burning as he glared at her, his black hair casting a shadow around his eyes so that they seemed to glow from the darkness.
"Thank you," she smiled innocently.
"What is the point of this?" Smaug snapped.
"I only wished to speak to someone; not knowing where you were could have led me to speak with my back to you – a very poor show of manners," Kathryn tried not to smile and more, but it was difficult as she saw Smaug's jaw tighten as he tried to suppress a growl.
They were quiet for a time.
"It's a beautiful night…" Kathryn began, trying to say anything to be rid of the heavy silence.
"This is your dream," Smaug muttered. "If you wanted it to rain or snow or be set in the clouds, it would be… if you had the sharpness of mind to, that is,"
Kathryn felt her own jaw set at his attempts to insult her.
"What shall we do then?" Kathryn asked suddenly.
"Whatever you wish," Smaug sighed, his eyes dull from his apparently growing boredom. "Run, sing, count the stars, whatever it is you mortals do,"
"We could sing, I suppose…" Kathryn felt her curiosity piqued at the suggestion.
"Go ahead then,"
He stood there, watching her expectantly.
"You won't sing with me?" she asked.
"What?" Smaug snorted. "Absolutely not,"
"I will go first if you're nervous…"
His eyes glowed brighter with malicious intent. Ignoring him, Kathryn turned away, facing the moon as it set over the mountains in the west; she breathed in the fresh air, closing her eyes as she felt almost every part of her fill with energy. And then, she decided to sing.
"Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown
But I've never crossed the river
Braved the forests, braved the stone
Braved the icy winds and fire
Braved and beat them on my own
Yet I'm helpless by the river
Angel, angel, what have I done?
I've faced the quakes, the wind, the fire
I've conquered country, crown, and throne
Why can't I cross this river?
Pay no mind to the battles you've won
It'll take a lot more than rage and muscle
Open your heart and hands, my son
Or you'll never make it over the river..."
As she stood there, eyes closed, simply taking in everything around her, feeling the world for a time. But then she heard something, like a breath or a sigh, so soft she questioned if it was real; but she felt it stir her hair like a small breeze. Turning to look –
Kathryn gasped as she was suddenly in a world of darkness. The meadow was gone, as was the moon, the mountains, the trees, everything. She was now seemingly floating in the black expanse of infinite space. With no substance of any kind, Kathryn felt her heart quiver with fear, she had not changed the dream, at least… not intentionally.
And then she heard a noise, a voice, deep and breathy, but a growl to it like thunder.
"If ever thou gavest hosen or shoon… then every night and all…"
It took Kathryn a moment to recognise the voice, and it was… singing? But there was no doubt, she could feel Smaug's presence as his voice surrounded her: she felt it whisper beside her ear, graze her throat as it slithered over her shoulders, the whispering wind from it breathing in and moving her hair with a heavy sigh. Kathryn went utterly still, her heart racing as she once again tried to look for him in vain, she couldn't see him, but he had surrounded her.
"Sit them down and put them on… and Eru receive thy soul…This ae night, this ae night… every night and all… Fire and fleet and candle-lighte… and Eru receive thy soul… If ever thou gavest meat or drink… then every night and all…"
Kathryn felt a pressure building around her, like the coils of a snake slowly circling and squeezing her as something entwined with her body and soul. The power of the voice was enough to make her spine vibrate with tension, and she found herself almost paralysed as she couldn't move.
And suddenly she was deathly afraid. She had never been able to change her dreams, she had struggled the one time she had – and with help. But Smaug had come and had changed the very fabric of this reality, a reality that was controlled by her mind, with the littlest effort. And now, she was at his mercy as she felt his power, his voice, his very being surround her; gliding across her skin, twisting around her waist. Panic began to build in her as she continued to fall under his spell as he continued to sing, his voice suddenly gaining a slightly sadistic edge as she heard it right beside her ear.
"The fire shall make thee shrink…And Eru receive thy soul…"
There was a sound like the flapping of wings, and a heavy sigh; Kathryn suddenly felt a wind in her face, a sudden gust of power slamming into her.
Kathryn cried out, all of the tension, all of the panic she had felt, it all came rushing out of her in a wave that pulsed through the space. It hit something, for there was a hiss of pain, and then a whirlwind of –
Kathryn was jolted back into consciousness as she sat bolt upright from where she lay, breathing heavily as she awoke. Not far off, she heard Smaug hiss as he too came back to his waking state, and she looked over to see him shake himself as he looked around, searching, until his eyes locked onto her.
Kathryn felt something then, something boiling in her stomach that made her clench her jaw as she shrugged off her bindings and stood, pushing sweat damp hair from her face as she then marched towards the dragon. If she had been in a sane state of mind she would never have done such a thing, but the thing that boiled in her gut now would not heed her mind's frantic pleas, it only knew of her need to scream, to hit something, to... to… and then she realised that it was rage that consumed her!
"What in Valar's name did you do?!" she seethed as she came to stand before the massive creature.
Smaug just watched her, his eyes narrowing slightly with something she couldn't quite understand.
"Do you wish to drive me completely mad?!" she raged. "You come into my dreams just to terrorise me?!"
"That was nothing more than a practical joke," he snorted.
"A Joke?!" she almost screeched in fury. "So frightening me half to death and then almost ripping me apart with magic is your idea of a practical joke?!"
"That was not my doing…" he trailed off as he watched her, again with that look in his eyes that Kathryn couldn't quite place.
"No, you intentionally held me and tried to scare me! You cannot do that to me and then lie to me as soon as –"
"ENOUGH!" Smaug roared furiously. Kathryn felt every bone in her body shake from the force of his voice, causing her rage and sudden nerve to disappear as quickly as it had come, leaving her feeling… slightly abandoned in front of the furious dragon before her. "Do not overstep your bounds, human! Do not presume anything of me and NEVER call me a liar!"
Kathryn stood frozen as the echoes of his roar rebounded around the cavernous walls, surrounding her with a thousand furious dragons, though only one had his golden eyes fixed upon her, glowing as if with fire. They stood there in silence, watching each other warily as they waited for something to break the tense atmosphere between them.
"If not you…" Kathryn said softly, hesitantly, as she dared to look back into those dragon eyes. She did not fall under the dragon-spell, something she had been very much aware of since the vision and their joining of minds, it seemed as if the hypnosis that would normally overcome her was… broken? "If not you, then where did that magic come from?"
Smaug paused slightly before replying, watching her with a critical eye, as if assessing if she could handle the answer.
"Yourself," he said finally.
Kathryn was taken so completely by surprise that she snorted and shook her head; she hadn't meant to, but the absurdity of what he had just claimed completely baffled her.
"You doubt me?" the dragon warned in an icy tone.
"I have never used magic before, it could not have been me," she told him.
"You used raw magic, that is different from other… regular magic," the dragon said, trying to find the right words for his explanation.
"I don't understand…" Kathryn frowned. The dragon sighed in exasperation as he tried to think of a way to explain his meaning.
"View Magic as energy," he began. "Like life in your body, like lightning in a tempest, it is a force of nature, the very fabric of the world around us. When a wizard or a conjurer uses magic, he is tapping into that force, merely reaching out in order to grasp it. But grasping and using are not the same…" he gave her a look to see if she was following.
Kathryn nodded to signify that she understood.
"Somewhere between grasping that force and it becoming real through the wizard's staff, the magic becomes diluted, more focused, going only in the direction that the wielder aims it. Raw magic is not plucked and not channelled, it is fresh, wild, and completely erratic. It cannot be controlled or directed, merely released. Think of it as air: when a human blows air from his lungs he can control its direction, and that is regular magic; but with raw magic… have you ever seen a mortal man control the gale force winds?" The dragon's eyes were alight with imagining the picture he was creating.
"But how did I manage to use it?" Kathryn asked.
"You are a seer,"
"Of which, I am very much aware. But I don't know how that means I have magic…"
"Uh, your ignorance continues to surprise me," Smaug groaned to himself. "There are few creatures born of magic; not magical creatures, but beings where magic is a part of them, in their blood and flesh and soul. Dragons have always been so since the dawn of time and our existence, and the most powerful of all," he added smugly. "The Elfish-folk of old once were the same, though the blood is diluted in the generations of this age. I even know that the Witch-King of Angmar was made powerful by his use of Raw Magic, the same with the Creator of the One-Ring. But other than this, Seers were the only others. It is what gives you the ability to see into all realities of past, present and future. Why else do you think the visions are so unpredictable if you do not induce them with the right information? As I said before, it is wild and erratic. I told you that to fight it was the gravest mistake: you would be the mortal man trying to control the hurricane."
"And now?" Kathryn tried to ignore how hoarse her voice sounded.
"Now… You used raw magic in an attempt to protect yourself with your mind when your body could not."
"But I have been in situations before, and not once did that happen. It could all have been a part of the dream,"
"That maybe so," the Dragon thought. "But now that you have used it, it may have been the weight to tip the scales, the final crack in the glass… until it all comes spilling out."
"No," Kathryn whispered to herself, tearing her gaze away from those burning eyes in an attempt to get her racing heart under control. Uncontrollable magic… if it was as unstable as her visions, then was she doomed to not be able to even live or function in normal society? She had never thought of life outside of this mountain ever since the start of her imprisonment, but now that she had to bring this into consideration… truly there was no hope for her. She would be walking down a street when all of a sudden she could lapse into a vision or at the slightest emotional stress she could snap a wooden beam in two with a magical pulse. She would cause destruction, and she would be hated more than before. Tears stung her eyes as she bit her lip against the anger burning away at her soul. She hated it, she hated this curse, hated the world, hated the irony of this; she was condemned, and had done nothing… "No!" she fell to her knees as a single tear spilled over her cheek.
Suddenly, with the storm of her roiling emotions, Kathryn felt something fill her: it was as if the sun's rays were locked within her body, leaving her too much energy to contain. It became so much, it burned and pained her; she cried out, and with the sound, the energy left her as something rippled out like a shock-wave from her body. The pulse didn't go far, but Kathryn saw it physically push heaps of gold around her in a small radius.
Smaug was silent but his eyes watched her in astonishment.
Kathryn looked up, seeing what she had caused. It frightened her, but at the same time, she felt a little freed. That pulse had only come when her emotions were at their most turbulent, meaning that if she controlled herself… she may be able to find a way to handle it. It wasn't perfect, but then, what in her life was?
Kathryn noticed that she had knocked over a pile of scrolls and a chest of books from her little outburst, and went over to pick it up. She sighed at how utterly tired she felt, as if she hadn't slept in days. She quickly put things back to how they were, knowing how Smaug liked everything to be just as he left it. But then she paused when her fingers graced across the leather cover of a book she recognised. It wasn't so much the book itself as it was the language: strangely it wasn't in Ancient Dwarvish or Elfish, instead it was in the common tongue.
Thoroughly intrigued, Kathryn sat against a column and opened the book. It was a collection of poems, songs and stories from all the races of Middle-Earth, and Kathryn found herself beaming as she flipped through several pages until she landed on one that sounded faintly familiar as she went through the words in her head.
"What are you doing?" Smaug asked suspiciously as he watched the woman smile warmly as she gazed at the pages of the book in her hands. For some reason it irked him that she would smile at a book she had only just picked up, rather then…
He suddenly didn't want to finish that thought.
The human woman looked up at him, but instead of answering she turned back to the book. Smaug would have snarled and demanded that she answer him, but was stopped when he heard her voice: soft, melodious, though not singing. She sighed on her words, and allowed a certain wisdom to enter her voice as she spoke… as she read aloud to him. He was brought to astounded silence in wonder of her.
"The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinúviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.
There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled
He walked alone and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.
Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening.
He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beachen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.
He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hill-top high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.
When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.
Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinúviel! Tinúviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinúviel
That in his arms lay glistening.
As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinúviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.
Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of ireon and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless."
When she finished, she gently closed the cover, and held the book against her chest. They were left in silence for a moment, as Smaug allowed himself to remember every word, but not so much for the poem, more so for the voice that spoke the words…
"It… was not my intention to frighten you," he said slowly, snorting to clear his nostrils of soot. "It will not happen again,"
Kathryn was left confused as she watched the dragon, but slowly realisation came to her. It wasn't an apology, Smaug would kill everything in this world before he apologised for anything, but it was… an acceptance of a misunderstanding and a promise to avoid the same mistake in the future. Kathryn fought down the smile at his words.
"It is still late," Kathryn said at last, stiffly climbing to her feet. "Good night," she murmured as she walked back towards her sleeping place, picking up the rags to retie them around her –
"What are you doing?" Smaug asked sharply.
Kathryn turned to look at him, eyes wide with shock and confusion.
"I… I am merely doing what I do every night," she said simply, not knowing what else to say. "I must bind myself encase –"
The dragon snorted derisively, smoke billowing over the gold between them as his eyes glowed.
"You do not need such humiliating precautions," he snapped. "I am with you in the dreams, am I not? And I am here in the real world. Do you doubt that I would not protect you?" he challenged.
Kathryn blinked in surprise, standing there dumbfounded at his words.
She couldn't help her lips twitching to try and form a grin.
"No," she said softly, unable to stop the small smile. "I do not,"
Smaug snorted again, before laying his head back down and closing his eyes as he waited for her in sleep.
Kathryn laid down, and for the first time in a very long time, she was happy to fall asleep and excited for dreams to come.
A/N: Hope you liked the chapter! Review to tell me what you thought of it! Also wanted to say sorry about the whole "Raw-magic" thing. I know I said I wouldn't hack at Tolkien's law, and I'm not doing that, this will only effect Kathryn in this story, and I only put that in as part of my own universe not Tolkiens, so BIG APOLOGIES!
Just a reminder about the poll on my page for the decision about a sequel to this. And if I don't get another chance to post before the movie comes out next weekend (OH MY GOD! AH! 8D !) I just want to say that there has been speculation about what Smaug is going to look like in the film: does he have four legs or two, being the main one in my mind. So I just want to say that even if in the movie he has two legs instead of four (I will love him either way), my vision of Smaug in this story, he has four legs, the front two having "hands" as such. Thanks for reading! See you soon! :) x
