Author's Note

A few weeks ago, I entered the selection for Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht. Over a thousand applicants, 225 places. My head is still ringing with osteoblasts and different sorts of cartilage. I'll get the results half April. Fingers crossed.

Next week will be full of pretty important tests, Math tomorrow. Now my head is ringing with limits and goniometry.

Don't expect too much from me.

Although I might be able to sneak in a chapter after the tests.

9

She was high between the clouds, letting the air currents under her spread wings carry her. She couldn't believe it had gone that well, having at least expected a heated argument and possibly Gandalf interfering. None of that had happened, though Thorin still wasn't very happy. She'd checked his mind before flying overhead and up into the sky. It was dark as a thundercloud, and she didn't know whether lightning or rain would come first.

She had to make it up to him somehow. She might understand little of Dwarf-culture, but she was very familiar with the principles of leadership. She knew Thorin accepting someone so dragonish had done a hard one on his position within the group, and she would have to somehow take away any doubt of him being the alpha.

She reflected on what she knew of Dwarf-culture. They loved gems and other shining stones, and…um…they were…short?

Great start. Emphasizing their lack of length probably wasn't the way to go. Couldn't she do anything with gems? What's the difference between a gem and a smoothed river stone? She didn't have the faintest clue.

She groaned and let out a gout of fire. Fire-diving always helped her clear her mind. She angled herself into a dive, and looked at the swirling patterns inside the fire-cloud. Her eyelids were started to fall…and she jerked them back open.

She pulled herself to a halt, gasping. As she watched the now unused cloud slowly vanish into the white clouds, an idea took shape inside her head. That was it! She didn't have to find a gemstone…she could make one herself.

All right, where to start? She started by slowly angled herself down, following the river until she found a winding where the river had cut itself a way through the hard rock. A rock had strength, she knew, but a river had time. Even the strongest rock would eventually yield to a merciless river. And in doing so, it laid itself bare.

She landed smoothly, glanced at the sun and decided she had plenty of time. The river was shallow, but when she stepped in she could feel the strong current.

She flopped into the cool water and splashed around for a time. One of the best things of not having to answer to anyone but herself was that she didn't have to worry about other opinions. If she went to a stream to drink, started back, and halfway decided she hadn't had enough and went back, there was no one to blink an eye at it. She ate, slept, and did whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, and she didn't have anyone to reckon with but herself.

It was also safer not to get attached to anyone. She'd have to bear that in mind.

When she was thoroughly soaked with river water, she shook her fur, sending most of the water out and leaving her fur damp. She could have evaporated it, but the day was hot.

She drank some water and then returned to why she had landed here in the first place. She looked around, looking for a nice-looking stone. She found several promising ones, but once she dug them out, there always seemed to be something imperfect. A dent here, a jut there. Or not even coloured, or with a rough surface. Finally she found one though, an apple-sized light-grey stone. She judged it would fit snugly in Thorin's hand.

She cleaned the pebble, washing the dirt off until it shone. She brought it ashore to let it dry in the sun, when she saw something shimmer that wiped all thoughts about the river stone clear out of her mind.

The grey stone dropped and forgotten, she walked over. The river was thirsty, so at its outer bend was a steep, sloping shore. She approached the shimmer until she realized it was a stone, reflecting the light of the afternoon sun. She scratched at the dry dirt until it rolled out and stopped at her feet. Then she picked it up and brought it back to the water.

Once it was clean, she set it down to take a good look at it.

On one side, the stone was nothing special, looking just like the next. It was when she flipped it upside-down that it revealed itself. There was a crack in it, and from that crack shone dark blue spots, catching the light and sending it out again tenfold. It was almost as if the inside of the stone was from the depths of the sea. She was mesmerized by it, leaning forward, half believing that touching it would transport her to where fish swam.

She came closer. What was that little…speck in there? It seemed to be calling out to her…

Her nose was millimetres away from the stone's surface. When looked upon this closely, it wasn't blue anymore, was it? It was green like fresh leaves, yellow like the sun…red like her fire.

She touched the surface.

She hid the stone in a hollow tree. It was strange, but she didn't think she'd have any trouble finding it back. Somewhere on the edge of her mind was a pull, leading into the direction of the stone. She had given of herself to it and thus, it was connected to her.

When she walked into camp, she made sure to do so in a submissive posture. Ears flat and back, lips pulled back and tail between her legs, causing her back to arch. She had long ago unlearned licking the chin of an alpha two-legged. She kept her head down but held her eyes on Thorin, searching for acceptance. Or at least not condemnation.

It was somewhere in between. There was incomprehension, but no rejection. She walked to the edge of camp, ignoring blank looks from the others, circlefired her place and lied down. She shuffled a bit until her wings were comfortable, head down. Her eyes were closed, but her perked up ears told everyone she wasn't asleep. She heard Thorin take third watch. Good.

She started smoking, long trails of black smoke rising and vanishing into the blackening sky. She heard Dwarves whispering around her, probably looking or pointing at her. She ignored them. Thorin was the only one she needed to worry about. The others would do whatever he told them to do. Sheep.

Bombur was cooking, but his soup, stew, whatever it was, didn't stir her stomach. She smelled some herbs, plants, other greens. No meat. They clearly hadn't hunted.

She started dozing off, distantly aware of the Dwarves eating and then settling down for the night. She opened her eyes when she felt the whoosh of a bedroll being unrolled. When she looked left, she looked into Kíli's brown eyes, and Fíli's blue ones right behind them. She yawned, giving them an unnervingly close study of sharp teeth surrounding a curled-up tongue. The curiosity disappeared from their eyes to be replaced by nervosity, again switching to curiosity when she kept her tongue dangling from her mouth and looked like an enthusiastic puppy. Together with her purple eyes and long ears she made quite a sight, not to mention the rest of her body, long tail and great wings and all. She fanned them, stirring the air and subduing the smouldering campfire. Then she folded them back in, rolled onto her side and curled her tail around her, creating a barrier between her and the Dwarves but looking over it.

Her eyes roamed through camp and rested on each Dwarf in turn. Her eyes followed theirs as they closed, one by one. When they were all closed except for Glóin's who was on first watch, she stood up silently and crept out of camp, staying close to the ground. Thankfully, Glóin's watching eyes weren't directed at camp but at the darkness around it.

Once she thought she was far enough away, she took flight. She hadn't eaten from Bombur's cooking pot; it didn't look very clean. And there had been no meat. She decided to remedy that.

She thought of chasing down a bird, but she didn't feel like plucking it before eating. She needed an easy meal without too much of a bother. She landed in a clearing and sniffed around. Once she found what she was looking for, she vanished her wings and followed the path her prey had made.

She stalked for half an hour or so. The scent indicated her prey was about four kilometres ahead, a distance more easily covered on the wing but the forest was too dense to land. Silently, that is. Deer were easily spooked.

The scent grew stronger, and her pace grew quieter, until she came to a stop and dropped onto the cold earth. She changed her fur to match the dark greens surrounding her and switched to her eyes, where she had previously relied on her nose.

She focused on movement. A herd of five, a buck and two does with their calves. The calves were very young, too young to survive without their mother. Killing one doe would equal killing two deer. She dismissed the does from her thoughts.

That left the buck and the two calves. The calves weren't much fat yet, just bone. One wouldn't fill her stomach, and two would be too great a loss for this small herd. The buck wasn't very fat either, but bigger, and the velvet still covering the antlers was a treat. The velvet would disappear once the antler was fully grown, which would be in a month or so. Now or never.

Having picked her prey, she moved towards him, not letting the rest out of her sight either. If one of them were to spot her, they'd all run.

She was behind a bush now, two meters away from the buck. He didn't see her, but raised his head every now and then, checking for danger. She waited for his head to lower to the green grass again, before pouncing.

She leapt, and all deer spurted away from her, into the forest. Her chosen prey did the same, but he had hooves and she had claws. She was faster than him on the short distance, but his stamina was better. If she couldn't catch him at her fastest, he would outrun her and she would lose him.

She squeezed the last bits of speed from her legs and jumped onto his back. Digging her claws into his flanks to hold on, she closed her jaw around his neck, feeling him clawing for breath as she crushed his windpipe. The buck soon collapsed from lack of air but she didn't let go until she felt his frantically beating heart come to a halt beneath her left forepaw. Then she slid off him, catching her breath.

She ate the most delicious bits, leaving the rest to scavengers. After she cut open his belly, she ate up his heart, liver and the four sections of his stomach. She smashed a rock on his head to crack the skull open, allowing her to slurp the juicy brain out of it. Then she broke off his antlers and used her rough tongue to scrape of the velvet off one. The other she dragged back to camp, hiding it next to the stone she'd put there earlier.

She looked at the moon, realizing Bifur (if she remembered correctly) was still on second watch. But the moon had only to shift a little bit and it would be Thorin's turn. She waited, deciding now was a good time to wash herself.

When she was done, she looked up again. The moon had shifted far enough, Thorin was on watch and everyone else was fast asleep. She took a deep breath. Now's as good a time as ever.

She walked into camp, making sure to make enough noise not to startle Thorin, but not to alert anyone else. The Wizard was there, but she wasn't sure he was awake or not. Didn't matter.

The dark-haired Dwarf seemed asleep, but a quick glance at his fae told her he was not. She had the stone wrapped in her tail. She positioned herself in front of the Dwarf who was gazing at her with his iceblue eyes.

She started to say something but reconsidered. She had no idea what to say. So she curled her tail about, revealing the stone. She pushed it towards him with her nose, colourful side upward, then looking up and almost into his eyes. She kept her gaze away from those icy pools.

She hoped Thorin would accept the stone, but feared it would look like a mere trinket in his experienced eyes. For all she knew, this could be the most precious stone in all of Middle-Earth. Or it could be worth less than a broken sword. She had no way of knowing. Thorin's eyes gave away nothing of his thoughts and if she were to look beyond them, Thorin would trust her even less than he already did.

Thoughts flew around in her head. Her tail was twitching. The longer she sat there, motionless, the more she felt like springing up, flying away and leave this wretched Dwarf and all he represented behind. Living alone again, free, with no one to worry about but herself. The more she thought about it, the more tempting it seemed.

Thorin extended a hand towards the red stone at his feet.

Circlefiring is my name for what Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon) does when he goes to sleep. It's at 0:30:30 in the movie on Netflix.

Have a nice Sunny day!