Chapter 14: Inside Information
The dwarves were still talking delightedly of the progress made that day, when suddenly a vast rumbling woke in the mountain underneath as if it was a volcano that had made up its mind to start eruptions once again. The door behind them was pulled nearly to, and blocked from closing with a stone, but up the long tunnel came dreadful echoes, from far down in the depths, of a bellowing and trampling that made the ground beneath them tremble.
Then the dwarves forgot their joy and their confident boasts of a moment before and cowered down in fright. Smaug was still to be reckoned with. It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. Dragons may not have much real use for all their wealth, but they know it to an ounce as a rule, especially after long possession. He had passed from an uneasy dream to a doze and from a doze to a wide waking. There was a breath of strange air in his cave. Could there be a draught from that little hole? He had never felt quite happy about it, though it was so small, and now he glared at it in suspicion and wondered why he had never blocked it up. Of late he had half fancied he had caught the dim echoes of knocking sounds from far above that came down through it to his lair. He stirred and stretched forth his neck to sniff. Someone had been in his cave!
Thieves! Fire! Murder! Such a thing had not happened since he first came to the Mountains! His rage passes description – the sort of rage that is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy find out that they cannot have their way. His fire belched forth, the hall smoked, he shook the mountain-roots. He thrust his head in vain at the little hole, and then coiling his length together, roaring like thunder underground, he sped from his deep lair through its great door, out into the huge passages of the mountain-palace and up towards the Front Gate.
To hunt the whole mountain till he had caught the being that dared to enter his cave and had torn and trampled him was his one thought. He issued from the Gate, the waters rose in fierce whistling steam, and up he soared blazing into the air and settled on the mountain-top in a spout of green and scarlet flame. The dwarves heard the awful rumor of his flight, and they crouched against the walls of the grassy terrace cringing under boulders, hoping somehow to escape the frightful eyes of the hunting dragon.
"Quick! Quick!" Bella gasped. "The door! Everyone into the Mountain1"
Roused by these words they were just about to creep inside the tunnel when Bifur gave a cry: "My cousins! Bombur and Bofur – we have forgotten them, they are down in the valley!"
"They will be slain, and all our ponies too, and all our stores lost," moaned the others. "We can do nothing."
"Nonsense!" said Thorin fiercely. "We cannot leave them. Get inside Bella and Balin, and you too Fili and Kili – the dragon won't have all of us. Now you others, where are the ropes? Be quick!"
Bella was about to protest, when Fili and Kili grabbed her arms. "Do as he says," said Fili.
"He'll be alright," added Kili. "I pity the dragon if it tries to take on Uncle."
Consenting, she allowed herself to be half dragged back into the mountain, Balin following swiftly behind them after wishing good luck to Dwalin behind him.
Those were perhaps the worst moments they had been through yet. The horrible sounds of Smaug's anger were echoing in the stony hollows far above; at any moment he might come blazing down or fly whirling round and find them, near the perilous cliff's edge hauling madly on the ropes. Up came Bofur, and still all was safe. Up came Bombur, puffing and blowing while the ropes creaked, and still all was safe. Up came some tools and bundles of stores, and then danger was upon them.
A whirring noise was heard. A red light touched the points of the standing rocks. The dragon came.
They had barely time to fly back to the tunnel, pulling and dragging in their bundles, when Smaug came hurtling from the North, licking the mountainsides with flame, beating his great wings with a noise like a roaring wind. His hot breath shriveled the grass before the door; and drove in through the crack they had left and scorched them as they lay hid. Flickering fires leaped up and black rock-shadows danced. Then darkness fell as he passed again. The ponies screamed with terror, burst their ropes and galloped wildly off. The dragon swooped and turned to pursue them, and was gone.
"That'll be the end of those poor beasts!" said Ori as he watched the ponies race off with wide eyes. The dwarves walked down the tunnel, and finally met up with Balin, Fili, Kili, and Bella.
When Bella caught sight of Thorin unharmed, she lurched towards him, but stopped herself. He wasn't even looking at her; he was gazing down the hallway with a strange sort of hunger that seemed to emanate from him. Her eyes suddenly felt wet as they glistened with tears.
"You!" Dwalin said, anger suddenly directed at Bella as he approached her swiftly, his massive form blocking out the others. Shock froze her in place at the fire glowing in his brown eyes. "You woke the dragon! You were supposed to be silent and check things out, not wake the bloody beast!" The dwarf was all but yelling at her, causing her to shrink away. Several of the dwarrows agreed with fierce shouts, while Fili, Kili, and Balin tried to argue on her behalf.
"He's right, you know," Dori added. "You haven't done much but hinder us on this trip; women have no place amo-" A large fist seized Dori by the front of his cloak, cutting the older dwarf off mid-sentence. Bella watched in shock as Thorin put his face close to Dori's and hissed at him.
"You and Dwalin will watch your tongues. Laying the blame on the hobbit will achieve nothing. None of us could have entered any quieter, so stop your senseless arguing!" Thorin threatened, before turning a ferocious glare on a sheepish Dwalin.
Dwalin shook his head before turning to her. "My apologies, Bella. I fear that I'm not quite myself with all the stress."
Bella nodded her head and gave him a small smile. "It's perfectly fine, Dwalin. I did wake the dragon, but there was no way I could have been any quieter. What's done is done though, and we can only do forward from here." A tiny flicker of hope sparked in her chest; her Thorin was still in there, somewhere.
"So what do you suppose we do now?" Bofur asked, tilting his head as he directed the question to Bella and Thorin.
"I have no idea at the moment – if you mean about removing the treasure. That obviously depends entirely on some new turn of luck and getting rid of Smaug. Getting rid of dragons is not at all in my line, but I will do my best to think about it," she replied softly. "Perhaps it would be best to remain here where we are. By day we can no doubt creep out safely enough to take the air. Perhaps before long one or two could be chosen to go back to the store by the river and replenish our supplies. But in the meanwhile everyone ought to be well inside the tunnel by night."
"But what are we to do about the dragon?" Bombur asked.
Thorin looked thoughtful for a moment. "There is a weak spot to every creature, and all we need to do is find it."
"I will creep down there myself, I think," Bella said. "I've got my ring and my nerve, and I could head down to see what Smaug is up to. Perhaps something will turn up."
Thorin immediately objected. "We've already risked you once with the great beast and I will not have you go down again. We can send one of the others."
Bella shook her head. "No way Thorin! I'm quieter and a good deal lighter on my feet than the rest of you. Plus, with my ring I shall not be seen. You cannot fight me on this."
No more was said on the matter. When midday came she got ready for another journey down into the Mountain. She did not like it of course, but it was not so bad now she knew, more or less, what was in front of her. She knew very well that the dragon would not be asleep when she found him, but she still wanted to find out if the giant lizard had an Achilles' heel.
The sun was shining when she started, but it was as dark as night in the tunnel. The light from the door, almost closed, soon faded as she went down. So silent was her going that smoke on a gentle wind could hardly have surpassed it, and she was inclined to feel a bit proud of herself as she drew near the lower door. There was only the very faintest glow to be seen.
"Old Smaug just might be asleep," she thought hopefully. "He can't see me and he won't hear me. Cheer up Bella!" She knew that dragons also had a wicked sense of smell, so she'd need to be careful.
Smaug certainly looked fast asleep, almost dead and dark, with scarcely a snore more than a whiff of unseen steam, when Bella peeped once more from the entrance. She was just about to step out on to the floor when she caught a sudden thin and piercing ray of red from under the drooping lid of Smaug's left eye. He was only pretending to be asleep! He was watching the tunnel entrance. Hurriedly Bella stepped back and blessed the luck of her ring. Then Smaug spoke.
"Well, thief! I smell you and I feel your air. I hear your breath. Come along! Help yourself to my treasure, there is plenty and to spare."
But Bella was not quite so easy to trick, and if Smaug hoped to get her to come nearer so easily he was disappointed. "No thank you, O Smaug the Tremendous!" she replied loudly. Thinking quickly, she decided flattery might be the key to getting herself out of here alive. "I did not come for your possessions. I only wished to have a look at you and see if you were truly as great as tales say. I did not believe them."
"Do you now?" said the dragon somewhat flattered, even though he did not believe a word of it.
"Truly songs and tales fall utterly short of the reality, O Smaug the Chiefest and Greatest of Calamities," replied Bella.
"You have nice manners for a thief and a liar," said the dragon. "You seem familiar with my name, but I don't seem to remember smelling you before. Who are you and where do you come from, may I ask? Two legged females are a whole new thing for me, as men were always the ones to confront me, so it is fascinating that it would be a female who meets me now."
"You may indeed! I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am she that walks unseed."
"So I can well believe," said Smaug, "but that is hardly your usual name."
"I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number."
"Lovely titles!" sneered the dragon. "But lucky numbers don't always come off."
"I am she that buries her friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of a bag, but no bag went over me."
"These don't sound so credible," scoffed Smaug.
"I am the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ringwinner and Luckwearer; and I am Barrelrider," went on Bella beginning to be pleased with her riddling. "Friend of the pale haired."
"That's better!" said Smaug. "But don't let your imagination run away with you! Very well, O Barrelrider! Maybe Barrel was your pony's name; and maybe not, though it was fat enough. You may walk unseen, but you did not walk all the way. Let me tell you I ate six ponies last night and I shall catch and eat all the others before long. In return for the excellent meal I will give you one piece of advice for your good: don't have more to do with dwarves than you can help!"
"Dwarves!" said Bella in pretend surprise.
"Don't talk to me!" said Smaug. "I know the smell of dwarf – no one better. Don't tell me that I can eat a dwarf-ridden pony and not know it! You'll come to bad end, if you go with such friends, Lady Barrelrider. I don't mind if you go back and tell them so from me." But he did not tell Bilbo that there was one smell he could not make out at all, hobbit-smell; it was quite outside his experience and puzzled him mightily.
"And I suppose they are sulking outside, and your job is to do all the dangerous work and get what you can when I'm not looking – for them? And you will get a fair share? Don't you believe it! If you get off alive, you will be lucky. Dwarves are more merciless than dragons."
Bella was now beginning to feel really uncomfortable. Whenever Smaug's roving eye, seeking for her in the shadows, flashed across her, she tremble uncontrollably, and an unaccountable desire seized hold of her to rush out and reveal herself and tell all the truth to Smaug. In fact she was in grevious danger of coming under dragon-spell. But plucking up courage she spoke again.
"You do not know everything, O Smaug the Mighty," said she. "Not gold alone brought us hither."
"Ha! Ha! You admit the 'us'" laughed Smaug. "Why not say 'us fourteen' and be done with it Lady Lucky Number? I am pleased to hear that you had other business in these parts besides my gold. In that case you may, perhaps, not altogether waste your time.
"I don't know if it had occurred to you that, even if you could steal the gold bit by bit – a matter of a hundred years or so – you could not get very far? Not much use on the mountain-side? Not much use in the forest? Bless me! Had you never thought of the catch? A fourteenth share, I suppose, or something like it, those were the terms, eh? But what about delivery? What about cartage? What about armed guards and trolls?" And Smaug laughed aloud. He had a wicked and a wily heart, and he knew his guesses were not far out, though he suspected that the Lake-men were at the back of the plans, and that most of the plunder was meant to stop there in the town by the shore hat in his young days had been called Esgaroth.
Anger pulsed through her veins. If she did not stay with the dwarves when this was all over (though she really wished that she would), she would not take a single piece of treasure! Gold was not the reason she came on this journey. But the dragon's poisonous words filled her mind, turning her stomach into knots. Had the dwarves known all this already thought? Were they all laughing in their sleeves at her the entire time? That is the effect dragon-talk has on the inexperienced.
"I tell you," she all but yelled at the dragon. "That gold holds no importance to me. I desired a journey, not treasure and wealth such as this. Gems and jewels and gold hold no value to one such as me. The greatest gift is that which cannot be held in the palm of one's hand. My desire was to have an adventure and witness history in the making and be a part of it, not the reward that potentially waited at the end! I travel with the dwarves to assist them in their revenge!"
Then Smaug really did laugh – a devastating sound which shook Bella to the floor.
"Revenge!" he snorted, and the light of his eyes lit the hall from floor to ceiling like scarlet lightning. "Revenge! The King under the Mountain is dead and where are his kin that dare seek revenge? Girion Lord of Dale is dead, and I have eaten his people like a wolf among sheep, and where are his sons' sons that dare approach me? I kill where I wish and none dare resist. I laid low the warriors of old and their like is not in the world today. Then I was but young and tender. Now I am old and strong! My armor is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"
"I have always understood," said Bella in a frightened voice, "that dragons were softer underneath, especially in the region of the – er –chest; but doubtless one so fortified has thought of that."
The dragon stopped short in his boasting. "Your information is antiquated," he snapped. "I am armored above and below with iron scales and hard gem. No blade can pierce me."
"I might have guessed it," said Bella. "Truly there can nowhere be found the equal of Lord Smaug the Impenetrable. What magnificence to possess a waistcoat of fine diamonds!"
"Yes, it is rare and wonderful, indeed," said Smaug absurdly pleased. He did not know that the hobbit had already caught a glimpse of his peculiar under-covering on her previous visit, and was itching for a closer view for reasons of her own. The dragon rolled over. "Look!" he said. "What do you say to that?"
"Dazzlingly marvelous! Perfect! Flawless! Staggering!" Bella exclaimed. In her head, she thought 'Old fool! Why, here is a large patch in the hollow of his left breast as bare as a snail out of its shell!"
After she had seen that, Bella's one idea was to get away. "Well, I really must not detain Your Magnificence any longer," she said, "or keep you from much needed rest. Ponies take some catching. I believe, after a long start." With that, she darted back and fled up the tunnel.
The dragon spouted terrific flames after her, and fast though she sped up the slope, she had not gone nearly far enough to be comfortable before the ghastly head of Smaug was thrust against the opening behind. Luckily the whole head and jaws could not squeeze in, but the nostrils sent forth fire and vapor to pursue her, and she was nearly overcome, and stumbled blindly on in great pain. She had been feeling rather pleased with her cleverness of her conversation with Smaug, but it was not enough to keep the great beast from lunging after her.
The afternoon was turning into evening when she came out again and stumbled and fell in a faint on the 'doorstep'. The last thing she saw was Thorin, catching her in his strong arms with a worried expression in his blue eyes. He was shouting her name as the darkness claimed her, freeing her of the pain from her burns.