The majesty of the entrance only lasted until a putrid stench rolled from the open door. Laelynn ducked away, wrinkling her nose and contemplating whether or not to cast a bubblehead charm. The rest of the dwarves seemed to be unaffected by the smell, but Laelynn could see Bilbo covering his lower face with a handkerchief. She wanted to cast a spell to clear the air, but hesitated, unsure if dragons on Middle Earth were as sensitive to magic as their counterparts on her own world. Also, after doing elemental magic on such a scale as she had, it was probably better for her to conserve her strength, no matter how fine she felt.
"Master Baggins, it is time," said Thorin into the awed silence. Bilbo visibly steeled himself to enter the mountain, his small shoulders tensing underneath his bedraggled red jacket. Laelynn walked up to him as Balin began to speak in a low tone with Thorin, Dwalin standing beside them.
"You alright?" she asked him, resting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it gently. Bilbo shuddered gently, but Laelynn could feel him settling himself under her hand, squaring his shoulders.
"I will be fine," he told her. "It can't be worse than Elevenses with the Sackville-Bagginses, after all." Laelynn laughed, the sound startled out of her at Bilbo's dry humour, and he smiled gently at her before removing her hand from his shoulder. Laelynn sniffed, and angrily wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I'll be alright," he told her again, awkwardly patting her elbow.
"Just come back safe," Laelynn said, watching with wet eyes as he nodded, then walked down the passage with Thorin and Balin, until he was out of sight. Kíli tapped her arm after a moment, and she wiped her eyes a second time as she turned to him.
"He'll be fine," he said, gripping her shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Laelynn smiled at him weakly, but let him drag her away from the tunnel entrance. Kíli pulled a pair of dice from a pocket. "Why don't I teach you a game?" he said, holding them up, and Laelynn's smile widened as she settled on the floor next to him. Fíli turned up soon after, dragging Ori with him, which in turn had Dwalin and Dori following. Nori had showed up when Kíli pulled out the dice, and was trying to get the rest of the Company to get on their game with varying degrees of success.
It was a simple enough game, once she got the hang of it: the aim was to bump off all your opponent's counters, while protecting your own at the same time. The grid could be drawn in the dirt, and a Colour-Changing charm made the pieces easier to keep track of. The dice gave you the number of spaces you could move, and often Kíli used a move he had 'conveniently' forgotten to mention until then. She pouted whenever he did, but Fíli had laughed and bumped her shoulder, and Nori had a grin playing at his lips when she looked at him. Even Thorin was watching out of the corner of his eye, smiling softly at Kíli whenever he took a piece of hers.
A roar echoed from the passage, accompanied by the scent of smoke, and the jovial atmosphere vanished in an instant. The only sound was the heavy breathing of the dwarves. There was a cry from someone — it might have been her — before everyone sprinted down the passage. Laelynn was barely aware of Bombur and Dori and Balin lagging behind before they were out of sight. Laelynn only thought of the dwarves ahead of her, the low roof of the passage making her have to crouch as she ran, the feel of her bow in her hand, an arrow notched and ready to draw in an instant.
Then suddenly she could stand straight; she was teetering over the edge of a platform, saved from falling only by a hand catching her shirt and yanking her back. Laelynn breathed out heavily, drawing back her arrow and aiming at the dragon.
But there was no dragon in sight, only a scaled, spiked tail slinking out a large doorway. A chilling laugh was echoing through the room, reverberating in her very bones and making her shake. Laelynn quickly righted herself and aimed at the tail, but it was too late: Smaug had vanished.
"Bilbo!" roared Thorin next to her, worry making his voice crack. Laelynn desperately scanned the room for Bilbo, but there was nothing, only the piles of gold and jewels. She began to shake, her bow and arrows falling from now nerveless fingers. He couldn't be dead; he promised. He promised.
Laelynn fell to her knees, taking no notice of the treasure of Erebor. She would give it all to have Bilbo back; no jewel or pale gold could compare to the rich warmth of a friend, especially one as good as Bilbo. Tears gathered in her eyes, fracturing her view into a thousand facets of gold, and Laelynn began to sob quietly as Thorin raged beside her. "Find him!" he shouted, madly digging in the gold. "We must find Bilbo!" He stood up wildly and spun around, ignoring the mountains of gold in favour of looking for Bilbo.
"Thorin!" someone shouted, and Laelynn's snapped up. That had sounded like–
"Bilbo!" she cried, as he appeared over the ridge of one of the mountains of gold. She scrambled up, almost tripping over herself as she stumbled down the steps towards Bilbo. Thorin had ran to Bilbo as soon as he appeared, and was holding him at arm's length and looking for damage as Laelynn approached.
"Are you unharmed?" Thorin asked, still critically inspecting Bilbo. Laelynn pushed past him to sweep Bilbo into a hug, and started crying again as he returned it. Thorin grumbled behind her, but Laelynn couldn't find it in herself to care: Bilbo was alive.
"I'm perfectly fine, Thorin," Bilbo said, patting her back before gently extracting himself. Laelynn wiped her eyes as Bilbo hugged Thorin, who tensed momentarily before returning it.
"But where's the dragon?" asked Nori, and Laelynn shuddered, twisting in her seat in the gold to look out over the rest of the treasure, as if her eyes could draw out Smaug from where he was hidden. The rest of the company were spread out, looking at the treasure, but at Nori's words gathered together, weapons out and on guard.
Bombur, Dori and Balin walked out of the passage then, gently covered in rock dust and their arms full of supplies. Bombur was trembling, and while Dori and Balin were still, their eyes were wide with fright. Laelynn immediately scrambled down the pile of gold to help, and as she took some of Bombur's load squeezed his shoulder gently. The three dwarves were quickly drawn into the group, the others forming a circle around them, and Thorin quietly asked what had happened.
"Smaug," said Balin shakily, his eyes still wide. Laelynn sucked in a breath. "We thought to bring our supplies into the mountain when we heard the roar, in case of injuries. We had barely brought the last bag into the passage when Bombur spotted Smaug coming around the mountain." The group as a whole gasped, and Bifur put a reassuring arm around Bombur's shoulders.
"Bombur and I began to move our things further in," Balin continued, voice growing stronger. "While Dori shut the door to the mountainside." Nori knocked shoulders with Dori, while Ori took his hand and squeezed it. "It was dark as pitch with the door shut, and we could feel him battering the mountainside from where we had taken cover." Balin closed his eyes, before turning to Thorin with a defeated expression. "When it finally stopped, we turned the corner to see the doorway had collapsed."
The company split up soon after, to explore the treasure while Smaug was gone. Laelynn walked between the mountains of gold, awed by the sheer amount. And the jewels! Oh, how they sparkled and shone in the light. A glint caught her eye and she ran to it, gently sweeping aside the coins covering it to reveal a delicate crown of bronze. Laelynn gasped softly, holding it up to study. There were small jewels decorating the edges, and as it came into the light they were revealed to be a brilliant blue. Sapphires, maybe?
A lively tune began to drift across the room, and Laelynn peered round one of the gold mountains to see Fíli and Kíli playing a pair of harps they had found. She bet they were magical harps, due to the richness of the music being played. But rich music was what these rich halls deserved, and Laelynn happily clapped a beat, placing the crown on her head to free her hands.
After a while (though Laelynn couldn't tell you how long), Bilbo walked around the group and began to chivvy them towards an exit. "Come on," he hissed, "What happens if Smaug returns to catch you playing in his gold? I shouldn't like to think what would happen."
There was quite a bit of protest, but Thorin began to make his way to the exit with Bilbo, and not wanting to be left behind, the rest of the Company quickly picked themselves up and ran after the two, many still clutching whatever they had been looking at. As they exited the Treasury, Laelynn cast one, longing look back, before trudging after the rest of the group into the kingdom proper.
It was hauntingly beautiful.
The ceilings were nearly invisible, as high up as they were, and the walls were covered in geometric patterns, some she recognised from the clothing of the others, others she had never seen before. The stone itself was carved in such a way when it was hit by the light of the torch Glóin had fashioned, it nearly shone. Laelynn found her jaw dropping often, at the skill that must have been needed to make such beautiful decoration, and at the decoration itself.
But haunting, too, as they passed through halls covered in dust, obviously untouched for decades. In the way the dragon's presence near clung to the stone, like a stubborn second skin, setting them all on edge. Claw marks marred the walls, and in many of the passages they passed by, white bones gleamed in the light. Each time they passed one of those passages, the mood of the group sombered, until by the time they had reached the entrance to the West Guardroom, there was none of the levity from the Treasury.
Thorin stepped past a discarded door, the warped wood groaning its misery as his foot brushed against it. They all froze, eyes darting back towards the way they'd came, and Thorin paused. However, when there was no response, no shift in the air that suggested Smaug was coming for them, the group relaxed as much as they were able.
One by one, they stepped into the West Guardroom, careful to avoid the door. As they filled the room, Laelynn delicately averted her eyes from the skeletons on the floor, letting them rest peacefully without her gawking. She saw Thorin raise a trembling hand to the caved-in exit, his eyes bright with unshed tears, but dark with grief.
"Maybe some of them were able to make it out?" Laelynn offered, half-raising her hand to touch his shoulder, before lowering it as he turned to her. "You thought it a viable escape route, during the dragon's attack. Perhaps it only caved when he entered the mountain." Though her reasoning was weak, Thorin seemed to take heart in her words, his shoulders rising from their hunch and his eyes lightening.
"Perhaps," he said, inclining his head; Laelynn tried for a reassuring smile. Nori walked past them to the wall of rock, pulled out a silver spoon, and beginning to tap the rock.
"Oi, stop your yapping," he called, voice low but carrying in the cramped space. The others, who had been quietly speaking with each other, silenced with the exception of Dori, who began sputtering until Ori moved from his place next to Dwalin to gently touch his arm. Dori shut up immediately. Laelynn grinned, and Nori resumed tapping the rock after shaking his head.
It took a minute for Nori to test the rock. He turned back to Thorin, and the silence gained an anticipatory edge.
He shook his head. "It's no good," muttered Nori, and the group deflated. "If the rock was any smaller maybe–" Laelynn started to step forwards, an offer to help on her lips. "–but even then, they've become load-bearing." Laelynn dropped back, the confident smile that had started to form extinguishing like a candle flame. Thorin's face fell, frown lines sinking into their grooves on his forehead.
Bilbo walked to Thorin and began whispering with him, as the rest of the Company slowly began to filter back out of the West Guardroom. Laelynn walked out with her spine stiff, her wand clenched in her hands. That was it then. The only exit any of them wanted to use was blocked, and she doubted any of them wanted to chance the front gate, not when they couldn't know where the dragon was.
Thorin strode out of the West Guardroom, a sense of purpose to his steps that automatically had the rest of them turning to look at him. He smiled, its edge knifelike, before striding down the hallway the opposite direction they had come from. They followed him, Bilbo nearly trotting to walk next to Thorin's brisk stride, and Laelynn noticed the air was getting… cleaner. They rounded another corner, and Laelynn began to walk faster as the air became noticeably cleaner. Another corner, and she started to run.
She wasn't the only one. As they got closer to their destination, Thorin wasn't leading the group so much as running with the pack. The boots of the dwarves were slapping against the stone floors, Laelynn's own scuffing rising above the rest, and only Bilbo's steps were silent. One more corner and– there!
Glimmers of moonlight fell across the hall, basting the group in shades of silver as they collectively slowed to a stop. The hall continued on, but what Laelynn was more concerned with was the large balcony to their right: only large columns separated it from the hall, and looking further she could see only a low rail separated it from what must be a great height. Laelynn barely noticed the others moving with her as she slowly stepped onto the balcony.
The air was sharper here, the chill of winter riding an even chiller wind, but it was fresh, more fresh than anything inside the mountain, and Laelynn relished the bite of it against her cheek. She stepped farther forward, and her foot brushed a chunk of rubble. Laelynn frowned, her eyes quickly sweeping the balcony. Her cursory glance revealed that it was not as perfect as first seemed: large sections of the rail, and in some cases the balcony itself were torn away, and underneath all their feet was rubble. On one of the worn balustrades a raven was perched, and Thorin was quietly conversing with it.
Laelynn roughly pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, counted to three, and looked again at the edge of the balcony. Thorin was still there, as was the raven. She sighed, adding it to the list of Things That Shouldn't Be Possible Yet Here We Are; the only creatures she knew of able to speak to humans were Acromantula and Jarveys, but the bird was obviously neither. Thorin spoke to the bird a few moments longer, before it flew away, a dark silhouette against the darker sky.
Except… the sky wasn't as dark as it first seemed: there was a red glow in the distance, lightening it. Laelynn walked to Bilbo, who was sitting at the end of the balcony, his head in his hands. "You ok?" she asked him.
Bilbo jolted terribly, twisting to face her with a squeak. "Wha– oh. Yes, I'm fine," he said. Laelynn frowned, but the horizon caught her eye again.
"Do you suppose that's the sunrise?" she asked him, pointing with two fingers towards the red glow. Bilbo turned to look, squinting.
"I…" he hesitated. "Thorin?" he called instead. Thorin turned, walking over with a pensive frown on his face. "Which side of the mountain are we on?" Bilbo asked, his voice shaking slightly.
"The south side," Thorin answered. Bilbo's face lost all colour. He swayed on his feet, and Laelynn quickly held him steady.
"Bilbo!" she cried, "What is it?"
He swallowed roughly, and his eyes met hers before sweeping past to the horizon. "That's not the sunrise," he said, eyes moving to meet Thorin's. "It's Smaug. Laketown is burning."
Dun dun dun! A new chapter for you all, because I just finished the One Marathon to Rule Them All: all 6 films, extended editions, of LotR and the Hobbit, and it was amazing! It's gotten me into a Tolkien mood, so I'm going to try and use it while I can to get more of the story written.
I know I said I'd get the bit about it being Laelynn's creation/birthday in? Yeah, it' not quite happening this chapter, but rest assured it will be in the next.
I don't think anything needs clarifying, but if you want me to go into more detail on anything, remember, I am always open to comments and will always try to clarify. Anyway, the next chapter should be out by mid-March, but here's hoping.