A/N: Alright kids, we're gonna jump right in, but I just wanted to warn you that there's a bit of Khuzdul in this chapter, translations can be found at the bottom :) Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Six

Brie tried to ignore Thorin's imperious scowl as Gloin did his best to clean the cut on her cheek.

"You're hurt," Thorin said, in a stubborn tone Brie had not heard since the Misty Mountains, "You shouldn't be down there."

Brie rolled her eyes, trying not to move her face as she did so.

"It's a scratch. I'm fine." She flinched as Gloin smeared a salve into the wound. "Ow! Green Mother, that smarts."

"The dragon will smell blood," Thorin continued, crossing his arms, "You'll be a liability."

"If the dragon is down there, he will smell us whether I'm bleeding or not," Brie countered, batting away Gloin's attempts to bandage her up. "I'm not letting Bilbo go alone. It's the whole reason I came in the first place!"

"Things change."

"Not this."

Brie met Thorin's glare with one of her own and the clearing fell eerily silent. Finally Thorin snorted.

"Suit yourself."

He turned and stomped off to the edge of the clearing, glaring moodily out at the darkened landscape as the breeze ruffled his hair in majestic waves. Which only served to make Brie angrier.

"He's not wrong, you know."

Brie whirled to fix her glare on Nori, leaning against the rock wall. He met her eyes without any sign of intimidation.

"You shouldn't be down there if you're hurt."

"I'm not hurt!" Brie snapped, and winced at the sting. Nori continued to stare pointedly. She gritted her teeth and refused to look away.

Finally, he sighed and folded down onto his knees, taking her hands in his and pressing their brows together.

"Lu hassu hassê;

Ak kurdû kurdê;

Ammâ baraf,

Hararsi."

Brie shut her eyes tight to keep tears from forming. He was repeating the words they had spoken when his family had taken them in: agnâtu-ihrêr, the vow of belonging.

"And if you think I'm gonna let you die down there," he said, his voice going low and dangerous, nearly a growl, "you are sadly mistaken, sweet."

Brie could not help it. She laughed, a little huff through the unshed tears in the back of her throat.

"Oh Nori," she whispered, taking his face in her hands, "Brave, kind Nori, thief of my heart. You cannot steal me away from this."

"Maybe not," he said, sitting back so he could look her squarely in the eye, his expression wild and slightly dangerous, "But at the first sign of trouble, any at all, and don't think I won't go charging in after you, dragon be damned. I may not be a prince… or a king…" His eyes flicked to Thorin and away again. "But I'm as capable of saving a damsel from a dragon as anyone, just see if I'm not."

There was no use arguing with him. So Brie merely smiled and touched his face, letting her fingers linger on the lavender braid still dangling from his beard.

"Of course, you are," she said, "I never doubted it."

She would have to rely on Dori to save Nori from himself when the time came. If the time came.

"I wonder if I might have a moment, Miss Baggins?"

Brie and Nori both looked up, surprised. Balin stood with his hands behind his back, rocking on the balls of his feet in the only sign of anxiety Brie thought she had ever seen from the old dwarf. She dropped her hand from Nori's face.

"Of course, Balin."

The older dwarf gave Nori a significant look and her new brother got to his feet and ambled off. Brie got to her feet and dusted her trousers before turning a smile to Balin.

"Now, what can I do for you, Balin?" she asked.

The older dwarf still had his hands clasped formally behind him, his chin tucked into his white beard, and he did not meet her eyes as he rocked back and forth. This was odd. Balin had never seemed so unnerved before.

"I know we're asking you for the impossible," he said finally, "But, if I could beg one more favor of…? That is, if you don't mind… Would you speak to Dwalin? Before you go?"

Brie blinked. That hadn't been anything like what she'd expected at all.

"Well... I mean, of course if... But, why? I don't understand."

Balin's shoulders relaxed a little and he finally smiled at her, reaching out to run his fingers down the long sturdy braid that hung over her shoulder.

"Do you know why Dwalin braids your hair?"

Brie furrowed her brow, even more confused now than when she had started.

"Well... I suppose because he likes to? He's very good at it, considering he's got none but his beard and even that..."

"He braids your hair because it reminds him of our mother."

All the words evaporated from Brie's throat, leaving behind only a memory of Rivendell, crystal clear and bright, as if it had happened yesterday rather than a lifetime ago.

"Your mother must have been a great lady..." Dwalin had said, "It is a privilege to occupy a place in your mind that holds her memory."

"Our mother was already old when she brought Dwalin into the world," Balin said, "Khajamulê, she called him, the gift of her age, and they were nigh on inseparable. She taught him to fight and to forge. When she got stone-sickness..."

"Stone-sickness?" Brie asked.

"It's a disease of the bones," Balin explained, "Prevalent in some dwarf families. Our joints stiffen as we get older, until they can't be bent anymore, usually starting with the fingers. At least, that's where it started for our mother. And when it got so she could no longer braid her hair..."

"Dwalin did it for her," Brie breathed.

"Every day," Balin nodded, "Even the day she died. She was returned to the stone with her son's tears woven into her braids."

Brie felt light-headed and she reached for the nearest boulder to steady her.

"Oh Balin," she whispered, "I... I didn't know."

Balin took her shoulders in his hands and held her upright, his face solemn and sincere.

"It has been my privilege, Miss Baggins, to witness the joy you have brought back into my brother's life. I could never repay you for it, not if I had all the gold and jewels in the world. But if this is to be the last..."

Balin's voice broke.

"I'll speak to him," Brie said, "I promise. I was going to anyway, I couldn't bear to leave without saying… I just…"

Balin took a step closer and gently touched his forehead to hers. Brie could barely breathe.

"Thank you, Briallen," he whispered, "For everything."

Dwalin was sitting alone at the far edge of the clearing, sharpening one of his axes. He did not even look up as Brie approached him.

"Aye, lass, were you needing something?" he asked.

Brie didn't answer him. Instead, she gently took the axe from his hand, set it on the ground, then took his surprised face in her hands and gently pressed her brow to his. She closed her eyes, but despite her best efforts a single tear escaped to trail down her face. Dwalin's hands, hands as strong and as gentle as his heart, reached up to cradle her face (careful of the cut that still lingered on her cheek) and Brie let out a shuddering breath she hadn't known she was holding.

"It's alright, lass," he whispered, "It's gonna be alright."

She nodded, but still she did not answer. It took her several moments before she felt like she could form the words without breaking.

"Your mother..." she whispered.

Dwalin sighed, but did not pull away. "You spoke to Balin."

"He spoke to me," Brie corrected. She opened her eyes and looked into Dwalin's brown ones, so dark they were almost black. "It has been a privilege to occupy a place in your mind that holds her memory."

Something glistened painfully in those dark eyes, but he blinked it away and set his jaw, his fingers flexing gently on her face.

"Come back to us, lass," he whispered fiercely, "Come back to us."

Brie smiled.

"I will do my best."

Dwalin grinned and there was a glint in his eye that was not from tears.

"Do better."

The Baggins twins stood together at the mouth of the tunnel, peering through the open doorway into the dark.

"Well." Bilbo said.

"Well." Brie agreed.

Bilbo gave her a glance that she caught at the corner of her eye and she cut him off before he could even open his mouth.

"Don't start. I'm going and that's that."

Bilbo's mouth shut and he turned his eyes back to the tunnel. The ends of his lavender ribbon fluttered in his hair and Brie sighed, tucking them back behind his ear.

"We're going to be alright," she said, smiling at him despite the cold thrumming through her veins, "Together or not at all, remember?"

He smiled too and tugged at the braid by her ear.

"Yeah," he said, "Together or not at all."

Then, on unspoken agreement, they stepped over the threshold and padded on silent feet along the smooth stone corridor, sloping down into the depths of the mountain. At the first turn, Brie looked back. The dwarves were crowded around the doorway, watching them go with a mixture of scowls and frowns and fretting. She caught Thorin's eye. He looked away. Brie passed beyond the corner and did not look back again.

The treasure room was enormous.

Brie had imagined that finding one stone in a mountain might be a bit more difficult than Balin had made it sound, but this was absurd! She wasn't even certain they would be able to find their way back, if they wandered too far. It wasn't just one heap of treasure, it was an endless sea of shimmering gold and fractured light, rising and falling in swells and valleys that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"This is preposterous," she grumbled, carefully toeing her way forward over a mound of shifting coins that rattled and chimed in a cascade wherever she placed her weight, "We're more likely to be buried in our own missteps than…"

There was a clatter and she dropped to a crouch, heart hammering in her chest, her eyes searching. Bilbo had a hand out to the shimmering avalanche that he seemed to have created, and Brie could hear his useless shushing and fussing as the metal came to a slow halt once more. The cavernous room rang with the echoes for a moment and then fell silent. Brie held her breath.

Nothing.

She exhaled and put her face in her hands, nearly weeping with uselessness of it all. Why were they even here? For a jewel? Yes, risking their lives for some silly rock, so that Thorin Oakenshield could claim his right rule over the rest of these silly rocks! It was ridiculous. Anyone with eyes could see that Thorin was a king. She'd known it the moment he'd stepped through her door, and hobbits didn't even have kings!

"Ridiculous," she repeated aloud, struggling with a large round object (a shield, perhaps?) that appeared to be covering something shiny beneath it. "Totally, absolutely, ridicu-"

The shield came free with a jerk that sent Brie rolling down a hill of gold in a shower of glittering coins and jewels. The sound was enormous, ringing in her ears long after it should have stopped. She rolled off a small ledge and struggled to her feet, trying to avoid being buried beneath the tremendous weight of the treasure that was sliding toward her in an inexorable heap. She opened her mouth to cry out for her brother… and had to close it again to prevent a scream.

The triangular head was still half buried in the mountain of gold, but she could see the red scales gleaming dully against the glittering shimmer. The lidded eye was larger than both Brie and Bilbo put together, and Bilbo was standing right in front of it, clearly frozen in terror. There was an explosion of sound and gold shot away from a long, scaled snout, revealing nostrils as large as Bombur was around, which was considerable. A giggle tried to bubble up Brie's throat and she clapped a hand over her mouth to suppress the hysteria. She could not lose her wits.

The dragon's head shifted, and Bilbo went fleeing down the mountain of coins, gold rattling and sliding in his wake. There was a shift on the other side of the room and Brie nearly shrieked as the enormous tail of the dragon came into view. The sheer length of… Brie's mind went terrifyingly blank. Though she was seeing it with her own two eyes, she could not fathom it.

The head shifted again and Bilbo dropped where he stood behind a swell in the treasure. He locked eyes with Brie and his face screwed up with determination as the head lifted over him, the eye still shut as if resisting the need to be roused from sleep. Bilbo made a sharp downward gesture… and then he was gone, blinked out of existence as if he had never been. Brie regained enough presence of mind to drop below the slight ledge just as the great golden eye of the dragon slid open. Brie scrunched up into a tight ball, pressing both hands to her mouth to muffle her panicked breathing.

"Well, Thief," The dragon's dark voice rumbled through the room with the timbre of thunder. "I smell you. I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you?"

The gold shifted over Brie and air moved in great gusts as the dragon stalked through the room. Brie shut her eyes tight, trembling. Bilbo was out there. Even his invisibility wouldn't save him for long, stuck upon a mountain of sliding gold where even the slightest movement might give him away. What were they going to do? Steeling herself, Brie peeked over the ledge. There was a disturbance of the coins in Bilbo's last location and Smaug's head turned. The coins tinkled pell mell down the slope, following what Brie knew had to be the line of her brother's flight. The dragon moved with surprising speed, but abruptly the coins ceased their tumble. Smaug began his slow, patient search again.

"Come now, don't be shy," he purred, "Step into the light!"

Brie dropped again behind the ledge as the huge head turned toward her. Her whole body was shaking, but she remained where she was. She could not run, no matter how much she wanted to. If she moved, even an inch, the dragon would see her.

"Mmm, there is something about you... Something you carry."

There was a hum in the air, not a sound precisely, but a feeling. It felt like… like magic, but not the magic that surrounded Imladris, or even the kêlur'abani that she had felt in the stone beneath Thorin's hand. This was darker, and far more powerful. Brie's teeth ached from it.

"Something made of gold..." the dragon rumbled and the hum increased. Brie squeezed her eyes shut. "But far... more... precious..."

Bilbo!

"You have found me out, oh Smaug, the unequivocally clever!" Brie shouted, leaping to her feet.

The dragon's head turned toward her and the coins just by his head shifted slightly, then went still. Smaug didn't seem to notice. He skimmed across the gold hoard with a surprising speed and grace until he was nearly upon her, his golden eye gleaming.

"Ah, so that's where you've been hiding, Thief in the Shadows."

Brie swallowed past the lump in her throat.

"Truly, I did not come to steal from you, oh Smaug, the... unassessably wealthy," she said, her voice far more steady than she would have thought possible. "I merely wanted to gaze upon your magnificence, to see if you really were as great as the old tales say. I did not believe them."

Brie cringed at the squeak in her voice, but the dragon merely grinned (if that horrible toothy monstrosity could be called a grin) and slid away, so quickly that Brie's eyes almost could not follow him. He slithered to the top of a swell of treasure, then reared back on his hind legs and spread his great wings. The gold and jewels wedged in his scales glistened in the faint light of the cavern.

"And do you now?!" the dragon roared and if Brie had not already been convinced of the dragon's magnificence, she thought that now she would have been.

"Truly," she said, "the tales and songs... fall utterly short of your enormity, oh Smaug, the stupendous."

This seemed to please the dragon. He lowered himself and turned his head to get another good look at her.

"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?"

"No."

But she did hope it would keep Bilbo alive. Keep the beast distracted long enough for her brother to escape, to get to the others, to let them live. If she could just keep the dragon occupied long enough for Bilbo to get away, they might all yet live.

Nori...

"...if you think I'm gonna let you die down there..."

Dwalin...

"Come back to us, lass. Come back to us."

Thorin... Oh, Thorin...

Brie closed her eyes and held back the tears that threatened.

"No indeed," Smaug said, curling himself lazily around a pillar, "You seem familiar with my name, but I don't remember smelling your kind before. Who are you, and where do you come from, may I ask?"

Brie's eyes opened. She was still alive? She had thought… but it didn't matter what she thought, what mattered was that Smaug was looking at her as if he expected an answer. A curious dragon… Could something be made of that?

"I... I come from..."

Smaug rumbled and moved toward her eagerly. She cringed and the gold shifted under her as he moved. That's when she saw it. A white gem, no bigger than a goose egg and glowing with its own light, as pure and lovely as she'd ever seen. Brie was not much for gemstones, but even she had to admit, it was beautiful.

"You'll know it when you see it…"

Balin's words echoed back to her in a flash and she knew. The Arkenstone. She was looking at the Arkenstone.

Smaug rumbled and Brie jumped.

"I come from under the hill!" she cried, stumbling back, but keeping the jewel just in the corner of her eye.

This seemed to perplex and intrigue the dragon.

"Underhill?"

"And... and under hills and over hills my path has led," Brie said, still talking, if she could just keep talking... "And through the air! I have flown with eagles and walked with bears."

"Impressive," Smaug said, pulling back a trifle as he considered her words, "What else do you claim to be?"

Riddles. She wasn't spouting nonsense. It was riddles, and really this was much more her brother's area, but she would have to make do. The Arkenstone still lay within her sight. She started edging her way forward.

"I have been Wolfsbane... and Warg-slayer."

"Fearsome titles," the dragon said, with a what might have been a hint of contempt, "Go on."

Brie edged forward another step and thought of Bilbo, making his way through the mountains of gold, through the tunnels, to safety.

"I am she who never walks alone, for where I go my heart goes with me."

"Ah..." The dragon said swarming down from his perch and encircling her, "Now, that is interesting! So your little dwarf friends, they remain in your heart do they, even as they skulk about outside?"

Brie froze, inches from Smaug's snout. She could feel his breath like a hot furnace, almost hot enough to scorch her where she stood.

Think, Brie, think!

"Dwarves?" she squeaked, "Oh... no, I'm afraid you are mistaken, oh Smaug, chiefest and greatest of calamities."

She would have to thank Bofur, if she ever saw him again.

"Oh, I don't think so, warg-slayer," Smaug rumbled, spitting the title at her like a curse, "I know the smell and taste of dwarf. None better! And you reek of it! It is the gold! They are drawn to treasure like flies to dead flesh and they sent you in here to do their dirty work! Did you think I did not know this day would come, when a pack of canting dwarves would come crawling back to the mountain?!"

The dragon roared and charged wildly, his legs and tail thrashing. Brie screamed and tumbled from the treasure mound, rolling to the bottom and scrambling for cover in the crevice of a large pillar. Bilbo… She hoped he was far away by now, perhaps already out of the hidden door, urging the dwarves to flee, telling Thorin…

"It's Oakenshield," the dragon hissed, and Brie's heart leapt to her throat, "That filthy, dwarvish usurper! He sent you for the Arkenstone, didn't he?"

Brie felt the knot in her gut freeze solid.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't bother denying it," Smaug growled in disgust, "I guessed his foul purpose some time ago. But it matters not. The King under the Mountain is dead; I took his throne. I ate his people like a wolf among sheep. And though his heir sends Wolfsbane to destroy me, I am no mere pup! I kill where I wish, when I wish. My armor is iron. No blade can pierce me!"

She made a break for the stairway just as Smaug's tail smashed into the pillar where she had been hiding. She skidded down the glittering slope, but the thrashing of the enraged dragon turned the becalmed sea of gold into an undulating storm of waves and troughs. It spit her wildly into the air and she landed hard on the stone floor.

"What did he promise you?" Smaug roared, "A share of the treasure? As if it was his to give! I will not part with a single coin. Not one piece of it!"

"What need have I for treasure?" Brie snapped, a little affronted that he thought she was so easily bought, "I am not like you, my heart is not tied to possessions and trinkets!"

"And what is your heart tied to I wonder?" the dragon purred, slithering through the gold, his neck outstretched. Brie scrambled in among the pillars that held the stairway aloft, hoping the shadows might hide her.

"Aahh," he rumbled, "I see now. You care about him."

Brie shuddered and shut her eyes, hugging her knees to her chest.

"What did you think? Bring him the prize and perhaps buy his affection? You can't possibly believe he could ever care for you more than he cares for that stone."

Brie opened her eyes and there it was, just out of reach, gleaming in its own light as pure as any star in the night sky. It was beautiful. Too beautiful. And it meant so much to Thorin...

"You have been used, Thief in the shadows," Smaug rumbled above her, "You were only ever a means to an end. The coward Oakenshield has weighed the value of your life and found it worth nothing."

"No," Brie said, "You're lying."

The dragon rumbled again and Brie realized he was laughing. Her blood ran cold and she clenched her fingers into shaking fists. She darted out from beneath the stairway, snatching for the glimmering stone, but before her fingers could close around it, the dragon swooped out of the air, a single beat of his great wings blowing her over and slamming her into a pile of treasure. She rolled back to her feet, but the dragon was there, crouched like a large, scaly cat, tail twitching, the Arkenstone gleaming between them. He followed her gaze and opened his jaws in another toothy grin.

"I am almost tempted to let you take it," he said, "If only to see Oakenshield suffer. Watch it destroy him. Corrupt his heart, and drive him mad."

The knot in Brie's stomach clenched. The dragon was a liar, she could tell that as well as anything. But… what had her father always said?

At the heart of every good lie is a grain of truth...

"But I think not," Smaug said, sitting back and spreading his wings wide, "I think our little game ends here. So tell me, Thief, how do you choose to die?"

Too late. There was nowhere to run. As Smaug drew back his head and the scales of his chest began to glow, Brie let the ice of the river course through her, give her the strength to stand her ground and face what came, all thought of escape gone from her mind. She had done her best to give the others a chance. She hoped it was enough.

I'm sorry, Thorin.

The ground rumbled and Nori was on his feet.

"I'm going after them."

Dwalin was on his feet too, snatching Nori's arm and pulling him back in a protective gesture that Nori resisted.

"Give them more time," Thorin heard himself say, though the words sounded very far away. He turned so the others could not see his face and shut his eyes as the ground shook again.

"Time to do what?" Balin snapped and that was strange. Balin did not usually snap, not even at Thorin. "To be killed?"

Thorin suppressed a shudder, buried it deep down inside him, beneath his honor, his duty, his pride…

"You're afraid," he snarled and the older dwarf took a step back from him. That wasn't right either. Balin had never stepped back, had never cowered in his life, not in the face of orc, nor warg, nor dragon.

"Yes, I am afraid," he said, matching Thorin's glare with one of his own, "I fear for you. A sickness lies upon that treasure hoard, a sickness that drove your grandfather mad!"

Thorin flinched and turned away again. "I am not my grandfather."

"You're certainly not yourself," Balin countered, "The Thorin I knew would not hesitate to go in there and-"

"I will not risk this quest on the lives of two burglars!"

There was a long pause.

"Is that all she is to you, Thorin?" Balin asked, quietly, "A burglar?"

He closed his eyes and bunched his fists. He was shaking.

"Thorin?"

Balin's voice sounded like it was coming down a long tunnel. He couldn't breathe. She was going to die... Oh Mahal, she was going to die!

The ground pitched beneath his feet and he was moving before he had put any thought to it. By the time he had gained the entrance to the hidden doorway he was running, running toward the glow and the rumble and the heat steadily burning hotter the further he went. The echoes of shouts and footsteps followed him down the passageway, but they were empty noise, drowned out by the sound of his own pounding heartbeat.

He could not let her die.

Briallen...

Mahal, he was such a fool.

A/N: I know. I'm the worst. #sorrynotsorry ;D

Khuzdul Translations

Lu hassu hassê- Not flesh of my flesh

Ak kurdû kurdê- But heart of my heart

Ammâ baraf- We are family

Hararsi- You belong

Agnâtu-ihrêr- vow of belonging

Khajamulê- gift of my age

Kêlur'abani- life from the stone