Outofthisworldgal – I want to try and make it so that nothing will happen between them both. Yes things will be tense and awful for a while, but I think Sophia and Aiden have already gone through enough with one violent man in their life, they don't need the man of their future to be the same with them. Besides, Aiden has already come so far, I can't allow him to go back into his shell around Thorin.
Memo – I'm aiming for it. They've already gone through so much and deserve some happiness, as does Thorin. xx
DivineHazex (for chapter 10) – No, you're review wasn't harsh at all, I accept constructive critism. Don't worry, you're not the first to point out that Sophia doesn't seem too worried or anything about Aiden. The only excuse I can come up with is that I'm not a mother myself and that there hasn't been much more chances to put anything in for them to have moments but those will come. I do hope you continue to read and enjoy this story despite this. xx
DivineHazex (for chapter 13) - I feel as though my writing has improved in the last few years never mind chapters lol, if you had read anything I had written when I first started writing, you wouldn't have enjoyed them as much, my writing was terrible. xx
FlowerChild23 – I know, so do I xx
DivineHazex – Sometimes it's hard to write anything different that is based on movies or books, so I have to try my best to work around it, hopefully input some things of my own and hope it all comes together well.
Smaug in Laketown
After seeing the dragon approaching them, the townspeople frantically paddle their loaded boats through the canals, others hurrying to pack their essentials. Tauriel watches the sky ominously; with her elf-hearing, she can hear Smaug approaching and roaring. Suddenly, a huge shadow swoops overhead. Smaug has arrived.
Tauriel enters Bard's house and prepares the dwarves, Aiden and Bard's family to leave.
"We have no time. We must leave!"
Bofur to the blond dwarf. "Get him up."
Fili helps Kili. "Come on, brother."
"Come on, come on! Let's go."
"I'm fine - I can walk." Kili says stubbornly as he pulls away from his brother.
"Here, lad, get this on." Oin says to Aiden as he helps the lad into his coat.
"As fast as you can." Tauriel says as she helps Sigrid with Tilda.
Bain walks over to the elf. "We're not leaving. Not without our father."
"If you stay here, your sisters will die." she then turns to the older boy. "Is that what your father would want?"
After a few moments, Bain agrees with her before helping to get ready to leave. Not long after, Tauriel, the dwarves, and the children get on a boat under the house.
"Give me your hand." Fili says as he helps the girls on.
Bofur also helps everyone on. "Come on, we gotta go!"
"Quickly now! Hurry!" Tauriel calls out as she gets on and stands at the front.
Fili looks back to the house after lifting Aiden into the boat. "Kili, come on!"
Kili rushes over and gets into the boat, wrapping an arm around Aiden as he sits next to the lad.
They set off down the canal, Fili and Bofur poling the boat through the floating chunks of ice. Smaug swoops low overhead, and the townspeople scream. Oin hovers over the girls, Aiden burying his head into Kili's chest as the dwarf holds him close.
Smaug soars high above and away from the town, then turns and dives steeply toward the town, building up fire in his chest. As he gets over the town, he unleashes his flames, and he breathes his fire in a line all the way across the town. People scream and fall and die in the inferno.
Smaug breathes fire over another section of the town; a man, on fire, falls out of his house and into the water. People are trampling each other in their efforts to escape the dragon and the fire.]
"Look out!" Bain suddenly yells.
They look up in time to see the Master's boat colliding with theirs, causing the girls and Aiden to scream in fear. Tauriel glares up at the men as they manage to push their boats apart.
Back at the Lonely Mountain, we all watch the town burning in the lake.
"Poor souls." I hear Balin mutter.
I've been standing, just watching, with a blank face, not wanting to break down in front of the others, but Balin's words finally break me as I fall to my knees and cry into my hands. My boy. . .my poor little boy. . .I thought he would be safe there, we'd kill the dragon and I would have my son in my arms once again soon after, but now. . .I've basically condemned my son to death by sending the dragon to them.
Feeling someone kneel next to me, I look up to see Dwalin wrapping an arm around my shoulders, a sad look on his face. I am surprised at his compassion, but don't send it away and bury my head into him as I cry.
Tauriel, the dwarves and the children continue along the canal, the town burning around them. Kili continues to hold Aiden close to him as the boy looks at the devastation around him, the buildings crumbling down and the bodies that litter the walkways, the smell of smoke and burning flesh reaching them all. Aiden buries his head into Kili as he cries.
"I want my mom."
Kili makes soothing noises to him as he rubs the boy's back. "I know Aiden, you'll see her soon, I promise."
"Da!" Bain suddenly calls out.
Looking up, everyone sees him on a tower, shooting arrows at the dragon.
"DA!" Tilda screams out.
As they watch, Bard shoots yet another arrow, harmlessly hitting the dragon.
"He hit it! He hit the dragon!" Kili yells.
Tauriel shakes her head. "No. . ."
"He did! He hit his mark, I saw!"
"His arrows cannot pierce its hide; I fear nothing will."
Bain looks down disconsolately, then suddenly looks up as he notices the state of the Master of Laketown, and below it, the boat in which he'd hidden the Black Arrow his father had asked him to keep safe just hours ago. Bain's face turns to a determined look. As their boat passes under a hanging hook, Bain leaps up and grabs it, swinging clear of the boat.
"What are you doing?!"
"Come back! Bain, come back!"
Bofur and Fili yell out as they try to grab him.
Bain uses the hook and the crane it is attached to to swing to the dock, from where he runs toward the boat with the Black Arrow.
Tauriel holds an arm out across the girls. "Leave him! We cannot go back!"
"Bain!" Tilda cries out as she watches her brother run off.
We are all startled by a loud rumbling and the ground shaking a little. Everyone jumps up in surprise.
"What was that? What happened?" Ori asks.
Bilbo stands next to me by the edge "It fell. I saw it."
We all peer out at the fiery town in the early morning light.
"It's dead. Smaug is dead!"
"By my beard! I think he's right! Look there!" Gloin exclaims.
Looking around, I can see and hear ravens flying by and cawing away.
"The ravens of Erebor are returning to the mountain!"
Balin smiles. "Aye - Word will spread. Before long every soul in Middle-earth will know - The dragon is dead!"
The dwarves laugh and cheer in glee. I turn back to the town, not uttering a sound, how can I be happy about anything? I can't relax or join in on any celebrations until I know for certain whether my boy survived. . .whether he comes back to me.
It is early morning when Tauriel, the dwarves and Aiden finally reach the banks where the survivors are. Once they are out of the boat, the children immediately shout out for Bard, Tauriel helping them to look for him. The dwarves find another boat, a smaller one, which they will use to get to the other side of the lake to get to the mountain.
As Fili, Bofur, Oin and Aiden get the boat prepared, Kili walks over to Tauriel.
"Tauriel."
"Kili, come on! We're leaving." Fili calls back to him.
"They are your people - You must go."
Tauriel looks at Kili both sadly and guardedly, then walks past him. Kili looks distraught for a second, then whirls around to face her again.
"Come with me. I know how I feel; I'm not afraid. You make me feel alive."
Tauriel turns her head away.
"I can't."
Kili reaches out and grabs her arm, then says something in Dwarvish.
"Tauriel, amralime."
Hearing this, Tauriel looks at Kili, shocked and surprised.
"I don't know what that means."
Kili smiles. "I think you do."
Tauriel smiles and begins to lean toward Kili, but then suddenly straightens up and makes her face blank. She addresses Legolas, whom she sensed approaching behind her.
"Hîr nín, Legolas."
Kili looks with hostility over Tauriel's shoulder at Legolas.
"Maewado i Naug." Legolas says, looking to the dwarf with the same hostility. "Boe i nadh egeno."
Tauriel looks at Kili for a few more seconds, then, torn by her duty, begins to turn away. Kili sadly turns towards the others launching the boat. He suddenly pauses, then turns around and hurries back to Tauriel. He takes her hand and places his black stone into it, folding her fingers closed over it. She gasps and looks at him as he gets close to her face and holds her hands to his heart.
"Keep it. As a promise."
They smile at each other, then Kili runs toward the boat. Legolas looks on, confused. Tauriel looks down at the stone in her hand. then looks after Kili and the dwarves in the boat; her eyes are wet. Kili looks back at her for several moments, then begins rowing.
The dwarves and Aiden reach the other end of the shore later that afternoon and then spend the next few days walking along towards the Lonely Mountain, only stopping at night to sleep, their spirits kept high by Aiden running around with Kili chasing after him.
As they finally approach the gates, they stop in shock and fear as they see the destruction caused by Smaug as he smashed through the front gate to fly out of the mountain. They look at each other, then run into the halls of Erebor, Aiden holding tightly to Fili's hand.
"Hello! Bombur? Bifur? Anybody?" Bofur calls out, his voice echoing.
They clamber through the halls, looking for their kin, Aiden beginning to worry if his mother is still alive. As they run down a staircase, they hear a voice calling out from another part of the city, moving towards them.
"WAIT! WAIT!"
"Bilbo! It's Bilbo!" Aiden calls out happily.
The hobbit runs around a corner towards them, Aiden refrains from hugging him after seeing the panic on his face.
"Stop! Stop! Stop! You need to leave. We all need to leave."
"We only just got here?!" Bofur points out in confusion.
"I have tried talking to him, but he won't listen."
"What do you mean, laddie?" Oin asks.
"THORIN!" The dwarves and Aiden jump a little at his shout. "Thorin. Thorin. He's been out there for days. He doesn't sleep. He barely eats. He's not been himself - not at all. It's this - It's this place. I think a sickness lies on it."
As Bilbo speaks, Fili looks past him and sees something that causes him to wrinkle his face in consternation.
"Sickness? What kind of sickness?" Kili asks, looking at everyone before his gaze lands on Fili.
Fili says nothing as he walks past the group and starts heading further down into Erebor, looking at something. Bilbo and the others run after him, trying to stop him.
"Fili. Fili. Fili!"
As they continue heading down, a golden light begins to be visible on the walls. They round a corner, and stop short at the sight of Smaug's treasure, heaped so high over the floor of the cavern that the ground is barely visible. Aiden looks around in awe, having only seeing this much gold in cartoons.
"Gold."
At the soft voice, they all look down to see Thorin dressed in ornate robes and covered in jewellery, stride slowly out of a doorway. Aiden goes to run to him, happy to see his father figure, but Fili holds him back, not liking what he sees in his uncle. He looks strange, almost possessed, and the dwarves look at him in surprise.
"Gold beyond measure. Beyond sorrow and grief."
Thorin looks up and sees the others standing there.
"Behold - the great treasure hoard of Thror."
He suddenly flings something high into the air to where the dwarves are standing on a stairwell landing, and Fili catches it. It is a giant blood red jewel.
"Welcome, my sister's sons, to the kingdom of EREBOR."
When Thorin walks off, Bilbo leads the others to where they had cleaned up a room for them to stay in. They walk in to see Balin and Dwalin at a table.
"Balin!" Bofur calls out.
The two dwarves look up and instantly grin as they see the dwarves and Aiden. Dwalin rushes over as the other dwarves rush over and welcome them back. Gloin and Oin hugging each other close and Bombur and Bifur going to Bofur. Aiden squeals as Dwalin lifts him, tossing him into the air a little before holding him.
"Where's my mommy?" Aiden asks Dwalin.
"Aiden?"
Everyone looks over to see Sophia standing at the top of the stairs, just staring at her son in shock, worry and disbelief.
Well, there we have it, Aiden and the dwarves are now safe and sound in Erebor, or as safe and sound as they can get with Thorin and the gold sickness around at least. Please keep your lovely reviews coming and stay tuned next time xx
Translations;
Amralime – My love
Hir nin – My lord
Maewado i Naug. Boe i nadh egeno. - Take your leave of the Dwarf. You are needed elsewhere.