Chapter 38:

I woke up just a few hours later to find complete panic - it was kind of ridiculous how much the dwarves looked like chickens with their heads cut off as they ran around screeching.

I groaned and sat up, throwing everything together on autopilot as I assessed the situation. "Get inside the tunnel, idiots!" I yelled, and even as the dwarves shouted at each other, they moved to obey. I smirked as we all crowded in there, checking to make sure that Moonshadow and Rory were there as well, which they were.

"Close the door!" yelled Bilbo from behind me. Fili, last in, dawdled and only when a huge roar came up from seemingly right outside the door, did he close it.

Immediately, silence feel completely and darkness settled all around us. The only noises were muffled roars from outside and the panting of all of us. We slowly lowered ourselves into a loose circle, more like a clump, of sitting adventurers, with our now-very-few provisions in the centre of us.

There was another very loud roar, and Thorin ordered everybody up again. "If this is to end in fire, we shall all burn together," he announced in a low growl.

And so off we ran, all of us, down into the treasure room where Smaug waited.

Thorin motioned at us to split up into groups - I was in the group that went over the bridge towards the forges, with Thorin leading us. Just as we reached the centre of the stone path, all of my senses stood on end, the back of my neck tingling. I looked straight up, and saw him.

He was truly an incredible creature, with such intelligence in his golden eyes that I had never seen in any other beast. They were full of malice, though, and I struggled to understand why there was one on each side of his head - that was a characteristic of prey, not of the most predatory creature of all time. Each one of his scales was perfectly maroon-red, except for his belly, which was a lighter colour. No one could really tell what it was, as it had been so encrusted with jewels and treasure. Every single one of his spines on his head shifted according to his mood, I could tell. For instance, when he was miffed I had noticed that they rippled. Angry, they flattened completely against his skull. Sly and sneaking (which was nearly always) and they swiveled like cat ears, apparently catching sound for him.

He noticed me staring at him as his great head reared up over the edge of the bridge, where he watched the dwarves with faint amusement. His mouth cracked in a terrible smile as he beheld me. "Hello again, Daughter of Magic," he growled playfully.

I came to my senses. "Run!" I shouted, and all of the dwarves jumped and then began sprinting, and Smaug began spewing fire again.

We all sprinted into the forges, and Balin shouted, "It's no use! We can't heat these furnaces! They're stone cold. We haven't even got fire!"

Thorin turned back to look at the oncoming dragon. "Oh, I think we have fire," he replied. He strode to the edge, then looked directly at Smaug. "You are getting slow in your old age. Worm! Slug!"

The dragon bellowed, and fire boiled forward. Thorin yelled desperately, "Take cover!"

I was roughly grabbed by a hand on my shoulder and shoved into a pillar, similar ones of which the dwarves hid behind as the flame roared passed us, lighting the forges to a blazing inferno.

I let out a gasp from where my chest was pressed against the now-warm stone, and I heard an apologetic swear behind me - Kili. Of course it was.

He spun me around as I heard Smaug give a great scream in anger, the sound ripping out of his throat as he realized what he had done. "You saved my life," I whispered as the other dwarves ran around, causing a huge clamour as Smaug banged his head against the pillars, fighting to get in.

"Yes," replied Kili distractedly. "And now we must get out of here."

I spotted the other dwarves streaming out, while Thorin was on a wheelbarrow, floating on the little stream of lava.

We sprinted after the other dwarves and somehow ended up in a huge cavern - The throne room? I wondered. Thorin led us up to the top of a huge mound of rock, and directed dwarves to hold huge chains. I cried out softly as my foot slipped, and Kili's hand caught mine before I had slid more than an inch. I winced as I climbed to my feet again, my left knee and palm scraped and bleeding.

Thorin, oblivious, situated himself on a shoulder-looking part of the hunk of rock. Not long later, Smaug came stomping in. He looked around, seemingly smelling for us.

Thorin stepped into his view, and shouted at him. I watched, but didn't listen, perched on the ledge behind the rock.

Suddenly, all of the dwarves pulled heavily on the gigantic chains, and the rock seemed to explode - revealing a shining, golden statue of a dwarf king beneath. Suddenly overcome with the need to stand on it (don't ask), I leaped forward, my cloak billowing behind me as I landed on the opposite shoulder as Thorin. Suddenly, without my previous knowledge, the statue exploded into molten gold, falling forward into a trough that was in the floor.

With a high-pitched scream, I threw myself off of the melting statue and accidentally landed on Smaug.

He was submerged in gold, and I felt the gold close over my body, and I immediately began murmuring in Elvish - "Impervious, impervious, impervious, impervious..."

Suddenly, the gold beneath me exploded, and I clung on as a gold-covered dragon reared from the trough of gold. I dug my fingers into the scales on his back, terrified, as he clomped over to the great opening in the Mountain, then threw himself into the air, spinning to throw the gold off. It fell to the ground in beautiful, shimmering droplets, although I didn't really notice. I was clinging to a dragon that was doing a freaking barrel-roll, my belly and chest pressed against his back, my legs clenched on either side of him as if he were a galloping Moonshadow.

He finally stopped, and I resisted the urge to barf as I sat up, still holding on desperately. I watched in despair as Laketown seemed to become closer. Suddenly, a fire started up beneath my breastbone, causing my blood to boil and a red mist to settle over my vision.

I carefully slid down over Smaug's side, where I gripped his hard, sharp scales desperately, trying not to fall off. I did a sort of sideways monkey-bar technique to work my way across the dragon's underside, finally finding the place where there was the good-sized chink in his armor.

I stuck the toes of my boots between scales, my left hand's fingers screaming as I released my right hand to reach behind my shoulder to unsheath Ripplescale. It came out with the sound of metal grinding against leather, and I winced, positive that Smaug would hear it.

And hear it he did. I caught a glimpse of his head looking down between his forelegs, and then there was an unecessary amount of pressure on me (goddamn G-forces) as he flipped over in midair, so that he was flying forward but his belly was up. His head wasn't even facing our destination - it was curled towards me in a position that looked very uncomfortable, especially while flying.

"Um. Hi?" I tried for a smile, releasing his belly scales with my left hand to waggle my fingers at him in a wave.

"Hello again, Daughter of Magic," he said lazily. "How would you like to die?"

-DUN DUN DUN- MWAHAHAHA.