Chapter 6: Horrible by His Very Nature

"Maybe I've misjudged you."

Doja nodded noncommittally, not looking up from the food she was preparing. The statement was probably as close to an apology as she would get from the dwarf.

Vili leaned across the table and said in a low voice, "I'm not saying you're dumb or anything, but maybe a new set of eyes would help."

Not believing what she heard, she closed her eyes and asked for patience from her ancestors before she replied, "did you not hear me? One hundred and fifty-eight times! Over the last ten years!"

He made a patting motion with his hands, "calm down. I'm not saying you missed something, but I was raised here. Maybe…,"

She stopped him with a raised hand, "enough."

Wiping her hands on her apron, she marched out of the cell and called out, "okay, Smaug! You win. Come get this fool of a dwarf and take him back to whatever pit you found him."

With her hands on her hips, she waited as the gold below her rose in a mound before spilling off the sides of the dragon.

"So," Smaug hissed smugly, "you don't like the companion I brought for you?"

"No," she replied with a scowl. "I think you damaged him when you caught him. Gave him brain damage or something."

"No, that's just how dwarves are. Thick-headed, dim-witted, and short-sighted."

"Well, he's totally unacceptable," she said with a sniff. "Take him away."

"Very well," Smaug agreed, reaching for her unwilling guest.

Vili, though, dodged his grasp and his inside the cell.

"Wait!" he called out. "You're just going to let me go? Just like that?"

"Did I mention they weren't very smart?" Smaug asked Doja.

"What are you doing?" she asked the dwarf.

"Ask him," Vili ordered. "Go ahead. Ask him if he's just going to let me go."

That's when it dawned on her what Vili was asking. Turning back to the dragon, she asked, "exactly what do you plan to do with him?"

"Naïve little Halfling," Smaug chuckled, "surely you don't think I can just let him go, do you?"

"Well, yeah, I kind of do," she answered. "He's just a single dwarf. What harm can letting him go do?"

"He may be a single dwarf," Smaug lowered his head until his great eye was on the same level as hers. "But he was here spying and if I let him go, he will come back with hundreds, maybe thousands, of his kind, with the intent to take my treasure away from me."

"One," Vili said from the safety of the cell, "I was not spying. I just wanted to set foot on my homeland once again. And Two, it was our treasure first! This was our home. You are the murderer and thief!"

"And now that I have it, I intend to keep it!" Smaug snarled.

"So," Doja interjected before they started yelling insults at each other, "what exactly are you planning to do with Vili?"

"Fly as high as I can, then drop him."

"Smaug! That's horrible!"

"I'm a dragon, little Halfling," he said with a hint of pride. "We are horrible by our very nature."

"So, he's stuck here for the rest of his life? Just because I was lonely and wanted someone besides you to talk to?" she asked dejectedly.

"No," the dragon answered, making her head come up in surprise. "He will be stuck here for the rest of your life. Once you grow old and die, I will have no need for him."

Doja paled at the statement but knew Smaug was telling her the truth.

"Then I change my mind. He can stay."

"Hey," Vili protested from behind her, "don't I get a say in the matter?"

"No!" Smaug and Doja said at the same time.

After Smaug had buried himself once again, Vili left the shelter of the cell and joined Doja on the ledge.

"Did you really think he was just going to let me go?" he asked her.

"He's right," she sighed, "I am naïve. I honestly thought that if I didn't want you for company, he would just take you out and leave you somewhere." Her cheeks turned bright pink with embarrassment, and she refused to look at him.

"It was a nice thought," he told her, hoping to cheer her up.

To his dismay, it didn't help, and she kept her head down as she returned to the cell and resumed cooking.

Breakfast was a quiet affair with Doja barely responding to his questions. Afterwards, he helped her clean up. Then he was at a loss. Dwarves were naturally industrious; forced inactivity did not sit well with most of them and Vili was not an exception. Looking around the cell, he remembered something she had mentioned last night.

"I think I'll take a look at the plumbing," he told her.

"I have a book on it over here," she told him without much enthusiasm.

Following her to the desk, he expected her to hand him a volume. Instead, she grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and wrote something on it quickly. Not waiting for the ink to dry, she turned it for him to read.

He can hear everything we say.

Taking the pen from her, he wrote a question.

What do we do?

We play along and plan your escape.

He grinned and nodded, before adding a line.

And yours too.

For the rest of the day, Vili worked on her plumbing while Doja updated her sketch of Erebor. When Smaug had first allowed her to explore the dwarven kingdom, she had searched high and low for a map or blueprint of the structure within the mountain with frustratingly little success. She had found fragments of drawings, but with nothing to connect them to the whole, she couldn't fit them into a comprehensive map. It seemed that the dwarves wanted their secrets to stay secret.

As she explored, she sketched the areas as best she could. The drawings were rough and not to scale, but, since she had seen the areas, she reasoned that she could remember what she couldn't get down on parchment. That was before ten years had passed, though. Now, some of the first areas she had investigated consisted of memories just as vague as her maps.

"What is this?" Vili asked over her shoulder.

Leaning back, Doja edged the parchment closer for him to examine.

"A new design I'm working on," she told him, keenly aware that Smaug could be listening.

The dwarf took his time studying her map before indicating an area on the far side of the mountain with a thick finger.

"These wings don't look right," he intoned, staying with her subterfuge.

"What would you suggest, then?"

He reached for her pen and ink, "may I?"

"Go ahead."

With a few strokes, he altered a corridor and the location of a set of stairs leading to the forges.

"There," he put the pen down, "I think that's better."

"Definitely," she agreed. Pulling out some more sheets, she passed them to him. "Maybe you can take a look at these and tell me what I'm doing wrong."

Looking at them quickly, he nodded, "yeah, I can do that." Setting them back on her desk, he motioned for her to get up, "but first come see what I've done to fix your plumbing problems."

Doja looked at him wide-eyed. These maps were much more important that her damn toilet. When he stood there calmly waiting for her to get up, she realized he was still playing along. It wouldn't do for him to seem overly interested when he had been working on the plumbing all morning. Squashing her irritation, she stood and followed him. The maps could wait. For now.

Later that evening, Vili sat at the desk, shuffling through Doja's drawings. There were so rough, they would have been impossible to fit together if it hadn't been for her notes on each. The sheaf of dwarven drawings helped matters. Between the two and his memories, he was able to draw out a passible map of the underground complex. He marked all the possible exits then matched them with Doja's drawings. He was impressed. The little halfling had explored Erebor thoroughly; all but one of the exits were on her maps. And they were all blocked or destroyed.

The one exit not on her maps was one he had only heard of through stories from the founding of the dwarven kingdom. It was deep in the bowls of the mountain and not on any contemporary maps. Not only would it be hard to reach, but Vili wasn't even sure of its exact location. They could be wandering through the root of the mountain for days searching for it. All with no guarantee that it still existed.

Doja came over to stand next to him and he pointed out the possible escape to her along with his notes about it. She studied it carefully before taking the pen from him and writing her response.

This will take some planning and preparation. Weeks. Maybe months.

When he nodded his agreement with her assessment, she bent to the paper and wrote more.

If you suddenly quit trying to escape, Smaug will be suspicious.

Vili looked at her incredulously. Was she suggesting what he thought she was?

Doja gave him a wry smile.

Yes. You will have to try to escape again. I think it entertains HIM.

Had she lost her mind? Did she want Smaug to kill him? Vili scribbled a quick question.

Are you sure? I really don't want to die.

Doja's brows scrunched up adorably as she pondered his question before responding.

Let me think about it. I'll figure something out.

Vili nodded his agreement.

"Little morsel," Smaug's voice broke into their silent conversation. "It's time for you to earn your keep."

Beside him, Doja sighed, "give me a minute. I'll be right there."

Vili looked at her questioningly, "what does he want?"

"He wants me to sing for him. Remember? It's the reason I'm here to begin with," she rolled her eyes dramatically.

"No," Smaug rumbled, "it's the reason you're still alive. Now, don't test my patience if you want to stay that way."

"I'm coming! Geez!"

Vili followed her as she left the cell, stopping to lean against the open gate. The halfling settled into the throne that had been set on the ledge, presumably by the dragon.

"Do you have any requests?" she asked.

The dragon considered her question, then glanced slyly at the dwarf. "Maybe your new companion has one?"

Doja followed the dragon's gaze and frowned, "I don't know many dwarven songs."

Vile shrugged, "I don't care what you sing."

Smaug cocked his head slightly and smirked. Turning back to Doja, he told her, "then sing about the fall of Erebor."

She flushed and shook her head, "Smaug, that's not kind."

"Do I look like I care?"

"Of course not," she said flatly. Looking back at Vili, she mouthed, "I'm sorry," before clearing her throat and starting the song.

Despite his feigned indifference, as Doja's pure voice filled the great hall, he listened with growing anger. While it was technically a true rendition of the general events, it was skewed to make his people seem insular and greedy. Was this how she saw his people? How dare she pass judgement on them! Any good will she had gained thus far was now lost as he fumed.

He was about to stomp back into the cell when she reached the attack on his homeland by Smaug. The tone of her voice changed as she described the horrors of that day, breaking through the fury he had wrapped around himself like a protective blanket. Closing his eyes, he was transported through time back to that day. The roar of dragon fire destroying everything it touched. The screams of his family as they frantically sought to escape the carnage. The ring of steel on dragon scales as the fierce warriors fought off the beast, at first to defend their home, then in a desperate attempt to save as many as they could. So many fell that day sacrificing themselves for others.

As the final, mournful notes of the song died, Vili took a moment to collect himself. The expectant silence prompted him to open his eyes and return to the moment as he found both the dragon and the halfling staring at him. Without a word, he turned and went to the back of the cell where he was hidden from the dragon's watchful eyes.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Doja watched the emotions that crossed the dwarf's face. She knew the song would anger him since it was designed to paint his people in the worst possible light. But when she reached the battle, she had purposely changed the tone, meter, and a word or two. What had previously been a gleeful recounting of the dwarves getting what they deserved morphed into a tragedy where the dwarves were martyred.

When he disappeared into her cell, Smaug turned his great head towards her and hissed, "what do you think you're doing?"

Refusing to shrink from his glare, she calmly replied, "I sang what you asked."

"No," he drew close enough that she could feel the heat from his breath, "you changed the song in the middle."

"You didn't say I couldn't."

"Why?"

"You brought Vili to be my companion. Should I start off by angering him? By rubbing the defeat of his people by you in his face?" She stood up and put her hands on her hips, facing him defiantly.

"Be careful, little morsel," he breathed. "Remember who you owe your life to and who it is you need to please."

"How could I ever forget?"

The dragon stared at her as if he was trying to read her innermost thoughts, then blew a sulfurous breath at her.

"Take care that you don't."