Hey all! I'm so so sorry that this one is late getting up, but I've been in two minds on this story. I really love it and really enjoy writing up Caladwen and Thorin's journey, but wonder whether you all like it too. Please drop me your reviews on your thoughts on this.

I have also got an alternate story planned where we see what would happen if Caladwen had met up with Thorin long before and they married in the Blue Mountains, though I've got a couple chapters done, I'm not yet ready to upload that just yet xx

Review responses;

Elven Silver Power Ranger – Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying this, I was really worried about it! And I will say, there won't be a showdown with Bolg, she'll be leaving him to her brother, but she will have one with Azog, which we'll see later xx

Guest – Thank you! xx

Chapter 31

In Bard's house, Kili is laying on a bed and moaning and straining in pain. His face is covered in sweat. As he continues moaning, Bofur fills a bowl with hot water and rushes to him.

"Can you not do something?" Fili asks Oin worriedly.

"I need herbs, something to bring down his fever."

Bard searches through his bag of medicines.

"I have nightshade, feverfew. . ."

"They're no use to me. Do you have any Kingsfoil?"

"No, it's a weed. We feed it to the pigs."

"Pigs? Weed? Right." Bofur points at Kili. "Don't move."

Fili and Oin watch him leave and look at each in confusion before turning back to Kili. Bofur runs out of the house in search of pigs and Kingsfoil

Balin and Bilbo walk into a tunnel leading to the interior of the mountain.

"You want me to find a jewel?"

Balin nods. "A large white jewel, yes."

"That's it? Only, I imagine there's quite a few down there."

"There is only one Arkenstone. You'll know it when you see it."

"Alright."

Balin begins to walk down the tunnel, but then pauses.

"In truth, lad, I do not know what you will find down there. You needn't go if you don't want to, there's no dishonour in turning back."

Bilbo shakes his head. "No, Balin, I promised I would do this, and I think I must try."

Balin looks at Bilbo, then begins to chuckle appreciatively.

"It never ceases to amaze me."

"What's that?"

"The courage of Hobbits." Bilbo smiles back at this. "Go now with as much luck as you can muster."

They nod at each other, and Bilbo proceeds down the tunnel, Balin watching him.

"Oh, and Bilbo. . ." Bilbo looks back at him. "If there is, in fact, a live dragon down there, don't waken it."

Bilbo looks worried, but nods. He walks a few more steps, then turns as if to ask a question, but Balin is already disappearing around a corner. Bilbo tiptoes toward Smaug's lair.

Reaching a large doorway, Bilbo finds himself in a massive hall. He whispers out loud.

"Hello?"

He knocks quietly on the wall beside him, but the sound is intensified loudly as it echoes, and he jumps and presses himself against the wall in shock. Seeing no reaction to the noise, he walks out into the hall on an elevated walkway.

"He's not at home. Not at home. Good. Good, good, good."

Bilbo, at the top of a staircase, suddenly stops walking and his mouth hangs open in shock. He sees mountains of gold, jewels, weapons, cups, and all sorts of treasure piled dozens of feet high all throughout the immensely massive hall.

Bilbo climbs down the stairs and carefully begins to walk atop the treasure. He tries to be quiet, but the coins and jewels beneath his feet make a lot of noise. He pokes around, looking for the Arkenstone. He finds a large white jewel and examines it.

"What's that?"

He shakes the jewel and continues examining it; deciding that it's not the Arkenstone, he carelessly throws it aside, then jumps when it clatters and makes a lot of noise.

"Sushh, sushh."

He continues to look around, climbing up the mounds of gold, before pausing and looking around hopelessly.

"Arkenstone, Arkenstone. . .a large, white jewel. Very helpful."

Continuing on, he picks up a golden cup, and this action starts a small avalanche of coins. Bilbo looks up and sees the coins falling away to reveal Smaug's eye, which is shut. Bilbo jumps behind a stone pillar in fright. All is silent, and it seems like Smaug is still asleep. Suddenly, Smaug snorts, and the treasure around his nose falls away, revealing it. Bilbo, panting, slowly tries to make his way down the pile of gold, but stops short when he realizes that Smaug's body is buried in a large circle around where he is standing as the gold shifts right where his tail should be. The gold all along Smaug's body begins to ripple as he awakens.

Bilbo takes a few steps, then pauses and kneels as Smaug begins to raise his head, his eye still closed. As Smaug opens his eye, Bilbo runs and dives behind a pile of gold.

As Smaug's eye looks around, Bilbo reaches into his pocket and pulls out the Ring. He looks at it for several seconds, thinking that it helped him to sneak through Mirkwood without being detected, maybe it could help him here. Looking up as Smaug begins to raise his head. He puts the Ring on, and becomes invisible just as Smaug raises his head fully and sniffs the air. Bilbo stands invisibly as Smaug's head turns this way and that as he's looking around.

"Well, thief, I smell you. I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you?"

As he's speaking, he begins to move over him, causing Bilbo to have to quietly duck down so he's not caught. When Smaug finishes, his snout is so close to him. Bilbo panics and runs down the mountain of treasure. Even though he is invisible, Smaug can see where he is going because of the coins he's dislodging with his feet while running. Smaug follows rapidly. Bilbo ducks behind a stone outcropping as Smaug continues searching.

"Come now, don't be shy. Step into the light. Mmm, there is something about you, something you carry. Something made of gold, but far more. . .PRECIOUSSSSS."

While saying this, Smaug's head is right in front of Bilbo's hiding place. As Smaug says "Precious," the word reverberates in Bilbo's head over and over and he strains in mental pain. A flaming eye bursts into his vision, and he yanks the Ring off, becoming visible to Smaug.

"There you are, thief in the shadows."

Bilbo trembling slightly, begins to speak to the dragon, hoping to delay his doom. "I did not come to steal from you, O Smaug the Unassessably Wealthy. 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.

Hearing this, Smaug stomps several yards away and draws himself up so his entire body is visible to Bilbo. He is a massive dragon with two back legs, two massive, bat-like wings with claws, and both his neck and tail are incredibly long. His head alone is the length of Bard's barge.

"And, do you now?!"

Bilbo nods. "Truly, the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous."

"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?"

"No- no, no."

"No, indeed. 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?"

Smaug snakes his head closer to Bilbo as he asks this. Bilbo opens his mouth to speak but then suddenly sees something off to the side. A small, white gem glowing with an unnatural light, glowing brightly with different colours, buried under one layer of coins. It's the Arkenstone, Balin said he would know it when he sees it, and he knows, this is it! Now, to get the jewel and get out without being eaten by Smaug. . .this is the difficult part of this task.

He turns his attention back to Smaug. "I- I come from under the hill."

"Underhill?"

Bilbo nods, and sneaks a peek at the Arkenstone. It is not far away from him, he could get it, he just needs to keep Smaug distracted.

"And under hills and over hills my path has led. And, and, through the air. I am he who walks unseen."

"Impressive. What else do you claim to be?"

Smaug snakes his head forward until his teeth are inches from Bilbo's face. As Smaug exhales, Bilbo grimaces at his breath, waving his hand in front of his face a little.

"I am. . .luck-wearer. Riddle-maker."

"Lovely titles; go on."

"Barrel-rider."

"Barrels?" Smaug turns away. "Now that is interesting. And what about your little dwarf friends? Where are they hiding?"

Bilbo pauses at this, looking at the dragon in confusion, while inside he is panicking.

"Dw- Dwarves? No, no, no dwarves here. You've got that all wrong."

"Oh, I don't think so, barrel-rider. They sent you in here to do their dirty work while they skulk about outside."

As he's speaking, Bilbo begins to creep closer to the Arkenstone, but stops when Smaug looks to him.

"Truly, you are mistaken, O Smaug, Chiefest and Greatest of calamities."

"You have nice manners. . .for a thief and a liar! I know the smell and taste of dwarf. No one better. It is the gold! They are drawn to treasure like flies to dead flesh."

As Smaug stomps about, Bilbo gets so close to the Arkenstone, just another few seconds and he can grab it. But then, Smaug's claws knock the Arkenstone away from where it had been, and Bilbo gasps. The Arkenstone bounces down the mountain, and Bilbo runs after it.

"Did you think I did not know this day would come, when a pack of canting dwarves would come crawling back to the mountain?!"

Bilbo trips and slides down the gold. Smaug follows after him, knocking over as massive stone pillar in his rage. As the pillar falls, its reverberations sound throughout the mountain.

Outside, the dwarves feel the ground shaking and hear a crash that sounds like thunder in the night. They stand up and look around in worry and panic.

"Was that an earthquake?" Dori asks.

Balin turns to them. "That, my lad. . .was a dragon."

Thorin looks worried.

The reverberation reaches as far as Laketown; in Bard's house, everyone looks up at the sound, and dust falls from the ceiling. Kili is still moaning in pain.

Sigrid turns to look at her father in fear. "Da?"

Bain looks out of the window. "It's coming from the mountain."

Fili leaves Kili's side and approaches Bard.

"You should leave us. Take your children; get out of here."

Bard turns to the dwarf. "And go where? There is nowhere to go."

"Are we going to die, Da?" Tilda asks.

Bard looks to his youngest, putting on a comforting smile for her. "No, darling."

"The dragon, it's going to kill us."

Bard looks at his children worriedly for a moment, then reaches up and pulls a black arrow, the last of the three that Girion had in Dale, from where it had been hidden as a drying rack for plants. His children look at the arrow in shock.

"Not if I kill it first."

Legolas, Tauriel and I are almost at Lake Town, just a little more and we'll be within the town. We suddenly stop though as the ground rumbles beneath our feet, a sound like thunder flowing through the air.

I immediately turn towards the Lonely Mountain. "Thorin. . ."

"They've awoken the dragon," Legolas states as he stands by me, also looking to the mountain. "They will unleash that beast upon Esgaroth if they don't destroy it."

Now that I know Thorin is at the mountain, all of my instincts tell me to go to it, to go to him. But something stops me, forcing me to turn my attention back to Lake Town, there's something there that I need to see, need to go to.

"Hurry! We haven't got long!"

I run on towards the town, the two of them following me.

Smaug still stalks about, looking around for Bilbo.

"The King under the mountain is dead. I took his throne."

Bilbo burst out of a pile of gold from between Smaug's claws and runs down a staircase, leaping off the side as Smaug's head swings at him.

"I ate his people like a wolf among sheep."

As the Arkenstone bounces rapidly down the mountain of gold, Bilbo slides rapidly after it with Smaug in pursuit.

"I kill where I wish, when I wish. My armor is iron."

The Arkenstone and Bilbo slide under a covered stone structure; Smaug opens his wings and glides down to land atop the structure.

"No blade can pierce me!"

The dwarves in the clearing on the mountain see an orange glow from the mountain coming through the door.

"What about Bilbo?" Ori asks as he looks to the others.

"Give him more time." Thorin simply says.

Balin turns to him, his arms out to his side. "Trying to do what? To be killed?"

Thorin looks to him. "You're afraid."

Balin pauses for a moment, then steps up to Thorin.

"Yes, I'm afraid. I fear for YOU. A sickness lies upon that treasure hoard, a sickness that drove your grandfather mad."

Thorin just turns back to look at the horizon. "I am not my grandfather."

"You're not yourself. The Thorin I know would not hesitate to go in there-"

"I will not risk this quest for the life of one burglar."

Balin looks at Thorin disgustedly. "Bilbo. His name is Bilbo."

Thorin looks contemplatively out into the night. As he looks to him, Balin wishes that Caladwen was here, she would be able to get through to the lad, he's sure of it. Looking back to the entrance, he just prays that Bilbo makes it out of there alive.

Smaug is searching for Bilbo, who is hiding under the stone structure.

"It's Oakenshield. That filthy dwarvish usurper! He sent you in here for the Arkenstone, didn't he?"

Smaug circles around the structure; Bilbo, hiding beneath it, sees the Arkenstone at the other end of the structure.

"No, no, no. I don't know what you're talking about."

Bilbo starts to sneak over to the Arkenstone, but is forced to hide behind a pillar as Smaug looks beneath the structure.

"Don't bother denying it. I guessed his foul purpose some time ago. But it matters not. Oakenshield's quest will fail. The darkness is coming, it will spread to every corner of the land. You have been used, thief in the shadows. You were only ever a means to an end. The coward Oakenshield has weighed the value of your life and found it worth nothing."

Bilbo smiles as he shakes his head in denial. "No. No. No, you're lying!"

"What did he promise you? 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."

Bilbo, hearing that Smaug is on top of the structure, sees the Arkenstone lying a few feet away from the structure and makes a run for it. Smaug sees him and whips his tail, sending Bilbo, the Arkenstone, and gold flying. Bilbo tumbles and lands against a pillar.

"My teeth are swords! My claws are spears! My wings are a hurricane!"

As Smaug displays his wings, Bilbo notices a scale missing on the left side of Smaug's chest. He whispers to himself.

"So it is true. The black arrow found its mark."

Smaug glares at him. "What did you say?"

Bilbo quickly stands to face him. "Uh, uh, I was just saying your reputation precedes you, oh Smaug the tyrannical. Truly, you have no equal on this earth."

As Bilbo speaks, he slowly backs up. He is standing in a bare, open spot, and Smaug faces him. As he finishes speaking, Bilbo looks down and sees the Arkenstone lying just a few feet from him, and he gazes at it.

"I am almost tempted to let you take it, if only to see Oakenshield suffer, watch it destroy him, watch it corrupt his heart and drive him mad."

Bilbo and Smaug face off; Bilbo pants. Then Smaug begins to rear his head.

"But I think not. I think our little game ends here. So tell me, thief, how do you choose to die?"

Smaug's chest glows with a light from inside, and Smaug's head streaks forward, jaws open, to eat Bilbo. However, Bilbo puts on his ring and disappears, and Smaug's jaws close on empty space. Angrily, he raises his head again, and the glow from his chest travels up his neck; roaring, Smaug bellows out a massive wall of flames over the area in which Bilbo had been standing. Unseen by him, coins on the ground move as an invisible Hobbit runs away and up some stairs. Reaching a hallway, Bilbo exhaustedly pulls of the Ring and continues running. Smaug rages about, blowing fire and destroying pillars. His roars echo in the distance.

Well, there we have it. Smaug is awake now and the trouble can really begin! Please stay tuned for more!