The Dwarf King explained his plan to the others and they started to break off in groups to take different passages to throw the dragon off. Bella was about to head off with Dwalin and Nori, when she felt a strong hand grab hers and pull her in his direction. " You're coming with me, Balin and Bilbo." Thorin ordered. The half-breed didn't argue this time, like she would have. She felt more safe knowing she would be with him, even though it hadn't gone unnoticed that every time they were together it was always one of them getting hurt and she started to have second thoughts if they should separate so they wouldn't be a distraction to one another, making sure the other was safe and wind up putting everyone else in danger.
Thorin could feel the tension coming from the young woman and he just squeezed her hand to assure her that everything would be fine. The leader nodded to his men and they all took off in different directions waiting for their cues. Bella pulled out her sword, indicating she was ready. "This way!" Thorin shouted running out first onto the bridge with Bilbo, Balin and Bella charging right behind him. Part of his plan was to make as much noise as possible to draw out the beast. The woman's head snapped to the left when she heard a sound of flapping wings near them.
"Flee, flee! Run for your lives! There is nowhere to hide." The dragon taunted appearing before them. The four of them came to screeching halt. The young woman let out a gasp as the beast now stood no more then two feet in front of them.
"Behind you!" Dori's voice shouted from down below on another bridge, with Ori and Bombur right behind him ready to fight. The dragon turns around and lunges towards them. " Come on!" Dori yelled again as the three of them turn and run from the beast that now began chasing them. Seeing this Thorin, Bella, Bilbo and Balin continue to run across the bridge and into the tunnel away from the danger, barely hearing the sound of Dawlin's voice shouting at the dragon.
Bella felt like they had been running for hours through passages, she even started to wonder if they had been going around in circles. They came to another large hallway. Thorin was in front leading them, with Bilbo and Bella right at his heels and Balin was behind them who suddenly turned into a hidden side tunnel, but sees the three of them still running.
"It's this way! This way! Come on!" Balin shouted. The Hobbit and the Half-breed stopped just passed the tunnel entrance, but the Dwarf King kept going.
"Thorin stop!" Bella yelled. Before the leader could even take more then two steps towards them the ground trembled beneath their feet. All four of them see Smaug behind them. Thorin knew right away he would never make it into the tunnel as he saw the dragon's chest starting to glow orange.
"Follow Balin!" Thorin ordered, looking right at Bella in particular who had yet to move from her position as the beast came closer.
"Thorin!" Bella shouted again, waving her hand at him to run back towards them, when she felt someone yank her by her arm, pulling her into the safety of the passageway as Smaug unleashes his fire throughout the hall.
Balin had to keep pushing the young woman through the tunnel to keep her from turning back to go after Thorin. They reached the end of the tunnel and ended up in the forges, but where was everyone else? Bella turned towards the pillars when she heard familiar voices. Dwalin, Nori and Thorin charged into the forges. Where the dragon was, Bella could only guess.
"The plan's not going to work. These furnaces are stone cold." Dwalin pressed.
"He's right;" Balin added. knowing these furnaces had been cold for years." There's no fire hot enough to set them ablaze."
"Have we not?" Thorin suddenly had an idea as he turned back to look towards the dark pit and walked towards. the pillars. " I did not look to see you so easily outwitted!" All you could see was Smaug's giant claws emerging from the pit, his body following it. " You have grown slow and fat in your dotage." The Dwarf King continued to taunt the beast, who only snarled in anger at Thorin.
"Um, Thorin I don't think insulting the dragon is our best option here." Bella pointed out seeing the anger in Smaug's eyes.
"Slug." Thorin continued. The dragon continued to advance and snarl at the Dwarf who suddenly gets behind one of the pillars and yells to the others to do the same. " Take cover. Go!"
The remaining members of the company bolted for the pillars just as Smaug unleashed his flames at them. Bella took cover against the pillar next to Bilbo as the dragons flames blew past them and right at the furnaces. Smaug stops, and fire suddenly comes out of the bottoms of the furnaces, and the begin glowing and working. The beast growls in confusion and annoyance.
Once the flames had died down the Dwarves and the Hobbit ran from the pillars as Smaug began battering at them with his head, trying to break them down.
"Bombur!" Thorin yelled. " Get those bellows working. Go!"
"Alright!" The fat Dwarf replied as he leaped onto a chain next to one of the forges.
The leader then turned back to look at the pillars. The beast was beginning to bend the metal and the Dwarf knew it would be minutes before the dragon knocked them down with his incredible strength. " Bilbo! Up there, on my mark, pull that lever." Thorin points the Hobbit towards some stairs that leads to a platform with a lever. Bilbo makes haste towards the stairs and Thorin runs over to Balin next. " Balin, can you still make some flash-flame?"
"Aye. It'll only take a jiffy. Come on!" The elder Dwarf informed as he grabbed some of the others to help him and they run towards one of the storage rooms.
Both Bella and Dwalin look back at the metal pillars. Smaug was nearly through one more strong push and the beast would be through. " I don't think we have a jiffy." Bella muttered as the dragon with all his might bashed into the pillars one last time and it came crumbling down and the beast storms into the room. Looks about, growling.
Bella runs over to Thorin. " What can I do?" She asked him.
"You can take cover. hide in one of the storage rooms. You'll be safe there." He told her.
"No. I'm not going to hide while your all out here, risking your lives." Bella argues.
"Bella, this is not the time to argue with me. Just get out of here!" Thorin yelled at her. The Hobbit finally made it to the top of the platform, ready for Thorin to give him the signal to pull the lever, but saw the dragon stalking towards him until the dragon heard a more familiar sound he couldn't wait to set on fire and he turned towards the Dwarf King and the young woman and both of them were no longer speaking.
Thorin shoved Bella right behind him and started to back up just waiting for the right moment. "NOW!"
Bilbo jumps into the air and pulls down on the lever just as Smaug lunges toward Thorin and Bella. Huge jets of water burst out of carved faces in the wall behind Bilbo and slam into Smaug, knocking him off balance and quenching the flames he was beginning to blow at the two Dwarves. Smaug slides into the side of a furnace from the force of the water, and the glow in his chest disappears. Roaring in rage, Smaug flaps into the air and begins thrashing about madly. The jets of water cause a watermill to begin turning some gears, which causes the various rope conveyor belts to begin operating. Some of them are full of heavy chunks of rock and ore.
Bombur continues going up and down on his chain, pumping the bellows and turning the furnace fire blue. Atop the furnaces, the solid impure gold begins to glow and melt. Smaug begins crawling toward Thorin and Bella again who draws her sword, ready to fight to the death if she had too. Above them, Gloin and Bifur have arrived on the bucket conveyor belt. As Bilbo begins to climb down the mound, Smaug approaches them. Suddenly, there is a flash of blue light on the side of his head. Balin, Ori, and Dori are throwing flash-flame bombs at Smaug. However, Smaug is not at all fazed by them and continues towards the group of them . Above Smaug, Gloin raises his axe and cuts the rope of the conveyor belt full of heavy rocks below him, dropping tons of rocks on Smaug and making him fall to the ground, roaring.
While the dragon continues to roar in anger and getting himself tangled in the ropes of the conveyor belt. Thorin runs over to one of the furnaces and pulled on a chain, opening a gate which allowed the molten gold to flow out of the furnaces and through troughs built into the ground.
Bella saw Gloin and Bifur roll out of the buckets, miraculously unhurt and were on their feet in seconds trying not to get trampled by the beast that was thrashing around trying to get the ropes off of him.
Thorin then turns and starts running, shouting back at the Dwarves. "Lead him to the Gallery of the Kings!" As Smaug continues to thrash about, one of the heavy metal buckets tangled on him goes flying towards Bilbo on top of the mound. Bilbo yells and ducks, and the bucket misses him but takes large chunks out of the wall. Thorin grabs a wheelbarrow and runs while pushing it, dodging Smaug's thrashing limbs. Smaug's tail smashes into the base of the mound, cracking it and worrying Bilbo. Thorin throws the wheelbarrow into a channel of gold and leaps into the wheelbarrow; it floats on the gold and is carried along. Seeing this, Smaug roars and whips his head around, finally getting rid of the ropes and buckets tangled around him. He stomps over to a small entrance at the base of the mound where all the troughs of liquid gold join and lead out of the room. Before he can get to Thorin, Thorin on his wheelbarrow floats through the entrance, just as the mound collapses and Bilbo falls and hits the ground rolling.
"Bilbo!" Bella shouted seeing the Hobbit falling off the mound and crashing onto the ground. The young woman looked around and saw all the other Dwarves had already taken off to the Gallery, and she dashed towards her friend to help him.
Thorin whipped his head around when he heard the woman's voice calling for the Hobbit and yelled at the both before disappearing. "Keep going, you two! Run!"
Bella reached out her hand and pulled the Hobbit to his feet and two of them take off running with Smaug right behind them. Both of them managed to leap onto a large stone slide before Smaug could take a chomp out of them, and slides after them, demolishing all the stone structures nearby with his wings.
The Half-breed shrieked when they fell to the ground and continued running looking for anywhere they could take cover from a fire-breathing dragon. Bilbo points to a doorway and the two of them go running through it and into a massive hall adorned with banners hundreds of feet tall. Suddenly the wall above them explodes as Smaug bulldozed his way through it. Both, Bella and Bilbo dodge the flying rocks, but are caught beneath the cloth as one of the banners fell to the ground.
The beast leaps to the floor and begins to shout angrily. "You think you could deceive me, Barrel-rider?" Smaug sneered. The Hobbit and the Half-breed, both peak out from the edge of the banner. " You have come from Laketown. There is-is some sort of scheme hatched between these filthy Dwarves and those miserable cup-trading Lakemen. Those sniveling cowards with their longbows and black arrows!" The dragon hissed in anger and even a hint of fear could be heard in his voice at the last part. " Perhaps it is time I paid them a visit."
Bella gasped lowly at this. She couldn't let this happen. Her brother was there. Her nieces and nephew...and not only that Fili, Kili, Bofur and Oin where there still. The Hobbit noticed Bella was starting to get up and he grabbed her hand.
"Bella...stop you can't go out there." Bilbo whispered at her.
"I can't let anything happen to my brother and the others." Bella hissed and yanked her hand away from Bilbo and scrambled out from under the banner, Bilbo was right behind her. " Wait! Stop! This isn't their fault! They have nothing to do with this! You cannot go to Laketown!" Bella shouted at the dragon, causing him to stop.
Thorin heard her voice from where he stood and started to panic. What was she doing? Was she trying to get herself killed? He wondered.
Smaug turned to face the young woman that was still charging at him with the Hobbit behind her. "You care about them, do you? Good. Then you can watch them die." He growled at her, before turning back and striding down the hall towards the main entrance.
"Here, you witless worm!" Thorin yelled.
The dragon stopped in his track, snarling and squinting in anger. He then turns towards Thorin. "You."
"I am taking back what you stole." Thorin declared.
"You would take nothing from me, Dwarf. I laid low your warriors of old. I instilled terror in the hearts of men. I am King under the Mountain." Smaug uttered as he now stood head level with the Dwarf. Bella and Bilbo watched out of sight from an adjoining hall.
"This is not your kingdom. These are Dwarf lands, this is Dwarf gold, and we will have our revenge." As Thorin speaks, Smaug's chest and neck glow with fire, and Thorin slowly reaches up toward a rope above him. Just as Smaug opens his mouth, Thorin yells something in Khuzdul.
The Dwarf King yanks on the rope, and a pin behind the stone falls out, releasing heavy wooden bands and chains that had been wrapped tightly around the stone. Smaug rears his head in confusion. The other Dwarves pull as hard as they can on their chains, and more pins similar to the first are pulled out of the stone. The stone structure, which is now revealed to be the mold into which the liquid gold from earlier poured into, falls apart and reveals a massive statue of a Dwarf king, made entirely out of solid gold. Thorin swings away on a rope to escape the falling rocks. Smaug looks at the golden statue, which is even larger than him, in awe and desire. As he approaches it, his mouth opens slightly in greed. Suddenly, the gold around the statue's eyes warps and then explodes into liquid; the gold in the statue had not yet fully solidified, and the entire statue collapses and explodes into burning hot liquid. Smaug roars in anger as the statue melts, and tries to escape the gold. However, he cannot move fast enough and the tidal wave of gold hits him and knocks him over. As he roars, he is entirely smothered and drowned in the gold, which fills the entire hall in a layer several feet deep.
The gold settles, and no sign of Smaug is seen. The Dwarves begin to smile in joy. Bella and Bilbo hid behind some pillars and slowly came around them, wondering if the dragon was indeed dead when suddenly, the surface of the golden lake explodes as Smaug leaps out. Both the young woman and Hobbit run back behind the pillars before the dragon could see them He is entirely covered in gold, and he screams in anger and pain " Ahh! Revenge?! Revenge! I will show you REVENGE!" Smaug shouted in anger as took off down the hallway. Smaug smashes his way out through the main doors. He flaps his wing and lifts off into the sky, spinning and causing the remaining gold on him to fall off in a golden shimmer. He swoops off toward Laketown.
Bella came out into the hall and looked at the now demolished doorway into the mountain and back at Thorin who was hanging from the chain. He could see the horrifying look on her face and she took off towards the front gate with Thorin shouting her name.
Bilbo ran after her, climbing over chunks of stone. The young woman climbed onto a slab of rock when she lost her footing and fell to her knees gasping and looked up to see the dragon heading straight for the town. The Hobbit was panting by the time he caught up to her and the two of them unable to do anything but watch in fear for their friends lives and everyone else in the town.
"What have we done?" Bilbo uttered.
Bella was still breathing heavily as she wondered the same thing. What have they done indeed?!