There was a knock on Shobha's door. The noise resounded in the large room, making her sit bolt upright. It made her think of the intruder attempting to break in again.

"Shobha… are you awake?" His deep voice sounded from the other side of the door. It was Thorin! "I'm coming in…"

Before she could respond he had let himself in, carrying a tray with a pot of tea, with a small jug of milk and a cup and saucer.

She leant forward reaching for the soft sheets she had somehow kicked away over night. Luckily she had found a large tunic, which she had worn for the night. If she was going to be killed or attacked, she would rather it wasn't in a robe or a state of half undress.

Thorin carried the tray over to a small side table, but he couldn't help glancing over at her in bed. A small part of him, the predator inside, imagined her sleeping naked in that bed: That bed, which was meant to be for him. For him to enjoy his wife… if he ever had chosen to marry. And the tempting thought that she lay there naked and vulnerable after the attack last night was too much for him to resist a glance.

But the sight he encountered was far more appealing than expected. She had somehow found one of his old tunics from when he was younger, before they had left Erebor. It was one he wore to lounge around in, it was old, thread bare in places, and clearly revealed enough of her form to excite him. But that old tunic on her looked… simply perfect.

He turned and began to pour her a cup.

"My sister tells me you have milk, but no sugar."

"Yeah… thank you, but you don't have to wait on me-"

"Oin needs your help today," he interrupted her, as he handed her a cup of tea, his expression neutral as he attempted to gauge how she had felt about how he had woken her up. "Oh… I'll get ready right away. I need my car to get to the hospital –"

"Not in hospital, but in town." He corrected, watching her intently, keeping his expression cold. His eyes drifted over what she wore again as she slowly sipped her tea. "A tree has fallen blocking the road to the hospital. They can't leave until it is cleared and no one can make it in. There are some house calls he was hoping you could make…"

"Oh. Ok." She replied. "What is it…? Dis said I could help myself – I thought these all looked fairly old…"

"Aye. I will wait for you downstairs." He walked towards the door, as she finished her tea, and began to slowly shift towards the edge of the bed. When he reached the door, he paused to look back at her, letting his eyes follow the lines of her slender legs, as the tunic shifted further up her thighs on attempting to slide out of the bed.

….

Shobha found him waiting in the grand entry hall of the Manor, deep in conversation with one of Dwalin's suited security men. They both abruptly stopped as soon as they saw her.

"This is Athol, Dwalin's chief of security. He will accompany you in Erebor and while you make your home visits. He is there to help you as well as for your protection." Thorin explained as soon as she had joined them.

"Pleased to meet you Athol." She held out her hand which he grasped with a reserved firmness and shook it gently, but bowed his head all the same.

"I have the names and addresses of the patients, and the medical bag sent by Master Oin." He replied in a deep voice. He had a mousy coloured, short, neatly trimmed beard, but his head was completely clean shaven. He was stocky, and broad, which his dark suit only enhanced. And she could, alarmingly, just about make out the shape of a gun and a knife, on a concealed holster, underneath!

"You are to remain within his sight at all times. Is that clear, Miss Seth?" Thorin added sternly, as if he were warning a naughty child before taking them out, which made her roll her eyes in response.

Shobha watched Athol as he carried her bag and walked towards the door, standing to attention and waiting for her with the utmost patience. The ridiculousness of having a bodyguard in a quiet, sleepy town made her want to laugh. Surely no one would attempt to attack her here in broad daylight!

"Aye- Aye, Captain!" She replied with a mock salute. So much for doctor patient confidentiality! But before she could turn away to join Athol, Thorin grasped her arm firmly and pulled her aside.

"Is your safety some sort of joke to you?" He asked angrily, through gritted teeth, crowding around her.

"I think it's overkill to visit sick people, who are your citizens! Either you don't trust them, or I can't help thinking in truth that you don't trust me!" She frowned back at him.

"Who ever broke into your room, hasn't been apprehended yet. My citizens would never knowingly harbour a fugitive. But I can't rule out that they may not be hiding in someone's house, unknown to them." He pulled her a little closer as he barked those words at her. "I don't expect you to understand, but I expect you to listen to me."

"Your hand seems to be doing much better." She answered back angrily, looking down at his bandaged hand, which he used to grasp her arm firmly.

"Dis changed the dressings. It's not as bad as you thought –"

"That was a deep cut. And it's not even bleeding through now!" She was sure it needed stitches.

"There was a lot going on yesterday. And you had poor light to examine me." He dismissed her suspicions angrily once more. "You made a mistake."

"I wouldn't make a simple mistake like that. And if I need to examine anyone, Athol will stand outside the door. Patients have to feel some degree of ease when they are being tended to." She twisted out of his grip stepping away. "My medical licence, my rules –"

He stopped her, holding his hand against the wall, blocking her in.

"No, Miss Seth. Erebor is under my govern. You are an invited guest." He stepped in, forcing her back against the wall. "If I say you need protection, then you will do as you are told. Exactly. You will either have Athol protect you, or I will spend the rest of the day with you. I merely thought you would prefer the former."

"Yes. I think if it boils down to that: then yes." She met his piercing, blue gaze, trying hard to keep her own expression as clinical as possible. It was hard, given how they had shared a very intimate evening together on the first night of the storm, but she could only imagine none of that meant anything to him. "I would rather have Athol accompany me, than suffer your morose company, any day."

She tore her glance away from his, and looked at his bandaged hand again. They did look freshly changed, but one thing she was certain of, was her own clinical assessment. A wound like his would have bled until it received stitches! He either possessed superhuman healing abilities, or he had stitched himself up! But why would he hide that from her?

After a prolonged moment of staring at her, he must have felt satisfied that his threat had worked, because he moved out of her way, letting her join her bodyguard.

She didn't engage his gaze thereafter, although she could feel his eyes angrily burn into her as they left.

…

That morning was spent visiting four houses. Athol, despite looking rather scary and not leaving her side, had been surprisingly helpful. He had carried her doctors bag, fetched whatever she required and even assisted in turning the patient or lifting limbs to allow her to bandage them well.

As they had finished with the final visit and left the house, they found a man running towards them from the distance. Athol stood in front of her instinctively holding his hand out.

"Please help! My wife! She's in labour!" He shouted from afar.

"Let's go! Hurry Athol!" Shobha stepped forward, and began to follow as he led them towards a smaller cottage on the outskirts of the hill.

They entered the small, neat and pretty little house.

"Quick, upstairs!" He gasped, his face red, brows furrowed. "Please hurry, she thinks it's coming soon –"

"Ok. Stop!" Shobha grasped his hand as he stepped through the door. "Take your muddy shoes off before coming upstairs! You too Athol - I'm going to head up and check on her. I want you both to get me clean towels, plenty of them, and boil several saucepans of hot water. And Athol, you need to find me Lis, right away."

She kicked her shoes off and rushed upstairs with her bag. As she entered the master bedroom, following the sounds of his poor wife, she found the sandy-haired woman leaning against a chair gritting her teeth and gasping.

"Hi, I'm Shobha one of the doctors. Does your midwife live close by?" She asked, trying to look calm and collected. In truth, the last time she delivered a baby was in medical school, and she was panicking!

"I'm Ella… please there is no time… it's coming now… arrrrrgggghhhh!" She clutched at the chair back, her knuckles turning white as she struggled to breath with the pain.

"Come on then on to the bed!" Shobha took her hand, but she stopped looking over annoyed with her pale blue eyes.

"What?! No I need towels! Olaf! Olaf!" She shouted. "I will ruin my new mattress!"

"Fuck the mattress Ella. If it gets ruined I will buy you a new one! I need to examine you!" Shobha replied sternly, as she nodded, gritting her teeth through another contraction. As they reached the bed, Olaf, her red haired husband and Athol had appeared with piles of towels and a couple of bowls, quickly arranging some extra towels on the bed for her. "Athol, go and find Lis and Gorin and the nearest midwife! Hurry!"

As Shobha examined the woman, it was clear that she was indeed right. She was well dilated and would probably soon crown!

"Have you got a phone?" Shobha asked Olaf. She had stopped carrying her mobile since it had no signal anywhere. She washed her hands and rolled up the sleeves on the pretty pale silk blouse she had borrowed from Dis.

"Aye! Here –" he disappeared and reappeared quickly carrying a cordless handset holding it out.

"Call the hospital. Oin will need to take her in and check she's ok after we do the delivery here." She spoke calmly, before turning to Ella as she seemed to have automatically come to hold her hand, while she squeezed hard and panted with the next contraction.

….

In truth, it had all happened thankfully with much more ease than expected. Amidst all the blood, gore, and fluids, Ella had given birth to their first child, a baby girl, with relative ease. Lis, Gorin, and Maya the midwife, had all arrived in time to catch the fainting father, and help with the umbilical cord and take over.

Shobha, who was completely overwhelmed by the whole experience, had excused herself and washed her hands to go and drink a glass of water and get some fresh air to calm her nerves. Managing a big trauma was one thing, even dealing with a terribly sick patient was different, even though the stakes were high. But bringing life into the world, safely, was a far greater responsibility! It was both beautiful and unnerving to the very core.

She stood outside drinking in the fresh, damp air. It smelled like after a thunder storm! Everything was greener, wetter, and distinctly damp. The young couples cottage was clearly newly built, but on the very edge of town. She stepped outside past the tall hedge planted around the perimeter of their garden and on to the road.

This was much more than she had expected! Erebor, as far as she had been told was a small town with a good set up – they had ambulances, ITU and all the support expected of a larger town. It was clearly the havoc created by the storm.

Suddenly her eyes were drawn to a strange fenced off building, perhaps a couple of hundred feet away… it looked old, but well maintained, and was certainly secured!

Looking back at the small cottage, it was clear everyone was happily occupied, and she had no intention of getting in the way. Ella was probably in much better hands now, to be honest! Besides she had apparently walked almost half of the way over, a subconscious decision, clearly, but now curiosity had the better of her.

"Right. Five minutes and then I will go back…" she muttered to herself. "Just look from outside, don't go in… don't get in trouble…"

As she reached the fence, the gate was unlocked. And it seemed there were fresh footprints on the muddy footpath. Quietly letting herself through and following, she stood in front of the stone building with a large heavy wood door. It looked like some sort of outbuilding, but the door was decorated in some sort of ancient runic text and bold patterns edging it. Reaching out automatically her hands ran over the carvings. The wood was smooth and cold.

Before she could move away the large door had swung open and out of the darkness a familiar face appeared.

"Lass! What are ya doing out here!" He smiled unreservedly, his funny hat jiggling. It was Bofur!

"Oh! Sorry! I just wondered what this was – I was over at Ella's house checking on them…"

"Ah! So she went into labour eh?! Well funny things happen during storms around here," he chuckled, before gesturing for her to follow. "Well…. Come on in then…"

She followed him as he led her out of the daylight and into the dark space, pausing to allow her eyes to accommodate. As she followed him quietly, focusing on keeping her footing, it was clear they seemed to be going underground in some way, and soon there was a faint glimmer of light beckoning in the distance.

"Bofur, where are we going…?" She asked, stumbling over the uneven floor, as he reached out and steadied her. It was too late for second thoughts now.

"You'll see…" he carried on leading her through, until almost out of nowhere, they emerged into an enormous cavern! It was the size of a large theatre! But what really stunned was that every surface, as far as the eye could see, was covered in pure gold! Even in the modest light the whole room shimmered and dazzled.

"Oh my…" she looked all around her. There were other smaller tunnels leading out of this space in places further away, but this vast guilt space was something else!

"Impressive isn't it?" Bofur beamed from beside her. "It's called the hall of remembrance…"

"Huh?" She suddenly looked over at him, trying to understand.

"Ya see… this is part of the large sinkhole that formed." He looked a little sadder as he mentioned it. "I call it the hall of life. I like to think we remember not because we are sad, but because we cherished the lives of the people lost, and all the love and joy they meant to us."

"I'm sorry Bofur. It's truly beautiful." She continued to looked around, and only snapped back, as she spotted a small table in the middle of the hall were several other overalled men sat, playing cards apparently.

"Aye lass, me mother died here. She worked as a nurse at the hospital. We were young men then, it hit Bombur hardest. Me brother had just started in the mines - that's when he had his accident with the axe. He's never been the same since either really…" the usually cheery engineer, looked into the distance of the cavern, a subtle sadness creeping into his warm, golden-brown eyes. "We were here from last night, when we came to fix the generator. It seems the back up to the town and the Manor were cut off. It's odd they both failed really, there was no sign of any tampering… so we could only think it was a freak bolt of lightning."

"The back ups are kept in here?" It seemed like an odd choice of location, on the outskirts of town. And this seemed so unguarded to her.

"Oh no lass, they're through those tunnels ahead. Ye'd need ta know where yer goin' it's a labyrinth down there." One of the other engineers called out from the table.

"Aye. Could get lost for days. You may never even find your way out!" Another added. "Some say the tunnels connect all the way through to the Manor. The Lords Of old fell, their sanity plagued by their greed for the gold and jewels once mined deep within these caves… in particular one jewel, the size of an ostrich egg, that shone with the brilliance of a million diamonds, and could cast a thousand rainbows in its facets. The Arkenstone. It was once guarded by a dragon. It is still said to be buried within these tunnels. To keep it from driving the next Lord in the line of Durin, from falling into madness. The 'Gold-Sickness'…"

"And should anyone ever remove the stone from within – then Erebor would finally fall." The first engineer completed, adding a particularly mysterious tone to his iteration.

"All old folk stories!" Bofur smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't you take notice of these lads."

"Well… some say the dragon awoke and fled which is what caused this enormous cave in!" The second engineer waves his hands in the air as though conjuring up an invisible crystal ball. "You could imagine a dragon sleeping in this large cavern couldn't ya?"

"I'm pretty sure there aren't dragons kicking about…" she pursed her lips as though in deep thought over the matter, before winking at them. "At least not since 1999! It was that pesky Millennium Bug: everyone thought it was for computers, but it turns out it was actually a deadly dragon disease – turned out to be a pandemic, sadly wiped the last of them out. They're as extinct as Dodos now I hear."

The two engineers seated at the table grinned wider as they listened until they burst into laughter at the end of her story.

"She's funny, this one!" The first chuckled.

"So that's how ye got all the bairns at school to take their jabs!" The other joined in laughing, before reaching out to one of the chairs and tossing a hard hat over to Bofur. "Better wear this if yer gonna check out any tunnels. Lasses always want ter see what the men ave been up 'ter. I expect yer just as nosy."

She laughed – he had said it as it was. Her curiosity would have got the better of her anyway. Bofur handed her the hard-hat, that he caught, and gestured towards another tunnel at the far end, walking ahead of her.

Following as she secured the hat, she looked around, crossing the vast golden cavernous space. It really was marvellous. The surfaces looked so smooth and polished, how they had managed that was truly anyone's guess. And yet, there was no evidence of any large complicated machinery in sight! As they reached the other end of the golden space, she bumped straight into Bofur's back, since she had been so engaged in looking around her and not paid any attention to what was going on.

"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!"

"It's no trouble miss!" He laughed. "I guess I would have done the same the first time I saw this too. Except I was part of the team than did the work, so it was no surprise how it turned out in the end."

"How did you do all this? Was it some sort of pressurised spray…"

"It was more like applying a golden plaster to the surface if ye like." He smiled, following her gaze around the room. "The cave underneath is not smooth you see. So there was a lot of priming work we had to do to reinforce it."

"Gosh, so it's been applied by hand?" Her eyebrows shot up as she looked back at him to find him nodding away enthusiastically.

"The tunnels are all connected, so it's easy to get lost," he reached up to her hat and clipped a head-light onto it, switching it on with a twist, which shone onto the golden surface and reflected back. Then he reached around her waist and clipped a belt on, followed by a connecting rope. "Here we go. Always keep attached to me, and keep me in your vision. If your torch fails, there is a spare on that belt clip. It's just not as bright. So stay close. His Lordship will have my beard if I lose ya down the tunnels."

Shobha bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything in reply. She was curious beyond her own welfare. While she had been subject to some very scary occurrences, life in Erebor had otherwise been much more quiet than she had imagined and the opportunities to explore new places like Dale had been few and far between. Hopefully her tour of the tunnels would go smoothly, and Thorin would never know that she had slipped out of Athol's supervision, and no one would get in trouble.

They moved into the first tunnel ahead, the surfaces were clearly rock, but reinforced with steel, wood and concrete struts, beams and pillars throughout.

"So did you have to reinforce all this?"

"Well lass, a lot of this had been done a long time ago… we just checked them all and replaced what needed to be replaced. There was a cavity below, we filled with concrete, where the sink hole was. But that would be the floor of the large golden hall."

"This really is amazing!"

He led her further in, turning at a few junctions. As they moved further the dark jagged stone walls, became darker still, until they began to glimmer.

"What is that?!" She asked stopping as he did, and then slowly walking closer to the walls to inspect them better.

"These are granite rocks lass." He replied from behind his light. "If ye like this. You'll love the next few tunnels…"

He pulled her along gently, and within a short distance again, the walls had taken on a greenish glow!

"Oh my!"

"Aye… this is the famous marble beneath Erebor lass!"

She stepped closer.

"It's ok, ye can touch it lassie… it's quite safe."

Reaching out she connected the flat of her hand against the cold, smooth surface. Then slowly moving closer, she leant her cheek against it feeling the cool of the stone.

"I have never felt anything like this ever!" She exclaimed softly.

"And ya probably never will again Lass!" He chuckled. "This is not the best bit… that's up ahead…"

And he was not wrong. Soon enough the tunnel walls around them glittered in patches of rainbow colours. They seemed like a variety of different patches of crystals, and glimmered back in their head lights.

"These are all uncut precious stones lass! There's emerald… ruby… yellow and pink sapphire, of course diamond… and that blue over there is the famous Erebor sapphire!" He pointed to various coloured, glittering chunks.

"It's so pretty…" she slowly turned around, watching the sparkling stone throughout the walls and ceiling of the tunnel. Then a thought popped into her head, recollecting how Fili had mentioned that Dain had offered money for the land. Even if he had never resettled people here, the sheer mining potential and wealth from it would have been something else! In truth, she couldn't imagine it possible to value this!

Bofur grasped her shoulders as she stumbled backwards looking around in the dark at the glimmer all around her. It looked so magical!

"Better not fall against a wall. All the edges are sharper than any sort of knife." He let her go after steadying her.

It was then that she noticed the gentle hum in the distance.

"What's that?" She asked. "There! That sound!"

"Oh that's the Genny for the town." He smiled, and then realising that she had no idea what he meant, corrected himself. "The generator."

"Oh."

"Aye. It needs to be turned on by hand when there is a rare power loss. We don't have overhead masts here, all the cables run underground or else we'd be lightning rods up here on the mountain."

That made sense.

"So isn't it strange there was a sudden power loss…?"

"Aye lass. That's why we will need to check things through. The lads and I had to get the power back up first, so here we are." He was about to turn down another tunnel, when the hum of the generator suddenly cut out.

For Shobha, the image conjured up by a generator, was some decrepit old machine, used to run a worn out farm in the middle of nowhere, often in some awful horror movie. So it cutting out didn't seem unusual. Except for Bofur, there was a clear change in his body language. He immediately stiffened up and grasped at the connecting rope he had tied to her. It was clear he wasn't expecting it to cut out like that.

"Stay close to me lass, and listen out carefully for anything at all. Remember there shouldn't be anyone else down here." He changed course, keeping her behind and moved quickly, making his way down several tunnels before reaching a small chamber at the junction of several tunnels.

There in the centre was a large, shiny generator. Working quickly, he looked around it, and seemed to find the fault, a belt around the motor that had come away. He fixed it quickly and straightened up again.

As Shobha watched, she couldn't help notice a glint of metal out of the corner of her vision, and turning to take a better look she spotted a spanner fallen on the ground, laying in a corner by another tunnel. As she took a step towards it, Bofur immediately responded.

"What is it lass?" He asked urgently.

"Did you drop a spanner earlier…" as she bent down to pick it up, she paused for a moment. "What's that smell… it's strange…"

She grasped her fingers around the metal of the spanner again, and this time was certain it was wet.

"There's a damp patch under this spanner…"

"That can't be. We didn't get wet when we arrived and our tools are covered –"

"Well this is wet." She stood up and paused again at the entrance to the tunnel nearby handing Bofur the spanner to examine. It was dark. In fact pitch black, and her small head light didn't illuminate far beyond where her feet fell.

"Hmmmm…" he scrutinised it further in his small light.

She looked over her shoulder at the tunnel again, standing completely still so she could listen better. There was something about this she didn't like at all. An uneasiness in her gut. Looking at Bofur, he was still deep in thought turning the object over in his hands carefully, deep in concentration. It clearly bothered him too, but he seemed to want to make sure before he voiced the words. And so she held her tongue.

"This isn't…" he began, hesitating a little.

She looked over her shoulder into the tunnel again. This time she was certain she had seen movement in the darkness. Freezing, to watch the blackness, and listen to the thick silence from deep within, she looked back down into what seemed like a never ending passage.

"This isn't one of our tools… I am sure it's not even made in Erebor –"

They were the last words she heard as something grabbed her from out of the darkness, knocking her to her feet, her headlight smashing, and throwing her into darkness. It had grabbed her legs, and before Bofur could reach the rope that connected them, she had already been dragged away from the small space where the generator stood, into the pitch black.

"No! Lass! Lass!"

She could hear him as he pulled on the rope but this thing was too fast. She imagined it had already severed the ties efficiently and silently, as in the darkness, she was now being dragged away backwards, her limbs scratched by the stone floor, occasionally her body crashing against the jagged surfaces of the walls, and bumping into a beam or pillar used to reinforce the tunnel. Fortunately her hard hat had managed to stay on, protecting her head, as she continued being dragged backwards into the darkness.

She wanted to scream, but the odd knock of her torso against a heavy support pillar would wind her long enough to prevent it.

Reaching out to grasp at anything was futile, it only scraped her hands raw.

Eventually all she could do was to keep calm and try to protect herself from and significant injury..

As it carried on dragging her through the pitch black, with only the sound of heavy breathing, grunting and the sound of her own body dragging against the stone, she fell into unconsciousness…

…..

There you have it - something mysterious is going on in Erebor... all will become apparent in time.

Let me know your thoughts xx

UnaLouise - thank you so much - these two are stubbornly resistant at the moment i'm afraid. there will be a bit of a creepy mystery surrounding the durins. and i havent brought in the vampires yet either... ;)