Brianna made her way down the tunnel towards another passageway which led towards the treasure room. Barbara had agreed to accompany her up to that point. Brianna felt a lump coming to her throat as her fear mounted. Never in her life did she imagine doing something like this. But she swallowed her pride and looked to Barbara who was lighting a lamp for her.

"So, you want me to go in there?" Brianna asked as she was handed the lamp "And find a jewel?"

"That's right." Barbara replied "A large white jewel."

"I'm sure there are plenty of large jewels in there." Brianna pointed out.

"There is only one Arkenstone." Barbara responded "You'll know it when you see it. Trust me."

Brianna nodded and then began to make her way down the passageway only for Barbara to sigh heavily which caused Brianna to stop and turn towards her.

"In truth lass, I have no idea what you'll find down there." she said "It's alright if you don't want to go. There's no shame in a lady like yourself turning away."

"No, Barbara." Brianna replied "I made a promise. I promised I'd do this so I might as well try."

At that, Barbara started chuckling much to Brianna's surprise.

"It never ceases to amaze me." Barbara laughed.

"What?" Brianna inquired.

"The courage of hobbits." Barbara said "Gillian was right. Hobbits are amazing creatures."

Brianna then chuckled softly herself. It did feel rather good to be called brave and courageous by her colleagues.

"Well, Brianna, this is it." Barbara said "Go now with all the luck you can muster."

"Thank you." Brianna responded.

"Just remember…" Barbara continued "…if there is a live dragon in there, be sure not to wake it up."

"I'll try not to." Brianna chuckled.

And with that, the two exchanged a smile just before Brianna turned and resumed her way down the path. Barbara stood where she was until Brianna turned the corner and was gone.

"I don't care what anybody says" said a voice "If she dies her share is mine."

Barbara was taken aback to see Nadja had snuck up on them while they were talking and stood by the way across from her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Barbara demanded.

"I got bored. Wanted to check if she started or not." Nadja replied.

"Alright, back up young lady." Barbara said.

Nadja smirked as the two of them turned around and made their way back towards the others waiting outside on the ledge. Meanwhile, Brianna continued downwards, holding the lamp in front of her as she went. She turned a corner in the passageway and saw before her an entrance which led to a ledge. Beyond that was a room that stretched as far as she could see. With the exception of a few shafts of light here or there from cracks in the rock walls, the whole place was shrouded in darkness. Guess this was it. She carefully set the lamp down, stepped forward slightly onto the ledge and cleared her throat.

"Hello?!" she called out.

She quickly ducked behind the wall, shut her eyes and waited for something to come bursting out. But to her surprise nothing happened. At all. She sighed with relief, picked up the lamp and walked back out onto the ledge, her courage slowly returning to her. She stopped at the edge of the ledge and gasped in amazement as she saw what was before her. The entire floor of the cave was filled with gold, gleaming in the shafts of light. Among the gold were also diamonds, rubies, pearls and every kind of treasure you could imagine. Brianna looked around and saw the area behind her was nothing but more rock wall and that the passage she'd gone through had been tunneled into the rock itself. She turned her gaze back to the gold.

"Well, this is going to be a problem." she muttered to herself.

She then remembered in her bag were some flares so she took one, slid it into the gun and fired it off, with it whizzing towards the roof before bursting on it's way down, giving off some additional light. After making her way down a nearby stone staircase with the lamp now in her right hand she searched through the gold as quietly as possible, lighting another flare for extra light in the other direction. This burglar business she'd been assigned proved more difficult then she had imagined. Not only did the gold seem to go on forever but Barbara's description of "a large white jewel" explained everything and yet explained nothing. In that one search alone, she found at least thirty diamonds and gems that fit that description, including one as big as her own head. And every time she tossed one away or dropped it, she almost had a heart attack when it clanged against the gold floor under her feet.

One unfortunate downside she hadn't counted on was the flares she fired off also caused some areas of the floor to gleam and hurt Brianna's eyes. She began to wonder to herself if it even was worth it. But she pressed on. She had to do her job. She wouldn't let the girls down. But that didn't make her mission any easier. After about an hour she was down to three flares so she decided to conserve them and soon it started to turn dark again, though she still had some light with the lamp. She noticed up ahead a shaft of light casting light on a support pillar (one of several in the vast treasure room). Brianna figured she'd do one more sweep of the area then head back to the girls. As she reached the pillar her eyes caught notice of something to her left.

It was a two-handled cup poking out of the pile. Brianna looked to her bag and then walked over to where the cup was, placing the lamp onto the pillar.

"I suppose one souvenir couldn't hurt." she said as she took the cup out.

As she placed it in her bag and zipped it shut, some of the gold suddenly began sliding down towards her feet. She looked up as she held up her lamp and noticed that part of the floor was a pile. This pile was sliding downwards and as it did so it revealed something that made Brianna gasp in fear: a dragon eye. It was closed but it was still very frightening to Brianna nonetheless, almost as big as her head. She quickly scrambled to behind the pillar but slipped on something and slid down about five feet from the pillar. The lamp she had fell out of her lamps, bounced off some gold and shattered on some tapestries, igniting a small spark. She honestly felt like her heart and stomach were preparing to get heaved out when that lamp shattered. She turned her head to see if the dragons eye was still closed, which it was but just then a loud, snorting noise accompanied by some small, white smoke, blew some more gold away and revealed the dragon's nose. Brianna froze only for the sound of shifting gold to re-appear. She whipped her head to her left and saw just about the tip of a tail emerge from the gold some distance from the pillar.

Brianna just couldn't believe it. This dragon wasn't just big. He was massive. From what Brianna could see, he was almost the entire length from her house to the swimming pool in the Shire. She couldn't begin to imagine the kind of destruction he could cause just from flying. Not wanting to be seen in case this creature woke up, she scrambled to the pillar and put her back against the wall. This whole time she had managed to stay completely silent, but felt like she wanted to scream. Her heart felt as if it'd leap out of her throat or cave in her chest. She shoved her hand into her right dress pocket and pulled out her ring. Although she was afraid to use it, she didn't want to become dragon chow. So, she slipped it on and turned invisible.

And not a moment too soon, just seconds before she slipped on the ring, the dragon snorted again and this time it's eye opened. It was an eye as huge as a grown horse and had a orange-red iris. With a loud yawn, the dragon then lifted it's head and much of his body up was the gold fell off with loud clinks and the creature's full profile was revealed. His scales were a reddish-brown and he had spikes going from the back of his head all the way to his tail. He smelled the air as Brianna stood still and didn't make a sound.

And then…Smaug spoke.