Traude ran through the passageway Brianna had gone through, with Orcrist drawn in her right hand and soon ended up at the entrance of the treasure room. She stopped right at the ledge and gazed at the ocean of gold before her in nostalgic amazement. It had been so long since she'd been in this room but she cherished that minute and a half of silence as she remembered her childhood, playing hide and seek with Dis and Frerin in the treasury or watching her father and grandfather talk amongst the gold. The last time she'd been here, she'd managed to pull her grandfather away from Smaug who was thrashing wildly, roaring and breathing fire as he scattered the gold all over the room and the Arkenstone fell into the gold and disappeared. Her grandfather had tried to go back to grab it but her and Frerin pulled him back and escaped.

Now, years later, there was just silence and that time that seemed like an eternity ago but here she was, back in her home. She turned to her right at the sound of running footsteps to see Brianna clambering up the stairs, having escaped Smaug through the tunnel (which exited out on a hidden side of the platform) and panting with exhaustion as she reached Traude.

"You're alive!" Traude laughed.

"Not for much longer!" Brianna replied as she reached the top of the staircase "Smaug is coming! We have to hide!"

"But the Arkenstone!" Traude barked "Were you able to find it?"

Brianna didn't answer but looked at her in surprise.

"Did you find it?" Traude again asked sternly.

There was a moment of silence between the two as Brianna thought up an answer. She looked closely at Traude, who hadn't torn her gaze from her but could see that there was something off about the way Traude was looking at her. It didn't feel right at all. And that, along with her near-death experience earlier made her decide it was best to wait until they were safe to show her the stone.

"Traude, we don't have time for this." she said as she walked towards the entrance.

Suddenly, Traude stuck out Orcrist and blocked Brianna's path as she stopped just inches away from the sword. Brianna backed away as Traude pointed the blade at her till she was dangerously close to the ledge.

"T-Traude?" she asked.

Traude didn't answer. She instead stared at Brianna with her head tilted down and sinisterly looking up at her beneath her eyebrows, with her sword pointed at Brianna's chest.

"I didn't say you could leave." she said coldly "Get back there and find it."

"I can't." Brianna begged as she turned to her right "Traude, I-"

Brianna suddenly froze and her face began turning as white as her gown. Traude at first didn't understand why but then she heard the rumbling. She turned slowly as the sound got louder and then it was her turn to freeze up. Smaug himself appeared, having tracked Brianna's scent. But when he caught sight of Traude he snarled in anger and looked directly at her with hatred in his eyes. He then began slithering towards where they were as Traude happened to glance to her lower left and saw another escape route via a second tunnel near the second staircase. At that moment, the rest of the girls emerged from behind Traude and surrounded her and Brianna with their weapons drawn and at the ready. Smaug decided enough was enough and with a loud, booming roar he began running towards them as his chest began glowing as his fire started building inside him.

"YOU WILL BURN!" he roared.

"Let's go!" Traude ordered.

The girls didn't need to be told twice as they scrambled towards the passageway and slid down on the gold just as Smaug unleashed his wave of fire with it just barely missing them all. The moment they hit the entrance, they did their best to get up and run inside while Smaug roared in defiance as he lifted up his head towards the wall and unleashed another wave of fire as he was bathed in flame. Everyone was almost at the end of the tunnel but the fire actually seemed to follow them as they ran. Bridget who was in the back looked at the oncoming flame and then to her cousin Beate who was looking absolutely terrified. Without warning, near the exit she shoved Beate forward and Beate tripped on her own feet and tumbled into a room where the girls were. They all backed away to the side of the exit just as some smoke billowed in and the force of the explosion sent Bridget rolling into the room and slamming into a table.

The smoke dissipated as everyone coughed it out and regained themselves. They were in a small room with a single wooden table and with some shelves built into the wall which were empty and covered with dust and rock. Beate quickly looked to Bridget who was sitting up, leaning against the table leg she'd hit and groaning as she clenched her right arm.

"Oh my g-goodness!" Beate said as she rushed to Bridget along with Dorothea.

"Can you move your arm?" Dorothea asked as she looked at the arm.

Bridget did move her arm but she winced and clenched it again. It was clear to Dorothea what happened and it was nothing too severe.

"It's not broken." she said calmly "But I think you took a rather nasty tumble into the table."

"Girls!" Traude called out.

As everyone stood up, they looked to Traude who lit up a flare she'd gotten from one of the bags and her face glowed red from the flare light.

"Come on!" she ordered "We have to find a way out!"

The girls quickly snatched their bags and followed Traude into the passageway out while Bridget leaned on Beate and Dorothea. All the while, Smaug was beyond enraged and saw the cracks which provided the few sources of light in this cavern. He then began viciously clawing the wall cracks, sending rock tumbling down to the floor below before he slithered into the mountain itself. He was going to find those dwarves by any means, even if it meant collapsing the mountain itself.

—

In Bard's house, Shane made sure all the lanterns and lights inside were lit so the operation could begin. Ophelia, Frieda and Bertha gently lifted Kamilla off the floor and placed her on the table like a sack of flour. They stood at her side, with Frieda at her left and Ophelia and Bertha at her right, with Bertha holding a candle. Kamilla's breathing sounded labored as if someone had knocked the air out of her lungs. Beth peeked out the door to make sure no one was coming while Shane stood and watched the scene play out. Tadeusz had taken the Kingsfoil and was grinding it into powder in a bowl on one of the tables.

Ophelia did as best she could to keep calm and was unwrapping the bandage on Kamilla's leg to inspect the wound. She removed the last few bandages and saw the wound on Kamilla's leg was turning blackish-red, with the frostbitten bits still prominent. She observed more carefully and saw what could be the source: the tip of an arrow sticking out. Tadeusz approached and moved closer to see the wound for himself. The elf and dwarf both looked unsettled.

"That looks bad." Tadeusz said.

"I thought she just had an infection." Bertha said."Was the arrow poisoned?"

"It could have been." Tadeusz said "Tell me, dwarf, have you seen this before?"

"This kind of thing only happens with frostbite." Ophelia replied "But I think Bertha's right. The arrow may have been poisoned."

Ophelia quickly glanced at Kamilla who still looked very ill, took a deep breath, exhaled and then made a decision.

"You. Give me your knife." she ordered at Tadeusz.

Tadeusz, though perplexed, handed her his Elven knife and she looked directly at Kamilla's wound.

"Okay I need you all to be ready to hold her down for me." she ordered "I'm gonna try and get that thing out of her."

"With a knife?!" Terrence exclaimed.

"Huh?" Ophelia asked, with her damaged hearing kicking in at the worst time.

"He wants to know what the knife has to do with anything!" Bertha said loudly.

Everyone shushed her, waiting for someone to yell something from across the street or for someone to knock at the door. When nothing happened, everyone relaxed a little. Then, after taking a deep breath and exhaling, carefully sliced the knife into the wound on the leg. A trail of blood and puss slid out of the wound, with Kamilla groaning in pain as Ophelia cut deeper. Her body tensed up but Frieda and Shane held her down by her arms though Bertha looked noticeably anxious. Tadeusz observed the situation while still holding the bowl in his hands. It felt like a punch to the gut to see a woman he didn't know that well, a dwarf no less, on that table in pain as she had surgery performed on her. Yet her sister had never left her side and this dwarf doctor, despite her hearing loss being evident, remained hyper-focused on the task at hand. He'd heard of dwarves being greedy, war-hungry and many other things but this was a side of them he hadn't seen, least of all the fear in their eyes over their team member on this table.

Ophelia now took a pair of tweezers, looking directly at the arrowhead and with great care grasped it in the tweezers, slowly pulling it out. As she tried to wriggle it out, blood dripped more and more frequently from the wound. Bertha started to focus on that blood, which turned out to be a mistake as she closely observed the details of the surgery, her stomach began to feel uneasy with her anxiousness building quickly. Kamilla winced again as the arrowhead was slowly removed from her wound when Ophelia stopped unexpectedly. She took a deep breath, then exhaled and then simply pulled the arrowhead out, which triggered both a pained groan from Kamilla and a spurt of blood from the wound. There was suddenly a thud and everyone turned to see that the anxiety of the moment had proved too much for Bertha and she'd passed out.

Oh for heaven's sake. Ophelia thought to herself before turning to Tadeusz.

"Will that Kingsfoil help?" she asked worryingly.

"Only one way to find out." Tadeusz replied.

He quickly then began an Elvish chant as he rubbed the Kingsfoil in his hands, then quickly pressed it down on Kamilla's wound, causing it to sizzle and poor Kamilla to start writhing in pain while groaning. Everyone did their best to hold her down while Tadeusz kept pressure on the wound as the kingsfoil did it's work, reciting the Elvish chant over and over again. During this, Kamilla opened her eyes to see what was happening around her. She saw Tadeusz by her leg chanting his Elvish language and found herself gazing at him. For the briefest of moments, whether it was her hallucinating or somebody lifted a lamp at the right moment, it was as if there was a heavenly glow around him and Kamilla felt oddly at peace despite the pain in her leg, not even aware of the doey eyed expression she had on her face.

And as for Bertha she was still passed out on the floor so none of this really mattered.

NOTE: Wow I'm back! Been gone for too long and after COVID-19 hampering by creative process I'm so glad to get any writing out. Anyways, hope for further updates.