Dear Lord - I just re-read all of this as I haven't looked at it in ages whilst in work. grins Its put me in the mood to write more. Right. Here we go then!

Not mine. No sue.

Flying Without Wings.

After crossing the border out of Scary Hobbit Land (as I mentally called the area) I headed off in a different direction. To be honest by this point I really didn't have a clue as to where I was going. All I knew was that I wanted to find Vebby. Which when you're in a land the size of Middle Earth looking for someone who's not where you expect them to be is easier said than done. Put it this way - Gimli didn't know what had happened to his cousin at Moria - and he knew where he was. My chances of finding Vebby? Not looking good.

Having said that, there were moments when things were going right for me. The bag to carry Gina, the sword that was conveniently lying just where I wanted it - so with luck it might not be quite as hard as I believed it could be.

I also realised something else - getting to Mirkwood was incredibly easy. Going anywhere else was not so hard, unless it was believed that I was doing something for Thingy. I sat down and pondered this thought. Although I had left Mirkwood with Owen to find Vebby, I had done so by lying to him. Hmm.

I nodded to myself. "So they think they can outwit me? Hah! I'm sneakier than a sneaky thing who's being extra sneaky!" I whispered defiantly. "They can bring it!"

Getting up and dusting myself off I stood for a moment and then announced to Middle Earth, "You know, I think it's time to accept the inevitable. Vebby is merely a fantasy figure for me. He's not a real man like Thingy is." I almost gagged as I said that, but regained my self control quickly. "So, what I propose is - I find Vebby and tell him that anything that is between us is over and I'm moving on. Moving on to Thingy." I glanced around to see if there was anything paying attention to my words.

Not even the wind moved. Darn.

"I don't want Thingy to feel that there are feelings between myself and Vebby. I need to get this cleared up so he doesn't feel like he's come in second." I paused for a moment. If it were up to me Thingy wouldn't even be in the same stadium, let alone the same race as Vebby. "So, I'm just going to find Vebby and get this sorted. Then I'll return to Mirkwood and we can all live happily ever after."

And with that I set off in a new direction, comforted by the idea that I had finally deceived the scum who had messed up my quest to hunt down Vebby from the beginning.

My journey on foot continued. Quite frankly I'm not built for walking. I'll do it - if I have to. And much to my disgust, in Middle Earth I had to. I pondered this as I stumbled over yet another piece of uneven ground. Well they had provided me with a sword so....

"Yowch! My foot! Ooooooh! Ow! Ow! Ow! My ankle! Oh I can't move for the pain!" I cried, collapsing in a move worthy of any world class football player. "Oh, my poor ankle! Oh it must be broken! Oh I'll never get to Veb....Thingy!" I declared. "Oh he'll pine to death worrying over his ladylove!"

I continued in this vein for sometime. Then I noticed it was getting dark! How dare they ignore my plight I fumed.

Then I noticed the darkness seemed to be closing in on me.

Wait a minute - it was mid day a few minutes ago!

I looked up.

Oh.......

My...........

God..............

There are moments in your life when you feel quite simply petrified.

This moment was mine.

"Oh... My" I managed.

A snort greeted my response.

I hastily jumped out of the way of the flames the snort had produced.

"You... You...." I stuttered. "You... But you're SMAUG!"

"Call me Mabeline." The gigantic dragon replied.

"Hehe." I chortled nervously. "Okaaaay, Mabeline."

The was no response from the dragon, other than the sound of of them taking a very deep breath.

"Here be dragons indeed."

Smaug, sorry, Mabeline raised an eyebrow imperiously in my direction.

Note to self. Never fan the flames of a dragon's breath by making stupid and inane comments.

Idiot.

Filler chapter. Apologies. Have every intention of getting this finished - am beginning to believe it's the w.i.p that never ends! Please review.