Title: Thoughts in the night chapter Thirteen

Author: Dís Thráinsdotter

Disclaimer: I don't own Tolkien´s characters, I merely borrow them.

Rating: M

Summary: Glóin sits thinking about his life one night when he can't sleep. Post Hobbit but before LotR.

The relief I felt when we came to the Front Gate was shared by all of us, we had after all made it through the passages and chambers, up the stairs from the chamber that Smaug had turned into his bedroom without meeting him. I had taken some of the treasure with me in my pockets and I also had armour and an axe in my belt so I knew that I was able to defend myself if I needed to, but I also knew that no armour had ever helped against the claws, teeth and fire of Smaug.

Fili and Kili looked delighted when they found harps that were still in tune and played on them. For a while we listened to the music that hadn't been heard there for a long time and even Thórin smiled, saying that he hoped we would be able to invite our healer from Laketown so she could listen to them playing. Both Fili and Kili blushed when he said this but I am sure that they looked forward to it.

Looking through the gate I thought about the fact that we hadn't seen the Dragon but Bilbo thought it would be wise if we went somewhere else for a while and all of us agreed with him, so we went to Ravenhill, an old watch post. When we came there it was evening and we saw no sign of Smaug but we saw birds moving in the south. We wondered what that meant but we didn't find out until the following morning.

The arrival of a Thrush and a Raven brought us the news that Bard had killed Smaug in Laketown. We were at first happy to hear that the Dragon would never again return to the Mountain and that our people would be able to return but then we heard that Smaug´s passing hadn't been without damage to Esgaroth. The city had been turned to ruins by the Dragon's fire and body and the people wanted recompense. We also heard that the Elves were on their way here, Thórin grumbled that their King was looking for treasure but he wasn't going to get anything here.

Instead he asked the old Raven to send messengers to our kinsmen, particularly to Dáin´s people in Iron Hills, to tell them about our plight and ask them to help us. The Raven promised to do so and we returned to the Mountain where we had a lot to do.

TBC