~Fifteen~
~'Dragon Fire and Ruin' - A Prophecy Fulfilled~
Dahlia had now faced a dragon twice in her life. The same dragon, twice.
The others must have reached the Mountain, for Smaug had been set loose, now only to wreak havoc upon the poor, innocent citizens of Lake Town.
A warning bell chimed in the distance, but there was little the people could do.
"We have to wait for Da," Bain insisted.
"There's no time, we must leave." Tauriel was trying to get them all out of the house and on the move.
"Not without our father," the boy insisted.
"If you don't, you and your sisters will die - is that what your father would want?"
The group scrambled out of the house and into a boat that was so small it barely fit all nine of them. Half of the town was already overtaken with flames. You could feel the intense heat of it even from across town.
Dahlia was flashed back to that fateful day many years ago now, the day Dale fell.
She had taken the boys into town for the day - it had started out as a beautiful day and she didn't want to see it wasted.
"Look Auntie Dahlia!" little Kili was tugging at her robes. "Look at the giant bird! It's huge!"
She looked up to where he was pointing in the sky. "That's not a bird-"
They were already too late.
A fierce roar pierced the peacefulness of the day. The first blast of fire struck the other side of the city, striking down the bell tower but it was so hot that Dahlia could feel the heat of it from where they stood.
"DRAGON!" She grabbed the boys, shoving them behind her so that she shielded them.
By the looks of it, Dale was just a minor conflict to the dragon - his eyes were on the prize: Erebor.
She could see masses of their people pouring from the gates, trying to get to safety. She and the brothers rushed to meet them.
At the front, Thorin was leading them.
"Thorin!"
"Dahlia!"
"Uncle!"
"Fili! Kili!"
The boys ran into their uncle's arms, shaking. Kili was sobbing.
"We tried to stop it, but we couldn't," Thorin was saying.
"You did the best you could," she assured him.
Erebor was lost.
She was broken from her memory when suddenly, Bain dove out of the boat. "Da!"
"BAIN!" wailed his sisters.
"Leave him - we cannot go back," Tauriel told them gravely as Bain disappeared behind them.
No looking back - that was how they would survive this. No looking backwards, only forwards.
Perhaps by some miracle, they eventually reached the bank of the lake. It had seemed so very far away during their approach.
They scrambled onto land with the other surviving citizens of the town.
"DA!" Bain, Sigrid, and Tilda were reunited with their father, who had used his only black arrow to defeat the beast. However, like with Erebor all those years ago, the people now had no home and nowhere to go.
The Dwarves were eager to leave this all behind and rejoin their kin in Erebor.
"We should do something to help all these people," said Kili, lingering as they readied the boat that would take them across and closer to Erebor.
"We will. Your uncle promised, remember," Dahlia told him. "Now come on - they're probably worried sick about us."
They pushed off from the bank and began rowing themselves away from the displaced crowd of townspeople.
"Auntie Dahlia, when did you know you were in love with Uncle?" Kili suddenly asked her.
She was thrown by the suddenness of the question. "I- well, let's see-" Suddenly, she realized where the question had come from. "The she-elf?"
"Tauriel," he corrected.
"Tauriel." She had seen them embracing on the shore of the lake, sharing a tender moment before she and the others had rushed Kili away.
"How did you know? When did you know?"
"Well, it was the first time I saw him smile, really truly smile, and I thought, 'Now there's the friend I left all those years ago, the one who I remembered, who I could not wait to be reunited with.' Now come on - we have quite the climb ahead of us."
The climb up to the gates of the famous Dwarven kingdom took at least a couple of hours. However, when at last they reached it, they felt nothing but joy despite being exhausted by the events of the last night and day.
Despite their sufferings in the last several hours, they all were grinning widely, all of that misfortune forgotten for that moment.
For before them stood the gates of Erebor. At last, they had reached their homeland.
The vast kingdom appeared deserted when they set food inside.
"Hello? Bombur? Bifur? Anybody?" Bofur called. But only his own voice echoed back to him in response.
"Wait! Wait! Stop, stop, stop!" A distant echo carried back to them, soon followed by Bilbo himself. The Hobbit ran up to them frantically.
"Bilbo!"
"You're alive!"
"You need to leave - we all need to leave!"
"But we only just got here-"
"I've tried talking to him, but he won't listen."
"What do you mean, Laddie?"
"Thorin!" the Hobbit cried. "Thorin. He's been down there for days. He doesn't sleep. He barely eats. He's not been himself. I-I think it's this place - I think a sickness lies upon it. That's what Balin says and I think he's right."
"Sickness, what kind of sickness?" asked Kili.
"Dragon sickness," said Dahlia gravely.
But Fili was already on his way down towards the lower halls.
"Fili - Fili!" Sighing, Bilbo turned and took off back the way he had just hurriedly come from, chasing after the young prince, the others taking off after him.
Down, down, down they went, until they reached it - the treasure room. This made Fili stop in his tracks, the others following, all pausing to stop and stare with wonder and awe at the scene around them.
One could not see the floor there was so much gold. Everything was bathed in its warm glow.
And, at the centre of it all, stood Thorin himself.
"Gold - gold beyond measure. Beyond sorrow and grief. Behold, the great treasure hoard of Thror! Welcome, my sister's sons, my bride, to the Kingdom of Erebor!"
Sorry for the delay in updates - I've been busy trying to wrap up some other stories before I start some new ones - always more ideas! ;)
I'll try to update this one more regularly now since we're nearing the end of it. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)
