Chapter Twelve
Notes: Sorry for the long wait, things have been very wild around here. Favorite, Review, Follow. Hope you enjoy!
Bilbo gulped as he and the others raced through the mountains being chased by Smaug. Fire literally nipping at his feet as he ran with the others to avoid being fried like a fish. Thorin had done an impressive tuck and roll maneuver throwing off his overcoat in the process to escape the flames that were eating away at the heavy fur. Bilbo had to say for a stout muscular male he was light on his feet, but heavy on foot. Bilbo's mind got focused again as Smaug cut them off at another pass forcing the small group to drift into an even smaller group. This forced Smaug to have to choose which of the members to go after first. The thief or the dwarrow and the king, the dragon's massive head swiveled in the two directions as if he was making up his mind before he turned to follow the king of the dwarrow.
"I am King under this Mountain." Smaug hissed out with his next fiery breath. Thorin leap from the cross way onto another one and scurried in another direction forcing the massive dragon to slide on the coins of gold that he was moving upon. A tumble of the treasure washed over a lower crosswalk, flooding it like water in an overflowing river.
Soon the dwarrow had a plan established and had started to lure the dragon to what they hoped would be his doom. The fall of the molten gold covered the floor of the vast hall. Smaug was washed over by the flood of the precious metal that he so coveretted. "It burns!" Smaug roars as the gold covers him.
Silence filled the hall before the dragon burst through the stillness and smashed his way out of the mountain. "The humans of Laketown have helped you. I could smell the scent of fish upon your clothes, they will pay for this." Smaug vowed, leaping up in a spiral and shaking the melted gold off of him and took flight in the direction of the small floating town. "I am Fire, I am Death!" He growled out.
"Target has been sighted!" A Pelican Pilot stated over the comes, watching the massive shadow take flight. "I thought this dragon would be bigger!" He stated.
"Watch the tone, we copy what you mean. He is a little bit smaller than what we were imagining ourselves." The Major said, looking through the visual of one of the crickets from where the group had set up perimeters around the town. "Rok, start evacuation." She ordered. Getting an affirmative before a loud siren started to go off around the town. "Task Dragon is underway." She stated.
Two banshees shrieked by the dragon drawing its attention away from the town as the high pitched machines fired plasma shots into the armored hide. Melting down some of the armored scales on Smaug's side and flank. Smaug roared at them, and they circled and somersaulted away from his attacks like ballet dancers. The loud noises woke those that had been sleeping peacefully in warm beds, forcing them out and to come running to the windows to see what was happening outside. The lights that brightened the sky showed the shadowed form of the dragon as it zigged in and out of the air, fire blasting along its forefront as it tried to hit the targets of flies that seemed to swarm around him.
The Master was ushering his minions to load the boats with the towns precious valuables as the townspeople scurried to exit the area before the dragon was finished with whatever was bothering it. The men watched as the boat started to sink below the water line slightly from the weight of the gold. Soon they were ready to launch the long boat across the lake to the shore where a horse drawn carriage was waiting for them. The sudden noise of something loud started up and the men ducked covering their ears as the sound became a loud echo of thunder over and over in a fast rhythm. The wretched little worm that was the second in command ran out to look at what was going on when he saw what appeared to be bright lights flashing along the lake shore aimed toward the dragon.
Smaug let out another roar as the flanks that had been weakened, broke under something that pierced his flanks which caused a massive amount of blood to flow freely from the wounds that had ripped through his scales. He turned to look at the flashing of lights that were aimed at him. Something was strange about it, the taste of metal was full but the heat of the metal shouldn't have the force or strength to pierce his scales. His attention was once more diverted by the flying machines that opened fire with blue balls of heated lava. Smaug roared again as the metal giant opened fire upon him once more.
Bard watched as the people in the town raced to shore, he called out to one of the guards who was running by and the guard paused long enough to toss the keys to the cell. Bard scrambled to unlock the door and raced out of the building and headed toward the boat that had the black arrow hidden in it. He saw that the dwarrow that had remained behind and the two elves were helping to bring people across the area to shore as the dragon seemed to whither in the air as lights flared up around it. He squinted his eyes and looked into the darkness and saw the outline of something large shooting lights at the dragon.
Floored he looked up at the point where the dragon was staying afloat shooting fire at something that was shooting blue balls of fire at the red scaled beast. The dragon flew away from the spot and once again headed toward the town. His eyes widened as what appeared to be flying birds flew away from the area heading toward the mountain, and checking he saw the giant shadow was also gone. They had given enough time for the town to evacuate but couldn't keep up the onslaught with the low ammunition supply.
"Alright boys time to bring you back to the ship. We can't keep this up much longer without running low on our supplies." Commander Verity ordered, watching as the banshees made a last sweep of the lizard and flew away from it. The dragon didn't follow, turning his attention back onto the town that had been his main target all along. She heaved a sigh and turned her Grasshopper toward the trail that she had left to the shore. "Medbay, start preparing for the injured to come in." She called out the order, receiving a confirmation.
Smaug roared and let loose flames upon the town as he blazed past it in a low swoop. Bard ducked and watched as the tower fell from the tallest building of the area and smashed into the Master's boat filled to overflowing with gold. Watching it sink with little concern he saw his son race over to him, and in his hands was the black arrow that Bard had been searching for. "Dad, did you see those things?" He asked, Bard nodded his head in agreement with his son's question.
"Yes, but now is not the time to focus on them. You need to go, hand me the arrow and keep your sisters safe." Bard assured his son, watching as his son handed him the black arrow head and nodded his head before taking off. Bard looked around for a place to shoot the arrows at Smaug to get him closer to him for the best possible aim he could achieve. The watchtower caught his attention and he raced toward it. The dragon fire had raised the town into a fiery mess heat scorched at him as he climbed the tower and he gritted his teeth against the fire and continued with his mission.
Smaug was throwing taunts to him, as Bard fired arrow after arrow at the dragon. Bard could see the wounds bleeding from the dragon as it flew past, blood that splattered hot and heavy onto Bard's face. Bard gritted his teeth and pulled the string back on the last of his arrows and watched it log into one of the open wounds. Smaug roared in pain and anger and thrashed around in the air in pain, knocking buildings over and into the water of the lake. The wood of the bow broke as Smaug launched his body at the tower, almost knocking the tower over but it held firm despite its flimsy look. Bard looked at the bow and exhaled a shaky breath of air. He felt failure settle heavy in his stomach like heavy iron and watched as Smaug taunted him once more.
Just then his son popped up over the ladder holding rope wrapped around his shoulder. "What are you doing here?" Bard stated, his voice dropping in fear at seeing his son in the middle of danger.
"I can help." His son stated, Bard looked at the rope then the boy and nodded his head yes. They formed a makeshift crossbow using the remains of the tower as support and the boy as part of the structure.
"Hold steady." Bard told his son, and carefully aimed him to hit the mark of loosened scales over the dragon's heart. Smaug was coming in for another blast directly on the tower. "Steady!" Bard whispered, then they released the arrow and watched as it flew straight into the softened scale that had been loosened by Bard's grandfather. The dragon spiraled up flames lighting up his chest and belly before it went cold and the dragon smashed into the water taking out the rest of Laketown.
Bard and his son surfaced from where he had tossed them into the water to avoid the dragon falling. They both swam to shore where others from the town were all circled around. Kili and Fili watched as the town still smoldered from the dragon's fire. Bain looked back over to where they had seen the large flying birds but he could see nothing now. The number of survivors were far greater than Bain had expected, but there were still injured people from the fire those that had been straggling behind as the dragon had come. Bain watched the way his father gave the dwarrow a cold glare as he moved to embrace his two sisters. Bain could understand what his father was feeling. If it hadn't been for the dwarrow waking up the dragon, then Laketown would not have been destroyed.
Dawn brought with it the shock of seeing the ruins of the town and the solidarity of the shock of the loss taking root inside the men's hearts. They had no food or shelter from the harsh winter that would be coming in and they would not have time to rebuild in the late autumn that they were in. Bard motioned for the people to follow him to the remains of the great city that had once thrived beside the mountain, the great city Dale. It took the entire day to make the journey to the ruins but it gave them a place to stay even if the ruins were not suitable for much they at least provided some shelter from the weather and the bitter cold that would soon come to the land.
Bard jerked to a stop, eyes widening as he saw the human woman that had come with the Dwarrow sitting patiently on a fallen stone as if waiting for them to arrive. She looked up, her clothing was repaired or new, but Bard couldn't decide, but she looked more put together and well acquainted with the area around her. "I had a feeling this would be the area that you would come to." Verity stated, rising from her seated position and looking over the group.
"Why are you not with the Dwarrow?" Bard asked the woman as she looked them over as if inspecting them.
"We parted ways once we hit Laketown, that was as far as I needed to go with them. I wasn't an original member of the group. Do you need any help, first aid, food, clothing?" Verity asked. Bard stopped and arched an eyebrow at her.
"I can help." She offered again.
"How?" Bard asked back.
"I have men and supplies that you can use, doctors to help with the injured if you will let us." Verity answered back. Bard stared at her in shock.
"And what would you want in return?" Bard asked, this world always came with a price for everything. Verity smiled and shook her head.
"You already paid in full when you helped us into Laketown, I am just paying it forward." She answered back, before speaking into something that was sticking into her ear, a device that Bard hadn't noticed until now. Sigrid and Bain looked at one another as men and women streamed from behind the foreigner and started toward them.
"Who are they?" Bard asked, after a few hours of silence where tents had been erected to help battle the elements, and stations had been put together at a record rate.
"My men, I said I come from somewhere far off. They are under my command and come from the same area. Well most of them. The rest you will probably not meet." Verity stated, referring to the Sangheili that were waiting on board the ship continuing the repairs. The two fell into a comfortable silence watching the on goings of their group working together.
Few days later a horn sounded and Verity looked up from what she had been doing with braiding Tilda's hair. She listened in as Rok spoke over the com to the rest of the group spread out setting up perimeters around the area for protection. "Incoming, looks like another group of humans being led by a man on a large mammal. They have armor on, so soldiers." Rok stated, Verity looked over to where the sound of marching was coming from and watched passively as Thranduil and his army arrived in a flashy over styled parade march.
Bard moved out to greet him and Verity motioned her men back from the area closest to the elves. "Lord Thranduil!" Bard started, and Thranduil waved him off looking around at the area that housed the ruins of the city.
"I have heard you killed the dragon." Thranduil stated, face emotionless and smooth in the elven looks. Armor shiny and cape draped over the massive deer that he rode upon. Bard nodded his head in confirmation to the statement. "We've come bearing supplies to help your people in your time of need, since Dale and The elves of Greenwood have been allies we will continue to do so now." Thranduil proclaimed. He paused, eyes staring in a hard look at the woman that had escaped his prison. Verity arched an eyebrow back at him. He wasn't as intimidating as he thought, after everything that she had experienced in her short human life she could honestly say she thought him overly flamboyant in his flaunt of military power and prosperous accomplishments of being able to provide for allies.
"Yes, we thank you. Lord Thranduil I would like to introduce to you our other allies. This is Major Verity Amezcua…." Bard paused as he noticed how the Elven King was glaring at the woman and the way the woman was simply smirking back at him, like she knew the punch line to the joke that the King hadn't even started yet.
"We've already met." Verity told Bard, "Call me if you need anything further." She stated moving away from the elves and the humans that had gathered around the wagon of produce.