Balin and Bilba walked into a tunnel leading to the interior of the mountain.
"You want me to find a jewel?" She asked, fear hiding in her voice.
"A large white jewel, yes." Balin answered.
"That's it? Only, I imagine there's quite a few down there."
"There is only one Arkenstone. You'll know it when you see it."
"Alright."
Balin began to walk back down the tunnel, but then paused.
"In truth, lass, I do not know what you will find down there. You needn't go if you don't want to, there's no dishonor in turning back."
"No, Balin, I promised I would do this, and I think I must try."
Balin looked at Bilba, then began to chuckle appreciatively.
"It never ceases to amaze me."
"What's that?"
"The courage of Hobbits. Go now with as much luck as you can muster."
They nodded at each other, and Bilba proceeded down the tunnel while Balin turned back.
"Oh, and Bilba...if there is, in fact, a live dragon down there, don't waken it."
Bilba looked worried, but nodded. She walked a few more steps, then turned as if to ask a question, but Balin was already disappearing around a corner. Bilba tiptoed toward Smaug's lair. She was nervous, cautious, and lonely all at once. All she now wanted to do was get this done.
Bilba quietly walked through a large doorway and found herself in a massive hall. She whispers out loud.
"Hello?"
She knocked quietly on the wall beside him, but the sound was intensified loudly as it echoed, and she jumps and pressed herself against the wall in shock. Seeing no reaction to the noise, she walked out into the hall on an elevated walkway.
"You're not at home. Not at home. Good. Good, good, good." she mumbled to herself.
Bilba, at the top of a staircase, suddenly stopped walking and her mouth hung open in shock. She saw mountains of gold, jewels, weapons, cups, and all sorts of treasure piled dozens of feet high all throughout the immensely massive hall. Bilba climbed down the stairs and carefully began to walk atop the treasure. She tried to be quiet, but the coins and jewels beneath her feet made a lot of noise. She poked around, looking for the Arkenstone. She found a large white jewel and examined it.
"What's that?"
She shook the jewel and continued examining it; deciding that it was not the Arkenstone, she carelessly threw it aside, then jumped when it clattered and made a lot of noise.
"Sushh, sushh," she tried, but it was no use.
She continued to look around.
"Arkenstone, Arkenstone...a large, white jewel. Very helpful," she muttered sarcastically.
Bilba was surrounded by so much treasure that it would be impossible for her to find one particular jewel out of all of it.
Bilba climbed up a mountain of gold. She picked up a golden cup, and this action started a small avalanche of coins. Bilba looked up and saw the coins falling away to reveal Smaug's eye, which was shut. Bilba jumped behind a stone pillar in fright. All was silent, and it seemed like Smaug was still asleep. Suddenly, the dragon snorted, and the treasure around his nose fell away, revealing the monster. Bilba, panting, slowly tried to make her way down the pile of gold, but stopped short when she realized that Smaug's body was buried in a large circle around where she was standing. The gold all along Smaug's body began to ripple as he awakened.
Bilba took a few steps, then paused and kneeled as Smaug began to raise his head, his eyes were still closed. As Smaug opened his eyes, Bilba ran and dove behind a pile of gold. As Smaug's eyes looks around, Bilba reached into her pocket and pulled out the Ring. He looked at it for several seconds, then looked up as Smaug began to raise his head. She slipped the Ring on, and became invisible. Smaug raised his massive head and sniffed the air.
"Well, thief, I smell you. I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you?" The monster bellowed. As Smaug said this, he moved his head back and forth around the place where Bilba was invisibly standing, and Bilba had to duck to avoid being knocked over. Bilba panicked and ran down the mountain of treasure. Even though she was invisible, Smaug could still see where she was going because of the coins she was dislodging with her feet while running. Smaug followed rapidly. Bilba ducked behind a stone outcropping as Smaug continued searching.
"Come now, don't be shy. Step into the light. Mmm, there is something about you, something you carry. Something made of gold, but far more...PRECIOUSSSSS."
While saying this, Smaug's head was right in front of Bilba's hiding place. As Smaug says "Precious," the word reverberated in Bilba's head over and over and she strained in mental pain. A flaming eye bursted into her vision, and she yanked the Ring off, becoming visible to Smaug.
"There you are, thief in the shadows."
"I did not come to steal from you, O Smaug the Unassessably Wealthy. I merely wanted to gaze upon your magnificence, to see if you really were as great as the old tales say. I did not believe them."
Hearing this, Smaug stomped several yards away and drew himself up so his entire body was visible to Bilba. He was a massive dragon with two back legs, two massive, bat-like wings with claws, and both his neck and tail are incredibly long. His head alone is the size of a village hut.
"And, do you you now?!"
"Truly, the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous."
"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?"
Bilba prayed it would but she doubted the enormous creature.
"No- no, no."
"No, indeed. You seem familiar with my name, but I don't remember smelling your kind before. Who are you, and where do you come from, may I ask?"
Smaug snaked his head closer to Bilba as he asked the question. Bilba opened her mouth to speak but then suddenly saw something off to the side. It was the Arkenstone, she was so sure of it; a small, white gem glowing with an unnatural light, buried under one layer of coins.
"I- I come from under the hill."
"Underhill?"
Bilba nodded, and snuck a peek at the Arkenstone. It is not far away from her.
"And under hills and over hills my path has led. And, and, through the air. I am she who walks unseen." She stalled.
"Impressive. What else do you claim to be?" Smaug snaked his head forward until his teeth were inches from Bilba's face. As Smaug exhaled, Bilba grimaced at his breath.
"I am...luck-wearer. Riddle-maker."
"Lovely titles; go on."
"Barrel-rider," she continued hesitantly.
"Barrels? Now that is interesting. And what about your little dwarf friends? Where are they hiding?"
"Dw- Dwarves? No, no, no dwarves here. You've got that all wrong," she stumbled over her words, completely caught off guard.
"Oh, I don't think so, barrel-rider. They sent you in here to do their dirty work while they skulk about outside."
"Truly, you are mistaken, O Smaug, Chiefest and Greatest of calamities."
"You have nice manners...for a thief and a liar! I know the smell and taste of dwarf. No one better. It is the gold! They are drawn to treasure like flies to dead flesh."
As Smaug stomped about, his claws knocked the Arkenstone away from where it had been, and Bilba gasped. The Arkenstone bounced down the mountain, and Bilba ran after it.
"Did you think I did not know this day would come, when a pack of canting dwarves would come crawling back to the mountain?!"
Bilba tripped and slid down the gold. Smaug followed after him, knocking over as massive stone pillar in his rage. As the pillar fell, its reverberations sound throughout the mountain. Even the dwarves sitting in the clearing above the secret stairs heard it and stood up.
"Was that an earthquake?" one of the dwarves asked.
"That, my lad...was a dragon."
Thorin looked worried.
The reverberation reached as far as Laketown; in Bard's house, everyone looked up at the sound, and dust fell from the ceiling. Kili was still moaning in pain, repeating Emilia's name over and over again.
"Da?"
"It's coming from the mountain."
Fili leaved Kili's side and approached Bard.
"You should leave us. Take your children; get out of here." Fili tried to tell him.
"And go where? There is nowhere to go." Bard reasoned.
"Are we going to die, Da?"
"No, darling."
"The dragon, it's going to kill us."
Bard looked at his children worriedly for a moment, then reached up and pulled a black arrow, the last of the three that Girion had in Dale, from where it had been hidden as a drying rack for plants. His children looked at the arrow in shock.
"Not if I kill it first."
Emilia watched the door open again and Demisrie snaked back in.
He didn't speak until he reached her, standing only inches away from her.
"You were always so beautiful," he said, forcefully pressing her against the wall. His lips landed on hers and she fought as his hands moved toward her breasts. His lips moved from hers down her cheek and to her neck. She continuously tried to struggle.
That's when she broke. She moved her hands showing they were no longer tethered to the chains.
Anger and hatred boiled inside of her as she pressed her hands into his skull, fire burning as he screamed.
"This is for everything, every scar, every broken bone. I hate you. I hate every part of you. You hurt him."
"He never loved-" Demisrie started before falling to the floor quickly. His eyes dead and cold.
A pain moved into Emilia's heart and soul causing her to scream out, falling to the ground, barely conscious.
She stared at her hands in a pained state of wonder as ice began to run from her hands and up the walls creating giant spikes. Rushes of wind slashed at her, not in a forceful painful way, but one that calmed her. Then the stone floor began to shift underneath her creating a giant chasm that seemed to swallow the corpse that lay before her. She couldn't help but move to the side to watch it fall, breaking as it hit every rock and ledge on its way down.
Then the chasm, as quickly as it formed, disappeared.
Emilia didn't move, she was in way to much pain to even move an inch.
Then the tears began to fall. Ones of pain and sorrow mixed with relief and adrenaline.
"Don't worry Kili, I'll find you." She said as she slowly inched her way to the door.
The first thing she did was carefully and painfully move back to her old room, finding a suitable outfit to cover herself with. Then she moved to the weapons room, grabbing a bow, arrows, a long sword, and several knives.
Then she took a horse and rode into the night.
At first they looked like orcs from far away, but as Emilia drew closer, her horse gaining speed, she realized the figures that flew on horseback were elves.
"Tauriel!" She called drawing closer.
The red headed elf stopped.
"Oh, you're safe." Tauriel said as all three of them stopped to talk.
"More or less. Where are they?"
"We've been following a small pack of orcs that are drawing closer and closer to Laketown, I assume the dwarves are there." The male elf, Legolas, answered.
"Alright, well then what are we waiting for?" Emilia answered in a perky tone.
"'We?'" Legolas asked.
"Kili is there, I'm apart of the company. I'm obviously coming. Where else would I go?" She said.
"I'm going to agree with her. She belongs with the man she loves."