Chapter 37:

I finally broke into the conversation that the dwarves were having on the subject of how in hell we were going to get to the Mountain by getting up and grabbing a plate from Bard's kitchen, finding a chunk of bread, a slab of cheese, and a wooden cup of water. I began eating, conscious of their eyes on me and yet ignoring them.

"I have an idea," I said at last around a mouthful of food.

"And that would be?" asked Fili tiredly, rubbing his head. "A good one, I hope? Unlike nearly all of your other ones?"

I shot him a withering look and then elaborated, "Yes, it's a fine idea. I think. I can transport all of you to the Mountain - to the very ledge that Thorin and the others are most likely on right now."

"How?" Bofur muttered, looking at his hands inn despair. "Today is Durin's day, lass. We don't have time for boats or ponies like the others did."

"I don't mean some type of transport. I mean teleport, which - you guys - don't know what that is. Okay," I murmured, trailing off at their blank looks. "It's sort of like... instantaneous transport. One second you're here, the next you're there."

There was a brief pause. "And how are you able to do this, exactly?" asked Dori in a sort of squeak. The others looked confused and a bit scared. Kili didn't move from his position of staring at his boots.

"Magic," I replied simply.

"Okay, the lass has gone mad," said Bofur decisively, thumping his mug of ale back onto the table with a repressed belch. "Any other ideas?"

With an angry look, I said insistantly, "Here, I can show you." I stood up, food gone, and began pulling blue flames out of the air. "See?" I snapped, demonstrating it best I could.

They stared for a few moments as the cobalt-colored fire danced in my right palm, and then there was a very quick, loud, general consensus that I was not, after all, insane on this subject, and that we should try my plan.

So I gathered my strength and quickly shoved it outwards in a very quick exhale. Laketown around us blurred and disappeared, swiftly replaced mountainside and a beautiful view of the place we had just been.
And around us were more dwarves and a hobbit, looking very confused.

After a few moments of explanations - very tedious and involving a lot of hedging on my part - the reunion was over. The whole lot of them were still babbling and squawking like a bunch of startled geese, though, which I both found amusing and annoying.

Suddenly, everybody fell silent as a little bird flew up to the Door, holding a snail in its beak, and whammed its face like a woodpecker into the Door several times.

The silence remained for a few moments, and then everyone started yelling about thrushes, and signs, and prophecies, keys and keyholes. Thorin whipped the key from around his neck as the clouds and sky caught fire and the ledge was suddenly thrown into dazzling light - one specific ray of sunlight shone on the Door - revealing a previously unseen hole. Thorin pushed the key into it and turned it just as the sun finished its daily fall and disappeared, swallowed up by the horizon line. A small glimmer of light in the east was all that was left of the dazzling disk of light, as the gorgeous navy blue of night took over the sky and stars began to pop out.

Another hush had fallen over the dwarves as the door swung outward. Everyone came to the same conclusion that if we yelled, Smaug would surely hear us.

There was some whispered deliberation on what to do next, but eventually it was decided that Bilbo would go down the tunnel, using his magic Ring to make himself invisible. But he didn't want to go alone. He requested that somebody come with him, at least to the halfway point of the tunnel, then wait there for him so he could continue back up with a companion.

There was an awkward pause.

"I'll do it," I said loudly, and Kili looked murderous. I shot him a glare and then a pleading look.

His jaw tightened, and I could tell that he was struggling not to do exactly what I didn't want him to do, which was tell me what to do. "Promise me you'll be invisible. Whole time," he said, his voice uncharacteristically rough, making me shiver.

I nodded. "In fact -" I scrabbled around on the ground for a moment, then came up with a stick. Kili gave me a look like I was insane, but I whispered a spell over it and it hardened into a shiny, silver casing around a glass crystal. I took it and pressed it against my ankle, drawing the Elvish rune for silence there, and then on the inside of my left wrist I drew the rune for stealth. And on my neck I carefully drew the one for invisibility.

All of the dwarves yelped as I disappeared.

"These'll make sure I don't lose my focus and have the spell fall apart," I tried to say, but nobody could see me or hear me. So I drew on the ground with the glass and metal wand, pressing words into the dirt so they could see.

Sorry 'bout that. I am still here. Bilbo, I'll come with you. I'll come to the halfway point, and up 'till there, I'll let you know that I'm there by touching you shoulder. Hope you don't mind. These runes, guys, make sure that I won't lose my focus regarding the gems and have the spell fall apart. One is for invisibility (obviously), another for utter silence, so you can't hear me, and the last for stealth/balance/grace. They'll work, I promise, Kili.

"Go, lass," said Balin gently as Kili stared straight at me without seeing me, and I could see from his expression that he was more than worried about me - he was terrified for me. He desperately wished that he could see me, if only so that he could say goodbye for now.

I practically burst into tears, and I got up from my crouch and leaped at him. He nearly fell over from the force of my invisible hug, and it must have looked bizarre to the other dwarves. He appeared to be hugging air, and he found the top of my head and kissed it. "Good luck, Freya," he whispered.

"Come on, Freya," said Bilbo softly.

I disentangled myself from Kili, placed my hand on Bilbo's shoulder, and followed him down the tunnel. We moved pretty quickly, and we reached the halfway point way sooner than I thought. As we walked, the heat grew more intense, and the light at one end of the tunnel was brighter than ever.

I gave Bilbo's shoulder a quick squeeze, and he cast a brief look of fear and confusion in my direction as he slipped his Ring on - and then even I couldn't see him. I sat down and slipped my glass-and-metal wand into my boot, the one without a knife. I inhaled deeply, glad that I had left my swords and quiver up on the ledge - they might have made noise. I smoothed out my cloak, which for once was empty. I fingered the links of my mail shirt beneath my cotton shirt, grateful for its protection. I hadn't actually taken it off since Lake-town, before that since the elf place, and before that since Beorn's. I remembered having taken it off just once - and getting shot with an arrow to my back.

I actually was surprised that I didn't remember a hell of a lot of what happened after the pain had spread like a fire across my back. I remembered mostly a haze of pain, feeling two strong arms holding me up - I knew they had been Kili's. I remembered making a couple of wisecracks, making hacking sounds and having my voice be rough. I remembered just one of Kili's expressions - extreme, all-consuming worry.

Once I knew Bilbo was a good distance ahead of me, I got up and followed him.

I crept down the tunnel until I reached the opening. I watched Bilbo gently pick up a piece of treasure - or rather watched the piece of treasure magically levitate and then disappear as he put it in his pocket.

Suddenly, a roar filled the huge cave before I had a chance to explore it with my eyes. My thoughts immediately flew to ideas of enemies, death, fire - when a huge, dark red dragon reared up in front of us.

My first thought was that this was wrong. In the book, I had checked, and Bilbo didn't actually speak to Smaug until the second time he went down the tunnel. Evidently, something had changed.

All of those ideas flew from my mind as Smaug fell with a crash back onto his forelegs, upsetting a large mound of gold and causing it to ripple down with the little clinks of metal on metal, sounding like rain on a metal roof.

And then Benedict Cumberbatch's voice filled the enormous cavern. "Who dares disturb me?"

Bilbo, I imagined, was terrified. I, however, narrowly missed fainting from excitement. That voice - not for the first time, I thanked whatever gods were watching over my ridiculously convoluted life for bringing me to movie-verse.

The hobbit managed, "It is only a lowly Burglar, O Great and Magnificent Smaug! Do not let me disturb your rest - I shall simply replace this -" he lowered the goblet back into place, and then I imagine backed as far away as possible to avoid having his location pinpointed, "-and I will just leave you be."

Benedict's - no, Smaug's - voice filled the huge treasure room as he and Bilbo exchanged riddles and cryptic replies. In comparison, the hobbit's voice was small and weak, even as he valiantly sparred verbally with a dragon - which few would be able to do.

The entire time I was alternating between silently fangirling and wondering whether I should say something and risk revealing my presence to Bilbo, while also having the once in a lifetime chance of speaking with a dragon.

The answer was presented to me when suddenly Smaug snarled, "You are not alone, Barrel-Rider."

Bilbo's voice revealed just how white his face must have been, because he stammered, "I-I assure you, Smaug the Tremendous, that I came alone."

"Then perhaps the girl-dwarf can explain her presence herself," rumbled the dragon, clearly under the impression that he was being welcoming as he swept his tail around like a gesture of, "come in," upsetting a suit of armour and causing it to fall with a crash.

I was surprised by the lack of courage I needed to speak to him. I pulled out my stele (the glass-and-metal wand, which I finally had realised reminded me of the steles from the Mortal Instruments) and quickly obliterated the silence rune. Then I straightened up and said, "I am not a girl-dwarf."

Smaug made a terrible coughing sound, and I realised after a moment that he was laughing. "Then what are you?"

"I am a dwarf-human hybrid," I replied softly. "I am Master of Elements, Daughter of Magic, Leader of All Beasts. I tame animals with my speech, was waned on Elvish, and I could watch my birthplace burn without a care." The last part was only partially true - I meant my original home in Scotland, as opposed to anywhere in Middle-Earth. "I am Elf-Friend and Rider of the Shadow of the Moon. I am the Guest of Dwarves and Eagles and Bears. I have stood before the Goblin-King and lived to tell the tale. It was with my help that my companions lived through attacks of Orcs, Trolls, Wargs, and countless others. I am both of this world and yet have never set foot here. I have survived hundred foot falls, and I am the bane of spiders and Orcs. I am far more than 'girl-dwarf.'"

Smaug chuckled his screechy laugh again. "You are even better than your friend at spinning tales. You have a silver tongue, my dear. And if all you say is true, you are formidable to your enemies."

"I would never lie to one as magnificent as yourself, O Mighty Smaug," I replied, wincing a little at the slightly inelegant phrasing. "And even my friends fear their necks when I am angry, for I have a temper like a dragon and self-containment of a river."

Smaug became thoughtful. "Barrel-Rider," he said at last, "what are you? I can taste your scent upon the air, and where dwarf lies heavily on you, Daughter of Magic -" I couldn't help blushing, thinking of Kili, "- There is an unfamiliar smell about my first visitor."

I took that as our cue to leave. "If you wish us to become friends, O Smaug the Majestic, I would suggest that you be more welcoming should we return." As I spoke, I drew a rune on my arm with the stele, a spell to shield me from all physical assaults. Then I slid it back into my boot.

With that, I pelted over to where Bilbo had seemed to be, grabbed his little hobbit body, and threw him back up into the tunnel as Smaug roared with fury, his chest beginning to glow. I watched, fascinated for a moment, as the golden colour that shone between his scales grew brighter and worked into his throat, then came spewing out of his mouth in fire, painting the walls and floor with flames.

I wisely turned and ran. "Run, Barrel-Rider!" I screamed, not trusting myself to say Bilbo's name or even his species.

"Not without you!" came his determined voice, and I rolled my eyes and sprinted up after him, pausing only to throw one last parting word over my shoulder: "Goodbye, Smaug!"

He laughed even as he blew his fire. "Goodbye, Daughter of Magic!" he roared in return, pausing in his flaming to speak.

By the time he started again, Bilbo and I were halfway up the tunnel.

We burst out into the cold night, panting. My invisibility rune had flared and died, as had the stealth. I was very grateful for the Impervious spell, however, because when Bilbo took off his Ring, the heels of his feet and the back of his head were singed of their hair, and his clothes bore scorch marks as well.

Kili leaped up. "Freya!" he breathed, and caught me up in a huge hug, surprising the hell out of me. "You're okay. We heard noises - Roaring, dragon-fire -"

"We're fine," I said shortly. "He didn't hurt us."

"Us?" Kili pulled back, fixing me with his gaze. I squirmed as my blue eyes met his brown, and I honestly felt like he could see into my soul. "You broke your word."

I sighed. "I didn't break any word. I stayed invisible the whole time, like I promised. I stayed with Bilbo until the halfway point, and I let him know I was there by touching his shoulder. Those were the terms we agreed on."

Kili pulled me away from the others into a secluded corner of the ledge. "Freya. I know I said that I wouldn't try to tell you what to do, wouldn't get mad at you for doing stupid things. But this is different, Freya. That is a living dragon down there, who could turn you into a pile of ash as quick as breathing - literally - and would do so as soon as look at you. I am not going to to lose you, Freya. Not now, not ever, not if I have any say, and this time, I do. You like to think you're in charge, Frey, but just this once can't you just accept for once that the only thing I care about is your well-being and keeping you alive? That I don't actually want to keep you from doing something you want to do just for my own kicks? That I actually want to keep you around, because when you're gone, I feel like the air left with you?"

I stared at him for a moment, then opened my mouth to yell at him, but he clamped a fingerless-glove-clad hand across my mouth.

"Do me a favour," he said, his Irish accent coming out strong as always, "and shut up. Just don't say anything. Because this time, Freya, I'm not going to back down. It may be selfish, but I want to keep you around, thanks, because I don't think I could deal with it if you died. You can do whatever the hell you want to get yourself killed as long as I'm around to save your arse, okay? Otherwise, try not to make me more worried than I have to be."

He took his hand away, and I was surprised and a little abashed to see that his face didn't have any worry that I was going to blow up at him. That, more than anything, made me realise how serious he was. I stared at my boots, feeling like a chastised child. "I'm sorry, Kili. I just - I didn't realise -" I snapped my gaze back up to his. "How do you do this all the time?"

He chuckled deeply, making me shiver. "It's what you want," he murmured softly.

I sighed and leaned against him. "It's been such a long day," I whispered.

He laughed again. "Alright, then, Frey, we'll deal with Smaug in the morning."

As I was falling asleep, I contemplated how odd, but awesome it had been to have Kili turn the tables on me for once. It often felt like I had Kili by the scruff of his neck, and it felt right and more balanced to have him knock me down a peg for once.

It was weird, I thought sleepily, letting a tiny smile come to my face, I always got pissed at Kili for being a control-freak, and he backed down. Now he stopped backing off, and stood up for himself. And now that he has, I'm tamer. I didn't like being tamer for most people. but for Kili - it seemed like it could work.

Back into normalcy - OR IS IT? Next chapter holds big surprises, yayses!