Right, let's change the happenings around again, shall we? I'm taking a lot of liberties here, hopefully to make it all more exciting.
Now, since I had a couple of people asking me about Fíli's poppy seed addiction: first of all, the poppy seeds won't have any negative effect on him, ever, and he won't suffer from cold turkey or anything the like once he stops chewing them. I just believed it would be fun to give Fíli – wannabe brave little lion man and stuff – a little quirk that will hopefully be rather amusing to everyone (except for him of course) and you will find out about that quirk in a short while. But nobody needs to be worried; he's not turned into Middle Earth's first drug addict ;)
Thanks a lot guys, for all the reviews and I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, as it gets a little more dramatic now!
The tunnel was narrow and foul and even though the torch lit up a few feet before him, Bilbo staggered through the darkness. He half expected a drop off behind every corner and his inevitable death by either falling down into a chasm or right into the open jaws of Smaug but nothing the like happened. He wandered through the black tunnel for quite a while and the deeper he went; the stronger grew the scent of melted iron and copper. However, Bilbo noticed after a while, it did not stink of death and decay like the tunnels below Mount Gundabad or down at Goblin-Town and the hobbit felt a little relieved.
He first heard a soft echo that his light steps made. It was faint and sweet and yet it made him strangely aware of his surroundings, for an echo meant that there was an open space before him, large enough make every step resound from the walls. He halted and even held his breath but no sound came from the depth before him. He quickly slid on the ring and took a deep breath before he went on.
The tunnel ended in a small plateau, carved into the stone of Erebor. A staircase led into a large hall below, so vast that the hobbit could not possible see the opposite wall and in the dark, Bilbo spotted the silhouettes of high pillars, broad and massive like tree trunks, that reached up into the darkness above him. He lifted the torch a little more and his breath caught in his throat.
In the dim light, the hall glistened and blinked like the night sky. The floor was littered in gold coins, mountains of goblets, diamonds, boxes, jewellery, bars of gold, mithril and silver were scattered everywhere, reaching high into the darkness. Pile after pile, as far as the eye could see and there seemed to be no end to the shimmering.
Bilbo did not dare to move a muscle and he stood mesmerized for a long while. Never before had he seen a treasure as immense as this and when it dawned on him, that in the darkness of the hall he could only see a small part of it, he grew pale. Gasping quietly and occasionally hiccupping distressed, the hobbit made his way down the staircase, carefully placing one foot before the other. He did not feel particularly brave and everything within him begged for him to turn around and leave but still Kíli's words rung clearly in his head. Thorin would acknowledge him for this. And so would the rest of the company. Dwalin, Glóin, Bifur, Dori and Nori, who believed him useless anyways. Balin, Bombur, Bofur Ori and Óin, who pitied and mothered him. Fíli and Kíli who, though friendly to him, still regarded him as some sort of pet that they dragged along to entertain themselves with whenever boredom struck.
The marble floor felt cold underneath his feet and though it was made from stone and glistened in the dim light of the torch like a polished mirror, it felt incredibly soft, softer than any rug, softer than grass and Bilbo marvelled at the beauty of the patterned tiles. He reached out to touch one of the large pillars and could still not see an end to it when he looked up at the ceiling of the hall. Dwarvish runes were carved into the stone and the typical angular symbols and patterns were displayed on every pillar and every wall. Bilbo wandered through the forest of pillars and he could not help but wonder in amazement, how those stone hearted, grim creatures out there could create something as beautiful as this.
A soft jingle made him flinch and he spun around. Before him lay nothing but gold, piled up high. Each mountain was much bigger than the poor little hobbit. He carefully stepped towards the largest golden tower. The coins were heaped higher than Bilbo could see and the shimmering faded somewhere in the darkness above his head. The pile seemed as large as the mountain itself. He reached out but before his fingers even touched the treasure, another small golden coin slipped from its place and fell to the ground with a quiet clink. Bilbo's hand halted midway and the small hobbit suddenly began to shake like a leaf. His legs trembled so badly that he found himself unable to take another step. Mesmerized by all the glory and beauty of this place, he had completely forgotten about the guardian of this treasure.
More and more coins thrummed to the ground, a rain of gold came down upon the poor creature and Bilbo sank to his knees, unable to move. Between the gold, a dark red glistened here and there, faint at first but as more gold fell, more of the bloody red was revealed. Scales, half of Bilbo's size, glistened in the torchlight and it looked like they were burning bright. A deep growl suddenly echoed through the hall, so dark and heavy that the floor began to rumble.
Bilbo watched in terror, as the gold came to live and a shadow grew taller and taller in the darkness of the hall. The hobbit dropped the torch and the flame was buried under hundreds of gold coins. Surrounded by nothing but black, he heard the scraping of large claws on the stony ground and the clatter of gold and somewhere high, high above his head, Smaug opened his eyes and they gleamed in the dark like brilliant ambers.
Outside, Fíli shuffled under his blankets and blinked lazily, woken by the flickering light of the fire. Sleep didn't come easy in a place like this and the wind, that howled around the bay, sometimes scared him to the bones for he feared the gush could be caused by the large wings of a dragon. Of course Fíli knew little of the hurricane that Smaug's wings had caused when he had descended upon Erebor over a hundred years ago but his imagination was running wild ever since they had settled down in the bay.
When he noticed his brother sitting by the door, he got up from his makeshift bed and scuffled over, wrapped in his blanket. The flames of the fireplace drew deep shadows on his features, making the scratches and scars look even deeper and viler than they were and when Kíli looked up to him, he flinched for a second.
"What?" Fíli asked puzzled, as he sat down next to his brother. "It's not like you had more than seventy years to get used to my face."
"You look different", the younger muttered and smiled a little. "Not as pretty anymore."
"Well you were never pretty to begin with", Fíli retorted bluntly but smiled himself, leaning against his brother and enjoying the warmth that radiated from his body.
"Can't sleep?" he asked, wondering why his younger brother was still up at this ungodly hour. His gaze wandered across the horizon and he noticed the sky turning to a pale grey already in the far East.
"No", Kíli shifted a little, causing his brother to growl quietly. "Whenever I close my eyes I see that beast before me and don't wish to sleep anymore. It's odd, you know? We've never seen him and yet I know what he looks like."
"Me too", Fíli admitted, quite certain that the sole reason for his tight sleep had been the poppy seeds. "Curious though, that you would sit right by the door if the dragon scares you so much."
"Ah, well", Kíli shrugged, a crooked smile tugging at his lips and the tone of his voice was way too innocent. Now the astounding things about brothers and especially those two, was the innate knowledge of the thoughts and feelings of the other and it took Fíli only a split second to know that something was odd. And he also knew that it was nothing that had happened to Kíli but rather something he had done. Something incredibly stupid at that.
"What did you do?" he therefore asked straight out and blunt and Kíli's cheeks grew rosy and he mumbled something incomprehensible.
"You did something birdbrained again, didn't you?" Fíli inquired again and his voice rang with the usual bigger-brother-tone that Kíli hated with a passion. Yet he refused to answer and when Fíli looked around for evidence of his brother's doing, he noticed the hobbit missing. "Where is Bilbo?"
Kíli's gaze wandered to the door and Fíli's eyes grew wide in shock.
"He's in there?!" he exclaimed and Kíli quickly covered his mouth with his hand to shut him up.
"Stop yelling, will you?! It's not like I forced him to go down there. I proposed it and he went willingly", Kíli replied hastily and one look from his brother was enough for him to know that he had just gotten himself into big trouble.
"You proposed he should go down there?" Fíli asked, shoving his brother's hand to the side. "On his own? Into a place he doesn't know and a dragon is in there? Are you mental?!"
"He's safe! The dragon won't even be able to see him", Kíli defended himself but he crouched a little under the harsh words of his brother. Being scolded by Thorin was one thing. Being scolded by Fíli felt like the world was crumbling around him and nobody could make Kíli feel so small and stupid like Fíli could.
"What do you mean, the dragon won't be able to see him? Last time I checked, that bloody beast wasn't blind and Master Baggins might be small but not small enough to remain entirely unseen, especially when he's staggering around the darkness!"
"He has a torch."
"Oh marvellous and you believe a flickering light will make him more invisible, do you?"
Kíli grew smaller and smaller and silently prayed to Mahal for his brother to stop hissing at him. "No, look he has this magical ring that turns him invisible if he puts it on. It's amazing and I thought if the dragon can't see him, he'd be perfectly safe!"
Fíli eyed him for a while, his eyes narrowed. A ring that turned the hobbit invisible. "You drank all the grog again, didn't you?"
"I'm sober! Bilbo has a magical ring that turns him invisible!"
Before Fíli could give him another wigging for lying and sending the poor hobbit into his certain death however, the ground beneath their feet began to rumble and shake violently. Fíli's voice got caught in his throat and he looked at his brother, shock and fright drawn on both their faces.
A deafening roar reverberated across the bay and down into the valley and all the way down in Esgaroth, people awoke from their sleep. The mountain was shaking, stones crumbling down into the valley and by the northern peak, a landslide came gushing down like a deathly blanket. The dwarves sprung to their feet, holding onto each other as the ground below them trembled and rumbled. Suddenly a noise rang through the air, deep as a large, terrible horn and indescribable. Thorin, who had the hilt of his sword in a firm grip, grew so pale that the boys believed for a moment he would faint. The King exchanged a frightened glance with Balin and Dwalin as all three of them remembered the sound. The deep, hot breath of a dragon.
A strong wind swept through the narrow tunnel, blowing Fíli and Kíli off their feet and both of them tumbled across the bay and while Fíli was grabbed firmly by Dwalin before he could burn himself in the campfire, Kíli neary toppled off the edge of the bay, holding onto Nori's and Glóin's hands. The stone door groaned and fell shut with a loud bang, crunching and cracking, stone splitting from the massive wall and trickling to the ground.
"NO!" Kíli shouted, quickly got back up on his feet and rushed to the polished wall. No sign of the door was visible anymore, the keyhole had vanished and so had the lines and runes for the door only revealed itself once when the first light of the moon on Durin's Day shone upon it. "BILBO!" The youngster desperately clawed at the stone, scratching his nails and fingertips bloody but to no avail. The door had disappeared.
A sudden silence fell over the mountain and for a while, the members of the company heard nothing but their own rapid breathing and the heavy pounding of their hearts. They stared at the wall and all hope faded from their eyes. Thorin sank to his knees, shaking and trembling, fighting the tears of frustration that began to dwell in his blue eyes. Without the door, all hope was lost.
"Bilbo", Kíli whispered, leaning his forehead against the cold stone. He sobbed and rammed his fist into the wall, hard enough for his knuckles to snap and to break the skin and he repeated the motion again and again until blood was dripping down his fingers. It was only when Balin gently clutched his shoulders and led him to a small boulder nearby that he came to his senses again. He stared into thin air, eyes fixed on nothing in particular and tears ran down his cheeks. Balin whiped them off with the sleeve of his coat, concern shown on his old face.
"Now, now don't hurt yourself over this. Maybe we were not meant to reclaim the mountain in the first place", he muttered quietly, believing to console Kíli this way, though he did not know that the youngster cried for an entirely different reason.
"It's all my fault", Kíli mumbled and Balin raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"What is?"
But the words stuck in Kíli's throat, nearly choking him.
"Bilbo is in there", Fíli's voice sounded hoarse and quiet and all the dwarves stared at him in disbelief. The youngster looked at his distressed brother and his anger turned into pity and love and he swallowed hard. "It was hi- it was our fault. We told him to go down and scout the tunnel. We thought he would be too small for Smaug to notice and Gandalf had said he wouldn't know the smell of a hobbit so we thought-"
"You thought it would be a splendid idea to kill the hobbit!" Thorin cut him off as he got up from his place again, his voice nothing but a roar and Fíli flinched badly. "Master Baggins is most likely dead and our only way home is blocked forever! The dragon is awake and aware of something odd going on and it will only be a matter of time until he leaves the mountain and destroys Esgaroth and everyone living in it and it is your entire fault! I hope you can live happily with that!"
Never before had Kíli felt so terrible and guilty in his life. Fear and frustration were gnawing at him and he believed it to be the best, if he just flung himself off the bay and into the abyss, only so he could not cause anymore harm. He wished that he had never gone on this quest, that he had listened to his mother and uncle and believed them when they had told him that he was too young to go. He wished he could exchange places with Bilbo and that he had died in his stead. Unable to say anything, unable to move, he sat on the boulder, rocking back and forth and sobbing violently.
"We should get away from the mountain", Óin mumbled after a short while. "The beast's awake and we better not be around when he leaves his lair."
"We need to warn the people of Lake-Town too", Bofur added, looking carefully over to Thorin but no reaction came from their leader. It seemed as if all hope had faded and sucked the soul out of Thorin's body. His head was blank, his heart heavy and his spirits long lost. Nothing was left of the glorious pride, nothing remained of Durin's will and the power of the Longbeards. Thorin was nothing but an empty shell. He suddenly clasped his beautiful necklace and ripped it off his neck, the silver beads and chains clattering to the ground. He pulled his rings off his fingers and threw them into the abyss below. He took off his coat and began to cut the fur collar off, tore it apart bit by bit and cast it into the fire. He removed his velvet jerkin, the dark blue shimmering in the faint light of dawn and threw it away as well until he stood, dressed in ordinary linen and leather, a torn coat and no jewellery anymore, his eyes empty.
The company had watched in horror and Dwalin and Balin, Thorin's oldest and most beloved friends, trembled with fear and agony.
"Thorin", Dwalin began but his friend merely shook his head.
"Bofur is right. We should leave", Thorin mumbled and began to pick up his belongings, though his movement was slow and drained of all strength. "I thank you, all of you, for joining me on this quest, though in vain it was. I have failed and I won't risk your lives any longer for a business that was mine alone from the start. I apologize. Feel free to go wherever you like from here, I hereby disband this company and this shall be my last order to you, for I am not worthy of leading you any longer. Nor anybody else."
As he began to descend the stairs that led down into the valley, he felt Fíli's looks on him. The youngster stood by his brother's side and his heart ached like it had never done before. His uncle, the man he had admired and loved, the glorious King who had led them into safety and given them a new home when nobody else would, was gone. And Fíli's vision went blurry when tears formed in his eyes.