'...Should we throw a rock down there or something?'

'Why would we do that, Millie?'

'Imagine how creepy it would be if the rock got thrown back'.

We had all stood there for a moment, staring down at the darkness that delved deep into the Mountain. None of us had quite known what to do, nor how loud to be. Like most things, my way of dealing with it had been not-so-funny comments and hardy bluntness.

'Well, go on then Bilbo,' I muttered finally, nudging the Hobbit toward the dark doorway. Bilbo stuttered and froze, edging away from me. 'Hobbit like holes, don't they? Or is that a little racist?'

Thorin spoke, his voice erupting out of the quiet. They'd all been momentarily flummoxed, I think. I mean, we'd done it - we'd reached the Mountain and found the Back Door, we'd used the key given to Thorin by Gandalf. We stared down into the depths of Erebor where Smaug waited. Where a dragon waited. 'Millie is right, Master Hobbit. This is why you were brought upon this quest, is it not? You are our Burglar, and a Hobbit full of courage and an exceeding amount of luck. This is the time for your to fulfill your service'.

Oh Thorin, you emotionally demented fool, you.

Bilbo had bristled and straightened up, the air of offended. 'If you think that I will be the first to go into that tunnel, then you are very wrong indeed, Thorin. I have already gotten this company out of a number of messes, and risked my life more times than I can count. For those times, I think I am already owed some reward'. The Hobbit paused and sighed. 'But, as my father said, 'third time pays for all', and somehow I don't think I'll refuse'.

With a stiff neck and tight lips, Bilbo had said, 'I will go in, but I will not go in alone. Now who is coming with me?'

The company was embarrassingly quiet. After a moment, I had given a small shrug and had been about to step forward to offer Bilbo a hand down the tunnel, but Kili had caught my hand tightly, almost painfully. My fingers flexed in his and I'd glared up at him, both startled and annoyed. He opened his mouth, still looking away from me.

I yanked on his arm before he could speak. 'If you will not let me, then I will certainly not let you,' I'd hissed up at him. Fili cast a blue eyed gazed to our stoic forms, catching the message that we were not to delve into the Mountain. I'd watched as he had caught Thorin's stern gaze, a powerful stare that was directed at the three of us. Apparently, none of us would allow the other to go down the dark tunnel.

'I will,' said Balin, who had stepped toward Bilbo with his hands crossed over his beard and stomach. 'I will go down the tunnel a bit with you, so I can call for help if you need it. I cannot go into Smaug's chamber with you, Master Hobbit. I have no magic ring like yours,' he said. His face had been kind, as it always had been. 'And I have an inkling that he will remember the scent of a Dwarf'.

Dwalin looked almost worried for his brother, though the gruffness covered up this emotion quickly. Instead, there was respect and there was pride.

Aw.

Bilbo nodded, though he had looked utterly terrified. 'Right. Yes. That sounds...good. Yes'. I'd never really considered just how cute Bilbo could be until that moment. He'd looked small and nervous - very Hobbit-like. 'I suppose I should get Sting - oh, already on my belt'. He continued to laugh in a very nervous, very hysterical manner.

'Bilbo man,' I started, loosening my hold on Kili's hand. 'I'm sure you'll be fine - you'll be invisible, won't you?'

'Smaug will actually have a rather good sense of smell,' said Nori from within the huddle of us. 'Although he'll only be used to the smell of Dwarf, Master Baggins. There's no need to worry,' he added hastily, once I had turned to give him a furiously blatant look of shut up.

'You have the ring?' inquired Thorin, facing the Hobbit with such intensity that I had thought, for a moment, that maybe we should leave the two alone with a bottle of wine and a three course meal. 'Be as quiet as you can, he may still be in a deep slumber. See what it is like down there - he will be with the gold, and that is where this tunnel should lead. Be safe, Bilbo'.

Bilbo gave a heartfelt, quick nod and shared a look with Balin, who swept his arm in the direction of the tunnel. Both had looked back at the company for a moment, and I had truly wondered, for a split second, whether they would be okay. That was the first time that any of us would be venturing into Erebor and honestly, I don't think they they had truly digested the fact that a bloody dragon was in the Mountain.

Like.

A dragon.

But then, they were gone.

'Now we wait,' said Thorin. I'll always marvel at how he could say the simplest thing, but with his deep voice it would always sound so...majestic. The company seemed to disperse with a sigh, each sitting against the rock and floor, some plopping down to a part of the lower rock. 'Millie, how is your head?' inquired Thorin.

Momentarily stumped, I'd kind of gawked at him. Despite the fact that it had still pricked with pain, I'd answered with a quick, 'Yeah, yeah. It's fine, thank you'. He'd asked if I was okay! Gosh, I'd felt like the most popular girl in school. Thorin had nodded once and continued to stand, turning away from us with a stern look on his face.

Or perhaps that was just his face.

Kili presented me with a meaningful look and a tug toward a rock to sit on. 'I've told you many times that he cares about you, just as much as the rest of us. Do you believe me now?'

I sat on the pointy rock and dropped my bag, wincing. 'Maybe he's just worried about me dying under his protection. Might look a little bad, you know?'

Kili had rolled his eyes, gently touching the top of my head and smoothing over my hair where the bump was. 'You're exaggerating. Dwarves are as hard as rock and as sturdy as steel. You won't die'.

'Never really heard steel be called sturdy before-' I scoffed at his unhappy look at me missing the point entirely 'Sorry. Gosh, d'you reckon Bilbo and Balin will be okay? Like, crap, Smaug's a dragon'.

'I am aware of that, Millie'.

I considered him with a bland look as he sat next to me, pulling out his water and taking a long sip. 'You're a sarcastic little shit today, aren't you?'

As planned, he had choked on his water, earning a disapproving look from Thorin. 'Millie,' he said, half laughing and half choking. 'You can't-'

'Yes, I can,' I replied straightening my back and staring hard at the tunnel. Something shifted. 'To you, I can. Balin's back!' I said, forgetting our conversation. True enough, the grey haired Dwarf had returned from the depths of the tunnel, burn free. 'Where's Bilbo?'

The same question was asked from the rest of the company. Balin held up a hand and sighed, pushing past Nori and Gloin and planting himself on the rock. 'He made me come back up after we were halfway down the tunnel - said it would be safer for me'. Balin considered Thorin. 'I believe that we should be giving Master Baggins a hefty share of that reward'.

Thorin nodded and grunted. 'He is in the beasts chamber now?'

Balin tilted his head. 'I assume so, yes'.

We were all very quiet after that. Balin continued to sit, Thorin continued to stand, Ori wrote in his journal and Fili soon sat beside Kili and I. The night was cold and the moon was silvery. Because we were so high on the Mountain, the stars looked even prettier, as if our distance before had dulled their beauty. Here, in Middle Earth, I always wondered why the stars were so different.

A part of me had wondered whether they were, like, magical or something like that.

I'd hopped to my feet, wondering how to pass the time as the stars shifted and the moon moved. 'We would hear it, wouldn't we?' I asked, standing at the edge of the path, just above some of the other Dwarves who sat on the lower rock. 'If Bilbo was in trouble - we would hear Smaug having a temper tantrum?'

'Aye,' answered Dwalin, looking up from the sharpening of his sword. 'Something that big would make a lot of noise'.

Thorin nodded. 'The day he came, even from how far away he was, you could hear his wings and his breath from the depths of Erebor. We will know if the Hobbit needs our aid'.

I had nodded, chewing the side of my mouth. What would we do if he did need our aid?

But then, something had happened to the Earth beneath us, the walls around us. Something had shifted, like, for a moment, Middle Earth had stalled and propelled itself forward. With this, came the Dwarves nearly falling out of their sitting positions, Thorin catching himself with his arms spread out, and myself nearly toppling on top of the Dwarves beneath me.

Luckily, Fili had caught my wrist and drawn me in quickly.

'Was that an earthquake?!'

I wasn't too sure who had asked it, but all I could think was oh God, he's awake. Balin apparently had the same thought as me, because he had looked quickly over his shoulder and said, 'I think that's the noise you were looking for, lass'.

Fili, in his frozen horror, held onto my tighter. 'We have to go!' he said gruffly, looking at Thorin. 'Thorin, Bilbo is in trouble-' I drew away from Fili, eyes wide in agreement. The Earth shook again. Fili swore in Dwarfish. 'Smaug is awake'.

We'd looked at each other in matching horror, all of us.

Awake. The dragon - the fearsome, murderous dragon was awake. He knew that we were here, Bilbo had woken him up. But how? The ring made him invisible and the Hobbit was naturally quiet.

Feeling sick and scared, I'd watched as Ori jumped to his feet as the Earth moved once again. For a moment, he looked as if he was about to join in our mad protest, but at that moment something tripped him up as he stood in front of the tunnel, where the sounds of shifting, grumbling and growling seeped out. In a flash, Bilbo had appeared, wearing his royal blue coat and carrying a golden cup.

'Bilbo!' said Dori. 'Is that-?'

After that, there was a great uproar of horror as Bilbo gasped out,

'The ring, it fell off. He saw me take the cup and chased me, but by the time I put it back on he was already awake! He chased me through the treasure!' Bilbo had looked at us, eyes wide. 'He's coming out of the Mountain - we need to hide, quickly!'

Bifur had stood, frantic. The axe in his head had glinted in the moonlight. 'Bofur,' he had said. 'Bombur!'

There was an intake of breath.

'Oh, God,' I choked, leaned heavily toward Kili. We all jumped and turned as the sound of a roar tore through the depths of the Mountain, though it had sounded far away. Thorin, taking charge, had quickly ordered for Bilbo, Balin, Kili, Fili and myself to get inside of the tunnel, ordering the rest to help haul Bofur and Bombur up the rope. 'If we run,' he had said. 'It will not take so long'.

And shit, had they run. While it had taken ten or fifteen minutes for us to stumble along the pathway to the Back Door earlier that day, that night it had taken maybe two minutes for the sprinting Dwarves to reach Bombur and Bofur.

I'd lingered near the half open door, heart hammering at the sounds of rumbling and the scraping of rock. 'He'll be coming around this side of the Mountain soon,' I'd said, hopping from one foot to the other. 'Jesus, where are they?'

Bilbo was probably the most nervous of us all, still in shock from his ordeal. I could only assume, secretly, that he had taken the cup in a moment of desperation and had been caught. Smaug, from what I had heard, guarded his treasure with jealousy and greed, much like how Thorin's Grandfather had. Dragon sickness, I had reminded myself. That's why it's called dragon sickness.

'Bilbo,' I inquired, looking over my shoulder. Kili and Fili were leaning heavily against the walls of the tunnel, while Balin lingered near my side. 'How big was he?'

Bilbo, who stood straight in the middle of the tunnel, had said, 'Beyond anything Thorin told us of. And his voice-' The Hobbit shuddered.

It talks?

My eyes shifted from Bilbo to the long tunnel behind him. The sounds of shifting and roaring seemed to have disappeared and faded, and Fili's worried words of, 'He might be out of the Mountain by now', sent my stomach plummeting.

'Where are - Jesus!' Bombur had burst through the door, panting and red faced with Bofur pushing at him from behind. He pushed past me without an apology, and upon hearing the sounds of rumbling and roaring, I had known precisely why. The tumbling line of Dwarves pushed themselves past myself and Balin and into the tunnel, all breathing hard.

'We saw fire!'

'He's hunting us-'

But, as the door was being pushed shut, I saw that among the many bags that had been dragged into the tunnel, mine was not one of them. And I know that it was reckless. I know that risking my life for a bag was stupid and idiotic. But that bag, and the chewing gum and the Vaseline and the sewing kit...they were all I'd had left of home. My clothes were gone, replaced with Middle Earthen ones.

'My bag!' I gasped, pushing past the sliding door and tripping over to the rock, ducking ridiculously and ignoring the startled yelps of, 'Millie!' Kili had shot after me, and Bilbo was halfway out of the door when a long, straight shot of fire burst in red and orange and heat down the side of the Mountain, along one of the spurs.

The sky lit up with the flames like a firework. Except less exciting and more... terrifying. The land beyond the Mountain lit up and smoke rose in horrifying swirls. Whatever was left to catch fire had most definitely caught fire. I wondered if the people of Laketown could see. Would they help us?

For a moment, we were entranced and terrified. Time seemed to stop entirely as I had watched the smokey, orange was further away, swooping down to somewhere near the Front Gate, long, thick and dark against the lit up sky, tale the same length as his own body, screeches tearing from the gaping mouth.

I surged backwards, feeling the heat of his flaming breath spreading down the side of the Mountain, closer and closer to us. Smaug hadn't known where we were, but in the anger he had felt toward the cup being stolen, he had decided to incinerate anything in the hope that his fire would find us.

Kili was already falling backwards as well. He pulled me past the door as it was slammed closed by Bilbo, only just stopping the fire that poured to the rocky clearing where we had all been sitting, maybe an hour ago. The heat poured past us, and then it was gone, leaving only the passing sounds of Smaug's rumbling roars, and the heavy breathing of the company.

With tight eyes, I had clutched my bag.

'Doh,' spat Thorin, shoving himself away from the wall. I hadn't known what the word had meant, but now I know it to meal fool. Which, of course, I had been. 'Idiot girl, you could have gotten us all killed!' Thorin's voice was scary when he was having a civil conversation, but when he was shouting it was something entirely different.

'Thorin, leave the girl,' said Dwalin, laying a quick hand on Thorin's shoulder. 'We do not want to attract the beast'.

The girl.

'Too many times has she thrown herself into these dangerous situations-'

'Thorin!' Kili snapped angrily, standing in front of me .I had clutched the bag even tighter. Jesus, could this get any worse? He shouldn't have to defend me - I'd been an idiot in running to get my bag, right when a dragon was attacking. Thorin was right to have a go at me.

'Don't,' I said, throwing the bag over my shoulder. 'He's right. I'm an idiot. I shouldn't have gone to get the bag'. I looked to Thorin, shoulders square and chin high. 'It's just...it's all I have left of home, you know?'

Thorin considered me for a moment, before lowering his shoulders and sighing. 'Consider the rest of the company before you do such things, Millie'. I had sighed a little then, as he had turned away. Only because thinking of the others was all I ever did.

'Here we are and here we must stay,' rumbled Thorin, looking down to the sinking, dark tunnel. The walls were hard and flat, just like the floor. It was the first Dwarven made structure that I had entered, and it was easy to see that the craftsmanship that went into ensuring the precise height and design of the tunnel was well thought out. 'We should move further down the tunnel in case Smaug decides to breathe upon the door once again'.

Quietly, I had complied. Being smoked alive while sleeping hadn't sounded like the dandiest idea. The rest of the company had squeezed down the passage, taking their bags and their weapons with them. To my pleasure, Kili and Fili had stood either side of me. Fili kind of patted my shoulders, while Kili touched my hand.

Ah, my boys.

'That'll be the end of our ponies,' said Gloin, as we mooched down the dark tunnel. Despite how stuffy and warm it was, I found that most of us had been shivering. From shock, I guess. With lowered eyes, I had noticed Dori check over a slight burn mark in Ori's coat with fluttering hands.

Upon sitting down on opposing sides of the wall, the grumbling had started. Apparently this was a specialty of Dwarves, and most of them had figured that it was up to Bilbo to get us out of this mess. The idiots.

'How do we rid ourselves of the dragon now?'

'Aye, he is hunting us from the outside, while we hide on the inside'.

'Perhaps you should not have taken the cup, Master Hobbit. Smaug guards his treasure with jealousy, he was bound to find out that it was lost-'

Bilbo, with his feet crossed awkwardly, had looked up with a particularly startled look of offense. 'I was under the impression that you lot wanted me to bring a part of the treasure!' Bilbo drew in his filthy feet. 'I did as was asked, now don't expect me to find a way to kill Smaug. That's the warriors job, and I am the Burglar. He knows that there are Dwarves here, he said as much, so that'll rule out the element of surprise'.

'You couldn't really expect him to bring up all of the treasure,' I'd pointed out with a scoff. 'We're here, we just didn't really think about getting rid of Smaug that much once we got here, did we?' And it was true.

After that, the Dwarves has muttered their apologies to Bilbo.

'Bilbo,' said Thorin, after a moment of quiet. He had sounded almost shy, almost apprehensive. It sounded strange against his gravelly voice. 'I would very much like to see the treasure of my people in these moments that we have before Smaug descends upon the Mountain once again. Would you take me to see it, if only for a moment?'

Bilbo complied after a moment of silence, and while they had left I realized just how...bad it was. After everything, it was the treasure that Thorin was desperate to see. Sure, he wanted to see the halls of Erebor, see the corridors and the stone and the place he grew up - but the thirst in his voice was for the treasure of his Grandfather, and only for that.

'We best hope that Smaug's hunt is a long one,' said Balin, as Thorin marched down the tunnel with Bilbo. 'Nothing will change Thorin's mind about seeing that treasure hoard'.

Well, hope never really did a lot of good, did it?

I know that in the book Thorin didn't take a quick peak with Bilbo, but I just want to see how this plays out. I imagine that Bilbo going back and forth between Smaug and the Dwarves will change in the film. Also, I took inspiration from the sneak peaks of the next Hobbit film for Bilbo running through the gold when Smaug attacks him, if you remember what I mean.

Anyway, yeah. I hope you like this chapter. If you follow me on my tumblr - kiliyousosilly - then you'll know that I did a short Millie/Kili AU oneshot. If anyone wants to see it, just ask or go on the Millie Fournier tag! I had a lot of fun writing it!

There's more of Smaug to come, by the way. I'm not sure how much I want to change the fact that Bilbo is the one who truly sees Smaug up close out of the company, but I promise I won't change anything too much. Anyway.

Thank you so much for the reviews, once again. I'm not even saying it because you're meant to say it on every new chapter, I really mean it. They're beautiful and lovely, just like all of you. Thank you!