His eyes slowly fluttered open. He was confused, you could see it in the expression presented on his face.
"Wh-where am I?" He seemed calm.. at least on the outside. His eyes screamed of helplessness.
"You're in Lake Town. The village ta the bottom of Erebor." Dwalin spoke harshly. "The town YOU destroyed, along with Erebor and all my kin!" He pulled a dagger from his cloak.
"Dwalin!" Balin shouted. "Don't!" he pulled his hands together twisting the dagger from his grip, it chattered noisily to the floor.
Smaug was crying. Dwalin frightened him... I was right. He didn't remember.
"Your name," I spoke softly. "What is it?" Smaug the magnificent wiped tears from is cheeks.
"Aragon." His voice was meek and parched. "I lived near the woodland realm.. Where am I now?"
"Near the woodland Realm where?" I asked
"A small village off of the east of Thranduil's kingdom..." He pulled up the tattered robe we placed on him. seeing as he was stark naked when we found him. "What happened? where's my wife? My son's?" He sounded so scared.. my heart sunk. Married? What a lucky woman.. "Where am I?" He asked more persistent, tears gathering in little pools on his cheeks and dripping off of his chin. "How old am I?" he gently ran a finger over my stiches.
"Well," Dwalin spoke.. "A few hundred years at least..."
"What?!" He screamed. "Where have I been?!"
"You..." Balin wiped his eyes. "You were living in the sanctuary of Erebor... You killed our families... Ransacked our home land... and when we came to reclaim it... you killed the patrons of lake town..."
"That's not possible..." He frowned, his eyebrows furrowing, distorting his face... it was puffy and red. The tears now coming in a steady stream down his face. "What... what form did I take?"
"That of a Dragon, oh magnificent Smaug." Dwalin said mockingly.
"That... was the name you had chosen to be.. addressed by..." I said softly.
The dragon had lost himself inside of his own head. Tears gathering in their usual places... frequently spilling over the rims of his eyes. He wrapped his arms around his legs and pulled them close to his chest. His chin rested softly in between the pair of them. Balin softly approached me.
"I think it best if we leave well enough alone... Don't you Mr. Baggins?" My heart sunk even deeper into my chest. My ability to feel nothing... was loosing its grip...
"But, shouldn't we help him?" I asked... turning the ring round and round in my vest pocket...
"Better to leave it be for now.." Nori said giving me a reassuring pat on the back. "You've done all you can do for the poor fellow. Besides, if King Thranduil finds out the beast lives... We're all in for living out our lives in the elven dungeons. "
In that last moment, I looked back at the dragon... whom seemed, at best, to be loosing all of his sanity, and decided to do what the boys asked of me.
"Let us go find Kili..." I mumbled.