Bilbo quietly walks through a large doorway and finds himself in a massive hall. "Hello?" He whispers out loud, but there was no response. He then knocks quietly on the wall beside him, but the sound is intensified loudly as it echoes, and he jumps and presses himself against the wall in shock. Seeing no reaction to the noise, he walks out into the hall on an elevated walkway. "You're not at home. Not at home." He whispered to himself. "Good. Good, good, good."
At the top of a staircase, Bilbo suddenly stops walking and his mouth hangs open in shock. He sees mountains of gold, jewels, weapons, cups, and all sorts of treasure piled dozens of feet high all throughout the immensely massive hall. He gently climbs down the stairs and carefully begins to walk atop the treasure. He tries to be quiet, but the coins and jewels beneath his feet make a lot of noise. He pokes around, looking for the Arkenstone. He finds a large white jewel and examines hit.
"What's that?" Bilbo asked quietly to himself as he shakes the jewel and continues examining it. Seeing that it wasn't the Arkenstone, he carelessly throws it aside, then jumps when it clatters and makes a lot of noise. "Sushh, sushh."
Bilbo continues to look around, but then sits down and tries to think of how he could find the Arkenstone.
"Arkenstone, Arkenstone... a large, white jewel." Bilbo whispered. "Very helpful."
Bilbo noticed he was surrounded by so much treasure and that it would be impossible for him to find one particular jewel out of all of it. He climbs up a mountain of gold and makes a sudden stop. He looks down and picks up a golden cup that he fancied, but this action started a small avalanche of coins. Bilbo looks up and sees the coins falling away to reveal an eye, which is shut. Bilbo jumps behind a stone pillar in fright and noticed that the eye was revealed to be the dragon Smaug. Bilbo breathed deeply in a panic and did as much to be silent, and hope that the avanlanche wouldn't wake him up.
Suddenly, Smaug snorts, and the treasure around his nose falls away, revealing it. Bilbo, panting, slowly tries to make his way down the pile of gold, but stops short when he realizes that Smaug's body is buried in a large circle around where he is standing. The gold all along Smaug's body begins to ripple and Bilbo fears that the dragon was about to awake. The frightened hobbit takes a few steps, then pauses and kneels as Smaug begins to raise his head, his eye still closed. As Smaug opens his eye, Bilbo runs and dives behind a pile of gold.
As Smaug's eye looks around, Bilbo reaches into his pocket and pulls out the Ring that he took from Gollum back at the time when he stole it from the Goblin tunnels. He looks at it for several seconds, then looks up as Smaug begins to raise his head. The hobbit quickly puts the Ring on, and becomes invisible once Smaug raises his head and sniffs through the air.
"Well, thief, I smell you." Smaug sniffed around. "I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you?"
As Smaug says this, he moves his head back and forth around the place where Bilbo is invisibly standing, and Bilbo had to duck and avoid being knocked over. However, Bilbo began to panic and runs down the mountain of treasure. Even though he is invisible, Smaug can see where he is going due to the coins he's dislodging with his feet while running. Smaug follows rapidly until Bilbo ducks behind a stone outcropping as Smaug continues searching.
"Come now, don't be shy." Smaug insisted for the intruder to appear. "Step into the light." He looks around and approaches right in front of Bilbo's hiding place. "Mmm, there is something about you, something you carry. Something made of gold, but far more... PRECIOUSSSSS."
As Smaug says "Precious," the word reverberates in Bilbo's head over and over and he strains in mental pain. THen, he sees a flaming eye burst into his vision, causing the hobbit to foolishly yank the Ring off. Now that the Ring was off of him, he had now become visible to Smaug.
"There you are, thief in the shadows." Smaug grinned.
"I did not come to steal from you, O Smaug the Unassessably Wealthy." Bilbo stuttered. "I merely wanted to gaze upon your magnificence, to see if you really were as great as the old tales say." Then, he started to whimper in fear. "I did not believe them."
Hearing this, Smaug stomps several yards away and draws himself up so his entire body is visible to Bilbo. He was a massive dragon with two back legs, two massive bat-like wings with claws, and both his neck and tail were incredibly long. His head alone was the size of a school bus.
"And, do you you now?" Smaug asked him in an echo throughout the entire cavern.
"Truly, the tales and songs fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous." Bilbo said, pretending to feel flattered by this.
"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?" Smaug asked, as if he wanted to kill him.
"No- no, no." Bilbo panicked.
"No, indeed." Smaug nodded and snakes his head closer to Bilbo. "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?"
Before Bilbo opens his mouth to speak, he then suddenly sees something off to the side. He sees a small, white gem glowing with an unnatural light, buried under one layer of coins. It was the Arkenstone.
"I- I come from under the hill." Bilbo stuttered his answer, but did not feel it was necessary to reveal his real name to him.
"Underhill?" Smaug asked, starting to look intrigued.
Bilbo nods, and sneaks a peek at the Arkenstone that wasn't as far away from him.
"And under hills and over hills my path has led." Bilbo continued. "And, and, through the air. I am he who walks unseen."
"Impressive. What else do you claim to be?" Smaug asked as he snakes his head forward until his teeth are inches from Bilbo's face.
"I am...luck-wearer." Bilbo grimaced at his breath. "Riddle-maker."
"Lovely titles; go on." Smaug insisted.
"Barrel-rider." Bilbo answered his last title.
"Barrels?" Smaug exclaimed and felt very intrigued by these titles. "Now that is interesting. And what about your little dwarf and human friends? Where are they hiding?"
"Dw- Dwarves?" Bilbo responded and pretended that he didn't know what Smaug was talking about. "No, no, no dwarves or humans here. You've got that all wrong."
"Oh, I don't think so, barrel-rider." Smaug declined to believe him. "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." Bilbo said.
"You have nice manners... for a thief and a liar!" Smaug growled. "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 stomps about, his claws knock the Arkenstone away from where it had been, and Bilbo gasps. The Arkenstone bounces down the mountain, and Bilbo runs 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?" Smaug exclaimed.
Bilbo trips and slides down the gold while Smaug follows after him, knocking over as massive stone pillar in his rage. As the pillar falls, its reverberations sound throughout the mountain.
While the Dwarves and Scoobies sitting in the clearing above the secret stairs, they felt a deep rumble and stand up suddenly.
"WOW!" Xander jumped.
"What was that?" Anya asked in a panic.
"Was that an earthquake?" Tor guessed.
"That, my lad... was a dragon." Bálin answered.
Thórin looked worried now that Bilbo had awoke the beast that slumbered for many years in the kingdom of Erebor.
"He must've woke it up." Buffy assumed.
"The King under the mountain is dead." Smaug declared about Thrór. "I took his throne."
Smaug looks for Bilbo, and Bilbo burst out of a pile of gold beneath Smaug's claw. Bilbo runs down a staircase, and leaps off the side as Smaug's head swings at him.
"I ate his people like a wolf among sheep." Smaug bellowed.
As the Arkenstone bounces rapidly down the mountain of gold, Bilbo slides rapidly after it with Smaug in pursuit.
"I kill where I wish, when I wish. My armor is iron." Smaug described.
The Arkenstone and Bilbo slide under a covered stone structure. Smaug opens his wings and glides down to land atop the structure.]
"No blade can pierce me!" Smaug stated.
The Dwarves and Scoobies were in the clearing on the mountain and see an orange glow from the mountain coming through the door.
"Okay, this is really bad." Cordelia informed.
"Man, we have to get out of here." Percy suggested. "Our job is done."
"But what about Bilbo?" Óri asked worriedly.
"Óri's right, we can't just leave him in there." Scott agreed to the dwarf's point. "Someone has to go down there and rescue him."
"No, give him more time." Thórin said.
"Time?" Buffy exclaimed. "Time to do what exactly? To be killed?"
"You're afraid." Thórin answered her.
Buffy scoffed and looked quite surprised on how Thórin was reacting towards her. "Yes, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of whats going to happen to him once the dragon burns him to death." She takes a step up to Thórin. "Thórin, I'm starting to worry about you."
"You nothing about me." Thórin rejected the truth.
"Well I do." Angel said. "We fear for you. A sickness lies upon that treasure hoard, a sickness that drove your grandfather mad."
"I am not my grandfather." Thórin refused to believe that. "I never was. I knew what we had done, but that doesn't mean I'm succumbing to it."
"Yes, but your not acting like yourself." Anya pointed. "The Thórin I know would not hesitate to go in there..."
"I will not risk this quest for the life of one burglar!" Thórin snapped.
Bálin looks at Thórin disgustedly. "Bilbo. His name is Bilbo."
"And he's not just your burglar, you know." Faith counted. "He's our friend."
"We can't just leave him in there." Riley said. "Someone has to be brave enough to go in there."
"And who would do that?" Tor asked. "I mean... what we end up dead if we take one step inside."
"Those are coward's words." Buffy said to him. "Look I know this is dangerous, but look around, we fought against a powerful evil that threatened Sunnydale. Did cowards run to survive that or did they stay and end up been brave?"
"Buffy's right." Rhonda agreed. "I mean, we were bullies once, and that made us not brave, but cowards."
"But that changed us." Kyle added.
"And we change that unless we're all brave enough to go down there together." Heidi suggested.
"Wow, wow, wow, I don't think that would be the wisest choice." Spike declined the idea as he approached them. "Seriously, there's a fire-breathing dragon in there, and I wonder what fire will do to us."
"Then Spike, maybe you should stay here while the rest of us go in." Buffy said sharply.
"I didn't know guys like you would be cowards." Faith grinned.
"Coward, you call me a coward?" Spike asked angrily.
"Then let's prove it that we are all brave, and go down to rescue our friend." Buffy growled and then looks at everyone. "Does anyone want to do this? Should we finish this?"
"I'm in." Owen declared.
"So am I." Scott declared as well.
"Don't look at me." Percy said and gave a deep breath. "I'll do it."
"Xander taught me how to become brave, but I'm ready to do some action." Larry grinned. "Count me in."
"Wished I stay home." Roy sighed. "But I'm ready to face on what is about to come in there."
"I'm going in there." Xander said. "Unless if Anya's brave to do it."
"Hahahaha, very funny." Anya pretended to laugh.
Back in the lair, Smaug continued to search for Bilbo like a cat. Bilbo hides under the stone structure like a mouse.
"It's Oakenshield." Smaug sniffed, recognizing the scent. "That filthy dwarvish usurper! He sent you in here for the Arkenstone, didn't he?" He asked as he circles around the structure.
Bilbo remains hidden beneath the pillar until he spots the Arkenstone at the other end of the structure. "No, no, no. I don't know what you're talking about." He lied as he quietly sneaks over to the Arkenstone, but is forced to hide behind a pillar as Smaug looks beneath the structure.
"Don't bother denying it!" Smaug exclaimed. "I guessed his foul purpose some time ago. But it matters not. Oakenshield's quest will fail. The darkness is coming, it will spread to every corner of the land."
Bilbo was scared now. He still remained hidden behind a pillar.
"You have been used, thief in the shadows." Smaug claimed. "You were only ever a means to an end. The coward Oakenshield has weighed the value of your life and found it worth nothing."
"No. No. No, you're lying!" Bilbo refused to believe Smaug's words about his friend.
"What did he promise you? A share of the treasure?" Smaug asked him. "As if it was his to give. I will not part with a single coin. Not one piece of it."
Hearing that Smaug is on top of the structure, Bilbo reacts and seeks the Arkenstone lying a few feet away from the structure and makes a run for it. Smaug sees him and whips his tail, sending Bilbo, the Arkenstone, and gold flying around. Bilbo tumbles and lands against a pillar.
"My teeth are swords! My claws are spears! My wings are a hurricane!" Smaug continued to describe himself. As he displays his wings, Bilbo notices a scale missing on the left side of Smaug's chest.
"So it is true." Bilbo whispered to himself. "The black arrow found its mark."
"What did you say?" Smaug growled.
"Uh, uh, I was just saying your reputation precedes you, oh Smaug the tyrannical." Bilbo stuttered and slowly backs up. "Truly, you have no equal on this earth."
Suddenly, Bilbo looks down and sees the Arkenstone lying just a few feet from him, and he gazes at it.
"I am almost tempted to let you take it, if only to see Oakenshield suffer, watch it destroy him, watch it corrupt his heart and drive him mad." Smaug stated and begins to rear his head. "But I think not. I think our little game ends here. So tell me, thief, how do you choose to die?"
Smaug's chest glows with a light from inside, and Smaug's head streaks forward, jaws open, to eat Bilbo. However, Bilbo puts on his ring and disappears, and Smaug's jaws close on empty space. Angrily, he raises his head again, and the glow from his chest travels up his neck; roaring, Smaug bellows out a massive wall of flames over the area in which Bilbo had been standing. Unseen by him, coins on the ground move as an invisible Hobbit runs away and up some stairs. Reaching a hallway, Bilbo exhaustedly pulls off the Ring and continues to run as fast as he could while Smaug rages about, blowing fire, destroying pillars, and making a deep roar that echod throughout the lair.