The dragon stood very slowly, and I felt frozen under his stare as he stepped from the pile of gold and lowered his head down to almost look me in the eye. My ring felt warm and weighty in my pocket, nearly begging me to put it on and get away, but I could not bring myself to twitch even a finger towards my pocket. The dragon too in a deep breath and I thought that I would surely be incinerated right where I stood, but instead he only laughed again, thin tendrils of smoke drifting between his deadly sharp teeth. I did not speak, nor move, but I felt a sweat break out over the back of my neck and I knew that if I tried to even take a step back I would almost surely faint.
"Hobbit," he nearly purred, "So strange to see you again. I admit I did not expect it, but I admit also that I am not entirely displeased. Did you search me out?" My hands started shaking and I wondered how I could have possibly been so foolish as to be unafraid of him when he was in the Shire.
"Yes," I said, trying to keep my voice steady and probably failing quite spectacularly, "Yes, I did. It's been so long, I'd wondered if you found that mountain you spoke of." He laughed again, back foot scraping through a pile of golden coins, apparently just to hear them click softly together.
"You are a good liar, oh Hobbit who saved my life. I'm sure the dwarves who sent you here would be glad to hear that, wouldn't they?" My mind flashed back to that night in the storm, how poor a patient he'd been, and sighed. Later, I'd find the time to be horrified at myself that I'd dared do such a thing when there were a thousand ways he could've killed me right that second.
"Don't be so melodramatic, you wouldn't have died whether we helped you or not, though with the way you reacted one might've thought we were the ones killing you. It was only a small burn, after all, and it looks to have healed well. My father's chair, on the other hand, never quite recovered." He snorted, more smoke spilling from his mouth and nose, and edged a little nearer, close enough that he could've swallowed me whole if he wished to do so. I spared a moment to regret speaking so frankly.
"I am glad you still have a bite—I'd feared the years had taken it. I think that you are the first to call an injury gained from a lightning strike but a small burn, however, and I regret to say that had it been left untreated I might not have flown again. More than one young, unwary dragon has been sent to earth for such carelessness as I showed that night; I saw the heat crackling in the air and thought that I could fly faster. Instead I found myself on your garden, admittedly more than a little upset. In any case, I repaid my debt to you and yours." I swear that he shrugged, then, as if what he said meant nothing, and I wondered when he was going to kill me, why he felt the need to say all this before he did.
"Is that so? I only saw a garden we had to have replanted and a chair that needed re-stuffing." I truly wished that Thorin were in there with me so that he might've given me a good, hard kick to make me stop talking.
"I will try to remember the importance of gardens and chairs the next time I am killing an orc-pack bent on destroying precious little Hobbit towns." I frowned. "You didn't know? I'd have thought someone would have ventured far enough to have found the bodies, and assumed the… cause of death would have told at least you and yours what had happened. I saw them marching below me towards your village as I flew above, and after I left your home I walked back to them and killed them, then continued on my way here. Apologies for not dropping by your home again and sticking a note to the door." I laughed, then. Couldn't help it, really, it was all just so terribly ridiculous, unbelievable in a way I'd never dreamt that my life would be.
"Of course I'm grateful, but I'm afraid it'd be best if you left now." He chuckled, butting against my chest with his nose, surely light to him but nearly sending me sprawling to the floor.
"I think not—I took the mountain fairly, and I will not give it up for nothing. How did those dwarves convince you to follow? Did you tell them you'd met a dragon and lived, and they thought you some wicked dragon slayer?" I cleared my throat.
"A wizard told them that I was a burglar. I expect you're about the only dragon in the world that knows the smell of a Hobbit, after all—any other dragon and I'd have been able to sneak in unnoticed. You say you won't leave for nothing. What will you leave for?" Curse my luck, I wanted to say, but didn't. He didn't smile, precisely, but did bare his teeth in a crude imitation that made gooseflesh rise over my arms.
"I have no love for dwarves, but I might be willing to negotiate with them, should you mediate. After all, you know us both." He looked amused, completely so, a strange shimmer in the molten gold of his eyes. A rather foolish thought lingered in the back of my mind: he could've at least pretended to be somewhat wary of me, rather than showing with ease that I wasn't even the faintest threat to him.
"At least show me where the Arkenstone is. If I give them that, they'll see it as a gesture of good faith." Another snort.
"You must think I'm stupid, if you expect I will simply hand over that which those dwarves value above all else in this room. No, the Arkenstone stays here, wicked thing that it is, but I offer these instead if they must have their good faith," he said, scooping up a handful a clear, white stones and a rather lovely necklace that was decorated with them, and placing them into my hands. "Hm. They don't suit you as well as I'd thought they would. Too flashy, I suppose. Alas. Perhaps I shall seek something better while you try to convince the dwarves to parley. I wish you luck, of course, but I think that I will be impressed if you manage to return with them. Dwarves are not known for their willingness to negotiate, after all." I hardly heard a word he said about the jewels, too focused on what he'd said next because I feared that he was right, no matter how much I cared for the Company.
I hadn't the faintest idea how I'd convince the Company to talk, nor even if I should convince them as I had no guarantee that the dragon would not burn us to death the moment I brought them inside. I really should have guessed it would not be so simple as slipping in and snatching a single jewel; honestly, what part of this quest had gone at all as planned? My heart pounded in my chest and my palms were so slick that I was sure I'd drop everything I carried as I made my way back to the outside. The Company and I both held our breath as I stepped into their sight again at last.