Shane rolled his eyes as he walked over to the still unconscious Bertha with a bucket of water in his hands. He then dumped all the water onto Bertha, who sprang to life when the cold water impacted her.

"Make mine a double!" she barked as she looked around her than noticed she was soaked. "What on earth is this?"

"Lake-town medicine." Shane replied smugly.

Bertha sighed with irritation as she got up and headed to a nearby room to go change into the outfit Bard had given her yesterday while Shane went to sit down at the dinner table. Kamilla's wound had been bandaged and she'd been placed back on the bed where she was sitting up with some pillows propping her up. She groggily opened her eyes and looked to her left. She saw Frieda sitting next to her at the edge of the bed, reading a book. At the dinner table were Ophelia, Shane and Terrence while Beth was in the kitchen finishing up some warm coco which she'd become quite good at making. She then put at least four cups on a tray and walked into the living room.

"Here we are." she said as she placed the tray on the table "High, hot and a helluva lot."

Everyone calmly took their cups with Beth walking over to Frieda, who took the cup and placed it on the dresser next to her on her left then promptly resumed reading. As she sat down, Kamilla's eyes opened fully and she saw her sister looking down at her feet.

"Sister…" she said softly.

Frieda's head shot up to her sister and she grasped her sister's hand tightly as relief overcame her while also placing the book on her lap.

"I'm here." she said "It's alright."

"I feel like I got hit by a carriage." Kamilla chuckled.

"I'm sure you do." Frieda replied smiling.

Kamilla sighed a tired sigh as she felt her strength returning to her and looked at her sister affectionately and placed her right hand onto her sisters as she grasped her left hand.

"You okay, sis?" she asked.

Frieda nodded. "Yeah. I'm just…I'm just happy you're okay."

"Do you think they made it to the mountain?" Kamilla asked in reference to their fellow dwarfs.

"I'm willing to bet they did." Frieda replied back.

"They better." Kamilla continued "I don't want to find out I got bed-ridden for nothing."

Frieda chuckled quietly just as Taduesz came in with cups of Frieda's drink in each hand. The two sisters looked up at his sister's rescuer with Kamilla looking at him in amazement as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Thank you ever so much for helping Ophelia tend to my sister." Frieda said "Trust me when I say I'll look for a way to repay you."

"I don't think that's required." Taduesz replied "Do you mind if I sit next to your sister for a while? You look like you need to relax."

Frieda nodded in agreement. She did look like she needed rest and it was the least she could do for this Elf. She sighed and looked to her sister as she got up.

"I'll just be right over there at the table if you need me." she said.

"Okay." Kamilla responded.

Frieda then walked to the table, taking her cup with her while Taduesz placed his own two cups on the little table as he sat down in the chair. He looked to Kamilla who had had her eyes fixated on him the whole time and he caught sight of her warm, loving smile and that her hand was stretched out towards his.

"Why are you smiling at me?" he asked.

"I'm sorry but it's just…" Kamilla replied hesitantly as she blushed "…I never thought I'd see you again. And yet here you are."

Taduesz sighed and then let Kamilla's fingers slip between his own and soon his hand was holding hers.

"There's something I don't get." she said "Why did you come for me? All the way out here?"

Tadeusz chuckled. "Because I couldn't leave you or your sister to die. Not when you're as good a storyteller as you are."

"I've said all there is to say." Kamilla responded "Why don't you tell me about yourself?"

As Taduesz handed her one of the cups and he began telling her of the Woodland Realm, Ophelia and Frieda quietly observed the scene. Frieda tiredly looked at the two with a smile on her face while Ophelia looked in great concern. Frieda took notice.

"What's wrong?" she inquired.

"Well…that." Ophelia replied as she turned to Frieda "Does Traude know?"

"No." Frieda replied sternly "And she's not going to."

Ophelia hesitated to reply for a moment as she took a sip of her milk and licked some of it off her lips when she finished chugging down the drink.

"And what do you think?" Ophelia asked.

Frieda was silent for a few seconds. Ophelia was raising a good point. She knew how Kamilla felt and could probably guess how Brianna would feel about it but she'd never considered how she was handling this. Her sister, a dwarf, trying to woo an Elf was an unusual thing to her. While her mother Dis wouldn't mind and would probably welcome a new son in law, she feared what Traude would do to her sister if she found out. But she glanced briefly back to her as she looked at Tadeusz with a smile on her face, taking in every word he said. So she sighed and looked back to Ophelia who was waiting for an answer.

"Honestly, he makes her happy." Frieda finally said "And that's all that matters right now."

/

After what seemed like an eternity of traveling, the girls were now in the eastern wing where they hoped would be an exit towards the outside. They soon caught sight of some light coming from one of the doors on their left and quickly turned towards the doorway with hope in their eyes. But they're hopes were quickly shattered as they entered the room. The light was coming from a single four foot wide and six foot long crack in the roof. It shone upon a truly terrible sight: a pile of rocks which had collapsed from the roof. And under the rocks, sticking out from under them and from cracks in the pile were bones. Lots of bones. Daniela and Traude immediately ran over the rock pile and began moving the stone at the top of the pile but no sooner had they moved a few dozen rocks then a charred skeleton flopped onto the ground, causing the two to back away. The skeleton had what could loosely be described as a beard and was wearing a tattered old coat with moth holes all over it. The skeleton was also covered with spider webs that had black, tiny spiders scurrying about. The scene before them disheartened the girls but Brianna was especially horrified by what she saw.

"What happened to them?" she asked after a minute or two of morbid silence.

"Smaug happened." Barbara replied sadly "They must have come here for safety. But it seems the dragon found them first."

Traude then walked into the path of the light and was bathed in it's white rays with the girls looking on as Traude observed the scene quietly. Everyone had different expressions but all conveyed that same feeling of grief. Traude herself quietly began thinking of what to do. They didn't come all this way to perish in dragon fire. To die like these kinsfolk of theirs. Even a creature like Smaug was not invincible. There had to be something they could do to bring Smaug down once and for all. A way to fight back.

"Traude, are we going to die?" Ottilie asked as she was on the verge of tears.

"No, Ottilie." Traude replied sternly "We will not die like this." she paused as she turned back to the rest of the girls "I have an idea but we're all going to have to work together. We'll have to make for the gallery of the kings."

"But he'll catch us!" Dorothea barked.

"Not if we split up." Traude responded "We will draw him there and we will kill him. And if this is to end in fire…then let us at least burn together." She then motioned and everyone huddled together. "Alright, here's the plan.."

*AUTHOR'S NOTE: Guys I updated! I am so sorry it's taken this long but the mother of all writers block due to COVID-19, some personal stuff and dozens of different story ideas have contributed to the delays. I will do my best to update when I can. If you're still reading this fic then mad props to you.