Life is Precious

AN: Remember when I said Smaug wouldn't suddenly be a 'good guy' in this story. Yeah, he's still a dragon in the LoTR universe. Bound he may be, but he's still basically destruction incarnate.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything relating to the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings.

Chapter Four:

The humans left shortly after their little discussion. He cursed himself at allowing them to see his fear. No fool was he to not recognize that they knew. Because of his predicament, he did not wish to be separated from the girl. She meant nothing to him outright, but if anything were to happen to her, this whole humiliating situation would be for naught.

Put simply, it was in his best interests to keep her alive.

As for where they decided to go—if she decided to leave at all—it was a difficult problem. There were precious few places in Middle-Earth where a dragon could live peacefully, and most of those were inhospitable to humans, especially one so defenseless as her. One of the abandoned Dwarf-holds in the Grey Mountains had been his first choice. Long abandoned they may have been, but they were ripe for the taking. And if orcs had taken them first, well...they would be easily destroyed.

As soon as orcs were mentioned, however, the girl decided that, no, they wouldn't be going to the Grey Mountains. Things went downhill from there. The ruins of Fornost? No, she heard there were orcs there, too. The White Mountains? Too many Gondorian and Rohirrim outposts. The Barrow Downs? She didn't like the idea of living in a graveyard. The Sea of Rhun? Easterlings dwelt near there, and they were no friends of the peoples of Middle-Earth. He never even suggested the Blue Mountains because of the Dwarves who dwelt in those mountains.

Every time he suggested somewhere, it seemed she would find the most inane excuse possible and reject his ideas outright. His frustration and indignation only grew after each rejection until he was almost ready to incinerate her then and there, no matter the consequences. Something told him that his fire wouldn't even affect her, though, and that only served to incense him further. Upon his final suggestion, the Mountains of Mirkwood, she finally accepted.

Needless to say, he never mentioned the spider infestation. And since she didn't seem to know about them, he wasn't going to bring them up. Mirkwood was the absolute last place he would want to go on account of the Wood Elves and the other wizard that tended to roam the area.

The orcs mattered little to him.

She didn't seem to know about them, either, so again, he didn't mention them. He'd have to keep an eye on her there. And while having to protect that girl infuriated him to no end, he would ultimately do it if only to make sure he himself didn't get killed when she died, otherwise.

Now, he was once again left to his own devices in this too-small valley. Even just standing, his wings brushed the steep sides in some places. In five steps, he could go from the entrance to having his snout touch the rear cliff. And he couldn't leave. He tried countless times. Whenever he reached the mouth of the valley, his body would simply refuse to obey any commands to go further.

A thought hit him a short while after they left, however. She had given him permission to leave, hadn't she? He stared at the entrance, deep in thought and with a bit of suspicion. The last thing he needed right now is to raise his hopes and have them promptly dashed when he couldn't actually escape. The roar of fury he would unleash would be heard for miles, doubtless.

Not that he was worried over facing an army of humans in this tiny valley. Both Dale and Erebor fell to him within a matter of hours. Edoras was a pile of tinder waiting to be lit in comparison to those cities of stone.

What did worry him was the fact that Isengard wasn't too terribly far away. With him stuck in this valley, the white wizard would find him all the easier to dispatch. A dragon he may be, but even he wasn't fool enough to meddle with magic-users if he could avoid them. The fact the grey wizard bound him to a mere girl was yet more incentive to keep away if possible.

In the end, however, he realized that being stuck here for a bit longer wouldn't be the end of the world. Oh, it would be utterly infuriating, to be sure, yet he had been stuck here for a month already. What was a few more weeks? The end result would remain the same. Eventually, he would be able to leave.

Cautiously, and with no small amount of skepticism, he approached the entrance to his prison. His head and neck snaked past the threshold; his wing claws followed shortly after with his chest after that. But then came the moment of truth. Gingerly, he lifted a single foot and took a single step...and then another. And another.

A decidedly evil grin split his muzzle. The fool girl had forgotten to revoke the permission she gave for him to leave. "Oh, what to do...what to do? How shall I thank that human for keeping me prisoner in such a forsaken place as that valley?" he rumbled to himself, the many possible prospects filling him with a dark glee.

Shall he burn Edoras to the ground, after all? Hmm...maybe not yet. Though he couldn't manipulate her with his innate abilities, he still had his silver tongue. The girl was clearly naïve enough to take advantage of if he chose his words carefully. That fact was proven when he persuaded her not to send him away.

She needed to be made aware of exactly who she was dealing with. He was not some pet to follow orders! But...he should exercise a little restraint. Burning her city and family to ashes would turn her completely against him, no doubt. He gave a dark chuckle, "Then perhaps a warning would be more appropriate. Enjoy this day, Rohan, for when the sun falls, your people shall burn!"

Once night fell, he would find an outlying village. When the sun rose the next day, it and all its people would be no more. There would be no witnesses to his deed, yet stories would eventually spread of a village burned to ash. Most would probably think it the work of orcs or men from the mountains. Those who knew better, however, would recognize the destruction as the work of dragonfire. But with him free to take to the air, he was considerably less concerned about wizards crossing his path.

More importantly, however, a certain girl would hear the stories and know the critical error she had made. She would doubtless confront him, and at first even blame him. Then, he would point out her error and tell her how this 'tragedy' was her fault. She hadn't taken him seriously. She hadn't respected his power.

For that, she would pay. The responsibility for what atrocities he was willing and able to commit landed squarely on her shoulders. The guilt and grief would crush her. Perhaps then she would be more willing to do as he said, for she would know that at the slightest slipup, he would ruthlessly and mercilessly punish any humiliations or transgressions, perceived or real, against him.

He may be the subservient party for now, but she would learn to obey him. Or else risk the consequences.

The hardest part of enacting his vengeance was the wait. He wanted to go now! There was a malicious excitement within him that was so intense it felt as if it burned. For the first time since his disgraceful fall over Laketown, he was finally preparing to release some of his pent-up fury on those who deserved it most.

Men...

It mattered not if they were from Laketown or some small village within the borders of Rohan. After what Men had done to him, they all deserved to have a reminder that he was not a creature to be trifled with! One nearly killed him, and now another one, a mere girl at that, dared to control him! To order him around! Him!

He instilled terror in the hearts of Men! Or...so he thought. Perhaps they no longer feared him as they once did. "But mark my words, they will again..." he growled. Sitting upon the cold, hard ground, he had nothing to do except stew in his anger until night fell.

Until the night he was nearly felled, Men had been a mere nuisance. Now, however, they had given him personal reason to loathe their existence, perhaps more so than even Dwarves. It mattered not, though. They were all vermin in the end.

As a dragon, his life was measured more in decades and centuries rather than hours and days. Such small measurements of time were a mere blink of a dragon's eye. After all, his last nap within his mountain apparently lasted for over sixty years. Never before had the minutes seemed to stretch so long as they did as the sun began to set that day.

Like a serpent, his muscles were poised and ready to strike at a moment's notice. He was full of restless energy. The tip of his tail kept twitching back and forth. His wing claws drummed upon the earth or dug gouges in the dirt. His inner fire would roar to life, making his chest and neck glow orange for several moments, and then douse itself after a short while.

All the while, his gaze remained resolutely forward, watching the horizon from just within the mountains. Even as a light snow began to fall, he did not shift his position. But then, when he deemed it black enough, he took two quick steps forward, raised his wings, and with a mighty leap, launched himself into the air.

As if fate was smiling on his plans, tonight was the perfect night for flying unseen. Thick clouds choked the sky, preventing what little light the crescent moon put out from reaching the ground. The snow quickly became heavier and the wind stronger, though neither were too violent to make flying terribly difficult. The weather created nearly perfect conditions for him to destroy a village without them having any warning whatsoever.

There was just something about that statement that filled him with such dark satisfaction. The insects wouldn't even know their doom until it had already begun...but by then, it would be too late for them.

He didn't particularly know the exact location of every village in Rohan. Short-lived they may be, but Men multiplied like rabbits. Therefore, it shouldn't be particularly hard to find some. He'd just fly north and burn the first one he saw.

About an hour into his search, he did find one. He counted a dozen buildings in the village proper. There were probably a few outlying farms, but if there were, he'd simply burn them, too. It was completely dark save for a few windows spilling faint light outside. What little animals were in the town, mostly a few horses, pigs, and chickens were secured within barns and coops. Likewise, no one was outside. In fact, he could imagine all the people curled up by their fires as they tried to ward off the cold.

They wanted to stay warm? Well...there was nothing hotter than dragonfire!

There was no warning. No one rang any alarm bells or shouted out in surprise at his approach. It was just a quaint, miserable little village one moment and a roaring bonfire the next. His fire was hot enough to quite literally melt stone. Thatch roofs and wooden buildings caught alight like so much dry tinder.

On one pass, nearly half the village was in flames, and the fire began to quickly spread to the other buildings. People spilled into the streets screaming in terror or lamentation. No one moved towards the burning buildings, knowing it was a futile effort to try and put it out or save the souls inside. He merely circled above, watching the chaos unfold beneath him.

Several minutes passed. The surviving villagers huddled in small groups away from their burning homes and watched the entire scene with tearful faces. Already, they seemed to have moved on and merely accepted that their livelihoods were gone. The simple-minded fools didn't even bother wondering how their entire village went up in flames within mere seconds.

Without them being afraid, there wasn't any fun to be had.

After circling around one last time, he came in for another pass while loosing a frightful roar. He could hear the screaming begin anew as he rained fire upon the rest of the buildings. The fires were big enough to illuminate his belly on approach, and there was no mistaking the massive gout of fire leaving his maw. Shouts of "DRAGON!" rang out in the night as the people scattered into the snowy wilderness in a desperate bid to escape.

He landed just outside the roaring fire, the impact causing the earth to shake and several buildings to collapse into flaming heaps. Sparks flew into the air and came falling back to the ground like a fiery snow as the debris shifted and cracked around him. There would be nothing left after this save the ash and earth. Even as he gazed into the darkness beyond the light of the fires, he could spy the former residents running for their pitiful lives. "Yesss...flee! I do enjoy a game of cat and mouse!"

No one would be allowed to escape. There could be no witnesses. Yes, it would've been simpler to burn them all as they watched the fire from the side, but it would not have been nearly as fun. The senses of dragons were legendary. His keen vision and sense of smell would allow him to easily seek his prey.

The largest group had fled north, but he spied a few heading west, as well. He would start with the larger group. As he prepared to take flight again, his gaze landed upon a lone youth standing several strides away. He lowered his wings and grinned toothily at the foolish boy. His eyes were alight with sadistic glee. "Have you come seeking a swift end, boy? Do you not wish to play my game?" The boy never spoke. Rather, with tears in his eyes, he drew a small axe from his belt. It was scarcely more than a rusty hatchet. By the look of it, he'd have a hard time chopping wood with it, much less pierce dragon scales. "Oh...how unwise..."

Rather than simply burning him on the spot—it would be too quick and painless and end for someone who dared stand against him—Smaug slammed his wing onto the youth, pinning and crushing his lower body with ease. Then, he released the boy and watched with sick amusement as he tried to crawl away, whimpering all the while. He let that go on for a few more seconds before spearing one of his wing claws straight the boy's back, effectively cutting him in half. Only then did Smaug burn the corpse.

It was best to leave as little evidence as possible.

"One down..." he all but purred, tingling with excitement for the coming hunt. "Many more to go..."

His first victim dealt with, the great dragon once again launched himself into the air. Humans were small and slow creatures, though. He could have easily chased them down on the ground, but he did so enjoy hunting them from above where they couldn't see or hear him coming.

Gliding lazily through the clouds, he stalked the largest group for a few minutes before growing bored again. He turned wide and decided to come at them low and fast, his body gliding just feet above the ground. Within seconds, three of them disappeared down his gullet, and he angled back up into the clouds. "What a delightful snack..." he chuckled in dark satisfaction. "I think I'll have some seconds."

Once again, he landed. Several humans tumbled to the ground, having lost their footing from the earth-shaking crash. Others were already on the ground. Apparently, he clipped a few others in his first pass. Four were already dead, and another man was missing his left leg.

The ten remaining humans could do nothing as he snatched them up as he pleased as if he were a wolf amongst sheep. Some tried to escape, but he simply burnt them to ash before they could get five paces. He also burned the remaining bodies.

He scented the air and studied the surrounding plains, yet he could detect no other nearby humans save the ones from the other group that went west. Taking flight once again, he tracked down those humans and decided to simply incinerate them as he passed overhead, having had his fill for now.

Several hours more he spent flying above the area until he was certain beyond any doubt that he had caught them all. The village was still aflame, though the blaze was beginning to die down a bit. It was an hour after midnight when he started flying south again. This time, however, he did not lament returning to that valley. Yes, it was small and cramped and exposed to the elements.

However, he had a reason to return that would trump all of those negatives. Where else would he be able to relish in the look of horror upon that girl's face when she realized what she allowed to happen? It was a sight he was looking forward to oh-so-much!

AN: I don't think this would warrant a rating increase. I didn't really show anything that wasn't in the movies, which are all PG-13. Feel free to share thoughts on that, though.

So how is Earyth going to react to the news, do you think? What might Smaug's show of force convince her to do?

Until Next Time

AdmiralCole22