The look on Gandalf's face was worth remembering, if only for posterity, in Bilbo's personal opinion.

Mostly because he was looking at Pandora, who was quite the pleasant conversationalist, as if she was a demon from hell despite the fact she was blatantly ignoring him.

"I thought you sent word that Smaug was dead!"

"He is. His corpse is on the other side of the Lonely Mountain with a chunk out of his neck that almost neatly severed his head from the rest of his body," repeated Thorin.

His opinion of Pandora had only improved considering she had kept her word in assisting in ending Azog's reign of terror. The fact she also kept Fili and Kili alive, through the simple act of clutching them within her claws before Azog or another orc had a chance to skewer them didn't hurt either. The look on Azog's face when he realized there was a dragon who was all too happy to insure he did not make it out of this battle alive was something Thorin would cherish for the rest of his life.

"Then what is that?"

"A dragon," said Thorin, as if it were obvious. He was enjoying riling up the old wizard entirely too much. "One who is having a very serious discussion about using orc bodies as fertilizer, if I'm reading Bilbo's expression right."

Bilbo had a look of being horrified and impressed at the same time, while giving several orcs speculative looks that did not bode well for any thoughts towards his sanity.

Gandalf wasn't the only one giving the dragon certain looks, though his had more to do with the sheer amount of magic the thing was giving off.

"Cousin... is that beast going to stay?"

Thorin turned to him with a tired expression.

"We have come to an...arrangement...of sorts."

Seeing the looks he was getting, he almost wanted to slump.

"It's more interested in books than gold and is more than willing to ignore us reclaiming Erebor so long as we pay 'tribute' in order to appease traditions. According to her it's too troublesome to deal with people constantly coming to bother her for all the gold in the mountain when she could simply charge us 'rent' and insure Erebor is never overtaken by orcs and goblins like Moria was," said Thorin.

The sad thing was that he could see her logic, which made his own head hurt. She could care less about him claiming to be king under the mountain, so long as the dwarves didn't care about the fact she was using them to increase her own hoard and happened to be sharing the same breathing space for the most part. It also didn't hurt that she was willing to be bribed to a certain extent to restart the forges which were all stone cold after being left alone for over sixty years.

It would have taken far too much time and effort to get them going, so bribing the dragon was a small price to pay overall.

Still, the dwarves had their home back, even if it came with a rather unwelcome "neighbor" of sorts. It wasn't perfect, but then again they had been more than willing to accept staggering loses to the company just to be rid of the original beast in question.

An unspecified time later...

To say Pandora's new "den" had been completed in record time was an understatement. She wasn't willing to leave the area, but the dwarves certainly didn't want her lingering in the treasure room or near them.

Creating a secondary entrance opening big enough for even Smaug where she could sleep in peace and collect her hoard while at the same time giving her quick access to Erebor's treasure was just the best compromise that Thorin could come up with on short notice.

Sure, they had to sacrifice a good chunk of the actual gold and jewels to her hoard and had to bribe her with books and the occasional food, but she more or less ignored their presence in the mountain outside the times they needed her to provide fire hotter than anything they could create in order to restart the forges.

On an unrelated note, they never had to worry about orcs or goblins in the area. Pandora took extreme exception to their existence and set them on fire the moment she sense their presence.

And so a very uneasy truce existed between the female dragon and the dwarves. The fact she never took offense to the younger, more impressionable dwarves coming to bother her was a relief.

Though the parents certainly took inordinate pleasure in seeing their misbehaving whelps giving the dragon looks of fearful respect and never speaking ill of the creature...especially when they learned the perfect punishment for their children when the normal ones weren't enough.

Pandora didn't kill them or injure them. She forced them to read and gave them logic puzzles they had to solve before she would let them go.

Dwarfs weren't stupid, persay, but forcing them to use their brains like elves was considered cruel and unusual punishment.

On an unrelated note, the logic puzzles ended up being a popular toy for several races on Middle Earth (particularly the elves) to the point they sold like hot cakes when a new one was made. Pandora was given some of the coin for selling them as they were her idea to begin with, but it wasn't a lie to say that the dwarves were making good money off the trinkets.

Gandalf was on a mission. Fortunately he had good authority that the creature in question was quite reasonable, provided you showed proper good manners and brought sufficient bribe.

For all their justified reluctance at having a large dragon as an unexpected neighbor, the dwarves of the recently reclaimed Erebor really had little to no complaint about Pandora's continued existence so close to them.

Or at least they had the good sense not to rile her anger by trying to drive her off when she was far more cunning and sneaky than Smaug had been. Then again she hoarded books, rather than massive piles of gold. It only made sense she would read them.

Today Gandalf was heading to the dragon's den, which was unofficially part of Erebor...if one discounted the fact that the dwarves would happily pretend ignorance to it's existence if given a choice.

Pandora had helped to restart the forges, and acted as a sort of guardian for the mountain to prevent a repeat of Smaug's reign of terror...however it did not change the fact that she was a dragon and that she tended to fly past the front gate as a pointed reminder she was still there if they forgot to deliver their "tribute", or as she liked to call it, "rent".

Pandora was leisurely lazing about, with a book against a rather odd contraption that had a piece of glass to magnify the words on it. Which only made sense as it allowed her to read the books without accidentally setting them on fire.

The dragoness turned to look at him with no little amount of annoyance, even when Gandalf showed her the bribe he had brought.

Huffing with irritation, she allowed the wizard to peruse her rapidly growing library. She almost failed to notice the way Gandalf watched her casual use of magic to sort the books he brought with him.

The intense interest the wizard had irked her.

Finally she couldn't take it anymore...the way he watched her made her scales crawl.

"What is it you seek, wizard? The sooner you find what you're looking for, the sooner you can be out of my sight!" said Pandora waspishly.

"I am attempting to discern what exactly Bilbo found in Gollum's cave."

Pandora blinked.

"What?"

"He has picked up a magic ring, one that I do not recognize. I wish to see if I can find records of it in your library," he elaborated.

Pandora snorted derisively.

"If you had said something I would have told you outright what the little fool picked up," said Pandora with disgust. Seeing she had his full interest, the dragon told him. "The little hobbit has somehow found a horcrux."

She said the word with such disgust, such loathing, that Gandalf realized the dragon must have personal experience with such things.

"What exactly is a 'horcrux'?"

"I believe the fancy name for it is 'phylactery'. Essentially it is an item that contains a soul that has been forcibly removed from it's natural moorings. A way to cheat death, as it were. However to split one's soul that way is such a disgusting use of magic that the act itself causes numerous negative consequences as a result. Loss of sanity and morals, for instance," said Pandora rather matter of fact. "That the hobbit uses it as a casual trinket leads me to suspect that the corruptive influence is a low-level one... the sort that takes time to root into the mind of the host until they become bound to it's will."

Gandalf became quite pale hearing that.

"Tell me... if the creator of such a foul piece of magic was to be killed...what would happen?"

"Provided the item in question is not destroyed?" she inquired.

"Yes."

"They would become a shade and while their powers would diminish greatly, it is still possible for them to interact with the physical world. But until the item is destroyed, they will never truly die. However if given enough time and with a strong enough will behind it... well, they would be very difficult to combat even with magic backing you. After all, you cannot kill that which is not truly dead. Only banish it," said Pandora without hesitation.

"How much time?" pressed Gandalf.

"It varies. I take it you know exactly what I'm talking about, so roughly how long has this particular item been around and how long has the creator been 'dead', so to speak?" she asked shrewdly.

"At least several thousand years for both, however recent events have lead us to believe that the 'creator' is not as dead as we have been lead to believe. So long as the Ring of Power is not found, he can never regain full strength... however his minions have already been summoned," replied Gandalf honestly.

Pandora settled down in a sitting position, her tail wrapped around her legs.

"Has the shade in question been banished?"

"By Lady Galadriel, yes. We forced him back to Mordor, where his power resides. It weakened her greatly."

"Then you have bought some time. If he's been slowly building up his power for a few centuries, then such a blow will have bought you at least a decade, if he doesn't find another way to regain physical form. Any idea why he has taken so long to act?"

"The ring that contains his soul was lost. It disappeared completely after the battle with the one who cut it off of him, and no one has seen it since. Though now I suspect the creature known as Gollum may have discovered it quite by accident, and hidden it away for a century or more until Bilbo somehow found it."

"Then as long as no one realizes what Bilbo has, it is safe. However if the servants of the creator find this Gollum they will eventually realize what he has and come after it. Where is he now?" asked Pandora.

"Deep in the mountains. Bilbo found him in caves when the company was ambushed by goblins," said Gandalf.

"Well if Gollum has been living in a cave for all this time, then it's going to be some time before he attempts to venture out. Living underground will have made his sight extra-sensitive, which means sunlight and moonlight will cause him a great deal of pain...so long as he remains there, the secret should be safe."

"May I ask...how is it you know of such things? Especially to the point you were able to identify what it was so quickly?" asked Gandalf.

Pandora blinked at him, before a wicked smirk appeared on her face.

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked with evil glee. This was going to be hilarious.

Seeing he was waiting for an answer, Pandora unfolded her wings until they almost reached the ceiling. Then, to the great shock of the wizard, they folded around her.

A great deal of magic flowed around the odd leathery cocoon, before it began to shrink in upon itself. It continued to do so until it became roughly the size of an adult human, before unfolding to reveal... a young woman with hair the same shade as the scales of the dragon?!

Her green eyes sparkled wickedly, though she kept her wings around her as a cloak of sorts. It was obvious why...she didn't have anything on under it.

"Did you really think a normal dragon would agree to hand over their hoard that easily?" she asked impishly.

Gandalf's expression of shock was one for the records, she concluded with wicked glee. She would have to show Bilbo this later.

"Who exactly are you? And why has my order never heard of you?"

A woman capable of turning into a dragon like that was something the order should have heard about long before now. There were so few of them and he could tell right away she was no elf.

Pandora shrugged.

"I only entered this particular world less than a month before I killed Smaug. Before that, I had never been to Middle Earth at all. I originally planned to make it a vacation, but I ended up liking the fact no one would bat an eye at my magic and decided to stick around," she replied easily. "That and it takes quite a bit of power to breach the barriers between worlds."

To say Gandalf was shocked at the admission would be putting it mildly...however it explained much.

"I see."

"I do not particularly care about this world's politics or power plays. However now that I know there is a horcrux at large and in the hands of a good man, I cannot idly stand by. I have sworn to destroy such abominations with as much vengeance as Thorin swore to kill Azog upon learning he lived."

"Will you help?"

She raised an eyebrow.

"Did I not just state that I cannot abide such foul creations? Once the fool who made this abomination becomes active again, I will assist you in destroying him completely. Such things should not exist, for they corrupt and destroy everything they touch. However until then I shall gather my resources and wait. However I have little doubt boredom will set in eventually... so you may send any allies you feel might benefit from my wisdom here so long as they remember the rules I have set down."

In other words she would help them or give them advice if they brought a bribe...especially books.

Gandalf left with many questions...and a lighter heart. Things did not look so dour knowing that they had a rather unexpected ally against Sauron.

He would like to see how the Ringwraiths faired against dragonfire...