Hey guys! We're back with the next chapter in Caladwen's series. I hope you are all enjoying this so far. Also, before we get into the story, I hate to have to be that person, but if you do enjoy this story, could you leave me a review to let me know what you like and even don't like, I accept constructive criticism. I just like hearing your feedback.
Chapter 26
In the mountain, Thorin has decided to save Bilbo. He charges in, sword in hand, rushing through the tunnels, and stops as flames light up the walls of the tunnel, before running through as the flames die down.
He runs out onto the same overhang Bilbo had earlier reached, then stops abruptly when he sees the mountain of treasure all around him. He breathes heavily, looking over his father's treasure with shock and relief, he is here, he is home. Just then, Bilbo runs up to him.
"You're alive!" Thorin exclaims in relief.
"Not for much longer!"
"Did you find the Arkenstone?"
"The dragon's coming!"
"The Arkenstone!"
They are both standing at the entrance to the tunnel, but Thorin is blocking Bilbo's way. They pause and look at each other for several seconds, then Thorin speaks again, more quietly.
"Did you find it?"
They stare at each other for several seconds, panting heavily. As Bilbo is looking at his friend, the words Smaug had just spoken come to mind and he can already see something is not right with Thorin. Something is off. So, he makes a decision.
"No. We have to get out."
Bilbo tries to enter the tunnel, but Thorin swings his sword across it, blocking the entrance. He presses the blade against Bilbo, and Bilbo stumbles back, the sword still touching him. Bilbo and Thorin face each other, with the tip of Thorin's sword against Bilbo's chest.
"Thorin. Thorin!"
Thorin steps forward, forcing Bilbo to step back. Bilbo's eyes are open in fear, and Thorin's face is steel and blank of emotion. Suddenly, Bilbo looks off to the side, Thorin tilts his head in confusion and then hears a sound in the direction the hobbit is looking. His blood turning cold, he turns and sees Smaug approaching over the mountain of treasure. Smaug, recognizing Thorin, snarls. Suddenly, the remaining dwarves run out of the tunnel and face Smaug, their weapons out. Smaug roars and rushes at them; his chest and neck glow orange.
"You will burn!"
Just as Smaug bellows fire at them, the dwarves and Bilbo turn and jump off the staircase. They tumble down the pile of treasure and land near the entrance to another tunnel, which they run into.
"Come on, Bilbo!" Dori calls out.
Angrily, Smaug breathes fire in all directions. Thorin, the last one in the door, is pushed in by the force of the flames. He runs into the room at the other end of the tunnel with the back of his coat on fire, and he throws himself on the ground and rolls to extinguish the flames. He jumps back up.
"Come on."
With Smaug roaring in the background, they run.
Tauriel washes and tears apart the Kingsfoil in a tub of water held by Tilda, while I quickly get the table set up right, turning to Fili, Bofur and Oin.
"Get him on the table." I order as I place a cushion down for his head.
The three of them do so, picking up a moaning and thrashing Kili and laying him on the table and try to hold him down.
Tauriel approaches with the bowl of water and examines Kili's wound. I look over from where I am standing across from her and see how black and festered it is, she and I look to each other in worry. I nod to her as I turn to Fili and Bofur, who are standing at his head on either side, while she is preparing a bit of the mixture in her hands.
"You two, get ready to pin him, he is going to thrash and do everything he can to throw you off, do not let him."
They both nod as they hold his shoulders down. I ask Sigrid to come help, holding down Kili's good leg while I hold him down by both of his shins, Oin standing beside me.
We look on as Tauriel closes her eyes and begins chanting in Elvish while she kneads the soaked Kingsfoil in her hand, then presses it to Kili's wound.
"Menno o nin na hon i eliad annen annin, hon leitho o ngurth."
As I predicted, Kili screams and thrashes out in pain, causing the four of us to hold him down as best as we can.
"Tilda!" Sigrid calls out.
The young girl, who was standing at the side, holding her doll and looking ready to cry, instantly runs over at her sister's call, helping to keep his good leg down, allowing me to hold the shin and ankle of his bad leg so he does not kick Tauriel while she is trying to work.
Tauriel continues chanting; Fili looks at her strangely, and Oin listens in amazement through his fairly dented hearing trumpet. Kili begins calming down. Looking up at him, I see him staring at her, glassy-eyed. If I did not know about their feelings before, I certainly do now, as I watch them just looking at each other.
In Erebor, everything is quiet and dark. There is no sign of either the dragon or the dwarves. Suddenly, there are footsteps. The dwarves emerge out of a tunnel and approach a stone bridge over a chasm. Thorin raises his hand and quiets the group.
Thorin holds his hand out. "Shh. Shh."
"Quiet." Dori mutters.
They near the foot of the bridge and Thorin peers around the edge of the tunnel, looking for any sign of Smaug. They all whisper.
"We've given him the slip." Dori says.
Dwalin shakes his head. "No, he's too cunning for that."
"So where to now?" Bilbo asks as he looks to Thorin.
"The western guardroom. There may be a way out."
Balin turns to him. "It's too high. There's no chance that way."
"It's our only chance. We have to try."
Quietly, they tiptoe across the bridge, looking all about. Suddenly, a coin falls to the floor right in front of Bilbo and rings loudly. They all freeze and look at Bilbo, who frantically checks his jacket to see if some coin had been stuck in a fold. Hearing another coin fall, they look up and see Smaug crawling just above them, looking for them. He hasn't seen them. The coins that fell came from his chest and arms, where several coins and gems have embedded themselves after years of him sleeping on them. Thorin motions for them to keep moving.
Having finished with the wound, Tauriel binds Kili's leg with a clean cloth. Kili still lies on the table. I walk over to Oin and Fili are in the kitchen, watching a pot of water boil.
"I've heard tell of the wonders of elvish medicine. That was a privilege to witness."
I grin at Oin as he says this, tuning out Kili's and Tauriel's conversation. "I thought you did not like anything about elves?"
He shrugs, a sheepish smile appearing on his face. "Just because I don't like elves, apart from you and now her, doesn't mean I don't appreciate their healing methods. I am a healer after all."
I smile and I pat his shoulder as I turn to Fili. "What about you? Are you alright?"
He nods. "I'm fine. I'm glad you came when you did, any longer and. . ."
Seeing his face drop, I reach out and pull him close to me, allowing him to hold me tight.
"Hey, it is alright, he's safe now. He will heal just fine."
"Do you think she could have loved me?"
I look up at hearing Kili say this. I knew Tauriel had begun to develop feeling for him, but I wasn't so sure about him. But to hear this, I truly think that maybe they could end up being together. I don't know what Thorin would say about this, but he couldn't say much as he is currently engaged to an elf himself.
Looking to Tauriel, I see her just looking at Kili in silence, opening her mouth as if to say something, but she can't speak.
In Erebor, the Company runs through a hall and emerge in the western guardroom.
"Stay close."
They all stop abruptly when they see that the guardroom is full of rotted, dust- and cobweb-covered corpses. A pile of dwarrows, dams and children.
Dwalin sighs. "That's it, then. There's no way out."
It seems like a landslide or something has blocked the exit, trapping the dwarves in the past in the room to die.
Balin steps forward, looking sadly at the bodies. "The last of our kin. They must have come here, hoping beyond hope. We could try to reach the Mines. We might last a few days."
Thorin steps forward. "No. I will not die like this. Cowering, clawing for breath." He looks over his fallen kin, his throat sticking with emotion as he holds back his tears, wanting to mourn for those they had lost, but knowing now isn't the time. He turns to the others. "We make for the forges."
Dwalin shakes his head. "He'll see us, sure as death."
"Not if we split up."
Balin steps up to him. "Thorin, we'll never make it."
"Some of us might. Lead him to the forges. We kill the dragon. If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together."
dThorin, Bilbo, and Balin run out onto a bridge.
"This way!" Thorin calls out.
A booming sound comes from nearby, and Smaug appears, causing the three of them to stop.
"Flee, flee! Run for your lives! There is nowhere to hide."
Smaug goes at the three, but he turns at another sound. Dori, Ori, and Bombur are running on another bridge and yelling to distract Smaug, giving Thorin, Bilbo and Balin time to run.
"Behind you! Worm!" Dori yells ot.
Smaug looks at them, then lunges toward them. The three of them turn and run.
"Come on!"
As Smaug chases the second group, Thorin, Bilbo, and Balin continue across the bridge. Suddenly, the third group, Dwalin and Nori, run across another bridge and yell to distract Smaug.
"Hey you! Here!" Dwalin shouts.
Smaug turns and jumps at them. They run off the bridge and into a tunnel just before Smaug's claw lands where they were. The fourth and last group, Gloin and Bifur, use this chance to run across a bridge and make it into a tunnel as well.
Angrily, Smaug blows fire after the both of them. He blows rapidly in an arc all around him, into all the tunnels. His fire causes the stones beneath Gloin and Bifur to glow in heat. They reach a cliff and leap into the air, landing in large troughs which they slide down. They land in the buckets of a large hanging conveyor belt system used in the past for mining.
Balin, Thorin, and Bilbo run through a large hallway. Balin turns into a side tunnel, but Thorin continues forward with Bilbo at his heels.
"It's this way! This way! Come on!" Balin calls out to them.
Bilbo stops by the tunnel, and calls out to Thorin, who is still ahead.
"Thorin!"
Thorin turns and begins to go back to Bilbo and Balin, but stops suddenly. They all see Smaug at the end of the hallway. Thorin yells at Bilbo.
"Follow Balin!"
Bilbo calls out for Thorin while backing up towards Balin.
"Come on!"
Balin pulls Bilbo into the side tunnel just as Smaug's chest glows orange and he unleashes his fire throughout the hall. Thorin cries out and runs the other way, leaping into the air, falling into a deep pit. He catches onto a chain with a bucket at the end of it, and it begins descending just as Smaug leaps into the pit as well. Smaug claws his way down the tunnel, snapping at Thorin on the chain. Dwalin runs up to the mouth of the pit.
"Thorin!"
Dwalin smashes his axe into the machinery holding the chain Thorin is holding on to, and the chain stops descending abruptly. Beside Dwalin, a heavy holding bucket on the other end of the same chain begins descending rapidly, causing Thorin's chain to fly upward as Dwalin yells out for him to hold on.
Thorin soars upward, narrowly missing Smaug's head. Smaug turns and manages to grab the end of Thorin's chain, stopping its movement. Smaug pulls down, at the machinery holding the chain at the top of the pit breaks free of its moorings and falls into the pit. Hit chain slack, Thorin falls and lands right on the tip of Smaug's closed mouth. He stands on Smaug's top lip as Smaug growls and opens his mouth; fire is visibly rising up his neck.
Just as Smaug snaps his mouth closed to eat Thorin, Thorin leaps to the side and grabs another chain. Smaug turns to bite him, but the falling machinery strikes him in the face. Nori, at the top of the pit, hits another machine, and its gears spin rapidly, pulling Thorin on his chain rapidly upward. Smaug roars and unleashes his fire straight towards Thorin. Looking up at hearing his name, he sees Nori hanging over with his hand out, which he grabs when he gets to the top. Nori pulls him onto the ledge just as the fire blares past.
"Go! Go!" Thorin yells pushing Nori on ahead.
Thorin and Nori run through narrow slits between tall, stone pillars and join the other dwarves and Bilbo, apart from Bifur and Gloin. They are standing in front of several massive dwarf furnaces, each at least ten yards high.
"The plan's not going to work. These furnaces are stone cold." Dwalin points out.
Balin nods. "He's right; there's no fire hot enough to set them ablaze."
The furnaces are all dark, with no sign of fire within. Thorin turns back toward the pit when he hears Smaug's growling.
"Have we not?" He walks over to the pillars, placing a hand on each. "I did not look to see you so easily outwitted!"
Smaug's claw emerges from the pit, his body following it. Thorin continues taunting him.
"You have grown slow and fat in your dotage."
Smaug snarls at Thorin in anger.
"Slug."
As Smaug snarls and advances, Thorin gets behind a pillar and yells to the others to do the same.
"Take cover. Go!"
They all rush behind pillars just as Smaug unleashes his flame at them. The fire goes past the pillars and reaches all the way to the furnaces. The dwarves and Bilbo, though not in the direct path of the fire, yell from the pain, heat, and pressure. As Smaug stops, fire suddenly comes out of the bottoms of the furnaces, and they begin glowing and working. Smaug growls in confusion and anger. The dwarves run from the pillars as Smaug begins battering at them with his head. They are immensely strong, like a latticework of metal, but they begin to bend under Smaug's tremendous strength.]
"Bombur! Get those bellows working. Go!"
"Alright!"
Bombur runs and leaps onto a chain next to a forge. The chain slides down with his weight, and he lands on the handle of a massive bellows. The bellows compress and blast air into the furnace, which exhumes bright blue flames. On top of the furnaces is a massive pile of unrefined gold, at least ten yards in diameter.
Thorin turns and sees the latticework continue to bend from Smaug's bashing.
"Bilbo! Up there, on my mark, pull that lever."
He points Bilbo toward a lever high up on a pillar, and Bilbo runs toward it. The dwarves run toward the forges as the latticework begins to break. Thorin grabs Balin.
"Balin, can you still make some flash-flame?"
"Aye. It'll only take a jiffy."
Balin grabs some of the other dwarves to help him.
"Come on!"
As Balin runs off, Dwalin looks at the latticework, which is bending dangerously from Smaug's blows.
"We don't have a jiffy."
Under the force of Smaug's onslaught, the latticework finally gives way and falls to the ground. Smaug storms into the furnace room. He looks about, growling.
In a storage room nearby, Balin and some other dwarves frantically mix together various powders into jars to make flash-flame bombs.
"Where's the sulfur?" Balin asks as he collects things he needs.
Dori looks to him "You sure you know what you're doing?
Bilbo clambers up some steps and reaches the lever mounted high on a tower; Smaug begins walking toward him.
Balin chuckles as he pours a vial of powder into empty jars.
"Come on!" Dori yells out.
Balin drops a small ball into each jar.
Smaug raises his head to look at Bilbo, then looks to the side and sees Thorin standing there. Smaug turns and snarls at Thorin, and Thorin yells to Bilbo.
"Now!"
Bilbo jumps into the air and pulls down on the lever just as Thorin lunges toward Thorin. Huge jets of water burst out of carved faces in the wall behind Bilbo and slam into Smaug, knocking him off balance and quenching the flames he was beginning to blow at Thorin. Smaug slides into the side of a furnace from the force of the water, and the glow in his chest disappears. Roaring in rage, Smaug flaps into the air and begins thrashing about madly. The jets of water cause a watermill to begin turning some gears, which causes the various rope conveyor belts to begin operating. Some of them are full of heavy chunks of rock and ore.
Bombur continues going up and down on his chain, pumping the bellows and turning the furnace fire blue. Atop the furnaces, the solid impure gold begins to glow and melt. Smaug begins crawling toward Thorin again. Above him, Gloin and Bifur have arrived in buckets on conveyor belt, looking over and watching the madness below.
As Smaug approaches Thorin, there is a flash of blue light on the side of his head. Balin, Ori, and Dori are throwing flash-flame bombs at Smaug. However, Smaug is not at all fazed by them and continues toward Thorin. Above Smaug, Gloin raises his axe and cuts the rope of the conveyor belt full of heavy rocks below him, dropping tons of rocks on Smaug and making him fall to the ground, roaring.
The gold atop the furnaces is completely melted now. Thorin runs over to a furnace and pulls on a chain, opening a gate which allows the molten gold to flow out of the furnaces and through troughs built into the ground.
Smaug, tangled in the ropes of the conveyor belt, thrashes about and hits the rope of the conveyor belt Gloin and Bifur are in, breaking it and knocking it to the floor.
"Noo! Ahhh!" Gloin yells as he and Bifur fall.
They miraculously land on the ground unhurt. Beneath Smaug, rivers of molten gold flow through the troughs on the floor. Thorin turns and begins running, shouting back at the dwarves.
"Lead him to the Gallery of the Kings!"
As Smaug thrashes about, one of the heavy metal buckets tangled on him goes flying toward Bilbo on top of the mound. Bilbo yells and ducks, and the bucket misses him but takes large chunks out of the wall.
Thorin grabs a wheelbarrow and runs while pushing it, dodging Smaug's thrashing limbs. Smaug's tail smashes into the base of the mound, cracking it and worrying Bilbo. Thorin throws the wheelbarrow into a channel of gold and leaps into the wheelbarrow; it floats on the gold and is carried along.
Seeing this, Smaug roars and whips his head around, finally getting rid of the ropes and buckets tangled around him. He stomps over to a small entrance at the base of the mound where all the troughs of liquid gold join and lead out of the room. Before he can get to Thorin, Thorin on his wheelbarrow floats through the entrance, just as the mound collapses and Bilbo falls. He manages to hit the ground rolling. Smaug sees Bilbo and snarls. Thorin turns his head back and yells.
"Keep going, Bilbo! Run!"
Bilbo takes off running with Smaug in pursuit; he leaps onto a large stone slide before Smaug can grab him, and Smaug slides after him, demolishing all the stone structures nearby with his wings.
The trough Thorin is floating in ends at a drop; as his wheelbarrow goes over the edge, Thorin leaps from it and grabs onto a chain. The molten gold drops into a large stone mould.
Bilbo, running from Smaug, runs through a doorway and into a massive hall adorned with banners hundreds of feet tall. Just as he runs in, the wall above the doorway explodes as Smaug jumps through it. Bilbo runs frantically from the flying rocks, but is caught beneath the cloth of a falling banner and knocked to the floor. Smaug leaps to the floor and shouts angrily.
"You think you could deceive me, Barrel-rider?"
Bilbo peaks out from the edge of the banner.
"You have come from Laketown. There is- is some sort of scheme hatched between these filthy dwarves and those miserable cup-trading Lakemen. Those sniveling cowards with their longbows and black arrows!"
Smaug is talking to himself, and his voice breaks in both anger and fear when he mentions the black arrows.
"Perhaps it is time I paid them a visit."
Smaug turns to go to Laketown, and Bilbo gasps as he thinks of those people, of Bard and the children and Fili, Kili, Bofur, Oin and hopefully Caladwen if she made it, they'll be defenceless!
"Oh, no."
He scrambles out from under the banner and yells at Smaug.
"This isn't their fault! Wait! You cannot go to Laketown."
Hearing this, Smaug stops for a moment, then turns toward Bilbo, who is running after him.
"You care about them, do you? Good. Then you can watch them die."
Smaug turns and strides off down the hall. Suddenly, a voice sounds from one end of the hall, where there is a massive stone structure that looks roughly like a dwarf. The voice is Thorin's; he is standing atop the structure.
"Here, you witless worm!"
Smaug stops in his track, snarling and squinting in anger. He then turns toward Thorin.
"You."
"I am taking back what you stole."
Smaug slowly stalks toward Thorin.
"You would take nothing from me, Dwarf. I laid low your warriors of old. I instilled terror in the hearts of men. I am King under the Mountain."
His head is level with Thorin now; Bilbo watches from an adjoining hall.
"This is not your kingdom. These are dwarf lands, this is dwarf gold, and we will have our revenge."
Unseen by Smaug, there are chains attached to various places on the back of the stone dwarf structure Thorin is standing on, and the ends of these chains are held by the other dwarves. As Thorin speaks, Smaug's chest and neck glow with fire, and Thorin slowly reaches up toward a rope above him. Just as Smaug opens his mouth, Thorin yells and order in Khuzdul. He then yanks on the rope, and a pin behind the stone falls out, releasing heavy wooden bands and chains that had been wrapped tightly around the stone.
Smaug rears his head in confusion. The other dwarves pull mightily on their chains, and more pins similar to the first are pulled out of the stone. The stone structure, which is now revealed to be the mold into which the liquid gold from earlier poured into, falls apart and reveals a massive statue of a dwarf king, made entirely out of solid gold. Thorin swings away on a rope to escape the falling rocks.
Smaug looks at the golden statue, which is even larger than him, in awe and desire. As he approaches it, his mouth opens slightly in greed. Suddenly, the gold around the statue's eyes warps and then explodes into liquid; the gold in the statue had not yet fully solidified, and the entire statue collapses and explodes into burning hot liquid. Smaug roars in anger as the statue melts, and scrabbles backward to escape the gold. However, he cannot move fast enough and the tidal wave of gold hits him and knocks him over. As he roars, he is entirely smothered and drowned in the gold, which fills the entire hall in a layer several feet deep.
The gold settles, and no sign of Smaug is seen. The dwarves begin to smile in joy, but suddenly, the surface of the golden lake explodes as Smaug leaps out. He is entirely covered in gold, and he screams in anger and pain.
"Ahh! Revenge?! Revenge! I will show you REVENGE!"
As the dwarves and Bilbo look on in shock, Smaug runs down the hallway and takes off in flight.
Outside the mountain, it is night; we see the great doors of Erebor closed and shut. Suddenly, the side of the mountain breaks as an enraged Smaug smashes his way out. He flaps his wings and lifts off into the sky, spinning and causing the remaining gold on him to fall off in a golden shimmer. He swoops off toward Laketown.
As the ground rumbles again and a roar heard through the night, I instantly know that Smaug is out and heading in our direction, especially when I hear the cries of people in the street. Hearing Tilda whimper in fear, I hold her close to give her some comfort.
Smaug soars through the air toward Laketown, talking to himself.
"I am fire. I am...DEATH!"
Bilbo having run out after the dragon, stands and watches helplessly as the dragon makes his way towards Lake Town.
"What have we done?"
And there we have it, Desolation of Smaug is done and dusted. Tune in next time when we begin the Battle of the Five Armies.
Translations;
Menno o nin na hon i eliad annen annin, hon leitho o ngurth. - May the blessing that was given to me be sent from me to him, may he be released from death.