The anticipation kept me restless. I was absolutely certain my pacing was setting our small team on edge. I wasn't sure if allowing all of the dwarves to go forward to the mountain was actually the best idea but, after the orc fight by the river I had more faith that they could handle situations outside my knowledge better than my pessimistic mind thought they could. And I'd realized, with the health of Kili in check, getting him and Fili to stay behind would have been impossible and probably, definitely, insulting. They knew the risks before and they knew them now. I couldn't make their decisions for them. Despite my want for their safety.
And, even after warning the King, I saw a glint of gold in his eyes that I did not like seeing. I didn't know how to stop that either.
Tauriel approached me and walked calmly beside me, causing my pacing to cease.
"Are you sure you should stay for this?" She inquired.
I stopped walking all together. What was I doing? A dragon was coming and I was deciding to stay in the middle of the fire. What could I do against a dragon? I looked up at her.
"Uhh…" I kind of gaped, " I really don't know."
She continued to look into my eyes, not judging, just waiting for my thoughts to process.
"This is all getting really, really real. And so dangerous." I rambled, "But what else do I do? I could go sit in the forest and wait. And I'd be safe and I'd be dying on the inside not knowing if you all were ok or alive." I paused, still trying to think why I was here, what I thought it would accomplish. "Maybe I'm not supposed to be here, Tauriel, but I can't imagine being anywhere else. Even the smallest thought that I may be needed keeps me here." I finished, looking down.
I could see her hair move as she nodded. No more questions asked; she stayed by my side.
I counted my arrows again, something that Kili had taught me over and over was my most important lesson besides hitting my mark. I then checked for the sword at my hip. Just a little basic sword from Laketown chosen for me for its lightness. I was still not a swordswoman. Fili's nickname replayed in my head, Nâla''azan, River Shadow. My first battle, fought and won. I could feel courage coming back to me. Even if I did not fight, I would help, I would be there for my friends. I gazed back at the mountain as the sunset lingered at its peak.
Darkness was finally here and I kept my eyes peeled for something frightening approaching on the wind. Our breathing clouded the sky in front of us. It was oddly silent. Bard was clutching the black arrow in his hands, I looked at him nervously. He spared me a quick grin.
A thundering shriek filled the air and I jumped straight up. Everyone was immediately at the ready. Bard put a hand on my shoulder.
"Keep yourself alive," He gripped my shoulder tightly.
I nodded curtly as he let go, jogging to the wind lance. Tauriel smiled at me once more before we turned to keep our attention on the dark shadow gliding our way.
"He is almost upon us," Legolas almost whispered. Urging us to our strategic locations through the town.
We were the distraction, keeping any and all attention away from Bard while also keeping Smaug within the wind lance's range. I wondered how long it would take for the chaos to begin.
Not long.
Eager for our attention, Smaug's flames began to lick at the surface of the lake. I turned from the heat. Even at this distance the flames burned at my skin. I ran and hid myself from the heat behind a small shack.
By the time I lifted myself from the shelter there were leather wings hovering above the town.
The ground beneath my feet disappeared for a second and returned angled into the lake. Smaug had landed on the edge of the floating village, sinking portions of it completely. I thanked everyone I could think of that the villagers were all off in a safe place. A booming voice nearly had me dropping my bow as I covered my ears.
"Friends of Barrel Rider!" Smaug bellowed, "His meddling has sealed your fate! Death is your reward," He finished before drowning a row of houses in molten fire.
An arrow from the north part of town flew toward one of the beasts giant, glowing eyes. The sound of the arrow slicing through the air caused the dragon to tilt his head and the arrow shattered harmlessly on one of his scales.
"Mmmm, resistance is…" He glanced toward the where the arrow had come from, "not wise." He growled as he lunged toward Legolas, snapping his jaws at the spot he'd just been standing in. I quickly drew an arrow to avert his attention. I aimed for the eye closest to me and loosed the arrow. His head whipped toward the sound and the arrow grazed lightly past his head. He hardly seemed to care. Smaug's chest began to glow.
I glanced toward Bard who was tracking the dragon meticulously with the deadly arrow. I had the dodge the incinerating flames behind another hut. The heat was excruciating and unrelenting. I glanced at the ice ridden lake as my next escape. A second before I was about to jump into the lake the flames ceased and the dragon's head shot up into the sky with a scream.
I glanced from my hiding spot to see Smaug flailing his head around as a twiggy blond elf swung from one of his head spikes. An arrow lay well planted in the dragon's right eye.
Smaug reared and his glowing chest lit the deep night. One area glowed particularly bright where one armored scale had been lost.
"Bard!" I turned towards him.
His concentration was already held, however, and his hands were pulling the trigger. My gaze went back to the glowing belly as the arrow flew. The dragon jerked, trying to fling elf off and the arrow that would have been true caught the edge of a nearby scale and bounced off, twirling into the lake.
I didn't even think, I ran and dove in after it.
The water was instant pain, so cold compared to the inferno above, that the shock of it almost froze me in place. The arrow was sinking faster than I thought it would and the water was murky. If it weren't for the dragon's fire above the surface I wouldn't have been able to catch the flaming reflection off the sinking metal.
I swam past the cold taking huge strides to try and catch up to the heavy object. My lungs were already burning and the arrow still sunk deeper. I watched as it softly planted itself in the muck of the lake bottom and realized I wouldn't be able to use the ground to push myself up. My fingers latched onto the blazing arrow just as I felt like the air was completely gone from my lungs.
The arrow was much heavier than I expected and I struggled toward the surface. Another blaze of fire blinded me as I swam for the surface. It was so far away. I desperately looked around for anything that could help me and saw a dock piling to my left. I swam to the post, grabbed on, and almost breathed in the lake water. Studying myself I began to use the piling to push myself to the surface.
I gasped past the water taking desperate, quick breaths to try and make up for the oxygen lost. With huge effort I lugged the black arrow from the water and it fell heavily onto the wooden dock.
When I looked up, I screamed.
The dragons body dove towards me.
I was pulled, suddenly, from the water. With me in one arm Bard grabbed the black arrow and pulled me down the dock. We dove forward as the dragons body fell closer. We were still directly under Smaug's armored chest but Bard had located us very meticulously beneath the missing scale.
Bard embedded the butt of the arrow into the wood of the dock.
Realizing his plan, and impossible aim, I tried to be impressed but was dragged behind Bard back into the lake. The dragon's body fell not far behind us, demolishing the parts of the town beneath him. As our three figures floated down I could see Smaug's body, motionless, with a perfectly placed arrow embedded deep within his chest.
We tried to out swim the body but as soon as we were out from under it the beast's wings bowed over us. We tried to swim out from under but the current the huge thing created kept pulling us deeper.
I was losing my breath quickly and Bard, who was probably an excellent swimmer, discarded his heavy coat to keep from sinking further. With his hand still gripping mine, we both swam for our lives, kicking as fast as our frozen limbs would take us. I couldn't feel relief as the surface reflected just above us because my lungs were screaming in my chest and every kick of my legs was getting weaker.
We burst through the surface of the water with heavy chokes of air. We tread water where we were for some time trying to recover.
When we finally glanced around we noticed the extent of the damage. Almost half of the town was underwater and the rest stood tottering in flames. When I looked to shore I realized we had quite the swim before we reached any kind of solid ground.
My arms were shaking with fatigue and my legs were so numb and cold it was a surprise I could still move them.
"Bard," My voice shivered. He looked at my quaking form, "You did it." I breathed.
Both of us were so in shock that we really couldn't comprehend all that had happened in the last few moments. We stared at each other in awe before he noticed my face barely holding itself above the waters surface.
"You need to float." He said while pulling me up.
I was honestly so beat I didn't think I could bring myself to the floating position. I tried to shake the feeling back into myself and took a deep breath. Luckily by body listened an I lay stiffly on the waters surface. Bard followed suit, grabbing onto my arm and kicked us toward shore.
It was only now that I realized that our elven friends had yet to be seen.
"Bard," I inquired tiredly. He grunted to let me know he was listening. "Did you see the elves?" I asked, hoping he'd caught a glance of them escaping. The last time I'd seen Legolas he'd been riding the dragon's head. I hoped he hadn't been drug to the bottom of the lake with Smaug. Bard replied curtly.
"I've not seen them."
I tried to believe they'd successfully escaped with my tired mind. I could see my clothes beginning to frost in the frigid air and my lungs started to feel like icicles were forming with each breath. I inhaled when my foot hit something then realized it was the sand of the beach. Bard grunted as he lugged both our weights across the sand of the shore and dropped down. Our breaths misted the air, heavy and quick and exhausted. My legs were locking up in the cold and I knew we had to make a fire or something before we froze to death. I lazily waved my arm around until it met Bards boot, tapping it a couple times.
"We have…" I breathed, "to start a fire." I shook. Bard took a deep breath before pulling himself from the dark gravel of the shore. I reached for him to help me up. He handed me one arm and lifted me to my wavering feet. He walked off into the woods, hopefully to collect firewood. I found a good area and began clearing a spot for the fire. I went to find some small branches and driftwood from the dryer parts of the beach.
I gazed at the smoldering city a ways down shore. I wondered if I'd be able to catch any movement from my elf friends from this distance. The sound of shifting wood brought me back. Bard was setting up the fire. I added my small collection of driftwood to the pile and collapsed on my knees as Bard started the slow process.
I hadn't realized I'd fallen into an icy sleep until I was woken by a warmth on my cheek. My eyes cracked open to see the sparks of the fire lighting the dark night and Bard sitting up, dozing in the warmth. I shifted in the black gravel and shuffled closer to the fire. I barely got my coat from my back to set it to dry. I worried about drifting off and leaving us watchless as we both inevitably fell to exhaustion but I knew neither of us had a chance of keeping our eyes open so I curled up in my weariness, allowing the fire to defrost my legs and the sleep to take me away.
Wow. If you're reading this, thanks for sticking around!