Home ↠ The Hobbit

I. Reunion

Athena watched as Smaug descended upon Lake-town, nausea bubbling up in her throat at the knowledge that they had caused this. But that was not the only thing that had caused her heart to pound in her chest. She pushed herself up from the rock and began to make her way down the path from Erebor but was stopped when a hand grasped onto her arm, whirling around to face Thorin.

"Fili and Kili are down there I can't just leave them!" She desperately cried out, staring at Thorin in anguish for the two Dwarves that meant more to her than life itself.

"You would never reach them in time. Whatever their fate is in Lake-town, you cannot change it now," he whispered to her before releasing her arm and stalking back over to the rest of the company.

She watched his retreating figure, tears blurring her vision from both frustration and fear. She knew that he was right, but she didn't want to admit it. She wanted to be with them, she wanted to be able to help them or at least fall with them if that were the case. But instead she was stuck at the door of the Lonely Mountain and forced to watch as the flames engulfed the town below them.

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"Poor souls," she distantly heard Balin whisper from where she was sitting atop a rock, overlooking the destruction of Lake-town.

It had only been a few minutes but already the entire town was ablaze with orange and red, reminding her of when Dale fell. Now the horrors of that day had been pushed onto the small town that had done nothing to invoke the wrath of the dragon, innocent people burning and families being torn to shreds.

Athena made no movement when she felt a hand rest against her shoulder, her eyes remaining fixated on the burning town as Balin took a seat beside her.

"They'll be okay. They're strong lads," he tried to reassure her, but it did little to dim the dread in her heart.

"How can you say that when you have no idea what's happening to them right now? They could already be dead for all we know," she whispered, shaking her head a little.

"Because, lass, when we have no idea and we're afraid that is when we have to have hope—lest we be consumed by darkness. You have to cling onto the hope that they will make it out alive."

She showed no outward acknowledgement to his words, instead she silently pondered them. There wasn't anything else that she could do so she'd heed his advice, and she'd cling onto the hope that they were okay, and she'd cling onto the hope that somebody else will see the weakness of Smaug, and she'd cling onto the hope that the dragon will fall. But there was something else eating away at her mind, a feeling that no words of comfort would be able to dissipate.

"We did this," she whispered while turning her head to face Balin, "we caused this to happen because we didn't listen. And now we have condemned another town to burn, and for what? Revenge? A pile of gold?" She shook her head after her words, taking a deep breath to keep her tears at bay as she looked back to the town with regret burning her from the inside.

Balin had no words, he knew there was nothing he could say to make her feel better and she wasn't the only one who was feeling that way. One look at the downfallen faces of the Dwarves and Hobbit were enough to show that they knew this was their fault.

"I saw you trying to read the ingredients of those flash-flames back there," Balin decided to say to divert the conversation elsewhere, he thought that it would be better to distract her for the time being to keep her mind from delving to darker depths.

"What?" She asked out of confusion, turning to him again.

"I'd be happy to tell you about them if you'll listen?"