Curse of the East (Fili/The Hobbit Fanfiction)

Chapter 37 - The Battle For the Mountain: Part 4

     Dwalin opened his mouth to respond, but Thorin's voice was suddenly echoing around us; his anger and his passion lacing every word.

     "This is not, your kingdom," He spat. "These are dwarf lands. This is dwarf gold. For too long have you sat here pretending that you are more than you are. You took from us, you did unspeakable things to our people; and now, we will have our revenge." His voice had been getting gradually louder, and then he shouted something I couldn't understand; but the second the others heard him they all sprang to life. They grabbed the massive chains and started pulling hard; Dwalin turned to me from his place beside Nori.

     "Help Fili and Kili lass," He managed to shout through gritted teeth as he strained against the stone. My legs were moving before I could even fully register what he had said to me, but in the next moment I found myself standing between Fili and Kili; pulling hard on a chain that was, hopefully, going to do something I knew nothing about for the second time in less than an hour.

     The binds holding the stone together all began to snap, and I stumbled back when the chain in my hand went slack very suddenly. Kili managed to catch me before I went over the edge, and he smiled widely at me as the stone began to shift and fall from the statue. A large part of me was wondering how exactly they had managed to do something this elaborate in such a short time; the rest of me was wondering how exactly a broken statue was supposed to help us kill a dragon.

     The rest of the stones fell away, and I found myself staring at the back of an enormous golden statue. It looked almost like they had somehow managed to use the stones as a sort of mould for the gold; I was impressed, but as I looked up at Thorin, who was now dangling from yet another chain I realized I was no closer to knowing what in Durin's name was going on here.

     Though I couldn't see him, I could hear the lizard take several slow steps toward us; and I could imagine the smug look slowly fading from his face as he experienced the same confusions I was plagued with. Lucky for me I wasn't the one this small band of dwarves was angry at. I may have been kept in the dark about the details of their plan, but that didn't mean I had any doubts that we could somehow pull this off. The dragon would die tonight; of that I was absolutely certain. After that the other dwarves would return to Erebor, and all will be as it always should have been.

     I was pulled again from my thoughts, this time by Fili as he stepped up beside me and laced our fingers together; his eyes never straying from the large statue. As Smaug crept ever closer I began to put the pieces of their plan together in my mind. Smaug's love of gold was fierce, of that much I was certain; and a massive statue made of pure gold was certainly something that would get his attention. For the moment he seemed transfixed by it; I was just beginning to wonder about the second part of the plan when Fili's grip on my hand tightened significantly. It didn't hurt, but it was no longer a simple gesture; the blood in my hand was going to have trouble reaching my fingertips. I turned to ask him why exactly he felt the need to crush every bone in my hand when Smaug gave a mighty roar. I pulled my hand from Fili's grasp and jumped back as the statue suddenly began to turn to liquid and collapse in on itself. I wanted to laugh at how brilliant their plan had been; but I found myself distracted with trying to pull Bifur up after he had stumbled and quite nearly gone over the edge.

     The noises I could hear coming from Smaug were like nothing I had ever heard before; and I wanted nothing more than to cover my ears and hide my face in an effort to block it out; but I had no intention of missing this moment. We had won.

     I reached up to help Thorin as he climbed down from the chain; Fili and I each grabbed one of his arms to help him regain his balance as he landed on the uneven stone. He turned to the two of us, smiling widely before looking over Fili's shoulder and motioning Kili forward as well. He flashed his uncle a shy smile; but that was replaced with surprise when Thorin pulled the three of us in for a tight hug. I groaned when I found myself crushed between Thorin and Fili; and when I opened my eyes I saw Kili grinning widely at me.