To Love a Half-Blood (A Kili Fanfic)

Chapter 20: Waiting

And so we all sit and wait, wait for the firestorm to pass. The screaming never stops and the smoke continues to float through the air. Minutes, then hours tick by. The water is cold, so cold. I'm only submerged in the icy lake from the waist down, but the water wicks up my clothes and they plaster to my skin. Bard's children huddle for warmth, as do Fili and Kili. Legolas still hasn't released me, and I'm glad because his skin is warm against mine. I shiver and burrow closer to my brother. The air is cold and hot at the same time. It's the very end of winter and you can see your breath in the air. Icicles form on my eyelashes from time to time, but, when the dragon makes a second pass, there is an unbearable heat and they melt. Too hot and too cold for hours until, finally, there comes a bloodcurdling yowl of pain and a splash. The water under the dock swells and covers everyone's heads. The wave continues for a moment before we bob to the surface once more. And when we do, our ears are greeted with a thundering cheer.

"What was that?" Bard's son asks the question on everyone's minds.

"Perhaps the steeple fell into the lake?" suggests Bard's oldest daughter.

 "Why would people cheer at that?" Asks Fili.

That is clearly not the correct explanation. Then it hits me, the silence. The thunder of wings is gone and I haven't heard the deafening roar of Smaug in several minutes.

"Someone should peek out." Fili continues.

Everyone nods in agreement, but nobody moves.

"Really?" I say disapprovingly.

I reach up to grab a dock beam and pull myself from Legolas's grasp.

"Where are you going?!" my brother demands, grabbing my leg and causing me to flinch in pain.

"To go see what's going on." I snap, and yank my leg painfully from his grasp before flipping onto the dock.

My entire body is numb with the cold of the lake as I climb onto the dock. At least half of the town is in ruins. Suffering shouts still echo through the air and flame licks at the rubble. Something is different though. Squinting through the thick smoke, I can make out a crowd of people at the other end of town.

What are they doing?! They're making themselves a target!

I look up into the sky, searching for the monster. He is nowhere to be seen. I continue to stare intently through the smoke-filled air for several minutes to be certain. Still, nothing. My heart flutters with hope.

The splash, the crowd, the cheer, his sudden disappearance, everything points to Smaug's defeat.

I take a deep breath, afraid to hope, and call the others.

"You can come out. The dragon, it is dead."

They clamber onto the dock and stand beside me, staring at the remains of Laketown. As the numbing cold drains from my limbs, I'm suddenly aware of the pain in my ankle and shift my weight to the other foot. There is a deafening silence amongst our party. A great weight hangs over each of our heads. The children set their jaws, refusing to cry, but they cannot help but stare at the smoking remnants of everything they have ever known. It breaks my heart to see them, such brave children. They've lost everything. I'm fighting back tears. I know my crying will make their struggle against weeping pointless and resist.

Kili and Fili's gaze lies not on the town, but on the mountain. Only now does it hit me. In all the turmoil of escaping death by dragon, now I realize that the dragon's awakening at all means the failure of their kin, our kin, and, probably, their death. We all sit and stare, unable or unwilling to move.