Queen Under The Mountain

Queen Under the Mountain Part 3

    By night fall I could already hear the warning bells of Laketown being rung. Thorin had us return back into the mountain, where we went up to a staircase and stood on a balcony over looking the lake.
  The black shadow of Smaug soared over Laketown leaving a line of flame. I turned away and ran my hands over my head and down my hair, expecting it to be longer and abruptly pulling my hands away from the ends of my hair.

   "Did Smaug burn it off?" Ori was standing next to me.
"Mhm." I pulled my hair forward to look at the split ends again. "I'm not going to worry about my hair right now." I put my hands down and looked back at the lake.
   More fire had spread and my heart dropped, thinking of Kili, Fili, Oin and Bofur. There was no telling whether they were still alive or not.

   "Poor souls." Balin said, speaking my thoughts.

  Screams traveled across the water to our ears and I closed my eyes. This reminded me too much of the fateful day in Dale and history was repeating itself.
  "There's no point in watching if we can't do anything about it." I said. No one answered me. I looked back at the mountain anticipating whether to just wait in there, but I also didn't want to go in alone. Instead I sat down on a rock and looked at the ground.

   There was a rumble and I looked up.
"What was that?" Ori asked. "What happened?"
  We all stood up and looked to the lake, no dragon was in sight.

  "It fell, I saw it." Bilbo walked foward.
"What? But that's impossible." I said.
   "It's dead." Bilbo said turned to face us. "Smaug is dead."

  "By my beard, I think he's right!" Gloin exclaimed.
  I smiled and turned down the steps to get Thorin, but stopped when I saw him solemnly looking at the mountain.
  "Look there!" I turned to see Gloin pointing at the sky. "The ravens of Erebor are returning to the mountain."
  He was right, the black birds were flying towards the mountain calling out.

  "Aye, word will spread." Balin said. "Before long, every soul in Middle Earth will know, the dragon is dead!"

  We all cheered and I turned again to see if Thorin was listening at all, but instead I saw him walking towards the mountain.
  "Where is he going?" I mumbled to myself.

  "Larewen," Ori made me jump. "Isn't this exciting?"
  I turned my attention away from Thorin and to the joy of the company.
   "The mountain is ours once more!" Ori cheered and danced around.

   "Come now, let's return to the mountain for a feast!" Balin said.

  

    We lit the torches in the halls of Erebor, cleaning some of the cobwebs as best we could in a dining room and Bilbo set out fifteen plates and silverware and I helped Bombur make soup with the food that the Master of Laketown had provided us.
  
  We put bowls of soup in each place and it wasn't until we all sat down that we noticed something was out of place.

  "Where's Thorin?" Bilbo looked around.
"I saw him come back to the mountain after Smaug fell, he's sure to be here." I said. "I'll go look for him." I stood up and walked directly to the place I knew that he'd be.

  There wasn't any torches lit and the hall already was lit from the reflections of gold. Thorin stood in the middle of it all, just gazing down at the treasure.

  I stepped down to ground level before speaking. "Thorin, we've made dinner to celebrate." He didn't turn around. "You should eat with us."

  "No, I'm not hungry." He replied, with his back still facing me.
  "Are you sure?" I asked.
"I said no." He turned his head so that I could only see the side of his face.
  "Okay, it'll still be there when you feel hungry." I left the hall and re-entered the dining room.

  "Well?" Dwalin asked.
"He said he's not hungry." I replied sitting down. "I told him that he could come later when he felt hungry."
  "Well no use in this soup going cold, let's just eat." Said Gloin.

  I hesitated before taking a spoon full and looked to the door, expecting to see Thorin walk in, but no one stood there. Only the silence of the empty mountain.