Elf of Fire and Light (Book 1 Fire) Hobbit/LOTR Fan-Fic

Chapter 60

Third POV

When Bilbo made it through the long darkness, he entered a room filled with gold and jewels. He tapped on the wall, it echoed, and he hid. When nothing moved, he came to the conclusion that no one was home. That was when he finally realized what he was looking at. Fields and mountains of gold coins, jewels, and gems. There were gold plates, silver cutlery, and bejeweled goblets. There were paintings and armor and odd little trinkets everywhere!

Bilbo made it down the stairs and began taking careful steps across the fields of gold. The coins tinkled with each step. With each wrong move they flowed down the hillside in a cascading river of gold.

Bilbo searched and searched for the aforementioned 'large white jewel' and although he found many, none seemed right. 'You'll know it when you see it.' Balin had said. But his hint wasn't really much to go on. He had just picked up another crystal, but it created another land-slide uncovering a closed eye of a large red dragon.

Bilbo gasped and hid behind a pillar. Suddenly there was another tinkling cascade of gold as the dragon began to move. Bilbo began to go around the stone he hid behind deftly, but he found more flowing rivers of coin.

He was breathing hard now, every short pant giving way to new anxieties. Finally, he calmed himself down enough to begin moving again. But there was another moving behind him. The great dragon began to move and lift his great head. The dragon slithered down to where the hobbit crouched. Then the great dragon, Smaug opened his eyes and stared at the thief. Bilbo had awoken the dragon.

Bilbo, startled, was lucky enough to fall behind a bank of coins. The dragon scanned the area and Bilbo pulled out the ring he had found in the goblin tunnels. He looked at the ring and it felt almost like the ring was looking back at him. Waiting, begging to be put on. Bilbo did not deny it. He slipped the ring onto his finger and became invisible. But invisibility does not cure all things.

Smaug lifted his gigantic head surveying his hoard. Something was not right. He had heard someone here. He growled lightly. If it had been his Luna, she would have revealed herself right then. But it could not be her. Whomever it was, carried only a lick of her scent. His growl deepened. If this person had somehow harmed her. He or she would die most painfully.

"Well," Smaug spoke in a gravelly voice. "Thief. I smell you. I hear your breath. I feel your air. Where are you? Where are you?" Bilbo was standing and breathing heavily at this point, but did he dare to move? Yes. Bilbo ran, creating an avalanche of coins in his wake. Smaug's great head shot towards the direction of his footfalls. He hissed and slithered, clawing, trying to reach this little intruder. Bilbo stopped running when he reached a slab of stone carried by stable stone pillars and hid.

"Come now," Smaug called out, the smallest hint of a growl still present in his voice. "Don't be shy. Step into the light. Hmm. There is something about you. Something you carry. Something made of gold. But far more precious." The word 'precious' echoed in Bilbo's mind. His head turned and twisted. Trying to escape the sight of a fiery eye.

Before he had even realized what he had done, Bilbo had pulled off the ring from his finger.

Smaug's eye focused on him, "There you are, thief in the shadows."

"I did not come to steal from you, O Smaug the unassessably wealthy." Bilbo said, trembling. "I merely wanted to gaze upon your magnificence. To see if you really were as great as the old tales say. I did not believe them."

Smaug pulled away and rose to his full height. With a rumbling voice he asked, "And do you now?!"

"Truly," Bilbo said, awe and fear welling up inside him. "The tales and songs, fall utterly short of your enormity, O Smaug the Stupendous."

"Do you think flattery will keep you alive?" Smaug asked, his voice low once more.

"No, no," Bilbo said, shaking his head.

"No indeed." Smaug said. "You seem familiar with my name, but I don't remember smelling your kind before. Who are you and where do you come from may I ask?"

Bilbo was opening his mouth to answer when his eyes fell upon a shining white stone. It seemed to reflect the colors of fire and water all at once. As if it had a heartbeat, the glow seemed to pulsate, a strong rhythm that pulled him in. "I-" He began. "I come from under the hill."

"Underhill?" Smaug growled out the question. Bilbo nodded, but his eyes were always drawn back to the glowing white stone.

There was a rattling sound from Smaug as Bilbo continued. "And under hills and over hills my path has led. And-and through the air. I am he who walks unseen."

"Impressive." Smaug said, his great body moving across the floor of coins, his tail slithering behind him. "What else do you claim to be?" He brought his huge face right up to the hobbit's.

"I am," Bilbo began stammering. "A l-luck-wearer. Riddle-maker."

"Lovely titles," Smaug hissed. "Go on."

"Barrel-rider." Bilbo said.

"Barrels?" Smaug asked. "Now that is interesting. And what about your little dwarf friends? Where are they hiding?"

"D-dwarves?" Bilbo asked, as if he had never heard of such a thing. "No. No, no. No dwarves here. You've got that all wrong."

"Oh, I don't think so, Barrel-rider!" Smaug stated, anger seeping into his voice. "They sent you here to do their dirty work, while they skulk about outside."

"Truly," Bilbo began, hoping to cover for his comrades. "You are mistaken, O Smaug, Chiefest and Greatest of all Calamities."

"You have nice manners, for a thief and a liar!" Smaug exclaimed. "I know the smell and taste of dwarf. No one better! It is the gold! They are drawn to treasure like flies to dead flesh."

Bilbo had been creeping up on the Arkenstone when Smaug's claws sent it flying through the air to a different part of the cavern. Bilbo scampered after it.

"Did you think I did not know this day would come?!" Smaug roared. "That a pack of canting dwarves would come crawling back to the mountain?! My daughter foretold it to me! You carry her sent! Where is she?! My daughter has come back to me, I am sure of it! What have you done with her?!" He knocked over a pillar and it shook the mountain.

"What was that?" Dwalin asked. "An earthquake?"

Balin shook his head and replied. "That my lads, was a dragon."