How To Train Your Hobbit II

Deep under the mountain, poor Bilbo crouched in a corner. His ring was on and his eyes were closed. The only thing he could do now was hide and wait. Presently, he heard a strange crescendoing whistle over the great beast's earth-shattering bellows, and he opened his eyes and saw a flash of purple light! A terrible roar followed, and Bilbo guessed that the dragon's match had come.

I will not bore you with the details of what followed, as Bilbo himself had indeed no notion of what was happening, but will take the liberty of skipping ahead if you allow me.

Thank you for making it thus far, dear reader, if you have indeed followed from the very beginning.  

Presently, an unexpected silence fell upon all those who were near. Bilbo slowly rose. The quiet weighed unnaturally on his ears, which had grown accustomed to the piercing blasts and explosions. He slipped off the ring and looked at the devastation around him.

The chamber was utterly destroyed. Gaping holes in the roof and walls allowed dim light to peek through, and rubble lay strewn all around. Bilbo could see no gold.

 

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

"Hiccup!"

The hobbit jumped. Hastily he shrank back, fingers groping for the ring.

"Hiccup! Son!"

The voice seemed to come from the other side of the wall.

"Hiccup?"

Who was this? Who would be in this accursed place? It was certainly not one of the dwarves. This voice was louder and rougher; a bit like Thorin's, Bilbo thought, but with a different way of pronnouncing its words.

After a moment's hesitation, he crept silently out of the shadows and over to a part of the wall that had been torn by a boulder. Peeking through, he managed to make out several large, dark shapes amidst the thick grey dust. One (the owner of the voice, he presumed) was huddled over a long silhouette on the ground while others gathered behind. A heavy sorrow lingered in the air.

  

Suddenly the long shadow moved.

Two large wings unfolded from its body, and Bilbo saw that it was another dragon! He had to clap a hand over his mouth to muffle a gasp. Straining his eyes, he saw that this one was much smaller; it was lithe and sleek instead of vast and powerful. There appeared to be an object that had been hidden by its wings, which was now carefully cradled in the speaker's arms.

After a brief, urgent pause, the speaker straightened and spoke once more.

"He's alive!"

  

Bilbo could make no sense of what was happening. Was that a person that had been so faithfully protected by the lithe dragon? And did that dragon just kill Smaug? What in all of middle-earth was going on?

Whatever the occasion, the unconscious person must have been dear to the crowd, for it was clear from all of the cries of relief and delight that it was a cause for celebration. 

  

It was then that the four dwarves caught up to their burglar.

They had endured the uncertain rumblings of the tunnel and faced the capricious loosenings of chunks of roof to finally arrive at the chamber, weary and battered but none the worse (apart from Dwalin, who had received a nasty knock on the head from a piece of rubble, and was now sporting a dark bruise).

Stumbling into the devastated cavern, they were not at all surprised to find it in ruins after their perilous journey; they were surprised, however, to see their hobbit leaning against a block of debris, gazing out a hole with a distant smile on his dusty face.

  

"Bilbo!" Thorin hissed. "Bilbo!"

He sprang up, looking around hastily. "Thorin? Is that you? And Dwalin and Fili and Kili!" He ran over at once. "Oh, thank goodness! You wouldn't believe what I just saw!"

"Yes, quickly: we must get out!"

"No but Thorin, don't you see? It's all alright now! You can claim your treasure: Smaug is dead!"

The dwarves paused. Fili looked at Kili, Kili looked at Dwalin, and Dwalin looked at Thorin. Bilbo frowned.

"What is it?" 

Thorin cleared his throat. "Um, yes, well, about that..."