Daughter of Starlight

Chapter Twenty: Dragon Fire

"Tauriel." The tone of my voice as I said her name told her everything she had to know. The house became silent, and Tauriel joined me on the balcony to look at the shadow of the approaching dragon. Our elf ears were able to pick up a distant reptilian snarling, but it wasn't distant enough. With every moment, Smaug grew closer and closer, and many innocent deaths grew more and more inevitable.

We went back inside to round up Bard's children, knowing that we had to get them to safety first.

"We have no time. We must leave," I said, going over to Kili and shaking him awake. Bofur and Fili had been able to get him into a chair to prepare him to leave, but he had just fallen asleep again.

Fili helped Kili stand up while Oin and Bofur quickly gathered whatever belongings they had with them. But Kili was a little less than appreciative of his brother's help, insisting that he could walk by himself.

"You were on your deathbed not too long ago," I snapped at him. "Be thankful your brother didn't leave you to die while he went to Erebor. Now let's get going."

Tauriel had gone to get help Sigrid get Tilda wrapped up in a warm coat. Bain came up behind her and said defiantly, "We're not leaving. Not without our father."

"If you stay here, your sisters will die," Tauriel said bluntly, turning to face Bain. "Is that what your father would want?"

Bain's rebellious mood immediately faltered as he looked at his terrified sisters, knowing Tauriel was right. Without any further arguments, we went downstairs and boarded the family's small boat. Thankfully it was able to hold all nine of us, and we set off through the town fairly quickly once Fili and Bofur started paddling.

The area of the town Bard and his children lived in had already been abandoned, so the waterways were mostly clear and made for good speed on our way out. Within a few minutes, though, we saw the huge form of the dragon fly over the town, so close we could feel the air stirring as Smaug soared above our heads.

We all looked to the sky in dread, knowing that there was a slim chance any of us would escape the dragon fire.

We watched as Smaug gained height in the sky, then circled back towards the town. His glowing scales warned that his core was heating up, but there was no escape once the fire began to pour out of his mouth. The steady stream of merciless flames engulfed an entire section of the town, very close to where we floated down the waterways. Then he swooped down again, the fire spilling onto the wooden houses that began to burn immediately.

With the heat at our backs and Smaug unleashing blast after blast of fire upon the town, Fili and Bofur put everything they had into moving the boat faster through the water. We ended up encountering the thick of nautical traffic soon enough. Not with other townsfolk, but with the Master.

His huge boat came out of nowhere, and it slammed into the smaller boat we all had crowded onto, jostling it so much that we all very nearly fell into the icy water. We had just barely been able to hold on, and Fili had lost his paddle in his attempt to stay on the boat. I saw that the Master's boat was completely loaded with gold, be it coins, jewelry, or chalices. A wave of disgust towards the greedy man overcame me, outraged that his only concern was to save his riches, not his people.

But there was no time to indulge such feelings. We had to get out of here. Smaug was relentless in raining down fire upon everyone, and we were lucky it hadn't reached us yet.

We took momentary shelter under a house that had been elevated above the water more than the others as Smaug came too close for our liking, and Tilda whimpered in her older sister's arms when we emerged from our temporary safety. The poor girl was absolutely frightened, and had probably hoped we could hide there for the rest of the night until Smaug left. But a bloodthirsty dragon wasn't about to show mercy, and we knew that we had to push on in our escape. Hiding only made it more likely that we would die.