I Am Fire, I am Sherlock.

Chapter 6

Hello! Sorry it's been a while since my last update!
This chapter will finally get to the food stuff! Hooray! xD
If you look off to the side, or above, I drew a little bit of Smaug and Bilbo fan art when I was watching the Hobbit: BOTFA recently. Hope you enjoy that, and...
Hope you enjoy this chapter!!!

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"Molly Hoop-- I mean, Louise Brealey-- are you prepared for what you are about to see?"

Louise was extremely confused. Martin and Benedict had driven her way out into the countryside: to an old- abandoned, by the looks of it- castle? Was this really a castle, or did she have too much caffeinated tea again? It must be a castle, she thought. It had enormous rooms and halls that were adorned with dusty but marvelous gold and silver and velvet and silk decorations of all sorts. The kind only a king or a noble could afford in their home, and it must have been a very long time since they resided in the place; there was no electricity, and the castle walls and floor and ceiling were made entirely of stone blocks. How Martin and Benedict came about this castle, she didn't know. The whole situation had gone from a fun joke to a very odd adventure indeed.

"Um, sure..." Louise replied hesitstantly to Benedict. "How exactly did you find a castle like this?" She tried to make friendly, normal conversation.

"Stumbled upon it when we were...'wandering' one day," Martin said, glancing at Benedict, who was walking out into the open floor of the large and roomy main hall.

"Now, Louise," Benedict's voice was no longer filled with knowing amusement, but it was serious. "You must promise us something: will you keep our secret safe?"

"What secret?" Louise was exasperated. "Please, just tell me what it is already! You both are acting so strange that I don't think I want to know!"

"We promise you," Martin came up to her and put his hand on her shoulder, "we promise nothing will happen to you."

"Well-"

"Shut up, Sher-- um, Ben." Martin sighed. "You want to know the truth, so we are showing it to you. And besides, you are our friend. We've been dying to tell someone else."

"I hate keeping secrets. I was never one for pretenders as a child," Benedict said. Then, he put his arms slightly away from his body, tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He looked like he was about to do some sort of interpretive dance, Louise thought, and she could have laughed, if she hadn't also seen the golden and grey smoke that was suddenly flowing around his body.

She glanced warily at Martin, but he stood still, unfazed.

"What's happening?" Louise meant to ask in a calm voice, but it came out nervous. She stared at Benedict, who now had so much strange smoke around him that it made it seem that he was growing larger.

"I'm showing you, Louise," a very, very deep and very loud voice answered, sounding like it came from Benedict.

Louise gasped. Benedict was, somehow, growing larger. And he was...changing?

"Um, Lou," Martin came to stand behind Louise, and placed his hands lightly on her shoulders. "You might want to back up."

He began to guide her backwards, and she complied. She was too shocked by the sight in front of her to do anything on her own, much less move, or speak.

"Do you see now?" The deep voice spoke again, speaking from what was before her.

"W-what?"

Benedict was no longer there. In his place was an enormous creature, and a fictional one: a dragon. A dragon looking extremely similar to the one Benedict played in his and Martin's Hobbit movies. Dark red, sharply-pointed scales; humongous wings practically twice the size of the beast's already towering body and tail.

He was Smaug the Magnificent indeed.

"H-how did you do that?" Louise stuttered. She was awestruck.

"Now wouldn't you like to know?" A slightly kinder version of Martin's voice spoke from behind her. Louise turned to it and was taken aback yet again. Martin's clothes and hair had changed: his hair, a lighter brown and curly; his clothes, more like a well-to-do 1800's countryman's. His shoes were gone, and in their place were large feet with much hair on them.

They all just stood there for a few moments. Louise, looking back and forth from the two book characters that had just come to life from her fellow co-stars. Then Louise took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts, and spoke.

"Well, I understand now what you've been doing, and who you are: Bilbo Baggins, and, em," she did an awkward curtsy with an imaginary skirt towards the dragon, "Smaug the Tremendous." The dragon seemed to smile smugly at the gesture.

"But what I don't understand is this: how? How is this at all possible in reality? Like, I'm not entirely sure that I'm not dreaming or I was drugged or something like that."

Martin-- or as he should he be called now, Bilbo-- took a step toward Louise, and she was quick to step away. Martin's smile faltered, and Louise's gaze fell. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "It's just that all this is so... overwhelming, and a bit frightening. I just want an explanation before you do anything else."

Martin--er, Bilbo-- nodded understandingly. "I'm sort of new to all of this too, so I think Smaug should explain." He turned his head to the dragon, "But in Sherlock form, please!"

The dragon sighed, and if you've never heard a dragon sighed before, believe Louise when she thinks of how odd it sounds. "But Sherlock is so rude," he remarked, but began to shrink down and change into the form of a human again.

"And a dragon isn't rude?" Louise asked under her breath.

Soon, Smaug was Benedict again, but only his appearance was the same. His hair had already been grown out and dyed darker for the filming of Sherlock, so he didn't need to change that. He now wore a long, dark-colored coat and a blue scarf, both similar to the costume he wore on set. That was the only thing that changed about him. But as soon as he spoke and walked toward her, Louise knew that Sherlock Holmes' personality was now flowing inside of him.

"You see, I have learned the ability to shapeshift. I assume you can figure out what that means. John and I can change into our characters we portray. As long as we focus very carefully and study the character for a long period of time before the initial shapeshift, we can very easily change into our desired form. I will not explain the science of it to you as of now, for you look like you are about to burst into tears and your feeble mind will not be able to understand it." Benedict-- now Sherlock-- spoke very quickly, but Louise was able to keep up enough to form a peeved face at his final comment.

"I'm fine, thank you," she told him. "Now I see. But my final question for now is," she took a breath. "Why did you reveal all this to me? you could have falsely satisfied me by saying that you were just practicing your characters for acting."

Louise faced Sherlock, staring him down for an answer. She saw him glance over her at Bilbo, and nod. He changed his form a third time in front of her, finally back to Benedict. Quickly glancing over, she saw that Bilbo had done the same: back into Martin.

Benedict put his hands gently on Louise's shoulders. "That's the best part, Lou. We have been wanting to show someone for so long."

"That being said, we wanted to ask you this: would you like to join us?"