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4: Free Getaway? Yes Please

4: Free Getaway? Yes Please

Thorin sat and ate as he spoke to the other dwarves.

"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin. Did they all come?" Balin asked.

"Aye. Everyone from the seven kingdoms," Thorin replied.

"And what do the dwarves of the Iron Hills say? Is Dain with us?" Dwalin asked.

"They will not come," Thorin confessed and all the dwarves sagged," They say this quest is ours, and ours alone."

"You're going on a quest?" Bilbo piped up.

"Um, Bilbo my dear fellow, let us have a little more light," Gandalf requested and Bilbo nodded.

Bilbo fetched whatever he was getting, and Gandalf continued to talk.

"Far to the East, over ranges beyond woodlands and wastelands lies a single, solitary peak," Gandalf said.

He pulled out a map and set it on the table. Bofur, Thorin, Bilbo, and Gandalf peered over it.

"The Lonely Mountain," Bilbo read.

That's a sad name. I thought.

Gloin said, "Aye, Oin has read the portents and the portents say it is time!"

What are portents?

"Time for what?" I asked and everyone looked at me. I sipped my drink.

"Andiel, how do you feel about reclaiming a lost homeland and facing a dragon?" Gandalf asked me.

I almost spit out my drink.

"Dragons?" I coughed, "You mean green scale-y things that breathe fire and there are about a hundred myths about?" I asked him.

I loved dragons ever since I was a kid. I thought they'd take me away and I'd leave forever. I knew every single word in How To Train Your Dragon 1 & 2. And I owned all 12 books of the series. Don't judge me.

"Lass, you seem to be happy about that," Balin stated.

"Yeah why?" Bofur added.

"Well where I'm from, dragons don't exist. Here they do?" I asked.

Dwalin said, "Aye."

"Would you mind stealing from one?" Nori asked.

"That's enough," Thorin said.

"She could help the hobbit out!" Kili jumped to my defense.

Bro, chill. It's fine. My mind told him.

"Help me do what exactly?" Bilbo asked.

Bofur said simply, "Defeat the beast."

"What beast?" Bilbo asked scared.

"That would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, Cheifest and Greatest Calamity of Our Age. Airborne fire breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat hooks. Extremely fond of precious metals" Bofur explained.

Bilbo snapped, "Yes I know what a dragon is."

"I'm not afraid, I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of the Dwarvish Iron right up his jaxy." Ori stood up and I chuckled.

"Sit down!" Dori made him sit back down.

"The task would be difficult with an army behind us. But we number just thirteen. Not thirteen of the best, nor brightest," Balin said.