Monster - [Smaug the Magnificent]

5. Everything I Tried to Be Just Wouldn't Settle in

Smaug was absolutely repelled by this form. Penatrable, pale skin stretched over flimsy bones and soft muscles. Only two legs to carry him, and arms in the place of wings. This form was smaller, slower, but less intimidating. He dressed himself in leather vest and fur to cover his waist.

He could hear her calling to him, begging for water. “My...my Lord Smaug!” This made him grin with delight that she was giving in. “I need...I need water!” Oh yes, mortals and their needs. He chuckled to himself. “It is urgent.”

That it was, wasn’t it? Mortals needed water, didn’t they. He clenched his jaw, and plucked a silver ewer from a horde he kept in his bed chambers. The only water source around was a brook on the side of the mountain the fed into the lake. It wasn’t far, but it did mean traveling outside of the mountain in his human form.

In silence, he stealthly crept down the hall (the hall that she had been in, as he could smell) and into the open ballroom. He reached the opening, where he had placed a large boulder in the way, but if one looked with careful eyes they would see a gap to oneside where a person could easily squeeze through with careful precision. He did so, pushing himself out into the night. It was cool on his thin skin, and with precise agility he glided over the rocks and down towards the brook. As he reached the brook, there was suddenly loud chatter through the woods. Down the hill a little way he could see a glow and hear laughter; drunken laughter. They were speaking in a tongue unlike Dinah’s, so he assumed them to be elves. He would’ve made short work of them had he been in a different form but instead he let them be. It didn’t settle well with him, but he could not show up covered in blood and reaking of death. That would frighten his mortal.

He gathered the water in the ewer and hastily climbed back up the mountain and into his domain. He found a bowl, drained the water into it, and carried it into the treasure room. He made his prescence known, slapping his feet against he floor as he entered and quickly spotted her. She stirred from her slumber, and her eyes grew wide at the sight of him.

She wasn’t scared, was she?

He placed the bowl at his feet, and stood, waiting for her to come forward and drink. He grew anxious when she didn’t. And then he realized that he was staring at her too hard, and eased his gazed by looking down at the bowl of water. He looked back up at her, and indicated with his head that the water was for her.

He watched as she clumsily clambered up onto the pier and squatted at his feet and began to lap up the water. She was parched, obviously, and quickly drained the bowl of it’s contents. Her eyes slowly followed up his legs and then glanced at his face. Up close, she was beautiful and not a small as he once thought.

“Are you an angel?” Her voice was hoarse.

He began to panic, trying to remember how humans showed affection. It’d been a long time since he’d been around a human, yet alone interacted with one as a human himself. Without a word, he placed his hand on her smooth cheek. For a human, she was rather beautiful in the face. He narrowed his eyes at her lip, wondering when she had busted it. He ran a calloused thumb down her lip. Something stirred inside him, and it made him antsy. He removed his hand and turned and briskly walked off, ignoring her pleas to know who he was and where he had come from and what his name was. Something was stirring in his chest, and it made him want to heave.