Third POV
"Do you have everything?" Smaug asked her for the second time.
"Yes." she said, tightening her pack.
"Can I get you anything else?" He asked.
"No, thank you though." She told him.
Smaug frowned. She never asked for any of his gold or jewels. "Behave like a dragon and ask me for something!" He suddenly shouted.
Miranda stared at him. It was unlike him for to have an outburst like that. "Alright," She finally said, taking her pack and quiver off her shoulders. "Give me something to remember you by."
With that request, Smaug set off. He searched every nook and cranny. High and low until he came upon a mithril chain. He stared at it for a while. It was simple, after spending three years with her, he knew she would like that. But what to put on it. He set off again, searching and searching, until he finally sat down and began to dig.
Miranda stood still. She had been watching him and now she was perplexed. Why is he digging? She did not have to wait long because a few minutes later, he made a satisfied growl.
Smaug had found what he was looking for. Holding it carefully in his talons, he made his way back to his daughter.
"Luna," Smaug began, "hold out your hand." Miranda did as he asked and felt something heavy land in her palm. She looked down and saw a dragon talon.
"Your giving this to me?" She asked him.
"Hang it around your neck." He added, letting the mithril chain land in her still open palm.
"How will we do that?" she asked.
"Like this," he said, melting down a silver trinket. Giving it a hole and making it hollow. It wasn't perfect. But it held onto the talon.
"I love it!" Miranda exclaimed causing Smaug to beam at her as he passed it back to her. Miranda grasped it in her hands before clasping it around her neck. "I will carry you with me always."
Smaug smiled and opened his mind to her. "And I you." He thought putting a claw to his chest and bowing. Miranda mirrored his action, but before he could raise his head back up, she ran over and hugged him.
"I'll miss you, Adar." she thought to him.
"I'll miss you too, Luna." He thought back.
~*~
That was hours ago. Now, Miranda was alone. She had gotten past Laketown and was now making her way to the forest where she would rest for the night.
It was very late when Miranda arrived at the edge of the forest. She did not go farther in for fear of getting lost in the dark of the woods and set up camp. She was curled up in front of a small fire thinking.
How could I have been so stupid! I should have asked for the Arkenstone! Maybe then he wouldn't die! I could have saved him! She shook these thoughts from her head. She would not think that way, she was already alone.
Alone. It sounded much more foreboding when she was actually alone. She got up and checked the borders of the campsite. There was no one there. Miranda found that she didn't know how to feel about that.
She breathed fire at her hands and rubbed them together. It was bitterly cold. The wind bit her cheeks and she shivered.
I wonder if there is anything in the bag father packed for me. She thought as she reached into her pack, she found a bag she did not remember being in there. Opening it up Miranda found it to be a sack of gold coins.
She sighed and said aloud, "That dragon..." Shaking her head she continued her search.
A moment later she found it. She had never opened the drawstring bag as she hadn't needed to. She gave a small chuckle at all the medicine in it.
"How much medicine did he expect me to need? Wait, now what is this?" She wondered; it was a book on plants. As Miranda flipped through it, she realized that he had compiled a list of herbs and berries that she could eat or use for medicine. She continued reading and found notes from her mother with healing spells. Something wet landed on the page she was reading. Miranda looked up at the sky, but it wasn't raining. She reached a shaky hand and touched her face. It was wet.
"This is stupid," she muttered, furiously wiping away the tears. But moments later more came. She shut the book and as she placed it back in the drawstring, her hand brushed against something soft.
Miranda wrapped her hand around the object and pulled it out. It was a stuffed animal. A rabbit.
Miranda's vision went blurry. She let out a scream of anguish as she clutched what was once her most beloved toy to her chest. A column of red and gold fire flowed from her mouth and she cried. Cried for her parents whom she abandoned. Cried for her frustration and rage at herself for not accepting the Arkenstone. Cried for the father that loved her.
~*~
In another part of the woods, an elf prince was called to his father's side.
"The guards say they heard something on the far edge of the forest closest to Laketown. I want you to go check it out." The King of Mirkwood ordered.
The elf prince bowed to is father and set off. When he arrived, the sight was not what he had expected.
He found a little campsite with a smoldering fire. There was a figure curled up on a sleeping pad shivering under a blanket too thin for the time of year. They were crying.
The prince did not have the heart to disturb them, so he waited and watched over them until morning.