Into the Fire: Book 2

21

"Y/n, Bilbo, Balin. You three come with me. The rest of you split up. We need to confuse him," Thorin instructed.

The four of us rushed towards the bridge we had crossed before. The plan was to have multiple groups shouting at him to lure him towards the forges. I wasn't sure how effective this plan would be but I trusted Thorin. I held his hand tightly in my right hand with Bilbo's in my left. Balin stood just behind us, waiting for Thorin to make a move.

"This way!" Thorin shouted, pulling us further along the bridge.

His grip tightened on my hand and my heart fluttered despite the fear. The Thorin who worried about me back in Beorn's cottage seemed to be returning.

"Flee, flee! Run for your lives! There is nowhere to hide," Smaug appeared from behind us, crawling towards us.

"Behind you!" Dori yelled from another bridge, "Come on!"

Dori, Ori, and Bombur made up the second group; Dwalin and Nori made up the second group; Gloin and Bifur were our fourth group. Smaug chased after the second group just before the third group yelled for his attention.

"Hey, you! Here!" Dwalin screamed, pulling Smaug's attention away from the second group and towards him.

"Let's go," Thorin whispered, pulling me along towards the other side of the bridge.

Bilbo and Balin followed along. We all stayed close together, each of us scared to get lost. The group of us ran into a large open room. A tunnel opened on the right side and a deep mining pit could be seen in the middle of the floor. I didn't get close enough to see how deep it was but a crane was stationed at the top of it which led me to believe the pit was at least 50-60 feet deep.

Balin had started veering towards the tunnel, expecting the rest of us to follow. Bilbo and I did, assuming Balin knew which way to go.

"It's this way! This way! Come on!" Balin called.

Thorin kept running, getting closer to the mining pit.

"Thorin?" Bilbo questioned.

"Thorin! Come on!" I shouted.

Thorin turned to look at us, a warm smile spreading on his face as he locked eyes with me. The soft look faded away as his focus shifted on something behind us. My head whipped around and there stood Smaug, a smirk on his face—if that was even possible.

"Follow Balin!" Thorin yelled, turning back towards the mining pit.

"Thorin!" I yelled once more, echoing the look in Bilbo's eyes.

"Come on!" Balin told us, urging us to follow him through the tunnel.

Reluctantly I did as Smaug slithered closer towards us. The tunnel seemed to be one long hallway and my feet were growing sorer by the second.

"Balin, where is this leading us?" I called out to the dwarf after a few minutes of running.

"The forges, miss Baggins. I am betting our dwarf king has plans to meet up with us there."

"He better," I mumbled under my breath.

We continued down the tunnel, only making one right turn. The turn led us out into another large room. We had made it to the forges. Three furnaces, each 20 feet tall, stood before us. There were small trenches in the floor that merged and led underground, and a tall waterspout stood in the back of the room. To the right, a large open in the wall was filled with iron shafts. The shafts allowed foot traffic but anything larger than a human would have a difficult time passing through the bars.