Estateillio

to Fight a Dragon

• Fighting dragons was a dangerous thing and Estateillio was glad for the extra protection her magic - for the lack of better words - offered, for she could focus more on the dragon than his fire. That was, of course, still a threat, for if it touched her she would burn and die, but the heat was more bearable and despite the hurt it didn't injure as it would have.

• After having thoroughly assessed her foe during their talk, she had decided to go for the head, first fully blinding him and then stabbing him, when it was safer to approach him.

• But first, she stayed at a distance and shot arrows and though she was an excellent archer, they missed, for Smaug moved a lot and the ground wasn't stable and moved and shifted, melting in the heat and sagging.

• Never before had she fought a dragon on such treacherous terrain, though she welcomed the challenge. With all the balrogs and most dragons gone, there were few truly challenging opponents.

• "Racan!", she cursed under her breath, when jewels and the gold slipped again from under her feet and she had to jump away to avoid tripping and falling and subsequently dying.

• But this had given her a new angle from which to shoot and it was tempting to just target the little spot on his chest that was unprotected, but the shot would, at least from this angle, do naught but anger the dragon.

• So, she again aimed at his remaining eye and the arrow grazed it this time, proving that over the course of the last minutes she had become better at predicting his next movements.

• Smaug roared in renewed fury at the new injury, though he could still see, and unleashed new and stronger torrents of fire and Estateillio quickly hid behind a pillar, using that small moment of rest to plan her next steps.

• When the fire started to cease, she leapt to action. The arrow, though it had not taken it, had at least hindered his sight and thus it was easy to fool him with a bit of magic. With a simple extension of Will she set gold sliding down a pile at another end of the hall, as if someone had entered, and Smaug whirled around and spit fire at a foe that was not there.

• And his side was exposed and still and with deadly precision an arrow tore through the air and when Smaug realised his folly or was too late and the projectile pierced his fiery eye and his sight was fully stolen from him.

• And he called her craven and depraved and many other things and bathed the whole hall in flames, but Estateillio ignored his words, drew Narth, the stronger of her swords and the one she used most often for spells of battle, for it was made exactly for that, while its brother, Helfarth, was longer and slimmer and quicker.

• The blade in hand and prepared for the last strike, she waited for an opening and when that did not present itself during the next few minutes, she used the same magic trick as before and Smaug, at least for a second, fell for it.

• That second was enough. The dragon had, by accident, drawn closer to her hiding place during his fit, and it was just a few long steps that separated her from his head and thus she leapt and rammed her sword into his eye, where there were no scales to protect him, and with a single word through the silver-white metal unleashed a torrent of power that shattered the casket in the dragon's chest where his fire was held and the flames scorched his body and Smaug writhed and roared and Estateillio quickly jumped out of his reach, leaving Narth pulsing with the remnants of magic.

• And thus the last dragon of the first age died and his flesh was consumed by his fire and the jewels that had clung to him fell and then his flames found no more nourishment and died and ash was all that was left of a creature that had once fought Maiar and survived the greatest war of its kin. And Estateillio came and retrieved her blade that was still glowing from the magic and the power that it had absorbed and that they could use later in another fight.

• It was no great reservoir, at least not compared to the other swords of her family, but it was inconspicuous. She returned it to its scabbard and rested for a moment, catching her breath after having spent a lot of her energy for the magic. The spells she had weaved around her earlier dispersed, no longer needed now.

• But she was not yet done. The influence of the dragon was still strong on the gold and dragon sickness was still a very real danger for any that came here. Even the elf herself heard the alluring whisper of the gold that could easily turn into addiction and she decided to immediately put an end to it, for it was stronger than she had expected it to be.

• And she closed her eyes, spread her arms and took a deep breath, before she began to sing a song of power as her uncle had once taught her and the ancient Quenya words fell from her lips and all that had been tainted by the dragon shivered and shimmered as she fought against the darkness.

• And then it receded and the song ended and Estateillio fell to her knees in exhaustion. Something wet trickled down her lips and she realised that it was blood, but she did not care, the extensive use of magic had drained her, more than simple spells of hiding or healing could.

• For air was easy to bend and made to reflect something that was or was not there and injured flesh wanted nothing more than to knit itself back together and just needed more energy to do so which she could provide. This tearing and destroying or the removal of that which had over time become part of something was more difficult.

• And it had been worth it, for now, the gold held little danger to the dwarves and Erebor could thrive again. And though Estateillio wanted nothing more than to simply sit down and rest for a while, she stumbled back to where the dwarves had made camp.

[《◇》]
No poetic ending this time!
"Racan" is my Quenya take on the (popular) Sindarin "Raich" and means "I (in this particular moment) curse".
Hope you enjoyed!
AT