Smaug's daughter

The Woodland Realm

A snore woke me up, probably my own. What time was it? I had definitely slept through my alarm considering my dream had been so long. My phone must have died during the night or something. Maybe the power was out? I could have turned the alarm off without waking up too though, that had happened before. Stretching lazily, I realized my duvet was missing. I must have kicked it off at some point, luckily it wasn't chilly. I reached out a hand to grab my phone, but couldn't find it. The floor was all wrong too. My bedroom had wooden floors, I was touching a cold floor of stone. There was a strange taste in my mouth too. Had I forgotten to brush my teeth for like 5 days straight? It was really awful. There were some really funky smells abusing my nostrils too. Sweat, grime and something reminiscent of an old funky cellar. Gagging a bit, I opened my mouth to breathe through that instead, I sat up and began rubbing my eyes sleepily. Opening my eyes after sleeping through 7 alarms was always rough, but now it seemed as if my eyes had been glued shut. It took a whole minute, but I did it.

I almost wish I didn't. What I saw made no sense. I was sitting on the floor of a dimly lit room of stone. A prison cell from the 1600th? I squinted around. There was someone sitting in the corner. Blinking a couple of times more I saw that it was a man. My brain was working really slowly, my body ached and I was starving. Had I gone on a crazy bender I couldn't remember? I definitely couldn't recall having a reason to do so, but I didn't always need one. Had I been drugged and kidnapped possibly? Been put in jail with some random weirdo? I hoped I hadn't fucked him. I hadn't been on birth control in the past year because of the pandemic.

The man was staring at me. Like proper staring, harshly. He was wearing a fur coat with no shirt under. He had wavy mahogany-colored hair that reached his shoulders, a respectable beard and piercingly gray eyes. He was handsome, super buffed up and really short. There was something so familiar about him, but I couldn't bring myself to remember what it was.

"Where am I?" I asked hoarsely, my throat dry. It seemed as good a place to start as any. Even though I had no idea where I was and why, I wasn't as panicked as I ought to be, and I couldn't fathom why. There had to be something fundamentally wrong with me, that was for sure. I couldn't wait to facetime my best friend about this. She wouldn't believe me.

The man didn't blink as he looked me straight in the eye and then said the darndest thing: "We are imprisoned by the elves."

I snorted. The sound echoed in the cell. Judging by the stare turning into a glare, it hadn't been a joke. He really meant we were in a prison and had been put here by elves. "You find this funny, do you?"

I licked my lips, attempting to moisturize them. This guy was obviously high as a kite, but while he looked short, he was also seriously buffed up. He could do some damage. "Elves? What are you talking about?" I asked carefully.

The man rose to his full height which, admittedly, wasn't much to brag about. But now that he was standing in the light I got a better look at him. My heart dropped as realization hit me. I knew his face. I knew this man. He was no man at all. His name was Thorin. Thorin Oakenshield. King of dwarves. Which meant I was not awake at all. I was still in the dream. How was that possible?

"The elves of the Woodland realm," Thorin began, sounding extremely accusatory. "They heard a dragon roaring and came to investigate."

My stomach wiggled uncomfortably. They couldn't find out about me just yet. It was too early. I hadn't gained their trust yet! Laughing nervously, both at the fact that I was still here and also that part about the dragon... I racked my brain about what had happened. I remembered planning to shift away from the others and then come back, but I couldn't recall that it had happened that way. My memories were murky at best and the effort only hurt. "A dragon? That's crazy!"