If this is to End in Fire: Hobbit Fan Fiction Skin-changer

Chapter 20- We Will All Burn Together

"Come on Bilbo!" cried Lupine, as the dwarves flung themselves down the slope of gold in escape of the oncoming dragon-flame. She bundled into him and he tumbled haphazardly down after his companions, the skin-changer surfing through the coins behind him. The group funnelled into a passageway to shelter in the relative safety of the stone walls.

The eruption died away in an echo until it fell to nothing, and the dwarves grew uneasy about the silence. They followed Thorin as he crept through high halls and crumbling tunnels. He seemed to know his way despite the maze of stone in the darkness.

"Stay close."

The silence followed them and the shadows leaked from their feet, until a spiral of stairs emerged before them. Striding, two at a time, the company ascended until a huge, open chamber fell from the path ahead. The walkway was exposed, like a bridge high above the grey ground.

Thorin halted before the entrance and peered warily into the space.

"We make for the forges." he whispered to them.

"He'll see us, sure as death." said Lupine.

"Not if we split up."

"Thorin," said Balin, with a shake of his head. His expression was deep and haunting, "we'll never make it."

His good friend turned to him and then looked up to his company. They had followed him this far. Surely, they would follow him to the end.

"Some of us might." His glaring eyes rested on Bilbo's, "We kill the dragon. If this is to end in fire, then we will all burn together."

Lupine shifted her eyes towards the grey of the walls. If she were to force Thorin to fall- would they all fall together? Her conscience grew heavy like a stone. If she were to see Thorin to his end, she did not want all the company to fail beneath him.

She did not want to kill them all.

She did not want to kill any of them.

But what choice did she have? This was not about want.

"Lupine,"

The skin-changer jumped at her name.

"Lupine and Bilbo, follow me. The rest of you depart in groups. This way!" ordered Thorin, with a loud shout, propelling himself suddenly from the safety of the tunnel and out into the open chamber.

The skin-changer and the hobbit sailed after him with a wild speed, as the slow, thundering of footsteps descended from behind.

"Flee! Flee! There is nowhere to hide." came the ominous echoes of Smaug. The slender head coiled and slithered from a crumbling destruction and towards them in the open space.

"Behind you!" came then a cry from below, and Lupine could see the tiny figures of Ori and Dori bundling into view.

Smaug turned to eye them, before another shout resonated from their right.

"Hey, you! Here!" called Dwalin, followed by Nori.

Bifur and Gloin then sprinted past them, distracting the dragon evermore and angering him so that he unleashed a rumble of fire.

And then they were gone and Lupine had entered another tunnel. Left, then right, she followed Thorin and the hobbit, hurrying Bilbo along each time his legs wavered.

"This way! It's this way! Come on!" shouted Thorin then, as they hurried up a long, narrow hall. He ducked into a side passage but the skin-changer slowed her steps.

Lupine knew the dragon was coming. She could feel the vibrations of the earth in a way that the others could not. She could not let him follow Thorin. He would overtake them to the forges.

She eyed the darkness at the end of the hall, searching for an aid. Her gaze rested at the end of the narrow space. Lifts and pulleys clearly signalled a wide, deep shaft, large enough perhaps, for a dragon.

"Lupine!" cried Bilbo suddenly, as he stopped and realised she was no longer behind them.

The dwarf halted too and turned to watch as the skin-changer sped away from them with a great speed.

His thoughts lingered on the anger of betrayal, until suddenly he realised her motive and became instead angry at his own assumptions.

The dragon seeped into the other end of the hall like a nightmare, and Lupine skidded faster. The heat of the rolling flame propelled her speed until finally she reached the end of the stable ground and leapt instead into the cold, empty air. The up thrust of wind pulsed in her hair but no current could allow her to fly. Instead, in the shadow of fire and flame, she landed on a fragile, wooden platform. It swung with a menace and the rope that held it aloft, ran suddenly loose, slipping ever downwards so that she continued to tumble to the depths.

Then the dragon spilled into the shaft after her and she gripped the platform with rigid hands. It reminded her of the well in the elven halls, but this space was much wider, and far deeper.

She hated falling.

Stone and debris rained, as Smaug clawed at the walls on his descent. His gaping mouth and teeth were all she could see, and the air tore at her like an angry enemy.

At least Thorin had got away to the forges.

Then suddenly, with an alarming jolt that threw even Lupine from balance, the platform stopped its dive. Pulleys cringed and rope tautened and strained, and the skin-changer hung in the empty air like a resting pendulum.

Then, within the same second, she began to ascend again. Smaug rushed into her so that the ropes entangled in his spines and claws. He turned in the air so that his great wings pulled him once again upwards, the shudders echoing through the pulleys.

No matter how hard she seized the clasps, Lupine could not stop them crumbling to ruin as they grated against slicing edges.

And suddenly, something snapped.