Adventures Of The Warriors And The Dead

Chapter 19 Thorin

Thorin

~~~

I sit in my throne and watch the empty hallway. I need to guard the treasure. I need to guard my mountain.

What's a treasure hoard without the Arkenstone though? What's a king without his king's jewel? Useless that's what. I was foolish and let the pretty blonde hobbit fool me with her smiles and lies. She betrayed me, they all have.

Footsteps make me look to my approaching friend and shield brother.

"Since when do we forsake our own people? Thorin, they are dying out there," Dwalin murmurs with a pathetic sadness in his voice. He looks genuinely troubled.

"There are holes beneath holes within this mountain, places we can fortify. Shore up, make safe? Yes. Yes, that is it. We must move the gold further underground to safety," I mutter and stand up. We need to make the treasure safe. Safe from more possible betrayals. Safe if she returns.

"Did you not hear me? Dain is surrounded. They're being slaughtered, Thorin," Dwalin says with a pleading look. He's trying not to soften me, it will not work.

"Many die in war, life is cheap. But a treasure such as this cannot be counted in lives lost. It is worth all the blood we can spend," I answer dryly, this angers him.

"You sit here in these vast halls with a crown upon your head, and yet you are lesser now than you have ever been," Dwalin states grimly. How dare he?! He has betrayed me as well?!

"Do not speak to me as if I were some lowly Dwarf Lord. As is if I were still Thorin... Oakenshield. I am your king!" I exclaim angrily. I'm the king!

A king without a queen. I regretfully feel guilty and upset about her death. I shouldn't, she betrayed me!

"You were always my king. You used to know that once. You cannot see what you have become," Dwalin whispers and looks at me with teary eyes. He looks disappointed and sad. It makes me furious that he thinks less of me now! I'm the true king!

"Go. Get out, before I kill you," I order darkly. Dwalin bites his lip and turns away. He leaves without a further word of treason.

~~~

I stroll through the gallery pensively examining the gold pathway. Dwalins words have gotten to me.

"You sit here with a crown upon your head. You are lesser now than you have ever been."

"A treasure such as this cannot be counted in lives lost."

"A sickness lies upon that treasure..."

"The blind ambition of a Mountain King."

"I'd never wear your broken crown Thorin."

"Am I not the King?"

As I recall I walk over the hardened gold.

"This gold is ours, and ours alone. Treasure hoard... I will not part with a single coin."

"He could not see beyond his own desire!"

"...as if I were some lowly Dwarf Lord. Thorin Oakenshield."