Dungeons Deep

The Burglar

Hey, I'm back! It's been a while, I know, but at least I've finally finished. This has been a hard chapter to write and I'm not sure if it's the greatest but it's far from bad, I think. Anyway, reviews are always open, in fact, welcomed! I would like to know your thoughts and improvements on my story. Well, I'll let you guys read what happens next in the life of Amariel! Have fun and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hobbit or any of the characters, only Amariel and some insignificant others.

Chapter Three: The Burglar

APOV

"Uh, what beast?" Bilbo asked with fear etched into his voice, breaking the suspenseful silence. Amariel spared a careful look around the room, observing the dwarves' solemn faces. The She-elf her heart sadden slightly at the mention of the beast that robbed people of their homelands, stole precious lives, and took over what once was the greatest kingdom in Middle-earth: Erebor. Amariel had never seen the kingdom herself but had always heard tales from her kin about the magnificent structure. She was told that Erebor was not only powerful but held wealth and treasure beyond anyone's imagination. The dwarves would delve deeper and deeper into the earth discovering jewels, and fashioning objects of great beauty out of diamond, ruby, emerald, and sapphire. But when the merciless dragon came he destroyed all that, leaving the people to wander the wilderness until the time for them to take back their homeland would come. That time was now. Bofur was the first one to bravely speak up, trying to show no uncertainty or fear in his words.

"Well that would be a reference to Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Airborne fire-breather, teeth like razors, claws like meat-hooks, extremely fond of precious metals —"

"Yes, I know what a dragon is," interrupted Bilbo quickly, sounding as if he most certainly did not want to know anything about a dragon. Ori suddenly stood up in his chair with a courageous look.

"I'm not afraid! I'm up for it!" he shouted, "I'll give him a taste of the dwarvish iron right up his jacksie!" Several dwarves began to shout their agreement with the young dwarf or their disagreement.

"Sit down," scolded Dori, pulling Ori back into his seat.

"The task would be difficult enough with an army behind us. But we number just fourteen, and not thirteen of the best nor brightest. And that's including the elf," said Balin wisely, giving Amariel a half-glare when he mentioned her. The dwarves started to grow rowdy again shouting things like, "Hey, who are you calling dim?" or "Watch it!" or "No!" or "What did he say?" and "Yeah, let's get rid of the elf!" The last words hurt her even if they were coming from dwarves, but she tried to cover it up with a straight face.

"We may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us, to the last dwarf!" Fili said encouragingly while everyone nodded in agreement and approval.

"And you forget, we have a wizard in our company! Gandalf will have killed hundreds of dragons in his time!" yelled Kili supporting his brother's words. Everyone turned their heads expectantly at the wizard who started to look uncomfortable and squirm slightly. It was a load of rubbish, the lot of it! Amariel knew that her friend had never slain a dragon, it would be near impossible for him to do that! Sure, Mithrandir was brave and had defeated more evil than most people on this earth could even dream of, but a dragon could only be killed by a black arrow, and those were very rare to come by!

"Oh, well, now, uh, I-I-I wouldn't say that, I —" the wizard in question stuttered before being intruded on by Dori.

"How many, then?"

"Uh, what?" Mithrandir said nervously.

"Well, how many dragons have you killed?" Dori interrogated. Smoke began to curdle out of Mithrandir's pipe and waft out of his nostrils and started to cough. "Go on, give us a number!" The dwarves yet again jumped to their feet and argued the number of dragons the wizard had killed.