Honour For Bastards

Chapter 23 - The Sacrifices We Make

Laire and the Dwarves crept into the entrance of Erebor, rubble littered the ground they walked on. The mountain was eerily quiet as they made their way further into the kingdom with still no sign of their kin.

"Hello! Bombur? Bifur? Anybody?" Bofur called nervously.

They weaved their way around the halls and stairs with still no sign of the others, until a familiar voice cried out to them.

"WAIT! WAIT!" Bilbo ran up a flight of stair with, worry radiated from his body.

"It's Bilbo! He's alive!" exclaimed Oin.

"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Bilbo met the others under an archway as he struggled to catch his breath. "You need to leave. We all need to leave."

Bofur looked at him bewildered, "We only just got here?!"

"I have tried talking to him, but he won't listen." 

"What do you mean, laddie?" Laire asked, she felt her gut grow heavy with concern.

"THORIN. Thorin. Thorin. He's been down there for days. He doesn't sleep. He barely eats. He's not been himself - not at all. It's this - It's this place. I think a sickness lies on it." Bilbo explained.

As the words flew from Bilbo's mouth, Fili's eyes drifted past him and to the stairs he'd come from.

"Sickness? What kind of sickness?" Kili asked.

Fili walked past the others as they watched him with confusion as he followed a gold glow in the depth of the mountain.

"Fili. Fili. Fili!" Bilbo squeaked.

"Fili!" Even Laire's call could not stop him as he disappeared further into into the mountain.

The Dwarves and Laire stopped short as they rounded a corner, the sight before them was extraordinary and unnerving. Piles upon piles of gold and jewel towered over them almost reaching the ceiling of the cavern. The gold clinked under Thorin's boot as he strode out of a doorway on the lower level, ornate robes draped from his shoulders as he whispered almost to himself.

"Gold - Gold beyond measure. Beyond sorrow and grief." Thorin's voice was not his own, his body was hunched and the air surrounding him was strange and sickly. The Dwarf King was almost possessed as he gazed longingly at the gold surrounding him. His eyes drifted up to the others, even from a distance the darkness was clear in his once sapphire eyes. "Behold - the great treasure hoard of Thror."

Thorin threw something high into the air towards the Dwarves and Laire. Fili caught the object in his hands, the huge blood-red jewel reflected the gold around them.

"Welcome, my sister's sons, to the kingdom of EREBOR."

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The Laketown Dwarves and Laire shuffled into another room, unnerved and anxious after their reunion with their leader. But the sight of the other Dwarves all accounted for brought joy to the spirits.

"Balin!"

"Kili!"

"Bombur!"

The Dwarves greeted each other with great big hugs, but Laire pulled the Hobbit aside whilst the others were distracted. "How long has he been like that?"

Bilbo swallowed, "Sin-since we got inside almost, and once Smaug left he's only gotten worse. He doesn't eat, doesn't sleep, barely says a word to anyone. Laire, I-I fear for him."

Laire's face pinched into worry, "What of the Arkenstone? Has he found it yet?"

Bilbo shook his head, but something in his eyes said he knew more than he was prepared to let on, "Not yet. But it's all he cares about, he's barely left the treasure room, he refuses to until he finds it."