Courage ✔

Chapter 24

The two elves waited until their eyes got used to the nerve-racking darkness. Alyssae concentrated on her surroundings: the cold breeze that blew, the mumbling of the dwarves outside the walls, and the fluttering of invisible wings - bats. She sniffed up the musty atmosphere, humid and containing the traces of long perished bodies. Dwarf bodies.

A shiver crept down her spine and she nudged Thranduin with her shoulder, where after they both started to walk to the great hall. Following their hearing, they stepped toward the dragon. Their footsteps were almost inaudible as if they floated on an invisible cloud.

They put down the pans in a large rectangular. Alyssae swallowed when she felt a slight vibration beneath her feet, but she didn't know if the dragon had moved or that she was teased by a delusion, created by her fear.

With shivering knees, she turned around after she had put down the pans. Her eyes flashed nervously around, but she did not know where Thranduin was. He should light the pots.

Again the ground quavered and this time the gold started to glide down. In panic, Alyssae bit her nails. Had she done something wrong? And where was Thranduin?

Fear overpowered her and she stepped backward, although she had no idea where the danger dwelt. She stumbled on an object, but when she fell and felt the object move, she knew something was wrong. This was not an object.

The beast was awake.

Fear squeezed her throat while she looked around panicking, to the exit next to which burned a small flame, so that she knew where she had to go. She had done what she could, but none of the pans were blazing and she didn't know where Thranduin was. For a moment she feared the elf had abandoned her. Was this his revenge, because she had chosen a dwarf over him? Maybe he didn't differ so much from his uncle as she had thought. Maybe he was just much smarter.

"Thranduin?" she whispered.

She didn't dare to raise her voice, since the tail of the monster was very near so that she didn't even dare to come upright. Very slowly the tail glided across the gold as if it was a snake. Alyssae could only stare at it. In the distance, a fire was lit. Was that Thranduin? Or was it Smaug's heat, pushed outside by his giant nostrils?

She grabbed the ring out of her pocket and shoved it around her finger without thinking. She could not sit here forever. The magical ring would not protect her when the dragon breathed out his fire, but she felt a little more comfortable.

Alyssae looked longing to the exit. Could she go back without Thranduin? What if something had happened? Had Smaug eliminated him without making a sound?

Suddenly a terrible voice reverberated through the hall. "Who dares to enter my domain?"

Her hair came upright.

"Go back, Alyssae!"

Thranduin's voice was only a weak whisper compared to Smaug's fury.

A new fire was lit. Apparently, he was still there.

Alyssae hesitated. It felt unnatural to leave the elf behind, but she knew she was only distracting him. The poison was already spreading and when Smaug opened his mighty jaws, all three of them would be blown up.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

With tears in her eyes, she turned around and ran towards the corridor where the blue flame was burning. She didn't look back and heard Smaug's voice still echo.

With tears in her eyes, she slipped through the door, where she walked over to Thorin. She however didn't look at him but stared at the door. Thranduin could come any moment. She felt sick from her own thoughts. She had doubted his goodwill. She had feared that he had left her with the dragon, while that was exactly what she had done.