A Place to Belong

Chapter 1: Origins

A young looking, curvaceous woman sat in a dimly lit tavern. She wore her hood up, hiding her auburn shoulder length locks, her coat was damp from the rain and mud was trodden into her well-worn boots. She sat alone in a dark corner of the room, fiddling with the braids in her hair and sipping at her pint of ale every now and then, watching the drunkards stammer and argue among themselves. She received a few unnerving glances from some brutish looking men, but on seeing the small armoury by her side they soon returned to ignoring her.

She sat and pondered them and their trouble-free lives. She envied them, she yearned for a true family and a place to call home, to belong, but all of that was lost to her long ago.

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Fire blazed in every inch of her field of vision, the searing heat against her flesh made her scream out but no one could hear her. Over the screams of panicked mobs nothing could be heard, save the wretched howls of this newly arrived enemy and the loud crashes as buildings toppled like dominoes.

The small thriving city, that was once Dale, was ablaze, its residents either lying dead in the streets or fleeing into the surrounding hills. Among the crowds a young girl, no older than 10, ran for her life through the throngs of bodies.

She kept looking out for her father, who she had lost in the fray, the last time she'd seen him he was packing a small satchel with food, he had handed it to her and said, "Take this and go, get as far away as possible, don't stop until you're safe. Do you understand?" She had looked at him confused, she didn't fully understand, why wasn't he coming, but she nodded none-the-less. "Good Girl" he had said, and then the building creaked. Her father looked up, "GO, NOW!" he yelled.

She turned and ran to the open door and out of the house, just as she left the roof caved in. She leaped out of the way of falling tiles and the door as it collapsed. She saw her father trapped between fallen support beams, the debris around him was quickly catching fire. She moved forward to help him.

"No, do as I told you, GO! I'll catch up!" he managed to say between deep bloody breaths. She turned reluctantly and ran. He shouted one last piece of advice to her as she disappeared from view.

She dodged under toppled carts and over fallen neighbours. She remembered the last thing he had told her, "Don't stop running! You hear me?!" his voice echoed in her head, "You stop and you're dead!" The last part had scared her most and she didn't stop, not for anything or anyone.

The wind rushed around her, in synch with the incessant wing beat of the beast above. Fountains of flame and tongues of fire swamped the once peaceful streets. The guards had tried their best to fend off the invincible threat but to no avail, they were no match for the fearsome fire-drake. The mighty beast circled the feeble mess of flaming buildings once more before settling down some distance away, Dale had merely been an obstacle in its way, and had been swiftly removed, this creatures true goal was not the destruction of the once beautiful city, but the vast mountains of gold that lay deep within the halls of the great dwarf kingdom that lay on Dale's doorstep... Erebor.

The young girl ran, she ducked and dived and rolled her way to safety, all the while crying out for survivors, she had learned this from a story her father had told her, 'great heroes never just save themselves'. She screamed at the top of her lungs. No answer came. She passed through what remained of the main gate into the city, barely missing some falling masonry as it melted and crumbled under the intensity of the fires heat.

She approached a few scattered crowds of people in the flat plains outside the walls, so few had escaped, less than 100 by the looks of it. She scanned their faces looking for a familiar one that could sooth her racing heart, and calm her electrified nerves. No such face was among those in the small panicked crowds moving away from the ruined metropolis. She quickened her pace and sprinted onwards towards other citizens who were taking refuge from the flames in the wide expanses beyond the city of Dale.