A/N: Again, thanks for the wonderful reviews, especially in regards to Amara's blindness and Smaug being able to shift into a human form.

The stranger, despite the violence he bestowed upon Amara had taken her back to the very spot where her brother had left her before disappearing with not another word, though she'd silently feared he'd still watched her the rest of the night. After all, he was devious and manipulative, clearly having watched her from the moment she arrived – what reason did she have not to fear that she was being watched?

Knowing that her neck surely bore the marks of the man's hands gripping it so tightly, she'd been quick to undo her hair and let it cascade in soft waves down her shoulders in an attempt to hide the evidence of the trauma she'd endured. Luck, for once, was on her side as when her brother and his wife returned to fetch her later in the evening they were both quite drunk and did not take much notice except to say that she looked lovely with her hair mused and down.

She almost wished they had noticed if only so she could release the tears that threatened to spill since the stranger left her mercifully alone. More than anything she had wanted to talk to Linzana, tell her every horrible thing that had happened, but she was too embarrassed and frightened to speak of it without being asked, so she kept silent and saved her tears for the dead of night when she was in her bed, though she didn't cry for long simply because she was far too tired to do so.

But along with being tired, she'd also felt… odd.

Odd was really the only way to explain how she'd felt.

It was as if she were drunk when she'd not had a drop to drink, rendering her unable to walk completely straight and unable to focus on anything but that stranger. Her heart had hammered in her chest as if she were extremely anxious, and her body had felt as if there was fire flowing through her veins, the strongest sensation being at her neck where the man had held her tight. And though the physical sensations diminished once she fell asleep, her mind was too restless to let her sleep in peace, and she'd had the oddest dream.

Standing at her window, the early morning light having woken her, Amara looked out at the city of Dale whilst her thoughts turned back to that dream.

The dream had been unlike any other dream she'd ever had, it had felt so real, the images so vivid that it felt as though she could see again. Surely what she'd seen in that dream had been little more than memories of people and places from back when she still had her sight, though if they were she could not recall seeing any of the faces or any of the locations.

But that dream…

How real it had felt.

How wonderfully beautiful and terrifying it had been.

Sunlight shown down on Amara, chasing away the chill of winter as spring flowers bloomed in the forest she found herself wandering around in. It was not a place she could readily recall, but if felt familiar, like home, and so she paid no mind to it as she idly picked some small flowers here and there, taking note that she could see each and every color as clear as day.

It did not strike her as odd that she could see, for it felt wholly natural, like she'd never lost her sight at all, just as the fact that she was wearing a rich blood red dress did not strike her as an odd thing either.

She hummed a soft tune as she picked a few light pink flowers, smiling faintly at the fact that really they could probably be called weeds by some who would ignore the beauty and instead let them be crushed beneath their boot.

How terrible it was that some saw fit to kill what was believed to have no worth.

As she gingerly picked the flowers, standing straight to place them in the satchel she carried and move to another patch of flowers, two strong arms curled about her waist from behind and she was pulled back into a solid chest.

She wasn't afraid, nor did she feel repulsed.

Instead, she leaned back into the man's chest and sighed in contentment as he pressed a tender kiss to her neck, making her smile. The heat of his chest was hotter than any other man's, his touch gentle yet possessive, and his breath was like fire on her neck that made her hold the flowers tighter in her hand, but she welcomed all of it and did not fear him.

In her lover's arms, she felt safe – completely, irrationally safe. With him, nothing could touch her; he would not allow anything to touch her.

She turned in his arms, wishing to see his face, and the soft smile he wore only for her made her heart flutter. His icy blue eyes looked on her like she was the most precious treasure in all of Middle Earth.

Raising her hand, she brushed away an errant black curl that had fallen over his eyes.

His eyes closed, a sigh escaping him as he pressed a kiss against her palm that warmed her heart.

This gentleness was so against his nature, of this she knew, and she knew he was this way only with her.

Hooking his fingers under her chin, he tilted her head up as his lips slowly descended down upon her's, her eyes closing…

Suddenly she lost her balance and fell clear to the ground, her lover seemly vanished into this air.

Blinking away the shock, rising to her knees, she made to stand when she was struck frozen with horrified bewilderment.

Gone was the beautiful forest, reduced to little more than ash. The flowers she'd been clutching in her hands left gray stains on her palms as they too had turned to ash.

In the blink of an eye, her world had crumbled and died, burned away.

And then Amara felt it.

The pain in her eyes was so intense that she screamed in agony.

Everything was too bright! Too intense! It was as if a fire was burning behind them, threatening to consume her body and her soul, and it was something she felt before, back when she was a little girl.

"You think you can hide from me?" an enraged voice roared, making her jump and fall to her back, blinking back tears of pain and fear.

Descending from the sky was a Dragon, and the force of his great wings drew up the ash and blew it back in her face. He was enraged with her for slighting him, for betraying him, and he sought to make her pay.

Further angered by her silence, he demanded with murder in his eyes, "I let you keep your life, let you come and go as you please, and this is how you repay my generosity?"

"I..." words died on her tongue, for she had no clue what to say, no clue as to what she had done to anger such a mighty Dragon, but though she hadn't a clue, she felt her heart break as regret and guilt brought tears to her eyes.

Whatever she had done to anger him, his anger was justified.

All Amara could do was stare up into the Dragon's golden eyes as he drew back his neck, his chest glowing with the fire building within him a moment before he unleashed a wave of fire down upon her that consumed her wholly and entirely…

That was thankfully the moment Amara woke with a start, sweating and crying.

Even now that she'd calmed down considerable she still felt the terror from that dream, the happiness that turned to fear. One minute, she'd been in the arms of her handsome lover who sought to protect her and treat her as a treasure, and the next she'd been at the mercy of a bloodthirsty Dragon baring red scales that had come for her blood.

She didn't understand it, any of it, and she did not understand how that dream could have felt and looked so real.

Of course she dreamed, but her memories of all that she'd seen as a child were beginning to fade, and often the people in her dreams were faceless, or their faces were hidden in the shadows of their hoods. Yet that man's face had held so much detail, so many traits that she could not remember seeing when she was a child, and she had the disconcerting feeling that it had been the stranger she'd been dreaming about. And the Dragon… she'd never seen a Dragon before, but the one in her dream had been so unique that she might have well have been looking upon one of the beasts in person.

It made no sense to her, and she was thankful to have woken up when she did.

The fire hadn't felt hot in her dream, but she was certain that if she'd stayed asleep the imagined pain would have caught up to her.

Sighing, deciding quickly that there was little she could do about a nightmare despite how disconcerting it was, Amara set to work on washing up and getting dressed.

She felt along the lowest hems of her dresses, searching for the embroidery that Linzana stitched into the bottom of them so that she would know what color the dress was. Just little designs that Amara had come to learn as green, blue, cream color, and whatnot, and the dress she settled on was one of the simplest ones and most comfortable.

First, she put on a white under-dress with long sleeves that were fairly snug on her arms, lacing up the strings on the front. Over it, she would wear a dark brown dress that's sleeves were and flowy, brown embroidery decorating the hems and more intricate designs embroidered around her waist, separating the more fitted top from the flowing bottom.

After untying the laces on either side of the dress's waist under the arms, pulled it over her head, grumbling irritable at the trouble she was having with it as the laces caught once on her fingers, she couldn't find a sleeve, and so on and so forth. Linzana often insisted on helping her dress, stating that she looked like a fish out of water on the best of days, but Amara always insisted she could do it herself – she was blind, not helpless, and she could most certainly dress herself!

After a short struggle, she had her dress on, the laces under her arms laced up tight so that the dress fit her form better, and her boots on her feet – not exactly proper shoes for a lady in Dale – more for a farmer perhaps – but comfortable and easy for her to get around in without the fear of tripping over her own two feet.

She felt her way around her nightstand for the black thread she often used to tie her hair back, but after a few minutes of searching she gave up, not really needing it anyways, and she exited her room as quietly as she could.

Going off on her own would send her brother into a fit, though Linzana wouldn't really mind, and the last thing Amara wanted to do was wake Theldon when he was still sleeping off the effects of the alcohol he drank last night.

That man knew how to drink, that was for sure, and his wife was just the same. They would both undoubtedly be out for another hour or two, which was why Amara was glad she'd woken up so early – it gave her more than enough time to wash up, dress, and leave.

Still, she worried on her lower lip as she felt her way to the door, not letting the end of her walking stick touch the floor for fear of making a sound that would wake Theldon.

Amara reached the door after several tense second and flinched when it creaked open, pausing, waiting for a sound. There was nothing but silence within her home and she breathed a sigh of relief as she stepped outside into the cool morning's light and closed the door behind her.

Using her walking stick to ensure she didn't bump into anything, the young woman wandering into the already bustling streets of Dale, eager to put last night's events behind her.

Humming that same tune from her dream, not knowing the words but remembering the tune as something her father sang to her when she was a child, she walked along the street in search of nothing in particular and with no set destination. Sometimes walking was the nicest way to pass the time.

A few people greeted her, and she said hello back with a smile on her face.

Everyone was so happy, having been in need of a night of partying to be rid of all the stress that they'd accumulated.

The stranger's words of warning whispered through her mind once again, though, breaking through the happiness she was feeling.

"I doubt Dale will ever see a day as lovely as this one again. Do enjoy it while it lasts… Amara."

"… It matters not what you do. Tomorrow, none of it will matter."

It certainly seemed like a nice day, and the guards she just walked passed were chuckling and going about their business so obviously there was nothing going on that had them worried.

Maybe what he had been referring to was his own problems – it didn't happen often in Dale, but some saw fit to take their own life for whatever reason.

No, that wasn't the case, she decided after accidentally bumping her walking stick into someone's leg.

He hardly seemed the type to do that. He was too proud, too happy with himself and whatnot to do something like take his own life.

Something else was going on, something that he knew about but was not letting her believe. Hopefully he was just speaking such frightening things to her in reference to what was going on with him and nothing more serious.

Why would anything terrible be going on in Dale anyways?

It was all so ridiculous!

Today was going to be a good day – there was no reason for it not to be.

Damn that stranger and damn what he said, Amara decided, her steps more sure as a smile graced her face, oblivious to the terror taking shape deep within the forest.

Review, please! Reviews let me know that you wish for more.