After speaking to the two dwarves, it took Radagast a whole day to find Bilbo and Smaug again. At first the dwarves had not wanted to listen to him, but a long talk did at least convince them to give the matter some thought. Dír's grief was still too fresh to give up her hate for the small dragon so easily, but Cílin's presence seemed to calm her.

In the meantime, Bilbo and Smaug had continued their journey, but with the help of the rabbits it wasn't hard to catch up with them. After that, they travelled peacefully, though the rainy days didn't do wonders for Bilbo's mood. Still, his grumpiness lifted when he saw the first green hills of the Shire through the downpour, and shortly afterwards Radagast told them goodbye.

Once he could close his own door behind him, Bilbo breathed in the scent of home and it was as though a weight fell off his shoulders. And not because Smaug had left them to go check if everything was still in place as they had left it.

Soon the kettle was boiling, Bilbo's clothes hung up to dry and he was snugly wrapped into his dressing robe. As he settled in his chair with a cup of tea, he felt how tired he was. The rain was a lot more pleasant now he could hear it on his windows with a fire crackling in front of his feet.

Eventually Smaug was satisfied that their home was untouched and joined him, letting out a deep contented sigh as he curled up in Bilbo's lap. "It feels good to be home," he observed, and then yawned.

"Certainly," Bilbo said, scratching the dragon behind the ears. "I was planning to read a little tonight, but I don't think I can stay awake for much longer."

"Lazy hobbit," Smaug teased, giggling softly.

"I've been walking for days on end," Bilbo yawned. "I've earned a little laziness."

"Fine..." Smaug said, yawning again. "Just don't snore."

"Never." Bilbo snuggled even further into his chair and closed his eyes.

A while later, Smaug woke, finding the room quite dark. The sun had set and the fire had almost gone out. And Bilbo was, in fact, snoring lightly. With an annoyed huff, Smaug stood up, stretched and then took off in search of food. There had been very little left from their journey and Bilbo had not unpacked it yet. Smaug supposed he could get the bag open if he really wanted to, but it seemed like a lot of work.

Finally, he found some dried fruit in one of the pantries and brought it with him into the bedroom.

The fruit was soon gone and Smaug curled up on the dusty pillow, trying to go back to sleep. But the dust made him sneezy and then his stomach began growling, and soon he was off in search of food again. As he fluttered through the sitting room, he noticed Bilbo's jacket hanging near the fire. There might be some biscuits left in one of the pockets. They were probably soggy from the rain, but still a lot better than an empty stomach. Smaug began investigating.

In the third pocket he checked, he was in luck. Or so he thought. Right down at the bottom, wrapped in a handkerchief, was something hard and round that might just be a bit of stale biscuit. Smaug pulled out the bundle and flew up to perch on a beam, to enjoy his plunder.

The handkerchief was tied in a knot and Smaug struggled with it for a couple of minutes. Then, after a particularly vicious pull, he managed to get it open, but instead of anything edible, it just contained a single golden ring. Smaug was studying it, considering adding it to his lair, when a loud snore from below startled him and he almost slipped from the beam. Once he had righted himself he looked around for the ring. But it was gone.

That was not good. Bilbo was going to be cross with him. Smaug sighed and looked down to the chair below. Bilbo was gone too!

But how could that be? Smaug had just heard him snore. Hadn't he?

Thinking that Bilbo must have woken up and wandered off, maybe to find food, Smaug jumped from the beam and zoomed through the door and down the hallway.

After checking all the rooms along that corridor, Smaug flew back to the sitting room. He checked the front door, but it was still closed. Worried and feeling a little lost, he settled on the back of Bilbo's chair. He took a deep breath and then cried Bilbo's name as loud as he could.

A sniffle and then a long groan sounded from right next to Smaug's head. "Wha'z wrong, Smaug?"

Smaug screamed and fell off the chair. Scrambling around on the floor, he cried: "Bilbo? Where are you? Are you a ghost?"

"Huh?" Bilbo asked. "I'm just here in my chair... trying to sleep, actually..." He leaned forward and felt something cool shift off his nose, before it dropped in his lap. "What are you doing here?" he asked the ring in his lap.

"What?" Smaug squawked, skittering round the side of the chair and staring up at him. "Where did you come from? You weren't here..."

"Oh..." Bilbo looked down at him, then back at the ring, holding it up between his fingers. "Have you been carrying this around?"

"I was looking for biscuits," Smaug said defensively. "It was in the way."

At that, Bilbo smiled a little. "Well, you've found my magic ring. You must have dropped it on my nose and it turned me invisible." He leaned forward and held out his hand to Smaug, who was still looking rather frightened. "I'm still me, don't worry. No ghosts or any other unnatural thing in this hole."

Hesitantly, Smaug crawled into Bilbo's hand. "Was that why I heard you before I saw you?" he asked. "Back in my mountain?"

Bilbo nodded and then hugged Smaug to his chest. "I'm sorry if I gave you a fright."

"I'm sorry I took your ring," Smaug muttered, nuzzling Bilbo's hand. "But I'm really very hungry."

Bilbo nodded. "Let's do something about that, then. So we can go back to sleep."

...

After finding a surprising amount of dried food in the pantries, Bilbo ate a little himself and then went to change the dusty sheets, while Smaug finished off the rest of the food. Bilbo actually had to carry the dragon to bed, as he was too full to be able to fly. Once the hobbit lay down, he sighed, happy to be back in his own bed.

Smaug managed to turn on his pillow so that he could rest his head against Bilbo's cheek. He burped happily and fell right asleep.

...

Hours later, Smaug awoke. He was feeling too hot and rolled away from Bilbo. Then he noticed it. Right there on the nightstand. Next to his lair.

The ring was gleaming dully in the darkness, and slowly Smaug crept closer. He examined it from all angles, butted it with his nose and then got an idea.

Giggling silently, he picked up the ring, jumped off the nightstand and glided out the window.

...

Bilbo woke up when his blanket shifted off his shoulders into a neat fold. When he opened his eyes, the curtains were opening out of their own volition, one by one. He stared, wondering if he was only dreaming that he had woken up.

For a while he sat on the bed and nothing else moved. So he decided that if this was a dream, he might as well make it a good one, and walked to the kitchen to make breakfast.

He collected some more dry fruit and ham and decided that he would go buy some eggs, bacon and milk for second breakfast once his stomach had stopped rumbling. But when he turned to take the ham he had sliced, it had disappeared.

Frowning, he returned to the pantry to fetch more. Only half of the fruit was left when he came back. In fact, a bite was still disappearing into thin air.

Bilbo frowned. "Smaug? Did you steal my ring?"

There was a rustling of wings and then a small gust of air as something zoomed past him towards the pantry.

"Smaug!" Bilbo ran in the same direction.

When Bilbo reached the pantry, a soft giggling could be heard from the highest shelf. "No one here," Smaug said, then scuttled along the shelf, stirring up small clouds of dust.

"Oh no?" Bilbo said. "Then how come that I smell you? I hear your breath. I feel your air... and I see the dust moving."

Smaug stopped, sniffed and then sneezed a small flame along the ceiling. He sniffed again. "You really should clean up here."

Bilbo chuckled. "I know. The whole hole could use some cleaning. And the pantries need to be replenished. But first I would like to have my ring back."

There was some faint rustling and then the ring appeared, sliding off Smaug's tail, which hung over the edge of the shelf. "It's a funny ring," Smaug said, turning to look down at Bilbo. "How did you get it?"

"That is a long story for less hungry times," Bilbo said. "For now it is enough to know that we need to be careful with it. Come on." He put Smaug on his shoulder and returned to the kitchen.

As we are working on other projects, we are taking a break from this story. We may be back later with fresh ideas, so make sure to follow this story to find out!

But for now, this is goodbye. Of course we might return all the sooner if you leave us some fun suggestions in the comments for what you'd like to see Bilbo and Smaug get up to in the future.

We'd also really like to thank saintlilith for the cute drawings she made for this story. Links can be found in my profile; it's always marvellous to see that our fan works can inspire other people.