A/N: Hello, and welcome to my Hobbit/Storm Hawks crossover fanfiction, and my first one in a while! (Also both my first crossover and my first Alternate Universe story, whoopee!) Based on an original idea I had for a pairing, it's come very far from the original concept before I found and took charge of formulating something that worked, and created this. I'll be publishing chapters on a weekly basis overall, though I might leave a few extended or shortened waits.

This story's setting is that Arda (that's the world of Middle-Earth for anyone here who isn't a Tolkien nerd) and Atmos are the same world in vastly-separate eras of its history, that are hundreds of thousands if not millions of years apart from one-another. And I should probably say this now (feel free to call me out as bit arrogant for assuming you'd assume this), but this story is NOT a romance, though it admittedly has a little bit of a focus on a rather twisted relationship between two mortal enemies. This story begins during the opening of 'The Battle of the Fives Armies' in The Hobbit, and the episode 'Forbidden City' of Storm Hawks.

And yes, this fanfiction will be going off of the film version of The Hobbit and Smaug.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'Storm Hawks' or 'The Hobbit;' they both belong to their respective copyright handlers and creators. I only own any and all OC or AU parts in this story.

Also, a great big loud thank you to DONOVAN94 for being my Beta reader with this chapter! You rock, girl!

So, without further ado, I introduce you to:

The Storm Hawk and the Dragon

Chapter 1: A Different Path Begins

Great, massive wings worked perfectly to hold the great dragon Smaug's body aloft as he soared low over the burning wooden town, working yet another rage-fuelled stream of molten fire into what was already a glowing inferno of a town below him.

The screams of the burning Lake-people rose up into the air to greet Smaug, as though one with the very flames and smoke themselves. And oh, what sick, bloodthirsty satisfaction they brought the Dragon-Dread as he destructively worked his way through his ever-present rage and fury. He had allowed the miserable Men of the Lake to continue living in his shadow so close to his rightful domain, yet still they had dared to conspire against him! And now, they saw his wrath and retribution for their nerve in daring to attempt to oppose him!

Every new chorus of screams, every blast as the flames he summoned tore through all in their path, was like music to Smaug's ears. He continued to circle around in the air and unleash trail after trail of more fire upon the wooden town that was already burning alive.

At one point as he unleashed another fiery torrent, Smaug momentarily swerved in the air to spare a glance at the tall, silhouetted mountain in the distance. Ah, the Lonely Mountain, his kingdom, the domain that he had claimed as rightfully his with all the great treasures inside so long ago. No doubt the dwarvish filth that had come crawling back to his Mountain for his gold after 200 years (and the strange, unknown Thief in the Shadows with them), were now watching helplessly in despair, from where Smaug had left them at the Mountain to see their Lake-friends die for helping them against him!

After another several torrents of fire added to the flames, it was just as Smaug was circling round again above the burning Lake-Town that his fiery gold eyes caught and narrowed on a particular human, who was moving from rooftop to rooftop, carrying a bow and arrow, avoiding the worst of the flames as he made his way towards his destination. Smaug swooped down low and made a beeline across the burning Lake-Town straight for the man, outstretching his large, stocky, clawed rear legs to catch the rooftop-leaping Lakeman… and missed. His talons only meeting crumbling wood and tiles whilst the Lakeman safely rolled away!

But it mattered not, the mortal was of no threat to him, and Smaug quickly resumed his general onslaught of the town. Soaring up high again, Smaug proceeded to dive just as he unleashed another stream of burning fire upon the town, outstretching his wings to hold him as he came low; a new screaming chorus rising up to greet him from the wooden buildings that exploded as his shape passed overhead.

It wasn't long after that that the arrows started firing – first one which twanged off Smaug's right breast, then after only a few moments, another which also just harmlessly bounced and rolled away along Smaug's side; his impenetrable scales deflecting the meagre projectiles harmlessly. The arrows seemed to be coming from the same point, and Smaug saw that it was the same Lakeman whom he had seen earlier, futilely firing arrow after arrow at him from Lake-Town's high bell tower.

But Smaug was not the only one who noticed this sight. Amongst the blaze-lit water-streets of Lake-Town, there was one boat in particular amongst the many struggling to navigate through the destruction to safety; occupied by four dwarves, three human children, and a leading female wood-elf. As this boat passed by the town centre and the bell tower came into view, the sole human boy's eyes widened in horror at what he saw.

"Da!"

The boy's two sisters gasped in utter horror as they saw it too.

"DA!" one of them cried out loud in distress as they sighted their father firing arrow after arrow at the monstrous dragon flying by.

"He hit it!" one of the dwarves cried out with hope as they all saw it. "He hit the dragon!"

"No…" the elf whispered with dread, her eyes remaining glued to the sight overhead.

"He did! He hit his mark, I saw!" The dwarf insisted.

"His arrows cannot pierce its hide," the elf responded with pragmatic despair in her voice. "I fear nothing will…"

The boy lowered his eyes as the elf's words overcame them all. Then he shifted his gaze over to the foot of the Town Master's statue, to the lone bobbing boat where he'd hidden his father's weapon under a bundle... and his eyes narrowed with strong determination. Before anyone else in the boat could see what the boy was doing, he'd stood up and taken hold of an overhead fishing line's hook, letting it swing and carry him away from the boat onto the town centre's docks, even as the others desperately screamed and called after him to come back.

"Leave him!" the elf called over them as the boy made off and was lost to sight. "We cannot go back!"

The Lakeman, the bowman, paused as he turned to reach for another arrow – he was on his last one. He would have to make it count.

Then he took the arrow up and mounted it on his bow, and moved quickly onto the bell tower's ledge, stretching his bow out in front of him as the dragon came round in his direction once more. He fired… And the arrow helplessly bounced away off the dragon's shoulder.

Smaug whooshed by harshly alongside the bell tower, brushing it as he did so, and gave a bellowing roar of acknowledging challenge at the tower's occupant as he began to circle round once more. He had allowed the bowman to continue helplessly firing shot after shot at him just to prove how futile it was and how unstoppable he was, but now he had tired of it and it was time to finish it.

The bowman could only stare helplessly from where he'd fallen to the floor after the dragon's silhouette, his desperate stand against the beast having failed.

"Da!" The bowman turned over to the sound, and found himself looking at the terrified face of his son, poking his head up through the bell tower's trapdoor.

"Bain. What are you doing?!" The bowman exclaimed in shocked distress. "Why didn't you leave?! You were supposed to leave!"

"I came to help you," the boy replied, his voice barely above a trembling whisper.

"No!" the bowman denied furiously, his voice filled with despair as he looked out at the burning devastation once more. "Nothing can stop it now…!"

"This might!" The bowman turned back at his son's brave words to see him pull what looked like a giant metal harpoon up into view through the trapdoor. It was a quarrel, forged of a pure black metal. Its head was heavy and twisted, forming a partial helix-like shape… and set in the space in the centre of that head, was a clear, sparkling, silvery-white jewel. The black arrow, the one the bowman had inherited from his ancestor who had tried to slay this very same dragon so long ago.

"Bain…" The bowman took the black arrow's shaft in his hands, then held a comforting hand to the side of his terrified son's head. "You go back. You get out of here now!" But what neither father nor son noticed was that Smaug had just completed his circle and was coming straight in for the bell tower.

"DA!" the boy, Bain, screamed out as he saw it past his father. The bowman looked too as Smaug's terrifying form came swooping straight in at them, his body rearing back as he splayed out his hind legs. In one swift move, the dragon's hind legs had torn the entire top of the bell tower away as it swooped overhead.

"BAIN!" The bowman screamed his son's name at the top of his voice as he looked to where his son had fallen overboard with the entire tower roof. Bain held on to the ledge with all the strength in his free hand's fingers as his other held on to the black arrow, his face filling up with utter terror at the fall below him. The bowman quickly lunged forward and grabbed hold of his son, pulling him up with all his might onto the small broken platform that remained of the bell tower.

A great distance across the burning town from them, Smaug's form came in low for a landing, touching down swiftly and perfectly upon the wooden shacks which held his great weight.

The bowman plucked the black arrow up from the white-knuckled hands of his son's lying, petrified form, and proceeded out onto the ledge of the bell tower's remains, standing tall and brave and composed as he prepared to face the enemy. The dragon in turn was righting itself from where it had landed a great distance away, still a tall and intimidating figure even at this distance.

Smaug whirled his blazing fiery gaze upon the one who had dared to strike against him.

"Who are you, that would stand against MEEEE?!" Smaug called out loud and clear to his opponent; his voice was a deep, resonant and terrifying sound which made the bowman quake in his boots even from this far away.

The bowman was utterly trembling on the inside, but he didn't let his composure falter as he stood and faced the dragon. He reached to his side for where his bow had fallen… and felt his hope falter as he pulled up two broken pieces of a bow-limb held together by the string.

"Now that IS a pity…" Smaug smirked tauntingly as he too saw the bowman's predicament, revelling in the bowman's distress as he looked back at him. "What will you do now…BOWMAN?" The bowman could only helplessly glance from his broken bow to the useless rubble of the bell tower all around him as Smaug's taunting continued.

"You are forsaken," Smaug hissed, slowly moving closer along the burning wooden houses. He adjusted his weight as they protested and crumbled underneath his claws and forelegs. "No help will come…"

Smaug hummed lowly to himself as if in thought as he narrowed his eyes on the two occupants of the bell tower. Then his face lit up with cruel satisfied glee as he realised what he was looking at, a long black tongue snaking out of his mouth to lick at his sharp teeth.

"Is that your child?" Smaug questioned slowly as his glowing fiery eyes fixed on one in particular. Bain had by now gotten back up from the floor and was wide-eyed with terror as the dragon had its eyes fixed straight upon him. "You cannot save him from the fire…" Smaug hissed on viciously as he continued to slowly come closer. "He will… BURNNN!" Smaug's eyes widened maddeningly at the last word and his savage, cruel smirk grew wider.

But that last taunt had been a grave mistake.

As Smaug watched and continued to slink in, the bowman thrust either piece of bow hard through one of the bell tower's still-standing support beams, jamming them in place with fierce strength. The bowstring hung out in front of him between the beams as he fixed the black arrow's nock into place and pulled it back hard and taut. The arrow's jewelled head hung out far in front, aimed straight out at its target beyond… and before it, standing rigid but terrified as a willing stand; was Bain.

"Hold still, son…" the bowman whispered to his son as he leaned back with the bowstring, holding it taut. Beyond Bain's shoulder, the great, towering figure of Smaug continued to slowly advance over the flaming town towards them. "Hold still…"

"Tell me…WRETCH," Smaug's voice suddenly called out, dripping spite and cruelty, "how now shall you challenge ME?!" How indeed? For even with a black arrow, without a dwarvish windlance to fire it at sufficient velocity, the humans had no hope of punching through his impenetrable scales!

But as Smaug moved his body on closer, something on his chest caught the bowman's eye – a small, dark scar where a single scale was missing, the legendary weak spot that the tales and songs told of. And the bowman let a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth as he realised what he'd just found.

But Smaug didn't notice.

"You have… nothing left," he taunted savagely, "but your DEATH!" That was the last warning the humans got before, with a deafening roar of primal rage, Smaug came charging straight for them. On instinct, Bain's eyes began to shift to look at the oncoming beast behind him-

"Bain!" his father's voice commanded softly. "You look at me." Bain's face turned back from the bellowing monster to his father. "You look at me." The bowman held the bowstring back firmly taut as the gigantic charging shape beyond his son's shoulder continued getting bigger and closer.

"A little to your left," the bowman commanded. Bain shifted his position the very slightest. "That's it." The bowman pulled back his hardest on the bowstring, focus and determination coming over his face.

Smaug's face was twisted into a savage leer of utter bloodlust, his eyes shining maddeningly. The front of his chest came into view as he pounced.

With a final roar, the bowman let go… Bain's breath hitched as the bowstring just missed his neck. The black arrow shot whistling, straight through the air above the burning town…

THUNK!

And punched squarely through Smaug's weak spot deep into his chest!

A loud whine of shock escaped Smaug's jaws and his glowing eyes bulged in his head. His body immediately swerved off-course, sending him brushing past the bell tower. The bowman cried out for his son to hold onto him as they were sent toppling towards the icy waters below, while Smaug's body was sent hurtling down into the burning remains of Lake-Town.

"AAARGH!"

Smaug's body went skidding and bulldozing blindly through the burning town (triggering a few faint screams from the few still-living souls that remained), as he screeched loud and clear against the mortal agony shooting throughout his body; and against the strange other force that his mind registered spreading through every cell of him from where the black arrow had embedded itself inside him, one which what little of his mind that remained coherent could recognise as magic.

Within seconds, on pure instinct, Smaug was airborne, pumping and thrashing his wings madly against the agonising pain and the magic invading him; taking him above the orange glow of the flames and the bloodred-illuminated haze of the smoke, into the cold, moonlit night air.

Smaug's body thrashed and twisted wildly through the air high above the burning Lake-Town, his eyes bulging in his head, the glow of his fire building at the back of his throat but refusing to usher out as though being strangled back, roaring against the agony and alien magic that was coursing through him. But every second, Smaug's thrashing movements were quickly growing weaker and sloppier, whilst both awareness and the blinding, pain-fuelled haze across his consciousness began to fall away on him as the magic force's pull attempted to drag Smaug's entire being down; down into something that could only be equated with the deepest, darkest, most eternal slumber of all.

Smaug's jaws opened wide to the sky as though to scream out once more, but nothing so much as a keen whine got through. As his struggle ended, Smaug felt every inch of his body begin to seize up, going rigid and cold. And with the very last shred of awareness, Smaug knew the sensation of falling… Then all consciousness faded away on the Dragon-Dread as his gigantic, cold body went plummeting down towards the flaming wreckage below.

The fall of Smaug, last of the great drakes in Middle-Earth, marked the beginning of a new age of rebuilding and prosperity for both the dwarves of Durin and the humans of the north in the land, and it would go on to be crucial in the final defeat of the Enemy of Middle-Earth in a final War no more than sixty years later.

And from there, as the world always did with the passage of time; it moved on. Smaug the dragon, Erebor and Lake-Town, and eventually even Middle-Earth itself, all passed away into legend as many of the races of old – from the elves and dwarves to orcs and giants – faded away from the world that was left to the dominion of mankind. And from there, as hundreds of thousands of years passed – epochs beyond mortal count, of change, revolution, extinction, erosion, growth and evolution; the one long-ago tale of a mountain reclaimed from a dragon had passed out of all knowledge in the world.

But it was here, many, many Ages after that time in the early world; in a time after so much change, evolution and catastrophe that the world, and all the life and landscape within it, was now completely unrecogniseable from what had once been known as Arda; that the different path begins with the return of a beast from a primeval time. And that story begins with two young adolescents racing hard through the ruin halls of what was known as the Forbidden City on the mountaintop Terra Xoam…

The young red-haired Sky Knight Aerrow's Skimmer sped hard and fast in its motorcycle mode through the long, dark, ancient corridors; his best friend Piper following close behind on her own Heliscooter as they swerved sharply round each and every corner, driving hard and fast through the temple maze of the Forbidden City. In several more sharp twists and turns, their two sky-rides came upon a short, narrow tunnel and they shot through within a second. Emerging out into a wide open chamber, Piper and Aerrow screeched their rides to a hard stop, kicking up clouds of dust as they did so before their rides came to a rest right across the chamber from where they came in.

Piper gave a long breath out and put a hand to her heart as the rush and tension from the hard race left her. Aerrow's green eyes began to scan around the room they were in, and quickly landed on something on the wall behind them.

"Piper, look!"

Piper followed his gaze, and let out a gasp at the sight of the door ahead of them.

"The inner sanctum…" she murmured in awe. As if on cue, the tribal face-decorated door began to open up at the jaws to the two Storm Hawks, a bright violet light flashing out from within as it did. Grinning as they realised they'd reached their destination in time, Aerrow and Piper put their rides into gear and dismounted them. They were just crossing the short distance from their rides to the open door when a cold voice called out quietly.

"Stop right there." Aerrow and Piper both whipped round, startled, to see a familiar and unwelcome muscular figure step out from behind a shadowed pillar towards them, his eyes narrowed and cold as he slipped a metal cutlass out from his belt.

"Domiwick!" Within a second, Aerrow had his twin lightning-blades out at the ready, while Piper in turn had her crystal staff up, both of them poised and ready for a fight as I.J. Domiwick came to a stop five feet in front of them.

"The treasure chamber is mine and mine alone!" he exclaimed with aggression.

"We don't take orders from Cyclonian stooges," Aerrow spat back, pointing a lightning-blade. But then he felt a familiar hand squeeze his shoulder and turned his head at the gesture.

"Leave him to me, Aerrow," Piper said with quiet conviction.

"We'll take him together," Aerrow insisted.

"No," Piper replied calmly, her voice deadly serious as she extended her staff out in front of her, her amber eyes narrowed on her traitorous former-idol. "This is personal. Get inside, go!"

Aerrow gave a nod of acknowledgement to Piper before he turned and ran ahead into the doorway. As soon as the young Sky Knight was gone, Domiwick's crystal-powered energy cutlass flared to life and he brought it swinging down on his opponent. Piper quickly blocked Domiwick's first attacks with her staff, then swung a few of her own at him which he dodged; the two opponents trading strikes, blocks and dodges as their fight commenced.

Up ahead, it was only a couple minutes' worth of running down the long tunnel before Aerrow ran out into what could only be the Forbidden City's treasure chamber. A bright light from on the central pedestal cast an unearthly violet glow across the wide, spacious chamber, wispy shadows like those cast by water from a swimming pool rippling across the treasure-lined walls and seeming to dance in the very air itself.

But Aerrow took no notice of these things, for his focus was on what was on the pedestal as he ran up to it: a statue, carved in the same likeness of a tall, beautiful woman in robes with waist-length smooth hair that he had already seen once today: the Oracle. And held in the statue's hands, encased in a frame of gold and seeming to cast the strange glow across the chamber, exactly as Domiwick's book illustrations had shown it, was the Oracle Stone: the fabled crystal that was said to show the future. Aerrow smiled as he realised the Cyclonians hadn't gotten here first, and reached out a hand towards the stone… then pulled back as he thought better of this.

"Wait. Too easy…" Aerrow remembered Piper's words about misleading first impressions with this place, and how he and his squadron had already seen the tricks and twists to prove it true. "This has got to be a trick."

"Quite true, Aerrow." Aerrow looked up in surprise at the sound of the calm, smooth woman's voice, and was surprised to say the least as he realised it was the statue talking. "Not all is what it seems." A second, transparent blue image of the woman seemed to press out of the statue as she spoke.

"You… know my name?" he asked of the statue, the Oracle, shocked. There was a pause without reply from the statue, as though she were (metaphorically) smiling at him.

"I've been expecting you," the Oracle told him. "After all, I can see the future."

"I've got a lot of questions, uh, we all do," Aerrow said quickly. "They made me write them down." He pulled out a note and quickly started listing off to the ancient spirit. "Okay. Finn wants to know if he gets rich, Piper wants to know what she's meant to do with her life, Junko wants to know if he ever finds his missing lucky shovel, Stork wants to know if the cure for bog measles is discovered."

"And you?" the Oracle asked of him calmly, patient as the stone itself.

"I just want to know one thing," he murmured earnestly. "Do we win?"

"Ah. See for yourself." A bright flash spread out from the Oracle Stone through the chamber, swallowing up everything as the images of a vision began to form and Aerrow was shown the future.

Aerrow saw Cyclonis victorious.

He saw an Atmos of neverending storms and darkness and despair, where Cyclonians ruled and Atmos was Cyclonia. And there, amongst the barren, fire-pelted landscape, he saw his friends, manacled in the chains of slaves…

Aerrow was stunned for the worse as the vision ended and the treasure chamber returned.

"I can't let that happen!" he all but whispered out, noble conviction in his voice.

"Set me free, and a different path begins," the Oracle told him.

Aerrow was hesitant, as though not daring to believe it would be that easy, or not certain how to accomplish that, or both. He gave one narrowed, uncertain glance down at the statue's base. Then in two swift moves, he'd taken out one of his blades and slashed the stone open. Almost immediately, brilliant, blinding pale-blue light began to burst out through the spreading cracks. The Oracle's image seemed to open its mouth wide in a silent cry before, with a great flash, the statue completely crumbled.

As the light faded and it was safe to look again, Aerrow looked down at the remains on the pedestal, and for a moment he started to fear that he'd done something horribly wrong. But then a wispy, ghostly figure began to swirl up from the rubble into the air in front of Aerrow, and faced him with wise, glowing white eyes. It was the Oracle, her freed spirit glowing the same bright violet as the Oracle Stone, her long hair flowing behind her as she smiled in gratitude.

"Thank you… Sky Knight," she whispered. Then she turned her head upwards and soared away through the ceiling, the unearthly glow in the chamber fading as the Oracle was gone.

Aerrow stood there staring wide-eyed up after her for a moment, but then his stupor was quickly broken as the entire chamber began to groan and rumble in protest all around him. He noticed and leapt back out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by a falling pillar, and seconds later, he was sprinting back out the way he'd come in as the chamber began to collapse behind him.

Outside the treasure chamber, Piper and Domiwick were continuing to trade blows and dodges, when, as Domiwick tried to land several slashes at Piper, she took the opportunity to leap up into the air and land a hard, painful-looking kick to his head. Domiwick went sliding backwards across the temple floor, groaning, his cutlass sliding away. Not a moment later, Domiwick heard the roar of approaching sky-rides, and almost at once, Finn and Junko came roaring in on their Skimmers, and Stork on the Stork-Mobile.

"This guy giving you trouble?" Junko asked Piper as they all braked to a stop on sides surrounding Domiwick.

"Not anymore," Piper said with a victorious smile as Domiwick's face pinched with fear. Not a second later, Aerrow's voice called ahead from in the treasure chamber's doorway.

"Everybody out! This place is coming down!" And right on schedule, the structure all around them began to groan and shake and threaten to crumble as Aerrow came sprinting out.

"But what about my treasure?" Finn asked, sounding heartbroken.

"There isn't any," Aerrow quickly half-lied with a slight roll of his eyes. "Move!"

"But what about my future…?" Finn, sounding like Christmas had just been cancelled, pressed on, even as the chamber continued to destabilise all around them.

"Move, Finn!" Aerrow ordered as he reached and mounted his sky-ride, Junko and Stork already speeding off ahead. Finn childishly pouted to himself, then drove off after his friends. But Aerrow and Piper didn't speed out with them.

"Domiwick!" Aerrow called out to the traitor-explorer as he righted himself, even as bits of the ceiling began to rain down all around them. "The Oracle is gone. Get out while you can!"

"I'll see for myself!" Domiwick hissed back at them, the dark throes of greed overtaking his common sense. Then before either Storm Hawk could do anything to stop him, he was sprinting off in the opposite direction, down the tunnel to the treasure chamber as the pieces of ceiling raining down got bigger.

"Domiwick!" Piper called after him, too late.

"Piper, let's go! Now!" Aerrow shouted, and the two quickly turned their sky-rides and blasted off after their friends through the other doorway. And not a moment too soon, as pillars started to fall down next.

The Storm Hawks' rides all sped at full-throttle out of the temple, down the long, winding dirt road from the Forbidden City; as the entire cavern in which it was built shook and trembled all around them. Within several seconds, they were all roaring out through the tunnel back to the outside, as a cave-in of rocks and dust rained down behind them.

Domiwick sat defeated amongst the Forbidden City's now-empty treasure chamber, the Oracle's treasured power gone, with nothing to show but the empty casing that had once held the Oracle Stone, as the familiar rev of Snipe's armoured sky-ride approached. Domiwick pouted at the prize and glory he had been denied, as he let the useless gold trinket fall from his hand to the floor. Snipe gave a loud, snide laugh of childish satisfaction at the snobbish explorer's defeat.

"Can I have a…lift?" Domiwick asked him in a slightly high, oily voice.

"You're the smart one," the brutish Talon commander growled coldly, his voice taunting and devoid of sympathy. "Find your own way out." With that, Snipe turned and revved his ride away hard, kicking up dust behind him as he left Domiwick lost and alone in the depths of the Forbidden City.

But unbeknownst to either Domiwick or the Cyclonians or the Storm Hawks, the Oracle Stone was not the only secret that the Forbidden City had been built to hide, and the Oracle's release had just marked the awakening of something far older than the Oracle Stone's power to see the future.

Far below the Forbidden City, ancient subterranean tunnels ran down to much deeper caves and chasms than where the Forbidden City was located, eventually opening out to a great cavern near the heart of Terra Xoam that was forever silent and still enough to seem as though it had never been touched by life. And within that cavern, dominating a massive portion of the immense space all on its own, there lay a body – the body of a dragon. Except this was not a dragon that belonged in Atmos; it was a beast from a time entire Ages ago, when the world was very much different to how it was now. It was a massive, powerful, terrible serpent, of a race that had rightfully instilled terror in the hearts of mortals in their time; by their terrifying wrath and cunning and savagery, and the fire and ruin they wrought upon all. It was a fire-drake of the Elder Days.

And it was not any ordinary body either, nor was it one that seemed to be either dead or alive; where a corpse would decompose over time to the bones, this inanimate dragon's flesh and blood had instead hardened to grey stone over the time since it was put into this state; anyone who didn't know better would have thought it to just be a massive, disturbingly-lifelike and detailed statue, with the perfectly-carved stone features. But that wasn't the case any longer. The stony flesh started to form cracks like it was softening, its colour starting to deepen, as the life that had been suspended for an incredibly long time was now starting to resume and reawaken.

BWOOMMMMM!

The gigantic pair of nostrils on the dragon's long, flattish snout sprung back to life first, smoke curling out of them as a fire within the beast was reignited. The statue-like body's stony hide continued to regain its natural bloodred colour as it flexed and stirred; the stone began to soften and crack to reform reptilian flesh and scales. A heart started beating again for the first time in eras.

Low but loud rumbling sounds shuddered out as the creature's breathing functions began to resume and its nostrils began to work at getting air in and out of its lungs. The crest of spikes on the dragon's head flexed, and the muscles in its peaceful-seeming but beastly face began to stir slightly as the creature's long-dormant cognitive functions started reawakening from the long stasis they had been kept in.

Then the dragon had one second where a flitting image of a human face flashed across its half-awake mind, before its gigantic eye opened, its intricately-shaped slit-pupil staring out from the fiery yellow to the world. A low, reverberating growl like a tremor echoed off the cavern walls as Smaug was awakened to the world once more.

A/N: So there's the first chapter for you. Please do leave reviews to tell me your reactions, thoughts and opinions, and I hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!