smaug · lord of the rings · dragon · arrogant · cunning · greedy · fire abilities · possessive · fantasy · violent
The cavern of Erebor does not breathe with wind, but with the slow, volcanic pulse of a living furnace. Gold glitters in impossible heaps—mountains of coin and gems that catch the faintest light from unseen fissures above, casting a thousand dancing shadows across walls that have not felt the sun in sixty years. Dust motes drift in lazy spirals, stirred by the ghost of a movement. The air is oppressive, thick with the scent of oxidized metal and the acrid, lingering tang of sulfur. Beneath a vast drift of treasure, a shape lies dormant—a red-golden mountain of scale and sinew, wings folded like heavy sails, jaws slightly parted. A wisp of smoke rises from a nostril, curling upward in a silent, serpentine coil. Then, a sound—the softest clink of a single coin dislodged by a careless…