Years of travel took Hera, Olwyn, Berkas and Glamdyr to many places, Rivendell, Bree, Gondor, many villages and tribes along the way and finally led them to the Shire, where they heard that Gandalf would set off fireworks there.
So when they arrived and saw an old wizard playing with children, their lips trembled, they looked for him very hard.
When Gandalf saw them he was a little surprised that they were not small, but when he looked closer he was shocked.
-Hera?! - Gandalf quickly approached, shocked.
-Gandalf! - Hera smiled excitedly and gave the Wizard a hug.
"You?! What? I thought you were dead." The wizard hugged her back and looked at her when she let go.
-Well... it's a long story. - Hera sighed.
Gandalf nodded, then looked at Olwyn and smiled, then looked at the child Berkas and Glamdyr who were standing nearby, looking at him as if they saw a clown, evaluating a trick he just performed.
"It doesn't look like much," Berkas said.
-Yes, I expected a dashing wizard, now I'll have to find a rhyme for beggar. - Glamdyr nodded.
-Belly button? - Berkas offered.
"That's a good one, actually." Glamdyr began to write it down.
Hera groaned, during this time, the pair went from enemies to friends as they discovered that their personalities are quite compatible when it comes to causing trouble.
Olwyn at the side shook her head in exasperation.
Gandalf's eyes twitched and he asked, "And these are Elves?"
Hera looked a little embarrassed, and finally said, "It's better to tell the whole story at once."
Hera had already obtained permission from Smaug to tell the old man, after all the kingdom is now well garrisoned, there are almost 60,000 complete troops, mostly dwarves, then moon elves and then giant elves.
The Dwarves were divided into miners and blacksmiths on one side and warriors on the other, some preferred to hit heads rather than stones and metal, so Smaug allowed them to join the army.
Durin, the first dwarf, commanded the fighters, being their leader.
In the wood not far away, sitting on a rock, Gandalf was smoking his pipe with wide eyes.
-So... you were kidnapped by Smaug. - He said.
-Yes. - Hera nodded.
-To be your wife.
-Yes.
-So you spent years resisting, until to save Olwyn, you accepted.
-Yes.
-So you gave him a son.
-Yes, a daughter, Hela, she is not yet fifty years old.
"...so this boy is the son of Smaug and a wood elf." He pointed to Berkas who was poking a squirrel burrow with a twig.
-Yes.
"This is a moon elf, an elf raised by Smaug." He pointed to the elf who was writing something down in his notebook while being inspired by watching Berkas poke at the squirrel's house.
-Yes, magic to keep them away from prying eyes, Glamdyr, Berkas, show him. - She asked.
The pair nodded, Berkas gained horns while Glamdyr now had white hair.
Gandalf took a long drag on his pipe, the last few minutes seeming to change his worldview.
-Hera... Smaug, he... - Gandalf was confused for a moment, none of this made sense.
Hera sighed and said, "Yes, I know, it's confusing, it's hard to explain, why don't you come back with us and see for yourself."
Gandalf looked at Hera and wondered if this was a trap, but he didn't feel it, his instincts told him it wasn't that, what she said was probably true.
He took a long drag on his pipe and nodded. "Okay, I'll come back with you after New Year's." He still needed time to think.
--x--
-Well, a wizard is coming. - Smaug cut the vision and sighed, in front of him, was Hela and Legolas, both handcuffed, Hela with a furious look and Legolas looking like he doubted his life.
Two giant elf guards beside them.
-Father! You ordered me to be arrested! - Hela shouted angrily.
-How did you get my father to let me take him? - Legolas on the other hand was confused, he was taken directly from the forest kingdom.
"I promised not to kill you and ten barrels of wine," Smaug explained calmly.
Beside him, Alúna was present, she offered to go to help him control himself, on the other side Helena, who didn't want to let Alúna win.
Legolas's lips trembled, is he worth ten barrels of wine?
"Okay, after much thought and coming to the conclusion that killing you won't stop Hela from getting another boyfriend, just running further this time, I decided to give you a chance, you shitty brat." Smaug was getting angry again, but Aluna held his hand.
Helena held the other one, pretending nothing happened.
Smaug shook the women's hands and said, "Well, I'll give you a chance. I heard that Orcrist and Glamdrimg, the enemy's hammer, are in the trolls' woods. Find them and bring them to me, and then I'll give you... my daughter's hand."
Smaug closed his eyes to avoid looking at the thing in front of him and finished his sentence with evident irritation.
Hela smiled happily and Legolas smiled too, but then came the confusion.
-Where are they? - He asked confused.
-I don't know, maybe with the trolls, good luck finding out, Hela can't go either. - Saying that, Smaug left with Aluna and Helena without looking back.
Hela wanted to protest, but Aluna shook her head at her, in the end Hela sighed.
Legolas took her hands and said, "Don't worry, I will find the swords."
Hela smiled and wanted to kiss him, but remembering her father not far away, she hugged him.
The pair stood together and the giant elves, almost twice their size, looked at each other, they shrugged, released the two and left.
On the other side, Smaug finally decided to use the Palantir, after exchanging it, he received a new ability.
[Acquired skill: Treasure Sense]
[Can use magic to sense treasures at a wide range, matter and energy can decrease the sensor range, the definition of treasure is based on what is valuable to its user.]
Smaug's eyes lit up as soon as he saw this ability, wanting to beat himself up for not being able to do it sooner. He had been traveling for two years, wasn't this the perfect opportunity?
Sighing, he activated the skill and expanded it, trying to encompass the entire mountain.
He saw huge veins of gold and precious stones, but what really got him excited were two glittering jewels inside the mountain.
They were deep, very deep, it would take hundreds of years of exploration and it would still have to be dug in the right place, but he found them.
Laughing happily, before the surprised eyes of Helena and Aluna, he flew away towards the mines.
The pair looked at each other and sighed, the king was still so fickle.
Aluna invited Helena to help her buy some clothes at the market, Helena nodded, the pair called Tauriel and soon the queens walked around, luckily the kingdom saw them every day, so it wasn't very lively, the current scale of the kingdom reaching hundreds of thousands, there was a constant flow through the mountain.
On the other side, a large dragon used its claws to easily pierce the stone, some dwarves nearby to help, also to avoid the risk of collapse.
It was frustrating, but he needed the stone without burying the inside of the mountain.
For the next few days Smaug focused on his work, heading towards the nearest one, other dwarves were heading towards the other, but his work was ridiculously slower, but it was better than nothing.
A hole nearly a kilometer long was dug, with Gray Dwarves helping to place support posts and checking the solidity of the ground.
With Smaug's help, a lot of ore was dug up as well, so the group of excited dwarves were working frantically.
Finally two days later, he found it, Arkenstone, just like the first one, slightly irregular, he didn't think twice and threw it into his mouth.
This time he learned his lesson and changed it quickly.
[Essence Extraction]
[Can extract the essence energy of all things and concentrate them.]
Looking at this skill, Smaug was silent for a moment.
He didn't quite know how to use this ability for a moment, extract energy?
Well, he can already devour energy, what's the point?
Confused, he looked around and grabbed the wall beside him, started using the skill, he was surprised to see the hard soil becoming softer, after decomposing and falling like slag, in the end it turned to dust.
In his hand, a few drops of white liquid appeared, looking at it, he seemed to feel the energy of the earth itself.
Taking a bottle, he stored the liquid inside and noticed that this ability consumed magic like crazy, he still had no idea of the usefulness of this, but for now it was enough, he left the mine and let the Gray Dwarves continue the work, he would return in the future for the third stone.
He himself went back up and looked at the essence of the soil thoughtfully, what to do with it?
The bottle of about two hundred millimeters was full, he stopped for a moment and put a drop in his mouth.
His devouring ability was activated, upon his surprised eyes, his strength grew a little, tiny, but it grew.
This surprised him, but the cost-benefit ratio was not very good.
Thinking for a bit, he decided not to devour it this time, just let it go into his stomach.
The feeling was light, he felt full, as if he had eaten a lot, and he was also full of energy.
"Well, at least this can be used as food reserves in the future." He sighed, then tried extracting essence from other things—metal, wood, water, even fire—but overall, aside from the slightly different feeling, the effects seemed to be the same when consumed.
He then tried watering the plants with it, the trees particularly liked the essence of earth and wood.
While testing, he thought of something.
Raising his hand, he began to use his ability in the sunlight.
It was slow, very slow, he had to stay like that for an hour to get a drop, but as soon as it appeared, the surrounding trees seemed to react with hunger.
He looked at the drop, then at the trees, but first he tried it himself.
This time the effect was different, it was like being washed from the inside, even his scales seemed to have become lighter and brighter, leaving him surprised.
He made one more and called an Imp, making it cut its hand and drink the drop, he noticed that the hand healed quickly and the imp looked very comfortable.
Then he caught a spider in the forest of darkness and gave it a drop, the spider screamed and in the end it seemed like light exploded from within it before it turned to ash and died.
He thought for a bit and this time he took a common animal and tried to corrupt it a bit with the corrupted energy inside it, the animal moaned in pain, he gave the drop and the animal was soon cleansed.
So if the animal is completely corrupted, it turns to ash, if not, only the corruption is purged.
By this time it was already night, looking at the moonlight, he did other tests, the moonlight was even more difficult to get the essence out, but he persisted, it took almost two hours, then a transparent drop like that of the sun appeared, but this one seemed lighter, less invasive.
The results were that the imp healed more slowly, but seemed very well mentally, as if he had had a great night's sleep, bringing Aluna to help, she discovered that the moon essence affected the spirit more.
She was very surprised by this ability.
-They say the fruit of the silver tree turned into the moon, so... - He looked at the white tree and made a drop for it.
The tree groaned excitedly, as soon as it touched its bark, it seemed to infiltrate, even though the tree was smooth, in the next moment, the tree grew a little!
He was shocked, he gave tons of life energy to her, but a simple drop helped more than a hundred lives.
He also tested the essence of daylight, but the effects were minimal, on the other hand, the trees seemed much more desirous of daylight, so he gave it to them.
The amount was small and the magic spent did not allow him to do it indefinitely, so he soon stopped giving the trees and began to gather essence from the sun.
10 drops of essence of the sun per day and 5 of the moon, all the drops of the sun were saved and the drops of the moon were given to Yggdrasil, which seemed to grow bigger every day.
He also made fire essence for Aluna, she seemed to like it very much, so he asked the winemakers to make wine with it and in the end, fire wine was born.
Only Aluna could drink it like wine, a small glass would leave anyone full for the rest of the day.
As the tree grew, he also managed to make more robins, they flew up the tree and wandered out of the mountain, the number continued to grow.
Smaug was in a difficult situation when he was squeezed while preparing essences, so he decided he couldn't continue like this.
He called the dwarf and giant elf blacksmiths and the moon elf craftsmen and gave them many jewels, the goal was to find a way to channel the energy of the sun and moon like a magnifying glass.
He also obtained some Thranduil crystals, obtaining the formula for how to create them.
In the end a large magnifying glass that concentrated the energy was made, and upon testing it, the amount that could be produced increased greatly!
About 100 drops of sun essence per day and 50 of moon essence per night.
The white tree was now growing at a ridiculous rate, it only took a month to reach forty meters, such a large tree was already vaguely visible from afar, but it didn't matter anymore.
The thrushes not only grew in number, but now they also received some drops and grew in size, now they looked more like white crows.
The number reached more than a thousand, their music bringing joy to the mountain.
The happiest one was Aluna, the thrushes also lived near her, she spent most of her free time with Yggdrasil, the two talked in the language of the trees.
Of course, Smaug also got tired, every day he barely had time to sleep or love his women, so the amount of time producing essence decreased a lot.
Other essences also had their uses discovered.
The essence of earth made the land richer and plants grew better, that of water purified the water and made it crystal clear, that of fire could burn for a long time, like kerosene in a lamp, that of wood was very nutritious for trees, but not as much as that of daylight, that of metal was used by dwarves and giant elves for forging, cooling the metal, making their weapons stronger and sharper.
He thought about making Mithril essence, but he was afraid, he still needed it to strengthen himself and keep it in reserve, so he decided not to try.
He also tried to make essence from living beings, the answer was liquid vitality, he already had his vital gift, so it wasn't very useful.
In any case, his life returned to normal, until Gandalf appeared at his door.
--x--
A/N: I've seen a theory that the Arkenstone is actually the Silmaril that sank into the crystal-covered earth, and along with the heat and pressure of the earth, they enveloped it, making its previously obvious features dull.
I must say that when I saw this theory, I thought it made a lot of sense, but I saw it after I had written this book and at this point I didn't want to rewrite it anymore, so at least in this story, the Arkenstone is just a naturally formed gem with a high amount of energy.