#cuz éowyn also killed a dragon during the battle of the Pelennor fields

[meteor752]

I once read a Barduil post that suggested that after Bard had killed Smaug, he’d gained the dragon’s immortality, but also that he eventually would turn into a dragon.

I think about that almost twice a day.

Here’s a few things I would like to add:

Also, before we begin, I would just like to point out on how i Headcanon it all works.

So it’s commonly called the dragon curse, which is not to be confused with dragon sickness. 

The dragon curse originated from a spellcaster who cast it over an entire village, making them gradually turning into different types and breeds of dragons. Now, you may wonder why the spellcaster did this? Well, it’s sorta like in Beauty and the Beast, where the whole village where just being greedy assholes and the spellcaster just went “Fuck you guys”.

This is also where dragons come from, as the spellcaster only wanted to turn them into greedy monsters and boom, flying reptiles.

There’s two ways for a dragon to be created. Either it’s bred, solely for the purpose of more dragons, or a non-dragon simply killing a dragon. 

The dragon slayer will then eventually turn into the type of dragon they had killed, like if you would kill a water dragon (Sometimes also known as a sea monster), then you would turn into one, or if you would kill a spike dragon, then you would turn into the tiny monstrosity.

The only way to actually kill a person that has the dragon curse, is for the cursed person to kill themselves (A black arrow works fine too, but those are quite rare nowadays).

There was once a man that had gotten the dragon curse, and then went on a rampage finding and killing as many dragons he could, before eventually turning into one. This has nothing to do with the curse itself, but it’s just a fun little story for y’all.

Almost every dragon from the original village have died and passed on the curse to someone else at this point, except for a really old Ice Dragon named Moln, that survived by digging himself down inside a mountain, forever isolating himself.

You caught up? Good, let’s get back to Barduil

It takes a few centuries before Bard starts showing signs of the curse. It’s a few scales here, small horns there, his shoulder blades starts to bulge out a bit and his nails sharpen.

It’s more of his behavior that changes.

He starts to snap at people that annoy him, pocket random shiny stuff he sees, starts to respond in growls or hisses from time to time, and sometimes he locks himself in his and Thranduil’s room for days just to sulk to himself.

Thran doesn’t think too much of it at the start, because maybe Bard is just in a bad mood? Or maybe he just wants some time to himself? That’s perfectly normal, Thranduil has done it himself sometimes.

It is first when Bard nearly faints out of pain, and Thran has to take him to a healer that explains that something scaly has started to grow out of Bard’s back, that Thran realizes that it’s almost time.

But he also thinks that nah, they probably have another century at least.

A few more decades go by, maybe like four, and Bard has changed a whole lot. The scaly bulges on his shoulder blades had started to grow a lot more and he could almost spread his new wings out, his entire back had been covered in dark scales and his pupils had started to get thinner. Still, he wasn’t fully dragon and despite all of this he still had Thranduil. Plus, this all made for some amazing sex (I’m sorry).

It was first when the two had been out in the forest one day for just a simple stroll that the real major change happened. The two had been attacked by something, maybe like a spider or something, and Bard had gone into full feral mode.

He’d ripped whatever creature it was into pieces with his own claws and now sharp teeth, blood covering his hands and mouth and his eyes almost insane looking. 

Thranduil had been terrified, more for what happened to Bard than for himself, until Bard and his eyes met.

Thran had fallen back against a tree, not wanting to run away from his husband but still a bit scared as Bard slowly stalked towards him, his mouth turned into a snarl.

Thran had expected Bard to rip his throat out, to kill and devour him like he’d done to that creature, so he was a bit surprised when Bard simply burrowed his nose in the crook of Thranduil’s neck, breathing in his scent and moaning softly, wrapping his arms around Thranduil’s waist. Thran was confused, but he carefully hugged him back, Bard holding him close.

Thran realized after maybe an hour or so after trying to make him calm down and Bard scrambling to his feet to attack whenever an animal was near (With Thran having to pull him back down), that the dragon part of Bard had showed itself and he now went on instincts and instincts alone, his only goal to protect his treasure. 

It took a few hours for Bard to return to his more human form, and after Thranduil had told him what happened and Bard being slightly embarassed over it, they both realized what must be done.

And it pained them both.

Prompt created by @lunaishtari, and I thank them for that because despite the angst, I sorta love this idea.

AU Masterpost