Prepared for Battle

A scream rent the air and brought guards running. The sight that met them was both unexpected and expected. Bard had warned them that the Master had little respect for another's possessions. That they expected. What they didn't expect was that it wasn't gold he had tried to take.

Smaug growled, her massive clawed foot holding the bloated form of the so-called Master of Laketown, flat on the floor of the corridor outside the treasury, a child could be seen enclosed in the dragon's wing, protecting her from the man.

"I have sworn to protect the young within this Mountain Kingdom. This Man tried to harm a child in my domain. I will not have anyone break the bargain I hold with the Mountain."

The Master continued to scream, demanding the guards free him from the dragon's grasp. None made a move to do so. One guard sent for Thorin and Bard. This was outside what they could deal with.

It took very few minutes for the King(-to-be) and the Lord of Dale to reach the corridor and the commotion.

"What did he do, now?" Bard groaned, keeping his voice low.

The dragon answered, raising her voice to be heard over the still screaming Man.

"You, Lord of Dale, warned that this Man may try to take gold and gems. No one warned me that he would try to take a child. A child. A child I swore to protect."

"A child?" Thorin was sickened at the thought of what fate the child may have suffered. Unfortunately for the Master he had threatened a child in a dwarrow settlement. There were laws to protect children and dwarrowdams. This they could deal with.

Bard stepped forward.

"Whose child? Whose child did he try to take?" he turned to Braga, the chief of Laketown's constabulary. "Why would you let this happen? Why have you not stopped him?"

Braga sighed and answered.

"It's only the last few weeks that I've known what he was doing. Alfrid kept changing the guards to those who would do anything for the Master's favour. The child he tried to take? Was spite. You've been named Lord of Dale and people are following you, leaving Laketown."

"I…? I don't understand? What is that do with the child?"

"Tilda. He tried to take Tilda." Braga sighed. "None of his guards would face the dragon and Alfrid is too much of a coward, so he was forced to try and grab her, himself. I'm sorry, but it was the only way to catch him in person. I would not have let him get any further than this corridor. I swear it, Bard."

"Tilda?! My Tilda?! He tried to take my daughter?" Bard was beyond shocked.

"Da!" the child wriggled out from under the dragon's wing and leapt at Bard.

"Tilda!" He hugged her close.

"Bard, he made a mistake, to just threaten a child in Erebor is a crime." Thorin stated.

"What? What do you mean?" Braga asked.

"Threatening a child within Erebor is among the gravest of offenses. It carries a death sentence. It matters little what he intended to do with the child, all that matters is that he did intend to harm, in some way, a child." Thorin informed them, finally silencing the Master's screaming.

"Death?" Braga was nearly speechless.

"Indeed."

"How?" Bard was still trying to make sense of his Tilda being threatened.

"Under normal circumstances, he would be executed out on the sides of the Mountain and left for the wild animals to dispose of. Now? I think we can just put him out there and as we're expecting an army of Orcs tomorrow, they can have him. How do you feel about that, Bard? You're the family of the injured party." Thorin asked.

"Wait! I have a question." A new voice was heard, a woman's voice, followed by the woman herself. She was not a young woman, but not long past her prime.

"Who are you? What would you ask and who would you ask it of?" Thorin wasn't keen to waste time, he wanted this slime out of his Mountain.

"My name is Rosemary. I want to know if Alfrid was the one to get the children for him." She turned to the so-called Master. "Did he? Did Alfrid get children to feed your foul appetite?"

The answered as fast as he could.

"Yes. Yes. Alfrid brought the children to me. He did."

"Of course he did. When my husband tried to keep your men from taking our son, your guards arrested them." Rosemary spat on the man still held by the dragon. "Neither my son or husband survived." She turned to Thorin. "Is his confession enough to see that Alfrid has the same fate?"

Braga and Thorin both grinned wickedly.

"Indeed, Lady Rosemary, it does." Said Thorin, setting the Master screaming again.

Smaug leant down over him and hissed at him, before looking at Bard and Thorin.

"Where, my Allies, shall I put him? Your men and dwarrow are still busy, so I shall take them." She turned to Braga. "Bring the other one to the Gates, I will deposit this one and return for the other."

"Take one to the north arm and the other to the western arm. Let the Mountain take them. They are not accepted in Erebor." Said Thorin.

"Nor are they accepted within the borders of Dale." Added Bard.

"As chief constable of Laketown, I, also declare them banished from Lake Esgaroth and it's shores." Continued Braga.

"Let it be known by the people of Erebor, Dale and Esgaroth, they are banished."

"And Eryn Galen will not welcome them within it's borders, either." Lendarion joined them. He didn't ask why, if all three settlements banished the two men, then he would do so as well. No questions asked.

Braga offered to fetch Alfrid and see him to the Gates, he was already as armed as much as he planned to be.

Thorin and Bard left Smaug and Braga to their task, Bard went to see to his children and Thorin headed back to the armoury. Most of the men of Laketown were now armed. They'd sent a group to Dale for Man-sized weapons and what armour was to be found. Once Daín had arrived, he had assigned the dwarf the task of seeing the Men armed as best possible.

They were as ready as could be. They'd made their plans, mostly based on what Bard, Legolas, Thorin, Fíli, Kíli and Bilbo remembered from their previous quest. The two teams that were to face Bolg and Azog, had spent the last week sparring and getting as comfortable working together as they could. Bofur had done them proud, he'd found a herd of wild Rams. He'd spent as much time as possible working with them to have them rideable by the time the Orcs arrived.

Balin, Bifur and Óin spent their time working with some of the women-folk of Laketown to have the infirmary as ready as possible. Dori and Bombur split the remaining women into two teams, one to set up kitchens and a dining area, the other to see to getting living spaces cleaned. There were many more dwarrow coming in the days after the battle, some with Lady Galadriel from Dol Guldur and then there was the caravan from Ered Luin.

The caravan contained nearly a hundred dwarrow and not to forget the ten hobbits. Bilbo was keen to see his cousins, he wanted the hobbits to get started on Tari's Temple-Smial. He wanted to add Peldin to the Baggins family Registry, he felt that Peldin deserved that acknowledgement, after all he'd been through.

Thorin, too, was looking forward to the arrival of Galadriel. He'd gone up to the Raven rookery and discovered that Legolas was right, there were Giant Ravens still on the upper reaches of Erebor. That gave him the cheeky thought to send a Karku'zund to Dís. He wanted to let her know what they were up to and to tell her of Galadriel's finding dwarrow in DolGuldur. Dís' amazement and joy at this, mirrored his and her shock at the size of the Raven was worth the effort, of convincing the bird to carry his message. He wondered how long it was going to take Legolas, to get one to consent to being a Courting Gift to Gimli.

Further ravens to the Elven convoy to keep them informed, returned to say that they expected to arrive sometime the day after the Orc army. They had warriors with them and felt that these would be sufficient to deal with any Orc stragglers they may come across. Just knowing that they would be bringing healers, medicines and bandages gave Óin relief. Bombur and Dori were pleased that they would bring food and cloth with them. While Dwalin and Balin were more concerned about the dwarrow with them, Thorin refused to think about this, he needed to concentrate on one thing at a time. The battle was his overriding concern, once it was done, then came the resettlement.

Thorin had created teams for after the battle, to see to different tasks of resettling Erebor and repairing Dale.

Bilbo and Legolas were charged with seeing to the rescued dwarrow after the battle. They needed to get names, family connections and health levels.

Balin would be seneschal, he would bring the important matters to Thorin,

Dwalin would be in charge of the security of Erebor.

Dori would be their Major Domo, in charge of the housekeeping and accommodations.

Nori had agreed to be Erebor's Intelligence Master, Bilbo had to laugh at the irony of the appointment.

Ori would be taking a few of the older folk to the library, he wanted to find any maps and accommodation listings that would help in the resettlement as dwarrow returned to Erebor.

Óin and the Twins were to run the infirmary, of course. The Twins father, Elrond had offered his time and skills to Erebor if needed and would be travelling with Galadriel.

Gloín would be the Master of the Coin, he would work with Smaug and some of the children to sort through the treasury. The aim was to catalogue the non-coin items and he'd work with Ori to see if there was any way of determining ownership.

Bifur and Bofur planned to check out the collapsed areas, seeing how much work would be needed to make it an area safe.

Bombur would continue to run the kitchens and dining area.

Kíli and Tauriel had laid rocks to mark out where they planned to build the animal infirmary. A number of the young adults of Laketown had volunteered their time to help them, Kíli told Bilbo that he suspected that it was mostly to see Bahîth and (hopefully) the dragon hatchlings.

Fíli was to spend most of his time flitting from team to team, reporting back to Balin and Thorin on progress. They were taking in account that initially Bahîth was still injured and would need company and the one he wanted to be with was Fíli, much to Tilda and Sigrid's displeasure, the two girls and Bain had asked to help Kíli and Tauriel in the animal infirmary.

Thorin knew his time would be filled with Bard, Daín, Braga and Lendarion. It was decided that Braga would return to Laketown, most of the fishermen would be going with him, their skills would very likely be needed.

Once the caravan finally arrived, Dís would be able to help out wherever needed. Bilbo would rotate between the rescued dwarrow and monitoring the hobbits, seeing if there was anything needed there.

For now all they could do was eat and try and get some sleep in preparation for the Battle the next day. The elven scouts had spotted the Orcs in their encampments, only a few miles away.

Tomorrow would bring a battle.

Sindarin = (S) Quenya = (Q) Khuzdul = (K)

Karku'zund = Giant Raven (K)