"Cast them into the Lake." said the Master quickly, waving his hand dismissively. "They'll soon know the penalty for invading Lake Town!"

Before they could blink more than three times, the dwarves and hobbit were swiftly being herded towards the lake, nearly breaking through the hold of the men, as well as their arms. Bard himself was trying to convince the guards to show mercy, and looked over to Master pleadingly.

Before Bard or Thorin could offer any sort of deal or plead for their side, Fainas looked quickly between the Master and the dwarves, ducked around the Master, around the guards and threw himself between the dwarves and the guards.

"They're with me!" shouted Fainas sharply.

The Master was quiet for a moment, but then a sneer came on his face, bringing a small bit of worry to the Company. "Well, if that's the case, then surely you will agree to pay their fine."

"What fine?" asked Gloin swiftly.

"Unlawful entry, illegal occupancy, unlawful consumption of local goods, spying, thievery…." said Alfrid giving the impression that he was reading off of an invisible checklist.

"I fear that each of those things create quite the hefty fine…per dwarf…" said the Master, slowly walking towards them, two guards quickly coming over to flank him.

Son of a leaf eating elf! hissed Fainas.

Thorin had to resist a snort of amusement and had instead swatted Fainas' backside quickly.

Does he even know what he just said? chuckled Bofur.

Doubtful. said Dori. But who's been talking like that around him?

"What is the fine?" asked Thorin ignoring Dori completely.

"Allow me, Master Fudge." said Alfrid with a simpering smile, turning to bow at the Master. "How much is the boy's fine?"

"He has already paid." said the Laketown Master, taking a small money pouch from out of his pocket and giving it a bit of a jingle. "And I daresay, he doesn't have any more money." Gloin and Nori took a step forward but Fainas kept them back.

"That's right, I don't." said Fainas slowly.

"If that is the case, then perhaps you'll have to work off the debt." said the Master, a knowing smile on his face. "Something a strong lad wouldn't and shouldn't find too taxing."

"We can…" started Fili, as he supported Kili.

Fainas shushed him, and then turned his attention back to the Master. "What sort of work do you want me to do?"

"Well, what all are you capable of doing…at this point?" asked the Master sweetly.

"All depends on what you want me to do." said Fainas coolly.

Thorin took a step forward but Balin caught his arm. "I don't think we have any…part in this conversation, lad."

"Oh, I'd wager that I could come up with a few things. One chore per dwarf and whatever that is." Master Fudge said gesturing towards Bilbo, who puffed up indignantly.

"In exchange for room and board, tack a bit more on?" asked Fainas, a small sneer coming across his features.

"Surely not!" said Alfrid.

Thorin pulled Fainas back and whispered, "No. We will pay them when we reclaim the mountain."

"We want no trouble, this is the only way…pay or do a bit work and then we'll be on our way when Kili's all healed up." whispered Fainas as the Master agreed to the deal that the lad offered. "Besides, the price may skyrocket if they hear we're heading towards the mountain, and well…send the people into a blind panic and keep us from even going to the mountain. Just to save their lives from the dragon's wrath if we happen to piss it off."

"We're not going to make it ur…" said Nori with a snort, but Dori shot his elbow into his stomach to silence him.

"What sort of work shall he do, Master?" asked the guard. "Cleaning? Fishing?"

"Fishing sounds an easy enough task for such an industrious lad." said Master Fudge snidely.

"How many do you want?" asked Fainas casually.

"It's the cold season right now, my people are starving, perhaps enough fish to sustain them for a short while…" said the Master with a haughty look to the people around his house.

"The boat will be ready at dawn, best get yourself up lad, or you'll find yourself being pulled out of bed by us." said the Captain of the guards.

"Who needs a boat?" asked Fainas with a slight smirk.

"Fainas!" hissed Balin worriedly catching his elbow.

"He and I know each other, Balin. He may not know all that I can do, but he can guess." said Fainas. He slowly raised both his arms and great swirl of dark water came lifting out of the lake beneath the walkways of the town. In the firelight of the torches, the people could see fish darting in and out sight in the water that they were suspended in.

Bofur, Bifur and Bombur hurried over to some nearby empty fishing barrels and set them up so that Fainas could drop the fish into them. The people of Laketown and even the Master stared at the barrels that were rapidly filled to the brim with fresh fish.

When the final barrel was filled, Fainas looked over to the Master and smiled. "One down. What's the next task?"


For the next few days, the Company or to be more specific, all but Kili, Fili, Oin and Bofur, had been taken care of by the Laketown Master's servants and had stayed in his own house. The other dwarves stayed in Bard's house, as Kili was far too sick to move. Bilbo had bounced between Bard's house and the Master's so keep everyone peaceful and keep messages from one group of dwarves to the other.

Thorin had to be convinced to leave the house that Kili was staying in to start the subtle political meetings between Laketown and Erebor. Though they did not enlighten the Master to who he was housing, he only knew that they were Fainas' dwarves and hobbit and nothing further than that.

The Master seemed to be quite interested in the plans and history of the Company, but they were not so inclined to share much about their travels. Especially not since the Master was working Fainas nearly night and day. Since the lad showered the town with fish, the Master had given the lad even more tasks to complete during their stay in Laketown. Thankfully, the man had not had the notion to send the youth up to the Mountain to face the dragon.

The Master had him scrape and clean all the filth off his house first and then the rest of the buildings in Laketown the first day. Then it was fixing the roofs, gathering firewood for the hearths, all the challenges that had been asked of Fainas, was all focused on preparing the town for winter, at least so far.

The tasks only made to put the Master in a good light, but when Fainas would get his task for the day, he would roll his eyes and groan if the task sounded as if it were a massive undertaking, impossible to do in two months by a single normal man. Yet he would complete it by day's end. Every night, he would go back to the Bargeman's house, eat a meal he had attempted to help Sigrid with preparing, and then collapse in front of the fireplace, with Tilla bringing a blanket over and snuggling down with him.

Thorin and the Company were keen on trying to find out what the Master and Fainas had in common. Kili, Fili and Ori feared that this man was perhaps the vile uncle that Fainas had told them about on the road. Dwalin, Bofur, Gloin, and Dori figured that this man was someone who knew Harry back in his home country and was possibly on a higher level of society and had used old tactics of keeping magic wielders in check. Thorin, Balin and the remaining members believed that perhaps this man knew something about Fainas and had decided to blackmail the lad.

Everyone wanted to ask Fainas what this man had over him, but there was no chance to do so. Fainas was constantly in either the company of the guards, or the Master speaking in private. Nori however reported that almost every day, Bard and his children would come and speak to him, no matter what task and bring him some lunch, even though Nori would already bring food made by Bombur and Bilbo.

The lad was looked after and he didn't seem to be in completely low spirits, or a man weighed down by worry, he was just tired…and getting more tired every day.


After five days, the debt that was tallied was finally paid off and Fainas had done enough small jobs to pay for new supplies for the dwarves to continue on with the remainder of their journey. They acquired the weapons that they had attempted to steal nearly the week prior.

However, the youngest Durin Prince, Healer and the toymaker Bofur were staying behind.

"I want to go with you, I want to see the mountain!" gasped Kili grasping Thorin's sleeve the night before they left Laketown. "You promised I would be with you!"

"You are wounded and sick, Kili." said Thorin carefully. "I would love nothing more than to have my heirs, my three lads with me when we reenter the mountain after all these years. But I would rather not lose you to sickness and to the wound so soon after leaving Laketown."

Fili grasped Kili's hand tightly, "I'll be with you Kili, I'll protect you."

Thorin shook his head. "No, Fili, I want…"

"I will not leave my brother, he needs me, more than you have need of me." said Fili sharply. "I have to protect him, I promised Amad…I promised her I would not lose him."

Thorin looked between the two of them, torn between forcing his desire to have both if not at least one of his nephews to travel with him up to the mountain and allowing his oldest nephew to stay behind and help protect his youngest.

"Thorin, it would be best if we left both Fili and Bofur behind to protect Kili. I have little faith in the guards here that they will be able to stand off any orcs that may slip into Laketown." said Balin quietly.

"Cannot Fainas throw up a bubble?" asked Dwalin folding his arms across his chest. "Add a bit more protection.

Balin sighed and stroked his beard, "I asked the lad, all these tasks and getting them done as fast as he had, his strength is beginning to fade. As long as we don't ask and allow him to use his powers, he should be able to of great help to us, should the dragon still live."

Thorin looked at Balin and Dwalin in turn and then back down. "I had and have no desire to send Fainas in to confront the dragon."

"But you'll send the hobbit…" said Balin.

Thorin turned his head away from his advisor. "I…I am attempting to plan out a way so that we do not have to subject Master Baggins to that either, despite the contract. There was nothing in the contract about saving my life and I now owe him a life debt, I will do all I can to devise another way."

Balin nodded slowly. "Aye, we owe, Master Baggins quite a bit."

"Seems we'll have to do a lot of planning as we trek up the mountain." said Dwalin.

"Where is Fainas?" asked Thorin looking around the room. "Shouldn't he be back from whatever asinine task the Master has him do?"

"Bofur wanted to take the lad out for a drink…we're about to go up against a dragon, might as well have a belt before he goes up there." said Dwalin.

"Hope Bofur keeps an eye on the lad and tempers his own drinking." said Balin soberly.


Harry groaned as he lifted himself out of the bed. His head thumping loudly as the sparse sunlight shone through the frosted window. He and Bofur had decided to go out and have a night out in the pub, especially with it being their final night in Laketown. As he gazed at the sunlight, he ended up back on his back in the bed with a light thud and a hiss of pain. If this was what it was like to have a hangover, with his mouth full of cotton and his very eyeballs throbbing from under their lids…he vowed right then and there to never have another night of drinking with Bofur again.

He froze when he heard a mumble coming from the place next to him in bed.

That didn't sound like any of the Company, Bard, or any of his children…. In fact, this ceiling looked nothing like anything that was in Bard's or the Master's house. He reached under the covers and touched his own thigh, there was nothing there…he was completely naked.

Oh, this morning wasn't starting out too good. It never goes well when one starts the morning waking up naked…and in Arda.

He squeezed his eyes shut and turned slowly towards the person in the bed with him. Hopefully, nothing happened…and if it did happen, hopefully the person was nice…reasonably young, and being pretty wouldn't hurt….

God he hoped it wasn't Alfrid.

He opened his eyes slowly and saw the figure of a woman with dirty blonde hair sleeping in the bed beside him.

Well, it wasn't Alfrid, but he had the bad feeling that something happened, cause she wasn't wearing any clothes either. A better outcome then the worse possible scenario, but how was he going to go from this point on? Gandalf never mentioned this, though he highly doubted that Gandalf would know about this, not something he would share really…not to Gandalf anyway.

To think he would…have his first time in Middle Earth, drunk and with a woman he had no clue as to her name or anything about her. Wouldn't be the first time in the history of mankind, true…but he didn't think that his parents would be all that proud of him.

He surely didn't want to tell the Company about this; he groaned again, the Company was probably going to be tearing the town up trying to find him.

The woman shifted and turned to face him, she wasn't old, but not too terribly young either, perhaps in her late twenties or so. He couldn't place her quite well, but there was something familiar about her nose and her the way her cheeks were shaped. Harry held his breath as she opened her eyes. When her eyes began to come into focus, they widened in shock and she pulled the covers up to her chin.

"You…you're the dwarve's wizard…that dark haired one's…oh my god…I raped a little boy." said the woman in a hushed tone, her face quickly becoming devoid of any color.

Harry groaned despite himself as he looked up at the ceiling. "I'm not a little boy! In my country, I'm of age to do…whatever we did."

The woman looked unconvinced and reached for a shirt and skirt as best she could with the covers clutched to her chest.

"You know, I can just look over here until you're done." said Harry looking over at the wall.

"I…I would appreciate that." said the woman her voice quaking. "I…you need not worry, I'm an honorable woman, I will surrender myself to the guards."

"What? No, you don't have to! Just…just calm down." said Harry swinging his legs out of the bed and began to paw around the bed for his own trousers and shirt, finding them beside the chair, he slipped them on and waited for her to finish dressing. "It's alright, there was no real harm done…"

"No harm, you are a child! Protected by those fearsome looking dwarves, we are close to a kingdom of dwarves, everyone here knows how they guard their young, blood or not. I am considered more of an adult in this, I should have…" she said frantically.

"Calm down! We just won't tell them, how's that? It's done, it's happened, and I'll say it till you understand, I'm of age according to my people, it's alright!" said Harry urgently, trying to keep the woman from planning anything foolish. Or at the very least, getting him in trouble as well.

"It is not only my guilt towards you age that causes me distress!" hissed the woman, her face twisted in anguish. "I was being courted! I have betrayed the man that I love, the man that accepted me despite I am not in my prime anymore!"

Harry scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably and sighed heavily. "You could be honest with him, drink does this to people all the time. Or you could lie, I mean, nothing…"

But then a flash of a vision came to his eyes, and an unsettling scene came to his mind. It was the woman in the room with him, heavy with child, and walking through a market that reminded him strangely of the one he had seen in the town of Bree.

Then the vision shifted, to the woman and a strange man, much, much older with silver hair and many wrinkles, holding hands with a young…

Anya…

Harry fell to the floor, not noticing the alarmed squeak of the woman rushing to his side. He…He was Anya's biological grandfather.

Damn all this timey-whimey bullshit.


The dwarves were running around frantically, Fainas had not shown up to the house of either the Master or Bard and no one had seen him since Bofur took him to the pub, The Barge. Bofur himself had ended up in a pigpen, no recollection on how he got there, but he could not remember what had happened to Fainas.

Bofur was twisting his hat almost into tatters fretting over the loss of the young wizard. He knew he was going to be punished by Thorin, if not by the entire Company itself for taking the lad out on the town, he had to find him, there was nothing else for it.

He hoped nothing happened to the lad.

When the Company regrouped in front of the Master's house, they could add nothing to their investigation.

"Are we sure he couldn't have…rowed out in a boat…perhaps he's adrift…" said Dori worriedly.

"Bard counted the boats, they are all present. I'm more worried about him turning into a bird or a fish, and he being lost somewhere out in the lake or in the sky."

"Remember that strange dark void he pulled us from?" asked Nori, his arms folded. "Who knows how that works or how far one can travel through those voids. He could be gone forever."

"And that's assuming he left on his own inebriated self." said Balin. "He could…I'd rather not say what I fear."

Thorin rubbed his eyes and looked around the area that they stood in, where on earth could Fainas be?

Even the Master was worried when they begrudgingly informed him of their missing young man. While they did not like him and the lad obviously held no love or affection for the man, he seemed to be very distressed that the lad was missing.

"Search every house!" shouted the Master to the guards that stood around. "I want him found!"

"Calm down, I'm right here." came a growling voice. "It's too early in the morning for this shit."

They looked over and saw a disheveled looking Fainas coming towards them from what looked like the shadow of a nearby building.

"Fainas!" shouted Bofur and Thorin at the same time as the Company all gathered around him.

"Where were you lad?" asked Dwalin reaching up and smacking the back of the lad's head sharply. "Had us tying our beards in knots trying to find you all blessed morning!"

"I was fine. Nothing bad happened…in fact, I'm assuming I had a good time." said Fainas with a twitching smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Really? What were you doing?" asked the Master with a frown as he came striding up to the Company.

To the dwarves' utter disbelief, Fainas leaned forwards and whispered into the Master's ear.

The Master blinked a few times, but then began to chuckle. "Sixteen already…can hardly believe it, soon you'll get a timepiece…how the years have gone by." he added with a fond look.

"You can still go back, not too late." said Fainas quietly.

The Master snorted and had attempted to smirk, but the fond smile was still on his face. "Oh no, if you can do it, I surely can."

Fainas shook his head and sighed. "Whatever, Fudge…whatever…"

"Come, Kili wants to speak to you before we leave." said Dori taking Fainas' hand and leading him away. "And you'd better tell us where you were all this time."

As he walked away, Fainas turned and looked at Fudge. "By the way, you'll be missing one of your guards, and a housekeeper. They needed a bit of a change of scenery, don't bother to go chasing after them, doubt you'll find them."

The Master looked between the chief guard and Alfrid in confusion.