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Chapter 48 – Then from the Mist

"Uhm… excuse me but uh… you are from lake town, if I am not mistaken?" Balin started, after what felt like an age of them being stared down by the looming man. Balin stepped forwards and raised his hands in defeat as the man span round to aim right at him. "That barge over there… it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?"

The whole company let out a breath of release once the man lowered his bow and looked confused between the barge which must have been behind the outcrop they were on and Balin's raised hands.

Todd felt her hackles along her back settle back down and she nuzzled her head into Dwalin's side as a 'thank you' for protecting her and Ori. He merely patted her on the head and headed off to stand closer to his Brother. She watched him go, a lopsided grin spreading across her features. Who would have thought that the most stubborn and brash of all their company, the one who had no problem voicing his distaste towards her when she first met them, would be the one to willing put himself between her and danger. It made her feel even more a part of the Company at that point. Todd used that time to grab Ori by his sleeve and gently lead him over to his Brothers that were stood with the Ur family.

The man had watched them all relax as he placed his bow back across his back and places the arrow away. They had moved immediately into their families. Yet his eye was still mostly watching the giant red fox, it was not normal, and he was battling with himself to just come straight out and ask about why a creature such as her would be a travelling companion to dwarves.

He decided against it in the end and moved away from them, back to his barge where he had been pulling the battered and beaten barrels out of the water and onto his barge.

"What makes you think I would help you?" He called out after realising that the whole Company had followed him over the outcrop and towards his barge.

"Those boots have seen better days, as has that coat" Balin carried on. Everyone was staying dead silent in the background afraid of disrupting from Balin's charm. Todd sandwiched herself between Bofur and Bombur, keeping an eye on everything. "I guess you have some hungry mouths to feed, how many bairns?"

"A boy and two girls" The man admitted, as he moved more barrels onto his barge.

"… and your wife, I imagine she is a beauty?"

"Aye…" The man paused as he stood looking out to the waters of the lake, a solemn expression made its way onto his features then as he turned back to look at Balin. "… she was."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"Oh come on come on, enough of the niceties!" Dwalin guffawed, turning away from them all with his arms crossed and his eyes towards the sky as if asking his maker for patience.

"What's your hurry?" The man called out, eyes now settled on Dwalin.

"What's it to you?" Dwalin sassed back and Todd huffed out, her head bowing knowing that his attitude could cost them the ride they needed across the lake.

"I would like to know who you are… and what that creature is to you?" He asked, the second half of the question directed straight at Todd. "What are you doing in these lands?"

"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains, journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills" Balin countered. Not bothering to address the giant fox into that equation. As he spoke, the bargeman's eyes flicked across them all and he did not seem convinced at all.

"Simple merchants you say?" The Bargeman quirked at brow at him then, moving to roll another barrel onto his barge.

"We need food, supplies and weapons… can you help us?" Thorin interjected, moving forwards and Todd was surprised at the polite tone in which he had taken. They all watched with bated breath as the bargeman looked from Thorin to the barrels and raised another brow. He reached down and started to assess the damage the Orcs had dealt to the barrels.

"I know where these barrels came from!" He started.

"What of it?"

"I don't know what business you had with the Elves, but I don't think it ended well…" He levelled Thorin a knowing glare and then turned back to Balin. "No one enters Lake Town but by leave of the Master, for all his wealth comes from trade with the woodland realm. He would see you in irons before risking the wrath of Kind Thranduil!"

With that he untied a rope and chucked it over straight into Balin's chest. Todd felt a growl rise in her throat at the rude action and once again the bargeman was eyeing her with suspicion. There was a moment of time where she stared him down as Thorin and Balin whispered across to each other. Neither her nor the Bargemen moving to look away first.

"I'll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen…" Balin tried once more.

"Aye, and for that you would need as smuggler" The man all but snorted at them as he made his way further own the barge to untie more rope. Balin rushing off after him.

"For which we would pay… double!" He rushed.

In the end he had agreed, the shock on his face at being offered double gave it away. The Company slowly made their way onto the barge and settled sitting down at the front, Todd however was unsure. As fox she knew that her swimming capability was incredibly lacking. Swimming was something that was a lot easier in her second skin, but there was no way she could shift now. Not unless she wanted everyone to see her butt naked. There were no spare clothes anymore, nothing the company could spare to cover her up, they had been stripped of most of their outer layers when being imprisoned in the woodland realm.

She was going to have to stay in her first skin, which would normally not cause her any concern, but being on a boat made that seed of worry blossom in her. Bofur moved to jump on the barge and turned back to her, noticing that she had not moved to follow.

"Come on lass!" He called.

Todd let out a deep breath and huffed at him, stomping a paw on the ground to try and show him that she was nervous. He merely looked to her funny and shrugged his shoulders.

"You not like boats or something?" He asked.

"That's a Rebhane… you do realise!" The bargeman cut in, he strode across the boat and came to stand before them both. His eyes glaring down at Todd with the distrust that she was all too familiar with. She huffed and lowered her head. Bofur bristled at the bargeman's scandalised attitude. "It's not seeking refuge on my vessel"

"Now, you listen here lad… "Bofur began, pushing his sleeves up, but Thorin was quick to interject, with Balin hot on his heels.

"She is our kin, you would do well to treat her as such" Thorin raised his voice.

"Your kin?"

"Look, the lassie is… is" Balin was trying his best to think of something anything, they could see as such on his face.

"Do you have any spare clothes she can borrow… maybe talking to her in her second skin will make you see otherwise" Bofur asked, his face stony. He was not liking how this bargeman was treating his Todd. She was no threat to him and Lake Town.

"I don't…" The man looked between all of them, and then down at Todd. She bowed her head down, hoping to come across as no danger to him. She really needed to be with her Company. Being separated from them now would be too much, they were so close to the end, to their goal.

"I vouch for her character!" Bilbo spoke up then. "She will bring you no harm, I can guarantee!"

"I can't leave without her!" Bofur turned to Thorin, the worry in his eyes.

The bargeman watched as Bofur stepped back over the side of the boat, resting his hand on the fox's back and look to them with finality. Todd felt her heart melt at the fact that Bofur would let the rest of the Company carry on without him, just so that she didn't have to be left behind on her own. She would have raced around the lake to reach them in time, she knew that it would not be enough, it would have taken her way too much time. Let alone being the sole thing the Orc pack would then be hunting. Bofur staying with her would only slow her down, no matter how much she loved him, and he would be in danger. He probably knew all this as well, and still choose to step off that barge for her.

"What's going on?" Bombur called as he made his way back over, spotting his Brother and Todd not yet on the barge. "Brother?"

"You would all vouch for this creature?" The bargeman questioned, pure confusion across his face.

"Aye" The Company stood up then, all of them affirming to him.

"Very well"

The barge was a lot steadier than Todd had originally thought. In her mind she was expecting it to rock and curl with the waters, but she found that it sliced through with relative ease. That settled her down no end, knowing that she wasn't going to start feeling quite as motion sick as she had originally thought.

Upon setting off towards Lake Town, the dwarves all shimmied up the barge to the front where they were as far away from the bargeman as possible, and from the way the man looked at her, she felt that being the opposite end of the barge to him was where he wanted her to be. Therefore, that was where she found herself as the air around her started to chill and a heavy fog started to fall upon them like a blanket.

She had laid herself down at Bofur's feet as he stood looking over the front of the barge. She had been joined down on the floor by almost all of the company, which meant that she was able to lay her head on Bombur's lap whilst Bifur played with her tail. They were chatting amongst themselves, trying to compartmentalise everything that they had been through in the calm that being on the barge in the middle of the lake gave them.

Todd knew that a lot of them were relaxing now for the first time in what felt like months. She could see family members sitting with each other and holding each other up as they tried not to fall asleep. Ori was sat between his brothers as he chatted away to Nori, Dori bothering over his hair from his other side. Oin and Gloin were talking in hushed tones about their families back in the Blue Mountains. Fili was fretting over Kili, who was leaning his head back against the barge resting. It was nice for Todd to be able to just sit and listen, to feel like for this short amount of time, they could finally catch their breath.

"Woah, look out!" Bofur called from above her and all of the Company swung their heads up to Bofur, just as the barge lurched and sliced to the right in the water to avoid a ruin. The stone pillar blurred into view as they sailed past then dissolving back into the mist behind them. Todd had sat herself up and was watching with sharp eyes as the bargeman navigated them through the stone.

"What are you trying to do… drown us?" Thorin called back up to the man with fire in his voice.

"I was born and bred on these waters, Master Dwarf… if I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here!" He merely stated, as he went back to navigating and Todd sensed there was no real danger. She settled herself back down with her head resting back on Bombur's lap.

"Ohh I've had enough of this lippy lake man… I say we throw him over the side and be done with it" Dwalin grumbled, casting a look back down at the rest of the company sat behind him.

"Ugh, Bard…" Bilbo admonished. "… his name Is Bard!"

"How do you know?" Bofur called out.

"Uh, I asked him."

"I don't care what he calls himself, I do not like him" Dwalin grumbled along with a roll of this eyes.

"We do not need to like him, we simply need to pay him!" Balin interjected, as he was busy counting the coin that had been handed over by members of the company that still had some on them. Todd had been able to give them nothing, her daggers were currently fixed to Bilbo whilst she was in her First skin, and that was currently the only thing of hers that had made it this far with them, that and the moonstone necklace still round her neck. "Ah it seems we have a problem" Balin sighed. "We are ten coins short."

"Gloin… pay up!" Thorin ordered, and Todd snorted with laughter as their King eyed Gloin like he was a child hiding cake behind his back.

"Don't look to me, I have been bled dry by this quest and what have we got to show for it, naught by grief and ruin…" He grumbled before getting cut off by a sharp elbow from Oin to the kidney.

It went quiet then and Todd was mildly aware that something in the air had shifted and when she looked to the Company, she could see that they were concentrating on something over the left side of the barge. Bombur leant down to her to whisper in her ear.

"It's Erebor lass... take a look!"

Todd stood immediately and followed everyone else's gaze as before them, looming through a gap in the curtain of mist was the lonely mountain. Rising up strong and true into the dreary sky. Something inside her swelled, and she immediately pictures her Father. She could hear his laugh, see his smile and feel his embrace as the vision of the mountain before them hit home. She was so close, they were all so close.

Her Father would have given anything to have walked those halls he called home once more, to run his hands over that stone and to breath in the familiar scent of home. He would not be able to, but there was a part of her that was sure that he was with their maker, in more splendid halls than even Erebor, watching down on her and smiling. She was doing this for him, and for her Mother who never got to experience that home either. She felt a lump form in her throat and her eyes began to go misty.