Oh my goodness, again, this chapter has been a long time coming. So I recently turned 18 which is fun and on top of all that I got selected as head of backstage for the production this year.

Eeeep, as if somebody gave me a position of responsibility!

Also, anyone here watch Gotham? Oh my life I love that show!

Ellie x

Sometime after the initial panic had worn off, Narius was stumbling about on the edge between shore and water as Tristan tried to pull him back to prevent his imminent drowning should he venture too deep.

Tristan was beyond panicked, now delirious with confusion, pain and misery and he muttered and rambled under his breath relentlessly

"I have to get back. I'm supposed to be in the water. If I could just…"

Tristan cut him off and grabbed his shoulders, shoving him to the ground in the process "You need to stop and rest. You don't even know…"

"No. No, that's not it" Narius mumbled again, dragging himself along the cold pebbles "The water will fix everything. I have to get back to…"

"Stop!" Tristan tried to drag him back by his feet but Narius gave a harsh yelp like a kicked puppy as Tristan grabbed at the still tender flesh of his newly acquired limbs "You don't understand…"

"No, you don't understand!" Narius flipped himself onto his back and pulled himself up, knocking Tristan to the floor "I am nothing without my tail and I am nothing without the water. I need them!"

Tristan tried to calm him but before he could, Narius grabbed the back off his neck and thrust Tristan's face into the pebbles, his nose exploding in a mess of hot blood and pain that travelled backwards into his skull and behind his eyes.

Narius dragged him clumsily by the legs towards the water and Tristan knew the intent was to drown him. Thinking fast he flipped his weight upwards and onto Narius, holding him face down in the water. The ex-merbeing kicked and splashed but Tristan kept his head down until he finally went still. Before the last bubbles had stopped rising, Tristan pulled the now limp head of Narius out of the water and checked his chest. It rose and fell jaggedly and Tristan knew he was still alive.

Tristan looked at his semi-dead friend and then glanced at the upturned boat. Sighing outwardly, he picked Narius up unceremoniously and flopped his inactive body back down into the boat.

He stood, his hands on his hips, staring up at the long trek ahead of them to the mountain. He thought back to the way he'd looked at Erebor when he was still stood on the soggy, salt-saturated platforms of home. He turned his attention back to the tiny lights of Esgaroth that flickered dimly and for the first time he had a concept of just how huge the world truly was in comparison to the tiny town on the lake in which he'd grown up. He would never have guessed in his wildest dreams that he'd be aiding two members of the most feared species on the water.

He looked wistfully at Narius, willing him to sit up and smile at him. But he remained asleep and Tristan sighed heavily, yanking the rope tied to the helm of the tiny rowboat over his shoulder and beginning to drag it up the side of the mountain.

X-X-X

When Vahri woke up she remembered instantly where she was. Her shoulders tensed as she lowered herself back into the water. The sun just finished setting and it had left angry cracked lines down the area of her back that had been exposed to the sun. The cool water aggravated the burn more as Vahri began to carefully paddle away from the rock she had clung too, back towards home. Her desire for adventure long forgotten, she wanted to be back with her hibernating family and Narius. She would gift Tristan with the coins he wanted and then disappear forever.

Away in the distance, Vahri thought she heard a cry. A loud shout did, indeed, seem to echo around the bottom of the mountain itself as darkness fell. She couldn't tell where the sound had come from at all as it bounced off each hill and outpost of rock.

The sound came again, this time of a different pitch but still obviously human. It sounded like arguing. Vahri's head darted around quickly trying to find the source of the noise. Her head stopped and fixed on its target as the early Twilight moon illuminated two tiny silhouettes in the distance. Back towards Dale, on a tall outcrop of rock, stood two young figures, bickering visibly between themselves.

Vahri began the swim back home, hoping to investigate the two figures on her way back. One of the slower rivers ran just by where they were stood and it would be easy to hear from there. As she set off, she chanced to glance back at the mountain that she has so desperately longed to see from the inside.

As she turned her head, she thought she saw the moonlight, glinting off one particular spot on the mountain as a number of small figures moved towards an opening where the dim light shone. When she spun her head back to double check, the opening in the mountain was gone and so too, were the small figures…

…The dwarves had made it into the mountain