Bard and the dwarves rounded another corner and saw a roughly sixteen year-old girl with dark hair wearing a coat over her dress that was similar to the color of her hair. She was Bard's daughter, Beth.

"Dad!" she barked "Our house is being watched!"

The girls began murmuring among themselves nervously. Bard, however, remained calm and tried to think of a solution. He couldn't take them through the front or the back. But it was then that he remembered someplace no one ever looked or even a spy would suspect. He then turned to the girls and cleared her throat and the girls stood at attention.

"I have an idea, dwarves." he said "But it's going to sound crazy."

"Try us, we're gullible." Nadja said.

She would inevitably regret saying that.

/

Bards two sons, Shane and Terrence sat down at the dinner table, waiting for their father. Shane was the oldest of Bard's children at sixteen whilst Terrence was the youngest at eleven and they both had brown hair. Shane tapped his fingers on the table while Terrence fiddled with a yo-yo. And lo and behold, they're father and sister entered through the front door.

"Hey dad!" they both said.

Bard walked over and embraced his sons as Beth closed the door.

"Hello, boys." he said "How'd you survive while I was away?"

"Same as usual." Shane replied "Hey Beth, did you get the groceries?"

"The what?" Beth asked right as it dawned on her "Oh damn it! I forgot!"

"Oh come on, Beth!" Shane exclaimed "I asked you like five minutes ago."

"I'll go down to the marketplace later." Bard insisted, bringing an end to the potential argument "I need your sister for something. Beth, go bring them in."

His daughter nodded, climbed down the staircase near the door and soon was in the cellar. She then walked into a closed off part of the cellar which is where the bathroom was and knocked on the wall near the toilet. The lid flew open and Daniela surfaced with an angry look on her face.

"Now you listen here, kid." she growled not even trying to hide her anger "If you speak of this to anyone I'll rip your puny little arms off."

Beth just ignored the grouchy dwarf woman and backed away to give her room as she crawled out of the toilet.

"Just go up the stairs." Beth said.

As soon as Daniela began climbing up the stairs (grumbling as she did so), Beth went over and helped poor Brianna out of the toilet. As soon as Brianna made for the stairs, Beth began helping the rest of the girls as they began coming in single file from the toilet. Shane was perplexed to say the least.

"Dad?" he asked "Why are there dwarf women climbing out of the toilet?"

"Will they bring us luck?" Terrence asked innocently.

"We're not leprechauns, kid." Nadja said.

"Alright then." Bard ordered as he poked his head out from one of the rooms "All of you sit down by the fire. I'll be back with some warm clothes in a second. Oh, Shane!" he continued as she looked to his children "Would you and Beth make our guests some warm milk?"

"Yeah dad." Beth replied.

"What do I do, dad?" Terrence asked.

"Just sit there and wait until I come with the clothes." Bard said as he re-entered the room.

As Shane and Beth headed into the kitchen, the girls all sat down and observed the house. It was larger than they'd pictured in their heads but not as large as they were hoping. It was a modest house with two bedrooms and another bed nearby the staircase. The kitchen was one of the smaller rooms in the house with a net and several spices and herbs hung up via ropes above the counter near the cabinets. The room Bard was in was near the kitchen with the dinner table in between it and the fireplace which was pretty much the only stone in the house. The sun shone through the windows which were a very light aqua. There staircases on both the front and back of the house, with the girls having come through the cellar which was in between both the front and the back.

Bard finally emerged from the dressing room with clothes all neatly folded in a large basket and placed it on the table. There were also some towels draped on the pile.

"Son, pass around the towels if you please." he said softly to Terrence.

Terrence did as instructed and handed the towels to Brianna, Kamilla, Dorothea, Bridget and Ophelia. All of the girls quickly headed to the table and brought out the clothes from the basket.

"Now I must admit, they may not be the best for winter." Bard said "They're more for summer and spring, but they'll keep you warm regardless."

"What about our nightgowns and our other dresses?" Beate inquired.

"We'll have Beth hang them up by the fireplace." Beth replied "Now go change."

/

After about an hour, most of the girls had gotten changed into their new outfits and they were very grateful to be dry, warm and have clothes that didn't smell of fish. They also had towels and coats draped over them like shawls and were all barefoot since their shoes were still very wet. Traude had a particularly lovely outfit in which the top was more like a shirt with soft colors and portraits of flowers stitched on. The rest of the dress including the hem was simple with light sand-colors and light grey squares. It was very clearly a summer dress but Traude found it very comfortable.

Beth was busy hanging the girl's old wet clothes by the fireplace whilst Shane and Terrence handed out the warm milk to the girls. Shane went over to Frieda and handed her some milk.

"Thank you." she said softly as she took a cup.

Shane observed Frieda as she took a sip. She was currently wearing a white dress with blue stripes. The sunlight through the windows cast a beautiful glow on her.

"You have lovely eyes." Shane found himself saying.

"Well, thank you." Frieda said smiling "My mother told me I have my father's eyes."

Beth cleared her throat. "Uh, Shane, can you help me with the thing?"

Shane looked over confused at his sister. "What thing?"

"The thing." Beth responded.

Shane lifted an eyebrow which caused an exasperated Beth to hold up a grocery bag. It then clicked in Shane's head.

"Oh right!" Shane replied briefly, turning to Frieda "Excuse me."

Frieda nodded as Shane grabbed his own bag as he and his sister went to tell their father they were heading to the market. Meanwhile, Traude sat by a nearby window that was open. She looked out the window in boredom but something quickly caught her attention and caused her to gasp softly. At the top of one of the towers was a huge wind-lance. The weapon resembled a huge 30 foot version of a crossbow and aimed directly at the sky.

"A dwarf wind-lance." Traude said to herself.

Brianna and Barbara quickly took notice of the weapon too and looked at it through the window.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Traude." Brianna piped up.

"She has." Barbara said.

"What do you mean?" Brianna asked.

"The last time we saw that kind of weapon was when Smaug destroyed Dale." Barbara replied "You see, Girion, king of the city, had rallied his bowmen to fire upon the beast."

"But they didn't kill him, did he?" Brianna inquired.

"No, they did not." Barbara continued, not noticing Terrence was listening in "A dragon's hide is tougher then the strongest armor. No ordinary bow can pierce it."

"Then what can?" Brianna asked.

"A black arrow fired from a wind-lance like that one could pierce it." Barbara went on pointing to the wind-lance on the tower "But few of those arrows were ever made or available at any given time."

"What did Girion do?" Brianna demanded.

"Patience, Brianna. Don't ask so many questions." Barbara went on "Girion did the only thing he could do. He shot at the beast himself. There were only four arrows in Dale and they were at his post. He fired three of them. And every one missed it's mark."

Brianna nervously bit her lip as Beatrice and Beth joined in on the conversation and they looked to Traude who was still looking out the window thoughtfully.

"If only the aim of men were true that day." she said softly "Much would have been different."

"You speak as if you were there." Beatrice said.

"I was. When I was young." Traude said as she shut the window "All dwarves know the story."

"Then you know that Girion loosened the dragon's scale under the left wing near it's heart." Terrence piped up to the three dwarves' surprise "Just one more shot and he'd have killed that thing."

"That's a myth, child." Daniela said.

"Where is your father?" Traude inquired.

"In his room." Terrence replied pointing to said room.

"Alright, we've given you all our money." Traude said as she stood up "Where are the weapons?"

"W-What weapons?" Beth asked.

"Our weapons." Traude said "You know the…." suddenly she grew very concerned "Wait. Where are the weapons?"

"What about our weapons?!" Ophelia barked, having eavesdropped in a rare moment of good hearing.

Thinking back, Brianna thought about it and realized that the box they'd had on the boat wasn't brought back with them. It was something the other girls started to pick up.

"Oh crap." Traude said.

As soon as Bard got out of his room, the dwarves all looked towards him with varying degrees of confusion and anger.

"Where is the crate containing our weapons?!" Daniela snapped.

"The crate on the boat?" Bard replied "I thought that was empty."

All the dwarves groaned in irritation.

"That crate had our weapons!" Gerlinde barked "Iron forged swords and axes!"

"My grandfather's spear is in there!" Beate cried out.

"It's a joke!" Bertha said "That's what this is!"

"Alright, everyone, calm down!" Barbara ordered "As long as we can get the crate before it's opened, we can retrieve our weapons."

"We don't even know where the hell it is!" Frieda barked.

"Then we must find it ourselves." Traude said as she brushed back some hair "Let's go."

"No." Bard said sternly, causing the girls to stop in their tracks.

"I beg your pardon, fisherman?" Ophelia said in surprise.

"There are guards watching this house." Bard continued "And they'll probably be watching every entrance and exit in town."

"Well, what'll we do?" Bertha asked softly.

"Wait till nightfall." Bard replied "And better still you wait till tomorrow."

The girls all sighed and or groaned in irritation at this but decided to just roll with it. As the girls spread out and chatted amongst themselves in other sections of the house, five of them stayed at the table to have their own discussion.

"Durin's Day is tomorrow." Traude said "We must find our weapons and the hidden door by then."

"And if we don't?" Kamilla asked with concern in her voice.

"Then this quest was for nothing." Frieda responded.

"Couldn't we come back next year?" Brianna inquired "It'll be autumn next year too."

"We might not get all of us together in time." Barbara replied "It took us half a year to assemble our group. And with the orcs hunting us there won't be a next time."

"Good point." Brianna said with a sigh.

Barbara looked at everyone around her. They looked disappointed, tired or just done with everything. Kamilla had walked over towards the bed where her sister was sitting. She noticed, however, that despite her composure, Traude looked particularly nervous. Her hands were clasped together in front of her lips as she looked at the table and sighed through her nose. She could feel the princesses restlessness and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Traude, why not take the offer and go?" Barbara insisted "You and I have made do with less."

During this, Bard had been rearranging things in the kitchen but upon hearing Traude's name, he glanced towards her in shock, before rubbing his chin and heading out the door. Brianna took notice of this but decided not to say anything. Back with Kamilla, she winced in pain as she sat down next to her sister Frieda, who looked at her with great concern as she felt her injury.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Frieda asked.

"I'm fine." Kamilla insisted "I just need to sit down."

Just then, a thought returned to Frieda's mind. It was of that elf that Kamilla was flirting with in the Woodland Realm. She still worried what Traude would think of all this and what she'd do to Kamilla if she ever found out. She noticed also her sister look out the window at the horizon, as if she was waiting for something or someone.

"What are you looking at?" Frieda asked.

"I'm just thinking." Kamilla said back without looking at her sister.

"You wouldn't be waiting for your elf knight by any chance were you?" Frieda finally said.

Kamilla gasped in shock and immediately turned to Frieda with an equally shocked expression on her face.

"H-How did you know?" she stammered.

"I heard you and him flirting with each other in the Woodland Realm." Frieda replied "I didn't say anything because you were busy talking."

"Is a friendly chat with a guard so bad?" Kamilla protested.

"Kamilla, I saw the way you were looking at him." Frieda continued softly "I've seen that look before. It's a look the lovelorn have."

"You mean like what Dorothea had for Beorn?" Kamilla inquired.

"Exactly." Frieda replied.

Kamilla sighed in defeat. She thought it was her little secret. But, much to her annoyance, she couldn't keep anything from her sister. And Frieda was almost always right.

"You've only known him for about a day. Possibly two." she continued.

"But he saved my life." Kamilla said "He rescued me, like a knight in a fairy tale saving his royal lady. If I were ever to marry anyone, it should be him."

"And I'm grateful that he did save your life. But he is an elf." Frieda pointed out "And you know how much auntie hates them, so please do stop this foolishness."

"But I can't." Kamilla said as her voice broke "He's in my every thought. Ever since I saw him. He told me he wanted to see the world. I want to be the one to show him."

Frieda just couldn't believe it. Her sister had fallen head over heels for an elf. Granted, he'd saved her life at the river gate but he was still an elf. And yet, there was a sense of longing in the tone of Kamilla's voice, which she rarely used but did so when she was telling the honest truth. Frieda then gently moved her right hand and grasped onto Kamilla's left then gave an affectionate squeeze.

"I just don't want your heart broken, dear sister." she said softly "I want to keep you safe like I promised mum."

"I know you do." Kamilla sighed "Actually, I'm quite tired. Can I lie down and rest for a bit?"

Frieda nodded and Kamilla lay down on her back on the bed whilst Frieda propped her up with some pillows. Kamilla sighed, shut her eyes and tried to get some rest whilst Frieda headed to the bathroom. Now during this conversation, Bard stood outside on his back porch, Traude's name going through his head. It sounded so familiar. But he couldn't figure out where he'd heard it. Or even if he'd read it. He then looked to the Lonely Mountain, which loomed over the town like a giant castle. Just then, what was familiar about Traude's name started to become clear. He remembered an old tapestry he'd seen not long ago when he took his daughter Beth to get a new dress. Last time he saw it, it was hanging on the wall nearest the door. Beth then poked her head out, interrupting her father's thoughts.

"Daddy?" she asked.

Bard didn't answer right away but instead looked at the mountain for a minute more then looked at his daughter.

"Stay with your brothers." he said firmly "Don't let them leave."

And with that he hurried down the stairs and towards the marketplace, making sure not to knock anyone over as he ran.