Tadeusz and Lechsinka felt like they'd been walking for an eternity and were more than relieved to arrive at the river's end. They stopped for a minute to rest while Tadeusz looked ahead of them and saw the river flow into the great lake where Lake-town was. In the distance clouds were approaching, meaning snow was on it's way. Lechsinka, meanwhile, pulled some lembas bread out of her pocket and quietly began to eat when Taduesz took notice.

"Is that lembas bread?" he asked

"Yeah, I got it from my mother before we left." Lechsinka replied.

"Mind if I have some?" Tadeusz inquired.

"Fine, knock yourself out." Lechsinka confirmed "With lembas you only ever need one or two bites."

They both sat quietly for a few minutes, enjoying lembas and the windy but nice weather. They hadn't crossed the magical barrier that kept Mirkwood warm all year round but the winter winds still managed to slip through. Birds chirped in the nearby trees which added something of a serenity to the whole thing. Lechsinka then decided to say what was on her mind.

"So, you want to tell me about her?" she asked.

"About who?" Tadeusz replied casually as he finished his bread.

"You know who." Lechsinka said "That dark haired dwarf woman."

Her friend almost spat out his bread when she asked that and she had to suppress the urge to snicker even if she wasn't making fun of him. Tadeusz looked more than a little surprised. He'd assumed Kamilla and him were alone when they chatted on the Feast of Starlight. Where was Lechsinka during that other then upstairs with her mother?

"I thought you were upstairs." he said calmly.

"My mother sent me to check up on you. That's when I saw you sitting down with that dwarf woman and talking with her." Lechsinka replied "I was right at the door just beyond the lamp. After a few minutes I went back up."

Taduesz sighed with embarrassment and scratched a non-existent itch on the back of his neck.

"Taduesz, I saw how you hung on her every word as she talked to you." Lechsinka continued "Admit it, you were captivated by her."

"Alright, I was." Taduesz replied not even missing a beat "And if I leave her now, I will never forgive myself."

"But she's a dwarf!" Lechsinka protested.

"I know you mean well. But I can't live with myself if she dies because of me." Taduesz responded as he stood up "She needs my help, I know it. If that means I have to hunt thirty orcs on my own then so be it."

"But you're not on your own." Lechsinka said smiling like a proud big sister.

The two stopped at the same time and looked at one another, with a perplexed look on Taduesz's face.

"Can I ask you something about your mother?" he asked.

"Sure what?." Lechsinka responded.

Taduesz bit his lip slightly out of nervousness but finally decided to say what was on his mind.

"Is the queen going blind?" he asked bluntly.

Lechsinka was taken aback by this. It was such an outlandish thing to claim that her mother, the queen of Mirkwood and the Woodland Realm who had fought off orcs, goblins and even dragons, would suffer from such a mortal ailment as blindness. The fact that a captain in their army was bringing something like that up was silly.

Or at least it would have been if it wasn't true.

She knew full well even before he finished his sentence that her mother had been steadily going blind. Ever since the family doctor had told Lechsinka the news that her mother would slowly start to lose her sight and had begun to for some time, she'd had to assume the role of caretaker, a task deemed unthinkable in her younger years as her mother had been able to take care of herself as all elves tend to do. But now, she was facing the prospect that at an undetermined time her mother would be completely blind, unable to see, unable to fight or worse unable to properly rule.

"Y-Yes. Yes she's starting to go blind." she said after some uncomfortable silence "How did you know?"

"I didn't. Not at first anyway." Tadeusz replied.

Lechsinka sighed a tired sigh. "It's almost a cruel joke: the warrior queen of the Woodland Realm brought down by damn cataracts."

Tadeusz sighed softly, now feeling awkward that he'd seemingly touched a nerve even if accidentally. But now he had to get back to his original opinion.

"Then you have to understand why this is so important." he said "The queen has never allowed monsters in on our lands. But she's allowing a horde of goblins to slip in and kill our prisoners. And now 18 of our guards lie dead."

"Whatever business these dwarves and goblins have with each other isn't our concern." Lechsinka said "It's not our fight!"

"But it is our fight! Aren't we part of this world? They're not going to stop at just them." Taduesz reiterated "With every victory this evil will grow. Your mother sent us on this quest so she must see it too. If your mother has her way, we will stay cooped up in our halls away from the light while she goes blind."

There was a brief silence between the two friends. On the one hand Lechsinka was thinking Tadeusz was out of order talking about her mother like that. But on the other hand, her mother was the one who sent them after the goblins in the first place. Maybe her mother was starting to notice things she wasn't.

"Tell me, princess." Tadeusz finally said breaking the silence "When did we allow evil to become stronger than us?"

/

It was later in the day by the time Bard finally got to the shop where the tapestry was only to discover it wasn't where he last remembered seeing it. He quickly began searching around for it whilst the shop owner sat behind the desk reading a book but looked up at him when he entered.

"Evening, Bard." he said "You seem to be in a hurry. What are you after?"

"There was an old tapestry here!" Bard replied without turning around "The dark blue one with gold lining! Where's it gone?"

"You mean that one over there?" the shop owner asked.

Bard turned to his right and saw the very blue wool cloth lined with gold colored linen he was looking for hanging from the wall next to some red and purple blankets in the corner of the shop. He immediately took it off the wall, flopped onto a nearby table and quickly spread it out. The tapestry was covered with drawings of a long family tree with the names of said family members written under the branches. He then looked close to the bottom of the tapestry and saw three names: Dis, Frerin…and Traude. And they were listed under Thrain who was listed under Thror.

It slowly began to come together. The mountain, the fact that they were dwarves and now Traude's name. This tapestry seemed to confirm his suspicions. But it was the conversation from outside that helped him reach a verdict. The windows and door had been left open to the shop and just outside Hilda Bianca was standing by the river avenue by a boat where two men were busy unloading some food from the boat whilst an dark-skinned old man with snow white hair and a short-cut beard observed the incoming clouds, knitting as he did so.

"The snows of winter are coming." he said "Better prepare yourselves."

"Thought we'd have more time." said Tommy who was a rather pudgy man with a goatee and was helping his friend Phil unload the food "Now Hilda what were yammering about?"

"They were dwarves, I tell you." Hilda insisted with her left hand on her baby bump "About the height of a wee twelve year old lad with messed up hair. I've never seen the likes of them around here."

"What are dwarves doing in town?" Tommy asked

"Don't you know, Tommy?" said the old man in a surprisingly deep voice "It's the prophecy."

"Prophecy?" asked the second man Phil unloading the supplies.

"Prophecy of Durin's Folk." the old man replied.

"You mean that old poem?" asked a nearby shop owner.

"I've heard of that!" said a customer.

"Me too!" said one man "My mum read it to me when I was little!"

"The old tales will come true!" said another man.

"Vast halls of treasure!" exclaimed another.

"That means silver, gold and riches beyond measure." said one.

"We can rebuild our lives!" said a man who was walking home with his daughter.

"Can it really be true, papa?" asked the man's daughter who had messed up dark hair "Has the lord of silver fountains returned?"

When he heard that, it clicked in Bards brain. He then remembered a poem his parents had read to him when he was young. Even though it had been years since his parents died, he could still remember the poem as clear as day:

The lord of silver fountains

The master of carven stone

The heir of the mountain

Shall come into their own

And the bells will ring in gladness

At the mountain heir's return

But all shall fail in sadness

And the lake will shine and burn

"Hey, Bard!" the shop owner barked suddenly "You alright there?"

Bard snapped back into reality and then picked up the tapestry and flopped it onto the shop owner's desk.

"How much?" he demanded.

"Oh take the old thing." the shop owner said as he raised an eyebrow "You sure you're alright?"

"Perfectly!" Bard replied as he put some silver coins onto the desk and headed for the door "I have to stop them!"

"Stop who?!" the shop owner yelled.

But Bard didn't answer for he was quickly out of ear shot. As he neared home, the clouds finally rolled up and snow began to gently fall around Laketown and in it. As he rounded the block where home was, he was stunned to be met by his three children.

"Oh thank heaven's father!" Beth panted.

"We tried to stop them!" Shane barked.

"It wasn't my fault!" Terrence piped up.

"Alright hold on!" Bard ordered "The dwarf women, where did they go?"

"They went to go get their stuff. Something about a crate." Shane replied.