The next morning, the girls were up bright and early. They'd gotten their old clothes (which were now nice and dry) back from Bard and were relieved to be back in their old outfits but kept the ones he'd had given them at his house as a token of appreciation. They headed to a nearby dock where a boat was waiting for them, with large crowds around them who had come to see them off with many more staring out of open windows. The snow from last night was still prevalent on rooftops or on the docks where some were doing their best to clear the snow so people could walk around. All the girls were there. Except one.
"You do know we're all one girl short, right?" Brianna inquired "Where's Bertha?"
"If she's not here we leave her behind." Traude replied coldly.
"She's got a point." Barbara said "We must find the hidden door before nightfall with or without Bertha."
"Y-You mean she's not coming?" Beate asked with concern in her voice.
"Afraid so." Nadja replied.
Beate looked somewhat downtrodden by this. Her cousin had promised she'd be there for her every step of the way and had been for the entire journey. And now, right when they were so close to the end of their journey, her cousin wouldn't be there. Bridget took notice and wrapped her right arm around Beate as the girls reached their designated boat which had some supplies set out for them. Nadja on the other hand saw a perfectly good small money bag, just tied up to a person's belt, ready for the taking. She checked to make sure nobody was looking and with almost cat-like ease snatched the purse off of the man, stuffing it in her pocket hastily. They quietly began boarding with Kamilla being in the back of the group while Traude stood at the edge of the dock whilst some guards handed the girls their essentials. Traude turned around and noticed Kamilla was limping slightly. Traude then held out her left hand and Kamilla bumped into it as she stopped.
"Kamilla, no." Traude said "Not this time."
Kamilla chuckled in disbelief. "No. No I'm going to climb that mountain with all of you."
"You can't come with us, Kamilla." Traude replied "You're too weak."
"I am not." Kamilla protested "I need to be there when the doors opened and I…"
"Kamilla." Traude repeated in a relaxed but parental tone "I'm sorry but must stay here. You can join us when you're rested and healed."
Frieda and some of the girls took notice of this conversation with great concern, though Frieda even more so. Ophelia then suddenly put down everything and clambered onto the dock, bringing her aid kit with her.
"Sister?" Gerlinde asked.
"I'll stay with Kamilla." Ophelia replied as she said down next to Kamilla "After all, I'm a doctor. My duty should always lie with the wounded."
"If that's what you wish." Gerlinde said "I wish you luck."
"And I you." Ophelia responded "Beside's you have Dorothea. She's a trained nurse just like me. She'll do just fine now, won't she?"
"I'll do my best." Dorothea replied.
As they were finishing up their discussing, Traude felt something yank on the hem of her gown. She looked downwards to the boat and saw Frieda looking at her expectantly as she sat in the boat.
"Aunt Traude, we grew up on tales of the mountain." she said "Tales you and our mother told us!"
"I know that." Traude replied "But I can't…"
"You cannot take that away from her!" Frieda barked "We've all come this far!"
"Frieda…" Traude tried to say.
"Please, let her come with us!" Frieda said cutting her off "I will carry her if I must!"
"Stop it!" Traude snapped.
Frieda shut up like a clam and all the girls quickly looked to Traude with worry. Traude sighed and tried to calm herself down.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you. But this quest is too important." she said softly "I cannot risk it for the sake of one dwarf. Not even my own niece."
Frieda briefly glanced to her sister who had started coughing a little as Ophelia checked her breathing. For a fleeting moment she considered listening to her aunt and staying in the boat. After all, it's not like the mountain was going to move the next morning to the other side of the world. But the more she thought about it, the more wrong it felt just leaving her sister alone like that. They'd been through thick and thin together and she deserved the right to enter the kingdom of their ancestors as much as the others or even her. She couldn't just do nothing. She'd promised her mother she'd keep Kamilla safe, no matter what. She then looked to Traude as she stood up.
"If this is the nature of this quest then I want no part of it." she said sternly as she stepped onto the dock.
"Frieda, no!" Traude protested as she grasped her niece's right arm "Don't be stupid. You belong with the company."
"I belong with my sister." Frieda cemented as she freed her arm from Traude's grasp.
Traude sighed in disappointment and got in the boat as she saw Frieda sit down next to Kamilla and Ophelia. They all suddenly heard a loud hacking noise like a cat with throat cancer and looked to their left to see just behind two rows of crowds was a platform and Gordon the Master of Laketown walked up to the top of it, coughing very loudly. Amanda then gave her father a glass of water and he chugged it down in one gulp. Right next to them to their right was a little band that had been set up. It contained a drummer, two trumpet players, a tuba player and a bagpipe player.
The Master did a hand motion with his right hand and the band started playing which was followed by the crowd's cheering.
/
Bertha awoke with a rather annoying headache. Her eyelids opened slowly while she groaned as she propped herself up and looked around. She was on a nearby sofa in the Master's house with nice soft cushions and the sofa itself was about twenty feet long. Bertha yawned and rubbed her eyes as her vision adjusted. The sun shone through the window behind her and she caught glance of a glass of water to her right as Susan walked into the room with a broom and started sweeping up.
"Well, glad to see you're up, dwarf." she said apathetically without bothering to look at Bertha.
"Thanks." Bertha said "Where is everyone?"
"The master and your dwarf friends headed off just an hour ago." Susan replied as she continued "You were out cold and they couldn't wait anymore. Reckon they've already left by now."
Bertha gasped in shock and then practically leapt off the couch, quickly grasped the glass of water and splashed the water onto her face to wake herself up. Some of the water got in her eyes but she didn't care. She ran towards the door at lightning speed and she collided with it thus opening it. She dizzyingly stumbled forward only to trip on a loose piece of wood and thus tumble down the staircase. Though thankfully it had only eight steps so she didn't have far to tumble before plowing into the snow. As she stood herself up and brushed herself off, she realized she was barefoot out in the cold and as the freezing chill of the snow made contact with her feet, she hastily ran back inside and slapped on a pair of boots. As she headed back outside, she started to hear the band start playing. It sounded a less far then she thought but not as close as she hoped.
Ignoring the cold or that she was wearing boots without socks, she quickly began running straight in the direction of the music. Pretty soon she found the crowd and began hastily shoving and pushing her way through them. And soon she caught Gordon's brief but audible speech.
"Now go with our goodwill and good wishes!" he yelled "And may your return bring good fortune to all!"
The crowd cheered loudly as poor Bertha still struggled to get through. She then bumped into a rather large dark-skinned man with snow white hair and beard of the same color. He turned and looked at Bertha who was on the ground, looking up at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked in a somewhat nasally voice.
"I'm so sorry." Bertha replied as she stood up "But I must get through the crowd to the river road just ahead."
"Too crowded, ma'am." the man said "Why don't you take the bridge? It's just ahead on old Wabasha."
Before Bertha could ask for directions, she pushed her way to the left of the crowd and soon emerged onto a clearing where this so called Wabasha Street was, so named because of a diner with said name.
What are the odds of that? Bertha thought to herself.
She then looked to her right and saw the girl's boat just as vanished behind some people and a building. Excitedly, Bertha rushed to the inside of the diner via the side door, which was packed with people looking at the windows at the passing boat. Bertha tried to get through as fast as she could without slamming into anyone or tripping. She finally came out through the front entrance and sure enough there was the bridge. Unfortunately, the boat had passed under the bridge and was starting to get farther away.
Bertha ran as fast she could and luckily most people were standing to the side of the bridge so she managed to scurry onto the wooden bridge and leaned against the bridge as she caught sight of Beate who was in the back of the boat with Bridget just across from her.
"Beate!" Bertha called out waving her left arm.
Beate cocked her head up and saw Bertha. Her cousin had made it after all. Only now there was now a water-way between them.
"Bertha!" Beate yelled back "Go through the next avenue!"
"I don't know how many I'd have to go through!" Bertha barked back "I'll just swim to you!"
"You look too exhausted!" Beate pointed out "Don't risk it!"
"But I have to be in the boat with you!" Bertha called back as her eyes started to water "We're family! We stick together!"
In that moment, both Bertha and Beate realized the same thing. Bertha wouldn't be able to keep her promise she'd made before this journey started: to be with her sister and cousin every step of the way. They'd been there for each other since they were children but now Beate would have to face whatever dangers lay in that mountain without her, whether a dragon or not.
"Bertha, it's okay!" Beate piped up as she stood up in the boat "I'll be alright!"
Bertha sighed then turned to her sister, who had been observing the conversation.
"Bridget!" Bertha called out "Look after Beate for me please!"
"I will! That's what families do!" Bridget bellowed back "Goodbye!"
"Goodbye!" Bertha called out as she waved the group off.
As they got farther away and began to get out of ear-shot, Bertha sighed and folded her arms onto the wooden railings as the sun continued to climb higher into the sky. A tear she'd been holding back for a while slid out of her eye and she sighed once more.
"Be safe." she whispered to herself.
She then walked back the way she came and saw Kamilla, Frieda and Ophelia. So she
decided to come over to them and leaned against a nearby poll as they stood up.
"You stayed behind too?" Frieda asked.
"Yeah." Bertha responded "Well, you want to get something to eat? I came across a diner at the bridge."
"Alright then." Ophelia said.
They started to walk towards the diner but Kamilla suddenly exclaimed in pain. They stopped and turned to her as she leaned against the pole Bertha was leaning on earlier.
"Kamilla?" Frieda asked with great concern as they walked over to her.
And then things went from bad to worse. As soon as Frieda reached her, Kamilla lurched forward and collapsed onto the snow-covered dock to the girl's horror. Frieda bent down to see what was wrong and Bertha and Ophelia rushed over to Frieda's side.
"Kamilla!" Frieda exclaimed.
"What happened?!" Bertha demanded.
"M-My leg." Kamilla groaned through her clenched teeth "It's like someone is stabbing it with bloody needles."
Ophelia suddenly shushed the two of them as she checked Kamilla's pulse. She looked down at her leg, where the goblin arrows had struck. It was now starting to look unmistakably inflamed and like a minor case of frostbite. Ophelia face completely changed to a look of fear as she looked to Freida and Bertha.
"She needs medicine." she said sternly "Quickly."
/
Immediately after finishing his speech, Gordon trudged his way home that early afternoon with his daughter next to him. Braga and the personal guard were behind them as they reached the house. Amanda was quite ecstatic to say the least.
"Oh, you were wonderful father!" she said happily "The entire town's twittering our names! And not a single riot!"
"Yes it was pretty clever wasn't it?" Gordon replied smugly.
"What I'd give for that Bard to see this." Amanda said aloud with a sense of regret in her voice.
She looked to her father who raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
"To rub it in his face how successful we are!" she backtracked before clearing her throat "Now what do we do?"
"We wait. And either the dwarves are successful and we make a pretty penny or old Smaug dines on dwarf tonight." Gordon responded as they neared the staircase.
"Oh, by the way you have a meeting with the city council this afternoon." Amanda asked "Something about sanitation and fish prices."
"Oh goodie." Gordon sarcastically said.
"Wait!" cried out a voice "Please, wait!"
They had just started up the stairs when they turned and saw Bertha, Frieda and Ophelia with Frieda carrying a clearly in pain Kamilla.
"My sister is sick!" Frieda exclaimed "It's her leg! We need some medicine!"
"S-Sick?! Is it infectious?!" Gordon barked in a panic "Amanda! Get them away! N-Now!"
He started coughing and Susan rushed from inside with a water pitcher and a tray, placing them on a nearby table near the porch rocking chair.
"Apologizes, my lady!" Susan said as she helped Gordon up the stairs.
"He's coughing again." Amanda said "Help him out."
"Please!" Ophelia begged "She may have an infection! We need medicine! Bandages!"
"Shut your yap!" Amanda barked at the dwarves.
Ophelia backed away in shock to the other girls while the guards kept quiet and observed the situation. Gordon, meanwhile, began chugging down water like he hadn't drunk anything in days. Amanda flicked back some loose hair but kept her annoyed and angered glare fixed on the girls.
"Aren't you a doctor yourself?" she growled "If you are, then handle the fucking problem! Can't you see my father has an ailment himself? We need medicine for him! And when he's not sick, he's a very busy man!"
"B-But you must understand." Bertha pleaded.
"And haven't we given you enough?!" Amanda went on cutting Bertha off "We're not made of money! Now fuck off you bunch of freeloaders!"
Amanda turned away and climbed up the steps the way angry people do. The girls, while obviously angry, took the hint and left quietly. Amanda in the meantime patted her father on the back, causing her to burp which made Amanda chuckle a little.
"Feeling better?" Amanda asked in a surprisingly soft tone.
"Yes." Gordon replied "Much better."
"Do you want breakfast, my lord?" Susan inquired.
"You'd better believe it." Gordon responded "Go with the cook and make us some waffles will you?"
Susan nodded and then went inside. Amanda then took the tray which had the half-empty water pitcher and the empty glass and followed her dad as they headed inside.
/
Bard quietly cleaned the dishes from his and his children's breakfast that morning while the children sat at the table relaxing. Shane was reading whilst Terrence fiddled with a pencil and Beth brushed her hair.
"Father, what if the dwarves come back?" Beth asked as she turned her head around "We could have enough gold to buy a new house or move to Rohan!"
Bard turned his head to look at his children whilst he continued to clean, a skill he'd become quite good at. He admired his daughter's optimism. Took after her mother in that way.
"You know when someone says something's too good to be true?" he said "That's because it usually is."
"So…they lied to us, dad?" Terrence asked innocently.
"Well, I don't know about that." Bard replied "But I don't want to find out what comes afterwards when they enter the mountain."
"We could have at least said goodbye to them at the docks." Shane piped up.
There was a sudden knock at the door much to everyone's surprise. Bard quickly turned off the kitchen faucet and walked towards the door, drying his hands with a cloth as the knocking continued only louder.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" Bard exclaimed as he arrived at the door.
He then opened it and was shocked when he saw Bertha, Ophelia, Frieda and Kamilla there right at his doorstep. Dwarves. The last thing he wanted to see, especially after being mocked by the Master yesterday.
"No. I'm done with dwarves." he said sternly "Leave me and my family in peace."
"N-No, wait, please!" Freida begged as she stopped Bard from shutting the door.
"Please, you must listen to us!" Ophelia said.
Bard sighed and finished Bertha's job of opening the door.
"Alright, what's wrong?" Bard inquired.
"No one will help us." Bertha replied "Kamilla's sick. We think it might be the wound on her leg."
Bard was about to say something when he noticed Kamilla leaning on Frieda looking very worse for wear. He then looked to Ophelia and Bertha who stood to the side, clearly worried for their friend.
"How long has she been this way?" he asked.
"Her wound started looking really bad last night." Frieda replied as she fought back tears of worry "It was so cold. We shouldn't have been out in that weather!"
Bard focused on Frieda, who looked like she was going to cry. He could tell that this dwarf's sister meant the world to her. As much as he didn't like Traude, Beatrice knew he couldn't just leave these girls out on his porch. It was the Master was doing nothing to help them. So Bard decided to rectify that.
"Get inside." he said.
Beyond thankful, the girls rushed inside as Bard shut the door.