Title: A tale about friendship, Part 30?

Author: Dís Thráinsdotter

E-mail: Overall rating: M, for violence and orctorment. This chapter: K+

Summary: A group of children are told the tale of their friendship with the dwarves in general and the Folk of Durin in particular.

Warnings: The overall rating of this fic is M, as parts of it deals with violent battle and torment. There are also Original Characters in the fic, but no Mary Sues. Unbetaed, all mistakes belong to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own any one of Tolkien's characters, never have, and never will. The only ones I own are the people you have never met before.

Chapter 30, Some rest

The children were angry when they heard what had happened to their "uncles", a title they gave all members of Thórin & Co. Gandalf and Dáin exchanged amused glances as they saw Thranduil looking sadly at the children and Bard looked as if he now understood some things better. In the meanwhile Balin told the children that the Elves hadn't deliberately harmed them, they had been alarmed by the groups sudden appearance and many of them had apologised later.

"We were in the casks and tubs two days" Balin said "and in the evening of the second day Thórin and Bilbo helped us out of them on the shore near Laketown. The rest of that story has already been told." The children nodded and then Bard said to Melian

"Small wonders that you gave the Raft elves a cold shoulder. But I am sure Thórin & Co. enjoyed your treatment of them."

"We did" Balin answered, "particularly Bilbo who received medicines for his head cold. Three days he remained in bed, sneezing and coughing, and even after those days he was unable to give such eloquent thank-you speeches as Hobbits have a habit of giving. All he could say was ´thag you bery buck´ and that isn't much as speeches go." All of them nodded, particularly Gandalf who had been present at Hobbit parties and knew how longwinded the speeches could become at times.

Melian said to the children "during the time they stayed in Laketown there was always a crowd around the guesthouse, they were singing lots of songs and cheering as soon as one Dwarf could be seen in the windows. Some of the persons who were singing made me feel puzzled, they had as far as I knew never paid much heed of the songs and tales about Dale that could be heard in Laketown but now they made a great effort to appear friendly. Thórin sometimes gave them less than polite names when they were out of earshot and mother said that they reminded her of supplicants outside a King's Castle, wanting to ask favours of him. I am sure that the Master of Esgaroth had something to do with it."

Bard nodded and said "he did have something to do with it, he never said anything outright about it but he had his ways of making his feelings known. He thought about how his city would prosper as trade increased and resumed with Dale, Erebor and Mirkwood. He wasn't filled with any greed at the time but it did make him susceptible to the Dragon illness, as his actions later would prove."

Balin smiled when he said "in a few days we had recuperated, the thump- and bump-marks disappeared quickly with the aid of the salves that Melian put on them and she also made sure that we received clothing in our proper colours. After a fortnight Thórin decided that he had to ask the Master for aid, as we needed to go on to Erebor. Melian offered to go with us but Thórin declined the offer, even though he did ask her to come quickly in case her aid was needed. The Master was most willing to help us and when we left we had food and other supplies with us on the boats. A group of Men were going overland to a meeting place a bit up the Running River with ponies that would take us the last leg of our journey. I got the feeling that the Master was happy to see us leave."

Both Bard and Melian nodded in agreement and Bard said, "He was happy to see you go. All work had come to a standstill in the city and he wanted things to return to normal as soon as possible, something they couldn't do while you remained there."

Gandalf said to Melian "what did your father say when you told him that you didn't have to go to Dol Guldur?" and Melian answered

"I think he had mixed feelings about it. Relief, because I didn't have to go to that dreadful place but also sadness, he said that no person deserved to be treated in such a manner."

Thranduil nodded and said "when the Raft elves returned they told me that they had seen Thórin & Co. and the group now had fourteen persons, a Hobbit had somehow been added to their number and a lot of the townspeople assumed he had something to do with the escape even if they didn't know how it had been done. They did mention that Melian, the young healer who had been told to care for them must have been told what had happened because her glares could as they put it ´put a foot of ice on Mount Doom´. Now that I knew where you were going I sent some people to keep an eye on the Mountain and inform me of anything that happened there."

Melian answered "the raft with the Elves and Thórin & Co. appeared during the same day and I saw the thirteen opened casks and tubs so I was sure they had come inside them. What I wasn't sure of how Bilbo had been able to move about in your castle without being seen but I saw that he held a ring of gold at times. Thórin told me that it made Bilbo invisible but I thought that there may be other things that the ring could make also and my mother agreed with me. We also agreed that we wouldn't mention it to anyone because we feared that any mention of it might put Bilbo in danger. A lot of our neighbours also put two and two together."

TBC