The river had calmed down, and the dwarves paddled along in their barrels with their hands.
"Anything behind us?" Thorin asked.
"Not that I can see." Balin answered.
"I think we've outrun the orcs." Bofur exclaimed
"Not for long; we've lost the current." Thorin's responded.
"Bofur is half drowned." Dwalin pointed out.
"Who isn't," Fili remarked.
"Make for the shore! Come on, let's go!" Thorin's commanded.
The dwarves and Bilba paddled to the riverbank; they climbed out onto a slab of rock jutting out a bit into the river.
"Come on!" Dwalin yelled.
When Kili was on the rocks, he fell to his knees in pain from the arrow wound in his thigh; in his barrel he had managed to blindly tie it with cloth, but blood is seeping through. Bofur looked at him concernedly.
"I'm fine, it's nothing." Kili objected. He understood why Emilia would always hide her pain, it drew attention to himself, and he didn't like it.
"On your feet." Thorin's stated forcefully.
"Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding." Fili said helping his brother sit on a rock.
"There's an orc pack on our tail; we keep moving." He retorted.
"To where?" Balin interjected.
"To the mountain; we're so close." Bilba answered hopefully.
"A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it." Balin countered.
"So then we go around." She answered.
"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin said.
"Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes." Thorin told Fili, who nodded.
As Fili binded his brother's leg, he made out the words coming out of his mouth.
"I've lost her. She's gone. I've lost her."
"Kee, this is Emilia we're talking about, if anyone can make it out of this. It'll be her. She will make it."
Kili slightly nodded.
While they bound Kili's leg, some of the dwarves sat down and Ori kneeled by the river to empty his boot of water. Unbeknownst to them, a man, Bard, snuck up over the pile of rocks and aimed an arrow at Ori. As the dwarves realized a man was there, they jumped up, and Dwalin, holding a branch, leapt in front of Ori. He raises the branch and began to charge the man, but the man shot his arrow and it embedded itself right in the middle of the branch, between Dwalin's hands.
Kili raised a rock to throw, but the man shot the rock out of his hand too.
"Do it again, and you're dead." Bard stated.
Balin, who was standing near the edge of the group, saw a barge floating in the river behind Bard.
He talked to Bard, approaching him slowly with his hands held in the air in a surrendering form.
"Excuse me, but, uh, you're from Laketown, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?"
Bard lowers his bow.
"What's it to you?"
Bard climbed aboard his barge as the dwarves approach.
"What makes you think I will help you?" He asked.
"Those boots have seen better days." Balin answered.
Bard began loading the dwarves' empty barrels into his barge.
"As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?"
"A boy and two girls." Bard answered.
"And your wife, I'd imagine she's a beauty." Balin pressured.
"Aye. She was."
Balin's smile faded.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Balin trailed off only to be interrupted by his brother.
"Oh, come on, come on, enough with the niceties." Dwalin groaned.
"What's your hurry?" Bard asked.
"What's it to you?" Dwalin retorted.
"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands."
"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills." Balin lied slyly.
"Simple merchants, you say?" Bard questioned.
Kili stared from Balin to the man, but his mind never stopped replying the images of Emilia saving his life, then losing hers all in a matter of minutes. He then tried to steady himself, using his brother as a crutch.
"You alright?" Fili whispered.
"It's nothing," he lied.
"We'll need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?" Thorin asked.
Bard looked at the barrels and examined the various dents and nicks they received during the fight with the orcs.
"I know where these barrels came from." Bard breathed.
"What of it?" Thorin retorted, tensing up next to Bilba.
"I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well. No one enters Laketown but by leave of the Master. All his wealth comes from trade with the Woodland Realm. He will see you in irons before risking the wrath of King Thranduil." Bard pointed out. He boarded his barge and tossed a rope to Balin. Thorin mouthed to him.
"Offer him more."
"I'll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen." Balin interrupted.
"Aye. But for that, you will need a smuggler."
"For which we will pay double." Balin added slyly.
Bard looked at him suspiciously.
The orcs ran beside the river in pursuit of the dwarves, who the current had carried far ahead of the orcs. Bolg and Demisrie stopped at a clearing in which Demisrie had stowed his horse.
"Sha mogi obguryash!" [Translation: Don't let them go away!] Bolg yelled.
Demisrie looked at Bolg, "Kill them all if you have to, just make sure the Archer is dead."
He adjusted Emilia in his arms, her wound was slightly bleeding. He pressed his hand gently into her skull. Then he mounted his horse not letting her go.
In the woodland realm, Legolas and Tauriel had brought their captured orc to Thranduil's throne room. As Legolas stood with his knife pressed to the orc's neck, Thranduil paced around it.
"Such is the nature of evil. Out there in the vast ignorance of the world it festers and spreads, a shadow that grows in the dark. A sleepless malice as black as the oncoming wall of night. So it ever was; so will it always be. In time, all foul things come forth."
"You were tracking a company of thirteen dwarves and one she-elf. Why?" Legolas asked harshly.
"Not thirteen; not any more. The young one, the black-haired archer, we stuck him with a Morgul shaft. And the girl, she'll be dead by sundown, her master has finally reclaimed his prize."
The orc spoke this while facing Tauriel; she looked worried for Emilia's sake.
"The poison's is in his blood. He'll be choking on it soon."
"Answer the question, filth." Tauriel commanded.
"Sha hakhtiz khunai-go, Golgi!" [Translation: I do not answer to dogs, She-Elf!]
Legolas pushed the orc a bit as Tauriel whipped out her knife.
"I would not antagonize her."
"You like killing things, orc? You like death? Then let me give it to you!"
Tauriel rushed forward with her knife, but Thranduil spoke.
"Farn! Tauriel, ego! Gwao hi." [Translation: Enough! Tauriel, leave! Go now.]
The orc snarled at her, but Tauriel managed to regain her composure and left.
"I do not care about one dead dwarf or one dead elf. Answer the question. You have nothing to fear. Tell us what you know and I will set you free." Thranduil stated.
"You had orders to kill them - Why? What is Thorin Oakenshield to you?" Legolas asked not shifting his stance.
"The dwarf runt will never be king." The orc snarled.
"King? There is no king under the mountain nor will there ever be. None would dare enter Erebor, whilst the dragon lives."
"You know nothing! Your world will burn!" The orc screeched.
"What are you talking about? Speak!"
"Our time has come again. Demisrie had joined The One, he will make the world burn with all four elements. My master serves the One. Do you understand now, Elfling? Death is upon you. The flames of war are upon you-"
Thranduil, whose eyes had widened upon hearing about "the One," suddenly whipped out his sword and beheaded the orc, leaving the orc's head in Legolas's hand.
"Why did you do that? You promised to set him free." Legolas objected.
"And I did. I freed his wretched head from his miserable shoulders." Thranduil retorted.
The orc's body, although separated from its head, shook violently. Thranduil stomped on its leg to stop the shaking.
"There was more the orc could tell us."
"There was nothing more he could tell me."
Thranduil turned and walked away, sheathing his sword.
"What did he mean by the 'flames of war'?"
"It means they intend to unleash a weapon so great it will destroy all before it. Demisrie is a force not to be reckoned with on his own, but with all four elements, Middle Earth will stand no chance, no one will."
Thranduil addresses the elven guards.
"I want the watch doubled at all our borders. All roads, all rivers. Nothing moves but I hear of it. No one enters this kingdom, and no one leaves it."
Legolas approached the elves guarding the entrance to the Woodland Realm.
"Holo in ennyn! Tiro i defnin hain na ganed en-Aran." [Translation: Close the gate! Keep it sealed by order of the King.]
Legolas turned to walk away, but one of the guards called out to him.
"Man os Tauriel?" [Translation: What about Tauriel?]
Legolas stopped short.
"Man os sen?" [Translation: What about her?]
"Edevín eb enedhor na gû a megil. En ú-nandollen." [Translation: She went into the forest armed with her bow and blade. She has not returned.]
As Legolas walked toward the gate, the guard pointed out toward the forest in the direction Tauriel went. Legolas looked anxious.
Bolg and his orcs arrived at the rock where the dwarves met Bard. One of the orcs tasted a pool of liquid, Kili's blood.
"Agra-nash! Agra-yi." [Translation: Dwarf blood! They were here.]
"Nuzdi-arg nash…hum an bunish!" [Translation: There is another scent…man flesh!]
"Yisth nar nath" [Translation: They have found a way to cross the lake.]
Bard paddled the dwarves and Bilba across the lake in his barge. It was very foggy, and the barge pushed aside ice floes. Suddenly, large stone formations appear out of the fog.
"Watch out!" Bard called.
Bard expertly poled the barge between the rock formations, which turned out to be ancient ruins.
"What are you trying to do, drown us?" Thorin barked, pulling Bilba closer to him.
"I was born and bred on these waters, Master Dwarf. If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here."
"Oh I have enough of this lippy lakeman. I say we throw him over the side and be done with him." Dwalin said. Kili gave a pained nod in agreement, before straining in pain.
Bilba answered him slightly angrily.
"Ohh, Bard, his name's Bard." She snipped.
"How do you know?" Bofur asked.
"Uh, I asked him." She said grabbing one of the ropes to steady herself.
"I don't care what he calls himself, I don't like him." Dwalin addressed to Thorin.
"We do not have to like him, we simply have to pay him. Come on now, lads, turn out your pockets." Balin said before shooting a sympathetic glance to Kili.
The dwarves begin pulling out their money and valuables. Dwalin whispered to Thorin.
"How do we know he won't betray us?"
"We don't."
Balin counted the money quickly and sharply.
"There's, um, just a problem: we're ten coins short."
"Gloin. Come on. Give us what you have." Thorin said, a slight smile on his face.
"Don't look to me. I have been bled dry by this venture! And what have I seen for my investment? Naught but misery and grief and-"
Gloin stopped talking when he realized that all the others had slowly stood up and were looking at something in the distance. As the fog thinned, Kili saw the Lonely Mountain.
"Bless my beard. Take it. Take all of it." Gloin said.
Gloin handed Balin a sack of coins he had secretly withheld before. Bilba coughed and gestured her head toward Bard, who was approaching the dwarves on their end of the barge.
"The money, quick, give it to me." Bard quickly and harshly commanded.
"We'll pay you when we get our provisions, but not before." Thorin retorted.
"If you value your freedom, you'll do as I say. There are guards ahead." Bard countered.
The dwarves and Bilba turned and saw the rooftops of Laketown in the distance.
Bard's barge was stopped at a dock just outside the city; Bard hopped off and spoke to a man. Meanwhile, the dwarves and Bilba were hidden in the barrels on the barge.
"Shh, what's he doing?" Dwalin asked.
Bilba peered through a hole in her barrel.
"He's talking to someone." She answered.
Bilba saw Bard point back at the barrels while talking to the man.
"And he's...pointing right at us!" She exclaimed.
Thorin looks anxious. Bard shook the man's hands.
"Now they're shaking hands." Bilba stated, worriment filling her entire body.
"What?" Thorin exclaimed rashly.
"That villain! He's selling us out."
All the dwarves in their individual barrels listened anxiously; suddenly, dead fish are poured into the barrels. The dwarves spluttered in surprise.
Bard poled his barge toward the gate of the city; on deck were the 14 barrels all full of fish, with a dwarf or hobbit inside as well.
Bard kicked the barrel closest to him.
"Quiet! We're approaching the toll gate."
As Kili sat there trying to keep the pain from growing greater, he couldn't help but think of what Emilia would be doing right now. She would have been trying to calm herself down by making jokes, jokes equally funny as they were inappropriate. She never made them around the company, only around Fili and himself. Yet they always made the situations better.
"Halt! Goods inspection. Papers, please. Oh, it's you, Bard."
Bard brought his boat up to the gatekeeper's office, and the gatekeeper stepped out to see him.
"Morning, Percy."
"Anything to declare?" The gatekeeper, Percy asked.
"Nothing, but that I am cold and tired, and ready for home."
Bard handed the gatekeeper some papers.
"You and me both."
As the gatekeeper takes the papers and goes into his office to stamp them, Bard looks around warily.
"Here we are. All in order."
He held out Bard's papers, but a man, Alfrid, suddenly stepped out of the shadows and grabbed the papers.
"Not so fast."
Alfrid read Bard's papers, then looked at his load.
"Consignment of empty barrels from the Woodland Realm. Only, they're not empty, are they, Bard?"
Alfrid tossed Bard's papers to the wind and approached him, with some of Laketown's soldiers behind him.
"If I recall correctly, you're licensed as a bargeman, not a fisherman."
As Alfrid said this, he picked up one of the fish from a barrel and held it up to Bard. He doesn't see Bombur's eyes looking up from the gap where the fish had been.
"That's none of your business." Bard retorted quickly.
"Wrong. It's the Master's business, which makes it my business."
"Oh come on, Alfrid, have a heart. People need to eat!" Bard was trying now to divert the attention away from the barrels.
"These fish are illegal." Alfrid quickly shot.
Alfrid threw the fish he was holding into the water, then commanded the soldiers.
"Empty the barrels over the side."
The soldiers, lead by their captain, Braga, moved to comply.
"You heard him. Into the canal. Come on, get a move on."
The soldiers began tipping the barrels over and letting the fish fall into the lake. Kili was just about to laugh, feeling he was going to die over fish. Even after everything they had been through, some illegal fish were going to be his downfall.
"Folk in this town are struggling. Times are hard. Food is scarce."
"That's not my problem."
"And when the people hear the Master is dumping fish back in the lake, when the rioting starts, will it be your problem then?" Bard quickly spoke.
Bard and Alfrid stared at each other intensely for a few seconds, then finally Alfrid raised his hand to the soldiers.
"Stop."
The soldiers stopped tipping the barrels over and return to the buildings.
"Ever the people's champion, eh, Bard? Protector of the common folk? You might have their favor now, bargeman, but it won't last."
Alfrid walked away gruffly.
"Raise the gate!" Percy announced.
A large portcullis blocking the channel was raised, and Bard began to pole his barge through. As he passed, Alfrid turns around and shouted to him.
"The Master has his eye on you; you'd do well to remember. We know where you live."
"It's a small town, Alfrid; everyone knows where everyone lives."
Bard docked his barge shortly after. After looking around, he knocked over one of the barrels, and Ori fell out along with a pile of fish. Bard continued knocking over barrels. He reached for Dwalin's barrel, but Dwalin poked his head up through the fish.
"Get your hands off me."
The remaining dwarves and Bilba struggled out of their barrels, looking greasy and slimy from the fish. The dock keeper looked on in shock. Bard approached him and slipped him a coin.
"You didn't see them, they were never here. The fish you can have for nothing." Bard lead the Company away.
A woman working on a boat happened to look up and she saw the dwarves running through Laketown in the distance. She looked shocked.
As they strode through Laketown, Bard's son, Bain, ran up to them.
"Da! Our house, it's being watched."
Bard looked at Thorin and hatched a plan.
Bard and his son walked along back to their house. As they walked, a fisherman in a boat saw them and dropped his eyepatch over one eye, then knocked with his staff on a wall nearby. Upon this signal, two boys ran from the wall, and one knocked over a contraption which causes a hammer to hit a bell. At this signal, another man lit a match to light his pipe. He turned and looked at two men in a fishing boat right next to Bard's house, and they nodded and switched their poles to the opposite sides of the boat than before. They did this just as Bard and Bain get to their house and enter through the door. Just before Bard enters, he tossed an apple to one of the fisherman.
"You can tell the Master that I'm done for the day."
Inside the house, Bard's daughters, Sigrid and Tilda, greeted their father.
"Da! Where have you been?" The youngest, Tilda exclaimed.
"Father! There you are. I was worried." Sigrid finished.
Both daughters ran to their father, and they hugged. Bard then handed his bag to Sigrid.
"Here's something to eat. Bain, get them in."
As Bard looked out a window, Bain went down some steps to the lower floor of the house, which is open to the water. After looking around, he knocked on the wall near the toilet three times. Dwalin's head appeared through the toilet, which is open to the water below.
"If you speak of this to anyone, I'll rip your arms off." Dwalin threatened.
Dwalin raised the seat and began to pull himself out of the toilet. Bain reached out to help him, but Dwalin slapped his hand away.
"Up there." Bain pointed up the stairs, and Dwalin went up. Bilba poked her head up through the toilet, looking flabbergasted, and Bain helped her out. The rest of the dwarves follow and head upstairs.
"Da...why are there dwarves climbing out of our toilet?" Sigrid asked watching from the stairwell.
"Will they bring us luck?" Tilda asked hopefully.
The dwarves are wrapped in blankets, and their wet things had been laid in front of the fire to dry. Some of them shivered.
"It may not be the best fit, but it'll keep you warm."
Tilda passed out blankets, and Bilba thanked her when she received one. Her golden curls were tied keeping them away from her skin in an attempt to keep herself from getting more cold.
Thorin looked out a window and saw a wooden tower not far away. Atop the tower is a windlance, a giant cross-bow type weapon with four arms. Thorin looked at it in shock.
"A Dwarvish Wind-Lance." Thorin breathed.
Bilba, who was sipping a hot drink from a mug, looked at the wind-lance too. She moved closer to Thorin, standing close to him. When their eyes briefly met she sent him a kind smile.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." She profiled seeing his emotions.
"He has. The last time we saw such a weapon, a city was on fire. It was the day the dragon came." Balin stated in response.
Thorin looked sadly away remembering that fateful day.
"Had the aim of Men been true that day, much would have been different."
Bard approached Thorin. "You speak as if you were there."
"All dwarves know the tale."
"Then you would know that Girion hit the dragon. He loosened a scale under the left wing. One more shot and he would have killed the beast." Bain interjected.
"Ha ha ha! That's a fairy story, lad. Nothing more." Dwalin responded with a grunt and a laugh.
Thorin strided up to Bard.
"You took our money. Where are the weapons?"
"Wait here."
Bard went down the stairs to the lower part of the house. After looking around to make sure no one was watching, he pulled on a rope hanging off a small boat and pulled up a wrapped package that had been hidden underwater.
While Bard is doing this, Thorin, Balin, Fili, and Kili talked quietly together.
"Tomorrow begins the last days of autumn." Thorin explained.
"Durin's Day falls morn after next. We must reach the mountain before then." Balin added.
"And if we do not? If we fail to find the hidden door before that time?" Kili said
"Then this quest has been for nothing." Fili said, but Kili added something in his own mind, Then I lost her, all for nothing.
Bard returned and laid the package on the table as the dwarves stand around it. He loosened the wrappings and revealed a couple of hand-made weapons. The dwarves looked at them in shock, then picked up the weapons and looked at them in disgust.
"What is this?" Thorin asked.
"Pike-hook. Made from an old harpoon." Bard explained.
"And this?" Kili asked picking up another weapon.
"A crowbill, we call it, fashioned from a smithy's hammer. It's heavy in hand, I grant, but in defense of your life, these will serve you better than none."
Thorin and Dwalin looked disgustedly at each other.
"We paid you for weapons. Iron-forged swords and axes!" Gloin stammered.
Bofur threw his weapon back on the table, and the other dwarves follow suit.
"You won't find better outside the city armory. All iron-forged weapons are held there under lock and key."
Thorin and Dwalin looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes, hatching a plan.
"Thorin."
Bard looked up at the mention of the name Thorin, as if the name sounds familiar to him.
"Why not take what's been offered and go? I've made do with less; so have you. I say we leave now." Balin almost pleaded.
"You're not going anywhere." Bard forced.
"What did you say!?" Dwalin countered quickly.
"There's spies watching this house and probably every dock and wharf in the town. You must wait till nightfall."
Hearing this, the dwarfs began to settle down. Kili, leaning on a pole, looked like he's in pain and he slowly slid down the pole and sat on a couch. Wincing, he examined the bandage on his leg while making sure no one was looking. Never had he been in so much pain, but as he was trying to examine his wound his mind raced, picturing every scar and burn on Emilia's scarred body. The three lining her side had to hurt more than a simple arrow.
Bard was standing on his porch; he talked to himself, trying to recall where he'd heard the name 'Thorin' before.
With a sudden shock of understanding, he whirled around and looked at the Lonely Mountain in the distance. The door opened, and Bain sticks his head out.
"Don't let them leave."
Bard hurried down his steps and into the town.