Bilbo was on his way to the council meeting the next morning, since Thorin had made him his second advisor, when he and Dis nearly collided into one another. "I'm so sorry." Dis spoke, heat flaming in her cheeks. "No it's my fault." Bilbo smiled. "Good morning."
"Good morning." Dis dipped into a curtsy. Dis altered the subject. "I was looking for Thorin."
Bilbo smiled even brighter. "Thorin's in the council chamber, I was actually on my way there."
"Perfect!" Dis couldn't help but feel excited at the thought of accompanying Bilbo, who tilted his head to the side in curiosity.
"I never knew a Dwarf to like these sort of meetings. They're quite boring, to be honest but I put up with it for Thorin's sake, since he is the one who deals with the stuffiness of the council members."
Dis couldn't help but laugh at the face Bilbo made. The Hobbit was a breath of fresh air to her many years of living in exile back in Ered Luin.
"It's the lake, Thorin." One of the council members was saying when Bilbo and Dis slid into the council meeting chambers minutes later.
"What about the lake?"
"The water from the lake is rising higher from all of the underground springs filtering out more water. The cliff is being eroded away from so much water pressure. Soon, the underground cisterns will flood and before we know it, the valley between Dale and Ravenhill will flood with so much water and eventually flood Dale and then Erebor itself. From my reports this far, Laketown is all but wiped out now."
"What do you suggest?"
"The only thing we can figure to do is send someone down to the bottom of the lake to seal off the opening to the underground springs."
Thorin shook his head. "No Dwarf can hold their breath for that long. If we could, hypothetically, we would just be forced to come back up for air right away once we reach the bottom. The lake is very deep, I imagine. If we did manage to seal off the openings of the underground springs, the water pressure would increase even more from the water being blocked; forced to fill up the cisterns even faster and ultimately flood the forest behind Erebor."
"Then we locate the source feeding the underground springs."
"That source is a lake behind Erebor that feeds the underground cisterns." All heads turned to Dis accompanied by Bilbo, the Hobbit taking his place beside Thorin. "The lake feeds the underground cisterns that also feed the underground springs that fill our pools at the very bottom of Erebor. The lake is also fed by rainwater and rivers. We can block off the springs feeding the pools in Erebor, but even that's a risk because the water pressure would just back up and eventually the lake would flood and the water would overflow the forest and flood the earth outside and eventually flood Dale."
"So we do nothing?!" Cried another council member.
"I will think of something," assured Thorin.
"You best think of something fast, laddie." Balin was the third one to speak up. "The rain seasons will be upon us soon."