Thorin pulled open the doors of the council chambers the next morning to find the Council Elders had already gathered and were waiting for him.
"Nice of you to finally join us, Your Majesty," said one of the Council Elders when Thorin walked through the door.
Thorin turned his eyes on the Council Elder who spoke and had to bite his tongue from giving a smart remark. His gut had always twisted into knots when he was around that particular Council Elder. Long ago Thorin had decided he didn't like him. "Apologies, my lord. I wasn't aware we were in a rush this morning."
"I'll let it slide this once, Your Majesty." Thorin clenched his jaw at the words delivered.
Cooly, Thorin responded, "Lord Vargas, may I remind you I am king, and the council only advises the king, not gives orders."
"We're not here to argue, Lord Vargus." Balin took his seat between the grumpy, bossy Dwarf Lord and Bilbo, Thorin's best friend who was the closest advisor to the king besides Balin. "We're here because of an urgent matter."
"What urgent matter?" Thorin questioned.
"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 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."
Descending deep within the mountain, Thorin Oakenshield went down to the pools at the base of the mountain. He knew when he was getting close; dank wet cave smell wafted into his sinuses as he descended down the cold damp hallway leading to the wood door standing close at the end. Water dripped from the many stalactites with a loud splash echoing throughout the hallway when the many drops hit the rough, uneven - very short stalagmite filled floor; narrow bare trail leading down the center to disappear underneath the locked door.
Thorin was grateful for going through with the idea of wearing his heavy iron clad boots for the day. He slid the key to the door in the lock and the door opened with a very wet pop. Grabbing a lit torch from nearby, Thorin pushed the wood door wider and descended down the wet, moss-covered, steep concrete steps; further under ground. The air grew colder the further he descended, and the dank cave smell turned to one of wet earth with a hint of sweet fragrance from the night blossoms littering the cave walls of the very wet hallway leading to the baths. Soon, Thorin heard the sound of water softly lapping against the floor before he saw the shimmering sea blue-ish green reflection of the water bathing the walls in the blue-ish green hue.
Stepping inside the main room divided between two adjacent hallways, Thorin splashed across the wet floor to first check on the bath for the males. Proving him right, the water indeed had risen to spill over the pool's edge and onto the floor to end up running out into the main room. He found the case to be the same in the female bath after retreating the way he had come.
Thorin cursed underneath his breath. Between both pools, the water had indeed traveled far into the main room of the baths, and if something wasn't done - and soon, Erebor would soon flood from the rising water that was now close to leaking out into the hallway leading back to the staircase.