A/N Well, I guess we're doing the two chapters in a day thing today lol.
What can I say, Lake-town is fun and there's a lot to do on the way there.
Also...sorry.
You'll understand when you get there.
Angst alert.
Double was agreed to by Bard and they joined the barrels on the barge as the afternoon waned. Bard took her wet cloak and hung it over the edge to dry as they set off and Thorin made his round checking on the company.
"Thank you." She made sure to tell him. The elven weave would dry much better from there and she waited impatiently and shivered.
"It will only grow colder as we pass into the deeper waters." Bard told her. "You will need every bit of warmth you can find."
"Yes, thank you." Bilbo added, coming over and leaving the dwarves to grumble and talk at the other end of the barge. "Bilbo Baggins, at your service, I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught your name?"
"Bard." He said courtly.
"Josephine." She tacked on to their introductions.
Bard offered her a kind smile, then frowned slightly and let go of the rudder. He looked like he was about to shrug off his coat but got interrupted as Thorin reached them.
"Mr. Baggins, go sit with the others and get warm."
A breeze blew across the water and she flinched.
"Have you nothing in the way of blankets on this barge?" He snapped.
"I have naught but the sail and what I wear on my back, master dwarf. I do not tend to carry passengers, let alone ones ill prepared for the journey."
Thorin's arm wound around her shoulders. "Come, you will be warmer near the company."
"Here." Bard followed through and shrugged off his coat, handing it off to Thorin. "I cannot be without it for long in these waters, but it will help her for now."
Thorin snatched it and dropped it over her shoulders, offering her instant relief. "Thank you."
"Go on now, tuck in." Thorin gave her a push towards the Company and stayed behind with Bard.
She slipped in between Gloin and Oin and closed the coat around her. As she started to warm up her eyelids got heavy. When she opened them again, the stars were coming out and she realized quite suddenly several hours had passed.
"Lookin' much better lass." Oin applauded. "Thought ye'd turn to solid ice before nightfall."
Stiffly, she pushed off their shoulders to climb to her feet and shrugged off the coat. "Well if he doesn't get this back, that'll be our bargeman. Keep my seat warm."
He took it back thankfully, slipping his arms back through the sleeves and relishing in the warmth like she had a few hours before. In turn he handed her her now dry cloak that she pulled around her tightly. She rushed back to the company, finding Gloin had passed out and fallen into Oin's shoulder.
"Josephine, over here." Bilbo patted the spot next to him where Thorin dozed with just enough space between the two for her fit.
She held up her hand to let him know she'd be right there and skirted around Ori who was asleep in a ball in the center of all of them.
Kili was asleep but Fili, right beside him, was not. She kneeled down in front of Kili and pressed her hand to his forehead, hard to tell when they were all so cold if he was spiking a temperature.
"He is warm." Fili confirmed, looking worriedly at her.
"I told him not to go up there." She mumbled under her breath.
Fili kept his eyes glued to her and ears pricked for everything she said. "Will he be alright?"
Josephine smiled and squeezed Fili's arm. "I think so. We'll bind it properly when we get to town. There's some herbs that might help." Not a full lie, she would do that and athelas would help, at least for a while. But it was a Morgul shaft, she wasn't even sure Aragorn could've handled it. Her best hope was the flash of Tauriel she'd seen at the gate, and barring that…well surely any elf would do…right?
She could see that Fili wasn't fully trusting what she was saying, but he didn't want to not believe her either so he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we'll get him to town and get it taken care of."
Josephine sank into the spot between Bilbo and Thorin. She threw her arm and cloak around Bilbo's shoulders and pulled him in close, tucking her hand under the hem so she wouldn't wake up with frostbite. Then as she was about to lean her head back against the barrels to go back to sleep Thorin shifted and threw his own arm over her shoulders, pulling her hood up over her head first before settling down.
When morning came it was foggy and dreary. Frost had settled over all of them and the barge was slick with ice. Bard had woken up before them all, pulling up the anchor and setting off as chunks of ice bumped against the barge as it traveled.
She and Bilbo stood by the edge, she'd folded him into her cloak like a baby bird and they did their best to keep as much of the breeze out from under the folds as they could.
"This is the last time I go on a quest in the winter." She grumbled. "This is twice now. Last time it was snow. This time it's water. I'm over it. I swear, this time I really am going to vacation in the desert."
"When I get home, I'm going to set myself in front of my fire and stay there. For a week!"
The barge swung around and dark shapes began to appear out of the fog. Beside them, Bofur was startled. "What out!"
Bard deftly moved them through the old stone ruins sunk into the lake. Thorin had decidedly less faith in him though.
"What are you trying to do, drown us?"
"I was born and bred on these waters, master dwarf. If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here."
"Oh, I've had enough of this lippy lakeman." Dwalin grumbled. "I say we throw him over the side and be done with it."
"Oh, Bard!" Bilbo sighed. "His name is Bard."
"How do you know?" Bofur asked.
"Ah, I asked him." Bilbo sassed.
"I don't care what he calls himself. I don't like him." Dwalin continued.
Josephine scoffed. "You don't like him because he's got more sass than you, just admit it."
Balin interjected before they could start arguing. "We do not have to like him, we simply have to pay him." He was counting out stacks of silver coins on an overturned crate. "Come on now, lads. Turn out your pockets."
"How do we know that he won't betray us?" Dwalin asked Thorin quietly, but just loud enough for Josephine to hear.
She was having one of those days when their antics were getting on her nerves. Maybe it was the cold. "Because I say so, stop being so paranoid."
"There's a…wee bit of a problem. We're ten coins short." Balin informed them.
Thorin folded his arms and looked down his nose. "Gloin. Come on. Give us what you have."
"Don't look to me! I have been bled dry by this venture and what have I seen for my investment?"
The dwarves had stopped listening, and so had she and Bilbo as a new shape came through the clouds from far off. Josephine had to pause. The last time they'd gotten a glimpse of it, she'd been half dead on a carrock, if they'd even seen it then at all.
There it was, the final leg of their journey. The place where the battle would be fought. Erebor was waiting, and it was her only hope for going home.
Gloin suddenly shoved one last coin purse into Balin's hands and Bilbo coughed into his fist to warn them all that they had company.
Bard hurried over to them. "The money, quick. Give it to me."
"We'll pay you when we get our provisions, but not before." Thorin was firm.
"If you value your freedom, you'll do as I say. There are guards ahead." He looked towards the horizon where the sun was starting to rise over the hills and the spindly shapes of docks were coming into view. "Into the barrels, all of you. I have a plan."
First they were back in the barrels, then fish rained down on them and blocked out all the light. It would be ages before Josephine would be able to approve any seafood meals when she got home. She and Bilbo shared a barrel, being the smallest two and having found themselves one barrel short. It wasn't long before Bard was snapping at them all to be quiet and a sharp voice called out nearby.
Everything was muffled but she tried to listen in on his conversation with Alfrid. Footsteps were followed by the sound of fish spilling into the lake, but they stopped seconds later and the voice called out again.
"Raise the gate!"
Soon, but not soon enough they could hear Bard start turning over the barrels. Josephine pushed herself up and out of the fish, dragging Bilbo after her.
On the boardwalk, Bard passed off a coin to a man watching. "You didn't see them. They were never here. The fish you can have for nothing."
He skirted up the row of them all hurriedly. "Stay close."
Josephine stuck to his heels, waiting as he ushered the dwarves on ahead. It'd be easier for her to slip off and hide than it would be for them.
"Keep your heads down and keep moving. Quickly now."
"HALT!"
Their heads snapped up to catch the pointed helmet of a guard across the market.
"In the name of the Master of Lake-town, I said halt!"
The dwarves began to run and Josephine pressed back against the buildings and out of their way as they barreled into the market.
In the span of twenty seconds they'd spread out and taken down three guards, slipping into hiding spots before reinforcements showed up. Josephine pulled her hood down low and ducked behind Bard.
"Stay here."
He left her behind the pillar and jogged out into the market. "Braga!"
"You…What are you up to, Bard?"
"Me? Nothing."
Braga rushed back behind the market stalls, seeing nothing except the plants and crates that masked his unconscious men.
"Braga," Bard interjected again, holding up a chemise. "Your wife would look lovely in this."
"What do you know of my wife?
"I know her as well as any man in this town." Bard said, dropping one of the straps and looking purposefully dumbfounded.
Braga stormed off, embarrassed, and took his conscious men with him. The second they were out of sight, Bard was rushing them off again, glancing over her shoulder every other second until Bain flew around a corner. "Da! Our house, it's being watched."
"Now what?" Thorin snapped.
Bard looked around for a moment, then pursed his lips and nodded. "I have an idea, but it won't work for all of you."
Josephine didn't have to guess what he meant by that when his eyes landed on her. "If I swim in this lake I'll get hypothermia and probably die." They'd have to get in the water far enough that nobody would see them approaching Bard's house. She'd be lucky if any of her limbs still worked the second she hit the water. In hindsight, she hadn't really thought about how to circumvent that, given she hadn't really thought about how fucking cold the water had to be to have ice floating around in it 24/7.
He frowned, confused how she knew what he was getting at, but nodded. "Exactly. However…" He put his hand flat on top of her head and drew it straight to his chin. "Yes, I suppose you're about Sigrid's height. Here," He took three steps to a vendor off to their right who's table was stacked with brown cloth and furs. "That coat and hood, for her cloak."
He reached for the clasp and she grabbed his wrist. "No, absolutely not. This cloak stays with me."
"This or the lake, your choice."
He wasn't letting it go, but there was also nothing else they could give in return. She'd already lost Aragorn's knife to Legolas' sticky fingers, she wasn't about to let go of Gilraen's cloak too. But what else could she do? From the outside looking in she was just being petty, nobody knew where the cloak had come from, and even then…Gilraen would've understood.
Biting her cheek she undid the clasp and handed it over, swallowing a lump in her throat as she was handed a fur coat and hood in return. She watched as the vendor slid the fabric through her hands and inspected the embroidery, then rolled it into a ball that she tucked away under the table.
They set off again, and she pulled on her new clothes while blinking away tears and keeping up with Bard's swift pace.
"Here." He finally stopped and pointed to steps leading down into the water. "My house is four buildings straight down the way. Stay under the walks."
The dwarves, complaining under their breath the whole way, slipped down into the water. Bard pulled the hood up over her head and looked down at her, scrutinizing her disguise. "That should do, just keep your face down and hopefully, they'll think you're my daughter. Come on Bain," He said a bit louder. "Let's get your sister home before she catches a chill."
They collected groceries along the way, piling things into their arms so it looked like they'd just gone out shopping. Josephine trudged up the stairs behind Bain, ducking into the front door as Bard tossed an apple to the two spies waiting below in their boat.
"You can tell the Master I'm done for the day."
The house was warm, at least it felt like that compared to the past twenty-four hours and the chill outside. Josephine pulled her hood down and started to greet the real Sigrid when Bard came in and shut the door behind them.
"Da!" Tilda yelled, running over from the bed to hug him. "Where have you been?"
"Father, there you are! I was worried!"
He hugged Sigrid in turn and handed her his bag of groceries, poking his head out the window. "Bain, get them in."
Tilda and Sigrid both, now that they'd had a chance to really notice something was up, stared at her.
"Father, who-"
"Josephine." She interrupted as Sigrid tried to get a word in while Bain and Bard rushed around the house. "We should get some blankets, there's more coming."
"More?" Then the dwarves began trudging up the stairs. "Da, why are there dwarves climbing out of our toilet?"
"Will they bring us luck?" Tilda asked airily.
Josephine tapped Sigrid's arm to get her attention and nodded to the group slowly forming around the small stove. "Blankets?"
3021
"Aragorn?"
He walked the paths of Rivendell, covered by fog, his pace quickening as he heard her voice on the wind. "Josephine?!"
"Aragorn? Where are you?"
"Josephine!" He skidded to a stop with three paths to choose from. "You must keep calling so I can find you!"
"Where are you?" She yelled again.
It seemed like he could hear her, but she couldn't hear him. He called out her name again, as loud as he could but she didn't answer. The fog was thicker than ever, so dense he could barely see more than a few feet ahead of him.
He knew he had to get to her, somehow, someway, but each time she spoke her voice echoed off the valley, like she was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Then something caught his eye, tied to the branch of a tree. The pale blue of her token to him blew in the damp breeze along the northernmost path.
Aragorn rushed ahead, taking the token as he passed without question. The fog encircled him and it grew dark until he couldn't see where his feet would land, but then just as quickly as it came, it began to recede and he stood under tall trees, many bare in their winter sleep.
Something on the ground was out of place, a form lying in a dell. Panic seized him and he fell to his knees at her side. "Josephine?!"
She was on her back as if sleeping, sword at her side. Her armor was wrent and stained with blood both black and red. His hands brushed back her matted hair and shook when he found her skin cold.
"Josephine?" He leaned over and pressed his ear to her chest, hearing nothing. "Jos-Josephine? His voice cracked. "No…Josephine, no…" He drew her up into his lap and kissed her head as she laid limp in his arms. It was as if he could feel his head breaking inside his chest, following her to wherever she'd gone. It came out in a sob, deep and tearing at his throat, and from there they wouldn't stop.
Suddenly it was dark again and he was tangled in something. He flung out his arm and caught on fabric, yanking at it until he heard metal clasps pop and heavy velvet crumple onto the rug in a heap.
Bed curtains now half open, moonlight streamed in and his mind came back to where he truly was, lying in their bed while his stomach churned with nausea and the feeling of her blood on his hands lingered.
The dreams seemed to come more often now that the dragon and the battle were nearing. With every step she took towards the mountain, the fear grew in his heart.