[IC] Hobbit-LOTR: Quests, Curses, And Guardians { Angel & Polarize }

[kiiblade]

Despite the fact that his leg protested the movement, Kili rose to throw a rock, but he had no choice but to drop it when Bard aimed an arrow at them. For the second time, he sunk down to sit, unsure what Bane could want with them.
Balin slowly approached the man, hands raised to show that he meant him no ill will. "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?”
The white haired dwarf nodded towards Bane's feet. “Those boots have seen better days. As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?”

Dwalin was fed up. This man had no business making threats to them. Didn't he realize he was outnumbered? “Oh, come on, enough with the niceties," he growled to Thorin, who had been watching Bane with a critical eye.

[AngelBites15]

At the barge, the mystery man began putting the empty barrels onto the barge. The company followed, clearly stripped of protection, and though Kili claims he was fine, Saeril insisted on carrying him on her back, almost in a sort of piggyback position, along with Fili following them. "What makes you think I would help you?", the man asked them in annoyance. Hearing the question, he answered while continuing to reload. "A boy and two girls", before loading the last barrel. Glaring at the them, he demanded answers. "What's your hurry? I would like to know who you are, and what you were doing in these lands".

[kiiblade]

Kili had put up quite the protest. Even as a child, he would insist he was fine when he clearly was not.
After much difficulty, he caved and allowed his godmother to help him. It wasn't that Kili didn't trust her, he was simply too prideful to admit he was injured.
"It doesn't hurt so much anymore, I can walk," he told her lowly, his eyes settled on Bard and the others conversing. Hopefully this man would help them.

"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills.” Balin promised, polite and collected as he often was.
Thorin followed his lead. Bard may have been their only hope at crossing the river, and their only hope to obtain what was so desperately needed.
“We’ll need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?”

[AngelBites15]

Saeril gave a silent, amused scoff at Kili's insistence. Clearly, his stubbornness was like her own, and she had to rethink if this is why Dis chose her; it was funny. Turning her head to the side, so she could see him at the corner of her eye, the she-elf had that glare of a traditional mother: a dissapointed glare. "Comparing you and me, your injury is much more fatal and critical. Mine, a scratch; yours, a mortal penetration. So, don't tell me that you're fine", it was the tone of a mother who knows the details of the situation. But, if her tone was too much and too demanding, she would regret it. But she needed Kili to understand the circumstances of his wellbeing.

The man picked at a dent on one of the barrels where the wood had started to peel away. "I know where these barrels came from", he stated seriously. "I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well".

[kiiblade]

"But we've bound it." Kili tried every trick in the book, but it wasn't working. Saeril matched Dis in terms of being protective, and that surpassed Kili's own tendency to be stubborn. With a small sigh of defeat, Kili hid his face against her shoulder and gave up on protesting any further. Even if Saeril had given in, he could not have gotten far on foot.

Thorin's eyes narrowed, and he passed Balin while giving him a new command underneath his breath. “Offer him more.”
Balin nodded, his hands clasped behind his back as he watched Bard inspect the barrels. “Ah, I’ll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen...you would be paid well. Double, in fact."

[AngelBites15]

Saeril knew it worked with Kili, and the sight of his wellbeing wasn't fake. With him laying his head against her shoulder, the she-elf gave a fonding smile at the sight.

What Balin perked up, it caught the man's interest. "Aye. But for that you would need a smuggler", and for them to pay double, it seemed to have worked as it did indeed take up the score to get across the lake.

Back in Mirkwood, Legolas held the orc at knifepoint while holding him on his knees. "You were tracking the company of thirteen dwarves, and a winged she-elf. Why?", the prince demanded.

[kiiblade]

With Bard's permission, the company boarded the barge. The temperature had dropped considerably; ice littered the water and it had begun to snow very lightly. Bilbo hugged himself while pacing in an attempt not to freeze. Some dwarves sat, others counted what gold they had left. Thorin remained near the front, his eyes on the lake.
Kili sat near Fili and Saeril, completely silent and paler than usual.

Thranduil walked past their hostage, his eerily blue eyes landing towards the orc. “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.”

The orc only smirked in response. “Not thirteen; not any more. The young one, the black-haired archer, we stuck him with a Morgul shaft. The poison’s is in his blood. He’ll be choking on it soon.”

Tauriel frowned, for she remembered witnessing the attack. Saeril had made short work of Bolg. “Answer the question, filth.”

The orc growled lowly, resisting their questioning. “Sha hakhtiz khunai-go, Golgi! (I do not answer to dogs, She-Elf!)"

[AngelBites15]

The dwarves all gathered on the deck of the boat as Bard sat at the helm and steered it through the waters. "Watch out!" shouted Bofur as he saw a large structure in their path, and all the dwarves ducked out of the way and yelled in panic. Luckily, the Lakeman steered the boat to evade the obstacle.

Saeril had her hair flowing in the cold breeze, while sitting with the brothers. Noticing Kili being stubborn again (it was obvious that he was pale and shivering), the she-elf sighed and stretched out her cloak to wrap it around his shoulders. The lack of layers he and Fili had, were not the best of wear in these kinds of weather conditions. She figured that they were either stripped of protection, or if they just plainly forgot about their coats back in Mirkwood.
As she was sitting somewhere on the vessel from earlier, Saeril did kinda feel a light-weight upon her head. As she went to find that said weight, she noticed that she couldn't feel her horns anymore. The deformity spell must be slowly fading, but what was the reason why? She had to ask Gandalf about this. Even if she didn't have horns now, she still wanted to keep her black horned headress.
What she was worried about, was Kili's condition. He was hit with a weapon she knew was particularly fatal, and if not treated quickly, it would surely hurt from the inside-out. Letting him lean against her shoulder, she kept her cloak laid on him like a blanket. "Are you okay, young Durin?", the she-elf asked him softly.

"I would not antagonize her", Legolas sternly warned the orc as he knew that Tauriel didn't have any self-control. "The Dwarf runt will never be King!", Narzug responded. "King? There is no King under the mountain, nor will there ever be. None would dare enter Erebor", Legolas told the orc with his grip on the dagger tightening.

[kiiblade]

Kili's leg never ceased to hurt, but he'd managed to keep perfectly silent. If Thorin realized how badly off the injury was, he may have seen the youngest as a burden to the group rather than an asset.
"Yes...f-fine," Kili stammered a little, still cold, yet warming more thanks to the cloak. The fog around them was thick, and without a clear visual of their surroundings, he allowed himself to lean against her shoulder, eyes half-lidded as sleep begged to claim him.
Slowly, he turned his head to look at her. "What about you? Are you alright?"

Large rock formations seemed to appear out of nowhere throughout the fog, yet they'd sailed past effortlessly. “What are you trying to do, drown us?” Thorin demanded, turning to face Bard. "You nearly got us killed!"

- - -

Tauriel whipped out a knife, “You like killing things, orc? You like death? Then let me give it to you!”

Thranduil interfered before the redhead might take matters into her own hands. Legolas was correct in his way of thought; oftentimes, Tauriel had little self control and could react on impulse if not corrected. “Farn! Tauriel, ego! Gwao hi! (Enough! Tauriel, leave! Go now.)"

The orc snarled towards her, but Tauriel turned sharply, sheathed her blade, and left the room as told.
With Tauriel gone, Thranduil continued with the interrogation. “I do not care about one dead dwarf. Answer the question. You have nothing to fear. Tell us what you know and I will set you free...”

The orc spat on the ground. “You know nothing! Your world will burn! Our time has come again. My master serves the One. Do you understand now? Death is upon you. The flames of war are upon you-”

Thranduil's eyes widened, and he decided to put an end to this before the orc may continue with his threat. Without warning, the king whipped out his sword and beheaded the foul creature even as Legolas still held his head.

[AngelBites15]

Saeril's hand trailed against Kili's hair, gently smoothing it out, and still trying to transfer some body heat to him. "I'm alright", her face was staring straight ahead, not looking at him. There was a grudge to be settled; Bolg nearly had him killed, and the Defiler's son will have a potential death coming.

Next to them, Fili watched the two before him; there was absolutely no jealousy evident on his features, and for his little brother's sake, he was sure to not cross in the middle of their close relationship. That didn't mean he loved them both any less, though. Their Delva was Kili's dream, and his muse; one of the people he came to deeply admire, growing up. The blonde held no ill-will in his devotion to his little brother, and his long-term goal was to take care of him, as well as always make him come first.

"I was born and bred in these waters, master dwarf." Bard explained impassively. "If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here".

- - -

Legolas honesty didn't see the action coming, still finding holding the creature's head. "Why did you do that? You promised to set him free!", he dropped the head to the floor. "There was more the Orc could tell us", he was slightly upset that his father would perform such an action.

[kiiblade]

“I have had enough of this lippy lakeman." Dwalin snarled to his kin, his arms folded across his cheast. "I say we throw him over the side and be done with him.”
Bilbo turned towards Dwalin, shaking his head lightly. “Bard, his name’s Bard.”
Bofur blinked in surprise. “How do you know?”
Bilbo sat down, still hugging himself for warmth. “Uh, I asked him.” Dwavres could be so infuriating.
Dwalin frowned, then moved towards Thorin. “I don’t care what he calls himself, I don’t like him.”
Balin was busy counting what gold they had left. “We do not have to like him, we simply have to pay him. Come on now, lads, turn out your pockets.”
Hotheaded as ever, Dwalin remained skeptical. “How do we know he won’t betray us?”
Thorin glanced towards his nephews and Saeril, then back to tattooed dwarf. “We don’t.”
Balin counted once, then twice. Then three times. They hadn't enough. “There’s, um, just a problem: we’re ten coins short.”
Thorin instructed Gloin to give up what coin he had, and in that same moment, the Lonely Mountain came into view. The company was breathless, and each member rose just to catch a glimpse of their homeland.

"Only alright?" Kili attempted to read her features, but he did not have to. "I won't let you blame yourself," he sat himself up a bit more in order to keep better alert, and then he too caught a glimpse of the mountain. This was the mountain he and Fili had only heard stories of, seeing it firsthand was nothing short of breathtaking.

- - -

Thranduil was far from apologetic. “And I did. I freed his wretched head from his miserable shoulders.” In passing, he kicked the orc's corpse to stop the legs from shaking. “There was nothing more he could tell me...the dwarves are of no concern to me. Not anymore.”

[AngelBites15]

Saeril blankly looked in front of her, almost appearing grim. She wasn't blaming herself; she was wallowing away in brooding. "I know", she neutrally responded back to him, still not looking at him while continuing to stroke his hair. Although she did flick her luminous eyes to him, the she-elf had no emotion on her features. She finally sighed with her eyes closing for a moment. "I'm sorry, Kili; I haven't been myself these past few days. I just...it felt like my mind was...dissociated", she gave another sad sigh. Before she could get further into explaining, she watched as her companions looked up at the Lonely Moubtain before them, including the brothers.

She rose to follow them, still having her cloak around the youngest, and Saeril did have to admit that she gaped her lips a little bit in astonishment. It's been a long time since she has last seen the mountain up close. "It's been an age since I have been to this mountain", she said aloud. What she heard next was the footsteps of the Lakeman. "The money, quickly, give it to me", he told them. "If you value your freedom, we do as he says", Saeril added to his command, remembering the deal. "Besides, there are guards up ahead", the bargeman said to them as he gestured to the incoming port.

Quickly acting fast, Bard told the dwarves to hide in the barrels, while the Saeril concealed herself with her cloak creating a hood to cover her head. With the horns gone, it was now easier. She looked enough like a commoner, but her dark auburn hair was still draping over her chest.

- - -

"But what did he mean by the flames of war?", the Elven Prince asked his father, as he followed him while the king made his departure.

[kiiblade]

There were plenty of protests, but finally the company listened to reason. One by one, they hid in the barrels on the barge. Kili found it impossible to sit comfortably; while in hiding, he tried to get a look at the gash on his leg. The way Saeril had acted was indeed worrisome.
Without any visual, Kili grew uneasy. "What’s he doing?”

Bilbo peered through the hole in the barrel. “He’s talking to someone. And he’s...pointing right at us! Now they’re shaking hands.”
Thorin's eyes narrowed. “What?”
Dwalin was ready to fight if necessary. “That villain! He’s selling us out.”
Just then, each and every barrel was filled to the brim with dead fish.

- - -

“It means they intend to unleash a weapon so great it will destroy all before it.”
Thranduil responded evenly, and then he looked to the guards arriving. “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.”

[AngelBites15]

Bard then went back to steering the boat, kicking the barrel nearest to him when the dwarf inside started squirming and making noise. "Quiet! There are guards ahead, we're approaching the toll gate", he brought the boat to a stop at the gate and nodded at the man who approached him. "'Ello Bard, anything to declare?", he was a senior-aged fellow, but overall a seemingly nice man. "Evening Percy, but I am cold and tired, and ready for home", Bard replied, handing over a tattered piece of paper to the other man, which he stamped and went to hand back to Bard. "There we are, all in order!"

Saeril kept her stance to act and look like a commoner, so no one would notice her as an elf. Using the hood to cover most of her face, she looked like a mysterious young woman. The toll gate was barred and it seems they do a thorough job of checking their goods.

---------

Under his father's order, the kingdom had to be sealed off. Legolas began to walk towards the guards by the gates. "Close the gate! Keep it sealed by order of the King", he commanded under the Silvan tongue.

[kiiblade]

Before Bard had a chance to proceed, a slightly hunched over, horrible man clad in all black snatched the papers away. “Not so fast.” With a sneer, he looked the written text over, then to the barrels and Saeril. Underneath the fish, Kili sneezed, and Alfrid's eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“Consignment of empty barrels from the Woodland Realm. Only, they’re not empty, are they, Bard?” With two guards at his side, Alfrid was more gutsy than he would have been normally. “If I recall correctly, you’re licensed as a bargeman, not a fisherman..." Upon his inspection, he picked up a fish, then dropped it back in place. "And who is this female supposed to be?”

- - -

As Legolas started to leave, one of the guards approached him. “Man os Tauriel? (What about Tauriel?)
Edevín eb enedhor na gû a megil. En ú-nandollen. (She went into the forest armed with her bow and blade. She has not returned.)"

[AngelBites15]

"That's none of your business", Bard protested, merely defending the she-elf, and because he didn't know her name. "I fished them", she quickly spoke up, after overhearing the conversation. She had to say something to prevent further suspicion. "All of them".

-----------

Legolas walked outside near the gate and looked out into the woods.
Tauriel, what have you done?, he solemnly thought to himself.

((Sorry it's a bit short))

[kiiblade]

"You?" Alfrid gave an incredulous sort of scoff. "Well, that is unfortunate. These fish are illegal.” To the soldiers, he gestured towards the boat, his hateful gaze on both Bard and Saeril. “Empty the barrels over the side.” Revenge on Bard was what Alfird sought out the most, and he knew for a fact that Laketown's master would praise him for causing him trouble.

“You heard him. Into the canal. Come on, get a move on." Two of the soldiers moved forward, and Kili's eyes widened as he felt the barrel he was in start to tip. Fish started to pour out, and both he and Bilbo were mere seconds away from being revealed from their hiding places.

(No problem!! It's at a difficult spot right now since not much happened in this scene lol).

[AngelBites15]

"Have a heart, my friend", Saeril spoke up as she approached the pair from her position. "People need to eat, and food is scarce", she tried to persuade him, but the guards were picking up the barrels and began to tip them. She had to be quick, since she did remember Kili and Bilbo hiding in there. If they get caught, Mahal only knows. "Once people hear that you are dumping fish back in the lake, the riots will start. Tell me, will it be your problem then?", the she-elf grilled at Alfrid, almost exposing her face when standing near them.

[kiiblade]

Alfrid's eyes widened slightly as the threats were made, and he raised one hand. “Stop.” The soldiers returned the barrels to their place while Alfrid glowered at Saeril from where he stood. "I do not know who you are...but you would do well to watch yourself. I am the eyes and ears of this town. The Master will not be pleased."

The gates were raised, and Bard was permitted entry. From underneath the fish, Kili sighed in relief, but he tried not to breathe too deeply. The fish smelled horrible.
After what felt a lifetime, he felt the barrels begin to tip over. Thorin and the others were exiting from their hiding places, for Bard had gotten them to the dock.

Kili climbed out, grimacing as he brushed a dead fish from his shoulder. At least they hadn't been spotted. Yet. "What are we supposed to do now?" The youngest was cold, wet, and tired, as were they all.

[AngelBites15]

"Follow me", the bargeman told the company as Saeril was right behind him, still having her hood up. Bard began to lead them through the town center when they are met by a young boy. "Da, our house! It’s being watched", he told him in a panic. This wasn't going to work. They had to find another way in. Laketown's spies made their round to pass news of Bard arriving home, as he walks home with Bain and the she-elf following while the company was nowhere in sight. Before he enters the house, he whistles before tossing a piece of bread to the two fishermen in a boat below them. "You can tell the Master I’m done for the day", he said to them before entering.