If this is to End in Fire: Hobbit Fan Fiction Skin-changer

Chapter 16- Dodging the Hobbit

So here it is! Sorry for the wait. I am trying to get writing again slowly, so expect to see a few more updates in the coming weeks. It's great to be back in this world again.

In case you have forgotten, Lupine is a wolf skin-changer who has joined the dwarves' quest to reclaim their homeland in agreement with Azog that she would destroy Thorin, hence getting back her brother who was imprisoned by him. In Laketown she has also found a second brother, as well as previously meeting Beorn. She is currently in Sipeon's house after he has explained how they came to be seperated.

Enjoy!

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There came a grunt from the man in the chair and Lupine knew their time was up. Sipeon stood and glided stealthily past the table to him and touched his hand to the old man's arm. As his eyes opened, the skin-changer aided the man to his feet, where he squeezed his eyes tightly shut, before opening them to awake fully.

Upon seeing Lupine, sat at the floor across from him, his expression turned to anger and his face flamed. He shouted loudly,

"Dare come a stranger into my home?!" He shot a look to Sipeon, who spoke calmly and directly to him.

"She is my sister, Carpenter."

"Why does a child of the town come by here other than in mockery?" he growled.

"She is not of this town. She was by my side in the Vales of Anduin all that long time ago."

The man's face maintained its resentment and as Lupine rose to her feet, he strode quickly over. He was faster than she had anticipated and was perhaps not as old and his features had grown to suggest. He came close to her and spitted into her ear,

"No one but him and I have stepped foot in this house for sixteen summers. Don't even consider gossiping about it round town."

Then he turned his back from her and paced to the door.

"We have work to do." he said sternly to Sipeon, before slamming the door and leaving the room, fists clenched and shoulders tensed.

A few minutes later a loud cascade of banging was heard and Carpenter had clearly returned to his wood and nails. Sipeon seemed neither concerned nor surprised by this response and was just about to open the door to follow him, when Lupine heard the harsh shouts of orders. She ran to the window and leant out to see and her brother joined her, though he had not yet heard the noise.

It grew quickly and soon she knew that a group of people had gathered and was making its way through the town.

"A large crowd." she said, then asked, "Which direction to Bard's house?"

"North." said Sipeon, but this was not from where the sound had come.

"I'm going to find the dwarves." said Lupine, climbing lightly to the windowsill before stopping and looking down at the height she had to scale.

"This way." said Sipeon, noticing her hesitation and he lead her back through the house.

Opening the door of the room, they came immediately to the high, narrow, dark and twisting stairway, which took them down to the next floor and a short hallway. The stairs continued lower into the house and the sound of hammering echoed up between the thin walls. To their left was a door, set agar, and behind it a tiny stove could be seen. To their right, was another small room and behind the door a bed lay neatly folded, constructed on the bare boards of the floor. Back in the hallway however, Sipeon took her through the entrance of the house, though this was not at ground floor height, and they had still to clamber down a flimsy ladder before Lupine set her feet firmly into the alleyway again.