Hobbit and Lord of the Rings One- shots/ imagines

Smaug 1

Name: Katie
Part 1
Your POV
The first thing you noticed when you woke up was the first thing you noticed every morning: the stench of fish and the creaking of wood.  You hated Lake Town.  It was always wet there and you felt like you were always wet in one place or another.  Wet and cold.  You sneezed, causing the people walking by to give you an even wider berth.  You were homeless, and had been for awhile now.  Cast out by your family for a shameless act of rebellion.  That is, if using your father's old harpoon to shave the sides of your head so your hair wasn't constantly a knotted rat's nest counted as a rebellious act.  The back you could take care of but the sides, not really.  But no matter how much you protested and tried to explain yourself, your parents had refused to listen and had thrown you out.  From the very beginning, the first time you'd been seen out on the dock for the night, word had spread like wildfire and everyone had begun leering at you as they passed, especially the men.
You knew your life could very easily become ten times worse, all it would take was someone telling your parents that your younger brother had been sneaking you food and sometimes a warm blanket, but the blankets hadn't been much good at keeping out the cold and sickness.  You'd been ill for a couple weeks now, and were steadily getting worse.  At first, the sneezing and coughing had been enough to be left alone, but some of the more sleazy men were getting bolder.  Just last night, one of them had tried to take advantage of you.  You shuddered at the thought of what would've happened if Bard, the town's good samaritan, hadn't been passing by and cared enough to knock some sense into the man.  But that was a temporary fix, even if Bard's attack warded away the others, your two weeks was almost up.  Nobody in the town knew what really happened to those who broke one of the most held-up laws of this floating mass of wood.  If you get sick, you have two weeks to recover or else.  And no one had ever been around to elaborate on what the 'or else' meant, and all you knew was that Braga had come to you with your first and final warning about a week ago.
"Are you hungry?" Bard's voice startled you out of your thoughts.
"You didn't have to stay with me." You sneezed into the newest blanket from your brother.
"I know.  But I thought you might want a little something for the journey."
"What journey?" He gave you a knowing look.  It was no secret that you had been sick for awhile.
"I was eavesdropping on the guards last night.  That's why I was still out.  They have plans to 'take care of you' today.  I've stolen a raft for you and I want you to take it and this," He shoves a knapsack into your hands, "and get as far away from here as fast as you can."
"But where will I go?  The elves of Mirkwood have no love for men, especially sick ones, and aside from the mountain, there is nothing but wilderness surrounding this place!  I'll not last a week!"
"You'll last longer than you will here!" You looked at the raft. 
"Alright.  I'll go." You climbed into the boat.
"Head to the south gate.  I've arranged to have Percy open it for you."
"Thank you."
"Good luck, Katie."
"Wait!  Tell my brother I said goodbye, will you?"
"I will.  Now go!"

Just as Bard had promised, Percy opened the south gate for you, giving you a look of pity as you passed through.  Once you put a reasonable distance between yourself and the town, you stopped and looked around.  From where you were, it wouldn't take long to get to the dock Bard used when he went out, but who knew what the elves would do to you if they caught you in their forest?  Unbidden, your eyes drifted to the north.  To the mountain.  Surely it couldn't be so bad up there, the dragon hadn't been seen in half a century!  If it wasn't there, you could get into the mountain and take enough treasure to get you far away from here and if it was still alive, your death would be quick.  Painful, but quick.  The thought of having riches more than made the decision for you.  To the mountain it was.
You rowed for hours.  Going out the south gate meant turning around and going past all of Lake Town and then on to the north shore.  Once you reached it, you used the last of your strength in your shaking arms to swing the knapsack onto your back.  Fortunately, rowing had not required you to use your legs, so they had the strength to carry you far.  Your throat burned every time you swallowed or sneezed but you refused to let that pain stop you, in fact, you used it as fuel to keep going until you reached the Overlook, the 'border' of Smaug's territory.  No one from Lake Town would dare follow you now and the city of Dale was in sight.  The thought of taking shelter in a building was enough to get you to push on and walk the final mile or so to the city Smaug had desolated.
You searched for about an hour or so for a good place for shelter, but to your utter dismay, none of the buildings that remained standing had a full roof on them and the stone did nothing to keep out the harsh chill of winter.  Just as you were thinking all hope was lost, you reached the town square and found a pile of wood.  It was old, probably rotting inside, but it was enough for a fire.  At least, for a little while.  You looked to the west, where the sun was nearly set, and rubbed your hands together.  It would to this or nothing.
The fire was easy to start once you set your mind to it, and after you had nursed the small flame into a modest blaze, you opened the knapsack from Bard and found not only a dry blanket, but a few large fish, a loaf of bread, and even an apple.  Enough to last you a couple days while you scoured the surrounding land for food.  You ate some of a fish and the apple, to try and conserve as much as you could, before wrapping yourself up tightly in the blanket and trying to fall asleep on the stony ground, with the knapsack as a pillow and the fire still burning beside you.