The Ranger ➵ Kili Durin

PART 2 : CHAPTER 8

"What makes you think I will help you?" Bard questioned as he began moving some of the barrels from the Woodland Realm onto his boat.

"Those boots have seen better days," Balin bartered, trying to get them a ride. Elvira knew that with a little help, Bard wouldn't be able to turn them down, but she also knew that the dwarves didn't trust her, so she let them try to persuade him for a moment.

"As has that coat," Balin continued. "No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?"

Bard watched hesitantly for a moment before casting a glance at Elvira's stoic figure before answering. "A boy and two girls," he said quietly.

"And your wife, I'd imagine she's a beauty." At the mention of his wife, Bard became very still. Elvira closed her eyes briefly, her arms folded over her chest and stomach to add pressure to the wound she had yet to look at.

"Aye, she was," Bard practically whispered, pained by the mere memory of his beloved.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Balin faded.

"Oh come on, enough with the niceties," Dwalin growled impatiently.

"What's your hurry?" Bard asked.

"What's it to you?" Dwalin grew defensive.

"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands," Bard simply replied.

"They are simple merchants," Elvira cut in, seeing the mistakes the dwarves have already made. "From the Blue Mountains, journeying to see their kin in the Iron Hills."

"Simple merchants, you say? And that explains why you are accompanying them, doesn't it?" Bard replied with an almost fatherly smirk.

"I am accompanying them, for their protection," she made up quickly, already hearing Thorin scoff. Bard very quickly knew that he did not believe her, but he didn't question it, as Thorin began to speak.

"We will need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?"

The boat drifted lightly through the still black waters. Large chunks of ice drifted along as well, and huge glaciers would pass by, looming over them like dark shadows. At one point, the boat nearly crashed into a dark mass of what looked to be ice, before Bard jerked the barge away. Elvira watched the mass of rock, what once was an ancient ruin now almost completely covered in dark water as they drifted past.

"What are you trying to do, drown us?" Thorin growled, his voice dark and his eyes untrusting.

"I was born and bred in these waters, Master Dwarf," Bard said. "If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here." Then, the dwarves went to converse on their own. Elvira stood next to Bard, watching the waters ahead of them.

"Are you going to truly tell me where you've been?" he sighed. She smiled lightly.

"I don't think you want to know," she said honestly. She would have had to take an entire day describing all the places she's been and the people she's killed since Bard had seen her last.

"Then tell me, why are you here? With a company of dwarves no less?" Bard turned to her finally, searching for truth in her eyes.

She paused for a moment, noticing briefly the harsh looks of the dwarves, mainly Thorin and Dwalin, as she stood with Bard, before turning to him with a smile, a newfound light in her eyes.