The King and The Baker

Chapter 1

"Have you even seen him yet?"

"Nope, I can never see around these Dwarrowdam's mighty bottoms."

Ora bit her tongue to stifle a snort, but the noise slipped out anyway when one of the haughty looking Noble Ladies shot Ava a sour look. The two friends quickly continued on their way, hand in hand in attempt not to get lost or separated while they pushed and shoved their way through the thick crowd of Dwarrowdams. They were trying to get to the markets, but a thick mob of high-maintenance looking females had congregated outside the Kings Hall, obviously waiting for him to emerge in a desperate attempt to get the King to notice them.

"I feel a little sorry for him actually." Ava continued once she was finally free of the crowd and letting go of Ora's hand.

"Help!" Ora cried out through a laugh, reaching back out towards her friend as the rabble of woman tightened, unfortunately getting sucked in with them.

Ava laughed and tugged once more on her friends arm. Ora came flying out of the mass of Dwarves, stumbling slightly as she tried to recompose.

"Well, that was fun." Ora huffed sarcastically, brushing herself down and quickly fixing her hair as they walked away from the Kings hall.

Ava snickered, "But imagine that following you around every moment of the day." By that she meant the gaggle of females.

"I think I'd go insane- oh, for the love of Mahal, one of those crows scratched me." Ora nursed a pathetic scratch on her arm.

"Oh! That reminds me, I need to buy some carrots."

Ora stared at her friend for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. "How did my scratch remind you of carrots? You hate carrots."

"What scratch?"

Ora rolled her eyes and shoved Ava playfully as they began to descend the first of many flights of stairs. Ora had been in Erebor for a little over a month now, and Ava a few weeks longer, but even after that time they still had a hard time navigating their way around the endless tunnels and corridors leading down to the market. Mainly because they would always come across a new path which of course they'd have to explore.

"Are we training this afternoon?" Ava asked as they turned a corner. The noise of the market bubbled up from an opening ahead of them.

"Can do." Ora replied absentmindedly. They reached the end of the enclosed corridor and the straight path fell away, bending of to the left and right to hug the stone walls. Before them the mountain opened up to become the market that spanned over six levels, all open with every shop and stall dug into the rock itself with many corridors trailing off back into the mountain, similar to the one they'd just emerged from.

The pair began their descend again, following the main path that wrapped around the outside of the market, leading them steadily spiralling downwards and towards the ground floor. However, on the fourth level they took a right, following a stone walk way that stretched over the empty space in-between the levels and providing a short cut to the other side of the market.

This is where they bid their goodbyes, Ava turning left to continue down a level, and Ora turning right towards her Grandmothers stall. It was lunch time, so of course the market was buzzing with hungry Dwarves, all expertly navigating themselves around the stone paths of the market. Wren slalomed around the bodies, dodging an especially dirty looking minor as she neared the stall.

"There you are, Ora. For the love of Mahal I was getting worried."

From out of the shop doorway came a small, elderly Dwarrowdam. Her white hair shone like fresh snow and the few whips of a beard clung to her chin like roots. She was skilfully balancing a plate piled with the fresh honey buns Ora had put in the oven just before she'd left for lunch.