Coincidence? →️The Hobbit fanfic

XIX

As Erlanda woke the next morning, her leg hurt worse than it had before. She checked the wound under her bandage and saw that the skin around it had turned dark. Cursing, she stood as good as she could and looked over the dwarves.

The day before they had celebrated with the folk of Lake Town and some of the dwarves were still sleeping. Thorin and Dwalin had already awoken and were packing their things along with Bilbo.

Erlanda walked towards the three and Dwalin chuckled as he saw her. "You look horrible, lass. You shouldn't that drink much."

She gave the dwarf a weak smile as she hobbled over to him.

"I don't think that that is the reason." Thorin looked Erlanda over, "It's your leg, isn't it?"

Erlanda nodded and took off the bandage. As she saw Dwalin and Thorin's faces, she said: "It's bad, isn't it?"

"It is," Dwalin agreed.

Thorin looked at her wound again, "If you can't walk properly, we can't take you with us. It's too much of a risk, you'll slow us down."

"You can't be serious," Bilbo spoke from behind Erlanda. 

She turned to the Hobbit and then back to Thorin. "No.," she said, looking back at Bilbo. "He's right, I'll only slow you down and I wouldn't put it above the dragon to be able to smell blood." Erlanda then turned back to Thorin, "But I'll help you get ready and accompany you to the boat."

Thorin nodded and the four of them began packing again while the other dwarves slowly awoke. They then made their way over the docks towards a boat that would take the dwarves and Bilbo to the lonely mountain.

The company filled into the boat, all but Erlanda and Oin who had decided to stay with her and help with her wound since his duty laid with the wounded.

Kili held out his hand for Erlanda to take so he could help her into the boat. "I'm not coming," she said.

"What are you talking about? Of course, you are." he smiled as though he thought she was joking.

"Not this time," Thorin said from next to his nephew. "We have to hurry, she'll only slow us down."

Erlanda nodded, "I'm going to stay here and then when you got the mountain back, I can still come after you with Oin when I'm healed."

"Come on." Fili patted Kili's shoulder as five musicians started playing music. "We'll see the two again soon enough."

The crowds around them cheered as the Master spoke, "Go now with our goodwill and good wishes. And may your return bring good fortune to all!" The crowd cheered again as he waved, "Goodbye!"

The boat continued down the river and as it was barely visible from where Erlanda stood, Bofur came running towards them. He saw how far away the boat was and cursed before he saw Erlanda and Oin. "Ha. So you missed the boat as well?"

Erlanda shook her head and was about to say something when she suddenly got light-headed and threatened to fall. Oin and Bofur immediately steadied her and Oin explained, "'Landa isn't feeling so good."

The two dwarves helped her towards a bench where she could sit down and Oin then looked at her leg. "You were shot by an orc, right?" he asked. Erlanda nodded, "Then I think you must have been poisoned though I can not tell which poison was used."

"Then how do we help her?" Bofur asked.

The three of them went from door to door and asked for help but nobody would help. They either knew nothing of poison and healing or were too afraid to get poisoned themselves. As a last resort, when Erlanda was feeling weaker and weaker, they made their way to Bard's home.

The man opened the door, took one look at the three and simply stated, "No." As they looked at him pleadingly he added, "I'm done with Dwarves. Go away." he went to close the door but Bofur stopped him quickly.

"No, no, no. Please! No one will help us." he motioned to the woman in the middle of the two dwarves, "'Landa's sick." Erlanda looked up and revealed her grey face, void of any color, "very sick." Bofur added.

Bard sighed and let the three of them enter and then led them to a cot where Erlanda laid down. The pain was getting worse and she started to groan in pain as sweat ran down her face. 

Bofur heated some water and then brought it to Oin who used it to boil some bandages. "Can you not do something?" he asked the older dwarf.

"I need herbs," Oin told him. "Something to bring down his fever."

Over her groans, Erlanda could vaguely hear Bard count up some herbs he had. The names seemed familiar to her but she couldn't remember where she knew them from. 

"They're no use to me," Oin spoke. "Do you have any kingsfoil?"

"No, it's a weed. We feed it to the pigs," he replied.

Bofur looked at the man. "Pigs? Weed...Right." he stepped to Erlanda, "Don't move." he said and went to leave.

"Bofur?" she called him back. The dwarf turned to look at her and she got our the small journal from her coat. "I-It might be in there." the dwarf nodded, took the journal and raced out of the house.

Sigrid came over to her and used a wet cloth to wipe the sweat of Erlanda's face who was now shaking but tried to give the girl a smile although it looked more like a grimace.

"What happened to her?" Tilda asked.

Oin looked at Bard, unsure how much he should tell the little girl. "We were followed by Orcs and one of them shot her." he then told her.

"Will she be okay again?" she asked.

"Yes, yes, of course, she will." Oin nodded and gave her a smile but all besides Tilda knew that it was unsure if that was true. "Now where is that dwarf? How many pigs do you have in this town?"

"Not a lot." Bain told him and Tilda added, "The nearest ones are Clarence, Ernest, and Eliza. On the other side of the town, there's also Harriet but Da said that she will go soon."

They then continued to watch over Erlanda who was now thrashing more and still groaning in pain as the earth underneath them shook.

"Da?" Sigrid asked.

"It's coming from the mountain," Bain said.

Oin turned to Bard, "You should leave us, laddie. Take your children and get out of here."

"And go where?" Bard asked and shook his head. "There is nowhere to go."

Tilda stepped towards her father, "Are we going to die, Da?"

"No, darling." Bard shook his head.

"The dragon...It's going to kill us."

Bard looked at his youngest child and then ripped something from the ceiling: a black arrow. "Not if I kill it first."

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