Dawn (A Hobbit Fanfic)

Chapter 19 - My urge to kill rises to the moon and beyond.

[Googles: "boat parts". My sailor grandpa is very dissapointed now. :')]

I sat down on the deck, leaning against the raised platform where the bargeman was guiding the boat over the lake. I dropped my head and breathed heavily. I tried to heal the wound again, but it just wouldn't work. The arrow was definitely poisoned and I didn't know any spells that I could use on myself to stop poison. Then I thought of the gifting of immortatily. That was before I realised that giving my immortality to myself would probably not work. That's when I cursed the poison a thousand times.
"What is your name? Mine is Dawn," I asked the man. My voice was weak. It was slurred with pain but I tried to keep focused on something, as to not faint.
"Bard. And you still do not sound alright."
"I'll be alright then. It has to wear off sooner or later."

Bard nodded and veered away from an old ruin sticking out of the water. Making the boat rock a bit.
"What are you trying to do, drown us?" Thorin retorted angrily.
"I was born and bred on these waters, master Dwarf. If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here," Bard said calmy.
"Oh I have enough of this lippy lakeman. I say we throw him over the side and be done with him," Dwalin grumbled, not even trying to keep his voice down. Bilbo looked at him, slightly pissed.
"Oh, Bard, his name's Bard," he huffed.
"How'd you know?"
"Uh, Dawn asked him."
"I don't care what he calls himself, I don't like him," Dwalin muttered to Thorin.
"We don't have to like him, we simply have to pay him," Balin said. "Come on now, lads, turn out your pockets."
I tossed him my entire bag of coins with my good arm, it came about ten feet short though. I got up shakily. The bleeding in my shoulder had lessened a bit, it still hadn't stopped, but I wasn't worried that I'd drop dead because of blood loss anytime soon.
"Are you really sure you're alright?" Kili asked. "You should have let me take the arrow."
"I am fine Kili, really. Elves are quite resistant to poison. Had you taken the arrow, you would have been dead before sunrise tomorrow, if it hadn't pierced any vital organs already."
"But, you are small, for an Elf. Are you sure it won't affect you?"
"Oh, it's affecting me alright. I feel very drunk and I can't even see what's a few meters off the bow, so you'll have keep me from making stupid decisions," I tried to joke, but my pained voice seemed to drain the fun out of it. Kili was still trying to be a good sport though.
"Stupider than normal you mean?"
That was highly unfair, I made the wisest decisions around here. I think.
"Off the bow is mostly fog," he added in an effort to console me.

"How do we know he won't betray us?" whispered Dwalin to Thorin.
"We don't," he answered. I stumbled to the bow of the barge. Looking in the distance but seeing nothing but a grey haze of the fog Kili described.
"There's, um, just a problem: we're ten coins short," reported Balin, who had been counting the gold.
"Did you take mine? They're- over there, somewhere," I gestured vaguely. Balin nodded, or at least, I think he did. He was slightly too far away to see properly.
"Gloin. Come on. Give us what you have," Thorin ordered.
"Don't look to me. I have been bled dry by this venture! And what have I seen for my investment? Naught but misery and grief and-"
"I got shot by a poison arrow and Thorin almost died. Now please pay," I interupted his rambling, turning around to face him and nearly falling in the process.
Was this poison designed to make Elves embarrass themselves to death or something?

Gloin hadn't stopped talking because of my interruption. He stopped when he saw that all the others had slowly stood up and were looking at something in the distance. We both followed their gaze. Through the thinning fog, we saw the Lonely Mountain. It was even more impressive up close. The way the light reflected of the snow and made it one blurry bright spot in my vision was lovely.
"Bless my beard. Take it. Take all of it," Gloin sounded emotional. I respected that. He pulled out a small sack of coins that he had withheld earlier and handed it to Balin. Bilbo coughed and gestured his head to Bard, who was approaching from the stern.
"The money, quick, give it to me!" he said urgently.
"We'll pay you when we get our provisions, but not before," Thorin refused.
"If you value your freedom, you'll do as I say. There are guards ahead," he warned.