Thyri, Daughter of Thrain, Dragonslayer (Book 2)

Laketown (part. 2)

Alfrid says "All this talk of civil unrest. Someone's been stirring the pot, sire." He is in the Master's bedchamber. The Master has just woken up and is standing in his nightgown. Alfrid empties the Master's chamberpot out a window. The Master groans and moans as he stumbles about, then sits down, rubbing his knees "Gah ! Auh !" Alfrid asks "Gout playing up, sire ?" The Master replies "It's the damp. It's the only possible explanation. Now get me a brandy." Alfrid moves to comply "The mood of the people, sire, it's turning ugly." The Master tells him "They're commoners, Alfrid. They've always been ugly. It's not my fault that they live in a place that stinks of fish oil and tar. Jobs, shelter, food, that's all they ever bleat about." Alfrid hands the Master a glass of brandy, and he drinks it all in one shot "It's my belief, sire, they're being lead on by troublemakers." The Master tells him "Then we must find these troublemakers and arrest them !" Alfrid and the Master, who is now dressed, descend to the Master's study. The Master is drinking another glass. Alfrid says "My thoughts exactly, sire." The Master tells him "And all this talk of change must be suppressed. I can't afford to let them rebel, band together and start making noises. The next thing you know, they'll start asking questions, forming committees, launching inquiries." At his desk, the Master pours yet another tall glass of brandy. Alfrid says "Out with the old, in with the new." The Master asks "What ?" Alfrid replies "That's what they've been saying, sire. There is even talk of an election." The Master looks at him "An election !? That's absurd. I won't stand for it." As the Master walks away, Alfrid speaks softly such that only he can hear "I don't think they'd ask you to stand, sire."

The Master opens glass doors and walks out onto his balcony, looking over Laketown. He mutters to himself "Shirkers. ​Ingrates. Rabble-rousers. Who would have the nerve to question my authority ? Who would dare ? Who... Bard​. You mark my words, that troublemaking bargeman is behind all this." Meanwhile, Bard docks his barge. After looking around, he knocks over one of the barrels, and one of the dwarves falls out along with a pile of fish. Bard continues knocking over barrels. He reaches for Dwalin's barrel, but Dwalin pokes his head up through the fish "Get your hands off me." The remaining dwarves and Bilbo struggle out of their barrels, looking greasy and slimy from the fish. Thyri chuckles "My poor lads." The dock keeper looks on in shock. Bard approaches him and slips him a coin "You didn't see them, they were never here. The fish you can have for nothing." He leads the company away "Follow me." A woman working on a boat happens to look up and she sees the dwarves running through Laketown in the distance. She looks shocked. As they stride through Laketown, a boy runs up to Bard "Da ! Our house, it's being watched." Thyri whispers to herself "An hello wouldn't hurt you right, Bain ?" Bard looks at Thorin and hatches a plan. Thyri, Bard and his son walk along back to their house. As they walk, a fisherman in a boat sees them and drops his eyepatch over one eye, then knocks with his staff on a wall nearby. Upon this signal, two boys run from the wall, and one knocks over a contraption which causes a hammer to hit a bell. At this signal, another man lights a match to light his pipe. He turns and looks at two men in a fishing boat right next to Bard's house, and they nod and switch their poles to the opposite sides of the boat than before. They do this just as Bard, Thyri and Bain get to their house and enter through the door. Just before Bard enters, he tosses an apple to one of the fisherman "You can tell the Master that I'm done for the day." Inside the house, Bard's daughters, greet their father "Da ! Where have you been ?" "Father ! There you are. I was worried." Both of them run to their father, and they hug. Bard tells them "There's someone here visiting us." His daughters look behind their father and see Thyri smiling. Both of them hug her "Ârien !" Thyri hugs them back "Sigrid. Tilda. How are you girls ?" Tilda smiles "Good and you ? You didn't inform us of your visit." Thyri winks at her "It was a surprise." Bard then hands his bag to Sigrid "Here's​ something to eat.​ Bain, get them in." As Bard looks out a window, Bain goes down some steps to the lower floor of the house, which is open to the water. After looking around, he knocks on the wall near the toilet three times. Dwalin's head appears through the toilet, which is open to the water below "If you speak of this to anyone, I'll rip your arms off." He raises the seat and begins to pull himself out of the toilet. Bain reaches out to help him, but Dwalin slaps his hand away "Get off." Bain tells him "Up there." He points up the stairs, and Dwalin goes up. Bilbo pokes his head up through the toilet, looking flabbergasted, and Bain helps him out. The rest of the dwarves follow and head upstairs. Sigrid asks her father "Da... why are there dwarves climbing out of our toilet ?" Tilda asks "Will they bring us luck ?" Thyri smiles at her innocence. Nori emerges from the toilet with some leaves stuck to his hair. The dwarves are wrapped in blankets, and their wet things have been laid in front of the fire to dry. Some of them shiver. Bard says "It may not be the best fit, but it'll keep you warm." Tilda passes out blankets, and Bilbo thanks her when he receives one "Thank you very much." Thorin looks out a window and sees a wooden tower not far away. Atop the tower is a windlance, a giant cross-bow type weapon with four arms. Thorin looks at it in shock "A dwarvish windlance." Bilbo, who is sipping a hot drink from a mug, looks at the wind-lance too "You look like you've seen a ghost." Balin tells him "He has. The last time we saw such a weapon, a city was on fire. It was the day the dragon came." Thyri rubs her still burned arm, caused by Smaug. Thorin looks sadly away. Balin still narrates
*Flashback*
Smaug is attacking the city of Dale. He blows fire, destroying buildings. "The day that Smaug destroyed Dale. Girion, the Lord of the city, rallied his bowman to fire upon the beast." The city is in flames, but a man in armor, Girion, leads a group of archers in shooting at the flying dragon.
Thyri says "But a dragon's skin is tough, tougher than the strongest armor. Only a black arrow, fired from a windlance, could have pierced the dragon's skin, and few of those arrows were ever made." Girion runs to a rack holding three long, black arrows and grabs one. He turns and loads it into a dwarvish windlance, and draws the arrow. He turns the windlance, aiming for the dragon. It is difficult to see the dragon because it is flying swiftly and because the air is full of smoke. Girion fires and the arrow hurtles through the air. It hits the dragon in the chest but bounces harmlessly off.
Balin says "His store was running low when Girion made his last stand."
Girion grabs another black arrow into the windlance and fires. This arrow finds it mark, but bounces off the dragon's chest.
*End of flashback*
Thorin says "Had the aim of Men been true that day, much would have been different." Bard approaches Thorin "You speak as if you were there." Thorin tells him "All dwarves know the tale." Bain says "Then you would know that Girion hit the dragon. He loosened a scale under the left wing. One more shot and he would have killed the beast." Dwalin smiles "Ha ha ha ! That's a fairy story, lad. Nothing more." But only Thyri knows the real story. Thorin strides up to Bard "You took our money. Where are the weapons ?" Bard says "Wait here." He goes down the stairs to the lower part of the house. After looking around to make sure no one is watching, he pulls on a rope hanging off a small boat and pulls up a wrapped package that had been hidden underwater. While Bard is doing this, Thorin, Balin, Thyri, Fili, and Kili talk quietly together. Thorin tells them "Tomorrow begins the last days of autumn." Balin says "Durin's Day falls after next morning. We must reach the mountain before then." Kili asks "And if we do not ? If we fail to find the hidden door before that time ?" Fili tells him "Then this quest has been for nothing." Thyri tells them "Let's not think of that. We will success this quest. No matter what happens." Bard returns and lays the package on the table as the dwarves stand around it. He loosens the wrappings and reveals a couple of handmade weapons. The dwarves look at them in shock, then pick up the weapons and look at them in disgust. Thorin asks "What is this ?" Bard says "Pike-hook. Made from an old harpoon." Kili asks "And this ?" Bard replies "A crowbill, we call it, fashioned from a smithy's hammer. It's heavy in hand, I grant, but in defense of your life, these will serve you better than none." Thorin and Dwalin look disgustedly at each other. Gloin shouts "We paid you for weapons. Iron-forged swords and axes !" Bofur shouts "It's a joke !" He throws his weapon back on the table, and the other dwarves follow suit. Bard tells them "You won't find better outside the city armory. All iron-forged weapons are held there under lock and key." Thorin and Dwalin look at each other out of the corners of their eyes, hatching a plan. Thyri says "Thorin." Bard looks up at the mention of the name Thorin, as if the name sounds familiar to him. Thyri asks "Why not take what's been offered and go ?" Balin says "Thyri is right. I've made do with less. So have you. I say we leave now." At the mention of the name Thyri, Bard has the same reaction when he heard the name Thorin. He says "You're not going anywhere." Dwalin asks angrily "What did you say !?​" Bard tells them "There's spies watching this house and probably every dock and wharf in the town. You must wait till nightfall." Hearing this, the dwarfs begin to settle down. Kili, leaning on a pole, looks like he's in pain and he slowly slides down the pole and sits on a couch. Wincing, he examines the bandage on his leg while making sure no one is looking. Bard is standing on his porch. He talks to himself, trying to recall where he'd heard the names 'Thorin' and 'Thyri' before "Thorin... Thyri..." With a sudden shock of understanding, he whirls around and looks at the Lonely Mountain in the distance. The door opens, and Bain sticks his head out "Da ?" Bard tells him "Don't let them leave." He hurries down his steps and into the town. Inside the house, Thyri went to the children's room and pulls up her shirt. She sighs as tears falling down her face. She hears Bilbo behind her "Thyri. Are you alright ?" She wipes her tears and pulls down her shirt "Ye-Yeah. I'm fine, Bilbo. Don't worry." Bilbo asks "Can I look ?" She nods and pulls back up the shirt. Bilbo gasps "I thought Lord Elrond healed your wounds completely." Thyri sits down "He healed it. But burns don't disappear quickly. Especially from dragon fire. It looks like I just recieve them. And it hurts like hell." Thyri looks down "I accepted Gandalf's decision for me to go to this quest because I wanted to see how my family and friends are doing. It's been years that I see my people. I never say it to Thorin or the others but I really died in Dale. It turned out to come back to life thanks to a curse." Bilbo asks "What curse ?" She says "The night after Thorin and I were born, a witch kidnapped me. For months, my grandfather and father went crackers. When they found me in Belegost in the Blue Mountains, they saw the witch casting a curse on me. We didn't know why the witch wanted me. During my childhood, my grandfather remarked that I was a little bit taller than any dwarves. We didn't know what was the curse until my first training. Thorin, our younger brother Frerin and I were training and I was getting at Thorin because he always got the attention of our father and grandfather. Then, our grandfather ordered us to fight against each other. We did it. I was going to win but Thorin made me fall down. And that was the last straw for me. Then, what I saw next was only red. I began to growl and tackled him. Then, I transformed into a beast, no one was there except me, my grandfather and my father. My grandfather was the one who helped me transforming back to my normal self. At first, I was scared of what I became but then it was easy to scare the enemy off." Bilbo asks "So, the curse on you is to be a skin changer ?" She nods "Some say that it's a curse. But I call it a blessing. My father and grandfather called it a blessing from Durin himself."

Few seconds later, Bilbo tells her "Thank you for your trust in me. I noticed that there is a certain tension between you and Thorin. So... are you the Heir of the throne of Durin ?" She smiles softly "After our fight, our grandfather saw fit to tell us the truth and to confess that we were both the heirs of the throne. Even if Thorin finds a wife or I find a husband, our spouses will not be King or Queen. They will be Prince Consort and Princess Consort." Bilbo looks at her, shocked "It must have been hard to manage. How ---" She replies "Thorin was in a state when we learned the news. But, really, in private, he took me in his arms and told me that he was happy and that he thought no one else to rule by his side. And now that we are near to reclaiming our right to rule, we decided that Fili will be Thorin's heir and that Kili will be my heir." The two friends were talking for "hours" that they didn't see that Thorin was listening with Fili, Kili, and Dwalin.