Fili

15: Laketown

After successfully escaping both elves and orcs, the Company was starving and exhausted. You met a man named Bard, from a nearby place called Laketown and gladly accepted when he offered you a place to stay for the night.

The house is small, but it's much better than being left to freeze outside. Bard's daughters, Tilda and Sigrid, are busy giving clean clothes to you and the company. They hand you a shirt and pants that are way too big. You slide the shirt over your head and take a look at your reflection in a nearby mirror. You sigh. Just as you expected, the shirt looks more like a dress on you. The pants aren't much better. You have to roll up the bottoms of the legs in order to walk in them without tripping.

Tilda giggles when she sees you. She rummages through a pile of clothing beside her and pulls out a faded red dress. It's much smaller than the clothes you have on, probably made to fit a human child.

"Here, try this instead," she tosses you the dress.

You thank her before putting it on. It's a perfect fit.

•••

Now that you and the others all had clean clothes and something to eat, all you were missing was weapons. The items that Bard had offered you were not sufficient. It would be impossible to defeat Smaug with something so weak and flimsy.

Even though you were warned not to go near the Laketown armoury, dwarves are stubborn, so you decided to ignore Bard and go there anyway.

It was now late at night and everyone in Laketown was asleep except for the Company. A few of the dwarves has found a ladder that could reach the upstairs window of the armoury. Since you weighed the least, you got to go up first. You scramble up the ladder in no time, careful not to make too much noise. Once you've reached the top and have entered the building through the window, you begin to grab as many weapons as you can hold. The other dwarves join you.

You try to find something similar to your axe and the set of daggers stolen from you by the elves, but nothing compares to them. You think of all the beautiful weapons you've lost throughout the journey: Your battle axe, the daggers Fili gave to you, multiple throwing axes, and even your pocket knife. All of them are gone and you have yet to come to terms with the fact it's unlikely you'll ever see them again.

You continue rummaging through the weapons, but are quickly interrupted. Voices coming from outside alert you that the Company's attempt to steal weapons has not gone unnoticed. The voices of the Laketown guards get louder as they get closer. You sigh, tossing everything you were carrying to the ground. You've been caught. Finding a new axe will have to wait for another day.