A Ruby's Shine (Thorin Oakenshield X OC)

65. Laketown

Bard glanced at me before grabbing the driving stick once more as the gate was fully lifted, beginning to steer the boat into Laketown. I glanced out of the edge of my eye as I heard stomping footsteps and glared once more at the weasel as he rounded the corner once more to put in a last word.

"The Master has his eye on you; you'd do well to remember. We know where you live." Alfris said threateningly in his nasally sounding voice. Ugly personality, nasally voice and clearly lacking in the hygiene department. If a woman even so much as glanced at this man with the thought of getting to know him, then I would be shocked. I wouldn't want to be within a foot of the smelly bastard and his weird looking hat that makes him look like a vagabond.

Bard didn't even react to Alfrid words except for raising an eyebrow as he steered the boat under the gate, speaking to Alfrid without looking at him.

"It's a small town, Alfrid; everyone knows where everyone lives." Bard said in an almost bored sounding voice. I have to admit, Bard is right on that one. This Alfrid fellow seems more stupid than his slimeball attitude makes him if he makes a threat as dumb as that. I glanced once more as the weasel passed out of view, relaxing the tension in my body, but keeping my hands close to my knives just in case as I huddled my body together more. It icy air plus the drying water is make my foot feel more and more like a frigid ice cube. I can't feel my toes, that isn't a good thing, right?

I did my best to ignore the uncomfortable sensation like I could easily ignore the stinging coming from my cheek. While my cheeks and nose feel frozen, I could feel warmth slowly dripping down my cheek, telling my the wound ha either reopened or hadn't quite scabbed over just yet. I stared through the wet strands of my hair at the houses as they passed, the barge slowly moving down a water road, which makes sense of a water locked town.

I watched a young boy, very skinny, run up to a woman and hold out cloth as she cleaned her hands from carefully cutting up a fish for the most meat on the porch of a leaning, worn, old wood house. The houses all varieds, but were packed into small spaces like sardines. Rickety wooden bridges connected up the town by foot, a few small boats lifted up and out of the water, hanging by ropes in the air. I could see humans trading, some men arguing over prices or just arguing. A few children and a man were fighting right in the water road, one throwing a net out into the water after the barge passed.

Everywhere I looked there were citizens of this town going about their day, their clothes old worn and clearly had seen better days. Some had dull looks in their eyes and just about every one of them looked like they had not had a full meal in weeks. I gritted my teeth in rage at this Master of Laketown for treating his people like this. Greed, I bet that Master has half of all of their money in his townhouse.

I have seen a few villages like this on the road and those are the ones I did my best to help, be it beating up the ones that drain their money or the ones that prey on their weakness. They quickly learned I am not weak and I do not stand for such things. It took me time on some of the villages, but a few years after that things had improved greatly for the people of the village.

I seriously wanted to teach this Master of Laketown a lesson, but gritted my teeth and held my tongue, controlling my temper as I continued to hold up the acting, watching the leaning, old wood houses as the barge passed, seeing a few boats with roughly patched holes in the hull and sewn up sails with whatever material they could find. There people were clearly struggling for gold, I see why there is such a divide now.

And i can see why I person such as Bard wouldn't stand by and let this happen. He seems like quite the determined man, I am sure his persistence will one day shift the favor to that of the people. Probably why Weasel and the Master of Laketown don't like him. I watched a child easily jump along a wood pathway that needed a few new planks, easily dodging the holes between the planks even though he can't see his feet, his hands full of baskets.