An Experiment Gone Wrong

Chapter 17 - Lake Town (part 2)

Once Bard had parked the Barge where he thought no one would see 13 Dwarves and one Hobbit leave barrels of fish he declared the area safe for the men to leave their hiding spots. With multiple quiet groans of "I smell horrible" and "finally, I was starting to go crazy" the dwarves and Bilbo left the barrels and boy was Mara glad to see them again. 

She helped Bilbo out of his Barrel by dragging him under his arms which made him blush out of slight embarrassment that she had to help him in such a childish way. Fili helped his brother out of his barrel and Mara took her place among the men after grabbing her hidden bag. She would need to change soon, but hopefully she could get somewhere private without being spotted by any of the townsfolk. 

"Stay close," Bard said before looking around the corner of the house into the small marketplace filled with people. "Follow me." He said taking off. 

"What is this place?" Bilbo asked curiously to which he received an answer by a very disgusted Thorin to which Mara had to think that she felt the same way. This was sickening. 

"Welcome to the world of men Master Baggins."

Mara followed Bard, trying to stay close and out of sight as he had commanded. She was surprised that she was much tinier than these men and didn't look all too much like an elf even in elvish clothing. She almost looked like a Dwarf who had just finished vacationing in the elvish lands and she low-key hated it. 

"Keep your heads down and keep moving," Bard said pausing so that the other Dwarves wouldn't get lost and he could relay the message to them. 

They moved for a short time with only one skirmish with the town guards. No one died - Mara hoped - but she was sure that they would all have massive headaches by the time they woke back up. 

Mara stood silently, her back against the nearest wall and Thorin's back against her front. She was BLUSHING at the contact but she knew that now was not the time to freak out. The head of the guards was here and searching for them, but the townsfolk were almost more than willing to help hide their destruction. They covered bodies with potted plants and baskets of rope as soon as the guard went to pass by and when Bard jumped out they were quick to help him out. 

"What are you up to Bard?" The guard asked but Bard was smarter. He grabbed a dress and held it out to the guard. "This would look great on your wife," he said smiling like he was about to make a funny joke. 

"What do you know of my wife?" The guard asked cautiously.

"Nothing more than any other man in this town," he said shrugging, not caring when the dress was ripped out of his grasp. 

This made Mara want so bad to laugh. To stop herself from making any noise, she buried her head into Thorin's neck and gripped his arms tightly. This made the King blush and feel a weird feeling deep down inside him. Longing? Need? All he knew was that this feeling was not one he had ever felt in his one hundred and ninety-five years of life and he needed it to go away if he was going to be able to think properly enough to lead his men out of this shit. 

Thankfully that interaction caused the guard to leave while he still had some pride in him and the Dwarves were able to get to the bottom of the house Bard shared with someone. After some disdain from the others Bard was able to convince them to come up through the toilet in the house. This way they were almost undetectable. 

Mara was the first to go up. She tried not to reveal anything too important through her dress which she had to admit, got in the way more than it helped in this case. Thorin and Dwalin were underneath her helping to push her up but also to shield her body from the other dwarves view.