"The things we love destroy us every time, lad. Remember that."
Fairies are one of the oldest race of beings in Arda -once they called Numenór home- but Arethusa watched as the sea claimed the island from the helm of a ship as the survivors fled to...
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BALIN had bartered with the bargeman, with a pretty price and over a dozen feelings of uncertainty in regards to their newest accomplice the company of Thorin Oakenshield found themselves stuffed into barrels and covered with fish. The smell was horrid, it would take weeks before she would be able to rid her hair and skin of the scent of dead fish, some half rotting. Yet again Arethusa and Thorin were sharing a barrel, through the wooden drill hole she could see the toll gate of Laketown and the dreary wooden town. From the other barrels, there were groans and grumbles of discomfort and disgust.
They had passed into the town and came to a dock, the bargeman tipped over her and Thorin's barrel, covered in fish slime and polluted water the dwarf and fairy stood. Bard flipped a coin to the dock worker as a bribe to keep quiet about the presence of dwarves in town. The Master of the Lake would not approve of their presence, yet the bargeman led then over wooden bridges and paths.
Bard stopped and turned back to the dwarves, fairy, and hobbit. "She may come with me, she looks to be my youngest daughter. The rest of you will have to wait for the signal." Arethusa was glad but worried, Thorin looked at her with concern only she nodded and he trusted her judgment.
The fairy and bargeman walked towards the house he had pointed out to be his own, it was hardly anything special, the boards were rotting in some places and missing in others, the wood looked to be centuries old. Beyond his home was the shores of the Long Lake, the ruins of a bigger town could be seen rotting away along the shore. She remembered the town as it had been in its glory days. It was a trading center, the market stalls used to be overflowing with spices and silks, now it was but a shell of its former self.
Bard placed his hand on his shoulder, bringing her into his coat as a father would his child. A pang of jealousy festered within Thorin at the sight of them walking away. "What are their names?" She could not help but be curious.
Arethusa tottered along on the creaking wooden planks, she looked up at Bard. "Tilda, Sigrid, and Bain." She smiled but it faded when they passed a market stall, a withered old man was trying to sell tapestries, the next stall over contained days old fish, the town reeked of raw sewage and fish.
"How do the folk in this town fair?" She knew the answer to the question before she had even asked, but for some reason she did, if only to be sure that her eyes were not deceiving her.
The bargeman shook his head already knowing what her intentions would be, "You are kind for wishing to help but it is best if you do not draw attention to yourself, the Master has spies hidden everywhere." The fairy's eyes darted around, true there were unsavory characters lurking about, but if they were spies she could not say.
"Of course." She nodded with a grim smile and looked towards the city's center, "Though I wager I could go unseen." Bard looked down at her, a small smirk pulling at his lips, he quite liked the fairy, not that he knew her to be such, compared to the company she traveled with. They came to his home and for a moment she stopped, looking up at the structure.
