A Place to Belong

Chapter 30: Laketown

"Are you all right?" Kili asked in a quiet whispered tone. He moved to place a hand on hers, she retracted her hands and rubbed them together taking a step back as she did so.

"I'm fine, Kili." She answered harshly, looking down she added, "Just... I'd like to be alone."

His face dropped as she said the words. Lethargically he turned to look out at the never-ending body of water, which they glided across. Braerka felt a stinging pang of regret as he moved away, but true to her resolve she resisted the urge to embrace him.

She lingered for a moment before heading to the stern of the small schooner, coming to rest at Bard's side. She felt him give her a sideways glance before carrying on as if she wasn't there at all. It didn't bother her, right now she'd rather that no one knew who she was or even acknowledge her. She peered out across the vast lake they hovered on and longed for the tides to just swallow them all whole. Or at least just her.

There was suddenly a break in the heavy clouds to the south. A black smouldering tower of smoke stained the reddening sky, still rising higher into the far reaches of the atmosphere. Her gloomy spell broke and she recalled her earlier urgency feeling it return and swell in her chest. Braerka then recalled Thorin's promise.

"If we have time we will go to Windermere" he had told her. That promise had once seemed the best option but now going alone was feeling like an even better one. The more distance she could get between them the better.

"If I had to guess I'd say that was Windermere alight." Bard spoke solemnly, startling Braerka. "Poor souls, probably the work of bandits and the like... or perhaps worse."

Braerka felt an increase in her guilt at the mention of 'Bandits'. Carsen and his troop couldn't' possibly still be after her, and there would be even smaller a chance that they could have covered that distance faster than her. It had been months since that escapade. Even still she couldn't' help but wonder was Windermere's plight all down to her. If not because of Carsen then because of something else? A sudden wave of responsibility fell on her once more, if anyone could and should help it was her.

"What's the quickest way to Windermere from here?" she hastily asked Bard. He seemed stunned by the sudden question but answered it none-the-less.

"You would do best to follow the lake south, it will take you right to it." He replied, "You're not thinking of going there, are you?"

Braerka nodded, and spoke in an almost whisper looking south, "Someone has to."

As she said the words another bout of sickness swept over her, this time she successfully quelled it. Somehow, she knew that there was something far worse than a little seasickness coming her way, and she wanted to be ready for it.

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Thorin gazed out longingly from the bow of Bard's boat. He pondered not on what had happened but what was nearly within arm's reach of him. Erebor, was but another month's journey ahead of him, a few weeks if they hurried and had no delays. He turned and gazed over his exhausted troop, drained beyond belief and somehow mostly still conscious. He held his gaze on his youngest nephew. Kili, who was normally so jovial even at the worst of times, was curled up against the starboard side his head buried in his hands knotting through his hair. There was only one thing that could cause it to cross Thorin's mind and he found her and helm beside their host. 'Bard' was conversing with her, theirs voices a low murmur over the creaking of the woods and sails and sloshing of the water against the small boat cutting through it.

Thorin followed Braerka's gaze and allowed his eyes to rest upon the dark looming cloud a head. He sighed. The hope that she would have forgotten about that place left his mind as quickly as it entered. If he knew her, and he had once, he knew that she would drop everything to get there. Her stubbornness and sense of duty was much like his in this regard; and he had an inkling of an idea as to why Kili wasn't at her side. Inseparable though they'd been the past few weeks and this sudden shift could mean only one thing; she had a goal and it didn't involve Kili.