Walking Between Dreams

Chapter 11

Early morning rays broke from the looming clouds as we made our way to the center of Lake-town. In the distance I could hear birds calling out the new day, the scent of fish became overwhelming. The grasp from the human man tightened as I stumbled on the wooden slabs that were uneven and creaked with each step.

"What were you thinking?!" demanded Bard from afar as we approached a crowd of people.

The company and I were thrust to stand before a plump man who wore excessive golden jewelry laced with rare gems from foreign lands along with Alfred who stood triumphantly. The two glowered upon us as Thorin defiantly stared back with the rest of dwarves ruffling uncomfortably.

The large man introduced himself as the lord of Lake-town and smiled widely, "There will be punishment for these following crimes: theft, trespassing, and vandalism."

"Excuse me, but I believe there was an accomplice," piped in Alfred with satisfaction.

"Yes, yes Bard will be charged too." the lord began while waving his hand, "He causes too many issues."

Behind him I watched Alfred nod his head in agreement, bitter anger welled as I watched this man. Bard played a role, but he did not deserve this. He has a family who need him and he only helped us to support his family. My thoughts silently wandered back to the embrace they shared as I stared up past the lord's head to the large brown building behind him. Giant windows reflected the rays into cascading rainbows that decorated the air and blinded me.

I stepped forward and twisted together a web of lies without a care of consequences, "I held Bard at knife point and forced him to allow me onto the boat. The dwarves were caught in my plan by mistake and have no partake in it"

All of the men stared at me and the lord muttered as if me never met a women with an opinion, "Elaborate now, I want to know more."

"My goal was to come and steal the supposed gold from the Misty Mountain. By coincidence, I met the dwarves on the road and traveled with them for a bit," I weaved together with one more fib after the other, "I was going to leave them for dead in Lake-town as I went to wake the dragon and steal the gold. I was going to do it at night, thus the people of this city would never know what was coming.".

"How would you convince the dragon to burn down my town," questioned the lord.

"I would make a bargain with him," I replied already knowing what would happen, "for more treasure than he would ever know. I know where the greatest treasures are kept in this world."

The lord stared at me with a questionable look; however, before he could speak Thorin stepped forward and bellowed, "I am Thorin Oakenshield, King of Under the Mountain. The girl is nonsensical and knows nothing about these affairs, except I can bring you riches from your wildest of dreams."

"Do not listen to them!" Bard exclaimed with urgency, "The dragon will burn down Lake-town if woken."

Thorin enticed the greedy lord, "Yes, that is possible. On the contrary Lake-town will be flooded with gold again..."

As the story should go Thorin continued his classic speech that set the world of Arda into a downfall the spiraled into war and chaos. And the lord would only remember about the promised fortunes, not his people.

Bard grabbed a hold of me and guided me to safety during the excitement of Thorin's speech with wild eyes. He undid the ropes that held my wrists together, I rubbed my skin in relief with blood flowing again.