Of The Sun (The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings/LOTR)

Pt. 1 - Chapter 20 - The Duty of the Light

"To the mountain. We're so close." Bilbo spoke.

"A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it." Balin answered.

"So then we go around."

Fili tightened the rag on Kili's leg. And was about to step back when Ana reached out her hand, touching the cloth and whispering something so gently they could not hear, not that they would have understood it if they could. Her hand retracted and Kili gave her a curious look.

"I need herbs to heal something like this and take out any infection but that should take some of the pain and slow down anything that might make it worse. That swim probably didn't do you any favours and orc weapons are rarely clean. Do not keep it to yourself if you think it's getting worse." She said finally and seriously before rising to her feet, placing a 'you're welcome' hand on his shoulder as she did in response to his thank you as Fili smiled reassuringly at his brother.

"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight." Dwalin was saying. "With no weapons to defend ourselves."

"We have two minutes." Thorin argued. "We must keep moving."

"No." Ana whispered, standing to attention. She was looking down the river to where the orcs were to come from as if expecting them to come leaping out of the bush. "I can feel something watching." She turned last minute as everyone else followed her gaze. A man stepped over a large rock, looking down on them and sneaking up quieter than Ana would have normally given any human credit for. He held a bow, aiming it at Ori. Dwalin stepped in with a large stick. The man shot the arrow and lodged it into the wood as Fili raised a rock to throw and he turned on him quickly and shot it out of his hand before drawing a third.

"Do it again and you're dead." He warned.

"Excuse me, but um... but you're from Lake Town if I'm not mistaken." Balin spoke before any of his less eloquent companions could, stepping forward with his hands raised in surrender. "That barge over there... it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?" Balin asked, bringing everyone's attention to a boat a little down river, now visible behind the man and over the other side of the rock he stood on. The man scoffed and walked away, heading for the barge.

"What makes you think I would help you?"

"Those boots have seen better days. As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed." Balin bribed as the man began to land the empty barrels on to his barge. "How many bairns?"

"A boy and two girls." He answered.

"And you're wife, I imagine she's a beauty."

"Aye. She was." He paused as Balin face dropped.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to-"

"Oh, come on. come on." Dwalin interrupted impatiently. "Enough of the niceties."

"What's your hurry?"

"What's it to you?" Dwalin, Ana had come to realise, had many great attributes and loyalty was perhaps chiefest among them, but... a good first impression was something he rarely left.

"I would like to know who you are and what you're doing in these lands."

"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains. Journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills." Balin explained, taking from the lie Ana had earlier told Legolas.

"Simple merchants you say?"

"We need food." Thorin spoke. "Supplies. Weapons. Can you help us?" Weapons was where he went wrong and the man looked to the barrels he had been loading up.