Athena had not expected to be stuffed into a barrel again anytime soon, but here she was inside one of the barrels on Bard's barge doing everything she could to keep her head down. Her neck was aching and her back felt like it was about to snap in half.
"Shh, what's he doing?" Dwalin asked Bilbo, who was able to watch Bard at the docks through a hole in his barrel.
"He's talking to someone. And he's... pointing right at us. Now they're shaking hands," he informed them all of what he could see and it didn't look promising for the company.
"What?" Thorin seethed through his words.
"That villain! He's selling us out," added Dwalin, the same anger in his voice at the thought that Bard had betrayed them.
Athena closed her eyes and held her breath as she heard footsteps steadily approaching them, waiting for them to be found and thrown overboard or worse — taken to the Master himself. Instead she was forced to cover her head when feeling dead fish being dumped over her head, flinching each time their slimy scales came into contact with any section of her skin. She cupped her mouth with her hands to leave a section free where she would be able to breathe, swallowing down the bile that rose in her throat at the stench encasing her.
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It had only been a few minutes but it was a few minutes too long for her, each second she was trapped in the barrel with the fish was another second that she felt closer to throwing up what little remnants of food lay in her stomach. She heard a muffled complaint from one of the barrels, unable to tell who exactly it was from the fish impairing her hearing, a subdued thump resounding over the barge moments later.
"Quiet! We're approaching the toll gate," Bard reprimanded them, everyone falling silent at his order.
"Halt! Goods inspection. Papers please," the gatekeeper called out before making his way down to Bard and his fish-filled barrels, "oh it's you Bard."
"Morning, Percy."
"Anything to declare?"
"Nothing, but that I am cold and tired and ready for home."
"You and me both."
Athena impatiently waited inside the barrel for Percy to inspect the papers, sighing in relief when he told Bard it was all in order. Her sigh turned into a groan of frustration when the approval was interrupted by somebody else, his voice alone was enough for her to dislike him. He sounded more like a weasel than a man.
"Not so fast. Consignment of empty barrels from the Woodland Realm. Only, they're not empty, are they Bard?" He stepped slowly towards the barrels that were being used to conceal the anxious company, "if I recall correctly, you're licensed as a bargeman not... a fisherman."
"That's none of your business."
"Wrong. It is the Master's business, which makes it my business."
"Oh come on Alfrid, have a heart. People need to eat!"
"These fish are illegal," he threw the fish he had taken earlier from Bombur's barrel into the water, "empty the barrels over the side."
Panic rose in Athena as she heard the guards making their way towards them, picking up two of the barrels and beginning to throw the fish back into the lake from where they had come from. It was only a matter of time before one of them would be discovered and at that point their journey could come to an abrupt end, to think of that happening when they were so close to their destination broke her heart. She was not listening to the conversation between Bard and Alfrid, instead she was too focused on the multitude of splashes that reached her ears as the fish from the barrels were poured overboard and went crashing into the cold waters below.
![The Queen with no Crown [Hobbit] by Miss_Little_Fool](https://img.wattpad.com/cover/186657637-80-k504562.jpg)
"Stop," Alfrid hesitantly ordered his men. She relaxed when she could no longer hear the fish being pushed over the barge, the barrels being returned to their upright positions. "Ever the people's champion, eh Bard? Protector of the common folk? You might have their favour now bargeman, but it won't last."
"Raise the gate!" Percy yelled, the creaking sound of the gate opening like music to her ears.
"The Master has his eye on you. You'd do well to remember, we know where you live," Alfrid spat towards Bard while he poled his barge through the gate and into Lake-town.
"It's a small town Alfrid, everyone knows where everyone lives," he retorted, unbothered by the threats while Athena had to suppress a chuckle at his reaction.
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The barge came to a standstill as Bard docked it, warily glancing around to see if there were any guards in sight. When he was confident they were in the clear he kicked down one of the barrels, Nori falling out along with the pile of fish he had been rooming with, another barrel being kicked down as Dori slid out from its confines. However, Dwalin would not allow himself to be kicked like the others.
"Get your hands off me," he barked before emerging from the top of the barrel, the rest of them following suit.
Athena pushed herself out of the top, fish toppling over the sides while she coughed and gagged from the rotten smell that now clung to her clothing. She wiped her hands across herself to try and remove the slime that stuck to her, climbing out of the barrel in a hurry.
"Is that fish guts?" She heard Bofur say from beside her as he removed a piece of fish from her hair, her staring at it in disgust before he threw it to the side and the both of them made their way off the barge with the others.
"Stay close. Follow me," commanded Bard as he made his way through the group, leading them away from the barge and through the passageways of Lake-town with them following him as if he were the Pied Piper.
"What is this place?" Bilbo asked, looking around at everyone who was considerably taller than him.
"This, Master Baggins, is the world of Men," Thorin responded before they continued to meander their way through the busy streets, most were too occupied with their work to take notice of the new arrivals.
"Keep your heads down and keep moving," Bard advised them, ushering them past him.
"Halt!" Cried out a guard, the group stopping and turning to see him pointing over at them.
"Move!" Thorin ordered them all, wasting no time in taking off and away from the guard who was still trying to use his status to get them to stop.
They followed after their king, weaving their way through a market stall as they tried to lose the guard on their tails. Another one appeared in front of them causing them to slide to a stop as he made his way towards them angrily.
"Go back!"
They struggled to move in the other direction as they had all squashed up against each other, Ori hitting one of the nearing guards and sending him toppling over to the floor after tripping on Bombur who was knelt down behind him. The rest of them began to use whatever they could find to fight off the guards to allow them enough time to escape, Balin arming himself with an oar while Athena threw a piece of rope that she snatched from the top of a stall to Fili and Kili who proceeded to use it to trip off an unsuspecting guard before they pulled the unconscious men away from the immediate line of sight of anyone that would come searching.
Civilians looked on at the commotion that was happening, scattering themselves around the stalls once more when another group of guards came strolling down the boarded walkway, the company hiding themselves in the shadows in the hopes that they would walk past without suspecting anything was amiss.
