The 16th Member (the hobbit fanfic)

The Bargeman

Chapter 6
The Bargeman

Fili's POV:

"I'm fine, it's nothing." Kili insisted.

"On your feet." Thorin commanded.

"Kili's wounded, his leg needs binding." I retorted.

"There's an Orc pack at our tail. We keep moving."

"To where?" Balin asked.

"To the mountain, we're so close." Bilbo said.

"A lake lies between us and that mountain, we have no way to cross it." Balin then said.

"The Orcs will run us down as sure as daylight. We've no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin chimed in.

I watched as Thorin looked at Kili who struggled even to sit properly and then at me.

"Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes." Thorin finally decided.

I quickly began to help my brother with his wound. Suddenly, Kili picked up a stone and stood up with it in his hands. I looks up and saw a man with a large bow. He turned to Kili and shot an arrow that knocked the rock out of his hand.

"Do it again and you're dead." He said, keeping his arrow locked on us.

"Excuse me, but um...you're from Lake-town, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire by any chance?" Balin asked.

Bard began to walk away after lowering his bow and the Company followed him to his barge. I made sure Kalea was following us before leaving. There was just something about her that made me hate elves just a little less.

"What makes you think I would help you?" The bargeman asked, loading our tattered barrels onto his boat.

"Those boots have seen better days, as has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed? How many bairns?"

The bargeman continued loading the barrels and quickly casted a glance at us.

"A boy and two girls." He replied.

Balin smiled.

"And your wife, I imagine, she's a beauty?" He then asked.

The Bargeman's face then became sullen."Aye, she was." He replied, looking down.

The smile that was on Balin's face immediately dropped. I also became sorrowful. I looked at Kalea who seemed more upset than the whole Company combined.

"Kalea," I whispered.

She turned xtowards me and I saw a tear fall from her bright blue eye.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"My mother...she is...no longer here either." She replied.

"Oh..." I simply responded and touched her shoulder. "It's ok." I said, trying to be nice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Balin began and was cut off by Dwalin's impatience.

"Oh, come on, come on. Enough with the niceties." He complained.

"What's your hurry?" The bargeman asked.

"What's it to you?"

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

"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains, journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills." Balin lied.

"Simple merchants, you say?" The bargeman replied with a smirk on his face.

"We need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?" Thorin asked.

"I know where these barrels came from." The bargeman then said.

"What of it?"

"I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well. No one enters Lake-town but by lead of the master. All his wealth comes from trade with the Woodland realm. He would see you in irons before risking the wrath of king Thranduil."

"I'll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen." Balin argued.

"Aye. But for that you would need a smuggler."

"For which we would pay double."

The bargeman looked at Balin with a certain newfound interest.

Not seconds later the bargeman allowed us to come on board for a certain amount of money. Kalea sat down quietly on the side of the boat. I walked over to her as the barge took off into deeper water.

"Kalea, I'm sorry about your mother." I said.

She looked at me and smiled. "It's ok, it was very long ago. My brother would remember it better, but sometimes I remember what she looks like and what her voice sounded like when she would sing me to sleep." She explained looking off somewhere else. "She was beautiful too." She finished.

"You must get it from her then?" I ask.

WHERE DID THAT COME FROM, FILI! I thought, mentally kicking myself.

She looked at me, shocked and then turned away, looking out at the water that rolled in small waves from the barge's crossing.

Great, I totally blew it.