Elves and Dwarves (part 2)

Sneaking in

"All this talk of civil unrest; someone's been stirring the pot, sire." Alfred said as he was in the Master's bedchamber, and the Master had just woken up and was standing in his nightgown. Alfrid emptied the Master's chamberpot out a window. The Master groaned and moaned as he stumbled about, then sat down, rubbing his knees.

"Gah! Auh!"

"Gout playing up, sire?" Alfrid asked

"It's the damp. It's the only possible explanation. Now get me a brandy."

Alfrid moved to comply.

"The mood of the people, sire, it's turning ugly."

"They're commoners, Alfrid. They've always been ugly. It's not my fault that they live in a place that stinks of fish oil and tar. Jobs, shelter, food, that's all they ever bleat about."

Alfrid handed the Master a glass of brandy, and he drank it all in one shot.

"It's my belief, sire, they're being lead on by troublemakers."

"Then we must find these troublemakers and arrest them!" The Master said

Alfrid and the Master, who was now dressed, descended to the Master's study. The Master was drinking another glass.

"My thoughts exactly, sire."

"And all this talk of change must be suppressed. I can't afford to let them rebel, band together and start making noises. The next thing you know, they'll start asking questions, forming committees, launching inquiries." The Master growled

At his desk, the Master poured yet another tall glass of brandy.

"Out with the old, in with the new."

"What?"

"That's what they've been saying, sire. There is even talk of an election."

"An election!? That's absurd. I won't stand for it."

As the Master walked away, Alfrid spoke softly such that only he can hear.

"I don't think they'd ask you to stand, sire."

The Master opened glass doors and walked out onto his balcony, looking over Laketown. He muttered to himself.

"Shirkers. Ingrates. Rabble-rousers. Who would have the nerve to question my authority? Who would dare? Who....Bard. You mark my words, that trouble-making bargeman is behind all this."

.....

Meanwhile, Bard docked his barge. After looking around, he knocked over one of the barrels, and a dwarf fell out along with a pile of fish. Bard continued knocking over barrels. He reached for Dwalin's barrel, but Dwalin poked his head up through the fish.

"Get your hands off me."

The remaining dwarves and Bilbo struggled out of their barrels, looking greasy and slimy from the fish. The dock keeper looked on in shock. Bard approached him and slipped him a coin.

"You didn't see them, they were never here. The fish you can have for nothing."

Bard led the Company away.

"Follow me."

A woman working on a boat happened to look up and she saw the dwarves running through Laketown in the distance. She looked shocked.

As they strode through Laketown, Bard's son, Bain, ran up to Bard.

"Da! Our house, it's being watched.

Bard looked at Thorin and hatched a plan.

Bard and his son walked along back to their house. As they walked, a fisherman in a boat saw them and dropped his eyepatch over one eye, then knocked with his staff on a wall nearby. Upon this signal, two boys ran from the wall, and one knocked over a contraption which caused a hammer to hit a bell. At this signal, another man lit a match to light his pipe. He turned and looked at two men in a fishing boat right next to Bard's house, and they noded and switched their poles to the opposite sides of the boat than before. They did this just as Bard and Bain got to their house and entered through the door. Just before Bard entered, he tossed an apple to one of the fisherman.