Soulmates

Lake Town

 We approach the toll gate and Bard pulls up by the pier, an elderly man walks out a tumbled down building and smiles "Bard, lovely to see you." he nods his head "Percy." he hands over his papers and Percy stamps them and goes to hand them back when a small man with greasy hair grabs them and says in a croaky voice "Not so fast these say you're delivering empty barrels from the woodland realm.

He scowls "The whole village is starving its just a bit of extra food." The two start arguing and I scowl drawing one of my swords and approaching the small man "I suggest you hand him back his papers now." he scowls but his eyes gives him away, he is scared "Who are you?" I smile under my hood "Someone you shouldn't make an enemy of." he turns very pale but hands Bard back his papers before scurrying away. I smile and walk back over to Bard. He continues through the town before tipping the barrels over onto the deck the dwarves, Bilbo and fish covering it. 

Bard pays a man several coins for the fish and his silence and I follow them through the town. He sends the dwarves around the back and I follow him through the front door. Sigrid and Tilda run forward and hug their father tightly. Tilda looks at me curiously "Who is with you?" I smile and push down my hood. She squeals and runs forward hugging me tightly "Sigrid look its Ely." I smile hugging Tilda "It's good to see you again." the dwarves all come trodding in to the house. Sigrid looks confused "Da why is our house full of dwarves?" he sighs "They are Elysian's friends." 

She nods sighing "We're going to need to buy more food." Bard nods and hands her some coins "Be back soon." she leaves with Bain and the dwarves all sit down around the house "We need weapons." he nods and takes out fishing pikes and some other small weapons. Thorin scowls "What are these?" Bard sighs "The best weapons you will be able to get without the Master of Lake Towns help." the dwarves all grumble and I sit by the window Tilda skips over and sits on my lap "Have you got any new stories?" I smile "What sort of story?" she smiles "One about magic."

I nod and tell her a short story about Gandalf's fireworks. She grins and Sigrid and Bain walk back into the house balancing baskets of food. Tilda jumps down and I follow the three of them into the kitchen. Bain leaves and I help Sigrid prepare the food and start cooking. She smiles "It's nice to have help." I smile and she grins "Can you make some of those little apple pastries again?" I smile "Of course." she grins and I start making pastry and peeling and cutting several apples into thin slices. She takes the bowl of finished stew and buttered bread over to the main table. Tilda walks over and I hand her a stack of bowls taking the others myself. We lay them on the table and Bain walks over with spoons. 

Leaving the dwarves and the children to eat I walk back into the kitchen wrapping the apple in the pastry and put them on a tray. I put it over the fire to cook and start washing up leaving everything to dry on the side. Sigrid walks over holding out a bowl of stew "Thank you." she nods and eat several mouthfuls not feeling very hungry. I leave the rest and take the pastries of the fire pushing them onto a plate and taking them out to the dwarves. I let Bain, Sigrid and Tilda take one first before putting them on the table for the dwarves to eat. 

I sit with Sigrid and Tilda by the window and talk quietly with them while the dwarves devour the food on the table. Dwalin walks over to Bard "Thank you." he smiles slightly "Don't thank me, my daughter is the cook in this house." he bows his head slightly "Thank you lass." Sigrid smiles brightly at him and the dwarves all lounge around the room falling asleep or sitting there talking to each other quietly. 

Tilda grabs my hand "Will you tell us a bed time story?" I smile and nod. She grins and drags me to her and Sigrid's room. Sigrid walks in with a bowl of water and places it on the floor. I sit behind it and the two of them sit on one of the beds. I close my eyes lifting the water from the bowl and forming little pictures to illustrate the story.