Bard's pov

I walked away from the working and over to the dwarves and the hobbit as I saw my Home was close. "The money, quick, give it to me." I ordered. One of the dwarves glanced at me. "We'll pay you when we get our provisions, but not before." He said  he seemed to be the leader of the group.

"If you value your freedom, you'll do as I say. There are guards ahead." I replied I got them into the barrels and I put an old coat of mine on the elfling. She was around the size of my eldest. She should be fine. I walk over to a fisher men. I keep the conversation short, stating I need all the barrels filled with fish. Before he could question me I gave him the bag of coins, making him go silent and rush to get the fish. I shake hands with him as his fellow fishermen fill the barrels

I get back on my barge and set back out on the lake, slowly guiding it to the gate of lake town. I glance over at as, she's been coughing for a bit since we left the fishermen's port. I see her pull away her hand to see the give stained black. She shakes slightly as I see her hide it quickly. I look away and pretend I saw nothing.

I heard one of the dwarves muttering in the barrels. I kicked the barrel close to me making the others shake as the ricocheted off eachother. "Quiet! We're approaching the toll gate." I told them. I composed my self as my barge came to a halt.

"Halt! Goods inspection. Papers, please. Oh, it's you, Bard." Percy shouts at me, smiling when he realises it's me. I brought my barge as close as possible to his little office and he cane out to me."Morning, Percy." I reply. "And this is one of your litter right? You'be gotten skinner. I swear she has" Percy said. Ash waved, playing along. "Aren't we all thinning my friend ?" I asked. He chuckled and nodded. Percy puts on a false serious tone as he tried to make me laugh yet I stifled it. "Anything to declare?" He asked. "Nothing, but that I am cold and tired, and ready for home." I told him as I handed him my papers. "You and me both" he told me as he took my papers, stamps them and looks at me warily.

"Here we are. All in order." He said. He holds out my papers, but someone suddenly steps out of the shadows and grabs the papers. It's alfred. I practically feel my heart drop "Not so fast." He says. He reads my papers and then looks at my load. He reads out in a slightly happy tone which irritates me to no end."Consignment of empty barrels from the Woodland Realm. Only, they're not empty, are they, Bard?". Alfrid tosses my papers to the wind and approaches me, some of Laketown's soldiers behind him."If I recall correctly, you're licensed as a bargeman, not a fisherman." As Alfrid says this, he picks up one of the fish from a barrel and holds it up to my face.. thankfully he doesn't see one of the dwarves' eyes looking up from the gap where the fish had been. " that's none of your business." I tell him. "Wrong. It's the Master's business, which makes it my business." He replies with a weird smile.

"Oh come on, Alfrid, have a heart. People need to eat!" I tell him. "These fish are illegal." He says as he throws the fish he was holding into the water, then commands the soldiers "Empty the barrels over the side.". I see the soldiers move to the barrels and before they grab them, just in time I see ash reach for her sword and go to leap at them. I stick my foot out to trip her and then I grab her as if she had slipped. "Carful. The boat is wet. You could have broken your neck, have I taught you nothing today ?" I say to her, I give her a stern look in the eyes to give her the message to stop. She nods slowly and I help her up. "You heard him. Into the canal. Come on, get a move on." The captain orders and obviously the soldiers comply. My mind begins to race. The soldiers begin tipping the barrels over and letting the fish fall into the canal.

"Folk in this town are struggling. Times are hard. Food is scarce." I say as they walk past me."That's not my problem." Alfrid replies. "And when the people hear the Master is dumping fish back in the lake, when the rioting starts, will it be your problem then?" I ask, glaring at him.

We stare at each other intensely for a few seconds, then finally Alfrid raises his hand to the soldiers. "Stop." He orders. The soldiers stop and leave. the fish covering the dwarves was still there. Only the top layer had fallen off. "Ever the people's champion, eh, Bard? Protector of the common folk? You might have their favor now, bargeman, but it won't last." Alfrid says to me before finally getting off my boat

I sigh in replies as I hear Percy order for the gate to be raised and I get into the waters of Home. Just before I'm out of earchot Alfrid screams "The Master has his eye on you; you'd do well to remember. We know where you live!". "It's a small town, Alfrid; everyone knows where everyone lives." I reply, smirking slightly as he storms off. "I know see why father hates this place.. if that's what the master's right hand man acts like i'd hate To see how he acts.. " I heard ash say. "Have you ever even been here yourself ? Ignoring him and the shortage of food it's a nice town" I told her. "My mother would take me and my brother to dale to get toys.. we'd play on the floor with the king's children.. they were only babies at the time of the attack.. I wonder if they even survived.. so much fire and death.. he didn't even cover my eyes.. I remember someone screaming for us to help them.. I tried to go down but he just.. picked me up and left.." she said. "They survived. Don't worry" I promised her.

Hey guys !! So so so sorry for the late update. I had the entire chapter written out on my phone and then there was a glitch so I couldn't copy and paste it so I had to redo it on my computer and I'm sorry it took so long but everything's sorted now and chapters will once again come out as frequent as possible ! 😊

Lil'nightfury