Your POV

"Are you okay?" Fili asked as I nodded and shakily stood to my feet and looked around at out surroundings.

Kili was sitting on the floor clutching his leg and the dwarves were scattered around the little island we appeared to be on.

"I'm fine, it's nothing." Kili said as he shook off Bofurs worried glance and I looked over at him and noticed he was in extreme pain.

"On your feet." Thorin said.

"Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding." Fili said.

"There's an orc pack on our tail; we keep moving." Thorin said.

"To where?" balin spoke up.

"To the mountain; we're so close." Bilbo also spoke up.

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

"So then we go around." Bilbo said offering up his idea.

"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin said looking at the hobbit.

"Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes." Thorin said and looked around quickly.

I watched the exchange before I looked at the seal on my hand and I felt a burning sensation in my mind before I was brought to another memory.

15 years old // Flashback

I laughed as Fili and kili bowed before me before pretending to drive a carriage with Kili being the driver and Fili being the carriage man.

He pretended to open a door and held his hand out and I took his hand in mine and gave a small curtsey before holding up the hem of my dress slightly and stepping inside.

"Where to miss?" Fili asked.

I pretended to think for a while before replying with a smile.

"To the stars" I said as Fili clicked his fingers and we started moving in our imaginary carriage all while laughing.

We stopped and sat down on the grass while laughing at our game.
"Where would you really go?" Kili asked as he tilted his head to the side slightly.

"To the top of a mountain to see the stars at night" I said as I looked up at the dark cloudy sky above us.

"I would find the brightest star..." I said before cutting myself off.

"And what? What's wrong?" Kili asked as he and Fili looked at me before I shook my head and flashed them a smile.

"It's nothing"

End of Flashback

I shook myself out of the memory that suddenly came back and I looked back at the dwarves to see a man standing on a rock with an arrow pointed at them.

"Do it again, and you're dead." he said and I frowned as i made my way closer to the dwarves but much slower.

"Excuse me, but, uh, you're from Laketown, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?" Balin asked as he walked forward with his hands up slowly.

The man lowered his bow and I noticed that there was a barge on the river and then i thought about how we didn't notice him sneaking up on us.

The man climbed upon his barge as we slowly followed and I stood next to Bilbo.

"What makes you think I will help you?" he asked.

"Those boots have seen better days." Balin said and I glanced at the man's shoes and noticed they were in fact a bit tattered.

The man started to load the empty barrels onto his barge before Balin spoke up again.

"As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?" Balin said.

"A boy and two girls." The man spoke and that was when I noticed he had shoulder length black hair and facial hair. He was rather good looking and his wife must be proud to have him as her husband.

"And your wife, I'd imagine she's a beauty." Balin said keeping the small talk up in the hopes of getting the man on our side.

"Aye. She was." he said as he stopped for a moment with a forlorn face and Balins smile faded.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Balin said as he was cut off by Dwalin whispering loudly to Thorin.

"Oh, come on, come on, enough with the niceties." Dwalin said.

"What's your hurry?" the man asked.

"What's it to you?" Dwalin spoke back quickly.

"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands." The man said.

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

"Simple merchants, you say?" he said and then glanced over the group before his eyes landed on my figure standing next to Bilbo.

"And what about her? She seems like she's out of place in your little group" he said as I scowled.

"She is apart of our company and she has a friend who she would like to see in the Iron Hills" Balin said quickly.

Thorin quickly changed the subject as he spoke up as the man's eyes glanced at him.

"We'll need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?" He said.

As the man examined the barrels I felt a sharp pain in my side and noticed it was Bilbos elbow.

"What is that on your hand?" He asked as he looked at my hand that was holding my arm.

I looked down at the back of my hand and noticed the symbol was in full view so I pulled my shirt sleeve down till it covered it slightly.

"It's nothing" I whispered back as Bilbo looked at my hand again and then back at my face.

"It's doesn't look like just anything, (Your Name)" he said as Fili glanced over at us whispering.

"I promise it's nothing...at least nothing bad" I said as he decided not to pursue the subject matter further.

"I know where these barrels came from." Bard said as he examined the scratches and dents in the barrels.

"What of it?" Thorin said.

"I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well. No one enters Laketown but by leave of the Master. All his wealth comes from trade with the Woodland Realm. He will see you in irons before risking the wrath of King Thranduil." Bard said as he climbed on his barge.

"Offer him more." Thorin mouthed to Balin.

"I'll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen." Balin said as Bard looked at him.

"Aye. But for that, you will need a smuggler." Bard said as he moved the barrel around.

"For which we will pay double." Balin said quickly.

Bard looked at him suspiciously buy his eyes narrow before he sighs and gives in before allowing us on board his barge.

Fili climbed on after the line and offered his hand out in which I took and smiled with a small nod.

I moved to sit next to Bilbo and glanced at all the dwarves as they regarded the man with wary eyes.

Bilbo and I were sitting at the front and were hidden by the mass amount of barrels. I turned my head to look at the bargeman before sighing.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

I decided to find out who he was and to also appear less hostile unlike the other dwarves who kept their distance and to also find out if we could trust him.

"Bard. My name is Bard" he said as he steered us through the water.

"My name is (Your Name) and this is Bilbo" I said gesturing to the hobbit next to me as Bard gave a glance backwards and nodded.

A few minutes passed and I noticed the fog seemed impenetrable as I couldn't seen anything around us.

But then what looked to be stone formations suddenly appeared through the fog as they loomed over the small barge.

"Watch out!" Bofur cried out as we came very close to one of these stone figures.

Bard poles the barge through the stone formations and with a closer look they look to be ancient ruins but from what I have no idea.

"What are you trying to do, drown us?" Thorin growled out.

"I was born and bred on these waters, Master Dwarf. If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here." Bard said.

'Well that's reassuring' i thought sarcastically as I looked at the dwarves and then Bard.

"Oh I have enough of this lippy lakeman. I say we throw him over the side and be done with him." Dwalin said.

For some reason Dwalin always seemed to be the one who would get angry rather easily which was amusing to watch sometimes.

I smirked slightly and then regained my composure before I would receive any weird looks but luckily I didn't as I quickly glanced around.

"Ohh, Bard, his name's Bard." Bilbo answered Dwalin rather angrily which snapped me out my weird trance.

"How do you know?" Bofur asked.

"Uh, because (Your Name) asked him" Bilbo said as I tried to avoid eye contact with any of the dwarves and I ended up staring at my feet noticing the scuffs and scratches on my leather knee high boots.

"I don't care what he calls himself, I don't like him." Dwalin said to Thorin as Thorin seemed to agreed.

"We do not have to like him, we simply have to pay him. Come on now, lads, turn out your pockets. (Your Name, you don't need too" Balin said as I smiled.

I still looked in my pockets and pulled out a few coins that I had left nd handed them towards Balin.

"Lass I told you.." Balin said before I cut him off.

"I can't just not help Balin. Besides I don't really have a use for them anymore since I'm with you all" I said as he smiled.

I sat down next to Bilbo and smiled at him as I played with the sleeves of my white shirt.

"There's, um, just a problem: we're ten coins short." Balin said as he looked around.

"Gloin. Come on. Give us what you have." said Thorin folding his arms.

"Don't look to me. I have been bled dry by this venture! And what have I seen for my investment? Naught but misery and grief and-" gloin said before stopping.

Everyone slowly stood up and gloin shut his mouth once he seen what everyone was looking at. I frowned before turning as well and staring at the lonely mountain.

I wasn't born there but my parents were before smaug attacked so I've never set foot in Erebor but I remember hearing stories from my parents before my mother died and my father sealed my memories.

However, I knew the majority of dwarves here called this place home because it was the place they grew up in.

It may have only been my parents home and not mine...but I would still call this place home because I don't have anything else to return too.

But Erebor could be that place I could return too... a place I can home.

I suddenly remember those words from a memory...

"A place where someone still thinks of you. That's a place you can call home..."

"Do you have somewhere to return too?'

"You're the one i can return too"

/ / /

Update changed from Tuesday to Thursday becuase of college.