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*Cassy's POV*

"What makes you think that I would help you?" Bard asked as he turned his back on Balin and walked over to his boat with the rest of us quickly following behind him.

"Well for starters those boots have seen better days, that coat too. I've no doubt that you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many children?" Said Balin as he quickly walked up to Bard.

"Three. A boy and two girls." Bard said. I smiled, I remembered the last time I saw Bard, his son Bain might still remember me along with his eldest daughter Sigrid but Tilda was only a toddler so I doubted that she would remember me. I really want to see them again.

"And your wife, I imagine, is a beauty?" Said Balin who was obviously trying to soften up Bard but after mentioning Bard's wife I knew how upsetting the topic was for Bard.

"Aye... She was." Said Bard who had stopped loading the now-empty-barrels on to his barge to look down at the ground with an expressionless gaze.

"Oh... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-" Balin began to apologize but was cut off by his brother, Dwalin.

"Oh enough of the niceties." Muttered Dwalin which caused Bard to look up at him with a frown.

"What's your hurry?" Bard asked.

"What's it to you?" Dwalin retorted.

"I'd like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands?" Asked Bard as he stood up straighter.

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

"Simple merchants, you say?" Said Bard as he raised his eyebrows obviously knowing that it wasn't true.

"We need food, supplies and weapons. Can you help us?" Asked Thorin who was being surprisingly nice.

Bard glanced at him before he ran his hands over the marks on the barrels where arrows had pierced the wood. "I know where these barrels came from." He said.

"What of it?" Replied Thorin.

"I do not know what business you had with the elves but I don't think that it ended well." Said Bard. "No one enters Laketown without word from the Master. All his wealth comes from trade with the Woodland Realm. He would see you all in irons before risking the wrath of King Thranduil."

"I bet there's a way to enter that town unseen?" Said Balin.

"Aye... but for that you'd need a smuggler." Bard replied.

"For which we'd pay double." Said Balin.

"I'm sorry but I'm not very popular with the Master and if he found out that I smuggled you in, well my children and I would have a much harder life than we already do." Said Bard as he loaded the last barrel on to his barge.

I shared a look with Caspian and he gestured for me to go and talk to Bard. I rolled my eyes and walked past the others, gently patting Balin on the shoulder, he seemed to have been the only one making the effort to be nice to Bard.

I felt everyone watching me when I stepped on to the barge and walked up to Bard. He smiled at me slightly.

"Please Bard. We really have to get into Laketown." I whispered so that the others couldn't hear me.

"Cassandra, why should I risk being locked up in jail just to help a group of dwarfs that I don't even know?" He said.

"They aren't just some random dwarfs, they're my friends." I said.

"But how can I trust them?" He asked.

"You can't. But you can trust me." I said. "And you can trust Caspian."

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay. But I want paying double like the dwarf said?"

"Agreed." I said before I hugged him.

I walked back over to the others grinning as I collected my bow from the ground where I had left it. "If we pay him double his usual fee like Balin suggested then he'll smuggle us in." I said.

The others immediately began smiling and looking at me in thanks. Thorin also nodded at me thankfully before he led the others over to the barge and climbed on thanking Bard as they went. I strapped my bow to my back and helped Fili help Kili to walk, well limp, on to the barge.

I helped Kili to sit down before I walked over to Bard and helped him to prepare the barge to sail. The others were whispering amongst themselves as I remained at the rear of the barge with Bard who steered the boat through the water into the fog.

"You're still fond of archery then?" I asked as I gestured to his long bow.

"Indeed. I see that you are living up to your title as the 'Archer Queen', not that it surprises me. Ever since you first held a bow you refused to part with it." He said.

I grinned as I remembered when my father gave me my bow, it was my great grandfather's except my father had fixed it up to make it more appealing to me and to make it a lot more durable. He gave it to me when I was ten years old and I spent everyday using it, I never let it out of my sight. "Yes. Father thought that I was slightly obsessed with archery ever since he began to teach me." I said.

"It's not like you needed teaching, you were a natural from the first time you held a bow." He said. "And besides you've never even missed a target."

"Very true." I said smiling.

"So... why do you need to go to Laketown so desperately?" Bard asked me.

"I wish that I could tell you, Bard, but I can't. I'm sorry." I said.

"Don't worry about it, I was just curious." He replied.

"So how are Bain, Sigrid and Tilda?" I asked smiling.

"They're very well. Bain has been a great help to me and he has a keen interest in archery, that's something the two of you have in common. I'm trying to teach him but I can't find the time lately." He said.

"And what about Sigrid and Tilda? How are they?" I asked.

"Tilda is like any other young girl, she is very spirited just like her mother and has developed a love for medicine." Bard said smiling.

"So she wants to be a healer?" I said.

"Yes, just like her mother." He said with a ghost of a smile.

"You miss her don't you?" I asked.

"Everyday." He said.

"So what about Sigrid?" I asked. "She must be nearly sixteen years old now, right?"

"Yes she's just turned sixteen. She stays home most of the time looking after Tilda. She's taken on the parental roll whilst I'm working." He said.

"I can't wait to see them. Do you think they'll remember me?" I asked.

"Bain definitely will; he says that once he perfects his archery he wants to be as good as the 'Archer Queen'. But that's highly unlikely with your archery skills." He said chuckling. "Your his role model, you inspire him."

I smiled to myself. I could feel happy tears forming in the corners of my eyes but I mentally slapped myself to stop them from falling.

"And as for Tilda, she was too young to remember you but after hearing all of your heroic stories she wanted to meet you just as much as Bain and Sigrid wanted to see you again." Bard said. "Sigrid definitely remembers you. You two got on so well."

"It seems that I left quite an impression on your family." I said grinning.

"Indeed you did." He said.

Suddenly I heard Bofur yell from the from of the boat, "Watch out!"

Bard easily steered the boat preventing the boat from colliding with one of the tall stone pillars that stood tall above the waters surface. It looked like ruins of some sort.

"What are you trying to do?" Asked Thorin whilst sending Bard a glare. "Kill us?"

"I was born and bred on these waters, master dwarf. If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here." I smiled to myself at Bard's reply.

The others turned and began talking amongst themselves whilst Balin counted up their money that would be given to Bard. My gaze drifted forwards to look into the distance and I couldn't help but sigh in awe at the sight of the Lonely Mountain in the distance; it was much bigger now but was still a few days' walk away. The others saw it too and stood up to look at it with wistful looks on their faces.

Bard motioned for me to take over steering the boat, which I did without question, whilst he walked to the front where the others were and said with urgency, "The money, quick, give it to me."

"We will pay you when we get our provisions but not before." Said Thorin.

"If you value your freedom you'll do as I say." Replied Bard.

I could only watch as Thorin reluctantly handed over the bag of money to Bard as he said, "Don't even think of crossing us. I still don't trust you."

"I don't trust you either, but I do trust Cassandra and Caspian, so I'm trusting their judgment." Said Bard as he pocketed the bag of money. "Now remain on the boat and don't make a noise."

The others reluctantly nodded and did as he said whilst Bard came back over to me and took over the steering. He tied up the boat beside a small port and jumped off of the barge and approached an elderly looking fisherman. They were too far away for me to be able to hear their conversation but once Bard and the fisherman shook hands the fisherman began instructing his men to take barrels of fish over to our barge.

"What's your plan?" I asked Bard.

"Each of you need to climb back into your barrels, my friend is giving me plenty of fish which I will fill the barrels with whilst you are concealed in them, the Laketown guards will only think that the barrels contain fish and not thirteen dwarves, a woman, a man and a hobbit." Explained Bard. The others began to protest against the idea of being confined in a barrel filled with dead fish.

I had to admit that it was a good plan but I couldn't help but notice one problem. "Bard, there's only fifteen barrels and sixteen of us." I said.

"I didn't think of that." He said frowning in thought.

"I have an idea." Said Caspian. "Cassy, do you remember when father smuggled the two of us into that port town?"

"That's brilliant!" I said grinning at my brother. "My father made Caspian and I hang on to the side of the boat so that we were hiding under the water whilst the boat pulled us along." I explained to the others.

"Great! Everyone into the barrels!" Said Bard.

They began to protest but I sent Thorin a pointed look and he ordered the others to do as Bard said.

"Bilbo you go in my barrel, I'll hang over the side, it'll be easier for me anyway." I said.

Within minutes, everyone was in a barrel and I helped Bard fill the barrels with the fish. Once everyone was safely hidden, Bard steered the boat away from the port and in the direction of the gates of Laketown.

I climbed over the side of the barge and lowered myself into the icey water. I hissed as the freezing cold water came into contact with my skin, it felt like hundreds of needles were piercing my skin. I took a deep breath and sunk my whole body under the water whilst still gripping the side of the boat so the boat pulled me through the water.

"We're at the gates." I heard Bard say. That was my cue, I took a deep breath and dunked my head under the water so that I was completely hidden beneath the surface of the water. I really hoped this works.

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Sorry that there wasn't any Kili/Cassy moments in this chapter but I will include some in the next chapter! :) I hope you liked it! :)