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     Valadhiel pulled herself out of the barrel that she and Bilbo were in, climbed onto a branch hanging out over the water, shifted into her silver leopard form, then jumped back into the water. Her wings had begun to cramp in the barrel, and she would rather paddle with four legs than allow a barrel to carry her along with the current.

     "Anything behind us?" Thorin asked after a moment.

     "Not that I can see." Balin replied.

     "Vala?"

     Valadhiel lifted her head and looked behind them, scanning the area the best she could. "I don't see anything."

     "I think we've outrun the orcs." Bofur said, looking around as well.

     "Not for long. We've lost the current." Thorin told them.

     "Bofur is half drowned." Dwalin said, looking over at his fellow dwarf in concern.

     "Make for the shore!" Thorin ordered them before beginning to paddle towards it. "Come on, let's go."

     Valadhiel gladly began making her way to the shore, and she was one of the first ones there. Once on the shore, she shook the water off of her fur before she began to count everyone. Thorin, Bilbo, Kili, Fili, Dwalin, Balin, Nori, Dori, Ori, Gloin, Oin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur were all there.

     Fili and Bofur had gone over to Kili shortly after they'd climbed out of the barrels, and they both seemed to be pretty concerned about him. Valadhiel noticed this and walked over to them, giving a concerned look of her own when she noticed the condition that Kili's leg was in.

     "I'm fine." Kili assured them. "It's just a scratch. Nothing more."

     "On your feet." Thorin ordered them all, looking over at Kili, who was sitting.

     "Kili's injured." Valadhiel said, looking over at Thorin.

     "His leg needs binding." Fili added.

     "There's an orc pack on our tail. We keep moving."

     Valadhiel frowned a little when Thorin spoke, then she shifted into her elf form, looked at Kili, and placed a hand over his wound. "Keep still. I should be able to do this quickly. Driving out any poison may be painful, however."

     "I'm fine, Vala, really." Kili told her, moving his leg away. "Don't waste your energy. We can tend to it later."

     "To where?" Balin asked Thorin after the king had said they would keep moving.

     "To the mountain; we're so close." Bilbo replied.

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

     "Couldn't Vala fly us across?" Ori asked.

     Valadhiel looked from Kili to Ori before she shook her head. "It would take too long, as I can only carry a couple passengers at a time in dragon form. I wouldn't feel safe taking only two at a time. We have no weapons, so we need to stick together."

     "So then we go around." Bilbo suggested next. He wasn't about to let anything stop them now. They were so close, and he hadn't left home for nothing!

     "The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight." Dwalin said. "As Vala mentioned, we have no weapons to defend ourselves. She is, in fact, our only weapon as of now."

     Valadhiel looked at Dwalin, then she tilted her head a little. "Perhaps I could keep them at bay. They would have trouble fighting a dragon, after all."

     "Are you insane?" Thorin asked, looking over at her before he shook his head. "You are not going to be orc bait. We stay together."

     "If I am in dragon form, they will not be able to harm me. Not unless Azog, Bolg, or Night Fury himself are with them."

     "And what if Night Fury does happen to be with them? You're not going to fight them off alone, nor will you distract them. You're staying with us, and that is final." Thorin then looked at Kili before he gestured to him. "If you can quickly heal his leg, do it now. You have two minutes."

     Valadhiel was about to speak, but she then decided against saying anything when Thorin told her that his decision was final. There would be no talking him into allowing her to be bait. When he told her she had two minutes to heal Kili's wound, she looked over at the young dwarf again and placed her hand over his leg after rolling his pant leg up.

     A green flame sprouted from her palm and soon made its way into Kili's leg. He grimaced, though he made no sound, and soon the wound began to seal. Valadhiel sighed in relief, glad that it seemed her flame had become powerful enough to take care of poison, as she was sure that arrow had been poisoned.

     Valadhiel suddenly whirled around when she sensed danger and threw a ball of fire into the direction she sensed the danger. The man, however, dodged it, and he pointed his arrow at the group of dwarves. When Dwalin raised a log, the man shot an arrow in the middle, splitting it, and when Kili raised a rock, he shot it right out of his hands before he knocked in another arrow.

     "Do it again and you're dead." He told them.

     "Harm a single one of them and you're dead." Valadhiel spat at him, her eyes flashing a brighter color as she stared at the man.

     Balin raised his hands as he got up and walked towards the man. "Please excuse the feisty lass. You're from Laketown, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?"

     The man lowered his bow, glanced at Valadhiel, then climbed aboard the barge. "What makes you think I will help you?"

     "Those boots have seen better days." Balin said as the man began to load empty barrels onto the barge. "As has that coat. No doubt you have hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?"

     "A boy and two girls."

     "And your wife, I'd imagine she's a beauty." Balin said with a smile.

     "Aye. She was."

     Balin's smile faded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

     "Oh, come on, come on," Dwalin impatiently interrupted. "Enough with the niceties!"

     "What's your hurry?" The man asked, again looking over at Valadhiel, who was still watching him like a hawk. He wasn't sure he liked that short... elf? With wings? How odd. And she had reptilian eyes, too.

     "What's it to you?" Dwalin growled in annoyance.

     Valadhiel finally stopped watching the man and looked at Dwalin before she crossed his arms. "You're lucky your brother is courteous. If it had just been you doing the negotiating, this fine man would have been long gone by now."

     Dwalin rolled his eyes. "No one asked you, Elf."

     The man ignored Dwalin, looked at Valadhiel, then he looked over the group. "I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands." He then glanced at Valadhiel once more. "With an elf, at that."

     "She's no normal elf." Balin said, then he continued. "We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills."

     "Simple merchants, you say?"

     "We'll need food, supplies, weapons." Thorin said, looking at the man hopefully. "Can you help us?"

     The man looked at the barrels before he looked at the group again. "I know where these barrels came from."

     "What of it?" Valadhiel questioned, crossing her arms.

     "And you told me to be courteous." Dwalin muttered, giving her a look.

     "I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well." The man said. "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." He tossed a rope to Balin.

     Valadhiel sighed softly after a moment before she withdrew a pouch from her inner tunic pocket beneath her armor and tossed it to the man. After she watched him catch it, she crossed her arms once more. "Is that enough for you to get us into that town unseen?"

     The man looked into the pouch, then he looked at Valadhiel. "Aye, but you'd need a smuggler."

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

     The man gave a suspicious look, but he then gave a nod. "I'll get you all in. However, it seems there aren't enough barrels for all of you."

     "The others can use the barrels." Valadhiel said, stretching her wings before folding them in again. "I have another way to get in, I believe. Tell me, do your children like dogs?"

     "Dogs? What do dogs have to do with any of this?"

     Valadhiel smiled and, after a moment, she focused on the shape of a dog before her bones began to pop out of place and take a new shape. Soon, a large wolf stood before the man, hobbit, and dwarves.

     The man gave her another suspicious look. "A Skinchanger, eh? You are full of surprises, and I'm honestly uneasy about it."

     "She means no harm to anyone. Only those allied with evil." Thorin told the man, then he looked at the barge before he looked at him again. "Will you help us? All of us?"

     The man looked at them a long moment before he gestured for them to board his barge. "Come on. I need to get moving, so hurry up."

     Valadhiel waited for all of the dwarves plus Bilbo to get onto the barge before she herself climbed aboard, still in the form of a wolf. Unlike her leopard form, she wasn't silver in color. She was completely black save for a white crescent moon on each side of her flank, and her paws were white, as was her left ear.

     Bilbo looked up at the man after a moment. "Thank you for your assistance, Mister..."

     "Bard." The man replied, giving a nod to the halfling.

     Bilbo nodded in reply. "I'm Bilbo. Bilbo Baggins." He then showed the man each dwarf and told him which name belonged to which dwarf, and when he finished he gestured to the wolf. "And you have met Vala."

     Bard gave a nod to the wolf. "I never imagined something part skinchanger and part elvish would exist. Tell me, why would a mixed breed have wings?"

     "Well, I am also part dragon." Valadhiel explained, lowering her ears slightly. That wasn't usually something she told complete strangers. Most wouldn't believe it, but this man had already seen her dragon wings.

     "How is that even possible?"

     "It would take far too long to explain."

     "Watch out!" Bofur shouted from the back after a moment.

     Bard, however, seemed to know his way around the waters just fine and paddled in between the formations that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere. They seemed to be ruins of some kind.

     "What are you trying to do, drown us?" Thorin asked crossly.

     "I was born and raised on these waters, Master Dwarf." Bard replied, then added, "If I wanted to drown you, I would not do it here."

     "Oh, I've had enough of this lippy lake-man." Dwalin growled in annoyance. "I say we throw him over the side and be done with him."

     "Oh, Bard." Bilbo, who had turned to the dwarves, said in annoyance. "His name's Bard."

     "How do you know?" Bofur asked.

     "Uh, I asked him."

     "Duh." Valadhiel commented with a roll of her blue canine eyes, giving a smug smirk when she earned glares from some of the dwarves.

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

     "We don't have to like him, we simply have to pay him." Balin replied. "Come now, lads, turn out your pockets."

     Valadhiel looked at Bilbo while the dwarves went through their coins. "I love these guys, but they truly get on my nerves. If anything, Bard is the one with a right to dislike us."

     Bilbo gave a nod in response. "Right? Though dwarves will be dwarves, I suppose." He said, ending his sentence in a sigh.

     "I suppose so." Valadhiel murmured, looking up when she saw the town on the lake come into view. And, behind that town on the lake, she could see the Lonely Mountain clearly. She drew in a breath, and a wave of dread washed over her. They were almost there, and the reality of it was making her feel even worse than she'd thought.

     "I have a bad feeling about this." She whispered to herself.

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