Dain had said little through the beginning of the journey. He was grateful to be riding in the wagon instead of bumping along on the back of a horse. Not that he would have refused to mount a horse. Anything was acceptable as far as he was concerned as long as they were heading in the direction of Erebor. His thoughts strayed often to his wife, and he wondered what was happening there.
Durin was riding in the back of the cart. Every so often Dain turned around to catch his eye. He wondered if the young dwarf missed his mother or was thinking of the danger she was in.
Still, he himself did not like the situation they were in. Just how much better off were they than those left in Erebor. There were dangers you could see straight off like Orcs, and other dangers that were much less obvious.
This entire company did not smell right. He'd seen the incident with the hobbits, and that had seemed the most wrong thing of all. Hobbits could certainly be stealthy, and were not above a pinch or two of burglary, but stealing weapons was not the kind of thing they would normally do. There were too many bad apples in the group that neeed to be weeded out.
He lowered his voice and stared Bali in the eye, then leaned over and whispered very softly. "You are my kinsman, and I will respect your judgment, whatever you decide. But, even a fool can see that something is wrong in this group. Don't be fooled by the sweet talk of Hogar, and Kaldon is even worse. How can we walk into danger with warriors such as these by our side?"
He glared in Bali's direction, "I swear I would rather have it out here and now with these fools than wait for them to brew their mischief."
He sat back in the wagon and was quiet. At least he'd had his say. He wondered whether or not Bali would want to respond.
[ February 25, 2003: Message edited by: Dain Ironfoot ]
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