Bardon of dale was an eager man, he had been raised in dale, and even named after it's greatest hero, but the town held little poignancy to him. His job was simple enough, he'd ferry goods to and fro lake town, this led him often to far away lands such as Mirkwood, or, on occasion, Rhovanion, however it was his oft trips to Erebor that he cherished. The cities of men were so, uninspiring, all men seemd to do was build on the earth, not build into it like the dwarves did. He'd manged to befriend a few dwarves, and would lie to the younger, more impressionable ones about being the real Bard.
One fateful day, while delivering some goods to his friend Kaldor, a captain of the dwarven merchant guard, the perky dwarf offered him a proposition. "We dwarves don't like to travel, boy, but we do like fighting. Balin is planning an expedition, and i know that every dwarf involved will be dead set on the fighting, and nothing else. I need a focused lad to be a runner or sorts, y'know deliver messages for us as fast as you can."
The proposition excited Bardon, an expedition, with dwarves, he knew dwarves weren't prone to wanderlust, and what could possibly be worth them shifting from under their rocks, unless of course, they were visiting another hold? Bardon knew Erebor was impressive, but he had tales, tales of cities that filled up whole mountains with halls and mines. He knew he wanted to go, and then a final few words sealed the deal. "If you want the job we have plenty of veteran ponies who got too old, so you can have yer pick lad."
Bardon went home that night, to his rusty shack in the depths of Dale, and thought long and hard, failing to get any sleep as he laid wide awake. He'd miss his mother, but he had many brothers and a loving father, his family would not be at a loss without him. He told them in the morning and they wished him well, his father went as far as to give him his old dwarvish buckler, just for 'special occasions' "You won't need it son, but if you do, just remember that you might be bigger than those dwarves, but they will fight fiercer than you ever could, if you get in a sticky situation, hide behind a rock, and do what yer told."
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