In mid-April, summer had arrived, and the sun blazed like fire.
Even beside a lake as large as Long Lake, Allen felt little relief from the heat. His face slick with sweat in the humid air, he found himself thinking, Middle-earth's sun was the fruit Laurelin, one of the Two Trees, bore before it perished, wasn't it? Then a Maiar sailed the ship of the sun around Arda, bringing warmth and light to the land.
But if Arda was the center, and there was no question of it rotating and revolving around the sun, why did temperatures still change with the four seasons? Did Arien change the distance between his ship and the earth every so often? What for? Because the Music of the Ainur demanded it?
As a Dwarf with an extremely high tolerance for heat, Balin looked perfectly at ease. Naturally, he had none of the strange thoughts the humid heat had suddenly stirred in Allen. The old man, whose hair and beard were entirely white, was explaining the Easterlings' arrival.
"Three days ago, the first Easterling tribe entered the range of our scouts. A day ago, they made camp at Lake-town. Judging by their numbers, there were about four thousand of them. At the time, Kili suggested to the two of us that we take our troops across the river and launch a surprise attack before those fellows could establish themselves."
At this point, old Balin smiled and exchanged a glance with Dáin. Dáin puffed helplessly at his whitening beard, shook his head, and said:
"I'll say it again: I rejected that proposal. We have too few warriors, only three hundred. Most of the others are lads who have never seen battle. Besides, the enemy's second force arrived soon afterward, with more than three thousand people as