AN: Here's a little viewpoint story about the barrel ride through Mirkwood. I will probably take this story throughout their journey up to arriving in Lake-Town. Hope everyone enjoys!
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing of The Hobbit or the movie.
The Dwarves wait in the barrels floating in the calm river, Thorin in the front of the group and Kili and Fili after him respectively. The wooden ceiling opens up and Bilbo slides down, splashing into the water, popping back up and grabbing ahold of the barrel closest to him.
"Go," Bilbo splutters out as he waves his free hand at the group.
"Come on, let's go," Thorin says to the company as he turns around and begins paddling his barrel towards the opening of the cave. Fili, Kili, and the rest of the company follow his lead. As the Dwarves emerge into the sunlight, Thorin notices a small waterfall just up ahead and he glances behind him, shouting an order. "Hold on!"
The Dwarves and their barrels plummet over the waterfall, landing at the bottom. They are splashed from the rapids of the waterfall and some of them go under water, bobbing up quickly. There barrels float swiftly down the river, spinning and tilting in the rush of the water. Fili glances around and finds Kili in front of him and breathes out a sigh of relief. As long as his brother stayed between he and Thorin, Fili would be fine. An Elf horn blows and Thorin spins his barrel around he notices the gate they are quickly approaching begins to close.
"No!" Thorin shouts as his barrel bangs into the closed gate, stopping underneath the overhang of the gate. Most of the rest of the Dwarves barrels run into him, their barrels halting in their forward movement as well. The Elves guarding the gate draw their swords ready for a fight. Unexpectedly, an arrow shoots at one of the elves, lodging itself in his back. The Elf drops to the ground, lifeless. The Dwarves look around and see a large group of Orcs suddenly appearing from the trees, one of them being Bolg. The Elves quickly attack them, fighting them off. Fili's barrel moves to join the group, knocking into the others barrels. Kili's barrel moves to join Fili's and Kili looks up at the Orcs flooding the land on either side of them, his eyes wide with fear.
"Watch out! Those are Orcs!" Bofur shouts taking in the swarm of dark beings moving hastily towards them.
"Slay them all!" Bolg shouts to his Orcs in their Orcish tongue. The Orcs charge towards the Dwarves, some of them leaping at them in the water. One of the lands on Nori and Nori begins fighting him off, Bilbo pulls out Sting and stabs the Orc. Nori shoves the Orc off him and into the water. Kili looks around and sees the lever used to open and close the gate. Kili hastily climbs out of the barrel causing Fili to look over at his brother. Fili grabs Kili's barrel holding it steady for him and Kili quickly runs overtop the other Dwarves' barrels. As he reaches the last barrel before the path, his foot slips and he almost falls into the water but catches his self and clambers up onto the path. He runs towards the stairs but is stopped by an Orc jumping and landing in front of him. The Orc swings its sword at Kili, who is unarmed, and Kili ducks the strike. Kili maneuvers under the Orcs arm and shoves his arm away from him. Fili watches his brother fight the Orc, a pit forming in his stomach; his brother is unarmed, how is he to fight against an Orc.
"Kili!" Dwalin shouts gaining Kili's attention. Dwalin throws Kili a sword he had taken from one of the Orcs that had attacked him. Kili catches it and stabs at the Orc behind him. The Orc blocks the attack and swings its sword at Kili once again. Kili dodges the sword and swings his own sword, effectively slicing the Orc in the stomach. Kili moves around the Orc turning to face it and kicking it in the stomach, sending it off the path and into the raging water.
Fili breathes out a sigh of relief but it's short-lived. Fili hears a noise nearby and he turns in time to stop an attack from an Orc. Fili fights the Orc off, one of the other Dwarves stabbing him with a sword they acquired. As the Orc falls into the water, Fili takes the axe-like sword away from it. Kili turns and runs up the stairs only to be halted by another Orc attacking him. Fili quickly turns his attention back to Kili and he sees Kili block a strike and attack an Orc in turn, shoving him back into the wall. He doesn't notice the second Orc jumping onto the path and moving to attack him from behind. Fili's eyes grow wide and he reacts on protective instinct, aiming and throwing the axe-like sword at the Orc, hitting it in the middle of the face sending it to the ground. Kili elbows the Orc he is fighting in the face and then turns around, swinging the sword and chopping the Orc's head off.
Bolg, who is standing on land watching Kili's destructive path towards the lever, grabs his bow and strings an arrow in it. On the path near the lever, another Orc jumps on top of the gate wall and swings its sword at Kili. Fili's eyes widen again and he opens his mouth to shout a warning but Kili has already seen the Orc. Kili ducks under the attack and slices the Orc in the legs with his sword causing the Orc to fall onto the half-wall of the gate before running to the lever. Fili wants to keep his eyes on his brother but he has to turn his attention to a nearby Orc and get rid of it. Just as Kili reaches the lever, Bolg lets his arrow go and it soars through the air sinking itself into the side of Kili's right leg. Kili stops and falters in his movement, not expecting the sudden agony shooting through his leg, a grunt of pain escapes his mouth and the sword dropping from his hand. Fili slices the Orc attacking him, sending him into the water as his ears hone in on to a pain-filled grunt he knows is Kili. Fili whips his head around and sees an arrow sticking out of Kili's leg.
"Kili!" Fili shouts with panic as his eyes widen in fear and worry as he watches his brother grab for the lever but only results in grunting and groaning from the pain as he tries to pull the lever down before he falls to the ground. From his spot under the gate ledge, Thorin spins around, not being able to see anything going on but having heard the panicked cry of his eldest nephew.
"Kili," Thorin whispers, his own eyes wide with fear and worry at knowing without doubt his youngest nephew is in danger.
Kili groans in pain and his eyes roam around him noticing an Orc running towards where he is lying on the ground with an arrow in his leg. Kili's eyes widen in fear as the Orc rushes to attack him, his mind wandering to his brother, hoping Fili can save him. Suddenly, the Orc is hit by an arrow causing it to fall to the ground. Kili turns his head, his fear-filled wide eyes seeing Tauriel shooting at the Orcs. Tauriel turns and shoots another arrow towards Kili again and Kili swivels his head around to see another Orc running to attack him only to be hit by Tauriel's arrow.
Fili moves to go after his brother but an Orc falling on top of him stops him. Fili covers himself and shoves the Orc off, rapidly spinning around and seeing the already dead Orc with an arrow in its face falling into the river. Fili looks up on the land and sees the blonde Elf, as well as others, appearing through the bushes and attacking and killing the Orcs.
Kili looks towards Tauriel once again and sees her fighting the Orcs off. Kili shoves the pain back down and sits up, grabbing the half-wall of the gate and pulls himself to his feet, letting out a groan. He looks to his right at the lever within arms-reach and propels himself towards it, grabbing ahold of it and using his weight as he falls to the ground to pull it down. The gates open and the Dwarves find themselves and their barrels begin to move through it. Kili falls to the ground, letting out a pained cry, his hand reaching for his leg. Fili spins around rapidly and his eyes instantly fall on his brother having heard the agony in Kili's cry. Not wanting to leave his brother behind as he notices the Dwarves in the front beginning to go over a small waterfall, Fili grabs the side of the river bed to keep himself in place. Fili reaches over and grabs Kili's barrel as well, not wanting his brother to have to travel down the river without one.
Kili moves to the side of the ledge and looks over it seeing his brother still there, waiting for him, hanging on to his barrel for him. Kili wants to smile at Fili, knowing his brother would wait for him, but he instead grimaces at the pain. Kili groans and Fili looks up, feeling the worry ratchet up another notch at seeing the grimace of pain on his brother's face as Kili moves over to the edge.
"Kili!" Fili shouts wanting to let his brother know he's there and needing Kili to be next to him right now. Kili slowly slides off the ledge and falls to the river below, landing in his barrel while Fili holds it still. Fili grimaces in sympathy as the arrow breaks off his brother's leg when Kili lands inside the barrel causing Kili to groan and cry out in pain. Fili refuses to let go of Kili's barrel as the horror seeps into his eyes at seeing his brother in this much pain. Fili and Kili's barrels flow down the river and fall over the small waterfall after the other Dwarfs' barrels.
Fili's barrel dunks under the water causing him to lose his grip on Kili's barrel. Fili swings his arm around trying to feel where Kili's barrel is to get a grip on it once again, but has no success. Fili's barrel pops back above water and he hastily begins searching for his brother. He looks behind him in time to see Kili's barrel bob above the water and a water-logged younger brother gasping for air, agony etched onto his face as he grips onto his barrel for fear of falling out.
"Kili!" Fili calls for his brother, trying to get to him but finding it almost impossible to go against the current. Fili is able to slow his barrel down enough by trying to swim upstream that Kili's barrel catches up to him and Fili latches onto Kili barrel, pulling it close to him. Fili takes in his brother's appearance, hearing Kili groaning in pain. "Kili, stay with me."
Their barrels spin around and Fili notices an Orc waiting for them on the side of the riverbed. Fili hears a shout and looks ahead of them to see Nori catching a sword and then turning, throwing it to Fili. Fili catches it swiftly, annoyed he has to let go of his brother's barrel but knowing he has to get rid of this Orc looming towards them. Fili swings the sword and slices the Orc's legs resulting in the Orc crashing into the raging river.
"Fili," Kili's voice is heard and Fili spins around to look at his brother who is staring wide-eyed in front of them, fear in his eyes. Fili turns and looks to see a fallen tree breaking in half and crashing into the water in front of them, the Orcs on it falling into the rapids. Fili reaches out and grabs Kili's barrel, yanking it towards him away from one of the logs.
AN: Please review and send me some feedback! This chapter had a little more Fili viewpoint to it but the next chapter will have Kili and Thorin's viewpoints on this whole section. I'm pretty sure this is what I will end up doing throughout this story. Fili and Kili were next to each other pretty much this whole Mirkwood and Lake-Town journey, so I believe I'll end up doing one chapter in Fili's viewpoint and then the next chapter in Kili and Thorin's viewpoints; considering Thorin was in the front away from them most of the time and Kili was probably out of it quite a bit of the time as well. Thanks for reading! Please review!