The elf, Legolas, took out weapons and brought us to the King, well, he brought Thorin to the king. I was put in a cell deep inside the kingdom and brought food and water. The elf did not check me very well, since I have hidden a dagger in my corset. I ate slowly, waiting for Thorin to come back. I was halfway through my bread when he was shoved inside my cell and his food came not a minute later.
"What happened?" I asked.
"King Thranduil wanted to know why we were in his forest." He answered, sitting beside me and began to eat.
"Do you think they will be okay?" I asked, concerned about Bilbo and the dwarves.
"I am assuming the elves with capture them and bring them here." Thorin said.
I put my tray of food on the ground and stood up before walking over to the cell door and looking around the kingdom I could see.
"They will be just fine." Thorin said from behind me.
"You cannot know that." I replied, "Must be nearly dawn. If they have not noticed we were gone already, they will now."
"Might as well rest." Thorin said.
I walked back over to Thorin and sat next to him and leaned my head onto his shoulder and falling asleep. I woke up when I heard yelling throughout the halls of the kingdom and I stood up and rushed over to the door with Thorin behind me. I recognized the voices of the dwarves and my brother, asking about Thorin and I. But there was a voice of someone I didn't hear. Bilbo.
"You were right." I mumbled after the voices stopped, "How exactly are we supposed to get out now?"
"By keeping faith." Thorin answered and I turned to face him.
He was much closer than I thought he was. If I took a small step forwards I would be against him. He looked down at me and raised his hand to cup my cheek. I reached up and kissed him softly on the lips. He started kissing back when I heard a jingle of keys and I pulled away and looked towards the door.
"Bilbo!" I smiled.
Bilbo flushed, probably from seeing Thorin and I, before unlocking out door and letting us out, "I think it is about time we got out of here."
Once everyone else was out we followed Bilbo down a lot of stairs. When we reached the bottom, there were sleeping elves and barrels and wine.
"This way." Bilbo told us.
"We are in the cellars." Kili said.
"You were supposed to be leading us out, not further in!" Bofur said to Bilbo.
"I know what I an doing." Bilbo replied. "Everyone, climb into the barrels."
"Are you mad?" Dwalin asked.
"This is going to be fun." I told Damon as I got into a barrel on the bottom row and he got in next to me.
"Please, please, you must trust me." Bilbo said to Dwalin.
"Do as he says." Thorin told the dwarves.
Once everyone was in we all poked our head out, "What now?"
"Hold your breath." Bilbo answered before he pulled a lever.
The floor below us tilted and we all fell into the river. We traveled down, following the current.
"Hold on!" Thorin yelled as we approached a waterfall.
In my opinion it was quite fun.
"You are enjoying this, are you not?" Damon asked me.
I smiled and nodded, then a horn blared. As we approached the gates, the guards closed it.
"No!" Thorin yelled as he hit the gate and the other barrels followed behind him.
The guards took out their swords and stood there. I looked up and saw an arrow pierce a guard and an Orc appeared.
"Orcs!" I yelled as the body fell into the water.
I took the dagger out of my corset and stabbed an Orc that fell into the water.
"Kili!" I heard Dwalin yell and throw Kili a sword. He was going to try and open the gate.
Kili was just about to pull the lever when I saw an Orc with an arrow pointed at him. I took a chance and threw the dagger at the Orc, which got him in the stomach. The Orc let the arrow fly, but it barely missed Kili's leg. Legolas then came with others and started killing the Orcs. Once Kili got out of his near-death experience, he pulled down the lever. We went down another waterfall and the Orcs followed by running next to the river. They tried shooting us with arrows, but they didn't have a very good shot. All the arrows hit the barrel, not us. The funniest part was when Bombur's barrel flew up onto land and knocked over dozens of Orcs. The elves ran along, too, killing the Orcs as they ran. My barrel crashed threw another waterfall and it tipped over, dumping me out. I was still underwater, being knocked around by bodies of Orcs and the currents. When my head came above water, there was only a few seconds to get a breath before I was pulled back under again. Just when I thought I was going to run out of oxygen, a hand reached in and grabbed my arm before pulling me to the surface. I coughed and looked into the blue orbs of Thorin's eyes. He grabbed my waist and lifted me into the barrel with him and he kept his hand around me. I looked around and noticed that the Orcs were gone.
"Anything behind us?" Thorin asked.
"Not that I can see." Dori answered.
"I think we have out run the Orcs." Bofur said.
"Not for long. We have lost the current." Thorin replied.
"Bombur is half drowned." Nori called out.
"Let's make for the shore." Thorin ordered.
We swam to some flat rocks a few meters away and slowly climbed on top. Thorin lifted me out and I crawled onto the rocks . He came up to me and put a hand on both sides of my face, "Are you all right?"
I nodded, "Mm-hmm. To be honest it was kinda fun."
He looked around and noticed that no one was looking before giving me a quick kiss on the mouth. Thorin smirked before walking over to Balin and I walked over to Kili.
"Are you okay?" I asked Kili.
"Yes, thanks to you. I could have been killed." Kili answered as we sat down.
"On your feet. There is an Orc pack on our tail." Thorin said, walking by.
"To where?" Balin asked.
"To the mountain. We are so close." Bilbo replied.
"A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it." Balin reposed.
"So then we go around." Bilbo said.
"The Orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight." Dwalin replied. "We have no weapons to defend ourselves."
"You have two minutes to rest." Thorin said.
A few moments later there was a man with a bow and arrow pointed at Ori. Dwalin had a giant stick and stepped in front of Ori. The man shot the stick and Kili was about to throw a rock at the man when he shot it out of Kili's hand.
"Do it again," The man said, taking out another arrow, "And you are dead."
"Excuse me, but you are from Lake-town if I am not mistaken." Balin said, walking slowly over to the man, "That barge over there it would not be available for hire, by any chance?"
"What makes you think I would help you?" The man asked as he started putting the barrels onto his barge.
"Those boots have seen better days. As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed." Balin replied.
"How many kids?" I asked.
"One boy and two girls." He answered.
"And a wife, I imagine she is a beauty" Balin said.
"Aye. She was." He replied.
"I am sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Oh, come on. Enough of the niceties." Dwalin interrupted.
"What is your hurry?" The man asked.
"What is it to you?" Dwalin replied.
"I would like to know who you are. And what you were doing in these lands." He answered.
"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains. We are yearning to see our kin in the Iron Hills." Balin answered.
"Simple merchants, you say. Then why do dwarves, traveling to the Iron Hills, have two humans amongst them?" He asked.
"My brother and I were on our way to Rhun when we were attacked by bandits. These dwarves saved us and offered to escort the both of us to our destination." I lied.
"We need food and supplies and weapons. Can you help us?" Thorin asked.
He looked down at the barrels, running his hand over the damaged wood before speaking, "I know where these barrels came from."
"What of it?"
"I do not know what business you had with the elves, but I do not think it ended well." The man replied, walking towards us. "No one enters Lake Town but by lead of the Master. All his wealth comes from trade from the Woodland realm. He would see you-"
While the man talked I got this headache and I rubbed my temples, trying to make it disappear. Somehow Balin convinced the man to let us go on the boat and to Lake Town. We were now even closer to the Mountain.
