11

The water covered Kili's head again and he came up spluttering as his barrel righted itself. The rushing water propelled him along the river as he bobbed and wobbled in his barrel.

A horn sounded from behind and he scrambled, tilting wildly, to turn around. Elves were appearing on the river banks behind him, in pursuit. The river narrowed and his barrel went around a bend. Looking ahead he could now see a gate, manned by Elven guards. As Kili watched them one ran to pull on a lever on the gate.

The river gate crashed shut just as Thorin's barrel reached it. The dwarves all bumped in to each other in their barrels, forming a bottleneck in front of the gate. Kili looked up at the guards advancing down the steps at them when suddenly he saw an arrow fly into the chest of the elf on the far right side of the gate. Harsh voices rose around them and suddenly orcs overwhelmed the Elven guards.

The gate lever was abandoned. He saw it and in that second, as the orcs began to surge towards them, he made his decision. Propelling himself out of his barrel, he leapt onto the gate wall and ran towards the lever.

He dodged the first orc and then grabbed a weapon thrown to him by Dwalin, scavenged from one of the now-dead orcs in the water. He killed the next one to attack him, dropped his weapon and reached both hands out to the lever.

He had almost gripped it when an arrow hit his right thigh, causing him to miss his hold and he fell onto his back. His leg burned. It felt like the arrow had gone all the way to the bone. He caught sight of an orc climbing over the gate above him and he knew he was going to have to fight for his life, here on the gate, with no ready weapon at hand.

Before he could push himself up in an effort to ward off the orc an arrow flew to the orc's throat and the orc fell dead. Kili whipped his head around and saw Tauriel, her bow in her hand, moving quickly on the riverbank. Another orc approaching him fell with her arrow in his chest as he stared at Tauriel, seeing her spinning around to shoot again, then knifing another orc.

Tauriel! She had saved him again. He gritted his teeth and pulled himself up—she had given him the chance he needed. He grabbed the lever and pulled it down. His leg blazed with pain, as it buckled under him and he fell onto the ledge once more. He caught sight of Tauriel as he lay there—her red hair let him track her among the orc pack.

He heard Fili call his name. He had to focus. He had to get off this ledge—he could see his companions passing by below, now that the gate was open. Kili rolled off into the empty barrel Fili held for him. The arrow shaft snapped on the barrel edge. Pain from his leg made him cry out as his barrel spun towards the gate. His vision briefly went black as the pain took over.

He did not see Tauriel turn at the sound of his voice. He did not see it distract her and allow an orc to almost knock her down. The river swept him away.

Tauriel spun the orc into the water and regained her balance. What was wrong with her? How could she have lost her concentration and allowed an orc to get so close? She narrowed her eyes and efficiently dispatched the two orcs nearest her. She would think about Kili later. These orcs were swarming all around her. Legolas and the rest of the Elven guard were outnumbered.

The big orc leader suddenly shouted out and the orcs abandoned the Elves and changed course, charging down the river after the escaping dwarves. "Tauriel!" Legolas shouted as he ran past her. "We must follow them! Come!" He leapt over the gate. She ran after him, following him onto the riverbank beyond the gate.

Legolas, Tauriel and the rest of the Elven guard sped down both sides of the river in pursuit. Tauriel could see the Dwarves bobbing in and out of the cascading rapids, the orcs continuing their attacks from the riverbanks as they floated by them.

Legolas was racing too far ahead of her now. She watched him leap into the river, using the dwarves and their barrels as stepping-stones. There were too many orcs. Tauriel could see how outnumbered their Elven guard was. She picked up speed, trying to reach Legolas to fight by his side but he was too far from her.

Legolas was now back on the river bank, cutting down orcs; so engaged in fighting them off that Tauriel was sure he didn't see the one coming behind him. There was no way she was going to get close enough to shoot him in time.

An axe came flying out of the river and hit the orc in the chest. One of the dwarves—Thorin she thought—had thrown it just in time. She watched the dwarves in their barrels disappear around the next curve in the river, the orcs in continued pursuit. She rapidly made her way towards Legolas. Spotting an orc taking aim to shoot him, Tauriel drew her bow and shot his arrow down before it hit Legolas. She advanced on the orc with knives drawn, knocking him down and placing her knife at his throat.

"Wait!" Legolas commanded. "This one we take back." Tauriel turned to him in surprise. He shook his head at her and took one last look at the river with the orc pack disappearing after the dwarves. "We take him to my father."

Tauriel and Legolas walked in silence to find Thranduil, the captured orc between them. She still could not believe the events of this morning. The dwarves had escaped, she knew not how. An orc pack of such size had never ventured this far into the Woodland Realm in all her years here, not even the raiding party that had killed her family.