CHAPTER 20

BOLTING IN BARRELS

A/N: This chapter contains braiding and brushing beautiful black hair, badass burglars bolting in barrels, b*tchy blondie backflops into bright white water rapids, and beautiful, black-haired Bard the Babe...err...Bard the Bowman.

MARLEY POV

Why did I even get myself drug into this stupid adventure? Now I was trapped again, but this time in a bloody elf palace in a small, dank, gloomy dungeon cell. And I had to share my cell with Dwalin. He was scary. I didn't like him.

"This sucks." I muttered, "first trolls, next goblins, third, orcs and ugly werewolves, fourth, giant spiders, and now, elvish dungeons! Can this adventure get any worse!?"

"I would stop yer complainin' laddie, it's does no good for any of us." Dwalin said.

I huffed and crossed my arms, I am never going on another adventure again.

MILLIE POV

I wanted to cry out of frustration. I was beyond angry, and beyond upset. How could Jane just betray me like that? She completely acted like we were strangers to her. I let out a frustrated growl and put my head back against the wall. They had put me in a cell with Balin. Not that I had anything the old, sweet hearted dwarf, but they had separated me from Lizzie, Marley, Ori, and Sam. Seriously? "This day can't get any worse." I muttered.

"Don't despair, lass," Balin said, "I'm sure we'll be out of here soon. Thorin's bound to get us out if the elven king offers us a deal."

"I hope." I replied. Suddenly, footsteps echoed throughout the halls and an elf came down the stairs, a certain dark-haired, green-eyed one. Apsenniel.

She approached our cell and I got up and pressed myself against the bars, "Can I help you?"

"I-I, I came to apologize, for...Umm, betraying you back there."

"And you want me to forgive you? You got us stuck in here."

"I-I."

"You what?" I replied, "you're gonna tell me you had to betray us. You could have told Legolas to let us go, you seem to be well acquainted with him enough to negotiate, but instead you stayed quiet. You didn't defend us when you should have, Jane."

"I'm sorry, alright, I just, I...I'm...they...Legolas he...He rescued me from the Necromancer when I was captured, him and his patrol, their king save my life by turning me into an elf so I wouldn't have to die. I felt like I owed them...so I stayed loyal to them, not defending you. By defending you would be betraying them. Dwarves and Elves haven't got on since the Dark Days...by aiding you would be not just betraying Legolas, but betraying the race of elves as a whole."

I narrowed my eyes, "What is with you wood elves!? The high elves are so much different than you! Elrond treated us so kindly, forgetting the whole Elf/Dwarf spat. But the wood elves hold the same damn grudge! I thought you were different, but you're just like the rest of them. We aren't even enemies! We weren't doing anything wrong! We were just passing through! You betrayed our friendship and you betrayed us! And you didn't stand up for what you knew was right!"

"You say we hold grudges? The dwarves are the exact same!" Apsenniel retorted.

"Your 'friends' didn't help the dwarves of Erebor when they needed it! They turned their back to the suffering of their people!" I indicated Balin.

"I..." Jane looked utterly speechless. "I wasn't even there! So don't even talk to me about that. The main point is, Legolas and Thranduil saved my life and I repayed them by staying loyal. It wouldn't be honorable for me to-"

"It wasn't honorable for you to turn your back on your friends and turn your back on reasoning that was right! You betrayed all of us!" I snapped.

"I couldn't...Legolas and I..."

"Legolas this, Legolas that. Legolas wouldn't be thrilled. Legolas would not approve." I mimicked, "Legolas would say I betrayed him. You know, I don't think it was a matter of right or wrong or loyalty at all, it's because you are attracted to the spoiled elf Prince!"

She turned red as I continued, "You like him, and you want to impress him, so you didn't stand up for what you knew was right. Instead you stood up for what he thought. Because you were scared that you would blow all chances of him liking you back. Weren't you? Weren't you?" When she said nothing I continued, "So I am right then. Some honorable elf you are. Betraying your friends and choosing who you love instead just because you want to impress them."

"Legolas and Tauriel are my friends too! They're better than you are, acting like this!" She exclaimed.

I felt tears brimming my eyes, "Fine. Clearly the elves mean more to you than your friends and if you like them so much why don't you just turn around and go back to them. See how true their friendships are! I tried everything to be a caring best friend, and this is how you repay me? Fine then. Let us rot here. Bye, bye."

She looked on the verge of tears. "Fine . I tried to come here and set things right, but clearly you are too angry to even care. See what help comes from me. Goodbye, Amelia, I guess this friendship is over." She turned and left, stalking off.

"Goodbye, Apsenniel." I said after her.

I watched her go before melting to the ground, hiding my face and crying out of sadness, anger, and frustration. I had just lost a friend. Even though she had betrayed us, I still had lost her. And losing a friend was the hardest thing I have ever had to experience.

I heard someone sit down beside me and rub my back. "There, there lass, it will be alright. You did a very honorable thing and you should be proud." Balin said in a comforting voice. Despite that, though, I continued to cry.

I heard the cell door open as someone else was shoved into the cell with us, but I paid no attention to who it was.

"What did they do to her, Balin?" That was the gruff voice of Thorin.

"She got into an argument with a she-elf I guess had been her friend...from their world. I overheard Samantha telling the story about her. She fell through the same portal. She was the same elf the young ones had tried to get to defend us back out in the forest. Millie defended us against her, and turned her down as she spoke for what was right, such an honorable thing, Thorin. She wasn't jesting when she said she would remain loyal to us."

"And this she-elf had the nerve to make her cry? Then, I am glad I disregarded the deal Thranduil offered, if this is the kind of thing they do."

I heard the rustling of fabric as Thorin sat down on my other side, as I continued to sob. Then Thorin rubbed my back and said, "Dear Millie, I promise she will pay for this." I shook my head and continued to sob, then I threw my arms around Thorin and cried into his chest, too upset to even care how he felt about it. I needed comfort. He let me cry and rubbed my back affectionately, and rocked me slowly. I cried for ten minutes before I calmed down and started to just sniffle. I couldn't believe what she had said to me, but I had stood up for the right thing, and Thorin and Balin knew it.

After a while, I let go of Thorin.

"I'm sorry," I sniffed, "I just needed to get that out...that was uncalled for."

"No," Thorin replied simply, "You cried because you needed to. There's no shame in that."

"Really?" Thorin, the majestic dwarf king didn't think crying was a weakness? I was surprised.

"Yes of course."

"She really hurt me..." I confessed, "She's just like the other wood elves...but now all I can think about is how much I must have hurt her feelings."

"She deserved it. What with saying all that." Balin replied.

"Some of my remarks were uncalled for."

"You were hurt. You shouldn't punish yourself." Balin replied.

"I..."

"It'd be best not to think about this anymore." Thorin interrupted, "it's just going to get you worked up again."

There was a bit of silence.

Thorin broke it again. "Unfortunately, we are going to be in here a while. And I believe someone owes me some hair braiding."

I chuckled, "I did pull out some of your hair accidentally." I said, "Okay, your majesty, will do." I had lost some of my things, but for some reason, I had still managed to keep a small hairbrush and some rubber hair-ties hidden in my boot.

"I'm just gonna tell you ahead of time I'm not the best braider in the world." I said.

"I'm sure you will do fine." Thorin replied.

"Thanks." I flipped open the the brush and started from the crown of Thorin's head. But, because his hair was so thick, long, and full of knots, the moment I put the brush in it, it got stuck.

"Crap." I muttered. I seized the brush and tried to pull it through. "Oww." Thorin said.

"I am so sorry." I said as I gave a it a mighty yank and it pulled free, pulling out a clump of hair. "...Sorry..." I said again. I took a thick strand of hair and started to brush it from the bottom, one, two, three, four, five strokes, before I extended the length I was brushing. I brushed out dirt, leaves, and cobwebs as my brush went through his hair. I brushed it strand by strand, careful and slow with each stroke, each time the thick locks getting more beautiful and shiny. As I did, Thorin's usually tensed shoulders and stiff posture relaxed. It felt nice to feel him relax, and I relaxed too.

"You've got beautiful hair." I said as I brushed through the tangles.

"A dwarf's hair is his greatest pride. As are the braids and our beards. They are symbols of honor and rank. We don't usually cut our hair because of it." Thorin explained.

"Well I love it." I said.

"Thank you." He replied.

"It's so thick and voluminous. Any person where I come from would do anything for hair like this."

Thorin chuckled, "Well they must not be a true dwarf then."

"Hey, I'm not a dwarf, but revel in my beautiful voluminous locks." I said with a wink, as I flipped my hair over my shoulder and batted my eyelashes.

Again chuckling, he answered, "Yes, but at the moment your beautiful, voluminous locks are full of cobwebs...wait, is that a spider I see crawling on the top of your head..."

"Eeeek..." I exclaimed as I jumped up, the brush clattering to the stone floor, running my fingers frantically through it.

Thorin and Balin laughed, "It's only a jest Millie, there is no spider in your hair."

"Thorin...that wasn't' nice..." I playfully tugged on a strand of his hair, and then began to braid it. "That was a Fili/Kili move."

Thorin chuckled again and smirked, "Well who do you think taught them how to pull Eye?"

"Right." We sat in comfortable silence as I added two more small, stiff, tight braids to his hair and ran the brush through it once more.

Suddenly a voice sounded from outside the cell door.

"Psst." The three of us peered at the door. Bilbo was standing outside, and jingled the ring of keys in front of us with a triumphant grin. Everyone cheered in spite of themselves.

"Shh!" Bilbo said sharply, "There are guards nearby." Everyone quieted down at once as Bilbo began to unlock all the doors. When he got to Sam's, she gave him a long kiss, causing confused and embarrassed expressions from everyone.

"Ooooo." Marley teased.

"Shut up." She growled.

"Follow me, quickly." Bilbo said, recovering from minor shock and embarrassment.

SAM POV

Bilbo led us out of the dungeons and up toward the actual palace. He led us into a room. It was slightly dim inside and there were shelves of liquor and barrels. There was a pile of roped down barrels, big enough to fit the body of a person in each over a trap door sort of thing, beside it was a table, and the heads of two elves were laying on it, snoring, and sleeping drunk. Muttering rose from the company, once again questioning the ideas of the hobbit.

"What are you doing!" Bofur exclaimed, "your supposed to be getting us out of here!"

"Trust me," Bilbo pleaded, "I promise you I know what I'm-"

"Shh!" Bofur whisper yelled sharply.

"Bofur!" I growled back in the same tone.

"Into the barrels, quickly." Bilbo said.

More protests and doubts arose from the company.

"Are you mad?" Dwalin said, "They'll find us!"

"No they won't, I promise you. Please, you must trust me."

"Do as he says." Thorin said. Everyone obeyed, climbing into the barrels. Thank God I was shorter, I was able to duck down all the way into the barrel. I couldn't help but laugh though as I caught sight of Marley, half of his entire torso was sticking out of the barrels. Bilbo counted us under his breath and then backed up toward the crank, satisfied.

"What do we do now?" Asked Bofur. All at once, perfectly in sync, all of our heads peered out of the barrels, trained on Bilbo.

"Hold your breath." He said.

"Hold me breath?" Bofur replied, "What do you mean?"

Bilbo pulled the crank and the trap door opened, and down I rolled in my barrel, faster, faster, then I was falling, falling, my friends and the dwarves screamed, Millie and Lizzie' s vocal chords ear-piercing and ripping through the setting. "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I exclaimed.

KERSPLASH! I was met by freezing cold water soaking me to the skin as the barrels jerked right side up and began to fly down the white water rapids. There was another loud cry and another splash behind me as Bilbo hit the water. He lurched out with a gasping breath and grabbed onto the side of my barrel, I turned and tried to pull him in the barrel with me.

"Well done, Master Baggins." Thorin said. My hobbit held up his hand and shook his head, as if to say "no problem".

With many a struggle, eventually he managed to pull himself in with me. It was a tight fit, and we almost flipped over, but we got in all the same, and there was still room to move around a little too.

Our soaking wet company then was propelled forward in our barrels by the white water rapids, down waterfalls and over huge cataracts. I fought back shivers. My long brown hair hung in stringy strands, some of them plastered to my face. I moved those out of the way as I tried to keep track of the company and not fall out of my barrel.

Suddenly, a loud elvish horn sounded in the distance, echoing throughout the entire forest. We were suddenly ambushed by elves on all sides. I didn't see them, but there were so many and I felt the breeze as they ran across the trees at all sides of us.

"C'mon!" Thorin's call rang out. I dug my hands in the freezing water and paddled, as if that would make a difference. Looking ahead, I saw the gate from Mirkwood to the outside world, our one way ticket out, closing on us slowly. Thorin's barrel reached it just as it closed. "No!" Thorin exclaimed, trying to pry open the gate. We had lost our one-way ticket. An elf, the same one who had pulled the crank to close the gate stood on the branch directly in front of us with a column of guards aimed their bows at us, but then he froze in his tracks, letting out a cry of pain as he crumpled and splashed into the water and out jumped a pack of orcs, and at their head, a large, pale, ugly orc that reminded me of my old "pal" Azog. "Great, now we have to deal with them too." I muttered as the orcs began to attack us, causing us to have to fight with sticks and our fists. Some of the elvish guards tried to stop them, but were quickly out bested. My eyes flashed to the lever that opened the gate. "We need to get to that lever." I muttered. I was about to jump out when Bilbo cried, "Sam!" I turned; a large orc was coming toward me with his long blade. Fisted my hand and struck his cheek, hard enough to break his jaw. He growled in pain, and then Bilbo sent his glowing sword through it, and it splashed in the water, hitting our barrel as it's body sunk. I was about to turn my attention back toward the lever when a two loud, strangled cries rang out, one male, one female.

"KILI!" That was Lizzie.

"KILI!" That was Fili. I turned and looked up, he had gotten shot in the knee with a black orc arrow, and was pale and in pain as he forced himself to latch his hands on the lever and pull it down. He succeeded,and the gate raised, and we began to go forward again, as he rolled off the ledge into his barrel, knocking the arrow from the wound, leaving him to clutch his leg.

-xXx-

LIZZIE POV

I let out the breath I had been holding in as we at last exited Mirkwood and found ourselves at the bank of the river. I got out and pulled the heavy barrel from the water, and ran to help Fili get Kili out of his own barrel.

"Are you alright?" he looked awful. His face was pale and he was hobbling, trying not to put weight on his wounded leg as we supported him on either side.

"I'm fine. It's just a flesh wound." He replied. We helped him sit down and he began to clean his wound. It was small, but dark blood oozed from it and it looked swollen, painful, and gross, so I turned my gaze away and squeezed out my hair, shaking my ginger curls from side to side.

Despite the pain he was in, Kili chuckled.

"What?"

"Nothing." He replied.

"Yeah, I know my hair is an atrocious fuzz—ball."

"It looks like a hobbit's hair."

"Thanks…I guess."

"It's cute." He said. I blushed. Suddenly, Kili grimaced.

"Kili?"

"I'm fine, it was just a sting." He replied.

"Kili." Sam walked over to him, carrying a small yellow tube of something and an ace bandage.

"Is that Neosporin?" I asked.

"Yeah." She replied. She sat down beside me and pulled a cotton swab out of her pocket. Then she squeezed some Neosporin on it and handed it to me.

"What's that?" Kili asked.

"Medicine." I replied, "It'll help any infection of the wound by keeping it cleaner. It's gonna sting a little when a put it on. Okay?" He nodded. I held his leg with one hand and applied the Neosporin with the other. He hissed when it touched his wound as I covered it. When I was done, I wrapped the ace bandage around his leg.

"There," I said, "That should be alright for a while."

"Thank you."

"Can you walk?" I asked.

He nodded. I started to help him up when I heard the slash of a dagger being pulled from a sheath.

"You touch him and I'll stab you." that was Millie's voice. I turned. She was standing in front of Ori, facing a tall man in a ragged fur coat with handsome features that included facial hair and dark locks that touched his shoulders, and he had an arrow pointed at her, but then drew it away when he realized her appearance.

"Why, you're hardly older than my eldest daughter! What are you doing out here with a bunch of dwarves?"