Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own The Hobbit.

Chapter 21: Barrel Racing

You might as well expect rivers to run backwards as any man born free to be contented penned up.

–Chief Joseph

Thorin, from the position of his barrel pressed right up against the river gates, could not really see what was happening. He craned his neck to watch as Kili clambered out of his barrel and up onto the bridge above, fighting off orcs with a skill that made Thorin's heart twinge with pride. But the orcs kept coming, and Thorin watched, helplessly, as an arrow pierced his nephew's calf. Still, Kili struggled to open the gate.

A great bang drew the attention of elf, orc, and Company man alike, and Thorin nearly sobbed in relief. An orc which had been charging towards Kili and the female elf that fought beside him slumped forward into the river, a gaping hole between its eyes where Gemma had shot him from across the courtyard. The orc's body fell on top of Gloin and Dwalin, who, with a great deal of grumbling, managed to push it off them and into the river.

Gemma sprinted forward as Kili finally managed to open the gate. Thorin saw his nephew roll into a barrel and glimpsed Gemma dive into the river just as his own barrel fell over the edge of the small waterfall beyond the river gate. The white water below tossed him in all directions and made it impossible to focus on anything. When he finally was free of the raging rapids, Thorin looked for his nephew. Kili had made it into the barrel just fine, but his face had grown pale. The arrow wound would have to be looked at as soon as possible. Thorin turned away from his nephew to scan for Gemma. He found her wrapped tightly around the side of his other nephew's barrel, who had his arm wrapped around her head to protect it.

With the river calming down, the orcs were able to catch up to them, and so began what was easily the strangest battle of their journey yet. Weaponless, the dwarves used branches from the shore and their own fists to take out their opponents, whom they then relieved of their crude orc weapons. Thorin got a hold of a jagged scabbard, which he used to decapitate an orc who had, bravely or stupidly, launched himself of the shore towards the dwarves in the river. Thorin tossed the weapon back to Oin, who used it to knock another orc into the water and then passed it to Fili, and so on. And still more orcs seemed to spew from the depths of the woods.

A hand on his shoulder caused Thorin the spin around in his barrel, ready to attack whatever foul creature was there. Thankfully, she was not foul at all; Gemma had managed to swim over to the side of his barrel. She began to say something, but suddenly shouted "Duck!" and dove under the water. Thorin did so and moments later, the side of his barrel was peppered with orc arrows.

Gemma popped back up and, shouting over the roar of water and the clamour of battle, asked "Miss me?" She leaned up to give him a quick kiss, and Thorin's heart clenched, despite the terrible timing of it all. Gemma leaned over and shot an orc archer on the shore behind him.

"How did you get back, and with your gun too?"

"It's a long story. I had my bag too, but I must have lost it in the rapids." She twisted and punch an orc that was leaning over the river from a branch above square in the face. It toppled over backwards into the river, head first. "That's a bit of a problem," Gemma continued as if nothing had happened, "because I didn't grab any more ammo. Which means, taking into account that I've used some up already...," she ducked under the water to allow Thorin to stab another orc. He grabbed its axe as Gemma popped back up, coughing up a mouthful of river water. "If I'm lucky...," she ripped one of the arrows from the top of Thorin's barrel and threw it at another orc like it was a dart, the arrow sticking in its neck. "I might have... twelve shots left, I think." She spun and shot at an orc poised to attack the red haired elf that had helped Kili. "Make that eleven."

"Here," he passed her his sword, while he used the heavy axe.

"I don't know how to use this thing!" she shouted back.

"Just swing!"

The river started twisting, and Thorin saw Bombur bounce onto land, mowing down orcs as he rolled along. Thorin also spotted the blond elf prince that had captured them in the forest. He picked off the orcs with that infuriating ease that was characteristic of elves. He hoped across the river using the dwarves' heads like stepping stones. It was quite impressive, though Thorin was loath to admit it. Still, it was good to know that the elves had momentarily forgotten their feud with the Company in order to deal with their mutual foe. As the elf prince fought off four orcs on land, higher up the river bank which had risen up to become bluffs, Thorin noticed a fourth orc sneak up behind. In a split second decision, Thorin raised his stolen orc axe and chucked it so that it flew, end over end, and embedded itself into the orc's skull. At the same time Gemma picked off two of the elf's opponents with three shots. The blond elf dispatched of the other two creatures with ease, and looked down to Gemma and Thorin in the river below, offering them a nod of appreciation. Thorin returned the acknowledgment while Gemma offered him a two-fingered salute.

Gemma, still clinging to his barrel, suddenly spun them both in order to avoid being dashed against a rocky section of the river side. The river was beginning to pick up speed now. Soon their attackers were left behind as the current swept thirteen dwarves, a hobbit, and a woman down and out to the lake.

Soon the river brought them to a pebbled beach-like area, and they all clambered out onto shore. By this time, Gemma was completely soaked and shivering like mad, as the cooler fall weather had rapidly descended on the area. It was nearly winter now, and that was finally reflected in the weather.

She couldn't even change into warm dry clothes, because her bag had been lost at some point. And after all the hassle she went through to get it back too; that was just her luck. Her top half wasn't so bad; her wind breaker had managed to keep some of the water out, so while her sweater underneath was still quite damp, the tank top she wore under that was reasonably dry. Her bottoms were another story. She wished she hadn't been wearing jeans; she could already feel her thighs beginning to chaff. And her leather boots, while managing to keep her feet mostly dry, were pretty much ruined. She didn't want to even think about how bedraggled her hair was. She pulled it out of the ponytail, which was pretty much out already, to let it air dry. When it was dry it would be terribly wild and massive, but then she could just tie it up again. The real problem was how goddamn cold she was going to be. With her luck, she'd probably catch a cold too.

Warm arms wrapped around her from behind, and Gemma immediately snuggled in. Thorin's fur coat was pretty wet, but he was quite dry underneath, so he took off the coat and wrapped it around her shaking shoulders. Gemma sighed at the warmth, and quickly shed her wet layers in favour of wearing the fur over her tank top. It was dry on the inside and oh so soft.

"You escaped from Thranduil." Thorin said, but Gemma knew what he really meant: you came back to us.

"Of course I did. Did you ever doubt I would?" She said in answer to both spoken and unspoken statements.

"Gemma! You made it out!" Bofur called. He went to give her a slap on the back, but then thought better of it, knowing how the woman complained of the gesture ("Honestly, do you have to do it so hard that it hurts?!"), and instead went for a fist bump. Gemma grinned. The others soon came over also, chattering excitedly about their thrilling escape. Bombur was especially praised for his... interesting rolling tactics, and of course Bilbo, for his ingenious, if chaotic, escape plan.

We should keep moving," Thorin told the group, effectively bringing their joyous conversations to a halt. "The orcs cannot be too far behind." Gemma knew Thorin was right, but really wished they could stay. She was running terribly low on sleep, only managing to get a maybe an hour or two in the Mirkwood cell. Beyond that, she hadn't slept since Beorn's. The only thing keeping her on her feet was the copious amount of adrenaline raging through her bloodstream.

"Thorin! Oin!" Fili called from his place by his brother, drawing the attention of the Company. Kili was sitting on a rock, shivering and pale as a ghost. He was not in good shape. "Kili's wound, it needs binding," Fili said.

"We cannot rest for long. There's an orc pack on our tail. We must keep moving," Thorin replied.

"Thorin..." Gemma began, but the look in Thorin's eyes showed his decision would not be swayed. And he was right; the orcs would probably catch up to them soon. Still, it was his nephew...

Oin managed to ease the arrow out of Kili's leg, and bandaged up the wound quickly. "This'll do for now," the old dwarf said, "but we'll need to examine and fix it more thoroughly soon." With his brother's help, Kili was able to stand, but Gemma was nervous; she'd been shot in the leg once, actually quite recently. It was during only her second month returning to the field after the whole hostage ordeal, because, of course, luck was definitely not her biggest fan. The bullet had grazed her thigh, a flesh wound, just like Kili's appeared to be; deep enough to hurt like a bitch, but nothing terribly damaging. Yet Kili's pallor suggested that there was something more seriously wrong. She prayed that it was only due to the chill in the air.

"The lake lies between the mountain and us, and we have no way across," Balin pointed out, to make a bad situation worse.

"Then we go around," Bilbo said. "The mountain is so close."

"Nay, the orcs'll run us down, and we have no weapons to defend ourselves" Dwalin pointed out. Bifur, dwarf of few words that he was, only grunted and shook his head in clear disapproval of the idea.

Of course, at this point, things were just bound to go terribly wrong. And, as if someone had heard her thoughts, they did just that. A dark figure appeared atop the large boulder beside them, and loosed an arrow towards their group. It struck the large tree branch that Dwalin had managed to procure, which the dwarf had raised over his head in preparation of battle. With remarkable aim, a second arrow knocked aside the stones that Kili had tried to throw at the tall dark stranger.

"Try it again and she's dead," the shadow said in a gruff voice, swinging his bow around to aim directly at Gemma.

AN:

Not a very long chapter, I know, and not much different from the movie, but it had to be done. I hope you all still enjoyed it. And thank you, thank you, thank you for all those amazing reviews last chapter! My inbox was absolutely flooded. You guys are the best.

I forgot to mention last chapter that we're now halfway through the story. However, I'm running low on chapters in reserve and haven't had much time to write, so I may have to extend the time in between updates. I'll try my hardest not to let that happen, but it might have to be done. Otherwise there'll be even longer gaps once I reach my last pre-written chapter.

I hope you guys are having a fabulous day! If you feel like it, drop me a review!