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I just wanted to say thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows! And a special thanks to Aranel Mereneth who explained the bad word that Thorin said in the last chapter! Thank you so much! :D
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The Hobbit: The desolation of Smaug

Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit, I only own Nàin.

Chapter 21

Nàin quickly took a hold of Fili's barrel as they all held on to each other and the rocks on the side. Luckily there wasn't much of a current so they could easily wait for Bilbo to join them.

However. He didn't.

"Where is he?" asked Nori as he held on to Dori and Ori's barrels.

Nobody answered him as no one knew. Instead everybody looked up at the hatch they had just rolled down from. They heard the faint sound of someone stomping on it, making Nàin raise her eyebrows slightly, before the hatch suddenly opened.

Bilbo fell, quite ungracefully, down into the water. Almost immediately Nori started to help him up to the surface.

"Well done master Baggins," said Thorin before he let go of the rocks and started to paddle with his hands. "Come on, quickly! Let's go!"

Nàin reluctantly let go of Fili's barrel as she exchanged a look with Fili before she too started paddling with her hands.

However, Nàin didn't have to paddle for long since a sudden current appeared in the water. At first she was delighted that she didn't have to paddle anymore since it was tiring her arms and hurt her wrist. However, when Thorin shouted for everyone to hold on and the sound of water flowing wildly in front of them could be heard, she wished that she still had to paddle.

She let out a small scream before closing her mouth and eyes as she fell down the waterfall. Almost as soon as she was above water again, she started gasping for air. Holding her breath for longer periods was something she wasn't very good at.

Her barrel suddenly tipped slightly to the right, making her gasp again as she wasn't holding on to the barrel which almost had made her fall into the water herself. She saw Bilbo holding a tight grip on the edge of her barrel, gasping for air.

"Bilbo!" she exclaimed as she took a hold of his arms and tried to keep him up above the surface which was a difficult task considering she was struggling with keeping herself in the barrel.

The water was pretty wild at the moment and her barrel hit at least five rocks. The last hit had made Bilbo lose his grip on her barrel. Luckily, Ori had gotten a hold of him instead.

Her barrel accidentally hit Ori's barrel a moment after that, which made the both of them look at each other for a moment before both reaching out for each other. Their hands touched and for a brief moment their barrels were kept at the same level, until Ori's barrel hit a rock which forced them both to let go of each other's hands again.

Suddenly, the sound of a horn was heard. Everyone turned their heads towards the source of the sound and saw something they did not want to see.

Elves.

The company was nearing a sort of bridge which probably was some kind of boarder for the Elves. A couple of Elven guards were standing on the bridge and one of them quickly pulled a lever that was placed on the bridge.

"No!" shouted Thorin, making Nàin look forwards again.

She saw everyone stopping and she quickly understood why. There was a gate ahead of them, stopping them from getting any further. This was probably what the Elven guard had pulled the lever for.

Her barrel was one of the last barrels to hit the others which was the reason for why her barrel was almost hit by the body of an Elf that had fallen down into the river.

"Orcs!?" exclaimed Nàin as she looked up at the bridge where the Elf had fallen from.

"Watch out!" exclaimed Dwalin. "Orcs!"

Nàin let out a shaky breath of fear as one of the Orcs suddenly jumped of the bridge and onto her barrel. She quickly slipped as far inside the barrel as she could while the barrel tipped over, making the Orc fall down into the water. A big amount of water slipped inside the barrel and Nàin accidentally swallowed some of it before standing up again.

"Get under the bridge!" exclaimed Gloin as he took a hold of Nàin's barrel while she coughed up the amount of water that had slipped down into her lungs.

Another Orc dived down into the water, taking a hold of Nàin's barrel again. He lifted his knife up and was just about to cut her neck open when Bilbo quickly stabbed the Orc with his sword.

Nàin let out a sigh of relief before nodding towards Bilbo as a thanks.

"Kili!" exclaimed Fili, making both Bilbo and Nàin look towards Fili and then at Kili who was currently climbing out of his barrel and onto the bridge.

"Kili! What are you doing!?" exclaimed Nàin as she gripped the side of her barrel and leaned against it slightly.

Dwalin threw him a sword and the moment he caught it, he began killing Orcs as they came towards him. Nàin noticed how Kili was slowly pushing his way towards the lever that the Elven guard had pulled before the gate had been closed and understood what his plan was. A small light of hope filled her heart.

However, the Orcs quickly blew the light out as one of them shot an arrow at Kili, hitting him in the side of his knee.

"Kili!" called Fili with a painful sound of worry in his voice as Nàin put her hands in front of her mouth, stopping herself from screaming out an angry scream at the stupid Orc who had shot that arrow.

An Orc was nearing Kili in fast speed as he lay on the ground, unable to stand up at the moment. A worried look was on his face, however a different kind of arrow pierced the Orc's heart before he could even try to attack Kili.

Both Kili and Nàin looked back at where the arrow had come from and saw Tauriel arriving at the scene with a couple of other Elves behind her.

A sudden feeling of courage and the need to prove herself just as courageous as other adventurous women took a hold of her as she sprung up from her barrel and leaped over the others' barrels before falling down into the water right next to the edge. She quickly pulled herself up the edge and ran over to Kili, ignoring the calls of her name from the other Dwarves.

Crouching down next to Kili, she inspected his knee.

"Quickly," said Kili as he pushed her away from him. "The lever."

She nodded before running towards the lever, dodging an arrow that an Orc sent her way. With all her strength, she pulled it and smiled as she heard the other Dwarves call out that the gate was opening again.

With quick movements, Nàin took a hold of Kili's arms and helped him back towards his barrel. She cringed as she watched Kili jump back into the barrel, the arrow that was stuck to his knee breaking off painfully as he did. The arrow he had in his knee broke as he jumped into it making him grunt slightly out of pain.

"Nàin!" called Fili as he lost his grip on the rocks which had kept his barrel from moving along with the current.

She quickly noticed her barrel that was starting to move away from her and didn't hesitate to jump into it, preparing herself to be tossed around again by the water.

The river was even wilder at the other end of the gate. Nàin had accidently gulped in at least ten mouthfuls of water as she tried to gasp for air a couple of times. She felt like a ball of twine being tossed between the paws of a kitten as the water tossed her and the others around. She barely saw anything either since she had water in her eyes. She wanted to rub it out of her eyes, however every time she did try to let go of the barrel she was tossed around again which would make her almost fall into the water.

The few things she did manage to see was an Orc hanging from a fallen tree with an axe in his neck and Bombur jumping down from land into a new barrel. Exactly why he had done that, she never really figured out.

..::**::..

The river finally calmed itself down and Nàin was finally able to rub her now sore eyes.

"Anything behind us!?" asked Thorin.

"Not what I can see!" called Balin back.

"I think we've outrun the Orcs!" said Bofur as every one of the Dwarves were paddling with their hands again.

"Not for long! We've lost the current," said Thorin.

"There's a shore!" exclaimed Nàin as she noticed a small shore not too far away from them.

It was rocky but it was still a way for them to get out of their barrels.

"Make for it!" commanded Thorin as he too noticed it.

Nàin and Kili were the first ones to reach the shore. Kili walked away from the water while Nàin stayed and helped the others to get out of their barrels. As soon as Fili was close to the shore, Nàin ran out to him and grabbed his barrel.

The water reached up to her waist and it was freezing, but she didn't care. She just wanted to be with Fili again besides, she was already soaked from before. Wading her way back to shore with Fili's barrel in behind her, she noticed Kili sitting down on a rock with a grimace on his face. He touched his knee carefully and Nàin immediately knew he was in great pain after that arrow.

Almost as soon as Fili was standing up, Nàin threw her arms around his neck and pressed herself so close to him that she almost found it inappropriate. But she was happy to be back on solid ground and to be able to be close to Fili again.

"You were brave back there," whispered Fili into her ear as he put his hands around her waist, ignoring the surprised looks that the others were giving them. "When you helped Kili with the lever."

"I was simply trying to help," said Nàin, pulling away from him slightly, though not letting go of Fili's neck.

"You did," said Fili with a smile as he put his forehead against hers, looking into her eyes.

"Come on, we need to keep moving," said Thorin who was looking directly at them with serious eyes.

The both of them quickly jumped apart and started following Thorin as he walked towards the others.

"On your feet," said Thorin as he walked by Kili and Bofur who both were sitting down besides each other, Bofur's eyes on Kili's wounded knee.

"Kili's wounded, his leg needs binding," said Bofur as he turned his head towards Thorin.

As soon as Fili and Nàin heard this, they both ran over to Kili. Fili crouched down next to his brother's leg and inspected it while Nàin laid a hand on Kili's cheek and smiled a smile at him.

"You're going to be fine," she whispered to him as he groaned slightly when Fili touched his knee.

"There's an Orc pack on our tail," said Thorin, making Nàin grit her teeth together. Didn't he see that his nephew was hurt? "We keep moving."

Fili exchanged a look with Nàin before diverting his eyes back to Kili's knee.

"To where?" asked Balin.

"To the mountain. We're so close," said Bilbo.

"A lake lies between us and that mountain," said Balin looking at Thorin with serious eyes. "We have no way to cross it."

"So then we go around," said Bilbo.

"The Orcs will run us down as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves," said Dwalin.

"Kili's hurt! He can barely walk! We need to stay here for a while," said Nàin, letting her hand glide down to Kili's elbow.

"I'm fine," said Kili with a glare directed towards Nàin.

"Bind his leg, quickly," ordered Thorin as he walked towards Nàin. "You have two minutes."

Nàin nodded and let go of Kili's elbow as she shifted so she was sitting on her knees next to Fili.

"Use this," said Nàin as she unwrapped her wrist and handed the piece of her shirt to Fili.

He looked at her wrist with worried eyes before taking the piece of clothing, hesitantly.

"What happened!?" exclaimed Kili as he saw her dark colored wrist.

"Spider," replied Nàin shortly, not looking at Kili as she was focused on watching Fili wrap his leg instead.

"Nàin, that looks bad," said Bofur.

"I'm fine! I'm not the one that is bleeding because a bloody Orc shot an arrow at my knee!" she shot back before putting her finger at the binding so that Fili could tie it.

Thorin simply looked at her with worried eyes before nodding towards Bofur to let it be, for now.

It was pretty hard to write about the barrel ride. But I did my best. I hope you liked it!

Thanks for reading! :)