Chapter 25:

I rounded a corner and saw in front of me huge stacks of barrels and thirteen open ones. Suddenly, I hyper-focused on a familiar dark-haired dwarf. I didn't even remember running forward, I just knew that one moment I was standing staring at Kili as it dawned on him that I was right in front of him and a smile spread across his face, and the next I was in his arms.

I buried my face in his chest, unable to reach his shoulder. "I missed you," I told him, my voice muffled.

His own voice was muffled from where his face was buried in my hair. "I missed you, too."

"You two are just too cute," said Fili sarcastically from behind Kili. I glanced up over Kili's shoulder, barely able to do it, even standing on my toes.

I grinned at Kili's older brother, realising how much I had missed all of them, even Thorin. "Missed you too, Fili," I told him.

Kili and I stepped apart, but I made sure to keep my hand in his. I felt the feeling of insanity fade as I was surrounded by the dwarves.

"We missed you, lass," Bofur told me, giving me a swift, warm hug.

"Did you really?" I asked with a dry smile.

"Oh, yeah," said Dori a little sarcastically. "A ton."

"What's that?" asked Kili suddenly, reaching up to touch the new scrape on my cheekbone.

"Oh, um, just effects of solitary confinement."

I grinned at him. Suddenly, a presence seemed to part the dwarves, and a familiar face broke between them. I looked up at Thorin. I tilted my head at him, as if asking him to deem judgement upon me.

There was silence for awhile, and then I heard that very familiar voice, the majestic voice that had told me off so many times before, saying softly, "Welcome back, Freya."

I flashed a grin at him. "Good to see you too, Thorin." A sudden thought struck me, and I asked, "How long has this barrel thing been planned?"

There was an uncomfortable silence, and then Ori said quietly, "We started planning this when Bilbo managed to get the word to all of us."

"Which was when?" I pressed.

There were uncomfortable looks pass among the dwarves, which made me wary. I narrowed my eyes and opened my mouth to ask again, but Ori cut me off before I could start. "Six days ago."

My mouth dropped open and I turned to Bilbo. "You let me stew for six days without telling me that we were planning something? I practically went insane! Solitary confinement, yeah? The only people who were making contact with me were bloody elves! By my fourth day, I was scratching things on the walls with my knife! By the second, actually!"

They looked a little frightened at that. "Really, Freya?" asked Kili warily.

"Yes! Ask Bilbo!"

They all turned to Bilbo. The hobbit turned a little pale and swallowed. "Um, yeah. The elves were talking to each other about how Freya – well, by the end of her first day, she was screaming and bouncing around her room. By the second, she was scratching on the wall with the knife, but she was hiding it from the elves with her magic."

I winced. Most of the dwarves didn't know about that. A few of them looked accusingly at me, but I made "later" gestures and they turned back to Bilbo.

"Um, by her fourth day she was writing poems. By her seventh she was singing. On the eighth she started stealing food. On her tenth, she escaped."

"I pried up the window with my knife, coaxed a tree towards me, shimmied down it, and left a message for Bilbo on the door," I informed the dwarves.

Bilbo grimaced. "I was not happy, Freya," he told me.

"Yeah, neither was I," Kili broke in. He grabbed my shoulder and spun my around to face him. I remembered Legolas, and I deliberately kept an expression of annoyance and pain off my face. "When Bilbo came back saying that you escaped yourself, I almost sprinted out of here to find you. I didn't want you getting hurt," Kili continued.

"I met the elf prince," I told them. "I tried to get him to help us."

"You tried to get the elf prince to help us?" Thorin asked in disbelief.

"Um...yeah?" I replied.

"Why?" His voice was carefully measured, as if he was purposely avoiding losing his temper. A good idea, with my track record.

"Because I know him," I said. They all stared at me in disbelief. "Like, he didn't know me," I told them quickly, trying to make it up. "His name is Legolas. He's kind of nice, I guess. I -" I blushed, "I flirted with him to try and get him to help us escape." I avoided Kili's gaze as I continued. "And...he refused. He almost fell for it...but then he left. So when I escaped tonight, I was practically insane, right? So I had this ridiculous idea to go to his room. So I went to his room, and I flirted with him again, and..." I swallowed and turned away from all of them, remembering how horrible it could've been. "It didn't work," I said, my voice kind of hoarse. "So I knocked him out and came down here."

There was silence for a moment, and then Bilbo said uncomfortably, "Listen, we can discuss Freya's full story later. Right now we need to get everyone in the barrels and get out of here." Everybody dispersed, going to their respective barrels. Bilbo sprinted in between them, putting in more straw for packing them in.

Kili and I hung back a few moments and he leaned behind a full barrel and produced two long, sharp objects. "Here," he said, handing them to me. I gazed at them, realising that they were Ripplescale and Glitterthorn, in their sheaths, ready to take with us.

I stared up at him. "Did you get all of the weapons?"

He nodded. "Yeah. The swords are with Fili, who's small enough to fit them with him. And the bows and other things are with Ori, who's not careful enough with sharp objects, but small enough for them. But I thought you'd want your swords with you, and you gave your bow to Moonshadow."

I gazed up at him with wordless thanks. "What now?"

"Get in this one next to mine, and hold your breath."

I slid in, wishing there was a top, and settled in. Bilbo pulled the lever, and ramp tipped. I resisted the urge to scream as the huge concentration of barrels went tumbling into the river below.

HERE WE ARE! We have reached the place where everything changes. Like, literally, there are scenes that I copied and pasted into appropriate parts in the new story, but basically from here to the Battle I have changed a shit-ton of stuff. WHOO! Love you all! Please review!