The barrels splashed against the water. Bella's thankfully stayed up right. " Bella are you alright?" Thorin called to her. The woman slowly pulled herself up, her head peering over the top.
"I'm fine." She answered in exhaustion. " Where's Bilbo?"
"He's still trapped up above." Thorin told her.
"We can't leave with out him.."
"We have no choice! By now the Elves know we have escaped and probably have the hobbit. Do you want to be recaptured again!? We have to leave now!" Dwalin yelled.
"None of you would be here right now if it wasn't for Bilbo and this is how you're going to repay him!?" Bella shouted only to fall down to the bottom of her barrel. It took so much energy out of her just to yell.
"Enough!" Thorin interrupted. "She's right. We wait for the hobbit." He ordered. The king looked back at the barrel beside him, Bella hadn't come back up. "Bella?"
"I'm okay. I just...need a second." She panted heavily. Just then they all looked up when they heard the trap door open up again, and seeing Bilbo falling into the water, with a splash.
"Bilbo!" Nori called, grabbing the hobbit by his clothing as he grabbed hold of the barrel.
"Well done Master Baggins." Thorin praised. Bilbo gave a shaky wave of his hand to start going. The company started flowing down the river. Bella managed to pull herself back up so she could see what was before her and her eyes slightly widen as much as they could when she saw what they were about to head into. "HOLD ON!" The king shouted. Bella managed to suck in a breath before she got plunged under water.
The barrels eventually returned to the surface once they got to the bottom of the waterfall. The woman, along with a few other dwarves started spitting out mouthfuls of water. The current continued to take them down stream when a loud horn is blown from behind them at the top of the waterfall. Their heads all whipped around in front of them to see a bridge coming into view, along with a couple guards. One moving a little more faster then the others to pull the leaver to close the gate under the bridge, stopping them from going any further. " No!" The dwarf king growled lowly, giving the gate a push but it didn't even budge.
The elf guards drew there weapons, ready to take their escaped prisoners back to their cells, when a bloodthirsty roar came from over the wall.
"Watch out! There's Orcs!" Bofur shouted, seeing a number of orcs climbing over the wall and viciously attacking the elves and jumping at the unarmed dwarves.
"Get under the bridge!" Thorin yelled at his men that were still out in the open. Bella suddenly screamed when an orc shot out of the water, climbed on her barrel and was about to stab her when Bilbo pulled out his sword Sting and stabbed it before it could hurt the young woman.
The few elves continued to fight off the dozens of orcs that had invaded there lands, but they were quickly losing as more orcs came from out of the bushes being led by Bolg, the spawn of Azog the Defiler. Kili, through all the chaos going on around them saw the lever was unattended. With determination in his eyes he climbed onto the top of Dwalin's barrel and jumped over to the platform and had to duck right away to avoid nearly getting his head sliced off.
Dwalin ended up tossing the young dwarf prince an orc weapon he acquired after taking on one of the creatures himself. Kili was nearly at the lever, his hand was already extending to pull it when his leg was struck with an arrow and the prince moaned in pain. "Kili!" Fili shouted. Kili tried to grab the lever but the pain he felt was too much and his leg gave out on him and he fell on his back. Kili tried to back away as another orc towered over him to finish him off when it fell into the water. The young dwarf looked in the direction the arrow had come from and saw the she-elf, known as Tauriel begin taking on the orcs, along with the elf prince and more guards.
The gate all of a sudden opened up and barrels were being pulled once again by the current taking them down an even big waterfall with them screaming and yelling before they were muffled, being plunged underneath. Bolg and the rest of the orcs started chasing after the fleeing barrels.
The company continued to be chased them on both sides of the stream, shooting arrows at them from every direction. Some even got so bold as to launch themselves at them trying to tip the barrels over and drown the dwarves. The elves eventually caught up the company and the orcs, expecting as much that they would have to protect their escaping prisoners from a common enemy. Though from Bella's blurred vision she could tell the elf princess was merely just trying to show off to the dwarves and that redhead she-elf. Bella mostly hid at the bottom of her barrel, she was way to weak to take on any of these foul creatures. She was already drain from just trying to keep her barrel from tipping over. Eventually the elves stopped pursuing there prisoners that were already halfway down stream being chased by what was left of Bolg's army.
The chaos behind them seemed to quiet down and unfortunately for them, so did the current. They were all forced to paddle through the water with there hands.
"Anything behind us?!" Thorin shouted behind to Balin who was one of the furthest behind.
"None that I can see." The white haired dwarf informed the leader.
"I think we've outrun the orcs." Bofur stated, his head popped up to spit a mouthful of water out.
"Not for long, we've lost the current! Make for the shore!" The king stressed, using the branch to paddle faster through the water to the slab of rock that was in front of them. Their barrels hit the rocks and they began climbing out of them, a few of them having difficulties getting out. Bilbo had managed to survive the terrifying ride and climbed onto the rocks and had to look twice before noticing what seemed out of place.
"Where's Bella?" Bilbo asked. Thorin looked amongst his men and sure enough she wasn't amongst them. The dwarf king thought he had done a good job for the most part keeping an eye on her barrel when he wasn't being attacked by an orc, but clearly it wasn't good enough.
"Search the barrels now!" Thorin ordered. He, Bofur, Dwalin, Fili and Gloin started searching the barrels, knowing it was possible that the young woman might have passed out. Thorin started to panic, they had searched most of the barrels and still hadn't found her. Had she fallen into the stream during the brief seconds he wasn't watching? Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the barrel's on it's side and Bella's head half submerged in the water. "Bella!" Thorin dashed over to the woman, pulling her out of the water and gentle laid her on a flat area on the rocks. The dwarf called her name but she didn't respond. Thorin's mind was racing as he thought of only one solution. Without hesitation he carefully blew air into her still lips. Her lips felt soft against his and he quickly placed his hands on her chest, trying to get her to start breathing.
"Breathe!" Thorin yelled, feeling his own heart thudding erratically as he repeated this for a third time and the woman started coughing up water violently. Thorin placed a hand on the back of her head to hold it up so she wouldn't smack it against the rock. Her breathing soon slowed down to a normal pant and she looked at Thorin, their eyes only locking for a second and the king helped her sit up.
"You're not supposed to drink the water lass." Bofur stated
Bella furrowed her brows at this. What? Did Bofur seriously think she nearly drowned herself on purpose? " It wasn't my intention Bofur." She growled at him.
Thorin could feel the eyes of his men all staring at him and wasn't about to risk all their teasing that he had practically just kissed the half-breed to save her life. They were more surprised their leader hadn't just shoved one of them to do it instead. "On your feet!" Thorin ordered in a stern voice.
"Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding!" Fili pressed, as he started tying the ripped piece of clothing around his brothers leg.
"There's an Orc pack on our trail! We keep moving!" Thorin retorted, doing a brief scan of the area, his eyes peeled for more orcs to show up and avoiding complete eye contact from any of his men.
"To where?" Balin challenged.
"To the mountain, we're so close." The hobbit stated, still trying to adjust to the cold. Bella was now on her feet, her eyes ever so often looking at Thorin and turning away just as quickly before he could notice.
"A lake lies between us and that mountain, we have no way to cross it." Balin explained, having a big point. They were trapped and the orcs couldn't be that far behind them now, and possibly the elves.
"So then we go around." Bilbo suggested. The lake couldn't be their only way to get to their destination.
"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin interrupted.
"Bind his leg, quickly. You all have two minutes." He told them all. Bofur and Fili started binding Kili's leg. Thorin was taking a minute trying to clear his mind and all the fluttering in his chest. Bella slowly walked over to stand by the leader who she could tell was trying to avoid looking at her directly. Was he embarrassed that he saved her life?
Before Bella could attempt to thank the dwarf for what he did, she noticed the sudden tense posters of her companions. A tall figure hid in the shadows armed with a bow, pointed right at poor Ori. Dwalin jumped in front of the young dwarf to protect him with a branch as his weapon. The man suddenly released the arrow, piercing partly through the wood. Kili was next to attempt to attack this man when the arrow struck the rock, knocking it out of princes hand and into the water.
"Do it again, and you're dead." The man threatened. Bella's eyes widen, recognizing the voice immediately. Thorin had stepped in front of her to hide the fact that they had a woman in the company and they all glared at this new threat before them. Bella looked to the side to see Dwalin and Gloin nodded to one another that they were going to try and take this man together and Bella had to stop them.
"Stop!" Bella yelled. coming from behind the king, out into the open. "Stop. He's my brother!" And all her companions sudden surprised stares did not go unnoticed, including Thorin's.