Savina landed on her hands and knees in the shallow water. She glanced up; she was only few feet from the shore, if she could just make it…
On the other side of the river, Legolas flung his pack off, scattering Tas' pouches, and drew his bow. He fitted an arrow into it and started shooting the Badiras that were closest to Savina.
Savina scrambled to her feet and lunged toward the shore, landing hard on her hands and knees in the dirt just as the wave of black swept by her and disappeared downstream. Panting, Savina wiped water out of her eyes and rubbed her throbbing knee where she'd hit it on a rock. Ironic, she thought, thousands of people travel through Middle Earth everyday and I'm the one who almost dies like every five minutes. She heard splashing and looked up to see Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli splashing across the river toward her.
Tas followed them, clasping his pouches in his arms.
Savina pulled herself to her feet, shaking and weak, and pulled on her pack from where it had fallen off when she'd leaped ashore.
Aragorn crouched down in front of her, "are you hur-"
"I'm fine," she assured him, then turned toward the mountains, "are we continuing?" She tried hard not to look at Legolas, who was breathing heavily and glaring at her.
Aragorn's dark eyes flickered toward Legolas, then looked at the mountains over Savina's shoulder, "yes, there will be Orcs at night and probably Goblins, but we must press on." With that said, he walked past Savina, his eyes on Mount Doom.
Legolas went to walk by her, then pushed her in front of him, scowling, "stay where I can keep an eye on you."
Savina sighed and started after Aragorn.
Tas fell into step beside her, his brown eyes glowing, "you've almost died like million times! Talk about near death experiences-"
Gimli, who was walking beside Legolas, gave the Kender a hard shove, "shut up and walk."
Tas scowled at him, but kept silent.
Aragorn, walking at the front of the party, kept his eyes on the woods and the mountains only a few miles ahead; they were innocent enough by day, but Aragorn knew it would be a whole different story after night fell. He glanced toward the horizon, the sun was already setting.