A/N: The Company escapes, and Cameron finds herself fighting the orcs and Thorin.
Chapter Text"Cam! Cam, wake up!" I'm stirred awake by Bilbo, who's shaking me by the shoulders. I shoot upright, only barely keeping in a scream due to him having startled me.
"Djeez, Bilbo, what's going on?" I ask him once I've calmed down, now confused.
"I've found a way to get us out of here. There's barrels in the basement, we'll escape through them. They drop them into the water and the river leads straight to Dale!" He explains, excitement in his eyes and voice.
"Bilbo, you're brilliant!" I exclaim, pulling him into a hug. He chuckles at that, but we quickly quiet down again.
"When are we leaving?" I ask him, whispering once more.
"In the afternoon. I just have to grab the keys from the guard. I'll come get you once I have them, then we can go free the dwarves and get the hell out of here. I think it's easier not to be seen with just you instead of 12 dwarves, and the dungeons are closer to the wine cellar." He explains, making me nod in agreement.
"You're so brave. I'm proud of you, Bilbo." I whisper, then wrap him into another hug.
"I know. I love you, Cameron." He whispers back, tearing up slightly.
"I love you too, Bilbo."
After that, Bilbo leaves the room, and I find myself wide awake despite the early hour. We still had a chance to make it to the mountain in time.
When the sun finally begins to shine through my window, I quickly put on my clothes. Thranduil had offered to get them cleaned, but I'd refused, thank God, out of nostalgia or something, and now I was glad I did. They smelled, but not too bad, considering we'd only been in them for a few weeks and I'd just changed my shirt the day we got captured. The hours go by painfully slow, until finally, my door opens once more, an invisible Bilbo sneaking inside.
"Alright, let's go." He whispers, taking my hand to lead me out of the room. The hardest part is getting out of the infirmary, considering that there are healers inside, but Bilbo quickly fixes it by pushing some elf down the stairs, causing multiple elves to crash into each other. All the healers rush into that direction, and Bilbo and I sneak out quickly. After that, we make it to the dungeons unseen, thanks to Bilbo dragging me into other hallways or tiny storage rooms in time so other elves don't spot me, him still being invisible.
"Cameron!" Bofur exclaims, noticing me first. The others see me now too, beginning to exclaim how happy they are to see me.
"Shh! You'll let them know we're here!" Bilbo hushes them quickly, now coming into view as well. He pulls out the keys he'd stolen from the guard, and begins to unlock everyone's cells, after which I make sure they're all alright, checking them out quickly. Soon enough, everyone's out, and we're on our way to the cellar. Thorin's eyes had met mine, when he was released from his cell, but the look in them was enough for me to keep my distance. He was mad at me, that was for sure.
Once we reach the cellar, Bilbo shows our escape route: the barrels. A lot of the dwarves utter sceptic comments.
"Get your asses in those barrels! Bilbo knows what he's doing!" I exclaim, shoving some of them towards the barrels. Once they've all crawled inside, Bilbo and I are about to move as well, when I do a count and realize it.
"Bilbo, Cameron! What's taking you so long?" Thorin barks, making me swallow harshly.
"There's not enough barrels. Besides, someone needs to pull the lever." Bilbo explains.
"Cameron, come here." Thorin orders, and I can't help but obey, legs shaky. When I reach his barrel, his blue stunning eyes meet mine, and the next thing I know he's lifting me up and into the barrel with him, making me squeak in surprise.
"Thorin, I-
Before I can say anything, Bilbo pulls the lever, and we begin to roll down. For a moment, I don't know what's up or down anymore, but then we hit the water, and Thorin balances us to keep us upright in the barrel. Once I open my eyes, I find myself standing in front of Thorin in the barrel, his chest touching my back. My heart skips a beat, but then I notice the orcs on either side of the river, already following us.
"Damned orcs." Thorin grunts, and I get ready, letting my magic come to surface, waiting in my hands to be released. I had regained enough strength these past few days to be able to use it again.
The first five that dare take the jump to our barrels, are blasted away by me, my arms stretched to the left and right. The orcs are clearly surprised by it, but there's so many of them that they don't let it discourage them. All of them begin to fire or jump at us, and fighting in the barrel is hard. Thorin turns around in the barrel, nearly resulting into us toppling over, until his back is touching mine and we can cover the entire area around our barrel. I'm facing forwards, so I do my best to blast any attacks there away, while Thorin covers my back and helps the other dwarves.
Suddenly, someone shoots an orc that had been targeting me. Surprised, I look around, only to find Tauriel and Legolas, Thranduil's son judging by his familiar white hair, helping us by killing the orcs.
"Thorin, look! The elves are helping us!" I exclaim, before continuing to kill orcs.
"Oh, really? I don't see that stuck up new lover of yours anywhere! Wonder where he is!" Thorin shouts back, sounding very annoyed.
"Oh, shut up! He's not my lover, you idiot!" I shout back, killing an orc that had been aiming at Thorin. When I glance over my shoulder at him, he's already staring at me, blue eyes blazing with fire. Then, we continue to attack the orcs.
"Oh really? I could've sworn you were, since you seemed very eager to jump at his every order!" He argues, scoffing.
"You stubborn dwarf! I was trying to keep you safe, all of you! If he kept busy talking to me, there was more of a chance for you to not say anything stupid that would cost us our lives! And Bilbo needed his time to find a way out!" I yell, very pissed off. He quickly throws a knife, killing an orc I hadn't seen coming up behind me due to us arguing.
"Did you really have to enjoy it so much?!" Thorin insists, still not ready to drop the argument.
"No one ever said I couldn't! You might hold a grudge, but I don't! You're such an idiot! Just shut up and fight! I haven't been running around for my destiny, saving your ass all this time, just to let you get us killed out of jealousy!" I exclaim, shoving him roughly. He grumbles something at that, but thankfully shuts his mouth after that, the both of us returning our full attention to fighting. We're nearing the gates, when Kili jumps out of his barrel, making his way to the gates so he can open them.
"Wait a second, what destiny?" Thorin asks after a moment, making my heart stop for a moment. Oh no. I've said too much.
"Kili, careful!" I shout instead, diverting my attention to his nephew, blasting my powers at one of the orcs attacking him, but there's too many for me to take them all down. Tauriel kills one of them that nearly gets him with her arrows, making him turn in surprise, but an orc's arrow hits his leg nonetheless, making my stomach turn in worry. Thorin and I slam right into the gates, making me gasp and automatically grab hold of the first thing I can, being him. Then, the other dwarves hit us as well, making me worry about the strength of these barrels for a moment. Finally, Kili manages to turn the lever to open the gates, then drops down into his barrel once more, and off we go. The orcs seem to have given up, since we're going a lot faster than them at the moment, and after a few more fights the coast seems clear for now.
"I'm gonna sit down, I'm tired." I mutter, exhausted now. Thorin nods, and to my surprise sits down as well. It takes us a bit of struggling and shimmying around, but we finally find a position we can sit in without the barrel toppling over. He's sitting with his legs open, leaning against the barrel, my legs in between his, facing each other.
"I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier. Thranduil was getting in my head, telling me things about how you were going to stay with him and stuff." He mutters, surprising me.
"Well, you're an utter fool for believing that. I'd never leave you behind. Well, um… the company, I mean. I'd never leave the company behind." I stutter, turning bright red at my honesty.
"Thank you." He says softly, gorgeous blue eyes meeting mine. My heart skips a beat at it, and I mutter an "it's okay" back. After that, we sit there in comfortable silence, until he decides to speak up again. And by the gods, how I wished he hadn't done that.
"Cameron, what's this destiny you were talking about?" Thorin asks. When I look up, meeting his piercing blue eyes, my feelings for him resurface. After a moment, I decide he should know. So I tell him everything.
"You-you're one of the Maiar?" He asks after a while, his eyes wide.
"Apparently, yes." I nod in agreement, a bit nervous about his possible reaction.
"And not just a Maiar, but one created by all of the Valar?" He insists, and from his mouth it sounds even more unbelievable. I nod, nerves wrecking my stomach.
"And your destiny is to protect me?" He adds, the final words being the ones I'm dreading the most.
"The line of Durin, more specifically, but yes, that means you. And Fili and Kili." I agree, awaiting his reaction.
"Why… why didn't you tell me this sooner? I thought you were interested in staying with Elrond, kept saying horrible things about him… while you just found out you were forced into this destiny? A destiny that means staying with me?" He brings out, and slowly, the realization of it all hits him in a horrible way.
"I-I didn't know how to tell you. It never seems like there's time, especially after we left Rivendell."
My heart's racing, afraid he'll just disregard the destiny and send me home.
"I feel awful. You're forced to protect me, when I should be the one protecting you. How can the gods want you to stay with me, regardless whether you like me or not?" Thorin seems horrified by it all, and honestly, I completely understood. These past few weeks had helped me deal with it, but he was just starting to understand.
"Don't worry about it, Thorin. You know that I like you. I know that we didn't get along too well at the start of our journey, but it's been getting better, no?" I ask him, a tad nervous. I shouldn't show him too much of my feelings for him, not when we were trapped in a small space together and I'd just dropped the destiny bomb on him.
"Of course, Cameron. But I care for you, it disturbs me that you're being forced into this." He says, surprisingly serious.
"You're forced into your destiny just as much, Thorin. Don't worry about it." I reassure him, before a yawn escapes me.
"Get some sleep, you need your rest. It'll take a while to reach Dale." Thorin says, his eyes turning soft. I nod in agreement, close my eyes, and quickly doze off.
"Cameron, wake up. We can get to land here, the water's shallow enough." Thorin finally speaks up, waking me up. Yawning, I move to get up, only for the two of us to butt heads.
"OW!" I exclaim, rubbing the sore spot on my head. He's quick to steady me, hands appearing on my waist, as he keeps us upright, the barrel threatening to topple over.
"Sorry." He mutters, then turns his attention to the others.
"Is everyone alright?" He exclaims, voice booming over the water.
"Kili got shot in the leg, otherwise we're fine, mere scratches!" Balin exclaims, and I can feel him tense up at the news of his nephew having gotten hurt. I place my hand on his shoulder automatically, squeezing to offer him comfort. His eyes dart over to me at that, before smiling weakly.
"Let's get to land." He orders, making everyone hop out of their barrels to walk onto shore. He helps me out of the barrel, lifting me out of it after he stepped out first, and doesn't put me down until my feet can touch dry land straight away. I mutter a thanks, turning red, before rushing over to Bilbo, quickly checking him for any injuries. Once I see he's fine, I give him a hug and walk towards where Fili and Kili are sitting on the rocks.
"That doesn't look good." I mutter, eyes landing upon Kili's injured leg.
"I'm f-fine." He grunts out, clearly lying. Suddenly, an eerie feeling washes over me, and I turn just in time to see a tall man aiming his bow and arrow at poor Ori, who had been emptying his boot full of water. Shit.