Chapter Ten
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It was a few weeks later that Bilbo came up with an escape plan, and was able to retrieve Verity's weapons at least and her bags as they had been deemed useless to the unknown Elves. During that time she had been able to communicate with her ship and found that the mountain seemed to be alive. She had gotten reports from Loki, Rok, and several other officers that had noticed activity from the mountain and steam rising from open vents around the mountains area. That didn't bode well for anyone. The elves passing would give the human weird looks as they could have sworn they had heard voices coming from her cell along with her own.
Verity was pulled up to speak with the Elven King once more. The guards stood behind her by meer feet, ready to spring into action to defend their lord. Thranduil stood facing away from them, looking at the items that had been taken from her person. In an overdramatic twirl, one that would have done any diva proud, he moved toward her. "Where are you from, exactly?" He asked, looking her over from her dirty and torn uniform to the short cut hairstyle she sported and the scars that raced across her face.
"That is highly astute of you to notice that I am not native to this continent." Verity answered, turning her head to keep him in sight. He nodded his head in agreement, calm for now it seemed. "I come from a long ways away, as I said before the Dwarrow are helping me to return to my ship." She stated calmly. The best way of lying is to stick as close to the truth as possible, and while she was speaking true, the dwarrow were aiding her in her crossing of the land to return to her ship. The Elven King didn't need to know that they also had a quest as well outside of her aid, and that her ship wasn't the type that floated on water.
"You say you come from a far away place, but I have never seen such weapons or equipment like yours before, and believe me I am old enough to have seen most of the world's nations." Thranduil warned her. She looked at him square in the eyes.
"You may be old enough to have seen the world over, but there are still new civilizations that are rising or falling every year that you know nothing about." She answered. Thranduil brought his blade around and to her throat, Verity didn't flinch from the sharpness and cold of the steel biting at her skin. "I am young, old for a human but young to you. I have seen things that I wished I haven't, things that made my skin crawl with dread. I am old in years far beyond your own age from wars that have shed blood upon the ground of planets, watched as those planets were destroyed and entire worlds and all life gone in a split of a second. All to monsters that thought themselves above all things. So sorry if your little blade does not make me cower like you wish to." She snarled at him, knocking the blade away from where it had lightly pierced her skin causing some drops of blood to well to the surface. She turned to look at the guards waiting for the orders at the end of the great room. "I have nothing further to say, return me to my cell." She ordered, moving toward them with all the grace of royalty that any elf would be proud of.
Thranduil watched her go eyes narrowed at the way the guards rushed to keep up with the prisoner as she moved back to her cell on her own accord. He moved and sat down heavily upon his throne, hand coming up to rest against his chin in thought. The woman was of a different class than he was used to. She did not behave as he would have expected from any prisoner or woman, let alone one that was supposedly a diplomat of a foregin nation. She was unafraid of him or his threats, met each one with cold indifference and seemed resigned to repeat the whole thing as many times as it would take in order to drive the Elven King mad with rage at her stubbornness to answer any of his questions.
The sound of the doors opening again and guards pushing Thorin into the room had Thranduil preparing for another stubborn fool that would refuse to answer any of his questions. The more he asked, it seemed the more questions he had for them. Yet, neither of them seemed to want to give an inch to relieve some of the pressure being placed upon them by the Elven King.
The Elven party was going in full swing when Bilbo opened up the cells one by one, shushing the group as they made their way downward toward what would be a basement under the dungeons. He had managed to swipe Verity's weapons, bag, and helmet from where they had been placed, and also managed to find the weapons that were the dwarrows as well. Stashing them away for the escape. Verity checked over the weapons nodding her head in approval as she found them not to have been tampered with in any way.
That had been one of her main worries, that the elves would be looking over her weapons not knowing how dangerous they could be. She had switched the safety on for most of them, but was still scared that somehow the morons would shoot or blow themselves up somehow. She placed upon her body once more along with her helmet and nodded to let Bilbo know she was ready. Getting into a barrel however proved more difficult as she was far too big for that, but the dwarrow were able to fit inside easily enough.
The awakening of the guard was the thing that pulled the group together. She pulled Bilbo close to her as she pulled the lever, dropping them and the barrels into the river below them. The cold water sent a spasm through her body, the shock of it almost making her let go of the hobbit. However, she shook it off and tightened her grip as she grasped a barrel in her other arm, keeping them afloat as they rushed down the river toward the gate. The sound of the alarm had her hoisting Bilbo up and into the barrel she was grasping and pulling her side arm up and flicked the safety off. She released the barrel and relaxed onto her back to allow the water to push her forward and let her weight float, as she pulled the pistol back and loaded a round into the chamber.
The gates leading to the open river where shut, she smashed into the barrels as they came to a halt by the closed grating. Grunting she pulled herself up and braced herself over the barrels to get a good aim at the lever, the sound of an arrow being fired as she gently squeezed the trigger to the pistol covered her own yelp. The shot rang loud as it splintered the lever and pushed the gates open. Kili who had been going to jump out and open the lever caught the woman as she slumped partially into his barrel. An orc arrow protruding from her shoulder, he wrapped an arm around her and watched as the orcs raced to catch up to the barrels that were racing down the rapids.
"Your okay!" Kili stated, Verity groaned and reached with her arm to rip the arrow from her back. "No, don't. You could bleed to death if you do that." Kili stated.
"No I won't. Hit my metal arm, including the metal shoulder bone." Verity told him. "The skin is the only thing that has any feeling to it, so it will just bleed for a little bit." She assured him, yanking the arrow from the metal bone. The head of the arrow remained lodged into the metal structure, but the shaft was removed from her body allow some movement of her arm. "Damn it. The arrow head is lodged in some of the metal plating, will have minimum movement until it is removed." She swore into the com.
"You would think that you had outgrown playing indian's and cowboys major!" Loki commented dryly. Verity cursed again and static washed over the line. "Major, do you need backup?" Loki asked, his worry evident in his tone, he looked toward where the gps on the map that was only partially done seemed to move along a ragged line. He was guessing that ragged line was the river as the sound of it was evident from the coms.
"Negative, don't send anyone out. The river is long and we have no idea where it is leading to, might be closer to the ship though. Just need to keep up with the rapids." Verity's answer was coming in choppy from the sounds of fighting and her efforts to stay above the water line made speaking very difficult.
The orcs and elves raced along the sides of the river bank, the orcs firing at them or trying to leap on them from different vantage points. Verity shot several of them before she ran out of ammo in her clip and she didn't have the energy or the means of exchanging it with a fresh one. She kept ahold of the barrel and braced herself for the rapids. Her body smashing against rocks and other debris that the river had swept into it. A few times her legs got stuck in branches submerged under water and she had to fight her way back to the surface as she was dragged under. The waterfall had her groaning as she braced for it, the fight having ended a few moments ago when the falls came into sight. The elves having pushed the orcs back and away from the river and they watched the barrels go over it along with the prisoners that had escaped.
She dragged herself out of the calm water, coughing up river water from her lungs as she collapsed onto the embankment of a stony was helping the others out of the barrel, some of them just as hammered as she was with exhaustion and the feeling of being half drowned. "That was worse than going down Niagra Falls." She grunted out as Bilbo came over to check on her along with Ori. Both looked at her in confusion and she waved them off. Ori grasped one hand and with the help of the hobbit managed to pull the adult human up further on the land. She sat leaning back against a large stone and watched as the dwarrow gathered around one another. Her body was aching and her shoulder was acting up, jerking and spasming with the jagged movements of gears being locked up by the arrowhead.
She officially hated this planet. Verity thought as she listened to the men grumble and groan about something or another. "Shut up, we are closer to your damn mountain than before. The ride down the rapids wasn't all that bad and we would still be locked up if it wasn't for Bilbo." Verity ordered. Getting glared at by Thorin before he turned to speak with the others once more. Movement of a shadow falling across the rocks had her pulling her rifle and aiming it behind the group as a man with long hair stood up on a large boulder looking down at the group.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man asked.
"I could ask you the same question." Verity answered, the man jerked his gaze to the human who was leaning against the large rock, a weapon aimed at him as he aimed his crossbow at the dwarrow. He had forgotten they were there, from the voice coming from the head gear it would appear that the human was a female.
"I would lower that if I were you. I have your leader targeted." He stated, confident that he had the upper hand.
"Yes, but you have a crossbow. How long will it take to reload that before I shoot you myself?" She asked, waving the weapon at him and taking a crack shot at the rock beneath his feet causing it to fly backwards. "I don't have to reload after every shot, but you do." She stated. The man scrunched up his brow looking at the dust where the rock had been between his feet.
Bard raised his weapon in surrender, "Who are you and why are you here?" He asked again.
"We are Snow White and the 13 dwarrow and one hobbit, here to find the evil witch of the east and throw water on her." Verity snarked, as she struggled to her feet. "Listen, we are heading East, I have a ship over there. They are escorting me, and we could use a place that is dry, some food if you could spare it, and a place to rest for a little bit. I am sure we could make a deal somehow. Mr…?" Verity stated.
"Bard of Laketown." Bard answered, "I am a fisherman." He stated. "Those barrels you came down in, I use them to put my fish in. They are from the elves of Mirkwood."
Verity looked at the barrels, "Is that where they are from. Glad to know." She stated with a shrug of her shoulders. "Can you bring us to Laketown?" She asked.
"No one is allowed into Laketown." Bard stated. Verity arched an eyebrow.
"I am sure we can arrange something to persuade you to get us into the town." Verity assured him, looking over at the dwarrow who seemed to have been following along with the conversation.
"Yes, we can." Balin stated, tugging on his beard and turning to speak with the other dwarrow. Bard nodded his head, allowing the dwarrow to speak to each other. He turned his attention back to the woman in the strange clothing and headgear.
"May I ask for your name, madam." Bard asked. Verity pulled the helmet off and looked him over as if deciding if it was okay or not to give him her name.
"Major Verity Amezcua." Verity answered, tucking the helmet underneath her good arm. The gears on her robotic arm jerking at the movement and making whining noises as they tried to unjam itself. Bard nodded his head, looking her over once more. She looked like she was in the military, but from what army or kingdom he was unsure of.
"Sorry for my frankness but I was unaware that any kingdom allowed women to fight." Bard stated, the dwarrow paused in their argument as they turned their attention to Verity.
"You would be surprised at some of the nations then, in some areas I know of it is the women who are in command." She answered with a wink. She placed her hand to her ear, the gears whining at the movement once more.
"Yes, we made it out of the rapids alive, no we are by the lake. Trying to get to the town on the lake. Send for a team tomorrow to pick me up. I think we may need some help with persuading the head of Laketown to aid our new allies." Verity stated into the com.
"Yes." Loki responded before he was silenced and Rok spoke to the commanding officer.
"How was the trip." He asked, amusement evident in his tone.
"About as fun as one you sangheilis flinging me around like a rag doll." She answered back. "I have an arrow wedged into my gears in my shoulder. It is causing problems with movement. Will have to have help removing it." Verity stated. She looked up when she sensed that she was being watched. Bard stood waiting by his barge, the dwarrow having agreed to an amount with him for his help to get them into Laketown.
"Sorry for interrupting your self conversation, but we need to get going. You won't fit into any of the barrels. But I am sure we could persuade the guards to look the other way if necessary." Bard stated. Verity nodded her head and moved over to the barge, stepping on board with a familiarity to ships. The group started toward Laketown.
"Do you miss it?" Thorin asked, he had come to stand next to Verity as the barge continued toward the town. Verity looked at him.
"Miss what?" She asked.
"Your home." Thorin stated.
"Everyday, my home, my planet, my parents." She stated. "I was just a teen when it was all taken away from me, but unlike you. I cannot return as it was destroyed." She stated. "It is why I understand your need to return to your own home." The other dwarrow and Bilbo were listening to the conversation as was Bard. Bard had no clue what the two were speaking about, but he knew that the dwarrow were here for one reason only. The mountain that had been their home, the dragon that had taken it from them. He had a feeling that this was going to be a turning point for himself and his people.