Hey guys! I'm so, so sorry I haven't updated this story in so long! It's just, I've been really, really busy with school work and Nationals recently, and I only just got The Desolation of Smaug the other week, and I was determined to at least watch it until Laketown before I continued writing.
I hope this chapter (somewhat) makes up for the long wait!
Please read and review!
(Reviews make me write faster. Really. I promise. They're motivation, you know.)
Even as Bilbo unlocked their cell, Fili holding onto her hand and pulling her after him, Ella wondered about that blond elf who had talked to her.
Legolas.
He was interesting, that was for sure. She remembered her first, dazed impression of him, that he was a pretty boy – accurate in its own way, but he really did have remarkably striking good looks.
She smiled, faintly, as she thought of how he was when he spoke of that fiery-haired female elf. Tauriel. Whatever Legolas felt for her, it was far from infatuation. It was sad, she thought, sad that he'd never said anything to her before she and the rest of the company had arrived.
The look on Kili's face, every time Tauriel walked past, and the way she would stop to glance back at him or talk to him, said more than enough.
It was rather cute, she supposed. After all, elves and dwarves obviously had a rather long and bitter history, from what she could guess – and here, the nephew of the King Under the Mountain and the captain of the guard of Mirkwood, something much stronger than friendship was forming.
But she couldn't help feeling sorry for Legolas, who, for all his years of living and his wisdom and his knowledge, had had no idea how to approach Tauriel.
She glanced up at Fili, who was leading her with his hand wrapped firmly around hers, as Bilbo made his way through winding corridor after winding corridor, through dimly-lit passage after dimly-lit passage.
Ella felt a strange, swooping sensation in her stomach.
She was glad that she had Fili, no matter what.
Fili was not comfortable with climbing into the barrels.
The main reason being that Ella refused to climb into the same barrel with him, insisting that her leg was perfectly fine and that she could take care of herself, and that it'd be ridiculous for them to squeeze into the same barrel together when she could fit herself into another one.
"She'll be fine," Thorin muttered, in a low voice, after Fili and Kili had helped Ella into one of the barrels. "She knows how to take care of herself."
"She thinks she does," was all Fili said, in a low voice, as he clambered into the barrel just below Ella's.
"I can hear you," Ella said, indignantly, and Kili, next to his brother, chuckled lightly.
Ella huddled into the barrel. It felt dark, and cold, and empty – and, truth be told, she felt rather defenceless without Fili, and without her dagger. It was annoying – she had always considered herself something of a feminist, and to be so reliant on Fili was frustrating – but she supposed it was excusable, seeing as how this world was so full of strange dangers and nothing she had ever come across before.
"You know you need me," said Fili.
"I can take care of myself!"
"I never said you couldn't. Only that you needed me."
"Oh, shut up, the two of you," growled Dwalin. "This is not the time!"
Fili peered out of his barrel to find Ella looking down at him, eyebrows raised; and both of them broke out into smiles, clamping their hands over their mouths to muffle their laughter.
"What do we do now?" Bofur called.
"Hold your breath," said Bilbo.
"Hold my breath? What do you mean?"
The hobbit pulled at the lever he was standing next to; and, abruptly, Ella let out a small shriek as the floor tilted downwards and the barrels slid down.
And then they were tumbling, falling through the air, and everything was whirling around her and she couldn't make out anything clearly and she was vaguely aware that she was having some trouble breathing and everything was spinning and going far too fast –
And then, with a thump, the barrel landed in the water, and she was clutching onto the rim of the barrel, hastily pushing her glasses back onto her face properly. Note to self: always make Bilbo explain his plan before going along with it.
"Fili!"
"Ella!"
It was a relief to see his blond head appear next to her as he made his way as close to her as he possibly could, hanging onto the sides of the other barrels and to the rocks surrounding them.
"What about Bilbo?" she managed to splutter, still trying to get over the shock of tumbling through the air and hitting the water.
"He'll find a way," Fili said, grimly, holding onto her barrel with one hand and Kili's with the other.
Ella glanced at Kili, who was staring off into the distance, a faraway look in his eyes.
"She's very pretty, you know," she said.
Kili's gaze snapped to her. "What?"
Fili frowned. "Who?"
Ella kept her eyes on Kili. "Tauriel," she said, trying to pronounce the name properly. "She's very beautiful."
She used her hand clinging onto Fili's barrel to hit him, lightly, warning him not to say anything.
"Don't you think so?"
Kili's eyes had returned to their faraway gaze. "Yes," he said, softly. "Yes, she is."
Ella looked over at Fili, who was looking at his brother with a sort of fascinated horror. "Don't be like that," she hissed. "She is."
"She's an elf," he hissed back.
"What does that matter?"
It was just then that the floor fell open once more and Ella saw Bilbo fall backwards down into the water, a surprised look on his face.
"Well done, Master Baggins," Thorin said, once Bilbo had surfaced and had clutched onto Nori's barrel.
Bilbo managed a half-smile, waved his hand, and spluttered: "Go."
"Come on, let's go," called out Thorin, and the company let go of the rocks as the water surged forward, pushing them.
"Stay with me," said Fili, as he let go of Kili's barrel, holding onto Ella's as they moved forward.
Ella rolled her eyes. "Do I have a choice?"
"No," Fili said.
"No!"
Ella had to grit her teeth as her barrel slammed into Fili's. She could see Thorin clutching onto the gates, caught his look of desperation as he turned his head back to look at the rest of the company behind him. She was not happy – she was absolutely drenched, she thought she was going to be sick from all that making their way through the stupid river, or stream, or whatever it was – but at the look on Thorin's face her annoyance and anger faded.
And then she wasn't very sure what was happening, because it was a mess of arrows and blades and yelling and shouting.
All she knew was that, quite suddenly, Orcs were pouring in over the walls with their dark weapons and their guttural cries.
"What the fuck are Orcs doing here?" she managed to shriek, as the Orcs leapt onto the barrels, trying to injure them as they floated there, trapped.
She was grateful that the dwarves were more than capable of looking after themselves, even weaponless, and that Bilbo still had his blade.
"Swearing's not very ladylike," Fili grunted, stabbing an Orc with its own weapon and tossing her the dagger before grabbing a short sword off another Orc.
"If you were expecting me to be, you're in for a lot of disappointment," she said, dodging an arrow and peering over the top of the barrel.
She hoped she wouldn't somehow stab herself with the dagger.
"Kili!"
Her head twisted around to find the dark-haired dwarf catching a short Orc sword thrown by Dwalin, saw him fight his way up to the lever at the top of the stairs, scrambling and slashing at the Orcs.
"He's gonna make it," she breathed, before abruptly letting out a yelp as an Orc landed on the edge of her barrel, and her hand moved accordingly, swiping at its legs with her dagger, causing it to topple over backwards into the water.
"Not bad," Fili said, before his eyes flickered back upwards to his younger brother – and then Ella heard a soft grunt, a cry, and Fili's eyes widened. "Kili!"
Thorin's eyes, Ella noticed, were searching desperately for his younger nephew: "Kili."
She couldn't tear her eyes away from the dark-haired dwarf, his leg pierced by an arrow, writhing on the ground as he tried to pull himself up, again and again.
"Oh, god, Kili," she whispered to herself.
And then suddenly an arrow flew through the air, slicing into the Orc advancing towards Kili – and Ella turned in her barrel to find Tauriel running out, her red hair flying out behind her, her eyes on Kili.
And when Ella glanced back towards Kili, she could see his eyes fixed on the she-elf.
It was difficult to make out what was going on.
Ella only knew that she was holding onto her barrel for dear life as she rushed through the river, water splashing and swirling, her dagger in her right hand to stab at anything that jumped out towards her.
Which was, thankfully, not a lot, since she supposed the Orcs couldn't make her out as well as they could the dwarfs.
Every once in a while, Fili would yell out her name, and she'd holler back a response just so he knew that she was all right.
She wondered what would happen if she just huddled into the barrel and went wherever the water took her.
She was so cold, and so tired, and so hungry, and just so exhausted and sick of everything.
Ella raised her eyes to look at the Orcs running along the banks, roaring as they leapt onto the barrels, growling and slashing at the dwarfs.
And then she caught sight of Fili's blond head, his hair a mess as he whirled around, stabbing, punching, elbowing, his eyes always flickering around to catch sight of her or of Kili.
Fili.
Was she really going to let Fili go, just like that, because she was too – too weak to keep pushing herself on?
She grit her teeth, pulled herself higher out of her barrel, raised her dagger higher.
No.
No, she wasn't.
"Anything behind us?"
Ella was shivering.
Even from where he was, Fili could see it, could see her shaking, trembling, the dagger he had passed to her no longer in her hands, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She was still wearing the same travelling clothes that the elves in Rivendell had given her, a loose, long-sleeved white shirt with dark trousers, and he could see her curling up into herself, shuddering.
"Not that I can see," Balin called out, and Fili could see him glancing over at Ella worriedly as well.
"I think we've outrun the Orcs." Bofur's voice.
"Not for long; we've lost the current."
Fili kept his eyes fixed on Ella, tried to paddle his way over to her – and then he heard Thorin say, "Make for the shore! Come on, let's go!"
"Are you okay?" Fili asked, softly, finally drawing up next to her.
She turned her head, her dark hair loose about her shoulders, completely damp, and managed a smile.
"Never better," she managed to say, her teeth chattering.
"You're a terrible liar," he said, pushing her barrel along with his own towards the shore, and was silently grateful when Ori came up quietly on her other side and helped him with her barrel.
"I'll be fine," Ella said. "Just get me out of this shit-hole and I'll be fine."
"This shit-hole saved your life," Fili reminded her.
"I don't care. It's still a shit-hole."
Fili chuckled.
"Go look after Kili," she told him, hugging herself tightly, once he'd helped her out of her barrel, pulling her out gently.
"He needs you," she insisted, when Fili glanced down at her and over at his brother, who had Bofur next to him. "I'm just cold. Go."
He looked down at her – then, quickly, he kissed her on her forehead, before scrambling over to where Kili was.
"On your feet."
"Kili's hurt," she snapped, just as Fili called out: "Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding."
"There's an Orc pack on our tail," said Thorin. "We keep moving."
"How do you expect him to do that if he can't even walk?" Ella asked, irritably, wrapping her arms around herself even more tightly, her whole body shivering.
"To where?" Balin asked.
"To the mountain," Bilbo said, looking in surprisingly good shape despite not even having a barrel to travel in. Hobbits, Ella thought, were a lot hardier than they looked. If that was the word to use – she wasn't really sure. "We're so close."
"A lake lies between us and that mountain," Balin said, his voice tired. "We have no way to cross it."
"So then we go around."
Hobbits, Ella thought drily, were also extremely optimistic.
"The Orcs will run us down, sure as daylight," growled Dwalin. "We have no weapons to defend ourselves."
Thorin glanced over at them, then back at Kili.
"Bind his leg, quickly," he said to Fili. "You have two minutes."
Ella watched Ori as he emptied his boot of water.
"So," she said, still shivering. "You and Jerelee?"
Ori raised his head, and Ella saw his face flush red.
"She's lovely," he said, his voice low. "I – I've never met anyone like her before."
"Yes, well, it'd be difficult to find anyone quite like her," said Ella, and she managed to smile at him. "I think it's wonderful."
"You do?"
"You and Jerelee? Of course."
She saw him smile, slowly, back at her.
And then she became aware of a figure standing not far from them, a silhouette against the sunlight, his bow drawn.
As she turned her head, she saw Dwalin jump in front of them, a branch in hand, with what Ella termed his 'battle-look' on his face; and then the arrow flew, and landed straight in the middle of the branch that Dwalin was holding.
And then the bowman whirled around and fired off another arrow, the rock flying out of Kili's hand as the arrow slammed into it, the dwarfs' eyes wide.
"Do it again," the figure said, his voice low, menacing, "and you're dead."