So, new chapters on Monday, I've decided. I keep going the way I have been, and I'll been done posting DoS before February is over.

Well, that's a bit of a stretch, but y'know.

So yeah. That's what I'm doin'.

"Let's get you out of here!"

Cheyanne blinked her eyes open at Bilbo's voice. She placed her hand on the wall and stumbled to her feet just the hobbit unlocked her and Thorin's cell. "Good job, Bilbo," she said as she walked past him.

He didn't respond, and went around to all the other cells. The dwarves were all chuckling and speaking enthusiastically about their freedom and Bilbo.

"Shh!" the hobbit exclaimed. "There are guards nearby!" He finished unlocking the last cell door, and Dwalin started to lead them towards the stairs.

"You first, Ori," he said, pushing the youngest forward.

"No, not that way," Bilbo said quickly, cutting in front of them. "Follow me."

Bilbo took the lead and turned the company right around. He took them down a set of stairs and over a pathway, deeper into the Woodland Realm. Somewhere above them, Cheyanne could still hear the Elves partying, but the noises were beginning to die down.

The hobbit took them far, far away from the only way out the dwarves knew about, and they began to get restless.

"You were supposed to be leading us out, not further in," grumbled Bofur.

Bilbo glanced at him from over his shoulder. "I know what I'm doing!"

Bofur unnecessarily shushed him and continued to walk. Bilbo shared an exasperated look with Cheyanne before following. They at last reached a wine cellar deep in the depths of the Wood Elves' home. This was where the hobbit stopped and turned to the dwarves. "Get in the barrels," he said, gesturing to a stack of empty ones.

The dwarves all gaped at him, Oin, whose ear trumpet was rather broken, looked around at them. "What'd he say?"

"For the love of all that is good, get in the barrels!" exclaimed Cheyanne. She pushed Dwalin forward just as they heard Elves in the distance discovering their empty cells.

"Do as they say," Thorin commanded. The dwarves muttered to themselves, but reluctantly climbed into the barrels. Cheyanne and Bilbo helped them, and soon, all thirteen were loaded into the empty casks.

"Now what?" Bofur queried, and all of the dwarves stuck their heads out of the barrels in wonder.

"Hold your breath," Bilbo advised, going over to the lever that released the trap door under the barrels.

"Hold my breath? What do you mean, la-" Bofur's sentence was cut off as the barrels went rolling down the trap door that tilted when Bilbo pulled the lever.

Cheyanne and Bilbo exchanged a look of accomplishment before she saw her realization echoed on the hobbit's face. They'd completely forgotten about themselves. She quickly pushed Bilbo to the edge of the trapdoor before joining him. Just as Tauriel and a few of her guards rounded a corner, she and Bilbo tilted back and slid into the channel below.

Sputtering, Cheyanne swam upwards and broke through the surface. Someone grabbed her shirt and pulled her up, and she gripped the edge of a barrel, blinking water out of her eyes. Dwalin shook his head at her, and she found herself hanging from his barrel.

"Well done, Master Baggins!" she heard Thorin say.

Bilbo waved his hand from where he was handing off of Dori's barrel. "Go," gasped the hobbit.

"Let's go," Thorin said to the dwarves. They began to paddle out of the cave beneath the Woodland Realm, and Cheyanne heard a waterfall up ahead. She gulped just as Thorin's barrel went over the edge, and the other barrels followed suit. Everyone surface, gasping, and Cheyanne spat out a stream of water.

She heard the sound of an Elven horn and looked down the rushing river. The Elves at the guard post built over the water pulled the lever that closed the sluice gate.

"No!" Thorin shouted as his barrel reached the gate. The rest of the barrels bumped against the others. The Elves above them drew their weapons, but a black arrow flew straight into one's back before they could do anything. The Elf fell over the side and splashed into the river, dead.

Cheyanne looked up in worry. Orcs came out of the trees on the banks of the river. Some climbed onto the guard post and killed the remaining Elves.

"Watch out!" she warned through another mouthful of water as a dead Elf sent a wave into her face. "Orcs!"

Their leader, Bolg, who was Azog's son, (whatever lady orc had given him a spawn was one wicked chick indeed) shouted something in Black Speech. It must have been a command to kill because the Orcs suddenly flung themselves towards the barrels.

Cheyanne huddled closer to Dwalin's barrel as the dwarf elbowed an Orc in the face. Bilbo stabbed one in the throat with Sting. Cheyanne looked desperately up at the lever that would open the sluice gate. Kili had already seen it.

The dwarf scrambled from his barrel onto the bank, ducking under an Orc that swung a sword his way. "Kili!" shouted Dwalin as he tossed him the sword he'd gotten from the Orc he'd punched. Kili caught it and killed the Orc that was attacking him.

Cheyanne watched the dwarf's movements, silently sending up a prayer that he wouldn't get shot at. Kili reached the lever, and she looked in Bolg's direction a second to late, and saw him release an arrow.

"Kili!" she yelled quickly. He turned to look at her, and the arrow grazed his leg instead of embedding itself into his calf. Kili still gasped in the sudden pain and shock, reaching down to nurse the wound.

"Kili," Cheyanne whispered, eyes wide at what she'd accomplished. She'd managed to save him from an even worse wound, the first thing she'd changed during the whole journey.

An Orc snuck up on the dwarf, prepared to kill, and an Elven arrow flew into its head. Cheyanne pulled herself up higher and saw Tauriel appear, releasing another arrow. Other Elves followed after her, Legolas included. They started attacking the Orcs still on the banks.

Kili grunted and reached up, pulling down the lever. The barrels started to move again, and Thorin's dropped over the edge of another waterfall.

"Kili!" Fili called to his brother. He managed to slide off of the guard post and into his empty barrel with a groan of pain. The remaining barrels went over the waterfall. Cheyanne's grip almost slipped, but Dwalin quickly grabbed her and she adjusted it, holding on tighter. Her head broke through the water and she choked out a cough, throat burning.

The orcs were following them along the banks. One leaps at Thorin, feeling lucky, and he stabs it with a sword he'd grabbed before. There were more dead Orcs in the river as the elves running after the barrels shot arrow after arrow.

Another jumped at Balin, and it gets impaled to an overhanding tree branch by Thorin's sword through its neck. The weapon it drops is caught and thrown from dwarf to dwarf until it reaches Fili, who kills another Orc.

Cheyanne shoved against one that had landed on Dwalin's barrel. The dwarf head butted the ugly thing off of the barrel and stole its axe in the process.

A low hanging branch was rapidly getting closer, and Orcs were running down it on both sides. "Cut the log!" shouted Thorin, reaching up and doing just that.

Dwalin was the last to strike the wood with his axe, and the branch snapped in half, sending the Orcs into the river.

"Bombur!" Dwalin yelled, tossing his axe to the other dwarf. Bombur caught it and Cheyanne watched him kill an Orc that had landed on his barrel before getting vaulted up and over a tree branch by the Orc's spear and onto the bank. The barrel Bombur was in rolled over several Orcs, flying over the river to the opposite bank and killing some more before it came to a stop.

Cheyanne gazed at it, waiting. Bombur punches through the wood, axe blazing, and kills all the Orcs around him. Once he had finished them off, he runs to the edge of the bank, tosses his axe towards Dwalin again, and jumps gracefully into a barrel.

There's a grunt from Dwalin, and Cheyanne turned away from Bombur to see Legolas with one foot on his head and the other on Oin's. He easily shoots Orcs from this perspective, and manages to kill two with one arrow. He then leaps majestically from one dwarf head to the next before he reaches the bank and begins to fight an Orc.

One snuck up behind him, and Cheyanne watched as Thorin threw a sword into the Orc's back before it could kill the Elf. The two exchange a look and Legolas stops, leaving the barrels to continue down the river.

Cheyanne watched the Elf fade into the distance as eh barrels moved on. No more Orcs chased them; it appeared they were all dead or still fighting the Elves. Cheyanne got a better grip on Dwalin's barrel and spat out some more water.

Now she could say she'd traveled down a river on the side of a barrel while being attacked by Orcs. One thing to strike off the bucket list, she supposed with a silent chuckle to herself.

Or rather, the barrel list.

The river eventually calmed down. Cheyanne still clung to the side of Dwalin's barrel, shivering. The dwarves paddled along with their hands, and she glanced towards Bilbo. He'd been smart enough to climb onto an empty barrel. His eyes met hers, and she gave him a weak grin through chattering teeth.

"Anything behind us?" Thorin asked them all.

Balin twisted in his barrel to look. "Nothing that I can see," he said after a moment.

"I think we've lost the Orcs," Bofur said. Water was sloshing over the edge of his barrel, and the ends of his hat flaps were dripping.

"Not for long," Thorin said darkly. "We've lost the current."

"Bofur is half-drowned, and Cheyanne is shivering so hard she's making the whole barrel shake," Dwalin told him. Cheyanne gave him a grateful look, and the dwarf winked at her.

Thorin glanced towards her and then at Bofur before saying, "Make for the shore! Let's go!"

The company paddled their way to the riverbank, and Cheyanne clambers out of the water onto a rock slab jutting out over the river, shuddering. Bilbo hurried over to her and hugged her to try and warm her up. The hobbit's own wetness only made her colder, and she shied away.

"T-Thank you, b-but your w-wet," she managed between shivers.

She heard a grunt and looked over. Kili had fallen to his knees on the rock, clearly in pain. His leg didn't look half as bad as it would have if the arrow had actually struck him, but Cheyanne could tell it still hurt just as much. Bofur approached him in concern, but the younger dwarf gave him a look that reminded Cheyanne of Thorin.

"I'm fine," he muttered. "It's nothing."

"On your feet," commanded Thorin. He shook his shoulders, and water droplets leapt from his shirt.

Fili looked at him. "Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding."

"There is an orc pack on our tail," Thorin responded. "We keep moving."

"To where?" Balin asked him.

"The mountain," Bilbo said. Cheyanne saw him glance towards it. "We're so close."

"Aye laddie, we are," agreed Balin," but a lake lies between us and that that mountain. We have no way to cross it."

"So we go around."

"The Orcs would run us down, sure as daylight," Dwalin told the hobbit, "and we have no weapons to defend ourselves."

Kili let out a muttered curse. Thorin glanced at Cheyanne, and she nodded to the tree line, silently telling him there was something to worry about. Thorin frowned and thought about it briefly before turning back to his nephews. "Bind his leg," he said. "You have two minutes."

Fili and Bofur went to work. Cheyanne glanced around nervously, watching for Bard. Bilbo noticed this and he gives her a funny look.

She heard a snap, and everyone looked up immediately. Dwalin raised a tree branch threateningly, and an arrow clunked into it, right between his hands. Cheyanne saw Kili grab for a rock, but another arrow knocked it out of his hand before he could throw it. "Try it again," Bard warned, stepped out of the shadows, "and you're dead."

Bard held up his bow and pointed an arrow at them as he walked around the company towards his barge. Balin eyed it for a moment, and he holds up his hands in a peace gesture. "Excuse me," he began, "but uh, you're from Lake-town, if I'm not mistaken." Bard lifts an eyebrow, and Balin nods to the barge. "That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire by any chance, would it?"

Bard lowers his bow and turns away from the dwarf. The company all exchanged glances before they followed the boatman. Cheyanne hurried over to Balin. "Don't mention his wife," she warned under her breath.

Bard climbs aboard his barge and starts to ready it for sail. "Why would I help you?" he asked them.

Balin studied the man. "Those boots have seen better days." Bard climbs from the barge and begins to load the empty barrels onto it. "As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?"

Bard didn't look up as he responded, "A boy and two girls."

"Oh come on," Dwalin said impatiently. "Enough with the niceties."

Bard stopped and glanced towards the company. "What's your hurry?"

"What's it to you?" Dwalin retorted quickly.

"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands," Bard answered, keeping cool.

Balin exchanged a look with Thorin before answering. "We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills."

Bard eyed Cheyanne and Bilbo. "Simple merchants, you say?"

Thorin, clearly tired of taking this slow, quickly said, "We'll need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?"

Bard fingers one of the barrels, running his hand over the dents and nicks. "I know where these barrels came from," he said after a moment.

"What of it?" asked Thorin, his voice gruff. Cheyanne rolled her eyes in exasperation at the impatience of dwarves.

Bard looks sideways at the company. "I'm not sure what business you had with the Elves, but I don't think it ended well." He turned away from them. "No one enters Lake-town without consent from the Master. And, from what I can see, you have had some trouble with the Woodland Realm, which is where the Master gets all his wealth. He would clap chains on your wrists before risking the wrath of King Thranduil."

He tossed a rope to Balin. Cheyanne glanced at Thorin and saw him mouth, "Offer him more."

Balin turned to Bard. "I'll wager there are ways to enter Lake-town unseen," he said.

"Aye," agreed the boatman, "but for something like that you will need a smuggler."

"For which we will pay double," Balin told him earnestly.

Bard hesitated. He glanced at the company suspiciously for a long moment before sighing and holding out his hand. Balin returns the rope, and Thorin pulled Cheyanne aside from the others.

"What does this give us?"' he asked her quietly.

"He sneaks us into Lake-town under the guise of fish. We then have to sneak into his house through his toilet, and he supplies us with warm, dry clothing and makeshift weapons, which aren't enough for you, of course, and we try to steal some real ones from the blacksmith."

Thorin studied her for a long moment. "I'm being serious," she told him.

"I know," Thorin said to her. "I'm just trying to make sense of all this. Fish?"

"He hides us under some fish to get us into town," explained Cheyanne.

Thorin shifted his gaze to the ground briefly. "What of the Master?" he questioned after a moment.

"He catches us when we try to steal the better weapons, and you give the whole town some grand speech about how the flow of gold from Erebor will help rebuild Esgaroth ten times over or something of the like," she said.

Thorin's frown deepened, and he looked up at her. Cheyanne shrugged. "You're the one that asked."

Thorin let out a breath. "Have you seen anything about the dragon yet?"

They began to walk back to the others, and Cheyanne swallowed thickly. "Well-"

"Board now, and quickly," commanded Bard. "I don't aim to be here when the Elves come searching for you."

Cheyanne glanced up at Thorin. "We will speak more of this later," she told him before she climbed into the barge. Bilbo was approaching Bard hesitantly. The man looked down at the hobbit.

"What's your name?" Bilbo asked him.

Bard hesitated momentarily before answering. "Bard."

"That's a nice name," Bilbo told him. Bard turned away, and the hobbit walks towards Cheyanne triumphantly, pleased with himself.

She laughed. "All you did was ask his name, Bilbo," she said.

"I know, but it's more than any of them did," he answered, nodding to the dwarves.

Cheyanne shook her head and settled down onto the deck of the barge.

Thorin approached her as the barge started to move, and she shielded her eyes so she would be able to see him in the sunlight. "What?"

"Under the guise of fish?" he questioned with a grin.

"You're the one who told me I talked funny," she responded. "I was trying to sound more like you."

"I do not sound like that," he argued quickly.

"Yes you do."

Very good. Have a good rest of your weeks.