When the footsteps stopped, Fili looked to see the red haired elf that his brother had been speaking with when they had been captured, Tauriel. He saw Kili and Tauriel speaking, the look on his brother's face was quite obvious that he was smitten with this elf. Fili couldn't help but be a little sad, he knew that his brother would never be able to be with her. Between Thorin and Thranduil, a love between elves and dwarves would never be allowed to happen. He knew what it felt like to want someone that you could never have and he felt for his brother. A small part of him wondered what it would be like to stay a prisoner here, Kili would get to see Tauriel, which wouldn't happen if they escaped. He might even get to see Cheyenne, though he remembered by that point she would be married to another man. He was lost in thought for a moment when he heard Tauriel say something that jolted him back to reality.

"We are celebrating the Feast of Starlight" she motioned up to the other elves wandering above them lost in a trace. Her eyes flicked briefly to Fili before looking at Kili again, "I should probably go, the marriage ceremony is set to begin soon." She took up and began to walk off giving Fili a sympathetic look as she went, she clearly had an idea of what was going on.

Once she was gone Kili peered through the bars up at his brother "it's not too late brother, we still have time to stop this."

Fili appreciated his brother's optimism but even he couldn't see how they were going to escape and stop the wedding within such a short amount of time especially when they had no way of escape. "It's already too late Kili, we'll never get out of here in time."

"Never say never" a voice came from the shadows as Bilbo appeared, the keys to their cells in his hands. He fumbled on the locks, releasing the dwarves one by one as quickly and quietly as he could. When he got to Fili's cell, he started unlocking it "I have a message from Cheyenne."

"Wait really"

Bilbo hesitated "she said that she's sorry and that she knows you will make a great king one day" the key clicked and the lock came off his cell.

All of the dwarves were now free, they all turned to Bilbo, as if asking what the plan was. He lowered his voice "in the cellar there are empty wine barrels, the guards are passed out drunk, we need to get you all loaded into the barrels and release them into the river. Once we make it down the river we should be home free."

Thorin looked at him curiously, "how did you manage to get in this place? And how do you know all of this about the barrels and the river?"

Bilbo avoided eye contact, his hand instinctively moving the ring around in his pocket. "I'm stealthy, remember, I slipped in before they closed the gate when they brought you all in as prisoners." He took another breath before speaking again, "as for the barrels and the river, Cheyenne was the one that came up with that plan. She told me to wait till tonight, about the guards, the key, all of it."

The dwarves whispered amongst each other, "clever lass, she had a plan for us all along" Bofur said cheerfully.

Thorin on the other hand seemed less than enthusiastic about the plan "how do we know this isn't a trap? How do we know she isn't setting us up to get killed?"

No one spoke for a moment "uncle" Kili said softly "she did all of this, she's marrying that elf, just to save us, I can't imagine she would betray us after everything we have been through."

Thorin thought for a moment "your right, we can trust her, alright we need to hurry before someone notices we are gone."

"Wait" Fili didn't move even as the others had already started walking "what about Cheyenne? How are we going to rescue her?"

Balin's voice was sad and full of regret "we can't lad, we will be lucky to escape by ourselves as it is. She's up there now surrounded by elves and guard's, there is no way we could get to her without getting caught. She's sacrificing her life to save us right now, as much as we all want to save her, we can't throw her sacrifice away."

The company looked at him, eyes full of remorse, they all knew he was right, they all wanted to save her even Thorin but they knew they couldn't.

Fili clenched his fists "I'm not leaving without her, she's just as much a part of this company as any of us. We stick together no matter what, and we don't leave each other behind."

Suddenly the words Cheyenne had said to them all those weeks ago, when they had first met her, when they were talking about her contract, came back to them. "If I get burned alive then it won't matter…and if I'm killed otherwise leave me where I fall and move on…stopping to bury me or deal with my body would just hold you up, you have to take back Erebor." A cold silence hung in the air as they all remembered how adamant she had been about leaving her behind if it meant them making it to the mountain. It had seemed so long ago, they had come to love her so much since then.

Thorin finally spoke breaking the silence "she told us from the beginning to leave her behind if it came to it. We don't have time to argue about this, we need to trust that she knows what she is doing."

Fili didn't respond as he followed Bilbo and the other dwarves through the palace quickly and quietly. They had finally reached the cellar and Bilbo began loading them in barrels. When it was time for Fili to get in he stood there unmoving.

"Fili get in the barrel we don't have much time" Kili said quietly trying to keep his voice low enough not to wake the sleeping guards.

"No" Fili said in a low flat tone, he had made up his mind, he was not leaving here without her even if it meant he was going to die in the process. "I'm sorry but I am not leaving here without Cheyenne, you all need to go, I'll meet up with you before we reach the mountain."

Before anyone else could speak, Bilbo whispered, "I'll help you, I know where the feast is being held. We'll try and get her out without causing too much of a scene." He turned to the other dwarves, Thorin was looking like he wanted to murder his nephew and Bilbo. "Stay here and stay quiet, if we aren't back in 30 minutes, use that leaver there to release the barrels into the river."

Cheyenne felt numb, she knew this adventure was going to be hard but she thought the hardest thing was going to be orcs and dragons. She was wrong, it was elves, it was the weight of her choices that were scarier than any orc. She was standing off to the side, in the room off of the main hall, the feast was starting and she knew she would need to go in there in a moment. When she did her fate would be sealed, she felt the helm of the dress she was wearing. It was a beautiful dress, elegant and regal, in any other circumstance this dress would have brought her happiness. Through all of the anxiety and nervousness she was feeling, there was a sense of comfort. She knew if Bilbo listened to her, he and the dwarves were probably already heading down the river to safety.

She felt someone looking at her, she turned to see Legolas standing there, he studied her for a moment. "The feast is starting. We should go join my father and the others."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure"

Cheyenne hesitated, even with everything happening she couldn't help but be curious about something that she had wondered for a while. "What are elven marriage ceremonies like? I imagine they are different from human ones."

Legolas took a step forward, "well normally after a betrothal we could give each other silver rings, and wait a year before marrying. This situation is a little…different. We will stand in front of everyone, join hands, my father will give the blessing since your parents are not here to join, which is usually tradition. He will do the blessing alone, then we will place gold rings on each other's hands" he stepped closer to her looking down into her eyes "then when the celebration is over, we will consummate our marriage. The act of joining our bodies, in that way, is what actually solidifies the marriage. Elves believe the act is what bonds us forever, that is why no one does that before they get married, because the act of consummating is the actual marriage act."

Cheyenne swallowed hard, her nerves on edge, as she looked up at him. This was really about to happen and she couldn't think straight. Legolas motioned for them to walk into the main hall with the rest of the elves, when she heard hurried footsteps coming from the hallway on her left.

"Do you know where we're going?" Fili asked Bilbo quietly, they were moving as quickly as they could through the halls, hugging the shadows as they went to try and not be seen.

Bilbo stopped, scratching the back of his head nervously, "I think so, I overheard some elves talking about her getting ready for the ceremony in a room off the main hall where the feast is. I think that is the room" he pointed at a door to the far left of the large main doors that were further down the hall on the right. "The problem is, I don't know if the ceremony has started yet or not so she might not be in there anymore."

Fili nodded without speaking, he wasn't sure what the plan really was, he didn't have a weapon or his armor anymore. Even if he managed to find her before we went into the feast hall, they would have a hard time getting back to the cellar without being spotted, especially once they figured out she was gone. He pushed the thought out of his head and started walking quickly toward the door, his body as close to the wall as he could get it. He listened for any signs of voices or footsteps that might indicate someone was coming. When he made it to the door, he could hear her, Cheyenne's voice was low and strained and he couldn't make out what she was saying or who she was speaking to, just that it was her voice. He pushed open the door quietly, nervous about what was about to happen.

Cheyenne and Legolas turned their heads as they heard the door opening, before either of them could speak, she realized with a shock that Fili was standing in the door with Bilbo a few paces behind him. Her mind was going in a million directions, how was he here? He should be gone, did something happen and the dwarves didn't escape? All the thoughts went through her mind in an instant but as soon as she looked into his eyes, all those thoughts were gone. She ran to him without thinking, with her elven legs it should have only taken a few long strides. However with every step she felt different, smaller, and by the time she was close enough to touch him, she was eye level with him. She flung her arms around his neck and he pulled her into a tight embrace. The feeling of his arms around her waist and the rough skin on of his fingers grazing the exposed flesh of her back sending fire through her veins.

Cheyenne pulled away from the hug quickly as she remembered where they were, she turned back to Legolas, fear in her eyes. She was sure he would kill Fili right here or at the very least call for guards to come in and capture or kill him and Bilbo. When her eyes locked onto his however, there wasn't hatred, there was something else, something she couldn't quite place, relief?

Before she had time to think about it further, Legolas spoke softly "two minutes" and he opened the other door to the hall where the feast was about to begin and stepped out into the room before shutting the door.

She realized that he was helping them, he was going to give them a two minute head start. The others seemed to understand this as well because they now dropped all pretence of being quiet or trying to stay hidden. They went back out the door to the hallways and began running as fast as they could back to the cellar. Cheyenne realized that just as the Valar had turned her into an elf when she arrived in the Woodland Realm, they had changed her back when she had run to Fili. She was much shorter now, maybe even more than she had been originally. She was thankful that the dress that had once fit her as a tall elf, did not fit her smaller frame. It would have been almost impossible trying to run in that dress if it had stayed its original size.

Even so she was having increased difficulty trying not to trip over the bottom of it as she ran, Fili's hand gripping hers to help pull her along. She was holding up the bottom of it with her free hand, wishing she had something to cut it with. After what she knew was more than two minutes, the three of them came barreling into the cellar, the sounds of voices starting to be heard from somewhere behind them several halls away. Bilbo grabbed a barrel and motioned for her to get in, she turned and noticed that there were only two empty barrel's left and three of them.

Fili had already climbed into his barrel and now he realized why she had stopped. His barrel was beside where she was, he stood up inside of it and gripped her arm tightly. His fingers dug into her flesh and he pulled her, she hit the side of the barrel and looked at him. He held his other hand out and she realized he was trying to pull her into the barrel with him. She didn't hesitate, she grabbed his hand and hosted herself very unceremoniously into the barrel.

It was impossible to fit in there, they couldn't quite fit as her dress was getting caught on everything and the amount of material wasn't allowing for the movement she needed to squeeze into it further. The sound of voice getting closer was starting to make her panic. Fili grabbed part of her dress near her knee and pulled it as hard as he could, ripping the fabric and freeing her. The little bit of extra movement she gained allowed her to be able to sit down. Albeit once she did, she could feel his legs under her butt, she was straddling his lap, her chest pressed up against his. She was trying to control her breathing when everything went dark, Bilbo had put the lid on their barrel.

She felt the barrel start to shake and shift as it fell over. She jolt almost caused her to headbutt Fili, they were packed like sardines and that was actually a good thing because it meant that the violent movements that were about to occur as they hit the river and rapids wouldn't cause them to go flying around the barrel.

The barrel started to roll and she shut her eyes tightly, her heart pounding so loud she was sure he would hear it or feel it. She felt the drop and braced herself for the impact on the water. Fili's arms tighten at her side, neither of them could move more than a few millimeters but the feel of his grip gave her small comfort. The barrel hit the water with an impact that made the back of her head hit the top and sides of the barrel so hard that she thought she was going to black out.

"Are you okay?" Fili's gruff voice was so close to her that even at a whisper she could hear him perfectly over the sounds of the water rushing around them. She couldn't help but think despite the fact they were still in danger, and facing the unknown, that she couldn't help but feel the urge to kiss him. She couldn't see him in the dark but she leaned her head forward just slightly and felt her nose brush his. His fingers gripped her waist a little tighter and his breath changed as he suddenly realized just how close they were and alone.