Curse of the East (Fili/The Hobbit Fanfiction)

Chapter 21 - Athelas

Fili pushed me behind him, doing his best to shield me with his body as more and more orcs come pouring over the wall; the few elves that had been stationed there were killed quickly, there bodies falling into the water around us. I drew Ringil, anger coursing through my blood. The Orcs jumped into the water, striking at us with short, jagged blades. It seemed they had not expected us to be armed, and we were able to kill them quickly; but more of them were coming from all around us. Kili drew his sword and did the last thing I had expected; he jumped onto the lip of Dwalin's barrel and launched himself at the stone steps.

He landed gracefully, rolling to his feet and killing the two orcs that attacked him. He raced up the steps and lunged for the lever. I saw Bolg, spawn of Azog Thorin had told me, draw a bow and aim an arrow at Kili. I pulled a throwing knife from my belt and let it fly; sliced deep across Bolg's wrist and threw off his aim. He released the arrow none the less, and to my horror and dismay it buried itself deep in the side of Kili's knee.

"Kili!" Fili cried out from beside me, and I had to hold tight to him to keep him in the barrel. Kili had already managed to climb to his feet, and he was pulling the lever just as a large group of elves came racing out of the trees; led by Legolas himself. Tauriel was right behind him, and she looked terrified when she saw the arrow in Kili's leg. The gates swung open, and Kili stumbled back; somehow he managed to throw himself into the empty barrel just in front of Fili and I; though he screamed loudly when the shaft of the arrow snapped unforgivingly against the small lip of the barrel. He reached down to tear the arrow out, but something suddenly occurred to me, and I hurried to stop him.

"Kili no!" I cried, startling him and he met my gaze for a short moment; confusion evident in his brown eyes. "If you pull it out now you'll be dead before we cross over their borders." My voice was grave. He raised an eyebrow at me. "It's Morgul," I said, willing him to understand. He nodded slowly, his eyes doing nothing to hide his fear as he stared at something over my shoulder; and when I looked back I met Tauriel's eyes for just a second before we were swept out by the current.

When we surfaced again, I looked back again and I saw Tauriel following at a distance; bow at the ready as she tried her best to kill the Orcs that pursued us. Arrows from the Orc bows were fired at us, and several buried themselves in the wood of our barrels. Even a brief look at them told me I hadn't been wrong in the warning I had given Kili.

We fought hard, tossing our larger weapons back and forth as we made our way down the river. We approached a very narrow part of the river when most of the orcs caught up with us; but with them came Legolas and Tauriel along with a smaller band of elven archers on the West bank of the river.

Legolas crossed the river using our barrels, spending several seconds with one foot on our barrel and the other on Dwalin's head. I swallowed a laugh, but I took the opportunity to carefully cut Orcrist free from his belt; holding tightly to it as he jumped onto the opposite bank, seemingly oblivious to what I had just done.

I looked ahead again, and I saw an Orc launch itself off a large tree directly at Thorin; who was distracted with fighting another. I pulled one of the longer blades from my back and threw it hard; pleased when it hit the creature so hard in the chest that it was skewered, suspended from a thick log that had fallen across the river. Dwalin caught the strange axe dropped by the creature, and as we went past I reached up and yanked my blade free. Thorin, Gloin and Dwalin each took a turn slicing at a slimmer log; succeeding in knocking at least a dozen Orcs into the merciless current. Though I narrowly missed having my head taken off by one of those Orcs as they flailed through empty air.

Bombur somehow ended up rolling across both sides of the riverbank; killing close to thirty Orcs on his own in various ways before jumping into a different barrel as though nothing had happened at all. We went over another waterfall, and we had nearly outrun most of the Orcs when I saw Kili slump forward in his barrel; fear squeezed my heart when I realized he wasn't moving anymore.