LOTR/Hobbit ~Collection of Preferences~

Nearing The Catalyst

His Current Impression of You (HCIOY): He cannot help but feel like this mess was all his fault, though something holds him back from claiming his mistakes aloud. Where normally your hand in his would warm his heart or at least calm him, it now brings a sense of disconnection, of dread, as if his mind is twisting itself to try and make sense of this terrible turn of events and can only stiffen as it searches for the appropriate emotions. He looks at you crying and, peculiarly, he does not feel inclined to wipe away your tears, and this frightens him just as much, if not more than, Smaug's destructive power.

Fili:

Down the river in freedom you fly! Unfortunately, your excitement lasts only a moment before a blackened arrow hits the side of the barrel you currently occupy, of the same sort that wounded Kili only a few seconds prior. You give a shout- the orcs are in pursuit along the riverbank! Luckily, you'd had the good sense to steal the sword off a sleeping guard in the palace of Mirkwood during your escape. Against your fortune, however, next to none of your companions have anything to defend themselves with. And poor Bilbo Baggins- he isn't even inside a barrel and is just trying to hold onto yours, spluttering and shouting at the current continuously shoving him about and drenching him, as well as at the orcs posing a great threat to the Company.

"Duck!" you yelp only a moment later, spotting a blonde elvish archer (come to fend off the orcs from his home, you suppose) takes aim right over your and Bilbo's heads. His shot rings true and an enemy topples into the water. You raise a fist and give a call of abrupt solidarity- yet this proves a mistake, as he isn't expecting this and misses the orc leaping at your barrel, his arrow sinking into your arm. Your wordless cry, first of shock, then pain, brings a shout of your name in return from Fili, but your grit your teeth and manage to fend off the orc now clinging to your barrel with one grisly hand (Bilbo tumbled and is currently holding onto the barrel Oin is in for dear life). 

Still, you sustain three small cuts on your already-wounded arm and one deeper gash along your other shoulder, and the turbulence of the river's rapids jostling you about doesn't help clear the pain. The one small comfort you have is that the orcs have halted their pursuit of the Company and now all you need fear is drowning of your barrel flipping over and crushing you on one of the many rocks in the rapids. Soon enough, the currents calm and the terrain over which the river flows through levels out. Thorin waves for all to follow him ashore on a thin bank of pockmarked stone slabs and the moment you are out of your barrel, you fall to your knees.

Fili, kneeling by his wounded brother, looks to you, and at Kili's grumbling that he's fine, he hurries over to you. You manage to sit up, wincing, and he grimaces at your two deepest wounds. With called advice from Oin, the Company's resident healer, who is currently tending to Kili, you and Fili (mostly him) wrap your cuts and gashes. It feels like every time you move your shoulder of your non-dominant arm, it burns like real fire rushing through your muscles and tearing at them with searing claws of flame. You don't mention this to Fili, half-not wanting to worry him and half-desiring to seem tough in front of him, but he seems to sense it, frowning as his gaze flickers to the cloth bound around your shoulder. 

The arrow wound on your forearm is somehow already feeling better, but since it was shot from an elvish bow and accidentally hit you, you wouldn't be too surprised if there was some charm of the elves that quickly heals mistaken injuries, or something like that. You mention this thought to Fili, but he scoffs at the elves as if he's unsure that elf didn't mean to shoot you. You swat his arm reproachfully, then wince, and he doesn't say more, only retrieved the elven blade you stole from where it lays half-in the river's shallows and lets you sheath it yourself once you've managed to stand. You share a glance with Kili, both of you wordlessly encouraging the other through the pain, and thus, you set off with the Company towards Esgaroth (Laketown) and, ultimately, Erebor.