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The dwarves were trying to guess what time it was, as they had to way to see the outside world from their cells. Bofur guessed it was sometime around dawn.
Ori sighed after Bofur had said that. "We're never going to reach the mountain, are we?" He said, sadness taking his voice.
"Not stuck in here, you're not."
Magauna widened her eyes and jumped up from her spot on the floor of her cell. She knew that voice all too well by now. She ran to the bars of her cell and looked out. There, standing with a ring of iron keys was the Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.
"Bilbo!" Balin exclaimed, rather loudly.
Magauna smiled and shook her head. "Oh you cheeky little bastard."
Bilbo was quick to hush them. "Shh! There's guards near by!" He said quietly. He then preceded to take the keys he held and unlock their cells.
Being further down the line of cells, Magauna was one of the last to be freed. She smiled when she walked out. "I bloody knew it." She said, patting Bilbo on the shoulder a bit more harsh than necessary as she walked past him to follow the rest of the dwarves up the stairs.
"Not that way!" Bilbo called to them before they valued wander off too far. "Down here. Follow me!" He instructed.
The Company followed the Hobbit without questioning as head them farther down into the Halls than out. They snuck down a set of stairs that led to a wine cellar. Several Elves sat at a table, or more so lay, and were passed out, several bottles of wine in front of them.
Bilbo watched them cautiously for a moment before leading the Company further into the cellar. "This way." He whispered to them.
They all creeped past the sleeping Elves and behind a rack of wine bottles.
"I don't believe it; we're in the cellars!" Kili exclaimed in an excited whisper, looking around.
Magauna grinned and pulled a bottle of wine from one of the racks. "This is the good stuff, too." She whispered back.
"Both of you quit it!" Dwalin hissed, snatching the wine from Magauna's hand and sliding it back onto its rack.
The Half-Elf scowled and huffed. "Nit-wit." She muttered just loud enough for Kili to be the only one to here, making him struggle to hold back his laughter.
"You were supposed to be leading us out," Bofur suddenly whispered to Bilbo as they snuck around. "Not further in!"
"I know what I'm doing!" Bilbo insisted. "This way."
The Company followed him to a larger part of the cellar, where about sixteen barrels were stacked sideways on the floor in the middle of the room, all of them pertaining an open end.
"Everyone, climb into the barrels!" Bilbo instructed hurriedly. "Quickly!"
"Are you mad?!" Dwalin hissed again. "They'll find us!"
"No, no they won't, I promise you. Please, please, you must trust me!" Bilbo insisted, emphasizing his words. He looked stressed by the fact none I'd them would get inside the barrels.
Magauna watched him and then looked over. "Thorin." She said, turning to him.
Her and Thorin shared a look before the dwarf glanced at Bilbo and then turned to the others. "Do as he says!" He demanded quickly.
They all looked at him, then at each other, and then all started to climb inside the barrels once they heard commotion outside the cellars, no doubt a sign of the Elves coming to find them.
Each of them climbed inside a barrel. Magauna waited until most of them were inside before she slid herself into one as well. Bilbo walked up and down the line of barrels, making sure they were all in one.
"What do we do know?" Magauna asked, sticking her head out of her barrel to look at Bilbo. All of the dwarves followed in suit, sticking their heads out in sync.
Bilbo walked over to a lever sticking out of the floorboards by them. "Hold your breath." He instructed.
"Hold my breath?" Bofur questioned. "What do you mean?"
His got his answer when Bilbo pulled the lever. The floor beneath the barrels tilted downward one side and up on the other, causing them roll towards the opening, and fall several feet until they landed in the river underneath Mirkwood's Halls. The Company all yelled as they fell, and the barrels made loud thumping noises as the ones on the topper levels of the stacks fell down to roll.
Magauna popped her head out of her barrel after she landed and looked around with wide eyes. Shs was wet from the water splashing up into the barrel, but she wasn't paying attention to it. She looked up at the hole they'd fallen through, only to see it was closed now. Bilbo was still up there.
"Come on!" Dawlin said to the rest of the Company. "Let's get out of this place."
"No!" Magauna argued. The others turned to her. "Bilbo is still up there! We have to wait!"
"She's right." Throin said. "We wait until the Hobbit comes."
It wasn't barely moments after that the trapdoor opened above them again. They all looked up and saw Bilbo was the one falling through, yelling. He landed in the river next to Nori, and scrambled to grab onto the side of his barrel.
"Well done, Master Baggins." Thorin said, looking back at him.
The Hobbit, half drowned, waved his hand lazily to thank him and barely managed to splutter out a word: "Go."
Thorin, being at the front of the line of barrels, took the lead. The Company surged forward in their barrels by using their hands to paddle through the water, though the river's current was doing a well job of pulling them along on its own.
They soon emerged into the sunlight, and they all squinted at the brightness, having been stuck in the dark halls of the Woodland Realm for so long.
Suddenly, Magauna heard Thorin yell above the noise of the water. "Hold on!"
Magauna looked ahead of them, and her eyes got wide; they were headed straight for a steap five foot water fall.
The Comapny let out yells as they plunged through the rapids, getting sprayed with the splashing torrents of water. By the time they left the worst of the rapids, the Elves had found them.
"Holo in-annon!" Shouted Legolas. (Shut the gate!)
Magauna's eyes widened, knowing what he was saying. "Thorin, go faster!" She called.
But there was no way to go faster. An Elf blew a horn as the water carried the Company around a corner. They were met with a heavy metal sluice gate closing to block their path further down the river, on accord of the heavily armored Elven guards standing on the guard post above.
"No!" Thorin yelled as the gate closed just in front of them, preventing their further escape.
The barrels all piled into one another as the current kept them moving towards the closed gate. The Elves guarding the gate drew their swords, and that was when Magauna's ears perked up in alarm, but not because of the Elves.
Suddenly, one of the Elves was shot in the back, and was killed. That's when several Orcs came jumping out of the trees, swarming over the guard post and killing the Elves.
"Gorid! Zib! Goridug!" Shouted the leading Orc." (Kill! Them! All!")
Several Orcs threw themselves at the Company in their barrels. Besides Bilbo's small sword, they nothing to defend themselves but their hands. As Bilbo killed an Orcs with his sword, Dawlin elbowed one in the face and it fell into the water.
Magauna managed to pry a sword from an Orc that jumped at her, and killed it quickly.
"Kili!"
The Half-Elf spun her head around after pushing the Orc's body into the water and widened her eyes. Kili had managed to climb out of his barrel and was on land, with no weapon, trying to weave his way between Orcs who attacked him as he tried to reach the lever at the top of the bridge. It was Dwalin who had called his name, and he threw a sword that he snatched from an Orc up to the younger Dwarf. Kili caught the sword and used it to fight his way closer to the lever.
Magauna pushed herself up so she could balance on the top of her barrel.
"What are you doing?!" Fili said, watching her with an exasperated expression.
The Half-Elf held her arms out as her barrel shook beneath her weight, causing her to struggle to balance. She looked down at Fili and grinned. "I can't let the Elves have all the fun, can I?"
Wobbily jumping onto the riverbank's edge, Magauna sliced her new sword through an Orc about to jump at the Dwarves. She continued to fight the Orcs as they came at her with the intention to brutally murder her and her friends.
It was only when another voice worriedly shouted out Kili name again that Magauna paused her fighting and turned to where she last saw the young prince. Her eyes widened when she saw Kili only a foot away from the lever, but we had fallen to his knees with a look of pain on his face. An arrow stuck out of the calf of one of his legs.
"Kili!" Yelled Magauna starring at him with both fear and panic.
She made to run to her friend's aid, but was knocked off of her feet by an Orc swinging a battling club at her chest. The Half-Elf let out a pained grunt as she hit the ground. The sword had fallen out of her hand and slid away. She looked up just in time to see an Orc raising his own sword at her. Just as he went to stab down, Magauna rolled out of the way, causing the blade to plunge into the Earth instead. Magauna raised her feet and gut-kicked the Orc so that it stumbled several feet away. Magauna jumped up off the ground and looked around for the closest weapon around her, finding a holster-blade nearby. She snatched the blade off the ground and turned around just in time to plunge it into the Orc'a throat as it came at her again.
Almost as soon as she killed the Orc, she heard another one behind her. Just as she turned to attack it, the Orc was killed by a shiney arrow flying through its head. Magauna watched it shock as it fell to the ground and then turned around, seeing the redheaded She-Elf from when the Company was first captured running out of the trees with her bow aimed at an Orc about to attack Kili. The Elf succeeded it killing the Orc, saving Kili, who was still laying on the bridge injured and defenseless.
"Gor' -ash! Gor golginul!" Cried the leading Orc as the She-Elf continued to kill his forces. (Kill her! Kill the She-Elf!)
As a group of Orcs rushed her, an assembly of Elves jumped out of the trees and shot the Orcs down quickly.
As the Elves fought, Kili forced himself to his knees and grabbed the lever on the bridge, and pulled on it with all he had until the sluice below him opened, letting some of the Dwarves flow through and fall down another waterfall. Kili let go of the lever and dropped back onto his back, groaning in pain.
The leading Orc had seen the Dwarves escaping down the river and called out to his forces. "Khozdayin obguryash! Abgurid!" (After them!)
Fili and a few other Dwarves who had waited for Kili with his empty barrel called him. He slid off the edge of the bridge and fell into his barrel, the shaft of the arrow snapping off, making him yell out in pain.
"Let's go!" Dwalin said to Thorin.
"Wait!" Bilbo interrupted. "What about Maggie?" He asked, worry lacing his voice.
They all looked up to where Magauna was killing Orcs left and right with her small knife.
"Magauna!" Thorin called to her.
Killing an Orc, Magauna turned around, seeing the several of them still lingering at the gate, and her eyes went wide. "What are you doing?! Go! I'll catch up! Get out of here!"
Thorin was hesitant on leaving her with the Orcs and Elves, but turned to Dwalin and the others, nodding for them to go.
Those remaining Dwarves, including a half-drowned Bilbo, went through the open gate and down the waterfall.
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