"I wager the sun is on the rise," I heard Bofur say. "It must be nearly dawn."
It had to have been many hours since Legolas came to see me. It had felt like an eternity to me, but it must have felt infinitely longer to the company.
"We're never going to reach the mountain, are we?" I heard Ori ask sadly, and I felt a little sad myself. There was little time to get to the Lonely Mountain, and most of it was being spent in the elven dungeons.
"Not stuck in here, you're not," I heard a soft, familiar voice say.
Exclamations of joy and relief echoed everywhere, and I shot up from where I sat on the cot to look through the bars, seeing Bilbo letting everyone out. He shushed them all, reminding them that there were guards nearby. I then saw him glance around, wondering where I was.
"Bilbo!" I said, and he looked up towards me. Seeing where I was, he ran up to unlock the cell and let me out.
I quietly opened my cell door and closed it, cautiously glancing above for guards as I trailed after the company upwards and out of the dungeon.
"Not that way," Bilbo said in a hushed voice, but loud enough for us to hear. "Down here!"
I watched with a furrowed brow as I watched him head down, deeper into the dungeons. I was as confused as the rest of the dwarf company who all looked to me for guidance, being the only one with knowledge of this place, but I had no idea what to tell them. I just followed Bilbo, and they followed me.
The closer we got to the lowest levels of the Woodland Realm, the more I realized where we were heading.
When I heard the not too faint sound of snoring coming from two Silvan servants in the wine cellars, I grimaced in disgust. I recognized the two men who sat slumped at a table, empty bottles of the finest red wines clustered around their heads. The sight of two supposedly able servants inebriated to the point of unconsciousness irked me, but I didn't say anything.
"I don't believe it! We're in the cellars!" Kili's hushed exclamation was disbelieving.
"You're supposed to be leading us out, not in!" Bofur whispered accusingly.
"I know what I'm doing!" Bilbo said indignantly, a little louder than he should have been, and Bofur shushed him patronizingly.
Bilbo had led us to a pile of empty wine barrels stacked on each other. The company drifted around them, murmuring their growing apprehension. How was Bilbo planning to get us out of here with wine barrels?
"Everybody, climb into the barrels!" Bilbo whisper-shouted.
"Are you mad?" Gloin demanded. "They'll find us!"
I had to agree with Gloin. We couldn't hide out in barrels and hope that we'd never be found. We wouldn't last an hour.
"No, they won't. Please, you must trust me," Bilbo pleaded, but the company resigned to their murmuring again.
Bilbo looked to Thorin for help, who immediately ordered the company to, "Do as he says," and the company climbed into the barrels.
I had been ready to get into a barrel, but there weren't any empty ones left. I would have to share one.
Wait. What was that sound?
"Where is the keeper of the keys?" Tauriel demanded, her voice far off in the dungeons above.
"Bilbo," I said, heightening apprehension in my voice. But he wasn't paying attention to me.
"What do we do now?" Bofur asked.
I turned around to see the entire company poking their heads out of the barrels, looking at Bilbo for guidance.
"Hold your breath," Bilbo told them, moving over to a lever I hadn't noticed previously.
"Hold my breath?" Bofur asked confusedly, but there was no time for him to hear an explanation as he was too busy falling down the ramp that had been created as soon as Bilbo had pushed the lever. A large section of the floor had displaced itself, one end rising at a slant and causing the barrels to tumble down it, the entire company descending down to whatever was below.
Bilbo seemed pleased with himself for a moment, then he saw me, having not gotten into a barrel. Then realization crossed his face, and he looked at the floor as if only just realizing that there was now no way for us to escape.
"Bilbo!" I said almost accusingly. How could he have not planned out the part where he got out? No, when we got out?
My elvish ears picked up the sound of Silvan soldiers coming into the cellars. Bilbo and I both instinctively backed away from the oncoming threat of recapture. The next thing I knew, my stomach had leaped to my throat and I was falling, mine and Bilbo's yells of shock the only things that could be heard.
Then I hit frigid water, the current dragging me along for aways before I knocked into something hard. Not a rough, jagged rock, but something smooth and rounded.
A hand grabbed me by the arm and yanked me up and out of the water. When my face burst out and up from beneath the surface, I took a deep breath of much-welcomed air, spitting out the water that had made its way down my throat.
I gripped the edge of the wooden barrel, blinking away water that had clung to my eyelashes. When my sight cleared, I saw Kili's relieved face looking at me.
"Well done Master Baggins," I heard Thorin say, and I looked for Bilbo among the barrels. I saw him holding onto Nori's barrel the same way I was holding onto Kili's.
I pushed my drenched hair out of my face, the silvery strands darkening to the shade of pale sunlight in the water. The water was freezing but I felt almost hot from the adrenaline pumping through my veins, a reminder of the danger that was at our heels.
"Let's go!" Thorin ordered, getting our attention so that we could start to follow the current of the raging river inside the spacious cavern we were in. In all my years living in the Woodland Realm, I had never known what was hidden beneath the cellars.
Kili helped me climb into his barrel. While he had no trouble standing straight up in the barrel and keeping himself steady, I found myself having to almost crouch in the barrel to save myself from the risk of being thrown out of it.
We built up speed as we rounded a corner, light flooding our line of sight as we saw an opening in the rocks. Unfortunately, the opening was what appeared to be a steep drop of a waterfall.
"Hold on!" Thorin yelled, and we did as we all fell over the edge in our barrels. One by one we all took our turns dropping down and out of the cave. For the second time in less than a few minutes, my stomach nearly leaped out of my mouth as Kili and I fell off the edge and dropped into the water below. We were temporarily submerged before we resurfaced. If we ever made it out of this, I was going to make the time to be sick.
We had almost reached the gates on the edge of the hidden palace's property, seeing a clear route out. I was all but completely sure that we were going to make it out, but then the piercing sound of a horn reached our ears. I was not the only one who knew what the singular long drone meant.
"No!" Thorin's exclamation of frustration replicated what every one of us was thinking. We had just made it to the gate that would ensure our escape, but only just. It had closed, trapping us inside.
Every barrel after Thorin's bumped into each other as they floated into the small space in front of the gate, mine and Kili's remaining out in the open as we were among the last ones to reach it.
I heard the elvish commands to seize us. I literally looked straight at a soldier who began to head in our direction, but a moment later, an arrow was shot through the elf's neck. I looked closely at the arrow, realizing what kind it was just before the dead soldier collapsed into the water.
Orcs. They were flooding over the gate, slaughtering every elf they saw. Soon the entire area was overrun with them. The company and I did our best to fight them off without weapons, all to no avail. The only person in our midst who was armed was Bilbo, and he only managed to kill one of the dozens of orcs around us.
Suddenly, Kili jumped out of the barrel, leaving it to rock and nearly throwing me into the water.
"Kili!" I shouted. What was he doing? Then I saw where he was fighting to get to. There was a lever at the top of the set of stairs, the one that would open the gate. But there were too many orcs for him to get to it. He needed help.
I jumped out after Kili, fighting off orcs with only my hands to help him. He gave me a grateful glance as we made it to the lever. In the next second, though, I was knocked back by an orc with a club.
My body rolled back down to the bottom of the stairs. I was surprised none of my ribs had broken from the hit I'd taken from that club, and even more surprised by the fact that I hadn't broken my neck on the way down the aged stone stairs.
I raised my head in time to see Kili shot in the leg with an arrow.
"Kili!" Fili and I shouted simultaneously. We watched as Kili grabbed for the lever, but he was overcome by the arrow in his leg. He collapsed, incoherently groaning in pain.
I shot up from where I had fallen and ran for Kili, not caring that orcs were trying to attack me from all sides. When I made it to him, I looked at his leg, sickened by the amount of blood oozing from the wound.
"Kili---"
"I'm fine," he ground out, trying to prop himself up.
I made a move to help him, but he pushed my hand away. He managed to get up and pull the lever, then collapsed against the wall.
We heard the gate open, and saw the company begin to drift past the gate. Kili was able to jump down into his barrel, the arrow's shaft breaking against the rim as he fell. He cried out when he landed in the barrel, probably from the shock going up his injured leg.
Fili looked up at me, steadying his barrel so I could jump in. I had been about to jump down, but I felt a hand yank me back by the arm before I could.
I fought against the person's grip on me, thinking it was an orc. However, when I turned to fight my captor, my eyes did not see an orc.
They saw my brother.
"What are you doing?" Legolas asked, confusion in his gaze. He was undoubtedly wondering what I was doing trying to escape with the dwarves.
"Legolas, I cannot expect you to understand, but I can expect you realize that I must leave."
"No, you don't," Legolas insisted, oblivious to our chaotic surroundings. I impatiently pulled at his grip on my arm, but he ignored me, even seeming to hold on tighter. "Laerornien, our father is bound to see reason--"
"Legolas!" I almost shouted, trying to get through to him. "I have to leave."
"But--"
"Legolas," I said a little less frantically, but still urgently. "If I don't go now, I will die. That's the only thing I have left here."
"But must you go with the dwarves?" he asked me. "What can they possibly have that we don't?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I replied with my own question. Realization had barely registered in his gaze before I said, "By the way, I apologize."
"For what?" he asked confusedly.
"For this." I brought back my arm and unleashed a punch into my brother's face. The hit efficiently distracted him and allowed me to finaly escape his grasp. I hadn't wanted to have to punch him, but it was the only thing that would have gotten me away.
I leaped over the wall and landed on the rocky riverside below. It took a moment to regain my footing, but once I did, I was running faster than I had in a long time. Why? Because I knew Legolas would be right behind me.
Sure enough, I heard his voice shout my name. "Laerornien!" But I didn't stop running. I couldn't.
I ran as fast as my legs would allow me, sprinting in long strides that rivaled the fastest of the elvish soldiers pursuing me and the company.
Soon enough, I spotted the dwarves floating hectically down the river, the water white and rough on the barrels. They banged against the rocks jutting out every few yards, and legions of orcs followed their every movement. I instinctively began picking orcs off one by one, throwing them into the river once I had killed them.
"Laerornien!" I heard a shout from the river, and scoured the white water for the source. I saw Fili gesturing for me to jump before I got tired out and couldn't run anymore.
I saw a looming rock that would suffice as a perfect place to jump, and I took the opportunity. I threw myself off the rock, landing in the water just next to Fili's barrel. I had just managed to grab onto the rim, saving myself from being caught in the current and smashed into the rocks. Fili pulled me up and helped me get into it.
"Are you alright?" he asked me, and I nodded, urging him to steady the barrel before we toppled over.
I glanced behind me, and what I saw made me mutter, "Oh for the love of Iluvatar." Legolas was tirelessly pursuing the company, along with the rest of the elvish guard, but I knew he was also making sure his eyes were on me at all times; he wasn't about to let his sister disappear again.
"Laerornien!" Fili cried out suddenly, and my attention was diverted to the multiple orcs attacking us at the moment. They were doing everything they could to kill us; shooting arrows haphazardly into the water, climbing into the trees whose branches stretched across the river and jumping in, but thankfully the elves kept most of them away while we avoided them as well as we could.
Out of instinct, I kept my attention on Legolas, partially to see if he needed help and partially to make sure he didn't get too close. If he was going to make sure any member of this company stayed in Mirkwood, it would be me, and that couldn't happen.
My jaw dropped as I watched Legolas jump into the midst of the company, but he didn't land in the water or a barrel. No, he balanced with complete ease on Ori's and Dwalin's heads. I laughed at their shocked and annoyed expressions as he used their heads for support. Then he began hopping across the dwarves' heads like stepping stones towards me, and for a moment I thought that he would reach me, but he only jumped back on land to kill more orcs.
I watched as he engaged in battle with an orc, not paying attention to the one rearing up behind him.
"No!" I cried, unable to look away as I was convinced my brother was about to die, but the unexpected happened: an axe struck the orc behind Legolas, saving him from death.
I knew that whoever had thrown the axe was in the company from the direction it had been thrown in, and my eyes immediately landed on Thorin. His brief look towards me confirmed my inference: he had been the one to save Legolas.
Thorin's gaze was directed back to my brother as we finally passed an unspoken border of the elves. The guards stopped, bound by their territory from going any further. Legolas and I locked gazes as I was pulled farther and farther away from him by the current. His look was angry that he had let the company escape and devastated that I had gotten away. I tried to convey my apologies and his need for understanding as I rounded the corner and I was lost from his sight. I hoped he understood that I wasn't leaving forever. I would return once I had what I needed to be able to call this place home again.