It took everything Keerla had to stop her scream when her barrel tumbled into the icy water, but she bounced back up to the surface in no time. Kili took a deep breath and shivered, then unwrapped his arms from her figure and pulled himself up to look over the top of the barrel.
"Where's Bilbo?" Fili asked over the noise of the rushing water.
He and Thorin grabbed the rocks, stopping the barrels from floating off. A few seconds later, Bilbo tumbled out of an opening in the wood above, but missed his barrel completely and ended up having to cling onto Nori's barrel.
"Well done, Master Baggins," Thorin grinned, amused.
Bilbo looked half drowned but managed to wave his free hand and splutter out, "Go."
Keerla popped her head out of her and Kili's barrel as everyone began paddling with their hands. She held tight to the bow, and rested the quiver against the side only to snatch it up seconds later as several dwarfs screamed, going over a waterfall.
They plunged through the rapids, eventually surfacing and spitting out water. She and Kili took deep breaths, clinging tightly to one another as they bobbed along the raging river with the others. It wasn't long before Keerla's ears perked up at the sound of Legolas's voice, realising he was somewhere behind them.
"Holo in-annon! (Shut the gate!)" he ordered followed by an elven horn, causing the others to panic.
"Take this," she stuffed the bow into Kili's hands, "They're going to close the gates ahead, i need you to cover me while i get out and open them."
"I'll go!" Kili said. Their argument was cut off briefly as they were submerged once again, and after coughing he said, "You're the better bowman."
"I'm also faster, and this was once my home," she reminded him, pushing her hair out of her face, "Do not leave this barrel do you understand?"
He gave a reluctant nod and grasped the bow, holding an arrow in his other hand at the ready. Up ahead, they heard Thorin's agonising yells and Keerla knew he had hit the gates. Their barrel joined the pile as the elven guards drew their swords, but Keerla let out a shriek of surprise when one was pierced from behind by a black arrow.
"Orcs!" she yelled, not only for the dwarfs but for Legolas and his men that were behind them.
Several of the filthy growling creatures swarmed over the guard post, killing the elves while more came from the bushes.
"Gorid! Zib! Goridug!" (Slay them all!)" one similar in height and colour to Azog ordered in the black speech.
The orcs threw themselves off the embankment and the bridge at the dwarfs stuck in the barrels. Keerla grit her teeth knowing they'd be able to hold off for a short while, but not for too long. Placing her hands on either side of the barrel, she swiftly pulled herself up and replaced her hands with her feet.
"Keerla!" Kili exclaimed as she leapt from their barrel, bounced off the head of an Orc clinging to Bomber's and landed dangerously close to the edge of the embankment.
An arrow took out an orc that appeared in front of her, and she turned casting a grateful smile at Kili before she hurried toward the lever that would open the gate. She didn't have time to worry about the others, though from the yells and grunts, she knew they were doing just fine.
She ducked under the blade of an orc, diving between his legs and kicked him down into the river where Dwalin smashed its head against a rock.
"Here lass!"
He threw her the sword he'd pulled from the Orc's body, and she grabbed it from the air, spinning to block a blade coming for her neck. She hooked a foot behind the orc's leg and pulled, causing it to tumble and she swung the heavy metal in her hand, taking off its head.
There was a snarl behind her as an orc lunged and she turned, only for Fili to throw a short dagger had had taken from an Orc. It killed the Orc immediately, allowing her to concentrate on the one that came rushing down the stairs. She deflected it's blade with her own, kicked the creature in the gut and plunged the sword into its chest.
Ripping it out violently, she kicked another orc over the edge into the river and sprinted up the steps. Another swung for her as she reached the bridge over the gates, but she easily cut it in half and threw her sword at one about to take Fili's head off. Without a weapon, she looked useless to the orcs, and one that had been climbing the wall grabbed for her thinking her easy prey. She smacked its arms out the way, grabbed hold of its head and twisted sharply, snapping its neck with a scowl on her face.
Her fingers had just brushed the smooth wood of the lever when an arrow came out of nowhere; piercing her between her bottoms two left ribs through the corset. She screamed in pain, stumbling back against the wall for support. There was something seriously wrong with the arrow in her side to cause such pain, but she could not tell whether it was poison or simply because she had been trapped in a cell for weeks.
"Keerla!" several of the dwarfs yelled, panicked at hearing her scream.
"No!" Kili roared, seeing the arrow in her side.
Keerla caught his eye and groaned, throwing her entire weight at the lever. The gates opened slowly beneath her, but the twang of a bow caught her attention and she looked up, seeing an arrow heading straight for her head. Before it got closer than three feet, another arrow knocked it off course and she shot a grateful look to Tauriel who had appeared out of nowhere.
An Orc leapt at her from above, but another arrow from Tauriel's bow took it out and Keerla concentrated on pushing the lever down. The gates opened fully and the dwarfs gave yells of both surprise and panic as they were washed away down the river.
Keerla collapsed onto all fours, lifting one hand to her side. She ran it down until her fingers met the arrow and tried to pull it out. Immediately, she knew that the arrow head was stuck behind her ribs and grit her teeth, snapping the shaft off instead.
"Khozdayin obguryash! Abgurid!" (After them!) the lead orc ordered.
Keerla groaned again, peering over the bridge to see Fili and Kili were struggling to hold their barrels against the water. Taking a breath, she pushed herself over the edge and tumbled into the water, catching her arm on the side of Kili's barrel.
"Go!" she choked, forcing her head above the surface of the river.
Kili managed to pull her into his barrel just as they followed the other dwarfs over a second and much larger waterfall. Fili grabbed their barrel as the river carried them away, peering in at Keerla who was struggling to get herself back on her feet.
"Are you okay?!" he yelled over the rushing water.
"I'm fine! Just watch out for the orcs!" she yelled back, handing Kili another arrow for his bow.
Up ahead, an orc leapt for Thorin's barrel but he dispatched it easily with a sword he had grabbed back at the gates. Keerla lifted herself up and sat on the side of the barrel, her weight balancing out Kili as he leaned over his side to shoot at any orcs he could find.
"Thorin!" she yelled out, pointing at an orc leaping for Balin.
Thorin threw his sword, causing it to pierce the orc through the chest to a nearby tree. He then caught the axe the orc dropped and tossed it back to Bombur, who threw it to Nori, who threw it to Fili, who killed an orc with it. Dwalin head-butted an orc that leapt for his barrel, stealing it's axe and swung it up at an overhanging tree.
It had fallen across the river, with several orcs lined across it. Thorin hit it with yet another sword he had procured from an orc, followed by Dwalin's axe and then Bofur hit it with the sword he'd grabbed. The tree split in half and fell into the river, taking the orcs with it.
Catching sight of blonde and red hair behind them, Keerla pushed herself up so she was standing with a foot either side of the barrel, much to Kili's displeasure but he said nothing and continued shooting.
"Tauriel!" she yelled, catching the red head's attention, as she shot an orc about to attack Bombur, "Your spare blades, quickly!"
"How did you know i still carried them?!" she yelled, flipping over an orc that Legolas shot as she fished the two blades from under the skirt of her tunic. She tossed them toward the dark haired Elleth who caught the blades with a grin.
"You were my greatest student!" Keerla yelled back and leapt from her barrel to Fili's, stabbing the Orc trying to kill him.
"Bombur!" Dwalin yelled and Keerla looked up after kicking an orc away from them.
Her blades pierced another orc as it lunged from above, but she suddenly found herself unable to do anything but watch in awe.
Bombur's barrel was pierced by a spear, the orc trying to force him underwater, only for it to get pinned by the spear to an overhanging tree branch. The other end of the spear catapulted Bomber's barrel through the air and onto the riverbank where it rolled and trampled multiple orcs.
Somehow the barrel ended up on the other side of the river, where it trampled more orcs. Eventually it came to a stop, and orcs surrounded the barrel only for Bombur to kick out the bottom and stick his arms holding axes through the sides. He began spinning rapidly with the axes extended, mowing down all the orcs around him though he lost the protection of the barrel as it fell to pieces.
Keerla could only gape as the red haired dwarf sprinted to the riverside and jumped into the spare barrel that had been meant for Bilbo, all without a single injury.
"What in Mahal's name was that?!" she exclaimed, making Bofur grin.
"That's my brother, lass!"
She let out a howl of laughter and leapt over a rock jutting out of the bank, landing wobbly on Balin's barrel. She then hopped from barrel to barrel, hacking and slicing at Orcs until she was back with Kili, taking the head off an Orc he had been struggling with.
"I'm out of arrows," he told her.
"Take this then," she handed him one of the knives and pushed him down, cutting an arrow out of the air which would have skewered his head. "Did you see Bomber?" she asked, kicking an orc leaping for her out of the air, and Kili sliced the legs of another that had ran across a branch above them. "How cool was that?!"
"I'm more concerned about that arrow in your side!" he yelled, grabbing tight to her legs as they bounced off the embankment.
"I'll deal with it when we're not outnumbered!" was her reply as she leapt from the barrel onto dry land and sprinted along beside the barrels, cutting down any orc in her path.
Her free hand pressed against the wound as she slid between the legs of an orc, an elven arrow piercing its head while it was distracted with her. She could not tell Kili how bad her wound was, how tired she was, she could not tell him that she feared she was being poisoned.
Angry yells of the dwarfs caught her attention and she watched Legolas hop from head to head, taking out orcs. He was helping them, she realised, but at least she managed to use the barrels as stepping stones, and not the dwarfs themselves. Slicing through several orcs, she leapt over a gap in the rock but failed to land on her feet and fell into a roll so that she didn't simply flop on her face.
Swiftly returning to her feet, she knew she was running out of options and sprinted toward a rocky overhang, leaping for Kili's barrel. She landed in the water, her fingers missing the wood by mere inches. Luckily, Kili had noticed and reached back, pulling her to safety.
"What happened?" he asked, helping her into the barrel.
"I – i can't-" she stammered, offering him her second blade, "I – it hurts – i can't-"
He kneeled, pressing a kiss to her forehead and frowned when he felt how cold she was, "Rest, i will protect you, my love."
"I love you," she murmured, letting her eyes close.
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