Kili wakes me at the crack of dawn, the first of sunlight seeping through the glass skylights. We boarded stolen ponies from Thranduil's magnificent stock of wild stallions and prancing mares, and rode about a mile into the night. When the full day begins we really get going and push our ponies farther and farther until we reach a stream where I demand a rest.
Kili leans down and cups his hands drinking straight from the babbling brook, I prefer to boil all the nasty stuff out of my water or at least drink it out of my tin flask.
"Dismount and set up camp" Kili says with the same air of leadership as his uncle. "We are well hidden enough that we can rest the day and ride all night... so we don't get caught by Legolas or his kin." I nod, seems reasonable enough by Kili's standards.
"There you go Minty!" I pass an apple into the ponies big red tongue "Here you go!" I say this all in a baby voice that catches Kili's attention, he gives me an "Are you crazy!?" look.
"Here," Kili passes me his ax "I'll set up camp and you'll chop firewood." It's already getting chilly and a fire sounds nice, so I take the dwarfish ax and carry it to a mound of fallen branches. Although there is a kind of sensation.... like I'm being watched. I wonder what it could be?
I get my answer an Orc arrow that I recognize all too well. We are not alone. Another arrow pierces the silence and it plants itself in the Orcs head, an elvish arrow.
"Uh oh."