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VI. Barrels

"I'll wager the sun is on the rise," Bofur said from where he was still trapped in his cell, "must be nearly dawn."

Athena had woken up an hour earlier, unable to fully emerge herself into sleep from the sounds around them and the hard surface underneath her. Now she lay on the floor staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression, not just from what she had witnessed the day before but also because her bow was now lost to her and she was still trapped in these halls.

"We're never going to reach the mountain, are we?" Ori asked sorrowfully.

"Not stuck in here you're not," a familiar ally whispered to them followed by the jangling of keys, Athena rapidly pushing herself to sit up as a smile spread across her face at the knowledge that Bilbo was alive, and that he was helping them.

"Bilbo!" Balin cried in disbelief and relief, the rest of the Dwarves cheering him on.

"Shhh! There are guards nearby!" He hurried to quieten them down as he began to unlock the doors of the cells one by one, releasing each member of the company.

She smiled at him when he reached her door and flung it open, patting his shoulder affectionately before rejoining herself with the rest of the group.

"The stairs. You first, Ori!" Dwalin whispered to the group as they made their way from the cells to an opening and a set of stairs.

"Not that way, down here. Follow me," Bilbo hurried to say in a hushed tone, directing them away from the stairs and leading them in another direction he believed to be more inconspicuous.

She did wonder why they were heading further down into the Woodland Realm rather than outside of it, but she trusted Bilbo so continued to silently follow the Hobbit until they reached the wine cellar, two Elf guards fast asleep on the table with empty wine bottles strewn across the table.

"I don't believe it, we're in the cellars," Kili angrily mumbled to Bilbo and the others.

"You're supposed to be leading us out not further in," Bofur also commented as they made their way further into the cellar.

"I know what I'm doing— " Bilbo was cut off by Bofur harshly telling him to shush, Bilbo continuing to usher them forwards until they reached a room with empty barrels stacked sideways atop one another. "Everyone, climb into the barrels, quickly."

"Are you mad? They'll find us," Dwalin argued with him.

"No no, they won't, I promise you. Please, please, you must trust me."

While the rest of the Dwarves began to debate on what they should do she had already begun to clamber into one of the open barrels. Though she was smaller than the Dwarves in width she was bigger in height so it was still a tight fit as she struggled to conceal herself completely in the barrel, her head sticking out of the top while the rest of the Dwarves pushed themselves into the ones that remained after Thorin told them to.

"What do we do now?" Bofur asked, sticking his head out to look over at the one who had brought them here.

"Hold your breath."

"Hold my breath? What do you mean?"

His question received no answer, instead Bilbo pulled the lever beside the barrels and the floor they were once resting on titled to the side, sending the barrels rolling down the steep slope before the company was plunged into a river below them one by one.

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Athena grasped onto the edges of the barrel and pulled her head out from the top of it, wrinkling up her nose from the painful sensation of it being flooded with water as she took a sharp inhale of oxygen to return it to her lungs before blinking away the water that had settled on her eyelids. She was soaked from head to toe as were the others while they slowly headed down the river.