Daughter of a King

Chapter 37: Barrels

(Arulla's POV)

Damn elves...

They just had to block our way out. And to make it worse, orcs are attacking us and me and Thorin are underneath the awning being crushed by the oncoming barrels on one side and the closed river gate on the other.

"Get under the bridge!" Thorin shouted. And me being a reckless child jumped out of the barrel I shared with Thorin and into the freezing water, planting my feet to the bottom of the river.

"ARULLA!!!!!!!" Thorin shouted as he reached for my hair but I swerved my head out of his reach and angle downwards. My head completely submerging as I swim to the edge and pull myself up.

Coming face to face with an Orc.

I smirked evilly and swerved around him and threw him in the water where Dwalin had taken the Orc and began to beat him.

Kíli, noticing my distress and our need to open the gate jumped out of his own barrel and came to help me push oncoming orcs into the water.

"I'll grab the lever!" Kíli shouted to me. I nodded. And he turned towards the steps as Dwalin threw him a used Orc sword.

"Here!" He shouted. And Kíli caught it with ease as he made his way up the awning, drawing ever so closer to the brown wooden lever.

The 'thunk' of wood and flesh squelching caused me to quickly look up at a horrible sight that I will never be rid of.

"Kíli!" "No!" Fíli and I shouted at the same time, and all I saw was a blind haze of anger as I threw off and pushed past the monsters that were between me and my kin, my brother.

I quickly jumped over Kíli and pulled the lever to allow the company to get through the gate and down the water.

I quickly glance around, trying to see any danger around us, and that's when I notice that Legolas and some of the elven guard has come to help be rise of the orcs. I look down at my cousin, his face still contorted in pain.

"Come on." I say as gently as I can with the given circumstances. "Wrap your arm around my neck." And he does so.

And then I jump into his empty barrel and we float down the river, rejoining with the others, and sadly their own group of orcs who seem very intent on aiming for the front of our group.

(3rd Person POV)

As Arulla strains to look for Thorin she finds him just as an orc leaps at Thorin in his barrel, but he had managed to kill it with a sword he apparently had grabbed earlier while she was still by the gate. Unknown to her Tauriel, Legolas, and the elven guard run after the orcs chasing the dwarves, shooting them down as best they can.

As Arulla tries to adjust herself and Kíli in the barrel she sees an orc jumping from an overhanging tree branch toward Balin, but before she could even shout a warning Thorin throws his sword and pins the orc to the tree; as the orc drops its weapon, Thorin catches it while floating beneath him.

'Alright. That was really cool.' She thinks to herself as Thorin throws the newly acquired sword back to Bombur, who throws it to Nori, who throws it to Fili, who kills an orc with it.

'Ok let me rephrase that. THAT was awesome.'

An orc leaps onto Dwalin barrel, a few barrels ahead of Arulla, only for Dwalin to headbutt it off and steal its axe. Then thirteen faces see a low-hanging tree branch stretched across the river ahead of them, with several orcs on it.

"Cut the log!" Thorin shouts as he floats under the stretched wood and hits it with his sword, then Bofur and Dwalin, right behind him, breaking it completely and causing the orcs on it to fall into the river. And Bilbo manages to climb atop a floating barrel.

"Bombur!" Dwalin shouts as he throws his axe to Bombur, who kills an orc that had just jumped onto his barrel. The Orc's spear ends up pinning it to an overhanging tree branch; the other end of the spear catches onto Bombur's barrel and catapults it through the air and onto the riverbank, where the barrel rolls and tramples multitudes of orcs.

The barrel flips through the air to the other side of the river, where it tramples more orcs. Eventually, the barrel comes to a stop, and orcs surround it; however, Bombur kicks out the bottom, then sticks his arms holding axes through the sides. He then starts spinning rapidly with the axes extended, mowing down all the orcs around him. He then runs toward the river, tosses his axe to one of the floating dwarves, then gracefully jumps into an empty barrel, sputtering softly sad Nori and Dori help him stand upright.

Meanwhile, Legolas, Tauriel, and the other elves have caught up to the dwarves and orcs, fighting as best they could. As Arulla continues to follow the elves' movements she sees Legolas leap over the river and lands with a foot on the heads of two dwarves, to the poor chagrin of Dori and Dwalin,  from this vantage point, he shoots orcs on either riverbank. He aims carefully, and manages to skewer two orcs through the head with one arrow.

Arulla, slightly impressed, gives a small smile his way, of which Legolas sees but doesn't reciprocate. As Legolas continues fighting orcs, and using the heads of floating dwarves as stepping stones to get across the river and onto land, Arulla took this time of calm between her and Kíli's barrel to check on him.

"Are you alright? Are you in pain anywhere else than your leg?" She rambles worriedly. Kíli smiles but it turns into a grimace as their barrel is jostled. "I am fine cousin" he said. "Just a flesh wound."

Arulla could tell that he was lying because she knew the vileness of Morgul arrows, but she silently praised for his bravery and pride, and she knew that once they reached land again, she would check the leg herself.

Turning back towards the land outcrop she spotted Legolas fighting gracefully but effectively against his enemy but while he was preoccupied fighting an orc, she had seen another orc run up behind him and raise his sword to kill the elf.

She had gasped in shock so suddenly that she couldn't even breathe until she saw Thorin, from his barrel in the river, throw his sword and manage to kill the orc behind Legolas.

Amusingly to herself she sees Legolas and Thorin look at each other with some sort of understanding; Legolas stops pursuing them as they continue floating down the river with only a few orcs following them on the wayside.

Arulla looks at Legolas one last time and she softly spoke

"Gi melin eno" (I love you still)

Although it was a quiet voice and the waves crashed around them, she knew he heard it because his face changed into one unguarded, and then he disappeared as she rounded the corner of the rapids and her and Kíli floated down the river and joined with the rest of the company.

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Well..... I know it's been awhile. Trust me it was hard. But this chapter was hard because it's mostly narrative and no dialogue. I'm so terribly sorry guys and I'm going to try and update every other Sunday now with school starting up again. :) So as we get more into this I just want to say this... Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this story and has enjoyed it and even the ones who haven't, you still have taken part of your day to read this and that means a lot to me. Again guys I'm so sorry for not updating and I swear that I'll try not to wait so long for the next chapter ;) thank you for your encouragement and your comments and I hope to see you all real soon

Namarië

-TC110

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