HOBBIT X OC - Elastic Heart

Chapter 12 ~ Bard The Bowman

We climb out onto a slab of rock jutting out a bit into the river as Dwalin says, "Come on!" When Kili is on the rocks, he falls to his knees in pain from the arrow wound in his thigh; it has been bound with cloth, but blood is seeping through. Bofur looks at him concernedly.

"I'm fine, it's nothing." Kili says and I roll my eyes as I walk over to him and pull the cloth back to see that it did not look fine. I rip part of my sleeve and say so only Kili can hear, "This will hold for now, but it will need medicine soon." He nods in understanding as I silently pray that on our journey I find some Athelas.

"On your feet." Thorin says as he walks beside us.

"Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding." Fili says and I stand up as Thorin replies, "There's an Orc pack on our tail; we keep moving."

"To where?" Balin says and Bilbo replies with, "To the mountain; we're so close."

"A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it."

"So then we go around."

"The Orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin says as he looks to me. "I dropped the Orc bow and Elven sword when I jumped back into my barrel."

"Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes." Thorin says to Fili and I lean back down in front of Kili.

"If it hurts too much I will carry you." I say to him as I gently place my hand on his foot. Unbeknownst to us, a man sneaks up over the pile of rocks and aims an arrow at Ori. As we realize a man is there, we jump up, and Dwalin, holding a branch, leaps in front of Ori. He raises the branch and begins to charge the man, but the man shoots his arrow and it embeds itself right in the middle of the branch, between Dwalin's hands. Kili raises a rock to throw, but the man shoots the rock out of his hand too.

"Do it again, and you're dead." The man says as he holds his aim at Kili. I slowly put myself between the two of them. Balin, who is standing near the edge of the group, sees a barge floating in the river behind the man and says as he approaches him slowly with his hands held in the air. "Excuse me, but, uh, you're from Laketown, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?" The bowman lowers his bow and climbs aboard his barge as we all move closer to him.

"What makes you think I will help you?" The man says as he starts pulling the barrels into his barge.

"Those boots have seen better days." Balin says as he eyes the man's boots. "As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?"

"A boy and two girls."

"And your wife, I'd imagine she's a beauty."

"Aye. She was." The man says his eyes filling with sadness.

Balin's smile fades as he says, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" He is interrupted by Dwalin whispering loudly to Thorin. "Oh, come on, come on, enough with the niceties."

"What's your hurry?" The man asks Dwalin.

"What's it to you?"

"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands."

"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills." Balin says causing the bowman to raise an eyebrow in disbelief as he says, "Simple merchants, you say?"

"We'll need food, supplies, and weapons. Can you help us?" Thorin asks as he moves toward the Barge. The bowman looks at the barrels and examines the various dents and nicks they received during the fight with the Orcs. "I know where these barrels came from." He says and I am about to say something when yet again I am interrupted by Thorin, "What of it?"