The Dragon Girl

Chapter 11

Once we splashed into the water, Thorin lifted Bilbo onto the side of Dori's barrel and me onto the side of Fili's. As he did so, Thorin smiled, "Well done, Master Baggins." Bilbo raised his hand to dismiss the praise and we were on our way through the tunnels. Thorin gave the order, "Go, come on let's go," and we all floated through the river tunnel with Bilbo and I gasping for air every few seconds. I didn't think about morphing just yet, as there was no immediate need to, but then I realized I would need to do so in a moment as we headed towards a huge waterfall. I looked to Fili and he nodded, which gave me the permission to shift into my falcon form. I heard Balin shout over the rapids as the company began to fall from the waterfall, "Hold on!" As I checked to see if all of the company resurfaced, I saw out of the corner of my eye Legolas and the guards speeding out of the castle in pursuit. I saw Legolas say something to one of the guard, and then that guard raising a horn to signal something. I looked back in front of me to see that he was signaling the gate to be closed. I screeched, "The gate is closing!" This got the attention of Thorin, as he was the first to realize this as well as the gate closed shut right before his barrel could get through, "No!" I landed on the rim of Kili's barrel, ready to protect the brothers, when I heard the familiar sound of an arrow piercing through a body. I didn't realize who was shot until I saw the body of an elven guard fall into the water. And he had a Morgul Shaft arrow imbedded in his back and shoulder. Bofur noticed this and yelled, "Watch out!" My feathers quivered with anticipation as Orc after Orc blazed through the defenses of the guard, picking them off like sheep. I gulped as I heard a voice I hadn't heard in many years, Bolg, shout out the kill order, "Slay them all!" All hell then broke loose as Legolas and Tauriel emerged from the underbrush and began to fight off the orcs with ease. I heard Thorin and Dwalin attempt to yell over the sounds of the battle with, "Get over the bridge!" and "Die!" I rolled my eyes slightly as this drew the attention of some of the orcs, making them attack us. I lashed at one with my talons while Bilbo stabbed it in the gut. Orc after Orc came so I didn't realize Kili leap out of the barrel and run up to the bridge to open the gate.

It then seemed as if in slow motion as I saw Bolg shoot another Morgul Shaft, but this time into Kili's leg. I screeched along with Fili, "Kili!" Not thinking, I launched myself at Bolg with talons unsheathed aimed for his eyes. I heard Fili yell my name, but I was too full with fury and anger that all I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. I heard Thorin yell Kili's name as well, which took my attention off of Bolg for a split second, and gave him the opportunity to smack me with his bow and,ale me fly into the gate. I landed right next to Kili as he attempted to open the gate again but to no avail. It took me a while to register that another Orc had made it way over to us, but I didn't have time to do anything about it as Tauriel had shot the Orc with her own arrow. I gave her a look of thanks, which she acknowledged, and she carried on fighting the orcs. I then morphed back into my elf form, which Bolg realized and he yelled another order, "Kill her! Kill the She-Elf! She's the one Azog wants!" I looked to Kili and helped him to the lever to open the gate successfully. The company then started to blaze down the river without us, but Fili had stayed behind with a barrel for Kili. I heard Bolg yell, "After them!" In a great deal of struggle and pain, Kili jumped down into the barrel with the arrow lodged in his leg breaking in half. Fili then looked to him with concern, "Kili!" I winced slightly as I saw this but kept a straight face. Fili looked to me, "Hop in, hurry!" I shook my head as I readied my bow, "I will fight with my kin. Go! Get Kili to safety, I will catch up later!" Fili looked like he didn't believe me, so I placed a small kiss on his lips to shut him up. "That's a promise." I whispered as I leaped over the gate. As I raced along the riverbank, fighting an Orc or two as I went, I could see that the company was having trouble. The rapids were weakening them somewhat, but they still continued to defend themselves as they got carried by the current. Tauriel and Legolas then joined me at my sides as we shot arrow after arrow, perfectly hitting an Orc each time. And as it happened, Legolas thought this was the perfect time to carry on a conversation, "Why didn't you tell me you were going to escape with the dwarves?" I shot another arrow as I responded, "I didn't feel it to be necessary at the time!" I dodged the sword of one dwarf and slicing another with mine as Legolas persisted, "You could have told me you know, I wouldn't of told Father!" I rolled my eyes as I shot an arrow into an Orc that was about to injure Balin and Thorin, "You would have and you would have tried to stop me!" He shook his head she sliced another Orc into submission, "Perhaps if you trusted me more then I wouldn't have!" I then saw the dwarves secure a weapon of two, and using it to chop down a log the was full of orcs. I then chose to respond to my borer by shooting an Orc that was about to stab him in the back, "Perhaps I would have if you weren't so close to him!" Legolas scoffed, "You are as close to him as I." I groaned as I stabbed another Orc through the stomach as I raced along the branches of a tree that resided above the company, "Not since I told him I was courting! He blames me for loving someone I shouldn't." I then leaped onto a log that Bombur's barrel had leaped above, sending him into a pile of orcs and fighting them off successfully without my help, "And besides, he always liked you more!" Legolas rolled his eyes, "He was preparing me for ruling one day. I had to be close to him!" Once Bombur made it safely back into a barrel and away from the orcs, I responded, "I guess that's a good reason then. I'm sorry about not telling you I was leaving on the quest." Legolas smiled slightly, "Apology accepted. Are we even?" We then shot at an Orc that was about to hurt both of us as I nodded, "We're even." I then morphed into Ravenna and sped across the riverbank keeping up with the company. Legolas then, as his cocky self, leaped on top of Dori and Dwalin's heads whilst shooting at several orcs behind the company. I could tell that the two dwarves, especially Dwalin, were aggravated by this as he left onto several of the companies' heads and balancing on some as he continued to shoot at Orcs. At one point, Thorin threw a sword into the neck of an Orc that was coming up from behind my brother without him seeing it. I sent a thankful glance Thorin's way, which he acknowledged, but Legolas didn't notice that his life has just been saved by the dwarf lord. The last time I saw Legolas before attending to the company was the look of longing that he had in his eyes for me. I shook my head and went on to meet the company at the shore a couple more miles away.

As the company floated along with barely any current, Thorin asked, "Anything behind us?" Balin shook his head as he looked backward, "Not that I can see." Bofur smiled exhausted, "I think we've outrun the Orcs." Thorin shook his head, "Not for long, we've lost the current." Dwalin scoffed as I slowed down to a walking pace, "We almost half drowned!" Once Thorin caught me in his gaze, he ordered, "Make for the shore!" Dwalin and a few other dwarves nodded, "Aye." As Thorin commanded, "Come on, let's go," I couldn't help but check on Kili's barrel. His face had grown more pale since I had seen him when the arrow broke in two, and I was starting to feel very worried, as was Faedra, my wolf rom whom had bonded with Kili. Once they reached the shore, I morphed back into an elf and rushed to Fili and his brother, "Thank the stars you're all okay!" Kili smiled faintly as Fili helped him out of his barrel slightly, but double over in pain once he took his first step. Bofur and I exchanged looks of worry, which Kili responded with, "I'm fine, it's nothing." I clenched my jaw to prevent myself from arguing with him, but couldn't help sneering once Thorin commanded Kili to stand up, "On your feet." Fili noticed my predicament and stood up for Kili and I, "Kili's wounded, his leg needs binding." Thorin brushed off the worries of Fili and I, "There's an Orc pack at our tail. We keep moving." Balin raised an eyebrow, "To where?" Bilbo sighed as he sat down for a moment on one of the numerous rocks on shore, "To the mountain, we're so close." Balin then turned to him, "A lake lies between us and that mountain, we have no way to cross it." Bilbo shrugged slightly while seeing the worry in my eyes about Kili, "So then we go around." Dwalin scoffed, "The Orcs will run us down as sure as daylight. We've no weapons to defend ourselves." My hands started to clench into fists as the dwarves kept bickering amongst one another, threatening those who would glance at me that my forms, especially Aslan and Faedra, weren't very happy with them. Thorin saw me out of the corner of his eye as my eyes started to tint a deep purple and sighed, "Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes." Aslan and Faedra seemed happy for now with that response, as I felt the tension that had been growing in my chest dissipate instantly. My eyes returned to their normal color of light green as Fili and I quickly bound Kili's leg with a scrap of Fili's leather. It wasn't much longer that I heard a snap of a twig from behind us, along with the pull of a bowstring, which made me reach for my bow and notch an arrow right as the figure behind me notched his. The man growled, "Do it and you're dead." I sneered as I felt the cunning side of Tau creeping up from the surface, "You will try." Balin realized this and ran towards us, "Excuse me, but um...you're from Lake-town, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire by any chance?"
The man scoffed as we followed him to his barge as he dragged some of the barrels onto his barge, "What makes you think I would help you?" Balin continued his conversation with him, "Those boots have seen better days, as has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed? How many bairns?" The man smiled slightly as he stopped loading his barge for a moment, at this time I felt it necessary to un-notch my bow and tuck it behind me in my armor. The man then responded, " A boy and two girls." Balin smiled along with him, "And your wife, I imagine, she's a beauty?" The man hesitated for a moment as a solemn look faded across his face, "Aye, she was." Balin's face dropped, his wife must have passed away sometime ago. I nodded and gave him a look of sympathy which the man acknowledged. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Balin started but was then interrupted by Dwalin, "Oh, come on, come on. Enough with the niceties." The man raised an eyebrow, "What's your hurry?" Dwalin sneered, "What's it to you?" The man nodded at Dwalin, "I would like to know who you are, and what you were doing in these lands." Balin then went in-between Dwalin and the man, as he could sense as well as I that an increased amount of tension was building between the two, "We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains, journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills." The man scoffed, "Simple merchants, you say?" Thorin then stepped forward, "We need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?" The man seemed to think for a moment and inside I was hoping that he. Would agree to help us, but he responded with, "I know where these barrels came from." Thorin stayed straight-faced, "What of it?" The man smirked as he carried the last barrel onto his barge as he spoke, "I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well. No one enters Lake-town but by lead of the master. All his wealth comes from trade with the Woodland realm. He would see you in irons before risking the wrath of king Thranduil."

I looked to Thorin, in which he looked back at me hoping that I could exert some sort of influence on the stranger. I smirked as I spoke, "I'll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen." The man looked back at me for a split second, but then continued with his work, "Aye. But for that you would need a smuggler." Balin then intercepted my suggestion and spoke, "For which we would pay double." I could see the interest in the barge man's eyes light up and a smirk creeped onto my face. I looked to Thorin and Balin, for which they nodded back at me. We have found a way to the mountain.