for all the gold || hobbit {completed}

chapter twenty-five - ice

The water beneath the ice may as well have been a wall of charging orc. The cold hit me like a sharp punch to the chest, knocking the wind out of me. Above me, a translucent pearly sky of sunlight through the ice and, below me, only darkness.

The darkness was growing. I was sinking fast. I kicked hard at the water, but this was no evening swim in an elf-lord's fountain. My arms struggled to pull myself up, my weak arm all but useless. I could only watch the sky fall further away from me, a faint reddish haze trailing after me.

In the dark depths, I could not see Kili and, as the cold of the water eased to an almost-comfortable warmth, I realised that I did not necessarily want to find him, but to just let the water take me.

The gentle comfortable warmth that grew as I sank further down turned quickly to burning. My chest, unable to hold on any longer, gave away and panicked when it found only water and no air. Struggling, my body fought against the numbing pull of the water, arms and legs thrashing against the current. As I fought, my foot collided with something dark and soft, just beneath me in the water. Kili!

My arms and legs turned away from the light, pushing myself further down until I could get a grip of the dwarven prince. He did not move as I wrapped my arms around him, but it was certainly Kili, his long brown hair streaming out around him, tickling my face as I pushed us with all my remaining strength back to the surface.

The ice may have been cracking underfoot from above, but below it remained solid, at least where I first attempted to surface. Banging my head hard against the ice, I sank a few feet, before trying again, Kili, all but a sodden boulder in my arms.

Again I could not find the hole and the panic was quickly setting in. Clutching Kili with one arm, my hand twisting his hair around my fist to keep some grip, I tread the water and used my other arm to punch at the ice above, my desperate chest on fire.

It was then that I saw the shadow above the ice: a half-broken dwarf dragging himself across the ice. He must have seen my fist at least banging against the ice as suddenly there was a hand against the ice above, the faint sound of Fili shouting something from somewhere above.

I did what I could to follow Fili's hand as the burning only grew worse and the darkness crept over my eyes. I might have slipped away had a hand not come then, catching me by the hair, dragging me back into the world above.

The first breath of air was beautiful; sharp and cold, it blew the darkness from my eyes. Only then did my chest begin to struggle, retching and throwing up the water I had breathed in. It took my all to push Kili up towards his brother.

Azog's flail had broken Fili's right arm, but his left arm was still good to go, and, not without difficulty, he grabbed his brother by the collar, hauling him out of the water and out onto the ice. Free of Kili's weight, my body sunk back, relieved of its duty. But the fight was not over yet. Fili's hand found my own collar and was hauling me up. Scrambling at the ice, I grasped Fili's shoulder and, with his help, pulled myself out, falling, retching, gasping, soaked to my skin, onto the ice beside him. I felt all too much like one of the fish left out on the floor of the bargeman's boat.

"You fool!" It took a while for my ears to clear out, to realise Fili was shouting at me. He was above me all of a sudden, his face pale, his golden hair falling over me. His right hand, fixed still on an arm twisted out of shape, brushed against my cheek, so very hot against my half-frozen skin. "You bloody fool!" He continued to shout and my only response to that was to spout out yet more water, rolling, retching, onto my side. I felt the hot press of his lips against my forehead and then he was dragging himself away, to the still form of his brother.

Slowly, I sat up, my chest aching, teeth chattering and body weary. Across the ice, I watched, numb, as Oakenshield and the Orc fought on. A sudden rustle of wings and dark shadows loomed over, and I watched, half-believing I was dreaming still, caught beneath the warm waters of the ice, as eagle after eagle soared over us.