The 16th Member (the hobbit fanfic)

A Clumsy Elf

Chapter 5

A Clumsy Elf

Kalea fell for what (to her) seemed like a good 10 minutes when in actuality, it was only seconds before she landed in what she expected to be a barrel. It wasn't. She fell into the roaring river with a loud splash and scrambled to grab something. For an elf, this was pretty embarrassing.

The clumsy She-Elf then felt a strong hand grab her by the shoulder and pull her up. Kalea gasped for breath when she surfaced. She saw that the one who held her arm was Fili. He gave her a warm smile and tried not to laugh as he pulled her into his barrel. They were extremely close. Kalea had never been this close to anyone except for her brother, Legolas.

"Hello once again." She said, breathlessly.

"You could've drowned." He replied, still wearing that handsome smirk.

Kalea giggled. "But I didn't." She said.

The elf looked Fili in the eyes which was a terrible mistake. The two were so close that if either one moved, their noses would be touching. Kalea could see Fili's beautiful hazel eyes and she couldn't seem to take her own off of them.

They kept their eyes locked on one another for only a split second more, for their barrel had tumbled over the side of a very small bump and it jostled them. Soon, all the barrels were safely at the end of the rapids and the dwarves climbed out and onto the rocks at the edge of the river.

Kalea and Fili's barrel bumped into the other barrels as they slowly came to a stop. They were completely soaked from their last tumble and Kalea suddenly realized that her hand rested on Fili's chest. She quickly removed her hand and tried to squirm out of the barrel.

"You're making this far more difficult than it has to be." Fili chuckled as Kalea strained against him to exit the barrel.

The She-Elf then stopped to look at him.

"Like this."

The dwarf grabbed each side of the barrel and just when Kalea thought he was going to push himself up and out, he flipped the barrel upside down with a quick jerking movement. The elf was totally unprepared for this and swallowed an immense amount of river water. Fili was right though, getting out was easy now and Kalea slipped out and swam until she resurfaced. She coughed and sputtered, choking on the water she swallowed. She then felt Fili's arms wrap around her waist and he pulled her onto the rocks, just barely remembering that she was supposed to hate dwarves.

"Much thanks." Kalea breathed, panting.

"My pleasure." Fili replied with a smile.

He hovered over her, his arms still around her torso. His eyes scanned her up and down and he then rolled off of her. The elf tried hard not to feel uncomfortable.

The leader of the Company held a hand out for Kalea to grab hold of and she did. He pulled her up quickly as if she weighed nothing (which to him, she probably did.)

"Thank you for helping us escape." He said in his usual low and rough voice.

Kalea nodded her head. She then turned around to help Fili up and found that he was already gone. She looked around for him and saw that he was with his brother.

It suddenly all came back to The She-Elf. The arrow, the wound. She rushed over to them. Kili acted tough but Kalea knew he was in serious pain. Unfortunately, the young elf was not old enough to know how to heal such a wound. She could do nothing to save Fili's brother.