Blue swords|| Legolas

19

The river washed them all away. The current taking the party away from the Orcs and the elves and towards the lake. By the time they had gotten out of the rapids and were able to paddle towards the banks, Luin was exhausted both physically and mentally. The spell he had preformed the night before and the constant chaos since had left him shaking like a newborn lamb. Limbs weak and numb. He was barely able to cling on to the side of Dwalin's barrel. The dwarf having to keep a hold on his collar to stop him slipping away.

The water was now calm enough and there were no orcs to be seen. Thorin called for them to paddle to shore. They did so with grumbled groans. Luin ended up half crawling up the rock before collapsing onto his back, breathing heavily. Around him, the dwarves began hauling the barrels up the bank. They were all bruised and battered by the river journey. Luin ached from more than just his joints.

"What do we do?" Dori asked Thorin once all the barrels were on shore. "We have no weapons, no equipment, no food".

"We have to keep going", Bilbo answered, panting. He was in almost as bad shape as Luin. Both of them had no barrels and had been at mercy of the rapids and the rocks. But the hobbit was standing up and trying the squeeze the excess water out of his coat. "I mean", he continued. "The mountain is so close now. We've got to keep going". He gestured towards the lake a quarter of a mile away. A river town floated in the centre, a structure of wood and bright lights, beyond which the mountain of erebor looked like a dark shadow. The darkening sky making it loom over them.

"We'll continue to lake town", Thorin stated. "Try and gather supplies there. We shall rest here for a bit, try and salvage anything from the fight".

Luin sighed and tried to push himself upright onto his elbow, meaning to get to his feet. Something in his chest gave a spasm of pain and he fell back with a groan. He winced and pressed a hand to his side. It felt sticky and wet. He was bleeding. Luin couldn't even recall how he got injured. There had been so much going on. The water, the orcs, the arrows, the elves. Why was he injured? When did it happen? It hurt. The pain, held back by adrenaline and fear, hit him like battering ram. It blazed under his hand and he gave a choked cry.

Gloin and Dwalin were the closest and they rushed to his side as he gave another groan of pain. "Are you okay lad?" Dwalin asked. He spotted Luin's red hand. Gloin pushed it back to get a closer look at the wound. His blue tunic was darkened with blood and ripped. A long deep slice was carved into the side of Luin's chest. It was ragged round the edges, and the surrounding skin was bruising colourfully. It stretched from below his arm round and down to the bottom of his rib cage. It was a severe cut, having been torn and scrapped against wood and rocks from their journey through the river. With no supplies, it could get infected and turn deadly. Normally, even in their current circumstances, Luin would be able to concentrate energy from his golden core to the area and lessen blood flow and assist healing. But he was currently in no fit state to do so. Magic and Qi still sapped from his body.

"Hey", Gloin raised his voice to get the other's attention. "Luin's injured". Fili, who was supporting Kili, hobbled over. Kili was obviously injured as well. Fili had pulled a broken arrow shaft out of his calf and tossed it back into the river. The young dwarf didn't seem too bad yet. His wound wasn't bleeding as much as Luin's was. Fili had one of Kili's arms around his shoulders and was helping his brother to keep his weight off of it. He set Kili down next to Luin. Both of them exchanged grim grimaces of pain.

The rest of the dwarves gathered around. Luin could make out the sounds of nervous chatter and tried to focus. Everything was blurry around the edges. He severely hoped the wound didn't have poison, although it was probably just his exhaustion taking its toll. He had not had to do such a large scale spell in decades. He forgot how much it took out of him.