33

The hobbit held up the dangling keys, grinning at Ori. Thorin and Talia both smiled, beyond pleased with their hobbit. Naturally, he had snuck right past the pointy-eared bastards and infiltrated the Woodland Realm. Talia only wished she could rub it in Thranduil's face before their escape.

"Bilbo!" Balin said, happiness filling his voice.

They all started to cheer in excitement as Bilbo began to unlock each cell, but he made a point to shush them. "There are guards nearby!"

Once Bilbo reached Talia's cell, she stepped out from behind the bars, feeling a bit nostalgic in the action. Smiling softly, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I lost you."

Bilbo could see the sorrow and regret in her features. "Come now, you can't lose me!" The hobbit teased back, shifting his weight on his enormous feet. "Though your Company did try on several occasions."

Talia was grateful for his humor, but she was still immensely guilty. "It won't happen again."

"There's nothing to happen again." Bilbo paused. "I know you all look after me, and I know you're one of the few that even enjoys it a little. But I don't want you to do so if it'll cause you so much grief. You have enough to worry about—for goodness' sakes, you're a Queen! I'm not worth the trouble."

But she could only shake her head softly, gesturing to the keys in his hand. "You've proven yourself time and time again, Master Baggins. You will always be worth it to me."

Bilbo nodded his thanks, moving to unlock the other cells. Once Thorin was free, the hobbit scurried off to the others while he walked over to Talia.

"Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"That could not have been easy for you."

She took his hand and squeezed it gently, his concern warming her heart. "Life has never been easy."

The pair exchanged a small smile before following the other dwarves, who had begun to walk up the stairs. But Bilbo shooed them away from the steps, beckoning them back towards him. "Not that way. Down here, follow me!"

"Which way?" Talia asked.

But the hobbit ignored her, rushing the dwarves further into the dungeons. "Come on!"

She didn't like that she didn't know his plan, but she also knew that if they had any chance of escaping properly, they had to trust him. The Company grumbled their doubts as Bilbo led them on, shushing them again once they reached a small storage room of some sort.

Empty wine bottles littered the cellar, accompanied by their drunk consumers. Three guards were passed out on a little round table, fast asleep as they snored on. Beorn had called the Silvan Elves less wise and more dangerous than their Rivendell counterparts, and Talia knew danger was akin to recklessness. But this fascinated Talia, for she had never seen it in the flesh. She caught Bofur trying to make out what kind of wine they had been drinking, and she snorted to herself at the alcoholic of the group. If there was one thing all of the races in Middle Earth had in common, it was their love of a good drink.

"This way," Bilbo whispered, but the dwarves hesitated. This did not seem like any probable escape route to them. "Come on!"

"I don't believe it—we're in the cellars!" Kili kept his voice low, though his outrage was palpable.

"You're supposed to be leading us out, not further in!"

"I know what I'm doing!"

But when one of the Elves snorted in their slumber, it was Talia's turn to shush them all. The dwarves had never been quieter than when the guard lifted his head up ever so slightly, his back to them. Luckily, he decided his headache was too strong for him to wake up just yet, and so he slumped back in his seat, undisturbed.

"Okay, this way. This way."

He pointed around the corner, where some empty barrels lay on their sides, piled high. Before the dwarves could protest, the sound of an alarm alerted all and made them look to the cellar entrance. The Elves had noticed their absence.

"Everyone, climb into the barrels!" Bilbo instructed. "Quickly!"

"Are you mad? They'll find us!"

"They'll find us if we don't, Dwalin!" Talia retorted, shooting him a deathly look.

"No, no, they won't, I promise you! Please, please, you must trust me!"

The dwarves ceased their mumbling just as he turned to Thorin in frustration. But Talia was right; it was the only chance they had.

"Do as he says!"

And so they clambered into the empty barrels, situating themselves and grunting all the while. When everyone but the hobbit was secured in their wine cozies, Bofur stuck his head out, followed by the rest of the dwarves.

"What do we do now?"

"Hold your breath."

"Hold my breath? What do you mean?"

Then, Bofur got his answer as the hobbit pulled the lever next to the barrels, opening the floorboards below and dropping the dwarves into the river. Their screams were muffled by the sound of the floorboard closing, much to the hobbit's relief. But now Bilbo stood there, alone, as he looked around the empty room. How had he forgotten to include himself in the escape plan?

Before he could ponder it more, an Elvish voice echoed through the air. "Where is the keeper of the keys?"

Bilbo turned away from the sound, frantically trying to get the floorboard open by stomping as noiselessly as he could. The scuff of Elvish footsteps caused him to jump back on the platform. But just before he was caught, the floorboards opened and sent Bilbo flying into the river.

Then, the hobbit found himself gasping for air, struggling to stay above the surface of the water. The dwarves all surrounded him, grinning at his accomplishment.

"Well done, Master Baggins." Thorin smiled, enjoying their slight victory.

Talia laughed when the hobbit had the audacity to wave the King off. "You made it." She grinned, reaching out her hand and pulling him into her barrel. "It's alright. There's room for the two of us."

Once their hobbit was safe and secure, Thorin nodded to the Company, urging them forward. "Go, come on. Let's go!"

The Company began to drift down the river, pushing the water to make their own current. Talia helped Bilbo collect himself beside her as they floated down the caverns, being towed by Bombur. Then, they found there was no need to find the current as they hit daylight, approaching a humungous waterfall without any means to slow them down.

"Hold on!" Thorin yelled.

The dwarves didn't even have the chance to peer their heads over their barrels before they were thrown down the waterfall, emerging nearly half-drowned by the force. They coughed and gasped for air, but the current was with them, and so their shock did not disrupt their pace. The Company hurtled along the river, an end to their captivity in sight.

But Legolas was prepared to disappoint them. The Company groaned as they saw the Elves begin to chase after them, running as fast as they could on the banks of the river. Though they had the current whisking them forward, the Company was sure that the Elves had some tricks up their sleeves. Talia rolled her eyes as Legolas barked out an order, presumably to do something to stop them. And as the Company approached their next obstacle, Talia knew what the order was.

An Elvish horn sounded in the distance behind the dwarves as they reached a gate. A narrow, low-rising tunnel had been fashioned underneath a bridge lined with Elvish guards. Once their blades were unsheathed, a guard raced to the platform just before the dwarves, pulling down a lever. Thorin watched in horror as the opening before them was barred by thick metal, flinching back as his barrel slammed against it.

"No!" He cried, looking for another way out. Talia surveyed the scene from her barrel as well, but she saw nothing they could do as the Elves readied their arms to capture the Company. They were trapped yet again in Mirkwood, and this time, it was for good.

But before anyone could react, the sound of an arrow hitting flesh froze time altogether. An Elf fell into the water beside the dwarves, dead. As he sunk under, Talia ripped the arrow from his skull, seeing the black poison dripping from the jagged metal.

"Orcs." She growled, tossing the arrow back into the water.

The Company watched on, their eyes wide in shock at the scene around them. Now, the Elves were preoccupied with the second threat, fighting valiantly. But the Orcs were swarming over the hills in numbers too large for the few Elves to fight alone. Their desperation to get to the dwarves was so great that the Orcs were literally jumping into the water as well, killing themselves to get to them. The warriors of the Company, mainly Dwalin and the nephews, took to dealing with the Orcs right in front of them, grabbing weapons where they could find them and using their fists if necessary.

Talia was more focused on the Orc leading them all, for she had met this beast on her first day in Dol Guldur. He was the reason she had lost almost her entire life to that fortress. He was the reason she had forgotten herself.

But she had not forgotten him.

"Slay them all!" Bolg roared, his eyes meeting Talia's briefly. As soon as she comprehended the command, she turned to Thorin, who was trying to find a way to get the Company over the bridge.

"Who is that?" Bilbo asked her, seeing her eyes darting around frantically. "Do you know him?"

"Azog's son." Talia managed over the commotion. She was trying to think; she knew there was no way all of the dwarves would make it over the bridge alive. But if one could spring the gate free, then they would have a chance. "Bilbo, may I ask you for your sword?"

"Sting? Fo-for what?"

"I'm gonna get us out of here."

Bilbo passed her the blade without a second thought. She nodded to him, but then her eyes met Kili's as he tried to climb out of his barrel.

"Don't you dare!" She snapped, climbing and balancing on her barrel's edge. Before he could protest, she hopped off and soared through the air, decapitating an Orc as she rolled onto the stone walkway. Some of the Company screamed after her, but most were too preoccupied with fighting off their own problems. She ignored them, wielding Sting as she cut her way to the top of the bridge.

"Uncle! She's opening the gate!" Kili exclaimed, slamming one Orc into stone and watching the black blood run into the river.

Thorin's head snapped up at this. He was stuck between the other barrels and the closed gate, useless. All he could do was wait for Talia to free them, and he hated that he couldn't get to her or at least keep an eye on her. Muttering curses to himself, he let out another roar, throwing himself against the gates.

Meanwhile, Talia had almost made it to the lever. She had killed Orc after Orc without a scratch on her, holding Sting as if it were weightless. Much to the Elves' surprise, her motions were as graceful as their kind. Still, the way she attacked the Orcs in jagged strikes had the fierceness of dwarves. Talia Rue was truly a warrior, and a unique one at that; no other creature in Middle Earth had the fluidity of an Elf, yet the lethality of a Dwarf.

She continued up the steps, kicking an Orc into the water below, but one opponent she could not see was the bastard that she wanted to kill most. Bolg licked his lips, readying his own bow and preparing his strike. But Fili saw this, and he looked between them in alarm, recognizing the attack.

"Auntie!"

If it hadn't been for Fili's call, the arrow would've hit her directly in the chest. She flinched back, ducking her head and feeling the arrow graze her skin. When she returned to her full height, she touched her cheekbone. Her fingers came back red.

Talia looked to Bolg, seeing his angry expression at his failure. Grinning back, Talia pulled the lever, releasing the Company and sending their barrels flowing down the river.

But Talia was still in danger, for an Orc archer shot his arrow hidden from her view. Then, just as the arrow flew towards her face, an Elvish attack shot it right down.

Tauriel jumped into the fray beside Talia, fighting next to her on the stone bridge. The Company was being dragged away by the current, and fast, but Talia could not get to them. The Orcs just kept coming from all sides. Luckily, Tauriel had her back as she fought off the enemies to the left, while Talia watched hers by focusing her attacks to the right.

"Kill her! Kill the She-Elf!"

But Legolas and the Elves joined the fight, pursuing the Orcs past the bridge that hunted the dwarves maliciously. Talia nearly had half the mind to laugh; never in a million years had she imagined herself fighting alongside an Elf.

The Company was less amused, however, than she, for they were getting further and further from her by the minute. Bolg barked out other orders to his pack, urging them onwards and after the dwarves. They all knew they didn't have the time to worry about her. They would just have to trust that their Queen would come.

Meanwhile, Talia leaned back on the bridge as an Orc swung at her. "Do you love him?"

"What?"

"Do you love him?! I bet ten gold pieces on it!"

Tauriel managed a smile, shaking her head as she fired an arrow straight through an Orc's eye. "You speak to me of a wager as we are in battle, fighting for our lives?!" Though Tauriel hated to admit it, the Queen Under the Mountain was growing on her.

"Yes! Did I not say how much money I bet on you two?!"

"You thought we would?!"

"Of course!" Talia yelled back, stabbing Sting into the Orc before her. "My nephew has always known how to pick them!"

Tauriel laughed in response. She whirled around and flipped over her enemy, kicking him in the back and releasing him as he fell off the stone. Then, she fired three arrows at Talia's hunters, killing them all instantly.

Talia turned around to her in shock. The She-Elf stared back, making no attempt to apprehend or capture her. She was giving Talia a chance, one that no other Elf would.

"Go. I believe in the good within Middle Earth." Tauriel began, her blazing red hair flowing down her green uniform. "Letting it rot in our dungeons will not do the world any favors."

"Thank you," Was all Talia could manage before she raced off, running at breakneck speed to the Company. She knew that the She-Elf would watch her back, for her guards had bigger problems aside from her well-being.

She leapt off the bridge, her feet pounding the ground as she ran. Legolas and Tauriel followed her close behind, eliminating threats on the banks and in the river itself. Soon, the Company was in sight, still swept in the current and hurtling down the river.

Even in such a helpless state, the Company was still fighting valiantly. As they had done at the gate, they had taken to passing Orcish weapons amongst their ranks, using them to pin the Orcs to trees or to trap them in the water. When they approached a fallen tree that formed a bridge over their heads, Thorin and Dwalin took to chopping it down, sending the Orcs on it reeling into the river. The Orcs still leapt after them, but each time their attempts were thwarted.

It was only when Talia tossed Fili a blade that they noticed her return. "Auntie!"

The Company looked up in surprise, seeing Talia run along the banks adjacent to Bombur. She threw another spear at an Orc that was about to kill Thorin with all her might, roaring as it sent the Orc into the current.

But she had been blind to the other dwarf who needed assistance. Bombur was fighting off his own Orc as it leapt onto his barrel. It only got to bury its blade partway into the wood as Bombur gutted the creature. But their fight was far from over when they approached another tree that leaned into the river. Talia raced over to help, leaping over them to pin the Orc, but gravity had done the work for her. The Orc and it's blade, still stuck in Bombur's barrel, had gotten caught on the tree, sending Bombur flying out of the water and over the wood. With his barrel suspended in mid-air, Talia found herself plummeting face-first towards him. But before she nearly broke every bone in her body, Bombur reached his hand out and threw her at the top of the barrel, allowing her to balance on it as it rolled on the ground below them.

Both dwarves yelled in awe and fear as the barrel shot forward, rolling over Orc after Orc and killing them immediately. While Bombur was still confined within the wood, Talia literally found herself running on the spinning object so that she was not thrown from it. The Company all exchanged glances of complete shock as they watched the barrel crush dozens of Orcs on land, and became even more confused when they saw their Queen balancing on it all the while.

Kili grinned at them, whipping his axe at another Orc. "This is awesome!"

Fili couldn't help but feel differently than his brother, wondering how his Aunt was physically able to pull off such a feat. "What is happening?"

Thorin and Dwalin exchanged a glance, the latter of the two laughing boisterously.

"Where the hell did she learn to do that?"

"How should I know?" Dwalin fired back, tilting his head up as Talia, Bombur, and the barrel soared above them. "You married her!"

The woman in question cried out alongside the chef as their barrel hit the ground, sending her flying into the stone behind it. She was sure that Bombur had been knocked unconscious upon impact, for there was no movement from the remnants of the barrel. Then Bombur stood, punching his armed fists through the wood and spinning to decapitate the Orcs. Talia aided him and finished half of them off, courtesy of Sting. But once Bombur's wooden armor was rent, he shed the splintered pieces and rushed to the river, making a pass at an empty barrel as he tossed his weapons to Dwalin and Nori.

Talia, on the other hand, wasn't as successful. As she raced along the bank, she tossed Sting back to Bilbo. She was trying to find an opening, but she saw that there were no empty barrels left. She only had one option, and it wasn't going to be a pretty one.

She dove into the water just in front of Thorin, letting the barrel ram into her as she became fully submerged. Still, she took her chance, grabbing onto the rope and accepting Thorin's hand. He helped her into his barrel as she clambered inside, hacking half of the river up with her.

Thorin looked at her incredulously, brushing the hair out of her face with one hand while gripping the barrel with the other. "Are you serious?"

"What?"

"What were you doing?! You nearly died!"

"But I didn't." Talia managed, getting the last bit of water out of her throat as she coughed. Looking up at him, she tossed her soaking wet hair over her shoulder with a smile.

Thorin rolled his cerulean blue eyes, returning his gaze to her. She closed her eyes momentarily as his thumb brushed over her cheekbone, grazing the incision from Bolg's arrow. "You're ridiculous." He whispered.

"One day, I'm sure my theatrics will get me killed." Talia grinned, leaning into his touch. "But that day won't come for a long time."

Thorin couldn't help but smile back, accepting a weapon from Dwalin as they both returned to the fight.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, Legolas and Tauriel were fighting off other attackers. Tauriel was firing arrows left and right, deflecting blows aimed at the prince and their prior captives as she attacked their hunters. But the prince had decided he needed a better vantage point, one that could only be provided by the river.

Legolas furrowed his brow in concentration as he planted his feet on the heads of two different dwarves, causing them to roar in anger. He balanced on their bald spots as he made shot after shot, much to the dwarves' chagrin. Eventually, he hopped off them, but only to use the other members of the Company as stepping stones to reach the other side of the river. Though he didn't want the dwarves' humiliation to end, his limited supply of arrows told him that his time had run out.

Once the prince was on land, he launched himself right back into combat, using one Orc as a sled to skate down the stone steps. Legolas switched to his twin blades, embedding both into the flesh of the Orc before him. What the prince did not see was his other attacker raise an axe to his back, preparing to kill him right where he stood.

But Thorin did.

The King hurled his axe at the Orc, nearly slicing it in half before it slumped to the ground, unable to carry out the final blow. Legolas finally finished with the first Orc, watching as the dwarves traversed down the river in the current. They had bested him for now, but eventually, Legolas would return those dwarves to their rightful cells.

About fifteen minutes later, the dwarves had reached the end of the river, watching the water feed into a lake a little ways ahead. It seemed as though they had escaped both the Elves and the Orcs, for they had traveled nearly a league in such a short amount of time.

"Anything behind us?" Thorin called, looking to Balin.

"Not that I can see."

"I think we've outrun the Orcs."

"Not for long." Talia shot a look at Bofur, making room for her husband to paddle them forward. "We've lost the current."

"Make for the shore!" Thorin pushed his branch through the water, leading them to the river bank. "Come on, let's go!"

It didn't take them long to do so and bid their barrels good riddance, for they had enough experience with them to last a lifetime. Talia clambered out of the barrel after Thorin, breathing heavily as she reached for his shoulder.

"They need rest; we all do."

"There's an Orc pack at our tail. We keep moving."

"To where?" Balin asked, siding with Talia until they could reach a decision.

"To the mountain." Bilbo answered simply. "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." Dwalin interjected, interrupting his brother and the hobbit. "We've no weapons to defend ourselves."

But as the leaders discussed the best possible course of action, Ori was the first to see the bowman. As he fired his first shot, Dwalin blocked the attack with a branch. Kili went to throw a stone at him, raising it over his head as quick as lightning. But the bowman was faster, and he shot it right out of the prince's hand, causing him to look at his empty palm in alarm. He notched a third arrow, tilting his head at the Company menacingly.

"Do it again, and you're dead."