Into the Fire: Book 2

10

TW: Mentioned of blood (Kili's wound)

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"Anything behind us?" Thorin called back, not turning around.

"Not that I can see," Balin responded, trying to hide the excitement in his voice.

"I think we've outrun the orcs!" Bofur added, his voice holding the same excitement as Balin's.

"Not for long. We've lost the current," Thorin's voice did not carry the excitement heard in his peers.

"We've almost half drowned!" Dwalin shouted, glancing over at Bombur who was doing his best to avoid movement as to not fall in.

"Make for the shore!" Thorin instructed.

"Aye."

We copied Thorin's movements from before, using our arms to pull us through the water and towards the shoreline. As the water got shallower, Bilbo and I were able to crawl out of the barrel. We pulled it up on shore and stood farther back, watching the others do the same. As much as I wanted to, my help would be no good here. I would not be strong enough and I was sure I would end up getting in the way. It would be better to stay off to the side. I did however, take notice of the way Kili fell to his knees when he stepped out of his barrel. His brother was close behind him and helped him into a sitting position. Bofur took a spot beside me as we watched the young dwarf princeling.

"I'm fine. It's nothing," Kili said with frustration, noticing the two of us staring.

I gave him a sympathetic smile which he returned with a roll of his eyes. Thorin walked over and placed his hands on my waist, giving my head a quick kiss before looking down at his nephew.

"On your feet," He said to the young dwarf.

"Kili's wounded, his leg needs binding," The blonde brother responded, looking up at his uncle with pleading eyes.

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

"To where?" Balin asked, stepping closer to where the group of us were standing.

"To the mountain. We're so close," Bilbo said, glancing around for someone to back him up.

"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. We've no weapons to defend ourselves," Dwalin chimed in, not moving from the stump he sat on.

"Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes," Thorin told his nephew, letting go of my waist and moving to check in on the other members of the group.

I stayed looking over the young dwarf. His leg looked bad, worse than any wound I had seen before. Blood was oozing out of his leg and he was wincing as he dabbed at it with a cloth. He looked up at me and tried to tell me again that it wasn't a big deal.

"Y/n, honestly. I will be fine once I bind it."

"Sure you will. You expect me to believe that arrow was just a regular arrow? You need a doctor Kili."

Before he could send another eye roll my way, he was interrupted by the sound of cracking wood. We whipped our heads around and saw Dwalin stood holding a tree branch that had been impaled by an arrow. I looked further up and noticed a tall man stood on a boulder that over looked the group. He had his bow at the ready and when Kili grabbed a rock to try and throw at him, he pulled back the bow and shot the rock clean out of Kili's hand. Kili turned to look at his now empty hand in surprise, then back up at the man. We all reached for something to throw when the man pointed the bow at us.