Saving the Sons of Durin

Thand Nelequë

~ Part Thirteen ~

Ellía could not recall a time in her life where she had felt this exhausted. She had been maneuvering around jagged terrain, killing an occasional orc, scouting ahead, and all while at a dead run to keep up with the quick current that carried the dwarves.

She was beyond relieved when she noticed the waters were calming and she could not see any orcs. "Is anything behind us?" Thorin asked her. "Not that I can see!" She called back, trying not to sound breathless. "I think we've outrun the orcs." Bofur exclaimed happily.

"Not for long. You've lost the current." Ellía told them as she jumped over his head, landed gracefully on the edge of Bifur's barrel and pushed off to land on the shore. "Everybody make for Ellía!" Thorin ordered and all the dwarves began to paddle towards her.

She had to help drag Bombur out of his barrel and poor Bilbo to the shore. She heard someone groan painfully and looked to see Bofur and Fili standing over Kili who was sitting on the ground holding a cloth to his wound. "On your feet." Thorin called. "Kili's wounded. His leg needs binding." Fili retorted as he tried to comfort his brother.

"There's an orc pack on our trail. We keep moving." Thorin told him firmly. "To where?" Balin quipped. "To the mountain. We're so close." Bilbo said hopefully. "A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it." Balin told him. "So then we go around." Bilbo offered.

"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We've only Ellia's weapons to defend ourselves and I don't think that'll be enough." Dwalin said. Thorin sighed and looked at his nephews. "Bind his leg, quickly. You have two minutes." He said lowly. Ellía watched as Fili gently cleaned his brothers wound and bound it.

She had not realized how distracted she had become watching the golden-haired dwarf until she heard the faint sound of a bow string tightening. She whipped her head to the left to see a man pointing a longbow and notched arrow at Ori. Dwalin had seen him too and jumped in front of the young dwarf, armed with only an old tree branch.

The man shot an arrow an it lodged into the branch. Kili stood with a rock in his hand to throw but the man was too quick. He let loose an arrow the knocked the rock from his hand and quickly notched another arrow as he warned. "Do it again, and you're dead."

Ellía had used the distraction to slip around the bank and quietly sneak behind the man. Fili tried to hide the small smile on his face as he watched d the she-elf move silently. "I would not do that if I were you." she spoke up, making her presence known.

The man glanced over his shoulder to see Ellí behind him, also having an arrow notched and drawn, but not pointing at him. "Excuse me, but you're from Lake-Town, if I'm not mistaken." Balin said , drawing his attention back to the dwarves. She saw the man draw his arrow back a bit more as Balin came closer, and she readied herself just incase.

"That barge over there. It wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?" Balin asked, unfazed by the arrow pointed at him. Ellía let out a quiet breath of relief when the man lowered his bow and begrudgingly said yes.

~~~~~

As she stood beside Bard, the Lake-Town man, and watched dwarves crouch in the barrels and get covered by hundreds of dead fish, she began thanking the Valar for sparing her that experience. Bard had said that this was the only way they were going to be able to sneak into Lake-Town and past the Master. Thankfully, Bard had said it was not uncommon for an elf to accompany the wine barrels every once in a while, so she could stay in the open.