It Was Her

Chapter 6

"Anything behind us?" Thorin asked.

The river had well and truly calmed with barely a current left to pull them further down stream.

"Not that I can see." Balin replied looking behind him.

"I think we've outrun the orcs." Bofur shouted.

"Not for long; we've lost the current." Thorin disagreed, paddling along with his hands.

"Bombur is half drown." Dwalin shouted from the back of the company.

In truth the majority of the company were half drowned. Tili slowly paddle along, the arrow head still embedded in her leg and throbbing.

"Make for the shore! Come on, let's go!" Thorin ordered much to relief of the company.

"Come on!"

Tili crawled out of her barrel and stumbled onto a rock as she clutched her thigh just above the wound. Blood had soaked into her clothes and she could feel it dripping down her leg. Bofur noticed Tili and looked at her with concern etched across his face.

"I'm fine, it's nothing." Tili said noticing Bofur's expression.

By now her brothers had joined her side and were looking at her with the same expression.

"On your feet." Thorin spoke as he walked past not taking much notice of his niece's wound.

"Tili's wounded. Her leg needs binding." Fili argued from his kneeling position next to her leg.

"There's an orc pack on our tail; we keep moving." 

"To where?" Balin asked.

"To the mountain; we're so close." Bilbo announced.

"A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it." Balin pointed out.

"So then we go around." The hobbit stated as though it was obvious.

"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin observed.

"Bind her leg, quickly. You have two minutes."

As Fili set to work on binding Tili's leg, many of the dwarves sat down taking the chance to rest. Ori took the opportunity to empty the water from his boots, unaware of the silhouetted figure approaching him from behind armed with a bow. The dwarves finally took notice of the figure and jumped up ready to defend themselves, what with they did not know. Dwalin, who picked up a large branch jumped between the man and Ori holding it threateningly. The man unphased, shot an arrow at the branch before quickly loading another. Kili raised a rock in his hand, stepping in front of Tili protectively. However the rock was quickly shot from his hand by the shadowed figure. 

"Do it again, and you're dead." The figure spoke, his voice low and menacing.

The figure finally stepped into the light and revealed himself as a man. He had dark hair that was lightly graying from years of hard work, his clothes were tired and worn and his appearance was rather rugged. Balin was the first of the company to speak as he stepped forward with his hands raised in surrender. 

"Excuse me, but, uh, you're from Laketown, if I'm not mistaken? That barge over there, it wouldn't be available for hire, by any chance?"

Tili's mind drifted away as Balin bartered with Bard for passage into Laketown. Her mind wandered to Legolas, something she'd been doing since she met him. She wasn't quite sure what the attraction was to the blonde haired elf, but she knew it was strong. But part of her also knew she shouldn't feel this attraction, the feud between elves and dwarves would never allow it, and Mahal forbid should Thorin find out he would be enraged. Part of her prayed that the feelings were only a phase and would pass quickly, but another part of her, the more reckless and curious wanted to experience whatever this was. Never before had she actually felt alive for want of a better word, of course she'd been living, but in all her life she'd never felt as though she was truly alive.