Hope and Memory[Thorin Oakenshield Love Story]

[Chapter Twenty Nine]

The dwarves managed to tip their barrels right side up, after they splashed in the water. Freya managed to spit out the water she nearly choked on from being submerged under the water. She could barely move as their bodies were pressed together, making them both feel slightly uncomfortable. But both knew that was the least of their worries. They had bigger problems just a head of them. Freya noticed her cousin was no where to be seen.

" Bilbo!" Freya yelled, and she glanced up at the ceiling that they had fallen from. The dwarves began to murmur amongst themselves.

" We should go! If we stay here, the elves will capture us and bring us right back. They must know we've escaped!" Dwalin pressed. The others were murmuring amongst each other in agreement. Freya shook her head at Dwalin.

" No. We can't leave without my cousin. We'd all be still in our cells if it wasn't for him coming back for us." Freya snapped.

" We don't have time, to wait upon the hobbit. If we don't leave now, we will never make it to the mountain." Dwalin growled at her. Freya turned to look at Thorin for help. Their lips were just inches from each other and the prince could feel the woman's breath on his face. Thorin looked at the others.

" We aren't leaving anywhere, until the hobbit is with us." Thorin ordered. And Freya felt relieved and mouthed a "thank you" to him. The others grumbled but did as their leader said. Not long and floor lowered and down came a startled Bilbo as he went plopped into the water.

" Bilbo!" Nori yelled as the hobbit came above the water and Nori grabbed him.

" Well done Master Baggins." Thorin applauded. Bilbo groans and waves his hand to get going.

" Go! Come on, let's go!" Thorin yelled. He released his hands from the rocks along the wall and allowing the current to take their barrels down the river. As the came around the corner light was seen up a head and coming to a waterfall. " Hold on!" Thorin shouted. Freya shrieked when Thorin and her went down the waterfall and were plunged under the water, through the rapids with the others closely behind them. The barrels floated swiftly down the raging river.

As the dwarves round a corner, a horn is heard. They look behind them to see a the prince and another elf, high on a ledge above the waterfall. The turned back around, the current rocking their barrels, making them hit against the rock wall that surrounded the river. They came around a corner to see a guard post built high above the river.

The elves hadn't noticed the barrels until the elvish horn was blown alerting them to their prisoners trying to escape. One of the guards makes hast over to a lever and pulls it, causing a heavy metal gate to close, blocking the dwarves in the barrels to go any further. " No!" Thorin growled, trying to open the gate, but it wouldn't budge.

The dwarves, in the barrels knocked into each other, unable to go any further. The elven guards drew their weapons when an all too familiar sound approaching the wall. " What out! There's orcs!" Bofur shouted as dozens of orcs started swarming the guard post, killing the elves. The orcs growled, falling into the water and launching themselves at the dwarves in the barrels. More came from a different part of the forest.

A giant orc yelled an order to his pack in his language. Thorin turned around to see the commotion going on above the bridge. The dwarves had no weapons to defend themselves. " Get under the bridge!" Thorin yelled. An orc had launched itself into the water and climbed onto Nori's barrel about to plunge it's weapon into him, when Bilbo reached up and stabbed the creature in the neck with his sword 'Sting'. Dwalin knocked out an orc with his elbow.

The youngest heir was the only one to noticed the leaver for the gate was unattended. He lifted himself out of his barrel and climbed onto the edge of Dwalin and jumped onto the guard post. An orc swing his blade at Kili, who ducked just in time and then slammed his fist into the orcs face.

Dwalin tossed Kili an orc weapon to fight off the orcs that were coming at him. He sliced an orc and kicked it in the chest, knocking it into the water with the others. He made his way over to the leaver, as more orcs came, trying to stop him from freeing the others behind the gate. Kili was fighting an orc as another approached him from behind. But Fili through his weapon, killing the creature as Kili sliced off the head of the orc. He ran over to the leaver about to pull when an arrow came through the air, into his leg, causing him stop.

The young dwarf let out a gasp at the sudden pain he felt, leaning a hand on the leaver." Kili!" Fili cried out for his brother. Kili groaned, trying to pull the leaver but he fell on his back, clutching the side of his leg.

" Kili." Thorin whispered. Suddenly the elves from earlier, including the elf prince and the she-elf that had captured the company in the forest, had made their way to the guard post and began fighting the orcs. The gate all of a sudden started opening and the current pushed the barrels down another waterfall, submerging them under the water.

The floated down stream with the pack orcs now charging after them on either side of the river. The dwarves try to steer their barrels but the river is running to wild as they are continuously plunged under the water, barely having enough time to catch their breath the next time they are pushed under the rapid currents.

As the come to a narrow part of the river, orcs on either side begin shooting arrows at them. " Freya duck!" Thorin shouted as an orc spear hurtled right at them, embedding in their barrel. Freya saw in the inside of the barrel the sharp end had gone right through the wood. Thorin yanked it out and threw it with great force at an approaching orc, and killing it.

An orc jumps from an overhanging tree branch towards Balin, but Thorin throws his sword and pins the orc to the tree; as the orc drops its weapon, Thorin catches it while him and Freya float beneath him, and he throws it back to Dwalin, who tosses it to Nori and he throws it to Fili, who kills an orc with it.

Another orc leaps from the rocks, onto Dwalin's barrel, only for Dwalin to head butt it off and steal it's axe. The dwarves see a low hanging tree branch stretched across the river in front of them, with several orcs occupying it.

" Cut the log!" Thorin shouted, as he hacked into the log with the axe he had gotten from an orc. And Dwalin managed to hack through the rest of the log to send it into the river, along with the orcs that were on it. Freya had lost track of her cousin as the currents only got stronger.

" Bombur!" Dwalin yelled, throwing his axe to the dwarf to kill the orc that climbed onto his barrel. The orcs pointy end catches onto Bombur's barrel and catapults it through the air and onto the riverbank, where the barrel rolls and tramples dozens of orcs in it's tracks. The barrel flips through the air to the other side of the river, where it tramples more orcs. Eventually, the barrel comes to a stop, and orcs surround it; however, Bombur kicks out the bottoe, then sticks his arms holding axes through the sides. He then starts spinning rapidly with the axes extended, mowing down all the orcs around him. Bombur, runs towards the river, tossing his axes to Dwalin and Nori, and then gracefully jumps into an empty barrel.

Meanwhile, the elves, Legolas and the she-elf had caught up to the dwarves and orcs, and they begin fighting the orcs. The elf prince leaps over the river and lands with a foot on the heads of Dwalin, and Dori, from this vantage point, he shoots orcs on either riverbanks. He aims carefully, and manages to skewer tow orcs through the head with one arrow.

Legolas jumped onto the riverbank, landing on an orc and sliding on it down a path, with more coming towards him. He knocked an orc over and kicked another into the river right at Freya's and Thorin's barrel, nearly knocking them both out of it. The woman shrieked when the orc hit them. Thorin glared at the elven prince as he jumped onto the dwarves head, using them to get to the other side of the river.

He knocks one over and begins fighting another one. While he is preoccupied fighting the orc, another one runs up behind him and raises it's sword to kill him; Thorin, throws his sword and kills the orc behind Legolas. The prince shoots a few more arrows killing orcs, when he and Thorin look at each other with some sort of understanding and he stops pursuing them as the dwarves and the cousins continued floating down the river with the orc pack trying to catch up to them.