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"Anything behind us?" Thorin asked.
"Not that I can see." Balin shouted in return from the back of the barrel group.
"I think we've outrun the orcs." Bofur said.
"Not for long. We've lost the current." Alenia shouted, her voice quavering.
"Bofur is half drowned." Dwalin said.
"Make for the shore! Come on, let's go!" Thorin said.
The Company paddled to the riverbank, and clambered out tiredly onto the rocky plain, with Alenia attempting to scooch out backwards, before Fili and Kili just pulled her out of her barrel by her armpits.
"Thanks," she panted, dark blood oozing from her thigh.
"You're bleeding." Fili observed dryly. "Badly."
"Yeah, but, how's my hair?" Alenia smirked, wiggling her eyebrows up at the brothers, eliciting a soft laugh from them both.
"You've got this 'I just escaped from prison' look going. It's kinda working for you." Kili said, causing Alenia to laugh, which turned into a groan, as she tried to stand up. The half-elf took a few steps, before she crumpled to the ground again, panting.
"I'm fine," she grunted, waving Kili and Fili's help away. "It's nothing."
"That's not nothing." Kili argued, as Fili yelled out to Thorin, "Alenia's wounded. Her leg needs binding."
"There's an orc pack on our tail; we keep moving." Thorin said.
"To where?" Balin asked.
"To the mountain; we're so close." Bilbo said.
"A lake lies between us and that mountain. We have no way to cross it." Balin corrected.
"So then we go around." Bilbo said.
"The orcs will run us down, as sure as daylight. We have no weapons to defend ourselves." Dwalin grunted.
"Uncle." Kili said, gesturing to where Alenia was struggling with her wound, not paying attention to anything going on around her due to the pain.
"Bind her leg, quickly. You have two minutes." Thorin sighed.
Oin hustled over to the half-elf, while Kili and Fili moved to watch the pair. The healer reached in quickly, and pulled out the arrowhead, as Alenia bit down hard on the back of her hand to keep from screaming.
As he was bandaging the entry point and tying it tightly, a shout came from Dwalin, as a tall man snuck up behind Ori, pointing a loaded longbow at the him. Dwalin jumped in front of the youngest dwarf, brandishing a branch at the archer.
The archer didn't blink at the branch, and simply shot his arrow through the wood, before reloading his bow. Kili stepped in front of Alenia with a rock raised to hurl at the man, which the archer shot out of the dwarf's hand.
"Do it again, and you're dead." He warned, before nocking another arrow to aim at the group.
Balin approached the man slowly, 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?" He gestured to the large boat behind the man.
The man lowered his bow, before turning back to step onto his barge. "What makes you think I will help you?"
"Those boots have seen better days." Balin observed carefully.
The bargeman began loading the Company's empty barrels onto the deck of his boat.
"As has that coat. No doubt you have some hungry mouths to feed. How many bairns?" Balin asked.
The man paused, and looked up at the dwarf. "A boy and two girls."
"And your wife, I'd imagine she's a beauty." Balin continued.
"Aye. She was." The man murmured sadly.
Alenia winced.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-" Balin began to apologize, before he was interrupted by Dwalin, who muttered loudly to Thorin, "Oh, come on, come on, enough with the niceties."
"What's your hurry?" The bargeman asked.
"What's it to you?" Dwalin countered, growling.
"I would like to know who you are and what you are doing in these lands." The man said, his eyes narrowing.
"We are simple merchants from the Blue Mountains journeying to see our kin in the Iron Hills." Balin lied easily.
"Simple merchants, you say?" The man said, one eyebrow raised.
"We'll need food, supplies, weapons. Can you help us?" Thorin asked, stepping forward slightly.
The man ran a hand over the nicks and gouges of a nearby barrel. "I know where these barrels came from."
"What of it?" Thorin asked.
"I don't know what business you had with the elves, but I don't think it ended well. No one enters Laketown but by leave of the Master. All his wealth comes from trade with the Woodland Realm. He will see you in irons before risking the wrath of King Thranduil." The man said, boarding his barge, and preparing to set sail.
"I'll wager there are ways to enter that town unseen." Balin said, beginning to grow desperate.
"Aye. But for that, you will need a smuggler." The man said, smirking slightly.
"For which we will pay double." Balin rushed out, causing the bargeman to pause, before nodding once, and gesturing for the Company to come aboard.
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a/n:
so sorry this is a day late. i was busy yesterday and forgot about posting until just now. i feel horrible :((
but, it's up now, so i hope that makes up for it. ik it's a bit short, but that's all i've really had time for recently
