An Experiment Gone Wrong

Chapter 15 - The Bowman

"Kili, are you alright!?" Mara asked trying to avoid the best she could the arrows being shot at her barrel. She had to trust that everyone else was doing the same. She followed Kili's eyes who was staring at the orange-headed elf looking terrified for her safety. 

"She saved me Mara," he said quickly, "she saved me and she's beautiful." He smiled for a brief moment forgetting that he was white water rafting in a barrel down a river while being hunted by orcs and elves. 

Mara didn't respond because after he spoke of the she-elf, the water started to get rough. Everywhere Mara could see there was a white wall of water and every so often she would go into that wall hoping that her time under the water was short. Hanging onto the barrel and trying her best to breath and keep it upright when above the water she barely registered the fighting around her and the arrows flying into her barrel. 

Lillith on the other hand was running beside the elves and destroying Orcs as she went with her destruction magic, searing the orc's flesh with fireballs and encasing other in a wall of ice. She was easily able to keep up with the other wood-elves as they ran along tree branches and small patches of land to keep up with the dwarves. 

Lillith looked at Tauriel and noticed how she kept a seemingly close eye on the barrel that held Mara and the black haired dwarf she talked to almost all of last night. "He will be ok," she said to her before running past and slicing open an orcs chest that was about to try and cut Legolas. 

The orcs were starting to swarm on both sides of the river. They continuously tried to get whatever Dwarf they could and they would have succeeded a couple of times if Thorin hadn't taken a falling spear looking weapon and sliced open an orc. Further on down the river one of the foul creatures was about to hurt Balin with his axe, but Thorin grunted and threw the spear impaling the orc with the tip of it onto the tree trunk. 

Mara watched in awe at the brute strength of this man but only had a split second to be in awe when a sword came flying at her. Kili caught it and tossed it to his brother who used it to cut down an orc. 

There was a lot of back and forth between orcs, dwarfs, and elves as everyone was fighting to stay alive and kill each other. Mara was glad when it ended. As their barrels followed the river Mara could barely see Lillith save Legolas from a stray arrow and slay the last Orc. She was proud at how much Lillith had grown in combat skills and she was sad to be leaving her so soon but her Company was not welcome where they were and that posed a problem. Mara was sure that she would see her again even if she had to sneak in.

Far away from the onslaught of orcs and elves the river slowed to a crawl letting the the Company swim to the shore and exit the barrels. Dwalin and Thorin helped everyone out of their barrels and onto the dry land. Bilbo sat on the soft grass thankful to be alive and away from all of that. He watched as Mara climbed onto land with Kili in tow with the help of Dwalin. 

She laid Kili down and moved her hair out of her face. "Kili, this is going to hurt," she said before gripping the arrow head and ripping it out of his leg causing him to scream loudly. Mara winced and looked around for something, anything to stop the bleeding. She looked up to Thorin and held out the hand she was not using to try and slow the bleeding. "Quick, give me something to tie around his leg." 

Fili ripped off part of his shirt and motioned for Mara to move to which Mara obliged. She moved to the river and started to clean the bright red blood off of her small hand, but as she sat there with Nori, she didn't notice a man walking towards them with his bow drawn. She turned to look at the man, but before he could shoot his bow Dwalin stepped in between them with a makeshift weapon up ready to attack this strange man. 

The man had long black hair and looked fairly young. From the preciseness of his arrows she assumed he was a regular archer. "Do it again and you're dead," he warned menacingly turning to the rest of the Company.