"Bilbo, the keys!" Thorin shouted from in front of Agarwaen's cell. She still hadn't woken up, and he was worried.

The hobbit, who had just broken them all free, ran up to Thorin and paled at the sight of his friend lying bloody on the ground.

"What happened?" He asked as Thorin took the keys from him and shoved multiple ones in the lock before finding the right one.

"It doesn't matter right now." Thorin knelt down beside Agarwaen and picked up her limp form. "Agarwaen." He patted the side of her face with the least damage. "Oh, Mahal. It's even worse up close." He put his ear to her face to see if she was still breathing, which, to his immense relief, she was. Other dwarves gathered around her cell, worried for the elf's life. "Agarwaen." He called her name again, cautious not to be too loud. He carefully moved some bloody strands of blonde hair out of her face, and was about to just pick her up and carry her when she finally stirred.

"Thorin..." she mumbled. He smiled down at her. "You're alright, we're getting out of here just like I said. Can you stand?" She nodded painfully, and tried to get up, but the chains restricted her movement. "Here, hold on." Thorin took the keys again and she rolled over, wincing as her broken rib touched the floor. He unlocked her hands, her neck, and then her feet.

"Thank you." She forced out as Thorin helped her to her feet. She took one step and nearly fell over again due to the ground spinning and her head pounding. Thorin caught her and wrapped an arm around her waist to support her as they walked out of the cell.

"Have you found a way out, Bilbo?" He asked.

"Yes, follow me." The hobbit took the lead and they all followed him around the guards and out of the prison. Agarwaen tried on multiple occasions to walk by herself, but limping wasn't very effective when it came to running down the elven halls, and not to mention everything looked fuzzy and the floor spun beneath her feet still.

"Just stop it and lean on me." Thorin grumbled when she tried for the fourth time. She sighed and put her arm back around his head, leaning on the shoulder farthest from her. It felt a little strange, being supported by someone considerably smaller than her, but it was better than nothing. As Bilbo kept going, she began to grow confused. He was leading them further into the palace. Toward the cellars.

The only way out that wasn't guarded.

He led them down the cellar stairs, and hushed them all as they passed two drunken elves, passed out with bottles of the king's reserve on the table in front of them. Agarwaen licked her lips. It'd been so long since she tasted that wine.

"Into the barrels, all of you." The hobbit whispered.

"Bilbo, you're a genius." She smiled and limped toward the empty barrels in a stack, attempting to pull herself into one on top. She hissed in pain at the motion, and resorted to crawling into a bottom barrel. She laid with her knees to her chest, gritting her teeth when it irritated her broken rib.

"Do as he says." Thorin said at the dwarves' hesitance. They all climbed in the barrels, and Bofur poked his head out.

"What now?" He whispered.

"Hold your breath." Bilbo said as he moved toward a lever. Bofur asked what that was supposed to mean, but was cut off when the hobbit pulled said lever and the barrels began rolling. Agarwaen braced herself for the fall, ignoring the pain her body was in.

She hit the cold water with a gasp. Her tunic and trousers were soaked instantly, and without her coat, fur, and the rest of her clothes, she shivered as the water pushed them along. She looked back up at the trap door, nervous that Bilbo hadn't followed yet. Thorin halted all the barrels from the front of the group to wait for him. When he eventually did fall backwards into the water, she smiled weakly.

"Well done master Baggins." Thorin smiled before leading the group further down the little river and over a small waterfall. It hurt each time Agarwaen was jostled around, but with this grand escape plan came adrenaline, which quickly drowned out her thoughts of pain. Besides the throbbing of her head, of course. That only grew stronger.

They rode in the barrels down the stream toward the gate. Agarwaen knew it was guarded, but it took time to close the gates, and the elves did not know they were coming. At least that's what she thought.

Everyone turned around as a horn sounded, and she sighed. So much for getting through flawlessly.

She moved her hands from bracing herself in the barrel, to the waters outside and began to paddle. They had to move faster. As the gate came into sight, the elves moved into action, running for the lever that controlled the gate, which soon swung closed. Thorin yelled, aggravated by this setback, and Agarwaen watched as the guards drew their swords. What she was not expecting, however, was an orcish arrow to strike one of the elves and send him into the water below.

The gate was soon overrun by orcs, which the few elves on site struggled to combat alone. The orcs then came for the dwarves, jumping into the water on top of them. She dodged one, and slammed in its face with her elbow, taking its war axe as it hissed at her. She embedded the axe into its head, quickly ripping it back out and swinging at another orc. The barrel threw off her balance considerably. But she still managed to slash at its middle.

She vaguely saw Kili climb out of his barrel and head for the lever. Another orc ripped her attention away, and she bashed this one's face in with the pommel of the axe. She swung with elven speed at any orc within range, and only looked up when Fili yelled his brother's name.

Kili had been shot in the leg, which may have immobilized him, but at least he was still alive. Orcs could never aim, and for that she was thankful. Just as she was about to climb out of her own barrel to help the prince, Tauriel appeared atop the gate and took care of most of the orcs there. Finally, more elves had come, and now was their chance. Kili forced himself up to grab the lever, and the gate slowly swung open.

Knowing the elves were more than capable of getting rid of the orc problem, she pushed everyone along, taking advantage of this fight as a distraction. Kili slid down into an empty barrel in front of her, and they were off again, finally through the gate.

They continued down the rapids, avoiding the orcish archers as best they could. Arrows flew into the barrels, the points making the barrels an extremely painful container to be knocked about in. Two constantly poked Agarwaen's back, and another was ripping up the right side of her tunic. Any orc she floated close enough to ended up with an axe to the leg, and one lost a hand. The whole scene seemed to fly by, as they were swept away by the fast current.

She nearly lost the axe when she helped bring down a fallen tree that spanned across the river, but her grip did not fail her. Thorin hit the log first, Dwalin second, and then she was the one to make it finally fall.

Things just happened in rapid progression after that. Bombur flew over her still in his barrel, orcs were cut down one after another, and Legolas jumped on top of poor Dori and Dwalin's heads as he shot orcs on both riverbanks. The elf prince jumped back to shore, killed a few more, used one as a sled to slide down a set of stairs, and then jumped back onto the river, using dwarves heads as a path to the other side. As he neared her, she ducked down and put her hands up, creating a foothold that wasn't her head. She wasn't sure how much more her head could take. After he'd used her foothold, he jumped back on land and continued the massacre. His footwork had greatly improved since last she'd seen him, and she was rather impressed.

Now that the majority of the orcs had been slaughtered, Legolas stopped and glared at the company as they continued down the river. Orcs followed, but as the terrain grew higher and rockier around the river, they were unable to run alongside it, and lost the company.

Now that the threat had subsided, Agarwaen gently tugged the cursed arrows out of the barrel, starting with the one that had torn her tunic nearly in two straight down the middle underneath her right arm. After that, she pulled out the ones that had been puncturing her back.

The company stayed in the barrels for as long as they had the current, which was for about two hours, before they finally slowed and clawed their way to shore.

"Are you alright?" Thorin asked, helping Agarwaen out of her barrel. Upon seeing how her soaked clothes hugged her freezing form, and that her shirt was ripped down the side, he quickly averted his eyes.

"I'm okay." She took his hand and stood up straight, before limping away from him to sit on a boulder by the shore. She lifted her arm to look at the hole in annoyance, and tried to peel the wet fabric from her skin, but it only stuck to her again so she just hugged her arms around her top and shivered.

"On your feet." Thorin told everyone after a few moments. Agarwaen nodded, and stood again.

"Kili's wounded." Fili spoke up. "He needs binding."

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

"To where?" Balin asked.

"To the mountain. We're so close." Bilbo waddled over, uncomfortable in his wet clothes.

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

"So then we go around."

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

"Bind his leg quickly. You have two minutes." Thorin then turned to Agarwaen. "What do you think we should do?" She stepped forward, still shivering and wishing she had the pleasure of tough dwarf hide in situations like this.

"W-we have no other ch-choice but to go around." She shivered. "L-Laketown will not let us in. There is n-no inn or p-place for visitors. But we won't have c-cover or weapons until we reach the m-mountain. I am at a loss f-for what to do, I am sorry."

"We'll think of something." He motioned for her to come talk with him, Dwalin, and Balin about what to do. She took a few steps forward, but stopped when she heard the footsteps of dry boots. The dwarves followed her gaze to see a man with a notched arrow pointed at Ori. She ran in front of the younger dwarf to shield him, and Dwalin stepped in front of her, brandishing nothing but a stick. The man shot the stick with perfect aim, and then turned to shoot a stone Kili was about to throw, out of the dwarf's hand.

"Do it again, and you're dead."