After a few hours I hear Bofur say, "I'll wager the sun's on the rise. It must be nearly dawn."

"We're never going to reach the mountain, are we?" Ori says disappointment filling his voice.

"Not stuck in here, you're not!" I hear a familiar voice and jumping up run to the cell door where Bilbo suddenly appears, holding up the ring of keys. Thorin and the other dwarves jump up in surprise as Balin exclaims, "Bilbo!"

As the dwarves cry out in surprise, Bilbo shushes them. "Shhh! There are guards nearby!" Bilbo unlocks Thorin's cell and lets him out. He then proceeds to let all the dwarves and myself out of our various cells, and we chuckle gleefully at our good fortune. Some of the dwarves start walking in a certain direction. I hear a Dwarf say, "The stairs. You first. Ori!" before Bilbo suddenly says, "Not that way, down here. Follow me."

Bilbo proceeds to lead us through the Woodland Realm. We sneak through its halls until we find ourselves in the wine cellar. The elves there are sound asleep around a table, with several empty bottles of wine in front of them. Bilbo leads us further in as he says, "This way."

"I don't believe it; we're in the cellars!" Kili exclaims and suddenly the dwarves start getting mad at Bilbo.

"You were supposed to be leading us out, not further in!" Bofur says and I am about to stick up for Bilbo when he says, "I know what I'm doing!"

"Shhh!"

"This way." We sneak into a large room, in which several barrels are stacked sideways down the middle of the room. All the barrels have one end open. "Everyone, climb into the barrels, quickly!" Bilbo says and I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Are you mad?! They'll find us!" Dwalin cries out as he and the rest argue against using the barrels.

"No, no, they won't, I promise you. Please, please, you MUST trust me!" Bilbo begs and I watch as the dwarves mill around, as they try to decide. Suddenly Thorin says, "Do as he says!"

Each of the dwarves climbs into a barrel and I stand there worried that I wouldn't fit. Bilbo walks along, counting to make sure all the dwarves have been accounted for. "Come on Randir," Bilbo says as he points to one of the last barrels. I stare at it for a moment before climbing inside.

"What do we do now?" Bofur says as we all stick our heads out of our barrels and watch Bilbo as he walks toward a lever in the ground and says, "Hold your breath."

"Hold my breath? What do you mean?" Bofur asks when suddenly Bilbo pulls the lever, and the part of the floor that the barrels were on tilts downward into an opening; the barrels roll out the opening and fall several feet into a river that runs beneath the Woodland Realm. The dwarves yell as they fall, and the barrels make loud thumping noises. The elves sleeping around the table stir and begin to wake up. Bilbo triumphantly looks around, then realizes that he forgot to get out himself, and that the trap door has closed.

"Where's Bilbo?" Thorin asks as we all wait just below the opening.

"He's still up there." I say as I prop myself up on my knees. Suddenly the roof opens up and Bilbo falls into the river, yelling. He surfaces and grabs onto Nori's barrel.

"Well done, Master Baggins." Thorin says to him and Bilbo, half drowned, waves his hand in thanks and manages to splutter out, "Go." "Come on, let's go." Thorin says and we begin to paddle with our hands as the river pulls our barrels along. We emerge into the sunlight, and Thorin sees a waterfall right in front of us. "Hold on!" Thorin calls out to us all and I grip tightly to the rim of my barrel.

The dwarves, Bilbo, myself, and the barrels plunge through the rapids, then float swiftly down the raging river. Suddenly I hear a horn sound as we see a guard-post built above the river. The heavily armored elves standing guard there hear the horn and come to attention; one of them pulls a lever, causing a heavy metal sluice gate to block the river. We in our barrels come to a stop at the gate, unable to float further. "No!" Thorin cries out angrily.

The barrels pile into each other; the elven guards draw their swords, but one is suddenly shot in the back with a black arrow. Several growling Orcs swarm over the guard post, killing the elves. Multitudes of Orcs run in from the bushes. "Watch out! Those are Orcs!" Bofur calls and I roll my eyes as I say, "I can see that!"

"Gorid! Zib! Goridug!" (Slay them all!) I hear the lead Orc yell out and my adrenaline starts to race. The Orcs begin throwing themselves at us in our barrels; Bilbo manages to kill one with Sting, and Dwalin elbows another in the face.

I look over to see Kili look up and see the lever the Elven guard had pulled earlier. He manages to get out of his barrel and run up the stairs toward the lever. "Dammit!" I cry out as I jump out of my barrel and follow after him. Taking one of the fallen elves swords I start slicing away at Orcs. "Kili!" I hear Dwalin cry out as he realizes what Kili is doing. Dwalin, who had managed to grab a sword from one of the elves or Orcs, throws it to Kili, who then fights his way to the top of the stairs.

As Kili fights an Orc, another one leaps up from behind him, raising its spear to stab him. Fili throws a short sword or dagger and kills the Orc, allowing Kili to fight his own opponent and kill it. I turn back toward the lead Orc to see him raising his bow toward Kili. I run toward Kili but as he reaches for the lever, the Orc fires an arrow, which hits Kili in the calf. Kili stops short, panting. "Kili!" I yell out in unison with Fili as I run to the his side. Kili groans in pain and strains to pull the lever, but falls over onto his back. The Orc strings another arrow but I instantly place myself between the two of them my eyes narrowed at him.

An Orc leaps over to kill me, but an arrow suddenly flies into its head. Kili and I look over to see Tauriel running through the bushes. She shoots another Orc, and then kills others with her knife.

"Gor'-ash! Gor golginul! " (Kill her! Kill the She-Elf!) The pale Orc cries out and as several Orcs rush at Tauriel; the blonde Elf from before and other Elves appear from the bushes and shoot them down. As Tauriel, the blonde Elf, and the other elves fight the Orcs, I reach down and pulling Kili up manage to grab the lever and pull it, opening the sluice gate and letting the dwarves in their barrels through.

"Come on Kili!" I cry as I try to help him over to the edge but he falls on his back again in pain. "I'm sorry!" I say as I try once again to help him to his feet. The dwarves in barrels fall down another waterfall and float down the river.

"Khozdayin obguryash! Abgurid!" (After them!) I hear the pale Orc cry out and with one last burst of energy I slide Kili off the ledge and into his empty barrel below. As he lands in it, the shaft of the arrow in his leg breaks off on the edge of the barrel. The remaining dwarves and Bilbo plunge over the waterfall and continue floating down the rushing river.

"Randir!" I hear Thorin yell out and I take a deep breath before running after them, with Orcs following closely behind me. The dwarves try to paddle and steer with their hands, but to no avail; the river is running too wild. As they come to a narrow part of the river, Orcs on either side begin shooting arrows at them. As I kill an Orc I reach down and grab his bow and quiver and start to fire back at the Orcs. In the river, an Orc leaps at Thorin in his barrel, but he manages to kill it with a sword he grabbed earlier.

I hear the sound of Orcs gasping in pain behind me and I turn to see Tauriel, and the other elves running after the Orcs chasing us, and shooting them. Pulling my bowstring back I release it and send an arrow into a nearby Orc who was aiming at the Dwarves sending him falling forward into the water. I look forward as an Orc jumps from an overhanging tree branch toward Balin, but Thorin throws his sword and pins the Orc to the tree; as the Orc drops its weapon Thorin catches it while floating beneath him, and he throws back to Bombur, who throws it to Nori, who throws it to Fili, who kills an Orc with it. An Orc leaps onto Dwalin's barrel, only for Dwalin to head butt it off and steal its axe. I look ahead of them to see a low-hanging tree branch stretched across the river in front of them, with several Orcs on it.

I quickly string multiple arrows before sending them off at the Orcs. "Cut the log!" I hear Thorin yell and as he floats under it, Thorin hits it with his sword, then Bofur hits it with his weapon, and Dwalin, right behind him, hits the branch with his axe, breaking it and causing the Orcs on it to fall into the river. "Bombur!" Dwalin cries as he throws his axe to him, who kills an Orc that had just jumped onto his barrel.

The Orc's spear ends up pinning it to an overhanging tree branch; the other end of the spear catches onto Bombur's barrel and catapults it through the air and onto the riverbank, where the barrel rolls and tramples multitudes of Orcs. 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 bottom, and 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. He then runs toward the river, tosses his axe to one of the floating dwarves, and then gracefully jumps into an empty barrel.

I smile as I hurry off after them. Suddenly Tauriel, and the other elves have caught up to us, and they fight the orcs. At one point, I see the blonde haired elf from before leap over the river and land with a foot on the heads of two dwarves, from this vantage point, he shoots orcs on either riverbank. He aims carefully, and manages to skewer two orcs through the head with one arrow. He continues fighting orcs, using the heads of floating dwarves as stepping stones to get across the river.

While he is preoccupied fighting an Orc, another Orc runs up behind him and raises its sword to kill him; Thorin, from his barrel in the river, throws his sword and manages to kill the Orc behind him. The blonde Elf and Thorin look at each other with some sort of understanding; and he stops pursuing them. I stare at the blonde Elf seeing something I hadn't before. He looks a little like Thranduil. I look across the river from him to see an Orc draw his bow at him and I instantly fire and arrow at the Orc breaking his bow, making the blonde spin toward me in surprise. I look over at Tauriel right as she attacks the Orc forcing it to its knees. Just before she can decapitate it with her knife, the blonde Elf stops her.

I am too far away to hear what he says as I am still trying to make my way back to my company. A few feet ahead I see a way to jump back into a barrel and I quickly drop the bow and quiver as I run after the dwarves. Reaching a stone overhang I use it to jump into a nearby barrel and smile as they all look at me in relief. After a while the river has calmed down, and we paddle along in our barrels with our hands. "Anything behind us?" Thorin asks and I shake my head as Balin says, "Not that I can see."

"I think we've outrun the Orcs." Bofur concurs and I sigh as I lean back against the side of my barrel.

"Not for long; we've lost the current." Thorin says and I let out an annoyed groan.

"Bofur is half drown." I hear Dwalin say and I look over to see Bofur's barrel half full with water.

"Make for the shore! Come on, let's go!" Thorin orders and I quickly start paddling to the shore.