I had no idea what Bilbo was planning but from the look of determination on his face, I knew that I could trust his judgement. At least I could trust someone.

I cast my mind back to my outburst and I felt guilt start to seep through my veins: perhaps I was too harsh, I was allowed to be upset and angry but this was an ill-opportune moment to break any trust formed between myself and the others. Still, I'm not the only one who needs to control their emotions and at least I wasn't narrow minded like some. I was making progress on that front but it had recently been completely shattered. Trust was not my strong suit, and neither was theirs' I suppose.

Farther into the darkness we went, the dwarves whispered to each other in concern as we snuck down winding staircases and through tunnels. Soon we found ourselves in a wine cellar. The scent of sweet summer wine drifted through the air accompanied by the sound of snoring. The guttural snorts belonged to two elves I recognised as our prison guards. They were slumped over onto the table they were seated at, surrounded by empty bottles. It didn't seem like they would be easily woken but it would not be a good idea to test that theory.

"This way." Bilbo encouraged us nervously. The longer we spent here, the sooner we would be caught.

"I don't believe it; we're in the cellars!" Kili announced in confusion. Perhaps he had a different idea of escape in his mind. It was probably something along the lines of fighting our way out. I rolled my eyes and frowned to myself.

The rest of the dwarves joined Kili in his confusion and started to get mad at Bilbo.

"You were supposed to be leading us out, not further in!" Bofur hissed at Bilbo as I shuffled to his side in defence.

"I know what I'm doing!" Bilbo hissed back, annoyed that they didn't trust him.

I had had enough of their squabbles and silenced them with a "Shhh!"

Bilbo sent me a look conveying his thanks and ushered the group down and further into the wine cellar, "This way."

we shuffled into a large room in which there were several barrels stacked sideways down the middle of the room. They all had one end open. I began to piece together Bilbo's plan with a small smile on my face.

"Everyone, climb into the barrels, quickly!" Bilbo ordered. I was correct about one thing but still didn't understand what we were going to do next. I looked to Bilbo for answers and noticed that he was stood next to a lever that jutted up from the ground. These barrels must have been left here for disposal, and I was sure that the lever meant that there was some sort of trap door or exit nearby.

"Are you mad?! They'll find us!" Dwalin blurted out a little bit too loudly.

I was beginning to grow tired of the dwarves' inability to figure things out on their own. It wasn't exactly difficult.

Bilbo was getting desperate and frustrated too, "No, no, they won't, I promise you. Please, please, you must trust me!"

The dwarves started to mutter to each other, I sighed in frustration; now was hardly the time for discussion. I heard a clatter from behind us and quickly realised that we had been standing around for too long. I stood there in disbelief. We may have escaped the cells, but at this rate, we were only headed straight back only this time, with an extra prisoner accompanying us. The alarm had been raised, so to speak. Unfortunately, only Bilbo, Thorin and I had noticed.

Reacting to the urgency of our situation, Thorin barked an order to the group, "Do as he says!" I was grateful, but that didn't mean that I had forgiven him. Not by a longshot.

Each of the dwarves climbed into a barrel. Bilbo and I then walked along, counting to make sure all the dwarves have been accounted for before I did my best to try to shuffle into one. It seemed I was too tall but I didn't have much choice in the matter so I tried my best to crouch into one.

Bofur then stuck his head out of his barrel,"What do we do now?"

All the dwarves then proceeded to stick their heads out of their barrels and watch Bilbo as he walked toward the lever in the ground,"Hold your breath."

"Hold my breath? What do you mean?" Bofur asked in panic just as Bilbo pulled the lever down.

The ground tilted and we all started rolling away. Suddenly my stomach was left behind as I fell into the darkness. My heart painfully tensed up as I braced for impact. I was shocked with the sensation of rocking as water splashed onto my face. That was what the barrels were for.

The dwarves were all yelling and stirring up a commotion between themselves. Where was Bilbo?!

Just as the words escaped my mouth I see a familiar silhouette fall through the air with a yell. I grabbed an empty barrel from nearby and pushed it towards Bilbo. His hair clung to his face, making him look like a drowned rat. I chuckled in amusement. It felt strange to laugh given our situation but I welcomed it gladly, I was in need of cheering up.

We started to paddle downstream with our hands, knowing there was no time to waste. We had no weapons so the best possible outcome was escaping unseen but that seemed near impossible now. And as if to prove my point, the sound of a horn filled the air and the elven guard appeared on the left bank of the river and on the other side I could hear the heavy footfalls of a different enemy. We couldn't fight and we couldn't hide. So we had to hope for a miracle, this was going to be tricky. 

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So, chapter 20. Doesn't seem like much but there must be just over 20,000 words overall here! I'm so pleased that I have finally started to write stories, I've always wanted to but I never had the time or motivation. Thanks for staying with me through this!

Oh and a little change I've made: I recently installed Grammarly onto my laptop and wow I think it really helps, what do you think?

That's all for now! Please be sure to vote, comment and share! Thanks!