Our Embark on the River and Afterwards

Bilbo spoke up and asked something that troubled all of us,

"How will we get to the other side if we don't have any oars?"

"Give me another hook and a longer piece of rope," Kili replied. When he had it ready in his hands, he threw it as far and as high with all of his strength. We listened very intently; there was not a sound in the water. We guessed that it had gotten caught on a branch in a tree on the other side.

"Someone that is going in the boat should pull the rope that is stuck in the tree to pull the boat. And another that will stay on this side should hold the rope that is tied to the boat loosely, so that when we are off they can draw the boat back," Kili explained. In this way, we were all safely on the other side. I got out of the boat and helped Bilbo out.

"Good job," I said to Kili.

"Thanks," he replied.

"Did you just say 'thanks'? I didn't think you knew that word," I laughed. 

"And I didn't know you knew the words 'Good job'," he laughed in return.

"Okay, you got me," I said. Dwalin had just climbed out of the boat with the rope comfortably wrapped around his arm. Bombur was getting ready to climb out after him when I heard something. The dwarves started to talk again.

"Shhh... listen," I whispered. On the path ahead, we heard the sound of hooves. Out of the darkness I was facing, the shape of a flying deer became visible to my eyes. I was standing next to Bilbo when I saw it. I stepped aside and pulled him with me to get out of the way of the deer's landing. The deer landed in the middle of the dwarves and knocked them all down.

"Ouch," I said as I cringed. Bilbo and I helped everyone to their feet. The deer then leapt from the bank and over the water. Luckily, Thorin had seen the deer too. He also had stepped aside and fitted an arrow to his bow. He sent the arrow into the beast as it jumped. We heard it stumble on the opposite bank. 

Before we could praise Thorin for his shot, Bilbo wailed,

"Bombur! He's drowning! QUICK!" Sadly, it was true. Poor Bombur had one foot on land and the other was with him underwater. The deer had landed on him and bounced up again. Stumbling, he had thrust the boat away from the bank. Then he toppled backwards into the water with his hands slipping on the slimy roots when trying to regain his balance. The boat was slowly swept away with the current and disappeared from our sight. Above the water we could still see his hood bobbing up and down when we reached the bank. They quickly hurled a rope with a hook to him. His hand caught it and the dwarves heaved to pull Bombur to shore. When he came to shore we found him asleep with a big smile on his face. His whole body was completely soaked and his grip on the rope was so tight they couldn't retrieve it from his grasp. And we were not successful with our many attempts to wake him up either.

"That's probably the enchantment..." I told Bilbo. The dwarves stood over him grumbling about their bad luck, Bombur's clumsiness, and the loss of the boat. 

You may be wondering,

"Why would they need a boat? They already crossed the river..." Well, when Thorin shot the deer we were hoping that we could go back and bring it to the side we were on. But when we lost the boat, we lost the deer too. After much thinking, there was a silent moment. We heard the sound of a dim blowing of horns somewhere in the wood. We sat down and listened to what seemed like the noise of a great hunt, though we saw no sign of it.