Totally Normal (A Hobbit story)

Well, We Can't Have Faith For Everybody

Nothing was right anymore. It felt like a semi state of foggy conscious thought that kept slipping away from him. His whole world of perception had turned gloomy and grey,

As the dwarves and Company kept following the path through the forest, the more that ooky foggy sensation was taking over.

The forest itself seemed to be working against them, seemingly made to confuse them with twists and turns over all sorts of terrain such as bare ground, and high ledges, fallen tree trunks, and twists in the path that seem to have been built to make you lost.

Dwalin, leading the pack, thumped the handle of his hammer on the ground to find the paving stones of the trail.

"This way." He proclaimed when they turned in a new direction.

How long had they been trapped anyways; days or weeks? Maybe even hours.

Bilbo's breathing had turned heavy as he felt his lungs working against him. The air was becoming less breathable by the second. His head was light and spinning like mad.

Coherent thought and higher brain logic were quickly disappearing.

His balance was starting to go as he wobbled and leaned practically every second step.

"Are you alright?" A feminine voice called from behind him.

Looking over his shoulder, he was met with an absolute vision.

Sweet Tanya was watching him with glazed but concerned, lovely eyes.

No. Not her.

It's not her. Just an illusion.

"Whether I am or not is... irrelevant." He grumbled while he huffed a deep breath. "I feel like I'm suffocating."

His voice broke off a bit at the end, like a cry of anxiety.

He felt a soft hand being placed on his shoulder, and gave him a gentile, comforting rub.

"Air. I need air." Bofur panted heavily.

Oin moaned in agreement. "My head, it's spinning." He whined.

~

Quite some time had gone by, when the dwarves found themselves running into each other down their walking line, like a car crash of body pillows, as Nori- then leading the pack in front, had stopped abruptly.

"What's happening?" Oin asked to the group.

Thorin had pushed his way to the front of the pack while urging them, "Keep moving." He ordered.

Then coming to the line leader, he asked, "Nori, why have we stopped?"

And Nori starred in utter shock ahead of him. "The path..." He uttered. "It's disappeared!"

As they stood in front of a steep cliff, Thorin looked out to the forest before the to conclude that there was indeed no path ahead.

"What's going on?" Dwalin asked down the line.

And from the back, Oin responded, "We've lost the path!"

His stomach turned in vicious knots as the nervousness set in. Thorin shouted out in a panic, "Find it. All of you look. Look for the path!" As he looked back and forth at their surroundings.