I'm Staying With You (A Hobbit Fanfiction)

Chapter 28

We head into the forest, following the designated path. Thorin brushes some leaves away with his foot and looks down.

"The path turns this way."

The path turns this way and that. It feels like we're going in circles, but I do what I can to keep my mind off things.

"Far over the misty mountains cold," I hum to myself as we walk.

"This way," Dwalin says. The trees are becoming more dense, making the path very hard to see in the darkness.

"Air. I need air," Bofur whimpers.

"My head, it's swimming!" Oin cries out. "What's happening?"

I pull my necklace from under my shirt and shine the light, but it only provides a weak glow in the forest. At least it's enough to keep me sane.

"Keep moving," Thorin orders as the dwarves in front of him stop. He walks to the front of the line.

"Nori, why have we stopped?"

"The path," he exclaims. "It's disappeared."

"What's going on?" Dwalin asks.

"We've lost the path!" calls Oin.

"Find it. All of you, look. Look for the path!" Thorin calls.

Everyone starts wandering off, and I try my best to keep them together, but it's not working.

"I don't remember this bit," Balin mutters. "None of it's familiar."

"It's got to be here," Dori says.

"Everyone, just come back! We're going to get lost!" I yell, but nobody is listening. They're all to sick from the forest air.

"What hour is it?" Thorin asks.

"I do not know. I do not even know what day it is," Dwalin grumbles.

"Is there no end to this accursed forest?!" Thorin yells.

We eventually group together again and continue walking. I continue to sing songs to myself and hold out my small light. All the men are grumbling and swaying around like they've had one too many ales.

"Look," Ori mumbles, picking something off the ground. Dori walks up behind him and takes it.

"A tobacco pouch. There are Dwarves in these woods."

Bofur takes the pouch.

"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less. This is exactly the same as mine."

"Because it is yours. Do you understand?" Bilbo asks. "We're going around in circles. We are lost."

"We are not lost. We keep heading east," Thorin says.

"But which way is east? We've lost the sun," Oin says.

"I thought you were the expert," Dwalin mumbles.

All the dwarves start shoving each other, and I break Ori and Fili apart.

"Everyone stop!" I yell. I can hear Bilbo muttering something about the sun, and I look at him.

"What was that?" Thorin asks as a whisper runs through the forest. He turns and looks at the company. "Enough! Quiet! All of you!"

Everyone turns him, and I sigh in relief that they finally shut up.

"We're being watched," Thorin mutters.

"We need to find the sun," Bilbo says.

"Climb the tree there," I say, pointing upwards. Bilbo nods and begins to climb. We watch him go and sit against the tree to rest.

At that moment, spiders descend on us like a pack of wolves and the last thing I see before everything goes dark is eight black eyes.