The next morning I awake and suddenly feel that I am not alone in my blankets. I look up to see that I had in fact once again fallen asleep on Fili's shoulder, only this time my head had rolled into his lap. I smile up at his sleeping form and as I sit up I make sure not to wake him. Then I gently lay him down so he is more comfortable before I walk over to Thorin who is wide awake. "Is this seat taken?" I say as I reach him. He gently shakes his head and as I sit down beside him I say, "I owe you an apology. You're not a selfish Dwarf. Well you are a dwarf but a good one." He chuckles lightly as he says, "How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Go on, after your father died."
My heart clenches and I sigh as I say, "I haven't really moved on. I don't believe I ever will. After my mother passed he was all I had and when he-" I pause for a moment as I fight tears that threaten to fall before I continue, "When he died and all the other stuff happened to me, I lost my mind. I have been roaming the west hills for centuries avoiding the people who reminded me the most of him. I am a perfect example of what not to do."
"I do not believe that. You mourned the only way you thought possible to ease your pain." He says as his blue eyes find mine.
"I must be truthful, when I saw you lying unconscious on the ground I saw my father and I couldn't move. All I could do was stare at you; and when you got up I felt a feeling of relief that I have never felt before. Is that strange?"
He chuckles as he says, "Perhaps a little, but it must mean that you see me as a father figure or that I remind you of him."
I glance back out over our companions and suddenly realize that I had in fact did see many similarities between the two of them. "You're right, my father had raven hair and blue eyes just like you do. He was also very prideful. In fact his pride ended up being his downfall." I feel his hand gently squeeze mine before he stands and walking over to his company starts waking them up. "I hope it's not yours." I say so only I can hear.
When everyone is awake and sitting around the kitchen table I sit myself between Dwalin and Bofur. After a few minutes Bilbo joins us where our host Beorn pours milk from a pitcher into Fili's cup. He is much taller than any human, even taller than Gandalf. "So you are the one they call Oakenshield. Tell me, why is Azog the Defiler hunting you?" Beorn says as he slowly walks behind the sitting dwarves.
"You know of Azog? How?" Thorin asks his curiosity peaked.
"My people were the first to live in the mountains, before the Orcs came down from the north. The Defiler killed most of my family, but some he enslaved. Not for work, you understand, but for sport. Caging skin-changers and torturing them seemed to amuse him."
"There are others like you?" I hear Bilbo ask and my heart clenches.
"Once, there were many."
"And now?"
"Now, there is only one." The dwarves, Bilbo, and Gandalf look on in silence. I fight the urge to go to his side and comfort him. "You need to reach the mountain before the last days of autumn?"
"Before Durin's Day falls, yes." Gandalf says as he nods his head.
"You are running out of time."
"Which is why we must go through Mirkwood." As Gandalf says its name my heart plummits. I had completely forgotten about going there.
"A darkness lies upon that forest. Fell things creep beneath those trees. There is an alliance between the Orcs of Moria and the Necromancer in Dol Guldur. I would not venture there except in great need."
"We will take the Elven Road. That path is still safe."
"Safe? The Wood-Elves of Mirkwood are not like Randír or her kin. They're less wise and more dangerous. But it matters not."
"What do you mean?"
"These lands are crawling with Orcs. Their numbers are growing, and you are on foot. You will never reach the forest alive." Thorin looks shocked. Beorn stands up from the table and faces Thorin. "I don't like dwarves. They're greedy and blind, blind to the lives of those they deem lesser than their own." Beorn picks up a mouse that had been scampering on the table and holds it, all the while approaching Thorin, who is now standing with his arms crossed. "But Orcs I hate more. What do you need?"
The dwarves and Gandalf climb up onto the backs of Beorn's ponies and I stare at them for a moment before climbing onto my own. As we ride away, Beorn, who is staying at his house, looks around for danger. "Go now, while you have the light. The hunters are not far behind."
We ride rapidly across the land, slowing to a stop as we approach a looming, gloomy-looking forest. Gandalf dismounts and walks into the edge of the forest through an ancient archway. I stare at the forest and contemplate turning and running. "The Elven Gate." Gandalf says causing my throat to clench tight. "Here lies our path through Mirkwood." Gandalf says as he turns to us. "No sign of the Orcs. We have luck on our side." Dwalin says as he dismounts. I follow Gandalf's stare as he looks behind us. I see something in the distance; it is Beorn, in his bear-form, watching them from a distant ridge.
"Set the ponies loose. Let them return to their master." Gandalf says and I find that I cannot release the reins. The dwarves and Bilbo dismount and begin taking their supplies off the ponies. Bilbo approaches the forest on foot and says, "This forest feels...sick, as if a disease lies upon it. Is there no way around?"
"Not unless we go two hundred miles north, or twice that distance south." Gandalf replies and I find myself on the verge of a panic attack. Gandalf follows a path a few feet further into the shadows and approaches a plant-covered statue. The unladen ponies trot away; Nori is just about to finish unsaddling Gandalf's horse when Gandalf emerges from the forest and says, "Not my horse! I need it." As Gandalf strides forward, the Company looks up and murmurs in surprise.
"You're not leaving us?" Bilbo exclaims worriedly.
"I would not do this unless I had to." Gandalf says as he looks at Thorin before he turns and looks at a dejected Bilbo. "You've changed, Bilbo Baggins. You're not the same Hobbit as the one who left the Shire."
"I was going to tell you; I...found something in the Goblin tunnels."
"Found what?" Gandalf leans forward curiously and suspiciously. "What did you find?"
Bilbo stays silent for several more seconds, then finally responds. "My courage."
"Good. Well, that's good. You'll need it." Gandalf says as he turns and begins walking toward his horse; he speaks as he passes Thorin. "I'll be waiting for you at the overlook, before the slopes of Erebor. Keep the map and key safe. Do not enter that mountain without me. This is not the Greenwood of old. The very air of the forest is heavy with illusion. It will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."
Bilbo, turns to Dwalin as he says, "Lead us astray? What does that mean?" Gandalf gets on his horse. It begins raining lightly, even though the sun is out. "You must stay on the path; do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again."
"Gandalf wait!" I cry as I ride over to him and fighting my fear I say, "I can't go in there."
He stares at me for a moment before he says, "You must stop letting your fear control you." I start to argue but instead close my mouth and sigh. "Take charge of your destiny, conquer your fears and let your past finally be just that; your past." I take a deep breath before climbing off of my pony and giving him a quick pat on the neck let him go.
"Good," Gandalf says as he wheels his horse and rides away. "No matter what may come, stay on the path!" He exclaims as he rides away causing us all to turn toward the forest.
"Come on. We must reach the mountain before the sun sets on Durin's Day." Thorin says and I take a deep breath as I follow after him while Dwalin says, "Durin's Day. Let's go!"
"This is our one chance to find the hidden door." Thorin says as we enter Mirkwood. We are following the paved path that started at the Elven Gate. Thorin leads. At one point, the path turns a corner.
"The path goes this way." Thorin says, and as we keep following the path through the forest, it twists and turns over all sorts of terrain such as bare ground, high ledges, fallen tree trunks, and more. The color palette used is very blue/gray, and gloomy. Dwalin thumps the handle of his hammer on the ground to find the paving stones of the trail. "This way." He says and we continue walking.
"Air. I need air." Bofur says and I instantly feel the thickness press down upon me. This place used to be so beautiful but now all I wanted to do was run far, far, far away. "My head, it's spinning." Oin says and I shake my head trying to clear the grogginess from it. We all suddenly run into each other as Nori, in front, stops abruptly. "What's happening?" Oin says and Thorin quickly replies, "Keep moving. Nori, why have we stopped?"
"The path...it's disappeared!" He exclaims and my heart drops. Gandalf gave us one rule and we broke it. Suddenly I feel a wave of sleepiness come over me and I yawn. I hear Thorin cry for us to find the path but I just shake my head as I fight the sleep that threatened to take me. We wander through the forest. The forest is beginning to affect us mentally, and we stagger about. The dwarves are all muttering and rambling as they wander about. I glance over to see Bilbo absentmindedly pluck a spider web; it vibrates, and the vibrations continue through the various linked spider webs and far off into the forest. Bilbo plucks the web again. We continue walking; suddenly my vision begins shifting and tilting. Suddenly the dwarves are bickering over a tobacco pouch and I hear Bilbo say, "The sun. We have to find the sun. Up there. We need to-"
I follow closely behind him as he climbs up one of the nearby trees. Our heads break through the tree-tops and into the air; suddenly, it is as if a spell has been broken, my head instantly clears. Closing my eyes I let out a sigh and when I open them again I see blue butterflies flying all around us; the setting sun reflecting of their fluttering wings. I smile brightly as I look around at all the beauty around us. Bilbo smiles as he turns to me and we both laugh.
We turn and suddenly see the Lonely Mountain just on the other side of the forest. "I- I can see a lake! And a river. And the Lonely Mountain. We're almost there!" He yells out down to the dwarves but there is no reply. He glances up at me and I shake my head in confusion. "Can you hear me? I know which way to go! Hello?" Bilbo looks down, trying to see the dwarves. Suddenly I hear a thumping noise in the distance and look over toward where it is coming from.
In the distance, trees move haphazardly under the weight of something approaching. The movement is coming straight toward us and the dwarves. Worriedly, we climb down a bit and peer around. Bilbo steps forward, only to trip over a spider-web and fall several feet, bouncing painfully off branches, and yelling in pain and shock the entire time. "Bilbo!" I cry out as I reach out for him. He catches himself on a branch, then watches in horror as a web parts to reveal a massive spider. As the spider opens its fangs and hisses at him, Bilbo yells and falls again, landing on his back in an even bigger spider-web. He is stuck to it and is thus unable to resist as the spider wraps him up tightly.
I jump down and am suddenly numb stricken by the forest enchantment. I slip on a branch slipping down hitting branch after branch as I fall down. I hit the ground with a hard thump knocking the air from my lungs making me an easy target for a nearby spider who wraps me up in his web. All of the dwarves have also been captured by giant spiders; the spiders have hung them upside down from tree branches.
The spiders surround one wrapped dwarf; the dwarf kicks, but can't do much when wrapped up so tightly. It's Bombur. I try hard to reach for Ithildin when suddenly all but one disappears down the tree-side. One spider stays behind and prepares to eat a wrapped and squirming Bombur. The spider drops Bombur to the tree trunk and prepares to eat him. Suddenly the spider spins around and hisses, Bilbo appears and as he thrusts his sword directly into the spiders head says, "Here!"
Bilbo pulls out his sword and the spider, dead, crashes to the ground. Bilbo looks at his sword. "Sting. That's a good name." Bilbo looks toward where the dwarves and I are still wrapped and tied up. "Sting." Bilbo uses Sting to cut down all the dwarves and myself. We land on the forest floor and proceed to rip off our wrappings, the dwarves curse and yell the entire time. "Where's Bilbo?" Bofur calls out and we all look around as we call out his name.
"I'm up here!" He cries from a branch above use and then, a spider jumps at Bilbo from underneath the branch he was standing on, and it pins him underneath it. However, he manages to put his sword in front of him just in time, stabbing the spider through the belly. As the spider falls off the branch, Bilbo, entangled in its legs, falls with it.
By now we have freed ourselves and as we are trying to escape we become suddenly surrounded by the returning spiders. We fight against the spiders with our various weapons. Bombur is knocked to the floor by a spider, and it stands over him ready to bite. "Grab a leg!" One of the dwarves cries out and we each grab one of the spider's legs. "Pull!" We pull at the spider's legs, and we manage to pull its legs right off its body. The dismembered body of the spider lands on Bombur. "Sorry Bombur," I say as I hold my hand out to him. After I help Bombur to his feet we continue to fight the spider when suddenly one manages to grab Kili. "Kili!" Fili cries out and I instantly bring Ithildin down stabbing the spider in the head.
We defeat our spiders, and as we run through the forest, more spiders jump down on threads of silk in front of us and hiss. I raise Ithildin in preparation to fight, but suddenly feel something else coming. I turn toward the direction I had sensed something coming from to see a blonde Elf run through the treetops, then swing down a spider's silk in order to land on it and kill it. He slides on the forest floor under the spider facing Thorin, slicing it in half, and comes up kneeling with an arrow cocked in his bow pointed at Thorin. Several other Mirkwood elves appear, drawing arrows and pointing them at the dwarves and myself.