The next few days were fairly uneventful. They travelled at a good speed but nothing about their surroundings indicated they were making any progress.

Ori asked Bilbo to teach him the names of the tree species he knew, but the forest was not especially diverse. Ori soon knew all the species they were walking past in the gloom and muttered their names under his breath.

"Oak, oak, ash, elm, oak. Pine, elm, pine, oak, pine..."

"Will you shut your mouth," Glóin grumbled. "I never thought you would care for overgrown vegetables."

Ori hunched his shoulders and remained silent. The company marched on wordlessly, the mood even worse than before. Only Bofur was still cheerful and hummed under his breath. He didn't seem to mind the darkness pressing in on them from all sides.

Fíli shuddered whenever one of the many cobwebs snapped because he walked into it, the trails of thread brushing across his face. When they stopped in the evenings, everyone muttered and grumbled at the amount of cobwebs, leaves and small insects that always managed to get stuck in their hair and beards.

At least they had packed enough food from Beorn's that they could travel for almost two months without starving. Beorn had said they wouldn't need that long to cross the forest, but as the days dragged on, Fíli became less certain that the forest would ever end and more thankful for their heavy, food-laden packs.

After a while, Fíli started to feel like the forest was changing. Perhaps the constant darkness was driving him mad or his eyes were simply adjusting to the lack of light. Whatever the cause, he soon thought parts of the forest were glowing. Not much, but it was giving off an eerie light.

At first, Fíli only noticed it in some of the mushrooms. It was an easy mistake to make, he thought. Their whiteness amongst the gloom had stood out ever since they had stepped into the forest. Of course his eyes would start seeing them as glowing when they hadn't seen proper light for days and weeks. But then, the slime on the tree trunks also began giving off a faint light. Soon, the entire forest was glowing softly in different colours.

Fíli rubbed his eyes and then noticed the others in the Company were also staring at the trees in suspicion.

"Bilbo?" Ori asked tentatively. "Are the trees supposed to do that?"

Bilbo shook his head. "I've never seen anything like that before."

"I have," Nori muttered under his breath, careful not to let either of his brothers hear. "But only after a few deep swigs of Gadi's special mushroom ale."

Bofur snorted and Fíli had to suppress a laugh as well.

They hadn't eaten anything from the forest, except that awful black squirrel Kíli had shot on the second day. None of them had wanted to repeat the experience. That had been over a week ago, so that could hardly be the cause. Perhaps the very air was poisoned, but their skin still had the same colour as always, unless a drop of ooze splashed down from a tree onto it. It had to be the forest itself that was glowing.

There wasn't much they could do but carry on anyway.

Fíli's uncle seemed to see it the same way. "Alright everybody. The forest seems to be playing tricks on our eyes, but that does not really change anything. Do not leave the path, do not eat anything that comes from the forest and keep an eye out for anything that might be dangerous. The faster we travel, the sooner we will be out of here."

They walked faster after that, but still stared at the otherworldly colours in wonder and suspicion. Kíli, Ori and Bifur tripped over tree roots a few times because they were watching the shimmering lichens instead of their feet.

That night was the first night they were not enveloped in complete darkness. The mushrooms glowed in pulsating oranges, reds and blues. The slime oozing down the tree trunks gave off a murky greenish light and the lichens trailing overhead were vaguely yellow.

There were still glowing eyes in the darkness, but they weren't quite as apparent as they had been before. Fíli was not sure if that was a relief or if it made possible danger harder to spot.

Insects skittered over the trees and mushrooms, some glowing as well while others were merely black shadows on the shimmering surfaces.

They ate their dinner watching the eerie spectacle around them. Fíli noticed Bofur eyeing his plate and wordlessly moved some of his food to Bofur's already empty plate.

"Thanks," Bofur muttered.

"Look," Fíli nudged Bofur in the side when they had finished eating. He pointed at a pale, silvery strand seemingly creating itself in midair. A second strand attached itself to the first one, and then a third.

Kíli seemed to have noticed as well and got up to investigate. Fíli and Bofur watched as he drew closer and closer. Suddenly, Kíli leapt back with a shriek and tumbled to the ground, alerting everyone's attention. Thorin, Dwalin and Glóin leapt up and drew their weapons. The rest of the company also had their hands on their weapons, ready to draw them as well.

"What happened?" Thorin demanded. "Did something attack you?"

"N-no... but there's a huge spider there! It's almost as big as my face!"

Thorin gestured to Glóin and he hurriedly lit the torch they kept at hand in case of an emergency. Glóin and Dwalin inspected the thread but it seemed that the spider had made a hasty retreat. They quickly hacked through the threads with their axes, not wanting to touch the threads with their hands in case the spider came back. Then they extinguished the torch. It had already started to draw large black moths into their camp. One of them fluttered against Bilbo's face and made him screech.

Thorin turned back to Kíli and helped him up. "I thought you would have learnt from the attack on Fíli and Bofur," Thorin reprimanded him. "Don't go wandering off alone, even if it's only a few steps. We don't know what's out there and what can happen."

"Yes, Thorin. I'm sorry."

"Well, you were lucky this time. Just don't push your luck."

Thorin gripped Kíli's shoulder and led him back to the others.

Kíli sat down between Ori and Bilbo, looking downcast and shaken.

Fíli leaned against Bofur, who wrapped his arms around Fíli. Fíli ran his hands up and down Bofur's hairy arms, cursing the lack of privacy on this journey.

"What are you thinking about?" Bofur murmured against his ear.

"How nice it will be to have some privacy when we reclaim Erebor. I'm sure there will be a nice chamber where we won't be disturbed for a day or two."

"Aye, that would be lovely," Bofur replied.

Bofur's arm twitched beneath Fíli's hand.

"What was that?" Fíli asked.

"My arm?"

Fíli nodded against Bofur's chest.

"Just a muscle twitch. It's happened a few times lately, but it's just slightly annoying. Nothing to worry about."

They fell into silence.

"It would be nice to see the sky again," Bofur said after a while. "We could be watching the stars right now."

"Spoken like a true dwarf," Fíli snickered.

"Hey, that's mean." Bofur shoved him slightly.

"Sorry. I know what you mean. I wish we at least hadn't lost our entire pipe weed in the Misty Mountains. I can't wait to finally reach the other side of the forest, and we aren't even halfway there yet. We still haven't reached the river Beorn said marked the middle of the forest."

Bofur groaned. "Let's not think about that."

"Look!" Fíli said, pointing. "Fireflies! Kíli and I used to catch them when we were young and our uncle took us on trips for training."

He reached out his hands to capture one.

"You probably don't want to..."

Bofur's warning was too late as Fíli yelped and quickly wiped the hot, stinking liquid from his right hand.

Thorin looked at them. "Is everything alright?"

"Yes, I just have a... a bit of a... hangnail!"

Fíli felt Bofur quiver from suppressed laughter. Thorin gave Fíli a reprimanding look but seemed satisfied with his answer.

"Really? A hangnail is all you could come up with?" Bofur whispered when Thorin had turned away.

"You try coming up with a good excuse when your hand hurts! I can't believe even the fireflies in this place are vicious! A bit more concern would have been nice, by the way."

"Sorry. I just reckoned you couldn't be hurt too badly when you were telling poor lies to Thorin. But let me have a look at your hand."

Fíli held out his hand. A big blister was starting to form on his palm.

"Ugh. That looks painful," Bofur said.

"It's not too bad. It only hurt at the very beginning."

"Are you sure you don't want to go to Óin?" Bofur asked and Fíli could hear the grin in his voice. "Who knows, perhaps it needs to be amputated. You know, with a great big saw and..."

"Oh, shut it!" Fíli said and gave Bofur a light smack.

Finally, they settled into their bedrolls and tried to fall asleep without thinking about giant wasps, large spiders and awful fireflies. Around them, the forest rustled and crackled as the feet of a million tiny creatures scuttled through their luminous surroundings and bats fluttered and clicked overhead.

Occasionally, Bofur's arm twitched against Fíli's chest.

Notes: The firefly is slightly based off the Bombardier Beetle, because you don't have to go all the way to Mirkwood to encounter fascinating insects. :)