New chapter is up!
I know, it's been a long time. The other me didn't want to volunteer in this writing process so I just had to use a whip on her :) Then the muse in her head didn't want to shut up at all so this chapter actually became near 5000 words (it's not finished yet) and the story had to be cut into two parts.
In this chapter there will be danger and.. much more! Will there be survivors? ;)
The next chapter will be ready in just few days (I hope so). All the checking just takes some time, even with the help of sodapoppana. So be patient!
Enjoy!
The group of human archers and unarmed dwarfs (including one scared hobbit) walked in the forest with no certain road. There were no sounds around them, no birds or wind in the trees, only the crunching and breaking when they stepped on the dry branches.
"Move faster!" the leader of the archers shouted. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life in this cursed place."
"Then you have chosen the wrong area to patrol," Thorin commented.
The human turned to face the head dwarf and the whole group stopped.
"Did I ask you anything? You should worry about more of your situation right now than to interfere with my issues."
"You have already interfered us in your issues so as long as you don't give me answers I will continue this," Thorin had his stern look in his eyes.
"Very well," the archer said and stepped closer. "If you want to do this in the hard way. Tell me, why wouldn't I just kill you right here, right now?"
"Because you would be dead yourself before you'd be finished with that," Dwalin answered the question before Thorin.
"I see," the human smiled.
"Hallas!" someone yelled and the human turned to see what was going on. "Astar is coming back!"
Hallas furrowed and saw how one of his men came running from the south. He walked toward this man and they discussed something in a distance. Astar spoke with the leader, not raising his voice so no one else could hear them.
Hallas nodded and sent the man back. Then he walked back to the group.
"It seems that someone wants you to be alive," the leader said tilting his head. "So be it. But this journey is going too slow. Ostoher, come here!"
One of his men came by Hallas' side, not looking afraid at all. "Ostoher, I believe I can trust you. We will separate them and you will lead the other group to our destination."
"Yes, Hallas," Ostoher nodded with pride.
"Divide them into two!" Hallas ordered and the men acted quickly.
Fili and Kili felt the familiar feeling of separation as they were randomly put into different groups. Kili tried to sprint back to his brother but one of the men noticed his actions and pushed him back (not actually knowing the true meaning of the young dwarf's rushing). Thorin put his hand to Kili's shoulder as a sign not to do anything stupid. Fili could only give a sad look to his brother.
"Hallas!" someone called out again and everyone turned to see the man. Next to him stood Bilbo. Hallas watched the hobbit curiously. "Well, you are definitely not a dwarf. What are you?"
"I am a hobbit. From Shire," Bilbo answered little nervous.
"A halfling?" the leader furrowed. "That's interesting. Why are you with these dwarfs? I believe it is highly rare."
"And I believe I don't have to answer that question," Bilbo tried to be polite and strict at the same time.
"Is that so?" Hallas gave him a smile. "Unfortunately my messenger didn't mention anything about keeping hobbits alive."
The halfling's eyes widened and he swallowed, the dwarfs froze and exchanged glances.
"He's with us!" Thorin said out loud, trying to cover his comrade's back and Bilbo felt a bit relieved.
"But I don't have any use for him," Hallas said not looking away from the hobbit. Kili turned to his uncle, expressing an unsaid thought of Thorin to do something.
"He is with us," Thorin repeated. Hallas finally turned to face him.
"It doesn't mean anything to me if he's with you. It only means that I don't need him."
Bilbo was now afraid of the worst.
"Give me the rope!" Hallas commanded. He grabbed the halfling's arm and dragged him to the nearest tree. The rope was soon there and Hallas began to tie it around Bilbo.
"W-what are you doing?" the hobbit stuttered.
"I have no intentions to take you with me and it would be waste to just leave your lifeless body here to lay on the ground. I think there will be lots of animals that would be delighted to see you."
The rope was around Bilbo's middle body, binding his arms against his sides. Hallas threw the other side of the rope over a branch that was strong and high enough to support the weight of the hobbit. Then he pulled the rope and Bilbo was lifted in the air.
"W-wait, wait!" the hobbit winced as he swayed around.
"I don't have time to wait," Hallas said and pulled the last time, leashing the rope to one of the tree's roots. Bilbo was hanging in the air, ten feet from the ground.
"Let me down!"
"I think we are ready to leave now," Hallas said smiling at the grumpy dwarfs. "Shall we go?"
He led the dwarfs and men into the forest leaving Bilbo fidgeting in the air.
/ / / /
They left separate ways little after the hobbit had been left hung on a tree. Ostoher led his group forward with the leader's pride; his head held high and mind focused on the task that was given to him. But because he didn't look down, the sound of splash came very sudden and very unexpectedly to him.
Ostoher stopped and looked down, murmuring some bad words; they had come to a swamp.
"I don't remember this been here before," he said and turned to face his men, demanding an answer, but everyone just shrugged.
"Detour then."
The leader of the group moved forward slowly, checking the ground with every step. He was taking his men little bit back to the west, to the middle of the forest where they had come from. Ostoher wasn't sure if it was safe again to walk straight so he ordered one of his men to do the checking. The chosen man swallowed and frightened walked to the showed direction.
The dwarfs followed the man with their gazes, so did everyone else. It seemed to be solid ground and the man stopped after a while. He turned to look back.
"It's not a swamp anymore!" he called out and Ostoher nodded. At that very moment after the words were said the ground under the unnamed man gave in and he sank.
"And that's what happens when you don't pay attention to your environment. And when you get too close to the edge of the swamp," Ostoher shook his head. "More to the west!"
"Wait!" Fili shouted in disbelief. "Aren't you gonna help him up?"
Ostoher gave him a stern look. "Do you see him there anymore?"
And Fili didn't. The man never came back to the surface.
"Exactly. I'm not gonna risk my men and myself just to help some dummy who doesn't know the best of himself. And I suggest you would do the same."
He studied the expression of the blond dwarf and glanced at the forest.
"This is Mirkwood, a cursed forest. It's always changing and not to the better way. Apparently those swamps will just pop up somewhere, not giving any warnings of its coming. It seems to be alive, moving wherever it wants. Let's get going now!"
They managed to find a safe path and they moved quite quickly forward. Fili felt some shivers on his spine.
"I'm having a bad feeling," he whispered to Balin, who walked right next to him.
"Me too laddie, me too," the old one answered. "This is not going to end well."
"It's not just that, it's.. something different, like.. like..."
"Like back there when you said we should have taken the other road?"
"Yeah," Fili said and grimaced.
"Uuugh, aaarh!" one of the men yelled suddenly. Ostoher stopped on his tracks and turned to see what the matter was this time.
"Spider web," the man mumbled little ashamed of his reaction. Ostoher rolled his eyes and continued walking. Fili and Balin exchanged glances.
"What the – " the leader said out loud and came to a sudden halt. In front of him was the largest spider web any of them had ever seen. He examined it carefully.
"I think it's time to take upon arms, my men," Ostoher announced and every one of them were now alarmed, watching their surroundings with sword or bow in their hands. What they didn't know was that the threat they were about to face didn't come from the sides but from above.
When the first white lump hit one of the archers it was already too late.
"It's above us!" Ostoher shouted as a warning. "Cover yourselves!" And the panic was on. The next spitted web glued another man to a tree; the man started to wriggle and scream but it was in vain.
"Run!" Fili yelled to his fellows and the dwarfs tried to disperse and escape from the attack.
But there were more than just one giant spider waiting for a lunch; one of them landed right in front of Ori, Bofur and Bombur, who just stared at the spider in a shock for a second. Even that second was too long time to wait. Before they had time to move even an inch they were covered with the web. The air was full not only with the screaming of the archers but also with the spiders' shrieks.
Fili saw the fate of the three dwarfs from the corner of his eyes.
"No!" he shouted and was already turning back to help them but Balin stopped him.
"We can't go back! We need to get out of here!"
Oin, who was just 5 feet away from Fili and Balin, fell to the ground covered with the sticky, white web. And Gloin followed soon after that. The two remaining dwarfs looked up only to see one spider coming after them.
"Run, Fili, for the sake of Durin!" Balin said and Fili sprinted away as the older dwarf became the next victim.
Fili didn't manage to take too many running steps before he felt the sticky lump around him. He stumbled but quickly got up to continue his escape, even though it was useless. The next lump was shot to his legs and he fell hard on the half rotten moss.
The spider was soon on top of him, taking him to its long legs and starting to roll him around, adding that disgusting web. In the last seconds Fili could see that there was no one left anymore, everyone was down and the spiders were dealing with their lunch the same way he was dealt with right now.
And just before the web covered his face he realised that there were no shouting anymore.
/ / / /
"No! Wait!" Bilbo yelled to the backs of the archers and dwarfs that were quite far away now. He tugged and pulled as hard as he could but nothing worked; the rope was really hurting now, it was very unpleasant to hang there like that. Somewhere in a distance came some sort of a sound.
"What was that?" Bilbo whispered to himself and stopped moving. Frightened he glanced around, not seeing anything specific approaching him, to his luck.
"Breathe.. breathe.. you are a hobbit. And hobbits will always find a way to solve things out."
He started to speak to himself just for a comfort and keeping his thoughts away from the animals that might find and eat him just like that.
"You are partly a Took, remember that," the halfling reasoned. "Yes, yes. But you are mostly a Baggins. Oooooh, this is waste of time, your twaddle is not going to help you!"
As he stopped the monologue he spaced for a second or two and then burst out laughing.
"Great thing Bilbo Baggins, you are just about to turn into another Gollum!" And then he sighed.
"I need to figure out something. Think, think!"
Bilbo tried everything; he swayed, wriggled, spun... nothing happened, he only managed to get dizzy and little sick. He made a sound of frustration.
"I wish I had a knife. I wish I was Fili, he always has a – " the halfling paused his thoughts for a realisation. "I do have a knife, indeed!"
The hobbit remembered the day he was hunting the rabbit with the brothers. Fili had given one of his knives to Bilbo, just in case he would need it someday. And that day had come now.
"Where did I put it?" he mumbled but felt soon the pressure on his lower back. "Ah, of course!"
He now tried to get his hand at the back side but the rope was really tight around him.
"C'mon! What bad have I ever done to you?" Bilbo bended his hand, his fingers were just few inches away from the knife. He gave a quick pull and his arm slid further back along the rope.
Bilbo got enthusiastic and succeeded to take a grip of the knife.
"Okay, and now.. do not drop it." He took a deep sigh and started to cut the rope from the place he just could reach. At first it seemed that nothing happened; only Bilbo's wrist hurt so much that he had to pause once in a while. But then he could feel part of the rope snap and he smiled.
Until the moment he realised what was waiting for him: the fall.
"Uh-oh," Bilbo said and the rope gave in. He fell the ten feet fast, hitting the ground with his left side. The halfling felt sharp pain in his wrist as it bent under his body. He grimaced in pain and rolled onto his back.
"Ouch," he whispered, took some deep breaths and stood up. "Okay then, let's save the day." Bilbo followed the path that the big group of archers and dwarfs had left behind. It wasn't hard at all and he could even run following the tracks. But then it changed after a while, Bilbo had to stop.
"They were divided into two," he mumbled examining the area. He saw one path continuing straight from the place he was standing now and another one going more to the left.
"Too many dwarfs to handle at once," Bilbo thought out loud. "I don't blame that. So.. I assume the bad man took the most threat, which means at least Thorin. I wouldn't have risked that much.."
He tapped his lips with a thoughtful glare.
"They probably have the weapons too. The other group.. no big deal with them. The first ones might have gone straight because," Bilbo said reasoning to himself, "that man would certainly not take any other route than the one that was already in his mind. So, the question is which one should I follow?"
It was a hard decision. The second group might be easier to help but they didn't have a chance against the armed men, no way. And the others.. well, it would be much harder with that leader man being fixated on the task, his eyes as sharp as an eagle would have.
"Definitely Thorin's group," Bilbo decided and nodded to no one. "If I don't get them free first he would be very mad at me. I don't want to experience that evil glare." And with that he ran off to make the day. The hobbit didn't have any plans how he was going to get everyone free. But that didn't mean he wouldn't try; he actually had that one little special thing still in his pocket and he believed it was the answer.
Soon he could hear talking ahead of him and he slowed down a little bit so that no one would notice him. Finally he saw the group and he cheered mentally when he saw he had been right; Thorin was in that group, so did the weapons. Now Bilbo just had to figure out what to do. He decided it was time to play hide and seek so he took the ring from his pocket and put it onto his finger.
Thorin and Hallas were getting on each other's nerves. Their arguments resounded in the dark forest, giving Bilbo the advance to approach them silently enough. The halfling walked to two men that were carrying the dwarfs' weapons. He picked up some rock and threw it to the distance. Everyone stopped.
"What was that?" Hallas asked from the 20 feet distance glancing around. Bilbo used his chance and kicked the man in front of him to his hollow of the knee. When the man dropped down on all fours the hobbit gave a good hit to the back of his head. The other man right beside Bilbo stared in horror when his comrade fell down with no reason.
Bilbo made another distraction and did the same thing to the other man. The swords and axes clanged and clattered together which of course alarmed the others.
"What is happening back there?" Hallas demanded from the front.
"They.. uhmm, they are down," one archer said confused.
"Excuse me?" the leader said and walked closer.
Bilbo had managed to get three weapons, though he didn't know which dwarfs they belonged to. One of them he did recognize, it was Orcrist, so one owner was known. He moved quickly next to the dwarfs, first to Thorin. He took a good grip from the dwarf king's wrist, making sure he wouldn't back off.
Thorin turned his gaze to his side but couldn't see anyone; the touch still remained and he furrowed. Bilbo put the Orcrist on Thorin's open palm and pressed the king's fingers around the hilt. The dwarf recognized the sword's shape immediately even though he didn't see it. Instantly when Bilbo let go of the weapon Thorin could see it. Bilbo moved to the next two dwarfs, giving them the two weapons he had while the archers were looking at the fallen men.
Bilbo then threw some bigger stones to the other way.
"Someone go and see what it is! I wanna know what's going on!" Hallas shouted angrily. The halfling took the next weapons nearby and gave them to the dwarfs who looked exactly as confused as Thorin had; none of the archer men noticed the weapons disappearing. The dwarfs glanced at each other and with Thorin's sign they attacked.
Six dwarfs rushed toward the humans who were nearly half taller than them. The first ones were taken by the surprise, Thorin and Dwalin hit their weapons to the frontline and the others ran past them. Kili found his bow and quiver, and prepared them quickly to shoot the men that had went to search for the source of the noise.
"Don't you dare to move," Thorin threatened Hallas with the Orcrist on the man's neck. "Or I cut your throat right now."
"Well do that, little man," Hallas smiled and dropped his own sword. Thorin didn't say anything to that.
What the dwarf didn't see was that Hallas was reaching for the second weapon, hidden in the backside of him. Thorin didn't know what was waiting for him but before the human could make his move something hit to the man's head and he fell on the ground. Thorin glanced at his surroundings but there was no one near enough. He did think Kili though, because the young dwarf could shoot the target within quite a long distance, but his nephew was looking in another direction at the time.
They had won. All the men were laying on the ground, either unconscious or groaning silently. Thorin watched his fellows who had the same expression than himself.
"Does anyone have an explanation?" he asked half confused. Everyone just shrugged.
"I do," Bilbo said aloud and Thorin saw him for the first time after they had been separated from each other. He was standing 5 feet away from the king.
"Bilbo!" Kili called out and smiled widely.
"Master hobbit, we should have known," Dori shook his head also smiling. Thorin was speechless.
The dwarfs gathered curiously around the hobbit.
"What?" Bilbo asked feeling slightly awkward in that situation.
"How did you do that?" Kili asked enthusiastically. "Are you a wizard or something?"
"Oh, no no no, just.." the halfling tried to think quickly. "We, hobbits, can be sometimes very invisible."
"Indeed," Thorin finally said something. "It was you who put the sword on my hand, weren't you?"
"And the other weapons on ours," Nori added exchanging glances with the other dwarfs.
"Yes, it was me," Bilbo avoided their eyes. "I really didn't have any plans what to do so I just had to improvise. And I realised I have no idea which sword or axe belonged to which one of you."
"Oh, it was a good guess," Kili agreed but Bilbo could see them switching the weapons. "We are just glad you are ok!"
Kili walked to Bilbo's and hugged him tightly, to the halfling's surprise, and the smaller one yelped as the wrist got caught in the middle of them.
"I would say not that ok," Bilbo grimaced and held his hand. "But I will live. The fall wasn't just as succeeded as I thought it would be."
"How did you get down from that tree?" Thorin asked.
"Well," Bilbo said, "let's say I need to thank Fili for that. He had lent me one of his hunting knives and the humans hadn't noticed it."
"Right, Fili.." Kili mumbled remembering suddenly that his brother wasn't there. "We need to go search for the rest!"
"What about those?" Dwalin pointed at the men. "We can't just leave them lying here."
"We have to, " Thorin said and put his sword where it belonged: first in the holster and then to his back. The others followed his example, and they also took the missing group's weapons.
As they were ready to leave they heard high-pitched shrieking from a distance.
"What was that?" Dwalin asked alarmed.
"Didn't sound good," Thorin admitted. "And it came from where we are about to go. Let's move!"
The dwarfs and the hobbit started to run toward east with no clue what was waiting for them.
Pssst... I like reviews and comments ;)
And if you have any wishes to see more of some certain characters or events, let me know. I don't promise anything but I will consider it.
