Chapter 9

On the last day that they would be spending at Beorn's, the Dwarves and Bilbo all spent making sure they would have everything for when they went into Mirkwood. They were also making sure their weapons were all sharp and in shape. Gloin had also spent some time in helping Bilbo with the axes they had given him to replace his chakram, whilst Kili, Fili and Thorin all tried to help Bilbo get used to his Elf-blade.

"Maybe it would help you feel a kinship with your weapon if you named it." Fili suggested as Thorin again disarmed a frustrated Bilbo, who had a large bee sitting on his shoulder, looking quite amused and happy from her position.

"Like what? 'Annoying one that killed its owner due to its uselessness'?" Bilbo snarked as he threw the stupid blade away from himself and sat on a nearby rock. Kili picked up the blade as his brother and uncle both sat near Bilbo.

"That's a bit of a mouthful for such a small blade, don't you think?" Kili joked as he held the blade and tried to think of an appropriate name.

"We'll leave the naming ceremony for later, in the meantime, why don't you work on your axe work? That could use a little more work before we go into Mirkwood tomorrow."

"Agreed, I'll also check with Beorn, and make sure we've got all the supplies he's willing to give us."

"Good idea; Beorn certainly likes you a lot better than he likes any of us." Fili said as Bilbo got up, the little bee still refusing to move from her comfortable spot on his shoulder. As Bilbo left, Fili turned to his uncle.

"I know it's technically not my business, but when were you going to talk to Bilbo?"

'About what, pray tell?" Thorin asked as he stood.

"The fact that you and he are One?" Kili asked, showing his usual lack of tact, which made Fili sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose.

"We are no such thing." Thorin said with clenched teeth.

"Right, and the fact that you and he are acting the exact same way grandfather and grandmother acted towards each other before they got together, which is also the same way mother and father acted towards each other before they got together, has absolutely no meaning, right?" Fili asked as he looked at his uncle, who huffed before walking away.

"Well, one way they're perfectly matched for each other; they can match each other in stubbornness." Kili sighed as he watched his uncle walk away.

"Not to mention temper; we're going to have to think of something to let them see that they really are meant for each other." Fili added as they got up to give Bilbo back his sword and to plot on ways to bring the tiger and the wolf together.

"These ponies will help you get to Mirkwood swiftly and safely, but once you arrive at the border, be sure to send them back." The Dwarves almost protested, but the combined glares of Bilbo and Gandalf were enough to shut them up.

"Thank you again for your hospitality and help, Master Beorn." Bilbo said as he saddled his pony, only for Beorn to kneel so he was as close as possible to being at eye level with Bilbo as he said

"It was a pleasure to help the son of one of my dearest friends, little bunny, and before you go, I want you to have something I had made for your mother, but never got the chance to give to her." Beorn then withdrew a carved medallion with a rooster on one side, and a badger on the other.

"As you may remember, your father was a cock, and your mother a badger; I knew that if they managed to sire any offspring, the child would truly be something special, and I have received confirmation of that over the last three days. It's made of black walnut and the animals are cedar, a wood that when used for magical artifacts such as staffs, seeks a master with good instincts and powerful insight whilst cedar is for those with strength of character and unusual loyalty."

"That's Bilbo, to be sure." Ori said and the others all nodded.

"Yes and the animals themselves are meant to have significant meaning, as the badger represents determination, a strong will, strategy, tenacity, protection, independence and confidence. Meanwhile, the cock represents a banisher of evil spirits, the arrival of light, certain regalness, martial values because of its spurs, courage because of its conduct in battle, kindness and protection as well as confidence. Ah yes, there was little doubt in my mind that their child would likely spin the Shire on its head." Beorn said as he gave the medallion to Bilbo, who immediately put it on. Beorn then put his large hand on Bilbo's shoulder, making sure he had Bilbo's full attention before he continued.

"Remember to stay on the path, don't drink the water from the rivers no matter how thirsty you are, don't waste your arrows, and when you are done with this little foolishness, I would like to offer you a place here with me. We will spend the nights hunting Orcs and Goblins, while spending the days looking after our friends and the garden."

"Thank you for the offer, I shall give it due consideration." Bilbo said as he and the others all mounted their mounts. They then all took off in the direction of Mirkwood, and were silent for about ten minutes, a new record for the company, when Nori said

"Is it just me, or does everyone want our burglar to live with them?"

"Aye, first it was Lord Elrond, then Solareas, and now Master Beorn." Bofur observed as the others all nodded.

"Do you think you'll take any of them up on their offer Bilbo?" Ori asked.

"I think so; living in the Shire for so many years has made me as twitchy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs; one wrong move and something will step on my tail." Bilbo said and many of them nodded; the Shire may be all well and good for those with peaceful shifts, but for those with shifts like Bilbo's, it was close to a nightmare.

"Any idea which one you'll stay with?" Dori asked as he rode up beside Bilbo. Bilbo contemplated for a moment before saying

"I might stay with the Eagles; that way I can visit Arwen and Beorn equally. The problem with staying in Rivendell, is that there are more than a couple there that, like Saruman, believe Lord Elrond should have killed me long ago, and I already have to deal with that in the Shire, if I'm going to move somewhere else, it's not going to be one paranoid place for another. And the problem with staying with Beorn, is that all of my shifts are carnivores; with the weasel being particularly bloodthirsty. No, I'm afraid staying indefinitely with Beorn would not be a very good idea at all." Bilbo said and the rest of the ride to Mirkwood was silent, and as they neared it, Bilbo felt something cold slide down his back and settle in the pit of his stomach; Mirkwood seemed to be even worse off than Radagast had described it. What was worse, was that Bilbo could tell this was only the outskirts of the evil Radagast had warned them about; like the branches of a tree that had a terrible infection. As they all dismounted and set about unloading their horses, Gandalf suddenly came running back out of the forest yelling

"Don't unpack my horse! There is somewhere else that I am greatly needed!"

"You're not coming with us?" Gloin asked, and Bilbo noticed many of the Dwarves becoming nervous. But Bilbo walked over to him and asked

"You're going to Dol-Gurdur, aren't you?" When Gandalf nodded, Bilbo said

"Then I'm coming with you."

"No! You are needed here, with the Company."

"Gandalf, whatever this is, it's so strong, that I can feel it from here. You cannot face it on your own!"

"And the Dwarves need you to make sure they get through Mirkwood in one piece! Now do as I say and stay here! Thorin, Fili, Kili, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Nori, and Ori I need to speak with all of you for a moment!" Gandalf demanded and all those that were called wasted no time in getting over to the wizard who looked ready to spit fire. As Bilbo went over to help Oin unpack his pony, Gandalf looked at each of them and said

"I called you all because apart from Thorin, who is here because he is leader of this group, you have been doing your best to help Bilbo when he was having trouble. Now, what I'm worried about is Bilbo using his magic needlessly; he can use it to help certain fruit-bearing plants heal and again bear fruit if you run out of food before you reach the other side of Mirkwood, but if he uses it too much, he will greatly exhaust himself and leave himself quite vulnerable. I am going to ask all of you to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't over exert himself." The others all nodded and therefore Gandalf bid them all farewell, hoping that they would be able to survive Mirkwood. As the Dwarves watched the last pony head back to Beorn, Thorin spoke up

"We do not know what manner of evil is in that wretched forest, but we do know that there are Elves in there, and that alone is reason enough to be cautious. Bilbo, what would you like to add?" Bilbo and a few others were shocked that Thorin would openly ask for Bilbo's opinion on something.

"Just this, if your animal starts to speak to you, listen; they will only be as affected by the forest as you are, but it will take longer since you are more in tune with your shifts now; they can give you their strength, and in return, you give them your sense. They will help you stay sane if you let them, and I will do all I can to make sure we pass through this forest with our sanity intact as much as possible. Which for Bofur, Fili and Kili isn't much of a promise but we make do with what we have, even if the sanity of those three combined would only just fill a thimble if in liquid form." The Dwarves all laughed at that, and they could all appreciate what Bilbo was doing; in the forest, there probably wouldn't be too much laughter going on, so they would savour these last moments as they should.

"Move out." Thorin said and he didn't begrudge them one last look at the sun before going in, as he had a feeling it would be a long time before they felt its warmth again. They walked on for quite a while, everyone on edge, because even though they didn't have a wizards senses, they could still feel something was wrong here, and they didn't like it one bit. When they came to a cross road, Thorin became a little nervous as he could not see the path on either side. Dwalin thumped his axes on the ground, and when they heard a shard clang instead of the muffled thump, they were about to move in that direction, when Thorin's wolf growled lowly in his head.

"Stop! No one move! Bilbo, come here quickly!" Bilbo moved swiftly to Thorin's side and as he arrived Thorin explained

"The wolf growled just as we were about to go down that path."

"The wolf must be able to sense something wrong with that path; maybe we should go the other way."

"But the path is this way." Dwalin said and so Thorin turned to Bilbo and asked

"Do you think you could fly on ahead a bit and see if the path eventually shows itself?" Bilbo nodded and shifted, but as soon as he took flight, he immediately landed again, and was shivering for a good five minutes as Balin held him.

"What happened?" Thorin asked when Bilbo stopped shaking and hopped onto Thorin's shoulder.

"I don't know; as I was taking off, I felt something grip me and try to… I don't know, but it was not a nice feeling."

"Does this mean that we can't shift whilst in this infernal forest?" Dwalin asked and Thorin immediately ordered some of those with smaller shifts to shift and see if they could move around.

"They don't appear to be having any trouble." Balin said and Bilbo concluded

"It would appear Mirkwood is a no-flying zone for guests; I'll have to scout in my weasel shift, as the tiger and the wolf will draw too much attention."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? What if something attacks you, or you get lost?" Gloin asked and Bilbo hopped off Thorin's shoulder and went into his bag.

"If I'm attacked, I'll fight back, the weasel may be small, but it is in no way defenceless. As for my getting lost, this will ensure that doesn't happen." Bilbo then pulled out the scarf he had made, and unravelled it a bit. The others then understood his plan.

"You're going to use the string from the scarf as a guideline back to us!" Fili said and Bilbo nodded before shifting into his weasel shift. Thorin then surprised him by tying the string around Bilbo's middle and then just held the scarf.

"This way, if you are nearing the end and still haven't found anything, I'll tug you back, and if you get into a fight with one of the locals, I'll get you out of it. If, however, you see the path, tug on your end three times, and we'll join you." Bilbo nodded before taking off, with Thorin keeping a good grip on the scarf as it unravelled. Finally, when the scarf was about halfway gone, he felt three sharp tugs.

"Come on, Bilbo found the path!" Thorin ordered and they all followed the string until they found the little weasel. Thorin untied him, he changed back, and they all continued walking down the path. They walked until nightfall, and Bilbo had a feeling that it was going to be pitch black when the sun fully set. Thinking on this, he approached Thorin who was talking to Dwalin and Balin.

"Do you have a moment oh valiant leader?" Bilbo asked and he had a feeling that if it wasn't childish, he would at this moment be flicked in the head.

"I have a couple for you, oh pretentious one."

"I was just thinking, it might be a good idea if those on watch duty were paired off whilst here; this place is giving me the creeps, so it might help us all keep our sanity if there is someone to talk to whilst being surrounded in total darkness. Not to mention we only keep our shifts to about an hour each." Thorin thought about it for all of twenty seconds before saying

"Good idea, have you given any thought as to who should be paired with whom?"

"Well, for one, I thought Dwalin paired with Ori would be a good idea, since Ori is less afraid when Dwalin is around."

"Determined to play matchmaker as well as burglar?" Thorin asked with a smirk on his face, to which Bilbo replied somewhat snobbishly

"I can't imagine what you could possibly be referring to. Anyways, Fili and Kili should obviously not be together otherwise none of us will get any sleep, so I would advise sticking Kili with Balin and Fili with Dori, Oin and Bifur should be with each other seeing as how Oin can understand Iglishmêk as well as speak Old Khuzdul, Bofur and Nori can be together just so long as they keep their minds here and their tongues out of each other's mouths. Of course if that proves to be too much to ask, we'll simply put Nori with Dori and Bofur with Fili."

"That's not much of a punishment for Bofur, whilst being a heavy one for Nori."

"I don't think there is a way to punish Bofur sufficiently. Then again, we could put him with Gloin whilst telling Gloin that Bofur wants to hear all about his son and wife again but is too shy to ask." Bilbo said with a sadistic smirk, and any who saw it got a cold shiver running down their backs, whilst Thorin gave a low chuckle.

"You certainly can be sadistic when you want to be."

"Well… anyways, I thought that it would be a good idea to otherwise put Gloin with Bombur together, that way they can spend the hour talking about their respective children." Thorin nodded and then pointed out something

"You realize that leaves you with me."

"Oh, well if you think that's going to be a problem you can be with Balin and I'll go with Kili."

"I think you and I are past our differences enough that you and I can stand guard for an hour without trying to kill each other." Thorin said and Bilbo just nodded before saying he was going to help Bombur with supper.

"You know, I think he'd be a good leader on his own if he ever truly gave himself the chance." Balin said as he came over.

"Balin?"

"Well, despite his rather gruff exterior he's good with the young ones, he's got a level head on his shoulders, he's diplomatic and sneaky when he needs to be, whilst having a temper that could possibly compare to yours."

"Hopefully, between the two of us, we can keep the company together whilst being stuck here."

"Aye, but we mustn't forget that while he has great strength of character, he is also potentially the most vulnerable of us."

"What do you mean?" Thorin asked and had to fight a flinch when Balin gave him a look as if to ask 'Are you really that thick?'

"The rest of us all have family here with us, whether they be our brothers, our cousins, or our nephews." Here, Balin gave Thorin a pointed look, and Thorin began to catch on to what Balin was getting at. "But what family does our warrior burglar have? When he first came into the company, he was an outsider, and he still sees himself as such, after all, his blood family wants nothing to do with him, the Elves are all weary around him, with the exception of Lord Elrond, his children and Lindir, and probably the closest thing to a family he has are giant Eagles that make him look even tinier than usual."

"But the company has tried to make him feel like part of it." Thorin tried to defend, to which Balin asked

"Aye, that we have, but what part is that? He doesn't know, and the company isn't a hundred percent sure either. Truth be told, if we were a pack of wolves, I'd say it would be a toss-up between him and Dwalin on whom your beta would be. I'd say Bilbo is a good mixture between myself and Dwalin; he has a good dose of Dwalin's fearlessness, but it's tempered by my level-headedness."

"Frankly, I think you're right, if anything happened that would leave me incapacitated as leader, I do believe that the company would most likely look to Bilbo as leader."

"And how does that make you feel?" Balin asked and had to hold in his chuckles at Thorin's look.

"I would never peg you as a head shrinker Balin; truth be told, I'm not sure how to feel about that because it can easily turn around and if the company should become truly divided, half would follow me whilst the other half would follow Bilbo, and he would do what would be best for the group, which could be any number of things from taking the company back to safety, to following me to Erebor."

"Bilbo has a strong spirit, with a great deal of courage, and if it ever came down to it, I believe he would still have his faction follow you than for no other purpose than to see where they come from. Now, I think we should tell the others about Bilbo's plan; no doubt Nori and Bofur will be thrilled whilst Fili and Kili will be downtrodden. It shall also be interesting to see how Dori responds to Ori being paired with Dwalin."

"Do you think he'll put two and two together?" Thorin asked as he stood and motioned the others to gather around.

"Only if Mahal himself comes down to pound reason into his thick head would he ever see that."

"No, I think even then he'd miss it." As Thorin went on to explain Bilbo's thoughts, he never heard Balin mumble under his breath

"You'd certainly know a thing or two about that wouldn't you?" Later that night, after everyone had eaten their rations of dinner, as well as venting how some of the pairings were unfair (which quickly quieted down as both Thorin and Bilbo glared at them), Balin and Kili sat down for the first watch, making sure that whilst they talked about certain stubborn dwarves and their One's, nothing invaded the camp.

The Following Morning

"I hope not all nights are going to be like last night whilst we're here; I feel like I got hardly any sleep at all." Dori complained and many nodded their agreement.

"I fear it has something to do with the fact that the forest is so dense that neither the moon nor even the stars can break through it. With no light to shine down on us, our shifts can't help but be uneasy. The balance has been seriously disrupted here; the only light that shines here is that which is wielded by the Elves, and that has become seriously muted since Thranduil limited his guards to only protecting the kingdom itself, not the forest." Bilbo explained and many grumbled.

"Can't say as that surprises me; Thranduil was a rather useless king, but how do you know all that Bilbo?" Dwalin and asked and Bilbo replied

"Beorn explained many things to me whilst we rested, and we mustn't be too hard on Thranduil; when he lost his wife at Mordor, his heart became closed off to the world."

"I can't feel much regret for him when he left our people to tend to their own wounds after Smaug." Thorin said and Bilbo sighed before saying

"Thorin, from what Bifur has explained to me, what Thranduil went through when he lost his wife, is the equivalent of any of you losing your One; it consumed him to the point that he only wanted to make sure he lost no more of his kin. Especially in a fight that would have had no victor but Smaug; either he would lay waste to Thranduil and his kin, or if by some miracle they destroyed Smaug, it would be a pyrrhic victory, much like your victory at Moria. In the end, you did win, but how many of your kin did you lose? And would you really have accepted aid from him after his initial 'betrayal' of not risking his kin to get rid of a vicious dragon?" Bilbo asked and many could see where Bilbo was coming from, but that didn't stop Gloin from asking

"And you think that justifies doing nothing?"

"Of course it doesn't; it was understandable then, but it isn't now. In no way is what he's doing now right. By just protecting your own little spot on the map, all you are doing is delaying the inevitable. It reminds me of something I often tell the young Hobbits that want to actually hear about Eagles and Elves and Goblins; you see, Hobbits are intrinsically afraid of water and so we don't swim much, unless you're a Brandybuck of course. But some don't build their houses as soundly as my father did, and the ones who build near our river can develop bad leaks in their cellars; leaks so bad that they practically flood the cellar. Now, they have three choices; the ineffective choices are they can be full on cowards and leave, or they can be fools and continually just dish the water out. Now, the final choice is what should be done; you have to brave the water, find the leak, and put a stop to it once and for all." Seeing that some had a confused expression he searched his mind until he said

"Think of it like this; you've broken your arm so badly that the bone has completely separated. Now, of course you have to clean the wound of infection, and dress it and all, but you also have to eventually actually reset the bone. You are already in great pain, and you know that resetting the bone will only increase that pain, but if you want it to heal properly, you are going to have to do it or it will never heal. That is what Thranduil needs to realize before all that is left of his kingdom is the memory." The others all nodded and were in contemplation until Ori squeaked.

"Ori! What's wrong?" Dori asked as he and Dwalin came rushing over to make sure he was alright.

"I saw one of the plants move all by itself!"

"Ori, plants can't move on their own; you must have imagined it." Dori tried to soothe but Ori wasn't having it and kept insisting on it, until Kili yelled

"Fili, watch out!" Kili then pushed his brother away as a long thick vine shot at him, only for the vine, and the resulting spike that lay at its tip, to go straight through his chest.

Author's note:

I'm back. Please don't kill me or you'll never see how this ends. ;)