A/N: Once again, I'm sorry it's been so long between updates! Honestly, this story just isn't as easy to write as it was when we started, but I promise that it won't be abandoned. I actually felt obliged to get another chapter posted because I'm reading The Hobbit for school, which has been really fun, since this is my sixth time reading it… Anyway, I'd really appreciate some reviews telling me where to go, but thanks so much to anyone who's followed/favorited – it really means a lot. I spent about an hour staring at the map at the beginning of The Hobbit trying to decide where they should go next, so if you're a little confused with locations, just take a look at that. Somehow, I can remember Middle-earth's geography better than Earth's... :)
Thank you to Jayjay0815 for all the support, and to Guest for leaving a such a nice review, as well as ChinaxJapan101, Rose Nieman-Black-Targeryen, Tar-Ancalimae, grace-adalyn, jocahill, justcallmek, selenastarsparrow1230, Crazygirl8243, and bubblettrocks for following/favoriting. It really means a lot, you guys! :)
Disclaimer: I can't even imagine what Middle-earth would have come to if I owned it. As it is, I'm honestly glad I don't. You probably should be, too… :)
Chapter Eight
Out of the Frying Pan...
The twilight seemed to hold its breath as they stood in front of the frozen river, eyes wide and senses straining for any proof that what they were seeing wasn't real. There was none to be found. Waves of raging water which had so recently been crashing against the shore glinted in the orange light, somehow menacing in their lack of power. Ash gave another nervous glance in the direction of her companions, not daring to return had gaze to the river.
"You see it, too, right?" Koran asked, albeit a bit apprehensively.
Ash hit his arm. "Of course we see it! But, just to clarify... 'It', meaning the frozen river, right?"
The remainder of the companions spared her exasperated looks, still focusing mainly on the river.
Silan was almost glaring at it, clearly puzzled. "That... Shouldn't be possible."
"It's not... But... I guess it has to be. What else do you have to explain this?" Aneare demanded.
"Why me! I don't know better than any of you!"
Ash grinned. "So are you admitting that we're all intellectually equal?" She asked with a smirk.
Silan gave her a mock-disturbed look. "I'd never."
Kiron held up a hand. "I object!"
Ash and Silan looked up expectantly, while Aneare watched with interest and Koran nodded as his brother spoke.
Kiron seemed to realize that all eyes were on him, waiting. "Oh!" came the startled reply. "Okay... I object to being grouped with Ash. We all know she has the least sanity of all of us."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "Really?" She asked, clearly amused. "Please elaborate."
Koran joined his brother in his testimony. "Well, I mean... Aneare's a close second."
Ash just gestured for him to go on.
"Well, it's also not as-" Kiron was cut off by Silan, who had seemingly remembered the problem at hand.
"Can we please turn our attention back to the frozen river?"
They all nodded, though rather reluctantly.
"What more's there to see? It's frozen; not much to do about it," Koran pointed out.
"We could try to figure out how, exactly, a very large, very fast-moving river is frozen in the middle of Yavannie!" Aneare pointed out.
Silan nodded. "Or try to see if it's safe to cross. We do have to get to the other side somehow, and I'd rather risk the Enchanted River frozen than in a boat that we don't even have."
Ash shrugged with a grin. "Or not..."
Aneare directed a green-eyed glare in her direction, while Kiron and Koran looked concerned.
"Don't start..." Koran groaned, looking at the two of them.
Silan gave a wicked grin. "Too late. Your fears have been realized."
Ash glared at all of her companions, ready to start yelling over the roar of the river.
The river...
Ash turned around so quickly she snagged her long braid in a bush, but wrestled herself free just in time to let the yell that had been slowly building free. "Would you idiots quit complaining about me and look at the river?"
Although not delivered in the gentlest of ways, the message had gotten through to the group. They found themselves, once again, standing on the banks of the river, this time barely avoiding being soaked with mist as the water tumbled downstream, cascading ever onward. The five of them openly stared at the once-frozen river, all previous arguments forgotten. If it weren't for the looks on all of their faces, they would have scarcely believed it had ever been frozen; even as it was, they had doubts. It was only once they had gotten over the initial shock of it that the consequences finally registered.
Ash groaned. "Well, that'll be fun to cross, now that we can't just walk across it."
Kiron grinned. "I vote we send Ash to find out if the river is really enchanted," he volunteered.
Silan raised an eyebrow. "Not that I dislike the idea, but it wouldn't be of much use to us. Even if it's not enchanted, the current's still too strong to get across."
The five of them contemplated this problem, realizing that they might just have reached the end of their adventure early. They all knew that it wouldn't do much good to turn back, seeing as they were already over halfway through the forest. They couldn't stray off the path to find another way across the river (though it was doubtful there even was one), and couldn't get out of the forest any other way.
Kiron looked thoughtful. "Couldn't we go off the path and cut through the forest as a shortcut?"
He was met with four incredulous glares, all seeming to say the same thing. Aneare snorted. "That's the worst thing we could possibly do in this situation!"
Ash nodded. "You never stray off the path! Haven't you learned anything from all the stories of travelers getting lost in Mirkwood?"
Kiron shrugged. "I guess..."
Silan raised an eyebrow and laughed. "You've heard them. You've never actually listened."
Kiron nodded earnestly, and that was the end of the conversation.
There was quite a bit of debate on the topic in the hours that followed. Since they were no longer in possession of a map, many arguments were brought about in simply remembering the nearest civilization, save the Elven King's Halls, since they were trying to get away from there in the first place. None of this was helped by the fact that none of them had ever actually left Mirkwood, and therefore weren't at all familiar with the surrounding land.
From what Ash remembered of the land surrounding Mirkwood, past the Forest Gate lay Green River, and to the west of that Rivendell. To Silan, beyond the Forest gate lay the house of Beorn (whom none of them save Silan had ever heard of), and to the west Carrock, the Misty Mountains, then Rivendell. To Kiron (who's lack of skill in geography was rather infamous), west was the way from whence they had come, and the Forest Gate was at the northeast corner of Mirkwood. To Koran, west of the Forest Gate was Grear River, and then Rivendell. To Aneare, the antics of the group were quite ridiculous, and she tried to explain that they had to cross another river and then get through mountains to reach Rivendell, though she knew not their names.
In actuality, they had to cross the Enchanted River to continue along the Elf Path, then from the Forest Gate cross the Grear River, and journey through the Misty Mountains. From there, they had to continue southwest to the hidden valley of Rivendell. Of course, none of them were aware of this, however seemed to have put enough together to at least get out of the forest, which was what they needed at that moment. If only they could cross the river...
"Do you think we could build a raft?" Ash asked, after hours of despondent plotting.
The orange light that had begun to break through the trees was gone, replaced by the cold light of the stars. The previous night, they had been trying to sleep hours earlier. Now, however, the darkness of the forest had lost its control over them, and they sat scheming under the clear sky. The moon, which had so blatantly refused to show the night before, shone brightly, and could be seen even through the once-menacing canopy of trees.
"Out of what? These trees are thicker than us!" Koran moaned.
Silan shrugged. "That doesn't mean we can't cut through them."
Aneare glared. "Yes, it does."
"Well, that doesn't mean we can't try. We could use some of the thinner, higher branches."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "And how do you suggest we get up there? Last I checked, none of us now any spells to make you fly."
Silan grinned at her. "Remember all those times you bet me you could climb higher than me?"
. . .
The night had grown thicker, silence creeping into the inky black of the night. Four figures stood with their eyes trained on the top of the tree canopy, senses straining for any sign that the situation had changed. It had not.
A shriek cut through the night, followed by a volley of curses. Silan raised an eyebrow.
"Ash? You still up there?"
They all waited expectantly, albeit a bit cautiously. They were met with more cursing.
"I can't really go anywhere, can I?" Ash's voice called down.
Koran rolled his eyes. "Aw, c'mon. It's not so bad. At least you haven't fallen yet."
Aneare snorted, her voice just loud enough fro Ash to hear, "Yet."
Silan shook his head. "Are you sending it down, then? Preferably not on one of us this time."
This had been going on for quite a while now, and they had discovered that the branches of the trees were not nearly as easy to break as one might assume. When Ash finally did manage to get one, it was only from practically dangling from it, and then nearly falling when the branch finally gave. It had been an excellent source of amusement for those lucky enough to have their feet on solid ground, however they did occasionally need to watch for falling branches. Even weaponless and stranded in a tree, Ash wasn't entirely defenseless.
A branch tumbled down from the dark blanket of leaves above, very narrowly missing Silan's head. Kiron glanced up nervously.
"Should we really have sent her up there? Now she not only has the means, but also the proper mindset to pick us off from up above," he pointed out.
Silan shrugged. "That depends on how fast you are. Anyway, you don't really have reason to worry, seeing as I'm her primary target."
There was a rustling in the branches. "And whose fault is that?" Ash called down, still annoyed that she had been sent up there. Although, looking back, she supposed that it served as revenge for all the times that she had raced Silan up the tallest tree in the forest, only to duck out of the way as a guard walked by, leaving him to fend for himself.
Silan gave an annoyed glance upward, however managed to refrain from responding, lest another branch 'fall' too close to him to avoid. There had been a couple of very narrow misses.
"Maybe don't answer that..." Koran suggested.
Silan nodded with a look that very clearly said that he hadn't even considered it. Koran shrugged.
"Hey, couldn't let you meet your end by Ash's hand. Especially by having her drop a branch on you. Very undignified." They all laughed, each appreciating the fact that it had come to the point where their normal conversations involved the likelihood of Silan facing "death by branch".
And so there was silence for a while, which was a considerably unusual occurrence when all of them were gathered. It was broken only by a few loud creaks and cracks as Ash managed to break more of the large branches off of the tree. The four on the ground set the branches in haphazard, uneven rows, trying to work out the structure for the raft. Aneare seemed to be the only one who had any skill in this area, so the other three spent most of the night bothering their friend in the trees. It was no longer even night by technicality when it was decided that they should abandon the task for the night to spend the remaining dark hours for rest.
Ash endured relentless teasing after falling out of the tree while climbing down, thankfully not from very high, and narrowly missing a sinkhole. After that, things really did quiet down for the night. They all took comfort in the pale, almost ghostly light of the moon, and none failed to notice the next morning that it was still up, though fading to the light.
. . .
"Hey, Kiron, do you think we're going to need to leave anybody behind?"
"You know, Koran, Ash just might be too tall to fit with the rest of us..." Kiron grinned, dragging a branch over to the structure that they had made earlier that morning. The raft was nearly finished, although they were all secretly wondering whether it would actually work. It looked like the sort of thing they would have built when they were younger to put in a river and race, however never actually put anything of value in it. They had done their best to line it with cloaks and whatever else they could find that was ever marginally water-resistant, but were all still pretty doubtful.
Ash shook her head. "We'll be lucky if this thing can carry one of us."
Silan nodded. "So, naturally, we'll try to make it carry five."
Ash sighed, looking the raft over. "Well, we could try to-"
She was cut off by the sound of a twig snapping up in the trees. Instincts acquired from years of sneaking off to hunt goblins or orcs surfaced, and all five of them stood, tense and alert, weapons already out. They all scanned the area, straining to see anything that might indicate an enemy in the woods.
They didn't see the spiders until it was too late.
Ash made a noise that could've been a mix between a shriek and a groan as one launched itself off a branch, only to be met with an arrow through one of its eyes at the last minute. A second of silence passed, both sides contemplating their next move. At the same time, both sides sprang into action.
The forest was brought to life with the sounds of battle; bows singing, swords meeting the armored shells of the spiders, the screeches of the spiders, and the frantic yells of the young elves.
"We're being cornered!"
"Don't waste your arrows! Every shot counts!"
"Head to the raft!"
Ash, who had suggested the raft, was met with four incredulous stares. Silan gave an attempt at a laugh, however was cut off by another wave of the spiders. "I thought," he panted, "that we'd be lucky-" he turned away to stab a spider that had been ready to pounce on Kiron, "- to fit one of us!"
Ash motioned to the spiders. "Well, I'm currently liking the raft better than the alternative!" There was no response, however there seemed to be a mutual agreement that the raft was probably the safest way out. The five of them were nearly surrounded, and they had nowhere to go but the river. Unfortunately, the spiders, who were quite a bit smarter than the elves gave them credit for, seemed to realize this, and were stubbornly blocking the way to said raft.
The five of them began to fight their way through the sea of spiders toward the river, however couldn't actually get through; the spiders dropped out of the trees, trying to catch them in their silken webs, and replaced any of the felled spiders faster than they could be killed.
"We have to try something else! This isn't working." Ash yelled, kicking a dying spider aside, though she almost tripped on it in the process.
Koran looked annoyed. "No kidding!" He yelled, just as he was pulled down by a web. He managed to cut his way out, however not as easily as he would have liked.
"Would you two focus?" Kiron called, aggravated.
Ash glared, although it was rather hard to keep her eyes in one place for long in the midst of the battle. "Oh, coming from you, that's-" whatever Ash was about to say was, regrettably, lost in the battle as she dove out of the way of a knife that had presumably been knocked out of one of their hands.
Silan and Aneare just shook their heads at them and kept fighting.
They all ducked as an arrow whizzed past, meeting a spider squarely in the center of its... face, for lack of a more suitable word. Ash was about to turn to briefly compliment the archer's aim when she noticed the type of arrow that protruded from between the spider's eyes. It was a real arrow, the kind the warriors carried, not the homemade ones the five of them settled for, since they technically weren't supposed to have need for proper weapons. It very clearly didn't belong to any of them.
Ash was about to turn her attention back to the battle when a spider dropped down in front of her. She raised her bow; fortunately, she had a decent shot. Unfortunately, she was out of arrows. She stumbled back, trying to reach the knife that she had ducked earlier and tripping over a root in her haste. Before she could get anywhere, an arrow tip emerged from the spider. Once again, it wasn't one of theirs... Ash whirled around, trying to find the mysterious archer. Before she could do anything, however, she found herself being yanked up and roughly dragged away, kicking and screaming.
"The things you get yourselves into..." Was all she heard before she was unceremoniously dropped near the riverbank, just in front of Silan, Kiron, and Aneare, who were all scrambling to push the raft into the river.
"Well, we'd better hope it floats!" Kiron said with a devious grin.
"Koran!" Silan shouted, looking to the elf who was, at that moment, trying to fight off four spiders at once with a large stick. "Come on!"
Ash scrambled to her feet and looked behind her to start yelling at whoever had dragged her over there, however stopped short when she recognized the warrior as the prince. For the second time that week, she found herself standing, flustered and guilty, in front of the heir to the throne. She wasn't given much time to take in the knowledge before she was once again grabbed and dragged toward the makeshift raft. She managed to stay on her feet that time, but still wasn't altogether happy with being quite literally dragged away from the battle.
Ash and Koran quickly joined the rest of the group in trying to push the raft to the river, however it was done without much success. Due to the raft being made of large tree branches, it was quite a bit heavier than was strictly necessary. The group found themselves glancing back at Legolas, who was holding the spiders back while they tried to get the raft into the water, and trying to pretend that they weren't at all apprehensive about the new situation. They managed to keep most of their inquiries as to exactly how much trouble they were in to themselves, at least until they were no longer in mortal danger...
The raft fell over the bank and into the river with a final heave from the group. Some toes had been run over in the process, but it still went better than they had thought it would.
Ash grinned, looking at the raft, which was holding up surprisingly well, although no one was in it yet. "Well, everybody in."
A/N: Thanks for reading! I know that it's a long chapter (the longest one so far! Yay!), but I wanted to get the battle scene in the newest chapter, because the last one was mostly a filler, too. Sorry if it seems a little rushed, but part of this was typed on an iPhone, and the other part on one of the computers at school (Shhh! Don't tell anyone...). Please leave a review of PM if you have any suggestions, because like I said, this isn't as easy to write as it was at first. Anyway, thanks so much for reading! Hope you liked it. :)
Translations:
Yavannie: September
Once again, thank you! :)
Until the very end,
CarverEdlundtheLast
