Chapter Ten: Elves in the Woods! Part Two

Notes: To all who have continued reading this thank you! And a Big thank you to my Beta Reader Daisy Rhine, if you want some interesting fanfics to read go look them up. They have some awesome stories as well. Second part of the Woods Journey Going to be a three parts.

Sarra was very weary of the noises going on at nighttime. It wasn't just the lack of snoring that the Dwarrow were doing since none of them could get any sleep at night. To worried and hungry for sleep. No, the noises were coming from the depth of the woods, music and merriment. Sarra new it had to be elves, the woodland elves. She moved onto her side and watched as Bilbo scrunched himself up into a little ball beside her. Trying to seek out her heat. Her ears twitched as Bombur rose from his sleeping position starring out at the area where the noise was coming from. "What is tha'?" Bombur stated, eyes wide as he looked longingly at the lights floating in the darkness.

"Elves!" Thorin stated, also staring at the floating lights. "They are celebrating while we lay here starving." Thorin hissed. Sarra turned her attention back to her brother. She shushed him as he groaned and turned away from them, having fallen into a fitful sleep as he suffered through his hunger in silence. She worried that he would lose too much weight in this state.

"We need to see if we can get any food or water, the woods here are far too poisoned to give off anything worth consuming." Sarra argued, as she brushed her claw tipped fingers through her brother's curls. Thorin glowers at her in return.

"No, we are not going to beg for our food from them." Thorin stated, turning to look away from the Khajiit.

"Beg, I have never begged in my life." Sarra countered growling lowly at the dwarf. She turned away from him as well, turning to curl around her brother once more.

The night went on, and Sarra was awoken by Bilbo killing a giant spider. Her eyes snapped opened, claws swiping at her own giant spider that had been preparing to stick her with its spike. Her claws sliced through the legs one side causing it to fall over on its side. She pulled her sword out and shoved it deep into the spider's skull and brain. The spider curled up into itself with the remaining legs and died, and Sarra pulled the sword out to look over at Bilbo. She rushed to his side to check him over. "I am fine." Bilbo assured her as he looked himself over before he started to pat down his sister.

She waved him off and looked around for the others. They were missing and from the foul odor of the spiders they must have been dragged off to their layer. "Come on, this way." Sarra pointed out, Bilbo reached down and snagged ahold of her tail. She allowed him to hang on that way as she led the way through the darkness toward the layer that held the Dwarrow. Her sharp eyes focused on the area that surrounded them. "We are getting off the trail, the elves will come for sure. You will need to be able to hide fast brother, if we are to save the Dwarrow from prison." Bilbo nodded his head behind his sister, one of his hands reaching down to grasp the ring from within his pocket.

"I can do that." Bilbo assured her. They found the spider's nest and the Dwarrow hanging from the branches of trees braced along by spider webs.

"You should make a distraction and I will cut the stupid men down." Sarra advised, Bilbo snorted as quietly as possible at the insult toward the Dwarrow, but nodded his head when his sister turned and stared at him.

"Okay." Bilbo stated, pulling out his ring and putting it on. Sarra's eyes widened slightly at the disappearing act of her brother, but she didn't have time to think too much of it as he started to sing insults at the spiders and toss rocks at them. The massive arachnids soon moved to give chase. She moved in behind them as quiet as a cat and started to cut down the Dwarrow at the bottom of the group. Waking them up with a few spells and pointing at them to be quiet. Then she climbed up and cut the ones down from higher up. The sound of the web being split apart alerted the spiders that someone was freeing their meals. They moved back toward the nest, Bilbo called out a warning to his sister who had freed the last of the Dwarrow and had pulled up a flaming familiar which raced at the first spider that came into sight and exploded into a fire death trap for the eight legged beast. Several more flaming familiars were set loose onto the spiders as the Dwarrow prepared themselves for the attack.

"Up above." Sarra called out, as she shot fire balls at the spiders descending from the tree tops. The webs ignited into flames as the fire balls hit them. Burning the webs off of the trees. The Dwarrow and Khajiit were soon overrun with spiders, but that was quickly settled as elves came from everywhere. The tree tops, the forest itself. The spiders fled from them and the Dwarrow and Khajiit were at blade and arrow point. Sarra lowered her weapon and then sheathed it. Standing as tall as possible she glared up at the elves as they started to take weapons from the Dwarrow. One red headed elf started toward her and she growled barring her sharp teeth at the elf. "I dare you elf." Sarra stated, "To attack someone of my standing would be war between you and Skyrim." Sarra warned. That caused the elf to pause in their approach.

"What do you mean, beast?" A blond elf asked, stepping forward to stand next to the red headed elf.

"Exactly as I stated, you would dare attack me and my company. After we had to face off with being dragged from the path by these vermin you keep in your woods." Sarra scuffed and kicked at a dead spider. "And to think, I was sent here to seek out the king of these woods. I asked these fine Dwarrow to be my escort only to receive such a greeting." Sarra turned her head away as haughtily as possible. The Elves looked at each other before she was shoved forward with the Dwarrow.

"Don't worry none, you will be meeting with the king very soon." The fair haired elf replied. He turned away from the group and ordered them to be searched, except for the Khajiit. She was to be left alone. Thorin and the other Dwarrow looked at her, she shrugged her shoulders and as the confrontation between elf and Gloin happened she inched her way to Thorin's side.

"Let me do the talking and act like you are my hired men. What they don't know won't kill them." Thorin arched an eyebrow at that, but kept silent as the elf focused his attention back onto them as a group.

"Right then, let's move." He ordered and Sarra crouched down enough hopping that Bilbo would take the hint and jump on. Sure enough she felt a weight settle upon her back and shoulders and rose to her full height again. She was nudged forward by the red headed elf. By being smacked in the butt by the elf's bow. She turned and snarled at her lifting her lips to show off her razor sharp teeth. Her ears flicked back and forth as she felt Bilbo tighten his hold around her neck. Another smack to her hindquarters had her rolling her eyes at the red head. The she elf motioned for her to continue walking behind the rest of the Dwarrow. It wasn't until they were a couple miles in that the Dwarrow realized that Bilbo was missing.

"Where's Bilbo?" Ori called out having looked around for him. Sarra sighed and shook her head at the fools.

"Men, can't work with them, and you can't let them work by themselves." She grumbled, she heard Bilbo try to cover up his snicker and even the red head had smirked at that comment but smacked the Khajiit once again to keep the feline moving.

"Bilbo?" Bofur called out along with Bombur as the two brothers tried to look around the elves for their lost friend. Thorin also looked around but his looking stopped when he noticed that the Khajiit was holding her arms funny. She shook her head at him when he caught her eye. Thorin made a hand motion which was passed back along the line of Dwarrow and the look for Bilbo ceased.

The group walked for over an hour before they reached the castle, nestled into the woods by the rushing river. "Pleasant view, good stock, bad reception. I would give it a five out of ten for the way we are being treated." Sarra commented and was once again smacked in the hindquarters with the bow. She had gotten used to it by now, but she did comment to the elf. "Next time you hit me, I will be expecting some dinner before we continue with the foreplay." The hitting stopped as the she elf backed away slightly from the Khajiit. The group entered into the castle of wood and followed a twisting path to what appeared to be the court room. Sitting high up on a platform over the rushing river was a fair haired elf with a crown upon his brow. He arched one of the brows and rose up tossing off his overcoat to float back to the chair as he moved down the platform to stop before the group.

Sarra felt Bilbo slip off from her back and straightened up before moving to stand beside Thorin and Balin. Both were blocking her from view of the King. "It has been awhile since Thorin Oakenshield has graced these lands east of the mountains." The King elf stated.

Thorin gritted his teeth but Balin beat him to the punchline. "King Thranduil, we are just passing through when we were pulled off the trail by…" Thorin opened his mouth and his voice was stopped by a groan of pain as the Khajiit elbowed him in the stomach.

"Hush, I will do the talking with Balin." Sarra warned as she pushed between them. Thranduil arched his brow once more as the Khajiit stood between the two Dwarrow. She rose a little above them but was still dwarfed by their width as she was slender in the ways of Khajiits. Designed for grace and beauty, as her fur showed the patterns of stripes and spots of black and white. She covered in grime and gore of battles she had yet to clean up from.

"And who might you be, little cat?" Thranduil asked as he stood towering over her. She lifted her chin unafraid of him. Her eyes studied him, sharp in the feline manner of her species.

"I am Sarra Baggins. Daughter of Belladonna Baggins and Bungo Baggins. Archmage of Skyrim, the Listner, and Harbinger, and Master." Sarra stated, bowing low before she continued. "My company of men and I have been asked to travel to these parts of the East searching for new means of buyers, merchants, and wealth." Sarra dug into a side pocket and pulled a beautiful necklace made of diamonds from her pouch. Thranduil reached to take it but it was pulled away by the Khajiit as she stowed it back into her pouch. "We haven't finished our business yet my lord." Sarra stated, she waved behind her. "My men and I have been poorly treated because of something that was not in our power to stop, how is it that we are to be punished for a crime that we were unable to stop?" Sarra watched as Thranduil pulled away from her.

"Your men are Dwarrow and are not welcomed here." The Elf King stated, turning to sit down on his thrown.

"If they are not welcomed, then I shall also not be welcomed." Sarra stated as she turned to head to the back of the group. "Go ahead and toss me in with them. I will just tell my bosses that you were not interested in trading with them." Thranduil huffed and waved his hand to his men. He would get nothing more from her since she was being as her species depicted finicky like a cat. Balin nodded his head and looked at Thranduil.

"I would have to agree with my boss." Balin stated wisely and Thorin nodded his head in agreement to what Balin stated.

"So be it, you will tell me what you want after a few years of rotting in my prison, a hundred years it will be. A hundred years is a blink in the eyes of an elf." Thranduil warned. Followed up by Sarra's retort.

"Then you are truly not living if it is only a blink in your eyes, elf." She followed behind the others, keeping her weapons and other property on herself as the Elves were weary of going near such a finicky beast. They were lead into the dungeon of the castle of the tree as they were dispersed into the cells. Sarra sniffed the air and listened to the sound of her brother following behind them. Sarra snorted as the elves walked right passed her older brother without even noticing him. After the last elf passed and went back upstairs Bilbo came close to his sister's cage and asked.

"What do we do now?"

"We wait." Sarra answered, sitting down on her cot and leaning backwards to listen to what was happening around them. Bilbo sighed and nodded his head in agreement. He too sat down outside the cell and leaned his head back against the bars. "Get some sleep brother, I will wake you when another group of elves comes down to do rounds." Bilbo nodded sleepily and slowly drifted away to the sound of his sister's breathing.