"Yay!" Fili and Kili cheered, still enthralled by the brief history she had offered them. Thorin nodded solemnly, his interest more reserved but still present.
"Well then, here is the tale of the hobbit and the enchanted forest. It was told to me in a letter sent by one of my more far-traveling kin, who had it from elves." Raising a questioning brow in response to the scowl Thorin had given at the mention of the fair folk, when he offered no explanation she began to weave her story with many gestures and mysterious expressions. "Long ago, a hobbit got the urge to go a-wandering, and though many of his elders had cautioned him against it, he made his way into a nearby forest. The elders were all afraid, none dared to go after him, for it was said that many spells lay on the wood, and that monsters would hide waiting in the trees." Fili and Kili gasped softly, while Thorin just rolled his eyes in a patronizing fashion.
"He walked for a long while through the sunlit glades, feeling very brave and thinking there was nothing much scary at all about the woods. In a bout of confidence, the little hobbit decided to teach his fearful relatives a lesson, and fell asleep under a nearby tree to wait for night fall before returning home. He woke from a delightful snooze to a reddening sky, and the strangest sounds he had ever heard in his young life. Creaks and moans and horrible snapping noises came from the trees, as if they trembled in a great wind, but there was no breeze to speak of. All the animals had run and hid, leaving the hobbit in a panic to find his way home. He turned every which way, looking for the path he had followed in...but it was gone!"
Fili and Kili were clutching each other fearfully, while Thorin looked torn between unease and disapproval, finally getting into the story. "The little hobbit lad was just about to pick a direction and run when the loudest creaking of all stopped right behind him. He froze, becoming as still as only hobbits can and trying to blend into the ground. 'What have we here?' a voice called, sounding like the rustling of leaves. Doing the only thing he could, the hobbit turned, looking up and up and up, and marveling at the sight before him. A living, breathing tree, crowned with berries of brightest red and with eyes the green of fresh moss. The giant gazed down at this tiny intruder, waiting patiently as her kind were wont to do. 'I'm a hobbit,' the little one squeaked, staring in awe. He let out a yelp of surprise when the massive branching fingers reached down to scoop him up, holding him aloft to better examine him. 'Are you an ent?' he asked the tree, recognizing the figure as a tree herder from one of his books. 'I am an entwife,' she corrected him patiently, her voice slow and lilting as if ready to break into ponderous song."
"Are they real?" Thorin asked wonderingly, forgetting himself for a moment.
"Aye, that they are," Mara said softly, coming to the end of her story. "When it became clear that the gentle forest guardian was not going to eat him, the little hobbit became quite talkative. They chatted the evening away and long into the night besides, parting at last when dawn stretched pale fingers across the sky. The entwife had shown her small companion the way home, and he scampered eagerly to his smial to tell his family all about his new friend. He was a little discouraged at first when no one believed his tale, but he continued to go back for many days, whiling the summer hours away in deep conversation with his friend. One day, about a year after their first meeting, she was nowhere to be found. Though the hobbit came back many times, searching high and low, he never saw the guardian again. Some say she still wanders the far reaches of the forest, searching for the other ents that she claimed were lost to her long ago."
The dwarves were silent as her voice died out softly, each looking thoughtful in their own way as they absorbed the story. "That was sad," Fili decided at last. "That she went away," he clarified.
"Do you think there are any in our forest?" Kili piped up hopefully, looking ready to go out at once and begin a search.
Thorin chuckled at his nephews enthusiasm. "Perhaps there are," he placated the small dwarf. "We cannot go looking right this second though, you will have to wait until you are bigger."
Instead of answering, Kili got up and began insistently tugging his brother out of the room. "Where are you going?" Mara called after them, concerned that they would ignore their uncle's commands.
"Gonna make an entwife," Kili said determinedly, running down the hall with Fili close behind.
"Make an entwife...?" Thorin puzzled aloud.
Mara sighed. "I'll go see what he was talking about."
She had just reached the door when Thorin called after her. "It was a nice story." He cleared his throat gruffly at her surprise, staring towards the blankets pooled around him so that he missed the small smile flickering across her face as she left the room.
Author's note: This chapter was heavily inspired by the hobbits meeting with Treebeard in the Two Towers. I thought perhaps long ago the old forest near the Shire and Fangorn may have been connected, and maybe when loggers chopped down enough of the trees to separate the two places this was when the ents and entwives lost each other. It's sort of a fanciful tale, and probably won't have any relevance later in the story, but then again, you never know.
