Chapter 14: Mirkwood Part 2: Separation

They were determined to find Thorin and Kira that day. Fili had woken the dwarves and Bilbo up as soon as there was any light at all in the forest. The dwarves and Bilbo had eaten a meager mouthful before they began planning. Nori, Dori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur busied themselves with consolidating their packs while Fili, Bilbo, Dwalin, Balin, and Kili were standing in a circle quietly discussing how they were going to go about finding Thorin and Kira without getting lost.

"We can't rely on the sun for direction here," said Balin in a stern voice, "so we will need to find someway to keep our bearings."

"I can't climb these trees, if that's what you are asking of me," Bilbo said sourly. "I could hardly climb up with Kira's help."

"Well, we know that this river divides the land," said Fili thoughtfully as he stroked his beard and looked out at the trees and river opposite him, "so we need to maintain contact with this landmark."

"We could sweep the forest in a radius from us," Dwalin huffed, "S'long as we keep visual contact."

"That radius won't be very far with these trees," Balin pointed out.

They all stared at their boots deep in thought. This was going to be tough.

"How much rope do we have?" asked Kili with a hopeful look on his face.

"Not enough for that," said Fili as he dropped his hand to his side. He understood right away what his brother was thinking. He remembered that they had taken a few good lengths of rope with them from Beorn's house, but they did not have enough to make lines that would go further than a few yards for any one dwarf.

"What about a vocal signal, then?" asked Balin. "We can shout every few paces and turn back if we don't hear a response." They all considered this for a moment.

"Might be the best option," agreed Dwalin. He and his brother looked to Fili.

"You're right, of course," Fili said. "That's what we'll do, then." He turned to the hobbit, "Bilbo, you stay here with the packs. Every time someone calls, you respond. Understood?"

"Of course," said the hobbit as he fiddled with his fingers nervously, "Though I suspect we should stay in pairs, just to be safe."

"Very well. Bofur will stay with you," Fili replied. The circle broke up and they relayed their plan to the rest of the company. Bilbo and Bofur stacked the packs neatly by the river.

The next few hours passed very noisily, and Bilbo began to wonder if this was a good idea at all. While the forest didn't seem to house wildlife that would out right attack them, he didn't like the idea of the whole forest knowing where they were. Also, if Kira or Thorin had been near, they should have definitely heard them by now.

In spite of repeating this plan again twice, each time further down the river, they had no luck. The light was beginning to fade and it was becoming clearer that they had wasted their day in futile effort. In low spirits, one by one the dwarves returned back to the river where Bilbo and Bofur had the rationed food ready.

Fili had been the last to return and in the worst mood. He was at a loss. While he didn't think that Thorin and Kira could have gone very far in such a short time, he also didn't believe that they would have sat still for an entire day. Since Thorin was well traveled and Kira was so nimble in the trees, he did not suspect that they had gotten lost. This left one of two options: either Kira and Thorin had gone further east and passed the river already, or some horrible fate had befallen them.

The latter thought was too much for Fili to accept. If they were any other people in Middle Earth, he would suspect the worst, but since these were two people that he cared for most, he preferred to think they had kept going. He voiced this thought to the rest of the company who agreed. It had not yet gotten so dark they couldn't see, so they resolved to cross the river that day and wait for morning to make haste for the East.

Fili and Kili scouted the riverbanks for some means of crossing, since the river was far too wide to jump.

"Mind you, Beorn said to stay out of the water," Balin reminded them. "Or some horrible enchantment might be cast on us."

The brothers peered forward as well as they could to the other side of the river. Though Fili and Kili had good eyes, they could hardly see the other side in the gloom of Mirkwood. It was Bilbo, in fact, who first spotted the boat at the other side.

"There is a boat against the far bank!" he cried as leaned forward as much as he dared. "If only it could have been on this side!" Bilbo pointed furiously at the far bank.

"Is it tied?" Fili asked as he walked to where the hobbit was standing. He could sort of see a dark shape that could be the boat. He guessed it was, based on where Bilbo was pointing. "How far would you say it is?" he asked.

"Twelve yards, I'd say," said Bilbo. "Could one of you toss a rope? I don't believe it's tied, though there is one way to find out."

Fili looked to his brother, who shrugged his shoulders and raised an eyebrow in response. "I'll give it a try," Fili said at last. Kili sprinted to the pile of supplies nearby and grabbed several ropes and a large iron hook. He handed these to his brother who was squinting at the dark shadow on the far side of the bank. He imagined tossing the hook to the boat several times before he actually took the rope and hook from his brother. He fastened the hook to one end of the rope and checked that the length was well over twelve yards. He balanced the hook in his hand for a moment then flung it across the stream.

Sploosh! "Not far enough!" Bilbo chimed. "A few more feet and you would have dropped it on the boat." Fili pulled the hook back from the water carefully as to not touch the wet rope with anything but his gloves. He threw it again, this time with greater strength.

"Steady!" Bilbo shouted. "You have thrown it right into the wood on the other side. Draw it back gently and, with any luck, it should fall into the boat and catch."

Fili pulled it back slowly this time and the rope went taut. Fili kept pulling, but the boat wouldn't budge.

"So it is tied after all," he said a little annoyed. Kili came to his aid and then a few minutes later, so did Oin and Gloin. After some struggle from those four, they heard a snap as the boat ripped free from the ties. The four dwarves fell on their backs and Bilbo was left to catch the boat before it floated off.

"Help!" he squeaked. Dwalin and Balin quickly swooped in and helped Bilbo to steady the boat.

"Good work, lads," said Dwalin. "Now who shall cross first?" The boat was far too small to carry them all at once, after all.

"I'll go first, with Kili, Bilbo, you and Balin," said Fili, "We'll check the far bank and signal the rest to come. After the signal, Oin, Gloin, Dori, and Bifur will cross with our supplies. Nori, Ori, Bofur, and Bombur will be last with the food.

"How are we going to send the boat back?" Bilbo asked after glancing inside the boat. "There aren't any oars."

"Give me another hook and another length of rope," Fili ordered to his brother. Kili already had another set ready and handed these to him. Fili threw the rope as high and as far as he could. He pulled till the rope went taut, assumingly because it was struck in the trees at the far side of the river.

"There," he said to Bilbo with a satisfied smirk. "Get in the boat and we will use this to pull us across. The lads will take hold of the first rope and use that to retrieve the boat once we've crossed."

In this way, the first boatload crossed over. They scouted about quickly since night was creeping upon them. Kili gave a long, low whistle once they had checked the immediate area. The second boatload crossed without difficulty, and Nori, Ori, Bofur, and Bombur pulled the boat back for their turn.

"Quickly!" Fili yelled. It was getting to be so dark that he couldn't see the dwarves on the far bank anymore.

Fili heard a splash and shouting coming from the other side. Fear seized him as he could only imagine that the sounds meant that the remaining dwarves had all fallen in the river, along with all their food. He cursed his stupidity upon realizing his mistake and waited in breathless silence for any signs of the dwarves. There was nothing he could do from this side of the river.

After what felt like an eternity, the company could see Nori and Ori pulling themselves toward the bank. Bofur and Bombur were wet and unconscious on the floor of the boat.

"What happened?" Dwalin demanded as they helped the dwarves out of the boat.

Nori was shaken. His eyes were wide and his expression was grim. "I-I don't know," he stammered, "One minute we are getting in the boat, the next Bombur and Bofur are scrambling off after their packs in the river."

"We only barely fished them out in time, else we would have been swept away ourselves," Ori added. He, too, looked shaken by the experience, like he'd seen a ghost.

"What about the packs, then?" Fili demanded.

Silence. The dwarves looked to the river as the answer to Fili's question clicked in their brains.

"Curse your clumsiness!" Fili shouted in rage at the unconscious dwarves that now lay on the ground by the river. He made a motion as though he would strike Bombur in his sleep, but of course he did not. He stamped off and punched at the air. "And curse my stupidity for leaving the food in your care!" He was especially angry with himself.

"How much do we have left?" Balin calmly asked Nori and Ori.

"Just my pack is left," Nori said in despair. "And that's only half-full." Just thinking about only having less than one pack of food to feed twelve dwarves and a hobbit for weeks was miserable enough, much less actually living it.

"It'll have to do till we get out of this forest, at least," Balin replied with a grim look.

Fili sighed as he calmed himself down. So far all he'd proven to be capable of doing as a leader was losing Thorin and Kira, losing a day trying to find them, and losing the food trying to get them through the forest. He was beginning to fear that this was only a taste of what the rest of the quest would bring as long as he was in charge of the company.

"Let's get some sleep then," Fili said bitterly to the dwarves and Bilbo. "We can't do anymore tonight." He turned to his brother, "Kili, take first watch."

They dragged Bombur and Bofur to their new camp area and arranged themselves to sleep around them. Kili took his post on the edge of their group after doing one last count (by touch) to ensure they hadn't lost anyone again.

It was just past midnight when Ori, whose turn it was to watch, saw lights dancing in the distance. At first, he thought it was the darkness playing tricks on his mind, but the lights only grew more vibrant as time passed. He was beginning to think that perhaps it was a campfire, or the light of several torches. It was hard to say because they were so far away, and yet Ori could see them so clearly. The lights showed no signs of extinguishing, so he decided it would be best to wake the company.

"Lads! Wake up! I see a curious twinkle in the distance," he shouted to the group. They each woke up, except for Bofur and Bombur, of course, who were still under their bewitchment.

"What is it, laddie?" Balin asked as he rubbed his eyes and walked over.

"Those lights have been blazing for a while," Ori said as he pointed off in the distance. "It might be other travelers, or a fire of some sort."

"What do you propose we do?" Balin asked.

Fili thought for a moment before answering. He was not about to lead them into another disaster, but if it were other travelers, it would be prudent to travel through the forest together, since they no longer had much food.

Oh how he wished Thorin were there to make the decisions and plans!

"If we go, we shall have to go together," Fili said cautiously. "We can't afford to lose anyone else."

"Reasonable enough," Oin yawned. The dwarves and Bilbo gathered up their few supplies and set out as quietly as they could toward the light.

Nori, Dori, Bifur, and Gloin took turns carrying Bofur and Bombur. Bifur primarily carried his fatter cousin. He felt a familial obligation to carry both of the sleeping dwarves, but settled for just carrying Bombur since Bofur was not as much of a burden on the other dwarves.

As the company drew closer, they could see a circle of fallen trees lined with torches. Inside the ring were a great many elves all dressed in green and brown, dancing about, eating and drinking merrily. There was a fire at the center of the ring and a table lined with many delicious looking foods. At the table sat two light-haired elves among a crowd of dark-haired ones. One of these light-haired elves had a crown of thin branches and leaves on his head and was clearly the king of these woodland elves.

The smells of roasted meat hit them all at once and they became overwhelmed with the desire to lunge forward and take the meat right off the table. It did not take long for the dwarves and Bilbo to lose their wits and rush towards the beautiful scene, even with two of two of them carrying Bofur and Bombur on their backs.

"Stop!" Fili shouted once he'd realized what they were doing. The elf king looked him straight in the eye before vanishing, taking the entire scene with him. In the newly blackened night, Fili could still feel the king's icy gaze on him as he stumbled around to find his company.

After much bumbling around in the dark, crashing into trees, and knocking each other over, the dwarves and Bilbo managed to find each other well enough for Fili to count them by touch. There was nothing for them to do but settle in and wait till morning. They were so flustered and bewildered by the enchantments they'd encountered in the past day that they forgot to have someone take watch entirely. They each leaned against the fallen trees and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Bilbo had been dreaming of the smell of bacon and eggs wafting through his kitchen at Bag End, when he felt something sticky against his hand. At first he tried to wipe it away and return to his dream, but he found that he just kept feeling stickier. With much effort, he roused himself from his dream to find that he was being wrapping in sticky string by a gigantic spider.

With a yelp, Bilbo ripped his sword from his trousers and fought furiously for his life. The spider hissed in surprise and tried several times to stick Bilbo with his fangs, but the hobbit narrowly escaped each jab. With a lucky stab, he got the spider right in his eye and sent it shrieking and dancing in pain. He killed it with one more wild stroke. His legs shook vigorously and tried to bring him back down to the ground. His head was woozy as he'd never felt before, and he was having a hard time focusing his mind. He placed a hand on the tree to steady himself.

Looking down at his sword again and at the dead spider lying nearby brought Mr. Baggins back to his senses. Somehow killing a spider all on his own without the help of the dwarves or Gandalf or anyone else did wonders for his spirit. He certainly felt a fiercer hobbit than the one that had left the Shire, once his head had settled at least.

The dim morning sunlight bathed the surrounding trees in a soft, grim glow. He realized now that he was in fact alone at the base of the tree. He wiped his sword off on the grass next to him. "I shall call you Sting," Bilbo said to his sword as he placed it back in the scabbard, "For that spider did not expect you to sting so." He looked up at the tree tops and noticed, for the first time, that there was a pattern of webbing that gathered more so on one side than the other of each of the nearest trees. If the dwarves had been taken in the same manner that the spider had tried to take Bilbo, the webs were as good of a place as any to try and find them. He slipped on his ring and crept off.

It was purely by luck that Bilbo found the dark nest of webs in the trees. The webbing made a dark patch in the forest, like a spot of midnight that never went away. As silently as he could, which was very quiet even as far as hobbits go, Bilbo made his way through the thick webbing. Suddenly, he saw huge and horrible spiders sitting in the trees above him speaking to one another in creaking and hissing sounds. Ring or no ring, he very nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized that they were talking about the dwarves.

"It was a sharp struggle, but worth it," said one. "What nasty thick skins they have to be sure, but I'll wager there is good juice inside."

There were a handful of spiders gathered near several bundles of webbing. As Bilbo climbed quietly up, he could see bits of dwarf poking through the bundles of thread.

"They'll make fine eating when they've hung a bit," said another spider leaning in toward one of the bundles. Bilbo noticed a boot poking out of the bottom of the cocoon as the spider poked at it. The dwarf inside struggled and kicked much to the delight of the spiders.

"This one is alive and kicking!" the first spider cackled.

"Kill 'em! Kill 'em dead now!" said a third. "They won't mind if we start without them."

The other spiders made no motion to stop this third spider from approaching their prey. Bilbo saw that he had to do something now if he was going to save his friends. He hopped down and gathered up a few good stones from the forest floor and started chucking them at the spiders. He had practiced throwing stones quite a bit as a boy and was a fairly good shot. He hit the nearest spider square on his back, which startled all three of them.

While the spiders could not see Bilbo, they could guess from where the stones came from. With several hisses and cries they darted down the trees and headed toward him. Bilbo, however, slipped away to a different place as soon as he saw the spiders heading toward him. He would need to find some way to keep them occupied for a while if he was to have time to cut the dwarves out. He threw some more stones at the spiders that had remained in the tree and then more after the ones he'd hit initially. He started singing and dancing as he ran through the trees, invisible but infuriating to the spiders:

Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can't see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won't you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me?
Old Tomnoddy, all big body,
Old Tomnoddy can't spy me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Down you drop!
You'll never catch me up your tree!

He had the spiders good and flustered now. He tossed a bit more foliage just to be sure the spiders would still look for him away from the tree before scampering up to the dwarves as quickly and quietly as he could.

Back up in the tree, he found twelve cocoons of webbing. The first one he chose to cut open was Fili, since he recognized the dwarf's long nose sticking out of the nearest bundle right away and because he knew Fili could be counted upon to quickly and quietly help him cut open the rest of the bundles.

Bilbo sliced with Sting lengthwise down the cocoon and slowly lowered Fili to the branch. Fili groaned a little as the blood rushed back to his head and he steadied himself. He moved on quietly to the next bundle along the tree branch. Between the two of them, they managed to cut the dwarves out fairly quickly. Some of them fell straight to the ground and were luckily slowed by the mess of webs below them. They had just cut out the last dwarf when the spiders could be heard creeping back.

"There is no time to explain," Bilbo whispered furiously to Fili, "I'm going to distract the spiders again while you lead everyone away. I'll meet up with you all very soon."

"You'll be killed!" Fili whispered back, a little shocked at the hobbit's plan to sacrifice himself, "We'll fend them off together."

"No! Do as I say," as he said this, Bilbo slipped the ring back on and vanished. He knew that he would have much explaining to do now, but as he'd said, there was no time. He ran off back down to the ground and started up his singing and rock throwing again.

Fili stared at the spot that Bilbo had stood for a moment, his mouth agape as if his words were caught in his throat. Once he heard Bilbo's voice, he came back to his senses and did as Bilbo had instructed him.

Down the dwarves went as quickly as they could, many of them still groggy and stumbling from the poison. Fili lead them away from Bilbo's singing as quickly as he could, but he worried that Bilbo would not be able to find them again. It was already midafternoon, and Mirkwood was impossible to navigate in the dark.

"Come on, lads, keep going," Fili stage-whispered to the dwarves as they ran past him. Fili followed the dwarves but hung back a little, scanning the trees for any sign of Bilbo. He had been looking back when he heard the shouts and protestations of the dwarves ahead. He turned back and stopped short. An arrow was pointed right at his chest and a second was drawn on the left side of his face.

The company had run straight into a small army of elves lead by a light-haired elf, the prince Fili recognized to be from the feast they had run into the night before. His face and body went rigid as the gravity of the situation sunk in. He clenched his hands into fists that stayed rigid at his sides as he was searched involuntarily and bound.

He now understood exactly what must have happened to Thorin and Kira, a fact that made his blood boil with rage. These elves would not have the satisfaction of seeing him beg or bargain. They would pay for what they are doing and for what they did to Thorin and Kira.

Bilbo, still invisible, had caught up to the company in time to see them be overtaken by the woodland elves. He ran after them as a sinking feeling settled in his stomach. How would they ever leave this forsaken forest now?

The events with the spiders had not yet happened when Kira and Thorin were escorted to the Mirkwood realm. They could only know (or hoped) that the rest of the company had continued on through the forest and were almost free of its malevolent energy. As soon as the pair had entered the kingdom, their lungs swelled with the fresh air in the caves, for these were not goblin caves or dark, dreary caves at all. These were the halls of the woodland elves, whom were very civilized in spite of the state of the rest of the forest. As such, their kingdom was beautifully kept and well lit.

As soon as the hunting party had crossed the first bridge within the kingdom, the two dark-haired elves carrying Thorin led him up while Legolas took Kira down to the lower dungeons. With her brain newly rejuvenated with fresh oxygen, she realized that this might be her only chance to negotiate with this elf who clearly had high status in this kingdom.

"We are only travelers, sir," she said to him in as respectful of a voice she could muster while being tied. He did not acknowledge her, but she pressed on anyway. "We did not mean to intrude, we only got lost. My people care deeply for the forest and-"

"I know your people," he cut her off. "And you may save your breath for your lies are wasted on me." His voice was icy cold and his face was completely expressionless. Kira went silent, shocked at how hostile these elves were being.

They had reached a tall windowless door that Legolas commanded another elf to unlock. He shoved Kira inside, cut her binds, and closed the door. Kira heard the pins of the door lock back in place and the elves walk back up the stairs from where they'd come. For the first time in a very long time, Kira heard absolutely nothing, and the silence was deafening. She rubbed her wrists, then her shoulder blade. Her tattoo had scabbed over and was now flaking off, leaving her skin very itchy.

The cell was small for a Big Person, but not terribly cramped for her. Kira had enough space to spread out on the floor beside the door without being seen. Light entered the cell from the space between the door and the ceiling, a crack only about 3 inches wide. This left several dark areas that she could easily hide in. The cell itself was completely unadorned and windowless. The only furniture was a bedroll in the far corner and two blankets. Kira did not touch these. She sat next to the door and waited silently, scarcely breathing, listening for any sign of or any word on where Thorin was. She was more worried for his safety than hers.

Thorin's face went taut and deliberately expressionless when he saw the elves separate him from Kira. Their behavior was utterly inexcusable. These elves should be offering hospitality to those who get lost in their miserable forest, not arresting them. He would not forget this. He would be damned if they extracted any information from him concerning Erebor, his company, or their quest.

After being taken up many flights of stairs and across many landings, Thorin was led straight to the elf-king, Thranduil, so easily spotted for his crown of leaves and thin silver branches. He sat upon a lavishly carved wooden throne in a splendid hall. Thorin was set to kneel at his feet, an action that they had to forcibly bend him to do.

Thranduil leaned forward in his throne and looked sternly at Thorin below him. "Why did your folk attack my people during their merrymaking?" he asked in a hard voice.

This caught Thorin off guard. He, after all, had no idea what the king was accusing him of. He narrowed his eyes at the elf, suspicious of his agenda. "I know not what you speak of," he replied.

"Do not feign ignorance, Thorin Son of Thrain, for I witnessed the attack myself," Thranduil said. His face had creased in annoyance and he glared at Thorin now. "I do not believe for one moment that you are innocent in this." Thranduil stood up and walked beside Thorin, as if he were studying him. Thorin said nothing. He only stared on ahead, refusing to give Thranduil any of his knowledge.

"Why are you and your people here?" the elf-king asked.

"We were lost." Thorin replied without emotion.

"More lies. We have your vermin guide, so there is no hiding that you are here with the intent to create mischief for my people." Thranduil stopped behind the dwarf. "How low the King Under the Mountain has sunk, indeed," he said caustically.

Thranduil turned to the guard. "Take him away and keep him in the lower dungeon till he feels inclined to tell the truth." Thranduil returned to his throne in a huff. He watched Thorin be dragged away and could not help but call out after him to drive his point further: "A hundred years is but the blink of an eye in the life of an elf!"

Thorin shouted back angrily in Khuzdul knowing full well that the elves would not understand. He was too angry to form appropriate words in the common tongue.

Thorin was dragged down many stairs, so many that he knew he must be far away from the entrance and deep within the elf caves. Once they'd approached the lowest dungeon, one of the guards unlocked a large, thick door while another cut Thorin's binds and stripped him of his coat and mail. He was left with nothing but his pants, boots, and shirt and was shoved into the cell. The door locked behind him.

Thorin walked forward to the opposite wall, put his back against it, and slid down with a sigh. He could not begin to imagine how he would escape from this, nor what they had done with Kira. He looked around the dimly cell. Thorin had only just noticed the bedroll and blankets off to his right when he heard a familiar voice from the shadows.

"Thorin?" Kira whispered as she stood up and went to him. A smile of relief broke across his face as he stood up and hugged her tightly. She was overjoyed to see that he was unharmed. They may be captured by enemy elves with no means of escaping, but at least they were together and each knew that the other was safe.

Author: Sorry for the delay; this ended up being a pretty lengthy chapter. I hope you enjoyed it! I look forward to your comments. :)

To Guest Reviewer:

Chapter 7-True, but they were lucky that that didn't happen. :)
Chapter 8-Haha, as with that reviewer, I can't really answer without giving something away, but I am happy you are enjoying the story. :D
Chapter 9-Hmm, I hadn't actually thought about Kira's infatuation with Thorin as being like the hero-worship that Eowyn had for Aragorn, but I do see the parallels now that you mention it (maybe and unconscious thing on my part .). Though, the reason why Kira likes him so much will become more apparent as she grows to understand her feelings more, and it will prove to be very different from the Eowyn/Aragorn dynamics.
Chapter 10- D'aww thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to review each chapter, so no apologies needed! I'm glad you like the back story. I've always felt that Beorn was a gaping hole in Tolkien's works (I mean, he inexplicably finds men that can turn into bears after BoFA, after all) and I wanted my OC's back story and people's history to fill some of that hole. That's what FanFiction is for, after all! I am just happy that other people like my version of it. ^.^
Chapter 11- Haha, neither did I :) Yes, Kira is a little naive since her people stay even more secluded than hobbits. On the topic of the possessiveness, there is actually a long answer to why I chose to have Fili exhibit his affection for her in that way. Dwarf women are rarely seen outside of dwarf kingdoms and are guarded very fiercely. However, they are also are the ones to initiate marriage proposals, rather than the males, which tells me that marriage isn't the wife becoming property of her husband as the guarding would lead you to think. Since Tolkien has written the primary characteristic of a dwarf to be greed, as other characters describe it, anyway, I extended that to other domains of their lives including their women. I imagine that dwarf men guard their women so fiercely out of love rather than possession, since dwarf women do have the upper hand domestically and ther eare so few of them in the first place. This is entirely different from nomad culture, of course, so the depth of Fili asking that vague question of her is lost on Kira.
Chapter 12- Thanks! And yes, she has already shown that she has a high tolerance for pain, so what's a little tattoo? :)
Chapter 13-So, they do recognize her, they just aren't on friendly terms. Since this note is already rather long, I'll include the reason behind that at the end of the next chapter, which would answer your question about the trees as well. I normally write very dense and technical psychology papers, actually. This is the first time I've written a narrative in at least six years, so any and all feedback or suggestions to improve my writing are very much appreciated! I will definitely take your suggestion and try to work more on the details in the dialogue scenes. As far as Kira's infatuation with Thorin, you'll see more about that soon. :) Lol, yeah I thought the brooding was a bit much in the movies, but at the same time Thorin went through a lot of shit all at once starting in his 50s, so basically when he was an adolescent in dwarf years. He definitely would have some issues as he got closer to the mountain, so I decided to reconcile the two versions of him into a (hopefully) more believable character by using the diathesis-stress model of psychopathology.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful reviews! I am happy that you feel my story is good enough to think on so much. I very much look forward to your reactions to this chapter!

To SleepySandman: Thank you! You are always so kind. I hope to use more of her language as the story goes on. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

To Reaverattack: Lots of Fili in this chapter! Though not much Kira. I will explain why the trees are so spiteful at the end of the next chapter. :) Hope you enjoyed!

As always, thank you all for favoriting/following/reviewing/reading! And thank you, Dwarrow Scholar, for all your dwarf-related knowledge :D