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Chapter 14
"Go now, while you have the light. Your hunters are not far behind," Beorn said to the Company and they rode off on ponies. Emilia looked back at Beorn, gave him one nod of thankfulness and she then rode after the others towards Mirkwood.
Emilia could see the forest as they approached it. It felt so strange, the forest was old but yet very sick. She did not like it. She stepped closer to the border of it. "Emilia, is it something wrong?" Thorin asked her. He touched her shoulder, not wanting her to go in without him.
"This forest feels sick, as if a disease lies upon it," Bilbo said.
"It´s more than a disease," Emilia said and touched the tree. She felt the tree, its fear, but yet its strength. Gandalf walks pass Emilia, interrupting her thoughts and magic.
"Not my horse, I need it!" Gandalf said. Emilia turned and saw they had taken off the saddles of the ponies.
"Are you leaving?" Emilia asked.
"I would not do this unless I had to," Gandalf said and turned to Bilbo. Emilia looked back in the forest and touched the tree again. As soon as she touched it, an eye in flames showed up in her memory.
"I´ll be waiting for you at the overlook, before the slopes of Erebor," Gandalf said. "This is not the Greenwood of old, the very air of the forest is heavy with illusion that will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."
"Lead us astray? What does that mean?" Bilbo asked.
"You must stay on the path, do not leave it," the wizard said and mounted his horse. "If you do, you´ll never find it again." Gandalf turns his horse and rode away from them. "No matter what may come, stay on the path!" He shouts after them.
"Come on," Thorin said. "We must reach the mountain before the sunsets on Durin´s Day." He walked over to the Elven path through Mirkwood. "We got one chance to find the hidden door." They entered the forest and followed the path that leads through it.
Emilia looked around, feeling quite small being here. "This way," Dwalin said. They had been walked for hours, or what it seems like hours. Emilia looked up and tried to see the light, but it was all but dark. She could not see the light through the trees.
"Air," Emilia panted. "I need air."
"My head," Oin said. "It´s spinning, what´s happening?" Emilia crashed into Thorin, as she did not noticed he had stopped. Emilia looked pass him and saw he was looking at a river. Emilia squeezed her eyes and looked around.
"Where now?" Nori asked.
"We have to cross it," Thorin said. Emilia looked up, touched the ground.
"Earth," she whispered. "Let us feel the fresh air from the outside." The trees moved, letting down fresh air at the Company. They could now all think clearer.
"There," Bilbo said and pointed at something across the river. "It´s a boat."
"Don´t touch the water," Balin said. "It doesn´t look well." They got a rope and Fíli tossed it over and it attached to the boat after third try and they got it over to their side.
"I´ll go first," Thorin said. "Balin, Bilbo and Emilia, you come with me." They all three nodded. "Then Fíli, Kili, Oin and Gloin. After them, Dori, Ori, Nori and Bifur. So the rest of you, Bofur, Dwalin and Bombur in the end."
"Why do I always got to be the last?" Bombur asked.
"If you haven´t eaten so much, you wouldn´t be," Bofur said. They took another rope, tossed it over so it got stuck in something. When it did, the first group went first over. Then the second, third, fourth and then it was Bombur´s turn. Emilia paid close attention, to make sure nothing happened.
Bombur was soon over, something made noise behind them and they all turned. From the shadows they saw a red deer running to them, jumping over them all and knocked almost every one of their feet.
Thorin was the one who didn´t lose balance and he grabbed Emilia so she won´t fall. The red deer soon disappeared into the shadows of the forest again. "Bombur!" Emilia called out. They all turned and saw Bombur in the river. The boat was far from him.
"He´s drowning!" Bilbo said. They tossed out the rope and Bombur managed to grab it.
"Get him up!" Thorin ordered. Dwalin, Gloin and Bifur managed to get him up on shore. Bombur was soaking wet, and when they looked down on him… He was sleeping. They tried to wake him up, but nothing helped. Bombur didn´t even released the rope. He was in a heavy sleep with a smile on his face.
"The enchanted river…" Emilia said. "Bloody hell, I should´ve known."
"This is not your fault," Thorin said to her. "We have to keep moving, we´ll carry him four and four." Dwalin, Gloin, Bofur and Bifur were the one who carried him first. Emilia looked back at the enchanted river, and over it she saw a deer family, white as snow. Two grown deer with their children. The two of them looked at her and she smiled at them before she continued after the Company.
Emilia looked into the sack when they took a food break, they were running out of supplies. They have been here for days, they won´t survive much longer unless the borders to east is just around the corner.
Bifur had found something on the ground and picked it up. "Look," Dori said. "A tobacco pouch. There are Dwarves in these woods."
"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less," Bofur said. Emilia sighed and rolled her eyes, feeling the dizziness coming back because of the forest. "This is exactly the same as mine." Bilbo stepped in.
"Because it is yours, do you understand? We´re going around in circles, we are lost!" Bilbo said.
"We are not lost!" Thorin said, too proud to say he truly was. "We keep heading east."
"But which way is the east?" Dwalin asked. "We´ve lost the sun." Emilia looked up at the trees. She touched one tree, hearing the Dwarves bark at each other behind her. She shut them out and tried to get contact with the tree. But the tree was keeping its distance from her. She gave up and turned. Bilbo was gone.
"Where´s Bilbo?" She asked, but they did not hear it.
"I can see a lake!" A voice from above said. Emilia looked up and barely could see Bilbo on top.
"Be quiet!" Thorin yelled. The Dwarves went quiet, and then they heard something in the woods. "Emilia!" Emilia went to his side and they all had their backs to each other. Emilia squeezed her eyes when she saw something in the distance.
"What is that?" She asked. It had eight legs and… "Spiders!" A spider came jumping down on them all, right on Emilia. She tried to get off, but then she felt a pain in her back and everything went black… Again.
Emilia opened her eyes and saw only white. It was some sticky white fabric that covered her. She tried to move and then she managed to see through it. She saw another Dwarf right before, by the look of his eyes it was Thorin.
"Emilia," Thorin whispered.
"Thorin," Emilia said. She tried to get lose, but nothing worked. She then focused, tried to get rid of the panic that rose in her chest. She then saw Thorin fall, and then she fell down slowly and landed on someone.
Emilia got her hands free and the webs away from her head. She had landed on another Dwarf and she took away the webs from his face. She had landed on Thorin. "Sorry," she said. Thorin grabbed around her with a smile on his face. "What?" He rolled her over so he was on top.
"All right love birds," Dwalin said. "We´re being attacked here." They looked at him and saw Spiders approach them. Thorin sighed. Emilia grabbed Thorin and pressed their lips together. Emilia smiled shyly.
"Sorry," she said and got him off. They both got off the web and they reached for their weapons, just in time when a spider approached them. They both stabbed the spider. A spider grabbed Emilia and dragged her away from Thorin. Gloin jumped on the spider, stabbing it while Oin stabbed it in his neck.
"Clear," Thorin said. They all looked up and saw more spiders coming down. One spider dropped dead before Emilia. She looked around and saw Elves coming fast, killing the Spiders and then pointing their arrows at them.
"Don´t think I won´t kill you, Dwarf. It would be my pleasure," one Elf said, aiming at Thorin. Emilia looked at the Elf and couldn´t help but smile. She covered her mouth with her hand, to try stopping smiling. She knew who this was, Legolas son of King Thranduil. "Search them!" Legolas ordered the Elves.
The Elves took their weapons and Kili was reunited with the Company with a female warrior. One Elf looked at her and said few words on Elven to Legolas. Legolas approached her and looked at Emilia. The Elf tried to take her sack.
"Don´t even think about it!" She warned the Elf.
"Emilia," Thorin said. She looked at him. "It´s all right." She sighed heavily and gave the Elf her sack, plus her sword. Legolas commanded the Elves to take them to the palace.
They approached the gates and Emilia looked around, seeing the beauty of the forest. The Palace was build in some sort of a cave, what they walked on was a branch like bridges. Emilia and the Dwarves were brought to the cells while Thorin were brought before the King of the woodland realm.
The cell closed for Emilia, but she turned when she sensed someone behind her. There stood Legolas, looking at her. "What is your name?" He asked her.
"Go to hell," she said. Legolas smiled. "I mean it, but first set us free!" Legolas opened the cell again.
"You´re coming with me," he said.
"Why?" She asked, not planning on leaving.
"Do as he says, Emilia," Balin said.
"No," she said.
"Emilia…" Balin said. She sighed.
"Fine…" Legolas took Emilia before him and then they walked. "Where are you taking me?"
"Before the King," Legolas said. Emilia looked shocked, worried too. She got to the throne room and saw Thorin talking to the King. Two guards then grabbed Thorin and dragging him backwards down the stairs. The two guards stopped when met with Legolas and Emilia.
Thorin got off the Elves hold and Emilia went in his arms. "Are you hurt?" He asked. "Did they hurt you?" Emilia barely smiled.
"They can try," she said. "I´m fine." The two Elven guards grabbed Thorin again and dragged him to his cell; even he tried to get back to Emilia.
Emilia was placed before the throne. King Thranduil looked at her, she did not like being under his look. Legolas and King Thranduil talked on Elven tongue. "How about being polite, which I know you aren´t anyway, and talk on a language we all understand," Emilia said. They both turned to her.
"Miss Emilia Taylor," King Thranduil said.
"How do you know my last name?" She asked.
"Because we have another Taylor here," the King said. Emilia did not understand. An Elven woman came behind Emilia, slowly walking around her to get a look of her. The woman looked wide-eyed at her. Emilia looked up at her and took one shocking step back.
"This cannot be," Emilia whispered.
"Emilia," the woman said. The woman was an Elf; Emilia could see that, she had long blond hair that was perfectly healthy. She had this beautiful Elven dress in green and brown.
"Emma…" Emilia whispered. Emma, her older sister, smiled and laughed.
"I can´t believe you´re here," Emma said and was about to take one step forward to hug her little sister, but Emilia took another step back.
"And I can´t believe you are alive!" She yelled at her. Legolas and King Thranduil looked at each other, hoping for a better reunion for the sisters. "What magic is this?"
"The same magic that brought you here too," Emma said. "Are you dead in our old world?"
"No, I´m not!" Emilia did not keep her voice down. She turned and crossed her arms. "You can take me back to my cell."
"Emilia…" Emma whispered. "Please, you must understand."
"No!" Emilia screamed at her. "You´re dead!"
"I´m not, I am very much alive," Emma said.
"No! You are dead! You are dead for me! For Jack! For everyone we ever know! Especially for me!"