Chapter 36: Spiders and Flies

This seemed to take forever and it did take forever. I never seemed to get to the end of it, but after checking the word count I now understand why. This is around four times the length of one of my normal chapters. Think of it as a four in one.

I hope everybody likes spiders.

"Thorin!?...THORIN!"

She screamed at the top of her voice, but all she got in reply was silence.

Thorin was gone. And she was alone, completely alone.

A sob racked her body.

"Dammit all!"

Bella cursed under her breath.

It had been hours.

Her head swung to the left, then to the right. There were few choices she had the option to make.

The darkness was fading, dawn was near. It seemed now an age from when she had awoke to find Thorin missing.

She had little time.

Her cursing continued as she scrambled to the nearest tree and began to heave herself up using what holds in the bark she could find in the half-light.

Her arms trembled with the effort, new scratches were drawn onto her skin. She climbed up and up, her breathing laboured and her ascent not eased by the stained sword she stubbornly kept in her grip.

Her blood rushed loudly in her ears, but over the noise she could still hear them drawing nearer.

Over the course of the night she had become even more wild looking. Her waistcoat was more torn, her face more dirtied, and all over she was clung to by thick sticky webs. The hours had not been easy. While she could not find her companions she had stumbled now deep into a place where danger crawled everywhere - both over the ground and through the trees.

When she had first bumbled through an old great web strung between the trees and had spluttered and scrabbled to get the stuff off her face and out of her month she had almost stopped and thought about turning around, but she hadn't, no voice in her mind had suggested she went back.

As she had progressed the webs had gotten thicker, sticker, newer. Sometimes she had gotten stuck and needed to cut herself free with her sword. Sometimes she had used her blade for other purposes. Not all webs were unoccupied.

She was a different person alone in the dark without any hope of help from a wizard or the company or anyone else: she was bolder, fiercer, quicker to strike, and it had saved her life many a time.

Bella pulled a broken web off her front and gasped silently as she pushed herself up to stand leaning against the trunk of the tree on the thick branch she had just heaved herself on to. Her legs trembled from exhaustion, and her breathing came shallow as she fought to remain as quiet as possible. She pressed her back against the tree, closed her eyes and listened.

The forest was almost silent. Somewhere above the trees a cold wind rustled the leaves. Beneath the trees the forest was still, a mist hanging damp in the air. She adjusted her grip on the sword in her hand.

'Eeeeeeeeack!'

Bella's eyes snapped open as she drew a sharp breath. Peering down to the forest floor she could just about make out the dark forms of two groups of spiders as they meet under the tree, each having come from an opposition direction. The creatures halted to inspect each other, pincers clicking away, before scuttled off through the undergrowth.

Bella let out the breath she had been holding as the creatures moved out of sight and their sounds faded once more. Her shoulders slumped in relief and her grip on her blade relaxed slightly as she lifted her gaze from the forest floor to rest her head back against the tree tru- "AH!"

Her fingers fumbled for a split second to tighten their hold before her blade cut through the air.

A spider had descended from the higher branches on a rope of silk.

Her strike should have killed it, but a misplaced foot on the branch made her stumble momentarily, and her aim was thrown. The eight-legged monster screeched loudly and fell down onto the branch as she struggled to regain her balance. There were a few scary seconds where her breath caught and her mind went blank and her heart dropped, those few seconds of would she fall? Was this it, the end?

But then she managed to catch herself and plant her feet firmly on the branch. Immediately she lundged forwards again, avoiding the creature's many scrabbling legs, with no other thought in her mind but to dispatch the creature before its screeches alerted others. She drove her blade in deep and the creature finally stilled and went silent, leaving her with only the sound of her laboured breathing and blood rushing in her ears.

She staggered backwards slightly and slid down when her back made contact with the tree to sit on the branch.

She wasn't given long to recover. The screeching sounds of spiders had her startled into movement once more.

The further in she went the less of an option headed back was.

That was okay, because really, was there anything to go back to? The spiders had taken them: Bofur, Bombur, Nori and Balin and Bifur, Dori and Gloin, all of them - she had heard their shouts. She could only hope that they had somehow pulled off an escape, that they had been capture by a group of elves on the hunt for spiders. Unlikely, but she had to hope.

She made for whichever way the webs seemed to thicken, and left the odd spider body here and there on her path.

Back on the ground once more it was easier to fight than up in the trees: more stable footing, less danger of a fall and greater space to manoeuvre. Her lightness of foot meant that she was seldom heard, and the magical ring on her finger that had for weeks dwelt in her waistcoat pocket meant that she was never seen. She was, however, sometimes sensed, and though the spiders could not pinpoint her exact position they could still run into her, and would not miss anything floundering around in their webs, even if they could not see what it was. They also, though they could not see her, could see very well the dead bodies of any of their fellows she managed to dispatch, and the sight made them very angry. They knew something was about, just not exactly what.

The shadows lightened and glimpses of sky could be seen through the tops of the trees. But the forest remained grim and mostly silent and things for Bella continued much the same until she came upon it: a dense black shadow it looked like, a little way off ahead and to the right, and coming from it she heard the clicking of sharp pincers and the sound of movement.

She changed her course towards it.

There were a lot of spiders around now: they crawled everywhere, over every available surface. Their webs hung thickly from the trees, and by the time she had reached her heading they almost created a maze of sticky sheets of which to navigate through.

The shadow had been created by a thick patch of webs, a sort of central nest to this spider infested part of the woods. The webs started from the ground, but many were strung upwards and in the trees, creating a tunnel-ish dome of sorts at the top of which small patches of light from the sky could be seen between the dirty branches and webs. The nest was built around a clearing, though half the ground space was taken by an old fallen tree, which in turn was covered in webs.

A number of the giant ugly creatures gathered around, conversing in their thin creaking type of speech, and Bella hid behind a tree in fear of being discovered despite the ring that made her invisible to them.

"They're not half as fat as I would like." One of the spiders crawling down a nearby tree complained to the others.

Bella didn't like to hear them speak. She didn't like it one bit.

"Been feeding none too well lately, I should guess." Another hissed. "Kill 'em now, I'd say, and let 'em hang dead for a while."

It made sense that the creatures would have their own language by which to converse amongst themselves, all creatures probably had one. But that she could hear and understand them...it just seemed unnatural. Thorin hadn't understood them, so why her? No, no, she didn't like it. Did this mean they would understand her? She hadn't tried to communicate. ...Or did they understand all that spoke in common tonge, unknown to everyone else?

Bella's eyes found the place that the spiders' attentions appeared to be directed towards.

Several bundles were stuck in some of the closer to the ground webs. Bella had seen plenty before: the poor victims of the spiders, left wrapped in their sticky white funeral shrouds for later consumption. Most of them where the small bodies of squirrels and the odd song bird that must have been taken from high up at the top of the trees, for the company had not seen any birds since they entered the wood. Barely enough to call a mouthful for the giant spiders – these small catches were most probably not worth the effort they took, they were hardly a meal, and most it seemed were left hanging forgotten in the webs. Any larger catches were most likely eaten up quickly. Bella had seen elvish weapons strew about, and for her own peace at mind convinced herself that they had been left behind in the heat of battle, and that their owners had not met their end.

These bundles were different to what she had seen before though. They were large. Whatever the spiders had come upon had certainly been a pretty prize...

"They're dead now, I'd warrant, or not far off at least."

Bella gasped in horror as the dreadful realisation hit her - when she saw the bits of clothing poking out of the bundles. Tunic fabric of dwarvish make, a heavy boot, one of the flaps of Bofur's hat. She nearly screamed.

She would have done, if she could – but her breath only caught painfully in her throat, and she felt as if she might choke, and not even the sob that tried to force its way up made it out. Dead.

Dead, the spiders had said they were. They said that her dwarves were dead.

A dizziness took over her mind that had nothing to do with her recent lack of food and drink. Dead dead dead- "No, no. I saw one move just now, just coming round again."

Bella froze in her panic.

Coming around...not dead? Her heart lifted with hope.

A spider scuttled over to the largest and roundest of the bundles, and gave it a nip.

The response was immediate – there was a muffled yelp from inside, and then the dwarf within sprang into life and began a desperate struggling and kicking.

In fact, they put up such a struggle that the spider that had done the nipping was thrown off balance, and fell from the branch it was perched on, only catching itself by its own thread just in time.

The others laughed. "You were right! Still alive and kicking!"

Bella almost let out a breathless laugh herself. Still alive! Oh, thank Valar!

The spider grumbled and hissed. "Well, we'll soon fix that."

It began crawling its way back up. Bella saw that it was time to pull herself together and act. Or they would not be alive for much longer.

"That's the only one with any meat on it."

Without much of a thought she stooped to take a stone in her hand -there were many of them on the forest floor- and took aim.

Thud!

The rock struck the creature going for the dwarf -Bombur, she was pretty certain from the size and shape of him- on the head and it fell down to the ground, legs curled up and in a senseless daze.

As those spiders gathered hissed in shock she snatched up another stone and again- whack! A spider sitting on its web fell down, this time seemingly dead from the force of the hit.

As Bella gathered more stones a great commotion began to run through the group of spiders, and they forgot about the dwarves for a while in favour of finding whatever was throwing rocks at them. They could not see Bella of course, but they could make a reasonable guess as to where abouts she was from the direction of the stones that had been thrown.

Bella of course had enough sense to not hang about in one place, and though the spiders were quick to come running towards where they thought she was and fling their sticky threads, by the time they got there she had already slipped away to another place. She wanted them all away from the dwarves. As far away as possible.

She riled them up a good bit, throwing stones and knocking them down and moving before they could catch on to her exact location. And, when she had the full attention of them all, she went running and dancing off between the trees, leading them gradually further and further away into the woods.

"Come on! After me! After me! I'm one fly you'll never catch!"

Practically all the spiders in the place went after her, all of them furious – partly because of the stones, partly because of the names she called them, and mostly because none of them was able to catch her and bind her up with their other prey. And so began a game of chase, and on it went until Bella had reached the distance she felt was the furthest she could find her way back to the dwarves from.

She threw rocks, stamped and sung insults loud into the air to infuriate them further and keep them coming after her. Sometimes the spiders managed to get too close, and there was a desperate scramble to get out of the way. At other times they came at her from all different directions and she was forced to fight her way out of the trap.

Eventually, when she had gone as far as she dared, she hurled rocks and bits of woods and anything else she could get her hands on ahead of her into the trees and undergrowth, and danced out of the way of the spiders as they rushed past her after the noise. Then she stole away as quick as lightening back through the forest to the spiders' nest where the dwarves remained bound, her mind racing as fast as her legs over her spur of the moment plan.

She had little time, she knew, before the spiders would either realise what she had done or tire of the search in the absence of her jibes and good aim and come scurrying back through the trees to where the dwarves hung.

On her way back she skidded into a small group of spiders that had most probably come from a different part of the woods to see what all the commotion was about. The encounter did not last long. They did not see her coming, and weren't alive to see her leave. 'Attercop! Attercop! Down you drop!' She had muttered as she cut them down.

When she reached the nest she found the dwarves exactly as they had been when she left.

A spider was still there, left behind to guard the dwarves. It was busy pinching them, probably entertaining the idea of starting the feast early before the others came back.

As she clattered into the clearing it turned with a horrid creaking hiss which could be translated into a snarl, jaws clicking. She lobbed a stone at the hairy beast, catching one of its long legs and sending it to the ground where she rushed over to and made short work of it with her blade.

As soon as she was finished with it she found herself having to spin and deal with another running at her over the ground. It had been in a tree above her, and she had not noticed it, but it had seen its companion drop and go still and had rushed towards her with a screech, nearly nipping the back of her leg. She drove her sword right in its eyes, killing it swiftly, and quickly took a rough fighting stance in expectance that more of the creatures would come at her.

None did so however. Her eyes scanned the nest and saw nothing, and a silence met her ears.

They were all gone, every single one. She stood in the middle of the empty nest (well, empty apart from the dwarves, but they did not seem to be conscious, so did not count).

Bella raised her sword in front of her eyes and inspected it. It was dirtied, stained black, though still glinted shiny silver in the dull light in places.

"I shall call you Sting." She said thoughtfully to herself.

Then she snorted, cleaned the blade off on the ground and put it back in its sheath. An elvish letter-opener, Balin had once called it. If this was an elvish letter-opener then she would much like to see what an elvish butter knife looked like, or an elvish tooth pick. She imagined they would make most formidable weapons...

It took her a minute to climb her way up to where the dwarves hung, and despite their position not being too far above the ground the climb was not a particularly easy one.

The first bundle she reached was relatively simple to get to, and hung more or less right over the thick branch she had climbed along.

Fili. She could tell from the scraps of clothing that had escaped the spiders' wrapping. Bella called the dwarf's name but he did not stir, then gave the bundle a poke and got a weak response.

She set about working away at the sticky wrapping with determination, tearing the threads apart with her hands where she could, carefully using her blade to severe them where need be. She worked quickly, and soon was using her blade to cut the threads above the dwarf's head that kept him hanging suspended from a higher branch.

The young dwarf had awakened slightly due to her ministrations, and was in a half-conscious state. He struggled sluggishly against his bonds, though did not seem very aware of what was going on around him.

Somehow she managed to free him of the sticky silk despite his movements being more of a hindrance than a help. He only had a short distance to drop, about half a foot, and was awake enough that when his feet hit the wood she was able to safely lower him down to collapse on the branch she stood on.

He clung to the tree with both arms and legs, and moaned pitifully, looking rather sick and green, and did not appear to be in the condition to do much else. In fact he was barely remaining conscious. That could not be good... She crouched beside him, and said his name again and tried to speak to him, but he did not seem to hear her or be aware of her presence.

Bella looked up from the young dwarf. There was a lot of work to do and it needed to be done quickly, she was taking too much time, and it didn't look like she'd be getting any help from Fili for now. She left him clinging there and moved along the branch.

The next bundle presented a lot more of a challenge than the first. It was situated in a way that meant there was nothing for the dwarf that was broken out to cling to upon being freed – the poor dwarf in the bundle hung about a foot directly below the branch she had made her way along, suspended by a good number of doubly thick threads.

She didn't know how to deal with this, Bella thought as she got to her hands and knees and peered downwards. She considered moving on to try and find an easier prisoner to free.

But then, as the result of a closer inspection lying down flat on the branch on her stomach, she saw that there was significant damage to be seen to the wrapping of the bundle. Indeed, it appeared as if the dwarf inside had already started to cut himself free.

Bella stared down. She saw a twitch of fingers.

"Nori?" She tried.

There was a moments silence, then there came from the bundle a weak relieved sounding chuckle.

"Yes, Mr Baggins? I thought it was you I heard..."

Bella nodded to herself and spoke more confidently than she felt. "I'm going to get you out."

But how Bella? How?

Luckily she didn't have to do anything, for the dwarf had practically sprung into action at the sound of her voice.

The dwarf moved, and it became apparent that he had already all but completely managed to free both of his arms. Hands came up to pull the webs from his eyes and mouth. "The spiders?"

"Gone for now." Bella watched as the dwarf worked, somewhat amazed. Those webs were thick, tight and strong and sticky...but then if anyone could get out it was Nori.

Thief, outlaw. She'd heard Dwalin call him many things. If you were going to live for any length of time on the 'wrong side of the law' so to speak, you would have to be good at what you do, Bella reckoned. You either needed to be very good at not being caught, or very very good at escaping prison. Actually, you probably needed both. Even the best probably got caught sometimes. Bella imagined Nori had been tied up and bound before, and had had practice at the art of escape. He certainly seemed to know what he was doing now, though she was reasonably certain this was the first time he'd ever been wrapped up by giant spiders.

The dwarf had had the sense to remain silent and still when he had first woken up in his bonds, and had somehow got ahold of his knives and begun cutting himself out. He had had to work slowly and subtly to avoid the notice of the spiders, and it had been difficult due to the fact that he couldn't see. To his fortune though almost all the attention had been fixed on poor Bombur, and whenever the spiders had gotten near to discovering what he was doing another member of the company had awoken and had made the mistake of making a noise and a struggle and had distracted them again.

"Below?" The dwarf brought his knees up to his chest and began cutting the threads that bound them together with his knives.

"Nothing. All clear, just leaf litter. It's three meters down, maybe a little more."

Soon the dwarf had pretty much full mobility, though was a rather odd sight to see still suspended in the air by the thick threads around his chest and back that kept him attached to the branch.

"Right." The dwarf steeled himself. "If you would be so kind, Bilbo..."

She cut the threads and he fell.

She didn't see how he landed, she closed her eyes as he dropped and it was a second before she managed to will herself to open them again. She imagined he had rolled to his feet somehow, because while he was standing when she opened her eyes he was unbalanced and in the process of stumbling backwards. His legs gave out and he ended up lying on his back in dirt staring up at her. ...Or at least where she should be.

He closed his eyes and gave a groan, and blinked a few times before looking back up. Bella had taken this time to hurriedly slip the ring off her finger and back into the safety of her pocket, and stared back down at him.

It hit her then that despite being a lot more with it than Fili just how unwell he looked. She glanced over at the first dwarf she had freed, who was just beginning to push himself up and look around in a daze. She needed to get them all out of here, as far from here as possible, the voice in her head told her for the umpteenth time.

She looked back down at the dwarf on the ground and he sent her a nod before getting shakily to his feet and setting a determined gaze up at the first bundle he set his eyes upon. He began to climb, and Bella moved off along the branch to reach the next dwarf.

And so they set about freeing the others, working away at them one by one. They rescued Bifur and Bofur, then Dori and Ori, and Dwalin and Oin. As each was freed they helped to release the others. Bella was relieved to see Fili stand and make his way over to help, she had worried for him.

None of them were very well off, they all looked terribly ill from spider poison. Most were greenish; some looked almost ready to throw up. They were dizzy and shaky and had legs like jelly. Some, like Kili, remained unconscious and wouldn't wake at first.

They worked and worked until they were all of them free apart from Bombur (who was in the process the being freed). Then Bella heard the voices in the trees she had been listening out for, and there came the sound of the movement of many multiple legged creatures through the forest.

They came scuttling back into the clearing, all rather irritated of course, and found to their great shock that their dinner had escaped it's confines.

The creatures were all very surprised for a moment, and halted in shock on the edge of the clearing. Bella and the dwarves had frozen in the branches, or at least most of them had – someone must have moved to finish freeing Bombur, because the fat dwarf dropped down onto a branch and rolled straight off it, falling to the ground with a plop. Fortunately he landed in the leaves.

This, however, seemed to startle the spiders into action, and they hissed in anger before rushing forward.

Down the dwarves scrambled or jumped or dropped, some landing in a heap, shaky and little use on their legs.

Not all of them were in any shape to fight. Dwalin could, and Gloin and Bifur and Dori and Oin as well. Nori and Bofur could somewhat too, and Balin did his best. The three youngest dwarves and Bombur stayed in the middle of them all, and Bella led the battle.

The dwarves had been unaware and blind in the dark the first time the spiders had come for them, but with their dizzy heads they were hardly better off this time around. Still, they did their best, they had no choice.

Some of the dwarves, like Nori, had knives on them, and Dwalin still had his axes, but most had lost their weapons. Some armed themselves with sticks, and of course stones were available to them all. They fought with every last bit of ferocity they possessed, beating the spiders back and just about managing to keep them at bay. They slashed and whacked and threw, and many spiders were killed.

Bella darted around with Sting, waving it to and fro and taking down as many of the creatures as she could.

She didn't know how long they fought for. To them there was nothing but the hairy legs of spiders, the powerful nipping pincers and the screeching cries. Swing, stab, mind that spider, stab, stop that one from eating Bombur, swing- Bella's body worked on autopilot, there was no time to think, just to act.

Dwalin growled as he swung his axes, Bifur cursed loud for all to hear in ancient dwarvish, and Gloin did the same in common tongue. Oin fought in silence.

Rocks flew here and there, the odd one or two coming from Fili and Ori, but they were too weak to do much else. Bofur had begun the fight trying to throw stones at the spiders too, but it had quickly become apparent that his aim was nowhere near good enough in his dizzy state to be doing such (really there were so many spiders around that it should have been easier to hit one than to miss, but somehow he managed it almost every time). The dwarf had huffed in annoyance, picked up a stick, and had whacked an oncoming spider into the ground. Hitting things it seemed he was still able to do.

Stab, swing- "Ahh!"

Bella let out a cry as she fell to the ground, tripped over by thick sticky spider silk. She would have taken out the spider rushing towards her with a stroke of her sword, but a second later Dori was in front of her, sending a smashing blow into the creature with such a force that splinters of wood were sent flying.

Bifur pulled her to her feet and the fight went on.

The bodies of spiders began to pile up, but the creatures just seemed to keep coming as if they would never stop. There were too many, and soon Bella began to realise that they could not fight them all off, the dwarves were quickly beginning to tire.

She looked around as Oin beat back yet another of the hairy monsters, Dori taking out a second, and a third.

This wouldn't work.

It was becoming too much, she herself was exhausted, but the dwarves were beginning to make mistakes. They were growing too slow – there were a couple of close calls, and Bella had to make her decision.

"Run." She simply said, stopping Nori on her left from going forward into an attack.

She looked to Dwalin on her right.

"Take them!" Bella ordered over the noise, and she saw him falter. He knew this couldn't go on. It was getting harder to keep up with the spiders, to keep them away from Fili, Kili, Ori and Bombur, who they kept trying to drag off. They had started to come from different directions and to lower themselves down from the trees to try and jab them with their stings, and some had begun to weave their webs between the huge trunks in an obvious trap to keep them in the clearing.

"Run!" She stepped forward with Sting to take a few legs off a spider.

Dwalin stared at her for a second and must have seen that she would not back down. He was forced to take care of an attacking spider, but when he looked back his expression had hardened.

He nodded to her, and she knew that he would lead the company away.

That was all she needed. She slipped on the ring even while under his gaze and most probably the gazes of all those behind her, but was past the point of care, and turned to run through the spiders, her blade cutting her a pathway.

"Attercop! Attercop!" She called out, along with a number of other insulting things and curses, most of which she had learnt from members of the company, and slashed at as many spiders as she could as she went past them.

There was an immediate change in the spiders' behaviour.

Under normal circumstances they would have left a single being they could not see alone in favour of going after many more visible victims, but her actions earlier had changed that.

Most had not realised during the fight that she had been the one to play them around before, the battle had kept them too pre-occupied for such a recognition. But seeing her disappear in front of their very eyes and hearing her voice loud and clear left them with no doubt as to who she was, and they were many of them so very angry that they went for her without so much as a thought.

Well over half of them came after her straight away, and they pursued her much like they had earlier - as if they had learnt nothing from their previous failure.

Bella would later not remember much of what had happened then on, mostly she would just have vague memories of the black swarm that chased her. She would recall hazily doubling back several times to where the dwarves fought to hack at the spiders that prevented them from running and draw more after her until the company had been able to flee, and fighting so long that her arms ached and she thought she could not swing her sword even once more.

She remembered there being a numbness to her mind and a greyness to her vision, as if all colour in the world had been drained away, though she did not remember the tiny, near inaudible voice in her head that could possibly have not been hers.

She couldn't remember when she stopped fighting, when the terrible creatures came after her no more and silence fell around her. There must have been a time, but it almost seemed as if she had not noticed it when it came.

She did not know what she had been doing. Why had she not simply gone running back after the dwarves as soon as her fight was over? It was so absurd to think she had not. Why wouldn't she? It was almost as if she had simply not had any thoughts for a time, like she had been half awake, sleep-walking but mildly conscious of doing so, and suddenly she had woken up.

She had recognised something of her surroundings, and it had come to her as clear as day that she had wandered back to the now abandoned spiders nest and was standing in the middle of it. It was obvious yet she had not known it.

There was not one spider around that was alive: they all now either lay dead or were elsewhere in the wood, keeping away from her and hopefully away from the company too.

The company.

She had to find the company.

Bella yanked the golden ring from her finger -her sword was already away- and her mind seemed to clear and her senses sharpen again.

She blinked and shook her head a bit. Being invisible mustn't be very good for a person.

She slipped the ring into her pocket and was off through the woods after the company, hoping that the direction she followed would lead her to them.

The forest was vast. It was a fool's hope if ever there was one.

"Wait! ...Wait!"

Bella ran as fast as her legs would carry her, huffing and puffing and stumbling over tree roots.

She had been walking all day.

Actually, that was a lie. She felt as if she had been walking all day. It had in reality only been two hours or so.

In that time the forest around her had changed drastically. No longer was it dark and dull and dead looking, the trees around her now looked so full of life it was hard to believe how they had been before.

The forest was light and aired, and you could see the sky between the autumn yellow tree leaves. The air was cold, it was nearing the winter months of course, but the sun shone brightly. Everything was golden or orange: the colours the trees would be turning now back in the was...beautiful. Beautiful in a way that Bella had not thought it could be, yet in her present state she could not say she could even begin to properly appreciate it.

"Mr Baggins!"

A fools hope indeed.

Oin, at the back of the company, was the first to turn and notice her coming up behind them.

He called and waved, and as he did so the rest of the company ground to a halt as well, a number of them just staring in a dazed questioning sort of way, as if asking her where in the world she had been. The spider poison still had them pretty out of it, and their heads didn't think past simple things like 'fight' and 'walk'. A few of them didn't appear to have even realised she had ever been gone, and looked around the company blearily with confused frowns. Those who did still have a bit of wit about them sighed sighs of relief.

"Thank goodness." Oin stepped up to meet her, bringing his hands down on her shoulders to steady her as she came from a run.

"That's our hobbit!" Gloin slapped her on the back clumsily, voice slurred. "Knew yer'd pop up sooner or later!"

His patting moved to her arm. "Yer've got, yer've got..."

"Yer've got a stain on yer waistcoat..." He prodded a speck of black spider blood on the arm of her coat, neglecting to notice the bigger picture, which was that it was a little more than one small stain: she was practically covered in the stuff.

"Hm, yes, it appears so." Oin spoke to humour his brother with a slight shake of his head, but sent Bella a long suffering look as he did so, and turned his attention back to her. "Any injuries I should know about?"

"No," Bella shook her head and was reminded of her run in with a rock as it pounded. Presently, it hardly seemed important. "No, I don't think so."

"I shall take your word." The medic gave a sigh and spoke quietly to her. "Lass, we'd be long dead if it weren't for you... Thank you."

Bella blinked and opened her mouth to speak.

"Yer've got black stuff on yer face as well." Gloin told her matter-of-factly in a slightly raised voice, annoyed at what he took as being ignored. Oin gave a snort of annoyance.

"Oh." Bella rubbed at her cheek.

"Don't lick it. It tastes foul."

"What-!?"

Behind Gloin Dori wrinkled his nose.

"Brother, that is disgusting." Oin informed the red-haired dwarf, repulsion in his tone, and from somewhere behind him Bofur groaned weakly - "How do you know?"

The dwarf just shrugged, and after a few seconds Bella did the same, pushing it as far out of her mind as she could possibly manage.

She strode to the front of the group, resting a hand on Bofur's shoulder as she passed him supporting his brother with Bifur, and getting a squeak of "Mr Baggins!" from Ori, who appeared to be so out of it that he had not noticed her at all until then.

Her and Dwalin shared a nod, and led the company on.

They tread in silence through the wood.

They were all of them ill and tired, and the younger, smaller ones were worst off.

They all managed to get to where they needed to go – far enough from spider territory to relax some. They had staggered, slowly, and leaning on others for support. After Bella joined them they did not continue on for long.

There was no real decision made to stop: they were brought to a stand-still when Bombur, who had barely been awake and dragging his feet along the ground for a long while fell unconscious, and could not be held up by his brother and cousin. Once he'd been lowered to the ground the rest of the company were soon to sink to the floor as well.

Kili pretty much passed out as soon as he hit the floor, much to Bella's worry, and Fili sank to his knees beside his brother, eyelids drooping. Ori was also out like a light, and then Dori fell asleep, and then Balin. Bofur was a rather pale shade of green, as were many of the sick dwarves, and he fell asleep quickly at his brother's side. Bifur muttered to himself as he fussed over the sleeping forms of his relatives, but did not do so for very long, and after briefly coming over to check on Bella went to sleep himself. It had been a very long night, and an almost as long a day.

There was no conversation except that held in mutters between Oin and Gloin, who stayed awake lying on the forest floor and keeping to themselves.

Bella dropped down to sit on a fallen branch next to Dwalin, who had already settled there to keep watch over the others, letting out a sound of utter exhaustion as she did so.

Dwalin was the most awake of all the dwarves. He was the largest of the company members after Bombur of course, and being larger meant that a dose of poison of the same quantity would not have as much effect as it would on a smaller dwarf, say Ori or Kili. And while the spiders had taken mind to dose Bombur as the largest with plenty of poison to keep him out, stinging him and prodding him due to his fatness, they had paid comparatively little attention to Dwalin. The warrior had not been dosed up any more than the smaller dwarves, and his body could better deal with it. It didn't mean he was well off at all though -he looked rather awful Bella would have to say.

He gave her a grunt of acknowledgement, though Bella did not have the energy to speak. She buried her face in her hands briefly before looking up and surveying the company.

Fili, Kili, Ori, Dori, Nori, Oin and Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Balin, Dwali-

Where was Thorin?

Her half closed eyes snapped open and a cold feeling of fear and dread and panic poured over her like a bucket of ice water.

Thorin! She couldn't believe it- How could she not have- No-! No, no, no!

She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing, standing and ready to go and- well, she didn't know quite what she would have done. As it was Dwalin grabbed onto her arm before she made it more than two steps.

Bella tried to shake off his strong grip. "Thorin!"

Dwalin's confused expression changed to one of understanding.

He didn't let her go. "Thorin would probably kill me for letting you go now, if he hadn't already for what I let you do earlier."

"I have to-"

"No. You don't. Not now. The compan-"

"You can-"

"No." He pulled her back down beside him. "Please, Mr Baggins."

Please. Dwalin rarely used that word, and it brought Bella to her senses somewhat.

"Do not think I want anything more than to go running off, but the forest is large - he could be anywhere within it."

She had found them, twice. And Thorin before too. But looking around at the dwarves she knew he was right. She was needed here, not stumbling through the trees. She couldn't go. And even if she did she would probably end up collapsing of exhaustion and not being of any help to anybody.

She sat very still and quiet for a time, and Dwalin didn't say anything more.

Bella's mind wandered, and she got so caught up in it that she did not notice when Nori staggered over to talk to them, having spent a time wandering the near area to check for any threats.

She missed whatever was discussed, only coming around at raised voices. Her eyes scanned the sleeping dwarves and found them all still, and then she turned to find a glaring contest going on to her left.

Dwalin and Nori were not fond of each other, but Nori usually knew to keep out from under the warrior's feet. Perhaps Nori's sickness made him more irritable, perhaps he was simply too tired and weak to care anymore whether Dwalin slugged him in the face, maybe Dwalin was just being an ass. Neither would back down, and Bella did nothing to intervene. She watched mildly and waited as Dwalin began to twitch and fidget, fighting the urge to slouch, and the smaller dwarf struggled to keep his glare even as he began to sway on his feet, looking more and more ill by the second.

It had to end somehow, and in the end it did so by Nori passing out. Dwalin at least had the grace to snatch him up before he hit the ground. He looked to her, and she was ready with her words. "How much of that was your fault?"

A flicker of anger flashed in his eyes at her question...but then it seemed to leak away and was just replaced by tiredness. He shuffled his feet.

"Where should I put him?" He shrugged as a way of gesturing to the unconscious dwarf, at a loss as to what to do.

Bella glanced over to where Dori and Ori were curled up for a second. It barely made it through to her that Dwalin had been looking to her for instruction as if she were now leader in Thorin's absence.

"Just put him here." She said tiredly and motioned to the ground at her feet.

She stared a while at her unconscious friend. She had for a moment thought, while she was making her way though the woods after the dwarves, when the forest had lightened and become less strange, that maybe they would get out of Mirkwood afterall. But the encounter with the spiders had taken most all of the company's remaining strength... Hers was practically at its end as well. They had nothing left, no food or water. Nothing.

"What are we going to do, Dwalin?" She moaned mostly to herself and rubbed her eyes tiredly.

This forest had run them all into the ground.

The dwarf might well have opened his mouth to answer her, but by that time Bella was no longer hearing. Her eyes closed and her face buried in her hands, she heard something.

Not much of a something: a little something, easily passed off as nothing at all.

A light footfall perhaps it could have been. Just one slip of a usually silent step – it might have been.

Maybe it wasn't though, maybe it was nothing at all.

Bella's fingers fumbled in her pocket.

The quiet sound of moving leaves. It could have been a breeze above. It could have been... It could have been.

She disappeared in an instant, right in front of Dwalin's eyes.

She had not seen his face the first time she had vanished before him, had not seen the shock. But she watched it form now -that disbelieving look of surprise that came before he looked up and stood with a growl of rage as the elves sprang into sight.

He did not get even a step before several arrows thudded into the ground at his feet, halting any action he might have made.

The elves aimed their arrows down from the trees and the dwarf froze, silent, seething in anger. The woodland folk could do away with every one of them, there and then.

Most of the company didn't even wake, there was no fight to be had even if the elves or dwarves had wanted it. Upon realising this many of the elves lowered their weapons, though a fair few kept their bows drawn to ensure no trickery on the dwarves' side would make fools of them.

They needn't have worried, most of the company would have likely not tried to put up a fight even if they had awoken. They were tired of the forest, some may have welcomed capture. It meant a chance, an uncertainty. The forest meant death of starvation and thirst.

Only Gloin, who had apparently been somewhat awake still, sprang to his feet (if a bit shakily) with a roar.

Before he had even fully straightened an elf was before him and a sharp arrow inches from his nose.

"Do not think I will not kill you, dwarf!"

Done! :D