AN: Okay, before starting the story today, I would like to put a few author's notes on.

First and foremost, I don't usually answer guest reviews unless they are specific questions only because I don't like to have a long Author's Note before and after a chapter, but I have been getting such lovely reviews from all my guest reviewers that I just want to give an overall thank you to all of you since I can't do it through private messaging. Thank you so much!

Also, I recently got a Tumblr and I can't remember if I have mentioned it yet, but I do put a couple of oneshot drabble things on there that I don't put on here, though mostly I just reblog cute bagginshield pictures, so if you're at all interested my name on tumblr is firesofbagginshield. I also post there when I update a new chapter for anyone who can't follow me on here, but can follow me there.

One last thing. I've been wondering how you all imagine Haran to look and have been wanting to see pictures of him myself, but am not a great drawer, so if anyone would like to draw him or any of the scenes from this story I would love to see them. Just make sure to let me know either through tumblr or here so that I can find them.

Thank you once again everyone for reading thus far and I hope you enjoy the next chapter just as well.

The forest loomed ahead of them far too soon for Bilbo's comfort. It was so much worse than he had imagined from what Beorn told them. He could literally feel the sickness of the plants so much so that it actually physically hurt his chest. The trees were crying out and moaning in their sickness and Bilbo couldn't stand to be amongst them. He asked if there was anyway that the dwarves could just somehow find a way around, but Gandalf was quick to shoot that idea down saying that it would take far too long and be far too dangerous for them to take any other road. That did not mean that Bilbo had to be happy about it.

Then things got even worse when Gandalf announced that he had business to the South and would be leaving them to enter the forest alone. They would have no ponies and no wizard and Bilbo was not at all happy about it.

Once inside the forest, the sickness of the trees fell upon them despite the kinder magic of the path. Bilbo, as a hobbit, could feel the difference between the two magics, but even though one was better than the other they both felt corrupt to him. More than once he wanted nothing more than to turn right back around and make his way back out of the forest so he could go around it despite the time it would take. They could always wait until next year to do this whole thing. But Bilbo knew that was not the case. The dwarves of the Blue Mountains were already on their last leg and they might not last until next year. If they were going to reclaim the mountain it would have to be done this Durin's Day or their people would die in their failure.

Still, every now and again Bilbo would find himself turning back and wondering if he could make it around the forest after all. If he had been at the back of the line of dwarves he might have tried it, but he was instead in the center and the sight of a miserable dwarf face behind him always turned him forward again.

At one point Bilbo turned back and the dwarf that he saw behind him was not the one he expected. Instead of Dori who was the dwarf that was walking behind him, the dwarf he saw was himself with the burns that he had had so long ago. Haran was his name, he remembered sluggishly, which was a little alarming that he couldn't remember his own name. Haran lifted a finger to his lips in a motion of silence and then circled it around so Bilbo knew to face forward again. As he did so, Bilbo touched his face, where the burns were making his skin tingle. How weird that they should act up now. They hadn't been bothering him for some time and the fact that his arm still didn't work was the only reason that he knew he still had them.

Suddenly Bilbo heard a dwarfling's giggle and he looked to the side to see little Kili hiding behind a tree while Fili searched for him. The boys were never very good at playing hide and seek with each other as neither of them could stay away from the other for very long, so it always turned into something more like tag or wrestling. Bilbo watched with a smile as Fili found his brother and tackled him and started to tickle him. Then Kili somehow wrestled his brother off him and took off into the woods.

"Wait!" Bilbo gasped, going to follow them, but he was stopped when a hand grabbed his burnt arm in a tight grip. He immediately froze and yelped with the pain of it and the grip released immediately. Bilbo took a moment to recatch his breath before looking up at his husband. How could he grab that arm? He knew how much it hurt him. He had never been so cruel before.

"I didn't mean to hurt you," Thorin frowned down at him. "I was only trying to stop you from leaving the path."

"Didn't you see the boys go into the woods?" Bilbo asked. His arm didn't pain him so much anymore. "I was trying to stop them."

"We're right here Mister Bilbo," said Kili as he and Fili came forward.

Bilbo looked at the boys for a long moment in confusion. How had they suddenly gotten so big. They were dwarflings only moments ago and now they were full grown dwarves who were actually taller than him. Still, he shook his head, he needed to let them know that what they did was wrong. "You shouldn't have gone into the forest and worried me like that," he said. "What if you had gotten lost? Gandalf said that if you get lost in this place you will never find yourself again. Don't leave the path again."

"But we didn't leave it," said Kili. "We've been on the path this entire time."

"I think you're seeing things," said Fili. "This forest is getting to us all, but it seems to be affecting you quicker, Mister Bilbo."

"Dwarves like rocks," Bilbo said, confusedly, "and hobbits like plants." He didn't know exactly what he was trying to get across, but Fili seemed to understand.

"Your connection with plants is like our connection with rocks," Fili said. "So the sickness you and Gandalf were talking about is getting to you too."

"I'm not sick," Bilbo frowned. "I'm only injured."

"Injured?" asked Thorin, coming forward once again to check the hobbit and make sure that he was okay.

"You're not injured Mister Bilbo," Kili said, getting between Thorin and Bilbo. "It's only the sickness that's making you think that."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" Bilbo asked.

"Because that's your name," Fili replied before Bilbo could say anything more.

"I think it may be time to rest for the night," said Balin. "Perhaps a rest will help Mister Bilbo clear his mind."

The other dwarves agreed and Fili and Kili lead Bilbo to sit on a bedroll they set out for him. "I don't like it here," Bilbo said. He was starting to regain his wits a bit, but they had only recently stepped into the forest and he was sure that he was going to lose them many times over while they travelled on this road.

"We know Uncle Bilbo," Kili whispered so none but Bilbo and his brother could hear, "but we have to if we want to go to the other side."

Bilbo nodded, knowing the words were true but not at all liking it.

"Get some rest now Uncle Bilbo," Fili whispered just like his brother. "A watch will be set and you will feel better in the morning."

Bilbo nodded once more and laid himself in the bedroll to sleep. The boys sat on either side of him and he felt calmed by their presence to the point that he was actually able to sleep in this horrid place.

"I don't feel well," Bilbo frowned as he sat by his husband. Thorin had found him in the caves of the Blue Mountains that they had dug in an attempt to mine the place. They had no success thus far, but there was little else they could do for money, which they knew they would need despite the contract they had procured with the hobbits to help them if they should run short on food or supplies. The hobbits were still too far away to provide them with a true trade so they needed to trade with the men. Many of them had their skills for smithing and creating things, but the miners had always found the most wealth came from the mountains. Only, for some reason, this mountain was yielding nothing and more and more miners were coming back from the digging sick with illusions and other such horrid things.

Neither Bilbo nor anyone in his family were miners and they generally stayed away from the mines, but he still felt ill. Thorin had, in fact, just found him wandering confusedly around town wondering why they were outside instead of in Erebor. His husband immediately took him to Oin, but the medical dwarf could only shake his head and say that he was suffering miner's sickness.

"It will go away soon enough," Oin said. "The miners all get better after a few days' rest."

But a few days later and Bilbo could still be found wandering in his illusions. It had gotten to the point that whenever he was seen walking around a dwarf would stop him and upon finding that he was caught in an illusion would either take him home or take him into their stall to rest. At one point he had even been found by a party of hunters in the woods while he looked for Fili and Kili who were safely at home.

"I honestly don't know what to say," Oin said. "All the others have gotten better by this point. Some of them are even planning on going back to work in another day or so."

"Did you know the rocks are sick?" Bilbo asked, not for the first time, but no one actually took him seriously in his state of delusions. "The mountain is sick."

"I know Haran," Thorin said with an indulgent smile. "Should I take him away for a while. Perhaps to the town of men. Perhaps being away from all of our duties will calm him so he can get better?"

Bilbo frowned, knowing well enough that Thorin wasn't actually paying attention to him. He was in one of his more lucid states, though still not quite lucid enough to appear so, and he needed to make sure that they understood while he actually understood himself.

"Do you know where Mister Bofur is?" he asked. Bofur was the head miner and he would surely listen to Bilbo. "I want to speak to him."

"Perhaps later," Thorin said.

"I want to speak to him now and if he is not fetched for me than I will go and see him myself."

Thorin frowned but nodded his head and one of the other medics in the room rushed out to retrieve him so Bilbo leaned against his husband contentedly and let the dwarfs talk over him about things that they didn't know anything about.

It didn't take long for Bofur to be fetched. He came into the room and swept off his hat to give a great and funny looking bow. Bilbo grinned stupidly at him from where he was leaning against Thorin. Bofur had always been a funny dwarf and Bilbo liked him very much. "And what can I do for you this fine day?" he asked with his merry grin.

"Miners' sickness," Bilbo replied.

"I heard you had it," Bofur agreed. "Nasty business it is. Got me and my cousin Bifur right good a while back, but we got over it real quick. You'll be better soon enough."

"No," Bilbo said, shaking his head with his brows pinched in confusion. He knew he had an actual reason for calling Bofur, but for some reason he just couldn't remember what it was.

"I apologize," Thorin said with a sigh. "He was very insistent that he speak to you, but I see now that it was only part of his sickness."

"Not to worry," Bofur said. "I was only working on finishing a wooden toy before going back in the mines tomorrow. Though I do have to say, at this rate I'll be makin' more money off my toys than the mountain. We haven't even found a single gem or vein of gold or nothin'." Bofur frowned at his own words and gave a deep bow once more before putting his funny hat back on and turning to leave.

"The rocks are sick," Bilbo finally got out before the head miner could leave.

Bofur turned back with wide eyes. "What did you say?" he asked.

"The rocks are sick," Bilbo repeated. "They moan in pain and they don't like it, but their sick." And he continued to ramble on like that, but he couldn't even really remember what he was saying.

Bofur's eyes only got wider while both Thorin and Oin's eyes got narrower in their confusion. "Do you understand what he is saying?" Thorin asked.

Bofur bowed low and did not come up again until after he said. "I respectfully request to blow the entrance to the caves."

"What?" Thorin asked.

Bofur, for once, seemed completely serious as he frowned. "Prince Haran has good stone sense. No wonder he's got the sickness even though he never goes near the mines. I can't believe I didn't see it before. No wonder we aren't getting anything from the mines. Their sick. They can't produce anything but their making us all sick. It was only affecting the miners because we were the ones in the caves, but if we kept digging everyone would get sick."

"I don't understand," Thorin said.

"The rocks are sick," Bilbo replied, stroking his husband as though it was him that was currently trapped in sickness and not the other way around.

"That's right," Bofur said. "The rocks are sick. They're making everyone else sick. This has only happened in tales or histories, but all miners are told to be wary of it. I should have seen the signs. We need to close the cave before that happens."

"Then do what you must," Thorin nodded. "I will tell my grandfather and my father of what is happening. But first tell me, is the mountain safe for us to live on or will we have to move once more?"

"It should be safe for a while," Bofur said. "As long as we block up the cave. The miners' sickness didn't start spreading until we dug farther in, but it will spread outward eventually. It'll be much slower without the opening in the mountain, but yes we will eventually have to move."

"Very well," Thorin nodded. "I will speak to my family about this matter. Do what you must and do it quickly, but make sure that there is no one near the mine before you blow it."

Bofur nodded, bowed once more, and took off.

"I told you the rocks were sick," Bilbo said with a silly smile.

"I know love," Thorin replied, kissing Bilbo's forehead, "and I'm sorry I didn't listen to you before now, but you will be better soon enough."

Bilbo woke to Oin checking his forehead again. He was tsking and Fili and Kili were still sitting on either side of Bilbo with worried looks and Bilbo wasn't really sure what was going on. "Do I have miners' sickness again?" Bilbo asked Oin and Bofur's, who happened to be standing nearby enough to hear his mumbled words, eyes widened.

"What was that laddie?" Oin asked, pulling his ear trumpet up.

"There's no need to repeat it," Bofur said before Bilbo could do anything of the sort. "It's the trees that are makin' you sick Mister Bilbo. You said that they made you sick because you were a hobbit."

"Oh," Bilbo nodded slowly. "Okay."

"Is he feeling any better?" Thorin asked as he came closer from where he stood somewhat away from the healer so that he could work.

"It doesn't seem so," Oin said, "but there's not much I can do about it at this point. The only thing we can do is hurry out of the forest."

"Right," Thorin nodded. "Then we will move on. Someone must stay with the hobbit and make sure that he doesn't try to wander off into the woods again."

"I will," Bofur said with a grin.

Bilbo frowned, but turned to Fili and Kili who had moved to stand next to each other. "Can you two walk in front of me?" he asked. "I don't want to see you wandering in the woods again."

"Of course we will," Fili and Kili nodded.

Bofur helped Bilbo to his feet and, thankfully, grabbed hold of the arm that wasn't burnt and they moved on.

Alright, for some reason that chapter didn't really turn out like my normal writing style (I blame the fact that I just finished rereading the hobbit for the third time (which is saying a lot since I don't particularly like reading books and have rarely read a book twice let alone three times) and my writing is still slightly affected by his) but I'm going to blame it on Bilbo's being sick. I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter!