It was still dark,but it didn't stopped Thorin from waking everybody.

"How are you feeling today?" he kindly asked Merwra.

"Better" she answered with a kind smile,looking at her wrist.

The others were already up,even though it was cold and dark the dwarves didn't let it bring them down,they seemed happy to continue their journey;they quickly disassembled their camp and mounted on the ponies;Gandalf,on the other hand,seemed a bit worried.

Dori was teaching a song to Ori,Merwra and Bilbo had the privilege to learn it too and sing with them. That reminded her of the very first day the dwarves had arrived in Bilbo's house,months ago.

It was already dawn and birds were singing hidden in the trees,but soon a silence began to draw upon them,a cold wind blew in their faces as they were getting closer to a dark forest. The poor Merwra began to feel worried again –she wasn't the only one- she continued to talk with the others,trying to get rid of the strange sensation of being watched.

By the afternoon they approached the forest that had trees with twisted branches and ivy growing on them."Welcome to Mirkwood!" Gandalf said trying to mask the fear,but it didn't help; "It has come the time that I must leave you" ,he continued apprehensive.

The dwarves,Bilbo and Mewra couldn't control their despair ,they couldn't believe that Gandalf was going to leave them at the very edge of Mirkwood.

The wizard tried to calm them down:"Don't look at me like that, I warned you that I would leave soon... And you have Merwra and Bilbo with you!" their expressions didn't seem to have changed. "Is not as if I'm never going to see you again! Our paths will cross again,I promise that!"

They couldn't think about a worst situation for him to leave,it really had to be now?

"I'll return the ponies to Beorn,you better unpack them and distribute the packages" they did as he said,Merwra thought that her lot was too heavy for her,she thought about protesting but decided not to,,she wouldn't even get the chance,Kili saw how much effort she was putting in trying to raise it with her back;he gently opened his bag and putted some of her baggage in his lot. Merwra tried to stand up,her bag was a lot lighter,she sweetly kissed Kili thanking him.

When all was ready they said goodbye to Gandalf,they wanted to yell at him;the fear had changed into anger,but they didn't,they watched him going away with the ponies go ,they wanted to keep them,but they knew that Beorn was very found of seemed more sad about watching his majestic pony go than Gandalf actually.

As Gandalf disappeared in the horizon a sadness began to run through them,they felt abandoned,but Gandalf had assured that the forest wasn't that scary-as long as if they stayed in the path-he didn't mention anything about elves though,what made Merwra wonder if her mother's stories were just stories, but she was sure that her mother had mentioned something about the Elvenking offering her a place to stay...wasn't it in Mirkwood?Wasn't Mirkwood the next place she had to go? If only she could remember...

They stared at the forest for a moment,almost thinking about giving up,but Thorin suddenly,without saying anything, started to walk towards it.

"Come along!" he shouted,and they didn't think twice before following him while being swallowed by the darkness of the forest.