21/03/2020 Author's Note: So, I've been writing again. Not for the Hobbit Fanfiction that I think most people want me to be writing for. Sorry bout that, but this is the fic that my muse has been hanging around and given how little writing I have actually done for the Hobbit in the past few years, I'm taking what I can get. And I guess the main this is, I had fun writing this chapter. Its a real mesh up of stuff that happens in the book, the movie with my own twist.


Chapter 17

Mirkwood

They walked in single file along the twisting, turning path through the trees. Bilbo found herself staying close to the front of the line, with her hobbit feet being efficient at rediscovering the path when it suddenly disappeared underneath dead leaves and soil. Her sharp inquisitive eyes – once they had grown used to the dim, eerie light of the forest – were able to pick up movement in amongst the trees that the dwarves were unable to detect, despite possessing qualities themselves of being able to see in dark tunnels far beneath the earth.

The company were quiet as they walked, only speaking when the path changed direction or was momentarily lost and needed to be found once more, otherwise they remained silent, ears listening keenly to every peculiar sound the awful forest made.

Before they had even stopped for the night, every single member of the company hated the forest, for despite walking for most of the day, it felt as if they had made very little progress indeed, for the forest itself felt endless, offering very little hope to company that they might get to the other side of it.

No one, Bilbo was certain, got a very good rest that night.

Bilbo certainly did not, not when every sound woke her from her restless slumber and when she opened her eyes it was as if hundreds of gleaming eyes were staring at her only to wink out of sight when she was about to raise a call. The worst eyes of all were the horrible pale bulbous sort of eyes that did not wink away nearly as quickly as she would like.

The following day was not much better.

Bilbo walked most of it with her arms wrapped around her torso, desperate to feel some form of comfort and warmth within this gloomy, miserable place.

It was just so deathly quiet it was almost deafening, and the sense of foreboding was heavy in the air, only growing with every passing hour.

"We could have a game of riddles," Ori spoke up after their mid-day meal, his eyes a little wild and desperate to break the awful silence around them.

There was a moment pause before a rumple of agreement went around the group.

Bilbo however felt her heart skip a beat at the very thought. She had had quite enough of riddles thank you very much, to last her a lifetime.

"Ya alright Lass, ya look a little pale." Bofur asked her kindly when he noticed the grimace she had tried to hide at Ori's suggestion.

"It's, ah, nothing." She tried to paste a bright smile on her face, "just a, um, I just… I don't much feel like telling riddles."

"Eh," Kili perked up nearby, "I'd have thought you like such things as riddle games Miss Boggins. You being all book clever." His teasing grin was weak, but despite the annoyance over his referring to her as Miss Boggins again, she felt some of the anxiety and fear in her chest lessen a little.

"I do. Very much so. I'm actually quite good a riddles. I just…" She suddenly finds herself back in the cave and the creature has disappeared again into the darkness, but his voice is all around her, whispering riddles and that time is up and…

"Lass?"

"My last game of riddles has quite turned me off them I'm afraid."

She had hoped that that would be enough for them to just leave it be. But of course not, not these dwarves, not anymore at least. Where once, only a few weeks back even, they would have happily ignored her and whatever problem she was clearly having at that moment and gone forward with their riddle game, they now, all of them, questioned her.

She does not know what expression her face has made when the game of riddles was mention but it clearly has them worried and they will not leave her be. And then, quite against her will, she finds that is she filling the ghastly silence of the forest with her tale – that she rather adeptly titled 'Riddles in the Dark' – of what had become of her after she was separated from the company when they were snatched up by the goblins and she had toppled over the side of the pathway cliff.

The company were silent for the beginning of her tale, but when she came to the part where she bargain for her life by playing a game of riddles with Gollum, she got a mixed reaction of 'that was clever of you' and 'lass, you had your little blade, you should have just run him through'. She had been quick to remind the latter, that she had been quite lost and she would never have found her way out of the cave, let alone the mountain, if she had simply stabbed Gollum right from the start.

She was interrupted on and off from then on as she was telling the riddles section of her story, with the dwarves trying to guess the answers for themselves – almost all the riddles that she and Gollum had told were not commonly known to dwarves. Only the riddle about the mountain was indeed known to them and answered correctly on the first go by all – with Bilbo very much counting her blessing that she had not taken so long with giving her answers (nor given as many wrong answers as the dwarves did. Many an argument broke out amongst them over possible answers) to Gollum or she would have been very dead before she had had the chance to tell her second riddle.

She started to grow uncomfortable however, when she reached the part of her tale in which she asked her 'what have a got in my pocket?' question, though unlike Gollum the dwarves were far less interested in what she actually had in her pockets, fixating instead upon Gollum breaking his promise that he would lead her to freedom upon losing their game - completely ignoring the fact that earlier they had said that they hoped that if she had lost her battle of riddles with Gollum she would have stabbed him instead of passively allowing him to eat her whole simply because that had been the agreed upon terms of their game.

Bilbo had let out a small sigh of relief as she listened to them complain about Gollum's 'lack of honour' and her fingers slipped away from her vest pocket.

She more or less stuck to the truth regarding the next part of her story – she simply excluded mentioning the ring – and when she came to the part where the ring turning her invisible, she vaguely commented that she had hidden, and Gollum, in a blind rage had simply charged past her hiding spot, allowing her to follow after him, which in turn led her to finding the exit and the company.

No one in the company questioned her on this, they all knew well enough now that even running her foot falls were virtually silent and could well believe a creature of the dark, in such a rage as he was, would easily be able to miss her following him.

By the time she had finished spinning her tale; it grown darker among the trees, a tell-tale sign that night had fallen above the forest canopy and it was time to make camp.

She rubbed her throat, raw now from all the talking she had done. She took a quick gulp of water – something she had been trying to avoid doing too much of, in the hopes to make her water skin last for as long as possible – and immediately, her throat felt soothed.

She blushed when she noticed the dwarves were all watching her with something akin to awe and downright respect.

"Yer really are a clever little thing, aren't ya." Dwalin said as he light thumped his fist against her forehead, gestured meant, Bilbo was sure, to be seen as affectionate, but actually resulted in a slight throb starting to bloom in the centre of her forehead.

"Clever was how I was raised to be." Bilbo replied with a quick rub to her forehead to try and ease the ache there.

She earned herself a chuckle or two from the dwarves before they settled into the preparation of the evening meal. It was still a quiet affair, but after Bilbo's tale that afternoon, everyone felt more incline to speak than they had the previous night. Riddles were swapped between them, the dwarves being mockingly frustrated when Bilbo, after a bit of thought, guessed the correct answer, more often than not, to their riddles, while they generally failed to answer any of hers correctly.

It was a nice way to spend the evening, and for a time the eerie atmosphere of the forest was forgotten.

It was only when they were all going to bed for the night, that it all came rushing back and Bilbo found herself waking several time to pitch darkness and the sounds of scuttling, her heart racing as memories of caves, luminous eyes and whispering voices in the darkness plagued her dreams.

After the fifth time she woke from a nightmare, Bilbo simply gave up on the idea of sleeping. She pushed her cloak away and stood up, rubbing her arms.

"You cannot sleep?" She did not jump at Thorin's query, simply turned slowly to where he was sitting, leaning against a tree.

"No. I do believe it is this forest. I feel as if we are being watched, their gazes hidden by the darkness that they can see in, but we cannot."

Thorin nodded slowly in agreement, his gaze lifting briefly from her face to gaze around the surrounding trees.

"This is a foul place." He muttered darkly. "The sooner we reach the end of these accursed trees, the better."

Bilbo nodded slowly in agreement with him.

"I wish Gandalf was here." Bilbo was shocked to find the words tumbling a loud from her mouth. Her face burned when Thorin once more dropped his gaze to her face.

"The wizard is dear to you?"

"He is… an old family friend, of my mother. He has known me since I was a small child. He had the best fireworks," she smiled faintly at the childhood memory, "Old Took used to have them on midsummer's eve." She felt a bit silly admitting this to Thorin, but instead of looking bored, his eyes bore into her face as if she were reciting a ballad of an ancient battle and he was enthralled. Which was ridiculous and she turned her warm face away from him.

"He will return." Thorin voice was soft, almost gentle, "for your sake, if nothing else. He would not abandon you."

"I do not believe he meant to abandon any of us. Whatever pulled him away must have been urgent and gravely important." Bilbo found herself saying, a desperate desire to reassure and removed the pained look to Thorin's eyes, "But you are right, he will return, but not solely because of me. He will return because he wants this quest to succeed, to see the dragon slain and for Durin's Folk to be returned to their rightful home. And it will. We will succeed." Because she has to believe that, she does. The alternative is too awful to think of, too sad.

"Thank you." She blinked at him in surprise.

"You are most welcome," was her automatic response. She wasn't entirely certain as to what she was being thanked for, but it was far nicer than being glared at, so she would accept his thanks with a smile.

She did not go back to sleep after this, she sat up with Thorin, keeping him company on his watch. They did not talk – Bilbo alternated between reading by the light of a small beeswax candle lantern, gifted to her by Beorn and looking out into the dark trees – but the silence between them was a comfortable one.

HiBtWH

The following day they came to the bridge Gandalf had mentioned, only…

"Of course it is broken." Bilbo grumbled as the company came to stand around the broken elven structure. "Of course it is."

"We could try and swim it." Bofur suggested at her side, as Bilbo peered over the edge of broken bridge and down at the dark, fogged shrouded water below. Even if Gandalf had not given his warning about the stream being enchanted, Bilbo would not have wanted to stick even her big toe into that water. There was something very, very wrong about it. Just looking at it for too long made her skin crawl.

"Go on then Bofur, go and take a dip!" She heard Nori call a little ways back in the group.

"Did you not hear what Gandalf said?" Thorin growled as he moved to stand with her and Bofur at the edge of the broken bridge, "A dark magic lies upon this forest. The waters of this stream are enchanted."

"Doesn't look very enchanting to me." Bofur muttered to her as she turned, feeling somewhat nauseous and light-headed away from the stream.

She shook her head, trying to clear away the heavy, almost sleepy feeling that had suddenly come upon her from looking at the stream for too long.

"We must find another way across." Thorin called as he and a couple of others moved along the bank.

With another shake of her head, she joined the search for an alternate way across the stream, which was growing more difficult as the further they moved away from the path; the darker it grew around them.

Bilbo squinted in the dark at the far bank, frowning as her eyes picked out a peculiar shape.

"I-I think I see a boat." She called to the others and was very nearly pushed into the stream in the haste of the dwarves rushing to her side. She was saved from falling in by Bifur catching a hold of her backpack.

"Are you certain?" Thorin asked as Bilbo continued to peer into the darkness.

"Yes… very. There is definitely a boat on the far side of the river. Now why," and she was doing her very best not to whine in frustration, "couldn't it have been on this side?"

"How far away do you think it is?" Thorin question forced her to push away at her anxiety and annoyance and think, doing the maths quickly in her head.

"Not too far." She offered out hesitantly, "I shouldn't think any more than twelve yards away." Bilbo said looking back up at Thorin who chewed over this information while others in the company stared at her in amazement.

"Do you think we could bring it to us using a rope?" She asked softly.

"What's the good of that?" Gloin rumbled "The boat is sure to be tied up, even if we could hook it, which I very much doubt that we could in this light!"

Bilbo forced herself to bite back several unkind things that popped into her head to snap at him and instead looked back at Thorin and said, "I don't believe it is tied." Before adding, because as frustrating Gloin was being at this moment, he did have a point. "But with the poor light, it might be. But I don't believe so; it looks more like it has just been drawn up on to the bank."

Thorin looked at her for a long moment before he turned his gaze thoughtfully over his dwarves.

"Kili, come and see if you can see the boat Master Baggins is speaking of. You have the best eyesight of us."

Kili bounced eagerly forward and after a moment or two of looking where Bilbo was pointing in the gloom, he nodded with a grin.

"I see it."

"Do you think you could throw a rope and hook the distance Master Baggins believes the boat is?"

Kili smile dropped as he hesitated over Thorin's request. His smile returned however, when Fili stepped forward to stand by his side.

"Could he not first tie another length of rope to one of his arrows? He could then shoot it into a tree above the boat and Dori, he can use it as a guide as to where he needs to throw his rope with the hook tied to the end?" Fili suggested.

Thorin nodded at his oldest nephew and heir approvingly, making Bilbo wonder if maybe he was using this chance as some kind of lesson for the two boys.

"Kili." Thorin turned to his younger nephew who quickly tied a slim piece of rope to the end of one of his arrows and again, using Bilbo's outstretched finger as guide, shot the arrow into the tree that stood on the opposite of the bank, directly above the boat. They were quick to tie off their end of the rope around a sturdy branch.

Dori stepped forward then, with a heavier rope in hand, a hook tied off on one end. He took a moment or two to line up his throw and with a show of great strength he hurled the hook and rope across the stream.

They all heard the faintest sound of metal hitting wood before they all looked expectantly at their burglar, who had her right hand held up in a wait a moment sign as she peered into darkness.

"Yes." Bilbo said after several heavy moments of silence, as she angled her head to the side. "The hook is lying in the boat." She looked around at Dori, and added with a faint smile, "I suppose I do not need to tell you to be careful when you start pulling on the rope. The hook isn't caught on anything just yet. Let's hopes it catches on."

With great care, Dori started to pull upon the rope and again they heard the faint sound of metal hit wood and the rope became taut.

With a nod from both Bilbo and Thorin, Dori started to tug upon the rope. There was some resistance at first, with the boat having been pulled up onto the bank, but once Bifur, Bombur and Dwalin joined Dori on pulling the rope, the boat was in the stream and gliding rapidly towards them. So rapidly in fact, that Bilbo needed to be tugged out of the way of it as it came to bump against the side of the bank to avoid being smacked in the face.

It was then needed to be grabbed to be held steady otherwise they risked losing it to the current.

"Well, that worked out quite well." Bilbo said brightly.

"Thank Mahal for yer eyes Lass." Bofur beamed as he reached over to ruffle her curls. She swatted his hand away, but truly she was actually rather pleased with herself in all truths.

"We shall go first." Thorin said, pointing to Fili, Balin and to be Bilbo's great surprise her. "Four is as many as I think this boat will hold, along with our packs and weapons. After us; Kili, Oin, Nori and Bifur, followed by Gloin, Dori, Bofur and Dwalin; and last Ori and Bombur."

Neither Ori nor Bombur seemed pleased with this arrangement.

"I'm always last," Bombur sighed with a pout, "I do not like it. It's someone else turn today."

Thorin met Bombur's grumbling with an understanding but unrelenting expression.

"You are the heaviest of us all, so you must be in the last and lightest boat load.

Bofur poked his younger brother good naturedly, promising that all would be well, that any danger to be found would most likely be on the other side of the stream and they would be meeting it first, while Bombur and Ori would have the chance to run away. A similar thing was being said to Ori but Nori. Neither Bombur nor Ori seemed to be overly reassured with what their older brothers were telling them.

Nearby, Bilbo was peering in the boat with a frown.

"There aren't any oars." She called back to the dwarves bitting her lower lip thoughtfully as her gaze turned to the guide rope strung just above their heads. "Do you think the line would hold if we used it to pull the boat across with us in it? We can keep the hook attached to the boat so that it can be pulled back between trips."

She was surprised when the dwarves agreed with her easily and idea to use the guide rope to pull themselves across the stream in the boat was put to the test. It worked very well and in this way, with almost all of them were soon across to the far bank, safe and sound, unaffected by the enchanted stream.

Bilbo, upon the safe arrival of the second boat load of dwarves, had her turned attention away from the stream and instead was looking curiously out into the forest on this side of the stream. At first, it seemed no different from the side of the stream they had just left, but then she saw movement that quite took her breath away.

A pure white stag, moving just a little ways off from them through the trees, it dark eyes watching them with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension, coming to a stop in a rare shaft of sunlight that managed to peek its way through the dense canopy.

It was probably one of the most beautiful of creatures she had ever seen in her life.

And it truly was beautiful, the colour of pure snow, contrasting sharply with the dense, dark colours of the forest.

How could something so beautiful live in such a horrid place as this? She wondered as she continued to stare at it in awe, fighting down a strong desire to go over to it and maybe see if she could… pat it. But no, no, she would not. It was a wild creature in an enchanted forest. Who knew what ill fortune might be fall her for thinking she was worthy of touching such a magnificent creature such as that stag.

Her attention was sharply pulled away from the stag when she heard the sound of the nocking of an arrow very near to her.

She turned her head slowly to stare at Thorin, wielding Kili's bow – with Kili hovering awkwardly just a foot away, looking anxiously at the stag that she had been awestruck by – which he had an arrow aimed at the stag's heart.

"What are you doing?" Bilbo whispered, unable to understand the expression on Thorin's face, a strange mixture of his usual anger and determination, while also, pain, grief and betrayal.

Why would he have such an expression when looking at such a beautiful creature?

"Thorin…" She tried again, but their majestic leader ignored her as he fired the arrow at the stag.

She watched with bated breath as Thorin's arrow flew past the stag's head as it leapt completely unharmed into the dense forest.

"You should not have done that." She muttered quietly as she turned away from where the stag had been to stare up at Thorin's scowling face again, "its bad luck."

"I don't believe in luck." Thorin replied rather stonily, gaze still fixed glaringly at the spot the stag had been, "we make our own luck." He spat with so much bitter vengeance, that Bilbo found herself wincing

"Don't," she groaned as she buried her face in her hand, "Don't go tempting fate…"

And as if the fates had been listening to their very conversation, there was loud splash from behind them followed by a series of yells.

"Bombur!" Bofur roared as Thorin and Bilbo spun around to look back at the stream. The boat was on their side of the bank, rocking madly; with Ori being hugged tightly by his brothers while Bombur… Bombur now floated on his back in the stream, only a foot away from the bank, having obviously tumbled in while trying to get out of the boat, eyes closed, fast asleep, snoring loudly.

She snapped her head back to look up at Thorin.

"Do not" He warned her slowly, each word spoke in a very deliberate fashion, his temper seemingly only just barely under his control, "say a word."

"Wasn't going to." She replied with a huff, looking away from him again, scrunching up her nose as she added very quietly to herself, "certainly thinking it though."

She let out a little yelp of surprise when she felt a flick of a finger, not hard but still noticeable, against the back of her head.

"H-Hey!" she reached around the back of her head to where he had flicked her, all the while giving him a pouty scowl in return.

Thorin return her glare with an almost innocent wide-eyed look, nearly hidden by his customary scowl but after several months of being in his company and having the true force of his scowl directed at her, Bilbo could now well see the difference.

Was he, Thorin Oakenshield, would-be, hopefully soon to be King under the Mountain… teasing her?

"Oi!" the moment was broken by Bofur who was looking at them with an irritated expression, "Would ya both stop lolly-gagging and help?!" He gestured wildly at his still sleeping and thankfully still floating brother in the stream.

"OH! Right, yes, of course. Sorry Bofur!" She scrambled to her feet and rushed forward to try and aid in any way she could in the pulling out of Bombur from the accursed water. In her haste, however, she very nearly slipped into the stream herself, only to have her arm caught at the last moment in shoulder jarring fashion by Thorin who set her right again.

"One cursed member of the company at a time, please." He said once he was certain she was steady on her feet.

"How do you know these waters will affect me?" She countered, choosing to forget how close she had come to falling asleep herself when they had first found the broken bridge and stream, "maybe these waters only affect dwarves?"

Thorin simply rolled his eyes back her, but she swore she saw him smiling, a very small one, but still a smile nonetheless.

Pulling Bombur from the river, without falling in themselves took a lot more time than any of them would have liked.

What made it worse was the fact that upon pulling him from the stream, Bombur didn't wake up.

"Bombur!" Bofur and Bifur were both shaking him, "Bombur, wake up!"

Frantic looks were sent around the company. What were they to do?

"A bloody wizard would be mighty useful right about now!" Dwalin growled, arms crossed against his chest, a fierce scowl etched across his face.

"We're going to have to make a stretcher, or something of the like." Bilbo sighed from where she sat on a tree root, chin leaning heavily upon her palm, "nothing else for it, unless anyone feels like kissing him." She added remembering an old fae-tale her mother told her as a child.

She received many a strange look.

"Have none of you heard of Sleeping Beauty?" She asked. Every conscious dwarf shook his head in response. "Never mind then," She waved her hand, dismissively. "It's just a children's tale."

"Eh, well, Sleeping Beauty Bombur ain't." Bofur grumbled giving his brother a soft but exasperated kick to his hefty side.

He shot her a weak mischievous look.

"You're a beauty," he teased, "wanna try waking the beast with a kiss, lassie?" His gaze shifted from her to look at something or someone standing behind her, his eyes having an almost daring look about them.

Bilbo rolled her eyes back at him.

"I hardly think that would be appropriate. And besides, the kiss is meant to be a kiss of True Love, according to the story. And as fond as I am of Bombur, I highly doubt that I'm qualified to be a True Love of his in anyway."

"Shame." Bofur shrugged, looking away from whoever he had been staring at behind her – and when she looked around it was only Thorin who was looking very pointedly once more in the direction the stag had run off in. – his attention once more turned to his brother.

"Come on," Gloin grumbled, "let's go and get this stretcher made. It'll be dark soon."

"It's already dark! It's always dark here!" Kili whined but he and his brother followed after Gloin nonetheless, taking back his bow and quiver of arrows from Thorin as he past him.

HiBtWH

Bilbo did not envy those who had to carry Bombur's stretcher, not when the air on this side of the stream seemed to be even heavier, making it harder for them to breathe and clouding their minds even more.

They pressed onwards along the path, but it was growing more and more obvious that their time in the forest was truly starting to affect them all.

Bilbo collapsed onto a tree root, clutching her swimming, swirling head with dwarves all around her reacting in a similar fashion, some gasping that they needed air, real air, fresh air, some simply swayed were they stood, their expression glazed and confused.

Bilbo lightly smacked her cheek, a desperate attempt to try and clear the fog in her brain for she swore she was now starting to hear voices that did not belong to any of her dwarves. She could not make sense of what was being said, but… there were definitely voices, that she could hear amongst the trees.

"What is that?" She mumbled more to herself than anyone else, straining her ears to hear better whatever it was that she was hearing, or if it was simply her mind playing tricks on her. "Those voices… doesn't anyone else… hear … those voices?"

She received no reply; the dwarves were too wrapped up in their own worries and misery to pay their burglar much mind.

"Can… no one else hear them?" She asked again, a little more desperately because they seemed to be growing ever closer and it was starting to make her skin crawl something awful.

"I hear nothing." She heard Thorin reply after a stretch moment. "No wind… no birds… What hour is it?"

"I do not know. I don't even know what day it is." She heard Dwalin groan in response as she leant over against the tree she had sat herself down against, peering with a frown as the rather large webbing that covered a nearby trees roots.

Spiders, she thought as she cringed away the webbing, now there are spiders to add to this ever growing nightmare.

She turned away, not thinking further about the webbing nor about how large and dense it was; how it must have been created by a great many spiders, or… by one very large one.

But Bilbo had no love of spiders – she would not kill them when she found them in her home, but she was very quick and prompt with evicting them to the far side of her garden – so she did not dwell upon the webbing any further, shoving the thoughts of it and spider from her mind, where if she were to have found something of a similar oddness she might have thought about it longer. And in doing so, possibly saving her and her companions a good deal of grief in their very near future.

But instead, she turned her attention to Thorin who was moving past her, ordering for them to follow after him.

She watched him go with a tired, befuddled frown, only minutely jumping out of the way of the dwarves carrying Bombur's stretcher, some of whom, in the tight circle they were having to make on the path, bumped and pulled at the webbing she had been examining only moments before.

Once again, Bilbo's brain thought of spiders and how they caught flies in their webs, but again her brain banished the thought before dwelling upon it for too long.

Instead, she stood back and simply watched the dwarves follow after Thorin, still wearing a confused frown because… where was he going? The path… the path… wasn't it… wasn't it that way? The way, Thorin had been going only moments before, so why was he… there was no path the way he was going… at least ,none that she could see…

The very air, Gandalf voice entered her mind as clear as if he were standing right beside her, of the forest is heavy with illusion. It will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."

"Wait!" Bilbo suddenly found she was quite alone on the path, the company already far ahead of her… following a path of their own making. "Stop!"

You must stay on the path; Gandalf's voice rang loud and true in her mind as she spun upon the said path, do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again.

"Stop!" the way they were going seemed to darker and… were there more webs that she could see upon the trees?

"Come back! We can't leave the pa-" She gestured behind her at the path as she called after them. "We must stay on the path! Please… come back. Don't- please don't leave me…"

And with one last look at the path, she raced after them, tripping as she went, only just catching herself, her hand briefly falling against a web, which with a squeak of horror and dismay, she hastily wiped off onto another tree

"Thorin!" She yelled after the dwarf king as she raced to catch up with him. "Where are you going? The path is back there!"

"I know of a better way." Thorin replied shortly, as he pushed forward.

"A-a better way? How-how do you know of a better way? Did you not say previously that you had never travelled by Mirkwood before now?"

That caused him a moment's pause. He actually stopped and looked at her and for a brief second she hoped that she had convinced him to turn back and return, while they still had a chance, with the path not be so very far at all away.

But her hope was dashed when he said in a clipped, 'do-not-argue-with-me' tone, "I just do." Before he was storming forward again, the company following dutifully after him, though some seemed to be sharing her worries, though no one but her raised them.

"Please…" She whispered, before falling in line with Ori who was looking miserable and in need of comfort.

She caught hold of his gloved hand and gave it a squeeze and together, with a one last hopeless look back towards the barely visible path, they followed after the others into a deeper, colder part of the forest than they had previously travelled through.

HiBtWH

They were lost.

It was the one thing that rang true in Bilbo heavy, fog-addled brain.

They were lost.

The path that Gandalf had told them to never to leave for they would never find it again, was gone and they were lost

"If ya weren't my king," Bofur grumbled flopping down upon some dead leaves at the base of a tree after hours of hopeless searching for their lost path, "I'd kick ya."

"He ain't my king," Bilbo groused as she flopped onto her back beside him, trying so very hard to keep her anxiety and terror under control and simply not start screaming at the top of her lungs, "Can I kick him?"

Bofur threw back his head and let out a weak little laugh, but when he looked back at her some of the twinkle that had disappeared from his eyes since Bombur had fallen into his enchanted sleep and they had lost the path had returned.

"When you are both quite done!" Thorin growled back at them, anger clearly blazing his blue eyes.

"I'm really not." Bilbo replied trying to sound casual (and most likely failing miserably), leaning up upon her elbows to stare at him, "King who got lost in the Shire twice." She held up two fingers to further emphases her point.

"We left the path!" She wailed after a moment of heavy silence, "Gandalf gave us clear instructions NOT to, and then you went and did! And because we're all loyal idiots, we followed! Because we're idiots, who utterly forgot that we were being led by the great king of no sense of directions, because he claimed to know a better way and when asked how by yours truly, his response and I quote, 'I just do'. You just do?! You just didn't!"

"Are you quite done?" Thorin asked pinching the bridge of his nose.

Bilbo sat there for a moment or two, thinking hard, and quite honestly astonished that she wasn't being chewed out by Thorin.

"Oh noooo…" she again failed to keep the wail from her voice, but after a moment she was able to add in a reasonably calm tone, "but I shall drop it, as now is not the time for this."

She forced herself to try and settle her racing heart and steadily growing panic, because as she had said, this really wasn't the time and would not help their current situation in the slightest.

"Why thank you." Thorin retorted sarcastically back at her.

"You're very welcome," her retort was tart – she could become quite snappish when she was worried or angry, or both – before she flopped back down onto her back. She should have just stayed quiet and left the matter there, but she found herself speaking again, this time to the company as a whole.

"Can we have unanimous vote that Thorin is no longer allowed to make any more decisions that are in any way, shape or form, in relation to directions."

There was an undisputed "Aye" from the dwarves. And this might just have been Bilbo's imagination, but she swore she heard Thorin softly agreeing too.

Bilbo lifted her head to look at Thorin wondering if maybe she had pushed him just that bit too far.

He met her eyes calmly – or as calmly as he could look after days spent in this wretched forest that seemed to be actively trying to stop them from getting anywhere – and not looking any more frustrated than he had before she started being disrespectful towards him in front of the whole company.

She winced and struggled to her feet and moved hesitantly to stand in front of him.

"I'm sorry." She said wrapping her arms around herself, "that was quite rude. I shouldn't have said that."

"But you are right." Thorin replied, pinching his nose once more. "You are right." He repeated looking down at her before turning his attention to the dark trees around them, glaring at them, "This forest is not good for my head, I find I cannot think straight here."

"I don't believe it is good for any of our heads." She replied grateful that the tentative peace she and Thorin shared had not been disrupted by her frustrated words.

Thorin nodded and Bilbo gave him a tiny, tentative smile before scurrying back to Bofur's side, suddenly brutally aware that every single one of the dwarves had been paying witness to her conversation with Thorin.

"Ya and Thorin seemed to be getting along better." Bofur said later as the whole company got ready for bed.

Bilbo snorted dismissively.

"Hardly. We just fight now, instead of me trying to avoid him every chance I get. I can't believe he didn't chew me out earlier." When she received no answer, she peered at Bofur.

"What?" For the look Bofur was giving her was a very strange one indeed.

"Bofur, what?"

"Eh, nothing. Just me thoughts, is all." He looked away hurriedly. "Don't ya worry yer pretty head, aye?" he lightly tapped his fist against her forehead while she continued to stare at him on confusion. But no matter how she tried to coax him, he refused to say anymore and Bilbo lay down, her brain twisting over his peculiar behaviour. His and Thorin's…

It's the forest air, she reason finally as sleep started gently pulling upon her mind, it's just the forest air.

HiBtWH

The following day was truly awful.

They were no closer to finding the path; Bombur had still not awoken from his enchanted slumber, and the fear of losing her mind amongst the trees was becoming very real.

As she walked, the world around her shifted and twisted. She tried to focus her wandering gaze by instead watching her feet, only to find that her feet appeared to be walking backwards.

Fighting back the ever growing swell of panic and tears, she squeezed her eyes shut and instead caught hold of Bofur's pack, and for a while she simply allowed for herself to be led blindly, in the hopes her mind would settle and refocus.

"Look." Her eyes shot open at Ori's cry of wonder and she barely able to stop herself from bumping into Bofur's back.

"A tobacco pouch." She heard Dori exclaim in awe. "There's dwarves in these woods."

"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less." Bofur said, as he took the tobacco pouch from Dori, "This is exactly the same as mine."

Whatever hope that had filled Bilbo at the mention of the find of the tobacco pouch immediately faded as she looked at the pouch he held.

"Because it is yours!" Bilbo found herself her shouting, as she stamped her foot in frustration, "Do you understand?" She questioned the blank faces that were peering back at her, "We're going round in circles. We are lost."

She could feel the itch of tears behind her eyes, but she furiously fought to keep them at bay.

"We're not lost." Dwalin growled, "We keep heading east."

"But which way is east?" Oin cried, his voice heavy with despair, "We've lost the sun."

And with that, all around her, the dwarves dissolved into bickering children, shouting and pushing at one another.

"The sun." Bilbo mumbled as she ducked sluggishly away from the pushing and arguing dwarves, her mind rolling over what Oin had said before fighting broke out, "we haveta-have to find the Sun." She bumped her fist against her forehead, trying desperately to clear the fog that had invaded her mind and was stopping her from thinking clearly.

Sun… where was the Sun? Up, that was where the Sun was. So for her to find the Sun she must… she must go up!

Swaying, she grabbed the side of a tree, snatching at the thick vines and bark.

"What – what are you doing?" She looked around to see Thorin watching her, his blue eyes almost black looking in this horrid light.

"Finding the sun." And with that she was climbing, pulling herself arm over arm, branch by branch, chest heavy, head reeling as she clambered up the dark twisted tree.

It seemed like an age before her head finally broke the surface of the tree tops and she was almost blinded by the bright afternoon light.

Oh, the Sun! How wonderful it was to feel its warmth upon her face, to breath fresh air into her lungs.

She grinned widely at the butterflies that had taken flight around her, hundreds upon hundreds of them.

Focus Bilbo!

She shook her head to clear away the last of the fog that clung greedily to her mind and forced herself to look about her, pushing down leaves and thin branches so that she might see further.

She found she was quite unable to stop herself from squealing out with excitement as she spotted a huge body of water off in the distance.

"I-I can see a lake!" She shouted as loud as she could down to the dwarves, twisting again on her perch, "and a river!" Another squeal erupted from her lips when the clouds cleared enough for her to make out in the distance a grand dark sharp, "And the Lonely Mountain! We're almost there!"

She ducked her head beneath the tree canopy, immediately hating the feeling of being closed in and suffocating that descended upon her instantly.

"Can you hear me?" She shouted back to the dwarves, groaning when she heard only faint calls in return.

Sighing heavily, she pushed her head above the tree line once more to gulp several more mouthfuls of fresh air before she start the arduous climb back down the tree, making little marks in the thick bark of the tree with a chalk that she had found in the depths of her pocket to keep in her mind exactly the direction she had seen the Lonely Mountain in.

"That way!" She shouted loudly down to the dwarves who had all appeared to have simply collapsed around the base of her tree after she had started climbing, their arguing having clearly got them nowhere.

"Are you certain?" Thorin was on his feet in a moment and at the bottom of her tree, catching her by the waist and helping her the rest of the way down.

"Uh huh." She nodded breathlessly. "I saw the mountain, and the river leading to the lake. I think, maybe, if we do not meet anymore obstacles, such as another enchanted stream, we could be at the River in two days."

All around her, the dwarves whooped with glee, smacking her upon the back with such enthusiasm they almost sent her flying.

"It will not be easy." Thorin said, looking in the direction that she pointed her, his face closed.

"No, it will not." Bilbo agreed quietly, "without a path, it will be difficult. But I think, maybe, if one of us climbs up a tree every couple of hours, to make sure we stay on course, we could do it. It may add a day onto our travel, but we will know where we're going."

She forced the brightest, most winning smile upon her tired face and somehow, she had convinced the dwarves to agree with her, them nodding and mumbling away to themselves. Even Thorin did not fight her and somehow, until nightfall - with a few stops along the way to occasionally climb a tree to just double-check they were still on the right track – she led the way, and for the first time in days, the company felt like they had actually made progress and were actually hopeful to see the end to this accursed forest.

Feeling rather satisfied, Bilbo curled up in her bedding and fell asleep almost instantly. Not knowing the terror she would be facing in only hours to come.