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Disclaimer: This is Tolkien's lovely world. I did not create it nor do I make money off of it...
Ch 16: No safe paths
The air was damp and stale as the forest closed around them. Fíli had been underground a few times in the suffocating darkness of the coal mines, but this was far worse. Fíli felt as though an invisible hand was slowly closing around his throat, strangling him. It wasn't long before the smothering stillness began to play games with his mind.
As the path wound on through the twisted and decaying vegetation, Fíli's imagination began to run wild. In the utter stillness, he began to hear things like the soft patter of feet, though he never saw if they belonged to any creature other than his mind.
At night, he could have sworn that there were eyes watching them. Large, luminescent eyes that disappeared when he looked right at them and reappeared somewhere else in his line of vision. The day was no better. Mile after mile of forest with identical trees made Fíli start to wonder if they were even going anywhere at all. It was enough to drive a person insane.
Fíli could tell that the rest of the company was on edge. They were short tempered with each other. They ate less and no one talked. They rested the bare minimum, trying to get through the horrid forest.
A few days into their trek, they ran into their first big obstacle: The enchanted river. Beorn had warned them about it when he had told them of the route. He had told them to not touch it or drink it, the enchantment on the water was powerful enough to kill a human.
Standing on the river's bank, Fíli decided that the river even looked evil. The water was dark and flowed swiftly despite the fact that the landscape was relatively flat. No bridge crossed the water nor was there any other way across that Fíli could see.
"There's a boat on the other side!" Bilbo's small voice broke the silence. It had been several hours since any of them had spoken, so the hobbit's voice felt shrill in Fíli's ears. He blinked at the hobbit before he realized what Bilbo had said. Peering into the gloom, he could vaguely make out the shape of something on the far bank, but he couldn't tell what.
Upon hearing the hobbit, several of the others began arguing as to who would be the sacrificial animal and swim the river to the boat. As they argued, Fíli was struck with an idea.
Digging through his pack, he pulled out a length of rope and one of the hooks that fastened his load together. After tying the hook to the rope, Fíli tossed the rope towards the boat. It fell short and splashed into the water with a plop. Muttering curses under his breath, Fíli reeled the rope back in. When he got to the wet section of rope, he hesitated, the words of Beorn ringing in his ears.
Steeling himself, he grabbed the wet section. Nothing happened. Letting out his breath, Fíli pulled in the rest of the rope.
The second time he threw the rope, it disappeared in the fog on the bank. He started reeling it in a second time in frustration.
"Slowly, it's laying on the gunwale. Let's hope it catches," Bilbo murmured from by Fíli's elbow. For a long, agonizing time, nothing happened. Then the rope when taught in Fíli's hand. Fíli tugged, but there was no give in the line. He gave the rope a quick, frustrated yank.
Something snapped and Fíli found himself sitting on the ground as the boat sped across the water. Bilbo lunged with a shout and caught the boat before it could float away down the stream. The other Dwarfs had turned when Bilbo shouted. They now stared at the boat in surprise. Fíli glanced towards Thorin. Thorin gave him a small nod and a half smile before organizing the creation of a pulley system.
It was a slow business ferrying everyone across. The boat was small, just big enough to carry two Dwarfs at a time. By the time Fíli who was seventh in line got across, they had been at the river for over an hour. While the far side of the river looked no different than the side he had just left, Fíli couldn't shake the feeling of unease that had settled over him.
He stood surveying the path. Nothing stood out to him as over dangerous, but still he stood guard. A short while later, there was a loud splash from behind Fíli. He turned around in time to see the empty boat disappearing down the river.
A cry of dismay rose from Bofur as he lunged for the river, catching Bombur before he too floated away. They hauled Bombur out of the river fearing the worst.
However, they discovered once he was on dry land that he was alive, but asleep. After much deliberation, they decided to continue on, carrying the sleeping Dwarf.
Bombur unfortunately was no light weight. They took turns carrying the comatose Dwarf, though most grumbled when it was their turn. It was harder and harder every day to make their way through the forest. At some point in the half light, the path had disappeared. Whether it had vanished altogether or they had simply wandered off of it, Fíli couldn't tell. But it mattered little which was to blame. They were lost somewhere deep in the heart of Mirkwood.
After two days of pushing through undergrowth that snarled in their clothes, Bombur decided to wake up. The large Dwarf was groggy and angry at his slumber being disturbed. Thorin decided that Bilbo should climb one of the trees to gage where they were. Kíli offered to climb instead of the hobbit when Bilbo turned green at the mention of climbing, but Thorin told him no saying he was too heavy for the slender branches up top. Kíli pouted, but did not argue with Thorin.
They sat by the bottom of the tree that the hobbit clambered up and waited for Bilbo to return. Several moments passed and the hobbit had yet to appear. Fíli felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. The feeling that someone was watching him grew until paranoia told him there was someone standing right behind him. He turned to find himself staring into the face of a giant spider. He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
Fíli stumbled backwards, away from the creature as more spiders emerged from the gloom around them. He heard Kíli give a shout of pain. While he was looking around for his brother, Fíli tripped over a root, landing face first in the dirt. Fíli cried out as he felt something sting his bad leg. Turning, Fíli saw a large spider had sunk its fangs into his leg. He kicked at the creature, dislodging the fangs. Something yellowish dripped from them and the wound on his leg. Pain rocked Fíli as his world went white, then black.
The next thing he knew was that he felt awful. He was nauseated and dizzy. He found that there was something white obscuring his vision. Fili went to clear the stuff out of his face, but found that his arms were pinned to his side. Claustrophobia set in. Fíli thrashed about in a desperate attempt to get free.
His movements did not free him but rather attracted the attention of the spiders closest to him. He felt a sharp sting on his shoulder. His lungs seized and the world slid out of focus once more. Fíli had no idea how long he hung there, trapped in the web, somewhere between the nightmarish waking world and unconsciousness.
The next thing he was truly aware of was someone calling his name. He grunted in response. Something cut through the layers of web encasing him. After a few moments, Fíli found himself sitting on a branch, free of the horrid web, staring at Bilbo. The hobbit was frantically talking before he unsheathed one of Fíli's knives, pressing it into the dwarf's hand.
Fíli had no idea what the hobbit was asking him to do, but he didn't get a chance to ask before Bilbo was scurrying off down the branch. He watched dazed as Bilbo started to free the others from their prisons. As he was sitting on the branch, he heard a soft clicking behind him. He turned to find giant spiders swarming up the tree towards him. Fíli thought that the spiders were even worse in the daylight. They looked diseased to Fíli. He was so busy thinking about that to notice that spiders were also crawling through the tree limbs above him until one dropped nearly on top of him.
Thankfully Bilbo had noticed Fíli's impending doom and shoved him out of the way. Fíli teetered for a moment before plummeting off of the branch. Fíli smacked several other tree limbs before being entangled in more web below.
The web bowed with his weight, but held fast. Groaning, Fíli lay there for a moment. Then he looked down and realized that he was hanging just feet above the ground. He slipped free of the web and landed in the decaying leaves that littered the ground.
Soon they were all free and fighting desperately on the ground. None of them were too steady on their feet and most were still fighting the effects of spider poison. They slowly at first, then more quickly gave ground to the hideous creature.
As the Company continued to retreat before the spiders, they passed a line of standing stone into. Fíli noticed two things. The first was that the forest around them was lighter and healthier. The second was that the spiders had stopped pursuing them. The spiders hissed, but they did not pass the line of stone. While the Company was standing there in confusing, a group of somethings rushed out from the green foliage behind them.
As he turned to look at them, Fíli realized that they were Elves. They were dressed in shades of green with bits of gold and crimson peeking out here and there. They all carried bows and most carried swords.
Half the host surged past the Company to combat the spiders while the other half encircled the Dwarfs. Outnumbered and exhausted, the company had no choice but to follow the threatening command to lay down their weapons.