The spider hunched over Fili, faceted eyes seemingly fixed on Bilba. She, in turn, found herself frozen, unable to so much as draw a breath into her terror-locked lungs.
Then, dismissing her as casually one might a gnat, the thing gathered Fili up in its long, spindly legs, and began to spin him. For a brief second the action was woefully confusing, until Bilba noticed a sticky webbing, like what she'd seen in the cave, slowly enveloping her friend,
"Oh," she breathed, eyes wide, "don't you dare."
Her hand went to her side, only to remember belatedly, and with horror, that she'd lost her sword in the mad dash to escape the cave. She swallowed past a dry throat, hand clenching and unclenching at her side as she watched the spider wrap Fili.
Could he breathe like that? Was he even-?
No, her mind shied away from that thought.
Fili was alive.
He was alive and she damn well wasn't going to stand there and watch that thing kill him.
She'd already stood and watched helplessly as a monster killed her brother.
She had no desire to do it again.
Not ever again.
Dragging in a choked sound that was very close to a whimper and not at all the Thorin-esque roar she'd been trying to emulate, Bilba crouched and carefully pulled the boot knife Fili had foisted on her from the sheath strapped to her leg.
She straightened and, in a choked voice barely louder than a whisper, said, "Hey."
The spider, naturally, ignored her completely.
Bilba made a strangled sound, clutching the dagger as tight as she could lest the violent shaking of her hand jar it free. "Hey!"
The spider paused, mid roll, Fili dangling from its legs.
Bilba wasn't sure what gave her the strength to move forward. It certainly wasn't anything she possessed. She was terrified of spiders. If it came down to it she'd much rather go over that idiotic walkway thing into Lake-town, by herself, and spend a weekend in the Valar forsaken town that some idiot thought to build on a bloody lake than face down a spider of obscene proportions.
In some small part of her mind she imagined her brother and parents silently watching her. She'd often wondered how things might have gone differently all those years ago if she'd done something. Anything.
She could barely see Fili anymore under the webbing. Bilba gritted her teeth until her jaw ached and then, before her mind could think about it enough to tell her how insane this was, she darted forward and slashed at one of the creature's legs. The tiny blade did little damage but it did cause the spider to shriek in anger and drop Fili on the ground with a thud. The eyes were back on her and Bilba had a brief second to register that a few of the facets in one giant orb were dark. She'd also noted earlier the thing was slightly favoring one leg, and a dark sheen of what might have been the thing's blood coated the limb.
Score one for Fili and Kili.
Then a leg was coming at her lightning fast and she had no more time to contemplate. Bilba barely had time to register it before it slapped her in the chest with all the force of a tree branch. Then the world was spinning and she was flying. She slammed into dirt and rolled, finally fetching up against the rock wall of the small grotto.
Her chest was on fire where the thing had hit her and her lungs had seized up in her chest. She managed to push up on her knees and one hand, the other pressed to her chest. She tried to inhale, only to hear an awful wheeze as her frozen lungs refused to inflate. She was vaguely aware the weight of her pack was no longer resting on her back and shoulders but, at the moment, that was the least of her worries.
At least now she knew what would have happened had she tried anything all those years ago.
She heard a screech and felt her heart jolt in panic at the sight of the massive spider rushing at her. The dagger was no longer in her hand as she'd seemingly become incapable of holding onto a weapon since entering Mordor, and she hadn't thought to bring any others with her.
If she got out of this, she was turning into Fili when it came to weapons.
Her lungs helpfully loosened, finally, and she inhaled sharply, spots dancing in front of her eyes. Just as the spider reached her, she lunged forward. She hit the ground in a somersault and rolled under the thing as it passed over. In a stroke of good fortune, the spider had been so focused on her it failed to check its speed, or see how close the wall was. It slammed into the rock, and fell into a dazed tangle of legs.
Bilba, who'd come up behind it, sprang to her feet, and promptly stumbled as a wave of dizziness washed over her. She went to one knee for a brief second, but forced herself forward in a stumbling movement that was more half falling than running. The last thing she wanted to do was waste the moment she'd been given. If she could just get to Fili and...and do something.
She bolted toward him and collapsed to the ground next to him. She tried to grab his shoulders but the webbing was thick and her hands refused to penetrate. A quick glance around showed no sign of her dagger, lost somewhere on the craggy rock, and there was no chance she'd be getting at any of Fili's weapons.
On the far side, the spider was regaining its legs and she was rapidly running out of time. Frantically, she shook Fili, hoping by some miracle he might wake up and somehow be able to save himself.
"Fili?" The spider was turning toward her, and she choked as her entire body froze in fear. "Fili!"
She shook him harder, and then grabbed at the webbing over his face, breath coming in hard gasps. With a wrench born of pure desperation and adrenaline, she managed to rip the thick threads over his face...and promptly froze in horror.
Fili's eyes were open.
Open...and fixed. They stared at nothing, pupils dilated and empty.
"No," Bilba whispered. Her vision blurred and darkness swam over her vision. "Please, oh please, no."
The spider shrieked in rage and whipped around, but apparently it was as dazed as she was and promptly stumbled and went back down again.
Bilba shook Fili's shoulder. "Wake up," she demanded, tears now spilling openly down her face. "Damn it, Fili, don't you do this to me. Wake up!"
A new noise caught her attention and, for one wild minute, she thought it was Kili. In her mind, she saw him heroically arriving, complete with weapons, just in time to send an arrow into the stupid spider. He would stride over and order his brother to wake up and Fili would obey because he always listened to his brother and they would continue and it would be fine.
It would be fine because she'd lost so much, and so many, already and surely she wasn't about to lose someone else
The noise came again, and now it was obvious it was the noise of footsteps on stone and a wild surge of hope shot through her, even as she watched the spider stagger to its feet and move back toward her.
And then she realized the sound she was hearing was more than one set of footsteps, and it was coming from the wrong direction...
She scrambled up wrapped her fingers around the webbing at Fili's shoulders, set her feet and pulled as hard as she could. She had no idea where she planned to go, or what she planned to do once she got there, she just knew danger was coming from two directions and they needed to go.
Fili's body didn't move. The spider was coming right at her and the footsteps were coming from the other direction and Fili's eyes were still staring at nothing and they had to go but he wasn't moving.
With a sob so harsh it was physically painful she released him and scrambled back just as the spider reached her. She rushed forward, planning to roll under the creature's body again, but it proved to be smarter than she'd expected. Before she could complete the maneuver, the spider twisted and a leg came down directly in front of her.
Bilba barely managed to wrench to a stop before it hit her. She twisted, lost her balance and hit the ground only to immediately scramble away on all fours, the spider right on her heels. From the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of a section of wall that had suffered a collapse at some point, leaving a slope and jagged bits of rubble and stone strewn about.
Air rushed over her head and she threw herself to the side just in time to miss a leg slamming into the ground where she'd just been. She went into a roll before leaping up and sprinting forward again toward that collapsed section of wall. Her lungs were burning, legs shaking with fatigue and she was running so fast she was at risk of losing her balance and falling any second.
Something on the ground caught her attention and she sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of her dagger. Taking a risk, she altered her course, and flung herself forward. She snatched the dagger, somehow managed to shove it back in its sheath without cutting her own leg off, and resuming her flight toward the wall.
Just as she reached the rocks, a blow hit her in the back and sent her flying forward. She slammed into the rocks and the spider was on top of her. Bilba kicked at its eyes as it pushed her up, actually lifting her into the air and along the wall in its attempts to get its fangs in range. She managed to catch its eyes with a foot and it shrieked again and lunged at her. Bilba felt the sharp edges of stone behind her and twisted around, grabbing rocks and pulling herself higher and just out of the snapping fangs of the spider. Stone tore into her hands, sending sharp stabs of pain radiating along her palms, and the rest of her hurt in a way that promised some spectacular bruises if she survived long enough for them to develop.
She pulled herself between two stones and collapsed on a relatively flat ledge just behind them. A leg appeared over the top and she stiffened but, then, just as quickly, it vanished again. She heard the spider scrambling down and then caught the unmistakable sound of orcs from the far side of the trail.
Breathing hard and shaking with exhaustion, Bilba got up and crept forward to peek through a crack in the stones. On the far side, she watched with horror as a group of well over a dozen orcs, with torches in hands, used the flames to drive the spider back. It retreated to a corner and crouched down, watching them balefully.
Several of the orcs stayed near the creature, making sure it stayed down, while the rest gathered around Fili. Bilba gave a whimper, body tensing as she watched them poke and prod at him. The image of his fixed eyes had her own eyes filling again and she wiped at her face frantically as she watched the scene.
She felt a bone deep pain, one she hadn't felt in a very long time. Losing Adalgrim had hurt, accepting she might never see her sons or Thorin again had been excruciating, but this...this was like losing her brother and parents all over again.
Fili was like her brother. He and Kili both and she'd left them behind because she'd known that was what they would have wanted but she'd never believed she was leaving them for good. Maybe her mind had thought it, but not her heart.
Never her heart. She'd believed, truly believed they were behind her, rushing to catch up and she'd been right, at least with Fili, and she still believed with Kili. She'd been right and if she'd been right then...then now...
The emptiness in his eyes ran through her mind again and she shook her head violently, as if to physically dislodge the memory.
Yavanna, it hurt. It hurt worse than anything and suddenly she was crying so hard that that hurt, to where she desperately wished she could stop but her body refused to listen so all she had left to her was to endure.
She was so damn tired of always having to endure.
She expected an attack by the ring, but it stayed quiet, perhaps realizing there was no pain it could inflict on her that was worse than what she already felt. One of the orcs knelt by Fili, prodding at him with something and she grabbed at the fabric over her heart as the pain in it became so bad she felt it might give out entirely. Her head was pounding with the promise of a spectacular headache and her entire body ached from the beating she'd taken.
The orcs were speaking but they were too far away for her to hear what they were saying. Silver glittered as an orc picked up Fili's sword from where it had fallen, and she mentally cursed at not having thought to look for it. It probably wouldn't have made much difference but at least she wouldn't have been attacking the spider with what amounted to a glorified hatpin.
Four of the orcs knelt suddenly, and then they were lifting Fili and Bilba let out a groan. "No," she whispered. "Please don't take him."
The orcs headed back up the trail. The ones left behind waited a few minutes to make sure the spider wasn't going to come after them, and then followed.
Then they were gone, and all Bilba could do was watch.
The spider began to unfurl and Bilba shuddered and got up shakily. She turned and grabbed the rocks behind her, pulling herself up as best she could, and gritting her teeth as her muscles screamed at her in protest.
She heard exactly when the spider arrived below her, skittering up the rocks and swiping at her. She'd hoped to move past where it could climb on the uneven stone but had failed to consider how long those damn legs were.
One struck her and knocked her hands loose, sending her falling backward with a gasp and a jolt in her chest as her heart lurched in fear. She barely twisted in time and got her feet up. She shoved a foot in its eye and then fell forward, scrambling over its head and sliding down its back. Through some miracle, she yanked her dagger from its sheath. She flipped onto her stomach, drove it into the creature's back as deep as she could, and hung on.
The spider screamed in a mix of rage and pain and threw itself back off the rocks. It twisted, bucking against the sharp stick in its back. Bilba clenched her jaw and held on, desperately trying to work the dagger in a slashing motion. She doubted she could kill the thing with such a small blade but hoped perhaps she could at least convince the beast she wasn't worth the trouble.
Black ichor spurted out from the wound, making her hands slippery and her fall inevitable. The spider gave a wrench, twisting to the side, and then Bilba's hands were no longer clutching the dagger.
She slammed into the ground for what felt like the millionth time, rolled and came to a rest on her stomach. There were rocks under her, putting pressure on her injuries, and she grimaced. She reached under her and tried to push them away, but they refused to move.
They also didn't feel much like rocks.
A painfully familiar thwip came from over her head and the spider shrieked in pain. Several more sounds followed the first, along with the clear thunk of them hitting home.
Bilba lifted her head enough to see a pair of boots under her chest, leading to a pair of legs clad in familiar trousers.
A shadow fell over her, and a hand was suddenly on her waist. At the same time, a bow was placed on the ground near her head, along with a quiver nearly empty of arrows. Bilba looked for the spider and saw it, whimpering and scuttling in pain, vanish through a cleft into the rock. She turned her head then, to take in what she was convinced was one of the most welcome sights she had ever seen.
"Sorry, I'm late," Kili said, eyes tight with concern. "Are you okay?"
