Title: A tale about friendship, Part 29?

Author: Dís Thráinsdotter

E-mail: Overall rating: M, for violence and orctorment. This chapter: K+

Summary: A group of children are told the tale of their friendship with the dwarves in general and the Folk of Durin in particular.

Warnings: The overall rating of this fic is R, as parts of it deals with violent battle and torment. There are also Original Characters in the fic, but no Mary Sues. Unbetaed, all mistakes belong to me.

Disclaimer: I don't own any one of Tolkien's characters, never have, and never will. The only ones I own are the people you have never met before.

Chapter 29, Walking through Mirkwood

Balin smiled as he looked at the eager children. "Beorn returned the following morning in a jovial mood, unlike the mood he had been in when he left. He joked with Bilbo about his fear of being eaten and when we had breakfast with him he told funny stories that had all of us howling with laughter. We exchanged glances, wondering what had made his mood so jolly and he must have seen it because he told us that he had found the glade where we met the Orcs and Wargs. The fir trees we had been sitting in had been reduced to blackened stumps, which showed him that this part of Gandalf´s story was true. But he had also caught an Orc and a Warg who told him that their peoples were very angry for their losses and looking for us, as they suspected that the Woodmen had sheltered us they would most likely soon be attacked. He also showed us the Orchead and the Wargskin he had placed outside his fence as a warning to others of their kind to stay away.

Gandalf now told him where we were going and why, and Beorn aided us. Not only with food, bows, arrows and water skins but he also lended ponies to us so we could go to the eaves of Mirkwood quickly. Beorn told us that the path we had intended to use was also used by Orcs and we wanted to stay clear of them, also that the eastern end was disused and turned into swamps we would be unable to pass. Instead he told us to go to a small path that lay to the north of his house and we took that advice. Gandalf borrowed a horse and we loaded the food and other supplies we were given on our mounts. After a good midday meal we mounted the ponies and horse, said goodbye to Beorn and left his house.

When we came to the Forest gate we spent the night near it and the following morning Gandalf told us again that he would leave us. He reminded us that Bilbo would come with us but none of us was happy about it. Bilbo looked at the forest and asked if we couldn't go around it but Gandalf answered that to go around the forest would take us through greater danger, either near the Goblin infested Grey Mountains or through the area near Dol Guldur and that neither road was safe."

The children nodded and shivered, neither place sounded nice and they agreed with Gandalf.

"We had to send the ponies back" Balin said to the children "and we sent greetings of thanks to Beorn with them. Before he left us Gandalf reminded us that we had to stay on the path, in fact he said so twice, no doubt because he wanted the last word. Then we took our packs and water skins that we had filled in a well near the Forest gate, put them on our backs and went into Mirkwood."

"What was it like to go there?" Frerin asked and Balin answered

"It was like going through a shaded room, during the days we had very little light and at night it was pitch dark. We heard and saw animals as we passed and at night we could see eyes watching us, which we didn't like at all. We tried to light fires but that only made it worse, with all the moths that were attracted to the light and the bats that came to feast on them. But the worst thing was the spider webs, they were so large and we wondered what kind of Spiders would be able to make them.

We had also been told to stay out of the water of the Dark River and not to drink it, which was good because when we arrived there our water supplies were running low so we would have drunk and filled the water skins there otherwise. Bilbo helped us when he found a boat on the other side of the river that Fili, Kili, Óin and Glóin were able to get over to our side. All of us crossed the river dry save Bombur, when he left the boat he was knocked into the water by a hart. We got him out of the water but he had fallen asleep when he was back on dry land and we couldn't wake him up. We had to carry him several days, which meant that our speed became slower. That in turn meant that we ran out of food and water. We didn't intend to attack your people" he said glaring at Thranduil "all we wanted was to beg for some food and drink and then we would be on our way, but for some reason they simply scattered when we tried to approach. Three times we did that and the third time we were caught by the Spiders. The only ones who escaped were Bilbo and Thórin. Bilbo rescued us from their bundles but we didn't find out where Thórin was for some time."

Thranduil had regarded Melian and now he said to her "you have always been wary of me and stayed as far from me as you could. Now I would like to ask why you have done that?" Melian glared at him and said,

"What would you have said if I had accused you of being responsible for what happened to Khîm and Ibun, the sons of Mîm of Amon Rudh?"

"What has that to do with it?" Thranduil asked puzzled and Melian answered

"It has a lot to do with it".

"Everyone knows that Khîm was killed by one of Túrins Outlaws and Ibun was tormented to death by Orcs, neither the first nor the last to meet that fate" Thranduil said and Melian answered

"it is also well known, or ought to be, that the fate of king Thingol is a matter between the people of Doriath and the people of Tumunzahar, the people of Khazad-Dûm had nothing to do with it". Melian used the dwarven place names with only a slight accent. "Thórin told me that your servants had said to him that he and his people were responsible for that, not to mention that they dragged him through the forest as if he was a felled deer. To add insult to injury, Thórin told me that he got the impression that they did so at your orders."

Thranduil looked quite astonished when he said "I only told them to bring the Dwarves to the Castle so I could speak with them, I didn't order any of those things. Why didn't he tell me about it?"

"Would you have believed him?" Melian retorted and when the King didn't answer she continued, "He didn't believe that you would have done that. Add to that your own reputation and it becomes easy to understand why he didn't say anything about the Quest or the treasure to you."

Balin added "did you order your men to bring us to you as quick as may be? We were ill, sick and weary from the spider poison, not to mention that we hadn't had a bite to eat or anything to drink for three days and yet we were forced to walk as fast as we could. Not that they kept it constant but still …" His eyes still flashed at the memory. "We were bound and blindfolded as they brought us inside your Castle and into the Throne room" he continued "but there was one thing they didn't know. Bilbo had escaped their attention and was following us."

Thranduil looked sad when he heard what Melian and Balin had to say, and finally he said, "I am very sorry. When the reports came I made the mistake to assume that you were attacking them and I could have chosen my words more carefully. I think they were guided by the way I spoke, not by what I said. Small wonder that you looked so angry when your blindfold was removed." Balin nodded and said

"I felt very angry, not to mention worried for Thórin as we didn't know where he was."

The children looked puzzled and finally Thrór said, "How on earth could Bilbo rescue all of you from the Spiders? And why didn't the Elves see him?" Balin said to the children

"Bilbo was able to come to the Spider nest unseen and unheard. Suddenly stones started to hit the Spiders and we could hear Bilbo singing songs about them in order to make them angry at him. After a while I could hear another thump followed by laughter and Filis angry question to Bilbo what he was laughing at. Fili and Bilbo were able to get some of us out of their bundles but then the Spiders came back. Bilbo guarded the branch so they couldn´t come that way while those who were already out of their bundles cut the rest of us out of them but they tried to get around us. They were also able to lay their claws on Bombur who lay on the ground but Bilbo jumped down on them and rescued him a second time. Then he told us to follow him out of the tree and we did in order to get away from them.

We fought against the Spiders until Bilbo said that he would draw them off while we went in the other direction. I was quite surprised when Bilbo suddenly disappeared and the others were just as astonished as me but then we heard his voice again, as he taunted the Spiders and threw more stones at them. We formed a knot and using lots of stones were able to break through their line and walk towards a glade that lay in that direction. We still had to fight them a few times but then Bilbo reappeared, telling us to move on and let him fight them, which he did until they left in order to return to their nest."

The children looked astonished when they heard Balin tell them about the escape from the Spiders and Balin said "we asked Bilbo how he could disappear like that and he told us about the ring he had found in the Orctunnel. He told us the story of how he escaped from Gollum with the Ring in its proper place and we all thanked him. He had shown that he was clever and brave besides having the ring but he couldn't answer our most important questions, where are we? How do we get out of Mirkwood? And where is Thórin?

When the Elves suddenly came out before us Bilbo put on his ring and stepped aside before the Elves came close enough to see how many we were. That way he escaped them and followed us into the Castle. When we had been unbound and the blindfolds removed the King started to ask questions about where we came from and where we were going but we didn't tell him about it and finally he ordered his men to put us in the dungeons. He also told them to give us food and drink but none of us was to be let out until at least one of us was willing to answer his questions. He didn't tell us that Thórin was there also, it was Bilbo who found that out and told the rest of us."

Gandalf reminded Balin of his meeting with the rescued Elves and Balin answered smiling "when the blindfold was removed from my eyes I heard a gasp. My eyes became adjusted to the light and I saw that some of the Elves who stood in the Throne room looked familiar. When I had been put in my cell they came to me, not only with food and drink but also to say that they were sorry, they hadn't been able to calm their friends and kin down. The Main Healer also came to examine me and give me medicines so I could eat and drink. She came every day for a few days in order to help me fight the spider poison and after that the Elves that I had befriended came now and then to speak with me, asking me what had happened since we parted ways and telling me what had happened to them."

The children looked at Balin and asked him how they were able to escape and Balin told them that Bilbo had helped them. "He found all our cells with Thórin´s cell as the last one and gave us all a message from Thórin. We were certain that Bilbo would be able to find a way to get us out of there and one evening he came and opened the door to my cell. Somehow he had been able to get hold of the keys to the cells and used them to open the doors. When we were outside he closed and locked them and we followed him, not entirely soundless as we found it hard to move about in the passages. Finally we came to Thórin´s cell and he came out, looking happy to see us again. He told Bilbo that he was as clever as Gandalf had said he was and then asked what we were to do next. Bilbo told us what he had planned and after some discussion we followed him, first to a room where we found two Elves sleeping and Bilbo returned the keys to one of them, then to the storerooms that he had found. There were many empty barrels, casks and tubs there so it didn't take long for us to find a cask each and get into it. Bilbo padded them with straw as much as he could but we could still expect quite a bumpy ride.

When all of us save Bilbo was inside the casks and the lids were back on them a group of Elves came down, woke the Butler and asked him what he had been doing. When they started to move the empty barrels they found waiting for them but they also found that some of them were quite heavy and told the Butler, Galion, that he had put full barrels among the empty ones but he told them to get on with the job and they did. That way all of us got out of the castle but we weren't out of the woods yet. The Raft elves said that some of the barrels lay deeper in the water than the others and we were only able to go on because they didn't have the time to open them. So we were able to escape from Mirkwood but what would happen next was unknown to us."

TBC