Hello All,
Here we go again, the next chapter where everything kicks up a gear! I hope that you enjoyyyyyyy...
Once again, thank you so much for the Follows and Favourites, they mean so much!
Also, big thank you to BrownEyedGirl87 for being a complete shinning star!
I do not own The Hobbit, just my OC.
Chapter 40 – Enchanted Waters
"I found a bridge!" Kili called from the front. His voice sounding like he was trying to be excited, but the excitement wasn't quite there.
"Bridge!" The Company then called back to one another as they passed the message along to Bofur, who was still carrying Todd at the back.
The company all joined together again at the edge of the bridge where it had crumbled away, leaving a rather large expanse of slowly creeping black river water between them and the rest of the pathway. Reaching the water had the whole company reeling with a sudden wave of nausea and light-headedness, as if being so close to the jaded water had gone straight to their heads, making them feel even more out of it than they already were. If they had been in their better minds it would of all then made sense, the fact that they had been getting worse and worse the closer and closer they travelled to that foul river, and to now come across it left them punch drunk on their own breath.
"We could swim it?" Bofur suggested as he placed Todd on the ground as gently as he could whilst swaying dangerously, feeling like he had consumed five barrels of ale all by himself. It had been a miracle that he had not dropped her already, be it through sheer fluke or luck.
"Did you not hear what the Wizard said… a dark magic lies upon this forest!" Thorin spoke with his voice a little more breathy than usual. He staggered as he made his way to the edge to survey the issue. "The waters of this stream are enchanted!"
"Doesn't look very enchanting to me" Bofur huffed as he looked down into the dirty and almost bubbling water.
"Look there…" Kili called out once again, making the heads of all the company swivel round to see where he was pointing. "There's a boat the other side"
Everyone peered as far as they could to the other side of the festering stream, and once the mist had parted across the water as it did in waves, they spotted it. There, against the other shore where the other base of the bridge stood crumbling was a wooden boat, big enough for about four. It was a complete conundrum that had every single member of the Company trying to figure out, as to how they would acquire the boat. They needed to get that boat over to them somehow, and it took all their struggling brain power before Fili had the best idea.
In the end they had all been left waiting with baited breath as Kili had been tasked with letting an arrow fly across the river to embed it in the boat, only to them pull it across to them. Due to the befuddled state that they had all found themselves in, it had taken Kili four tries before he had got an arrow lodged deep enough into the wooden boat for them to be able to pull it across without the arrow being pulled out loose. There had been a particularly tense moment when Kili, Fili and Dwalin were pulling it across the water when the rope felt like it had been jammed and they thought they had lost it but turned out the scum on the top of the water was gathering around the boat and getting stuck making it harder to pull.
In the end they had pulled it to their side of the river and they began inspecting it to make sure that it wouldn't sink half way across spilling members of the Company into the river to be lost to the wicked enchantments.
Kili then set to sticking an arrow in a tree on the other side of the river that the Company could use to winch the boat across without losing it to the pitiful current. He again took a few goes before he got one lodged deep enough into the rotting tree trunk. The rope being tied around another tree on their side.
"I want Bilbo, Dori, Kili and Todd to go over first!" Thorin ordered, pointing at Todd as she laid unconscious on the floor. Bofur immediately began lifting her up and into the boat, making sure not to tip it too much, Bilbo jumping in after her to make sure that she was comfy and not resting funny. Dori was next, and he made a right racket as he wobbled the boat getting in, then Kili got himself in towards the front of the boat and nodded to his Brother and Uncle before he then started to ready himself up to pull the boat across the water. At first everyone had been silent, waiting to see if their plan would work. Kili moved slowly, standing with his feet bracing against the front of the little boat, his hands wrapped around the rope and tugging at it to test that it was strong enough.
Then once he was comfortable, he started to heave. He took long slow pulls and his eyes were trained on the arrow that he had lodged in the tree trunk opposite, hoping that it wouldn't pull free. It was a long process, but after a while they had made it to the other side. The Dwarves left on the other side cheering once Kili shouted back to let them know they had made it.
Kili set to picking up Todd and settling her down against a tree a little way away from where the Company would be climbing in and out of the boat to make sure that she didn't get trampled on or hurt. Then set back to pulling himself and the boat to the other side, Bilbo and Dori watching nervously from their side of the river.
Slowly but surely Kili made his way back over and picked up three more of the Company: Dwalin, Balin and Nori were picked up and slowly pulled over to join them. It went much the same way until the last boat set off on its journey to join the company. Fili had swapped out for his now rather tired Brother and was pulling, Bombur, Bofur and Ori across the water way. Fili was being just as careful as Kili had been, making sure to take it nice and slow and to not rock the boat too much. Those within the boat were behaving and not making too much motion so that their trip across was as smooth as possible.
Fili pulled them up against the shore of the right side of the river and Thorin let out an audible sigh of relief as they started to pull Ori and Bofur from the boat first.
Then came Bombur, he wasn't so easy to pull out of the boat. The large dwarve had seemed so far delirious that he was struggling to stand in the boat to lift himself out. It took Bofur and then Dwalin to start pulling him. What they didn't account for was the charge of stark white deer that came out of nowhere right across the Company. Bilbo had been just about to check on Todd when he had heard a soft rumbling. At first he had thought that he was hearing things for he knew that the forest was sending him loopy. He had paused and glanced all around, finally landing his eyes on the crest of the hill that framed the river, they narrowed in concentration.
They had launched out from over the crop of the nearby hill and had dashed in a frenzy through the company as they all but dived in every direction to avoid being trampled on. It was chaos, Dwalin jumped so high in shock that he knocked Fili over who in turn let go of Bombur sending the delirious dwarves plummeting back into the boat, the impact of the large dwarrows tipping the boat right back and before Fili had a chance to take another breath, Bombur had been set toppling backwards out of the boat and into the brown murk of the enchanted stream with a large splash.
The deer disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, but no one could rest for as soon as they had collected their wits, Fili was shouting out for them to help.
"What in Durin's beard is happening?" Thorin roared as him and the rest of the company picked themselves up and surged to the edge of the bank.
"Bombur has fallen in!" Fili barked out as he turned back to his Uncle with fear in his eyes.
"The stream Thorin…" Bofur shouted as he had to be held back by Nori so he didn't go jumping in after his brother. He was straining and pulling at Nori, desperate to help, his Brother was slowly drifting away from them and the fear in his eyes as he looked back up at Bofur was breaking his heart. "What do we do?"
"KILI, THE ROPE" Thorin demanded as he stepped up right on the edge. Kili rushed and yanked the arrow from the tree trunk with all his might and shoved the rope that had been attached at his Uncle as quickly as he could.
Thorin wasted no time in chucking the rope out to Bombur shouting at him to grab a hold of it all. when the rotund dwarve tried to reach out the first time, he took too much water in and spluttered, his hand slicing through the water missing the rope as it drifted past. Thorin hissed, and quickly pulled it back in to throw it once more. The whole Company at this point was shouting at the edge, praying to Mahal that they would be able to get Bombur out before he suffered from the so-called enchantments that laid upon the water. Bifur was all but shaking as he watched with worried eyes as his Cousin was desperately trying to stay above the water.
Bombur managed to catch the rope the second time it was thrown to him and Thorin immediately started pulling on the rope, Dwalin and Bofur grabbing the rope too to help. It took all three of them to heave the rotund dwarve up the bank and out of the water all of them sweating with effort.
"Bombur!" Bofur worried as the big dwarve fell to his knees once safely out of the water.
He was panting as he spat out some of the water that had made its way into his mouth. Bofur also dropped down to his knees before his Brother and ran a hand over his back. Bofur could feel his heart starting to return to normal, knowing that his Brother was out of the water was all it took. He had had half the mind to jump in after him when he first saw him fall in, his King had reacted in a much better way. Thinking of a way to help get Bombur to safety in mere seconds even in their befuddled state. He looked up to Thorin as he patted his brothers back with such grateful eyes that Thorin merely nodded in response.
"I feel… sleepy…" Bombur finally panted out once he had caught his breath.
Bofur turned to his brother just in time to see him drop off and fall onto his front in the mud, loud snores exploding from his chest.
"Bombur?" He tried, shaking his Brother awake, which normally worked for his Brother wasn't that much of a deep sleeper. Yes, he had a mighty snore, but shaking him awake normally did the trick. Not this time though.
"Is he out cold?" Nori asked, peering down at the slumbering dwarve.
"OI, BROTHER!" Bofur shouted in Bombur's ear, only to receive nothing but a snore in return.
"It must be the water" Balin surmised, looking between Bombur and the River they had just fished him out of. "This is the enchantment"
"Well how long will he sleep for?" Gloin huffed, not impressed at all.
"How am I supposed to know?" Bofur bit back with his own frustrated expression.
"What are we going to do?" Bilbo stuttered out to try and break the glares being sent between Bofur and Gloin.
"We carry him of course!" Bofur barked, looking around at the faces of the Company. Daring them to suggest leaving his Brother. Bifur also bristled as he muttered a curse under his breath in Khuzdul to them.
"That's two people we need to carry now, this is going to slow us down!" Thorin informed them. "We need to work together, or we will never make it"
The Company began to worry then, not knowing if they would ever be able to get out of the forest now that they had two members of their company out cold and needing to be carried through the rest of the way. There was no way that they would be leaving them behind, but they were going to make travelling so much harder. Especially seen as their mental states were deteriorating, no matter how hard they were trying to keep it together, with every hour it began more and more difficult. Bofur sighed and pulled his hat off from his head and ran a hand through his hair.
This was not how he had expected the day to go at all. He had hoped that they would make some gains in their furtherment through the forest, hoping that they were closing in on the other side of the wretched sick wood. He had hoped that the air would start to become less thick, and that the murk that had settled over their minds would start to recede, but the completely opposite had happened.
He glanced quickly over to where Todd had been placed but paled when his eyes landed on where she had last been.
"What?" Bilbo asked him, seeing his face lose all the colour.
"Where's Todd?" He asked, his voice picking up the panic that he had experienced just moments ago when he thought his Brother would drown before them.
Todd had awoken to the oncoming stampede of deer. It was all she could hear.
The thundering of hooves thudding towards her at such a rate that by the time her mind had cleared enough to realise what was happened they were upon her.
They were beautiful, stark white deer. Their fur as white as virgin snow and usually Todd would watch in unadulterated awe at such pure creatures. Yet this time, she could feel something bubbling up inside her. It felt like hunger, like she hadn't eaten in years and that this was her only chance. The itch in the back of her head pulsed with every hove, slowly jumping and expanding throughout her, and she could do nothing to stop it. All time slowed down to an impossible slowness around her.
She was mildly aware that the Company were close by, yet the deer were separating her from them. There was a part of her that wanted to shout out to them, reach out and alert them to her presence, but she just couldn't move, and the need to do so shrank with every passing second, as if it was being drowned out. Her expression fell from shock to dead as she was taken over.
She shakily pushed herself up into a seated position.
Then she could feel desperation explode within her, telling her to chase. That was the crux of it, the only thought that she could really settle on, and it was calling to her, like a mother to its pup. It was like the wild animal in her was taking over and she didn't have the strength to hold it back any more.
She felt her bones starting to shake within her, as her extremities started to crack, the familiar feeling of her change pouring over her and before long she had ripped through her borrowed clothes. There was no time to revel in the feeling though, the wildness inside her didn't want to hang about, and didn't smash its way through her mind to just enjoy the feeling of being in her first skin. The same wildness that was being urged on by the all-consuming burning itch leapt after the deer. Todd exploded after them, her black paws poundings the ground as she deftly raced behind the deer.
Her eyes were as black as night, and as wide as they could be. Her pupils were hidden in the mask of black but were shaking wildly between one deer to the next. It was intoxicating, and she couldn't get enough. A sick snarl spread across her muzzle as she chased. The chase was stoking the itch and before long, Todd could feel it in every inch of her, as it spread and started to burn.
If anyone had been watching her, they would have seen the last bit of red fade from the tip of her tail. All the colour of her once vibrant red coat had faded into a smudgy Smokey black.
There you are.
The deer before her parted like a stream around a rock and there in the middle, stood the large black fox.
Todd slammed her front paws into the soft rotting ground before her and came to an abrupt stop. Her shoulders and chest heaving as she looked on blankly at the fox before her. It regarded her with the utmost curiosity, and Todd in her taken over mind believed that it was real. Her dulled out dwarves senses had been pushed to one side, trapped away in the back of her mind as her wild Rebhane side focused all its attention on the threat before it.
You're giving in… finally.
