Hello everyone - its been a really long time again. I hope you all enjoy this new instalment.
I am always so thankful to those of you that have followed and favourited - and I am always excited to receive your reviews.
I do not own The Hobbit - just my character Todd.
Chapter 41 – Snapping
"What do you mean she was right there?" Kili shouted as the company searched high and low for Todd, whilst not leaving Thorin's immediate sight.
"She was sat on the floor there, I swear it…" Bilbo shouted with an edge to his voice that made it sound like his voice was about to break.
"Well she isn't there now?" Fili bit back, the fog in their brains making them turn on each other.
The company didn't know what to do. Were they to stay exactly where they were and hope that Todd made her way back to them, or did they head off down the path and hope that she was just merely ahead of them.
It didn't help that crossing the river got them no closer to the fresh air that they were so desperately in search off. They knew that just one breath of fresh air would help towards getting them back to normal.
The forest seemed to curve downwards towards them now, leering in as if it knew they were all in utter turmoil. The stench of the river and the dust that the stampede of deer has caused was settling in their heads making every blink heavier and every breath stickier.
It was no wonder that no one had noticed Todd disappear. How could they let a sick woman who could barely walk slip through their fingers? The accursed forest was to blame for all their misfortune now.
Bofur couldn't even comprehend what was going on as he stood hopeless by his brothers sleeping side. His usual cheerful eyes were almost completely glassy and unseeing. His arms just hanging by his side. Bifur could tell that Bofur was feeling completely broken. The worry for his Brother and for his One eating away at him, making his brain race a mile a second over every and all possibilities.
He wanted nothing more than to be out the forest and back to the happier times. The times when himself and Bilbo were trying to hold in their laughter, as Todd picked the companies valuables out of their pockets and adorned herself with them till the person noticed. It had become quite the time passer on the long slogs up the foothills. He wanted nothing more than to be sat around the fire with the Company, watching as Todd's bright face and wide eyes soaked up the fire. Her beautiful hair flowing softly in the breeze, the very look of it making Bofur want to run his hands through it.
He could practically hear her laugh. Even though he had not heard it in far too long.
"What am I going to do?" He whispered to himself.
A few of the company heard him and paused in their searching and shouting to feel sorry for their comrade. He had lost his one, and she might never come back, lost in the cursed forest till her end of days. That was what Gandalf has threatened them with if they left the path and left the path she had done.
Thorin stepped up then and decided that staying in one place and waiting was not good enough. He knew that they needed to find their lost companion. There was no way he wanted to just leave her wondering through the woods sick and alone. He owed her more than that, but they weren't to leave the path, that much was set in stone by the Wizard. The best he could do was get the rest of his company to safety. He knew that Todd would have wanted that too, at least he knew that her old self would have wanted that.
Thorin's mind flashed back to the sickly sight of the Rebhane, her blackened hair, her darkening eyes. The shadows that danced in her mind that was plain as day for them all to see.
There was a tiny part of him that realised then that he was a little glad that the Rebhane had disappeared. Maybe now the company would be able to make it out of the forest. None of them having to hang back and look after her during her fits of anger or sickness. He had noticed the company slowing down to accommodate her slowed pace. He understood but he couldn't deny the annoyance that had been growing within him.
Shaking his head, Thorin moved on noting to himself that the forest was making him think poorly.
"We leave now… get yourselves together!" He shouted over them, making a few of them flinch.
"Uncle, you can't be serious!" Kili gasped, his face twisting to look back at Thorin.
"It does us no good sitting here waiting for her to return to us…"
"She is sick and she needs our help" Bilbo protested.
"That creature is strong enough to not need our help with sickness, Master Baggins!" Thorin rebutted with a sharp tone, before turning his back and setting off down the path once more. Dwalin and Balin immediately setting off after him.
Bofur watched as the Company started drifting off after their King. Dori, Gloin and the brothers sticking behind with Bifur and Bofur to offer their hands in carrying Bombur.
Hungry.
Todd was so so very hungry.
It wasn't the type of hungry that used to build in her stomach after days of only foraging, as she made her way down from the North all those months ago. It wasn't the type of hunger that set in upon smelling a delicious meal.
It was a hunger that burst out of her every fibre of her being. It exploded from her veins and rushed around her body as she stood in her first skin before the black Rebhane.
Her paws tensed on the murky ground, ready to move in any direction at a moment of notice. The hackles on her back were raised, and rippling.
She had chased the deer like her life had depended on it. Every inch of her wanted nothing more than to catch one, to rip it apart with her teeth. Yet as soon as she saw the black Rebhane before her something snapped her back to some form of reality.
Todd was only semi-aware of how she was acting. It was like she was trapped in a bubble.
She was watching everything from behind a blurry film, watching her chase the deer, watching her leave behind her loved ones, her One.
She screamed out in anger upon seeing the black Rebhane once more, and now she was tense, waiting for her body to react to the creature. She wanted nothing more than to run away from it, get rid of it somehow, but her body couldn't move.
Finally,… It sneered at her. Eyes raking over her first skin. It wasn't that hard was it?
"What do you want?" Todd screamed from within her bubble. Her first skin didn't move an inch, as it watched the creature before her.
They deceived you, they used you… but now you are free.
"Shut up!" Todd screamed outwards. It didn't even flinch – didn't even acknowledge her.
It couldn't hear her. That almost made the whole situation worse. Her body was fighting her, not listening to her and that was terrifying. All this time, the last few weeks she had felt like something was crawling inside her getting ready to take over and she had been fighting it as hard as she could.
But she was weak now.
She was sick.
It had grown in her like an infection and stolen her light and her goodness. It had sucked it all away and now she was left like this. An echo of the woman she was before, stuck in the back of her head, watching as the darkness won her body.
She tried to scream – tried to swipe and punch and kick but nothing worked. It didn't make a difference, but it was all she could do in this state.
You were nothing but a tool, an implement to get to where they wanted. They never cared. The words came again.
She knew this wasn't the case, she knew that the company weren't using her, at least not now they weren't. They had become friends; they had become her only family and she cared for each and everyone of them so deeply. Yet there was still an edge to the black Rebhanes words that cut at her as much as she didn't believe it.
That one even pretended to like you, pretended to care… and what for? It snarled and took a step forwards towards her first skin. Where is he now?
Todd flinched within her bubble and concentrated as hard as she could to move herself, but her body felt utterly disconnected. It just stood there, chest heaving and blood thirsty eyes unblinking.
All this time you were beginning to care for him, and he wouldn't even talk to you… It carried on. It was all a lie, a large joke just to make you look like the pathetic creature you really were.
"STOP IT!" She screamed. The hurt from the days and days of being ignored and shunned by Bofur stabbing at her heart and causing a single tear to slide down her cheek. She wanted so hard to ignore the creature before her. She knew it was only trying to rile her up, but its words had struck a chord. It had found her weakness. Its words flew straight into her and it felt like knives in her stomach.
That's what they do, they trick and bully us into living for them… It spat.
She fell to her knees, tears now streaming down her face, her eyes wide as she stared at the eyes of the pure evil before her.
She had nothing left to fight with.
As the black Rebhane started to move closer she couldn't even take a breath.
This was it.
After all this time and after all the fighting and the running and the hiding. She had lost. The darkness would take her, and she would become an instrument of evil. Her Mother would have been so disappointed in her. Her Mother, the brightest light that Todd had ever known, the women who had dedicated her life to protecting and caring for others. She had no bad bone in her body and here Todd was giving herself up to the darkness, not having an ounce of fight left in her.
She was a disgrace.
The black Rebhane was inches from her now, staring into Todd eyes with such intensity that she was surprised she didn't just burn up on the spot.
That was when she heard it.
Shouting.
Lots of shouting, familiar shouting.
Both Rebhane's ears pricked at the sound and Todd tried her hardest to concentrate on it.
"Stay together!" She could hear a familiar gruff voice.
Todd's eyes lit up. It was the company.
That was when the black Rebhane howled. Todd jumped and she watched as her body joined in. There was something in the sound that had her start to shake, she knew those sounds, those howls. She started to panic, she started to run, her legs pumping as fast as they could, but she was getting nowhere. Run on she did though.
The evil creature was going to hunt, and her body was going to join in. They were going to stalk their prey and then rip them apart. She could see it happening in her head. The image of the company dead around her feet that she had been seeing in her dreams for weeks flashed before her minds eye once more.
The time has come… rid yourself of those who seek to control and use you… release yourself from them…
Kill them…
Todd felt herself lurch into step just as another shout was heard from the company. It sounded like they were fighting, she could hear their weapons being drawn and she could hear them slicing at something. She could hear their feet running along with other more primal noises. They were shouting for each other, looking out for each other and her heart started to beat a thousand miles a second. She couldn't kill them, she couldn't. She wouldn't be able to survive if she was stuck watching herself hurt any of them.
"Bombur!" That voice she could always definitely recognise finally shouted out above the rest. Bofur.
Something within her snapped at the sound of his voice.
She closed her eyes and screamed as loud as she could, the force of it sending a burst of energy out from around her as she felt herself slam back into her body. The feel of her first skin rushed through her mind like a wave crashing over rocks at the coast. It was now or never and she didn't wait for the tingling of her first skin to wear off before her eyes had flung open and her jaw was locked around the neck of the black Rebhane before her.
It immediately yelped and yanked its neck free, before biting back.
What do you think you are doing, wretch! It howled at her, fury so bright in its eyes it looked like they were on fire.
You do not belong here, you will not make me hurt them. Todd snarled back, her snout dripping with saliva as she bared her sharp teeth at it. Her whole body was ready to fight. Her hackles her up, her shoulders were tensed.
She felt herself wake up in ways that she thought she would never feel again.
Her senses were on high alert, she could heard and smell everything.
Her eyes were blurry no more and everything was standing out to her like it was lit up by a hundred suns.
I will not follow you, I will always fight against you, no matter how sick or weak I get… Her words came with such force, the black Rebhane backed away from her. She felt her confidence flood through her, taking a threatening step forwards to follow the evil beast. You do not belong here.
The darkness will either have you, or kill you wretch… The black Rebhane growled as it backed up once more.
Then let it kill me, but I won't go down with out a fight… She stomped her paw against the floor, shaking herself before tensing ready to fight once more. Then she tilted her head toward her enemy. I feel sorry for you…
You feel sorry for me? What trickery is this? It mocked.
You obviously don't know love, wouldn't know it if It swallowed you up and spat you back out again. You fight for nothing really… you are nothing.
With her words and that final realisation, the black fell creature before started to break apart before her. The sticky forest breeze pulling it apart like smoke.
The darkness will overcome all, the skies will burn… just you wait… fire comes for you.
