Chapter sixteen

The trees leaned in on one another and over the path. Overgrown and very narrow in parts, we had to walk single file down the path. As we left the little piece of blue of the gate far behind us as it grew darker and darker. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the sides of the path were still a darkened green glimmer, and none too clear. The leaves were high, high above and nothing grew down here but the dead man's beard that hung off of the old, dried branches and ivy that strangled everything else that could live. Sometimes, there would odd colours in the darkness. The colours were too lurid to be natural. Perhaps they were mushrooms and fungus that thrived in the moist, dank banks where trees rotted away. The path was not straight –it wound around the massive trunks like a deer path. Occasionally, there were still shafts of light that were able to cut through the canopy and illuminate a little path of the forest or the path.

As the first evening fell, we decided to camp literally on the road. No one wanted to venture off into the forest and as far as we could see, no one in their right of mind would be travelling on this road and run into us in the middle of the night anyway. Gloin lit a fire as it got darker and darker and we ate our food sparingly. Soon, the moths came. Huge black and grey moths that were as big as our hands. Furry and with dark red eyes, they flew at the fire and at our faces, one tangled in my hair and I shuddered as Bofur helped me pick it out. Some of them were burned by the flames and lay twitching and smoking around the fire. Then the bats came. Thorin made the decision all of us were praying for and we put out the fire. The embers died down as we threw sand over the flames. As the embers died, it became pitch black. I waved my hand in front of my face and realized that try as I might, I could see nothing. I waited for my eyes to adjust. They didn't. There really was no light; not even from the sky as it usually did. We huddled together as Thorin called out everyone's names, making sure no one had wandered off. It was nearly impossible to keep watch, since no one could see anything. However, Thorin insisted and the shifts were haphazardly passed to the person next to you when you started nodding off. I tugged on Bofur's sleeve when I felt like I had sat and watched for a while. He woke up easily. No one slept very deeply. We fell asleep uneasily as slowly, glowing eyes of red, yellow, and green began to blink into existence all around us.

The next day, we began to realize that the forest was not completely silent. Other than our footsteps, odd scuffling, snorting, calls, and whines would rise up occasionally. We could not see where any of them came from. The day wore on and soon we saw disconcerting webs. They were impossibly huge and thick and stretched from tree to tree, though never over the path. Whether it was magic or something else, we could not tell. When I squinted off at the threads, I tried not to look too closely at the thick bundles hanging or think about how big the spider had to be to have made the web. We tried lighting a fire again the second night, but the fire brought even more eyes and the moths and bats visited again. We put out the fire and spent another night in a big, unhappy pile.

By the third day, I was already growing tired of the stale, unmoving air. There was never a hint of breeze and the sky could not be seen from where we were. It was as if we were back in the tunnels of the goblins and, truly, I almost hated this more. We ran most of the way in the tunnels and the mountains were not as wide as Mirkwood. And Gandalf and Fili and Kili were gone. At night, though the dwarves were used to tunnels, they still grew to dislike the forest. The dwarves were famed for the lamps they made –it could be like daylight in their underground cities. The forest that watched us silently was not a particularly happy one. I did not think it cared for what happened to us here. No one talked much, no one sang, and what was spoken was in hushed tones and whispers.

The days passed. One night, I fell asleep with Ori and Bilbo snuggled tightly on either side of me. Someone poked me in the middle of the night.

I rubbed my eyes. "Is it my watch?"

Ori's voice whispered from my right, "I'm really sorry Tallis, but I have really got to... got to relive myself."

"Can't you hold it?"

"I'm bursting!"

Gods. We fumbled around until he was holding onto one end of his scarf while I held onto the other side. He stood up and walked off. The scarf went taunt. Hopefully, he was facing away from us. I heard him undo his britches and let his water fly.

"Done!" his voice came happily.

"Hurry up," I snapped.

The scarf suddenly went slack in my hand.

"Ori!"

"I just put it down –I can't get my pants up."

I waited for a bit.

"Wait –I've almost found the scarf... I can't find it! Blast it!"

"Stop moving and listen to my voice." He had better not have wandered off the path. "Can you hear what direction my voice is coming from?"

"I think so –,"

There was a muffled yelp and a thump.

"Ori!" I cried and got up. The rest of the dwarves were grumbling as they were woken up by our yelling.

"Tallis!"

Thank the gods! His voice sounded not very far off. "What happened?"

"I think I've fallen into a bit of a ravine –I don't think it's very deep, but it's very steep, almost like a cliff off the side of the road –I think I'll need a bit of help."

"Wait and don't move and keep talking," I called to him. I turned to the dwarves around me. "Ori's fallen in a ditch and he needs help. Who's got the rope?"

Dori started fretting.

"Shush!" Nori replied to his older brother. "Tallis, I've got the rope. Dori, Tallis will get him, don't you worry."

I scrabbled around over some disgruntled dwarf bodies before I found the rope. Tying one end to myself, I handed the other end to some grasping hands and moved off into the direction of Ori's rambling voice.

"Wait!" It was Thorin. "You can't go alone,"

"I'm the tallest and I'm already tied to the rope –we don't want to lose any more people do we?"

"Call if you need help," he replied.

I nodded before realizing that he could not see me. "I will."

I crouched down and shuffled forwards, hoping I wouldn't be wandering into whatever bodies those blinking eyes belong too. I tripped over a root and landed on my hands and knees.

"You alright?" It was Bofur's voice.

"Yes, I just tripped over a root –I'm off the path now,"

Ori's voice was getting nearer. My hand suddenly hit nothing but air as I put it down. Ori's voice was coming from right below me.

"Ori! I'm going to reach down and see if I can reach you!"

"You sound like you are right above me," Ori replied.

I stretched my arm as far as it would go.

"I don't think I can reach you!" Ori gasped –he sounded like he was on his tiptoes, straining upwards.

"I'm coming down," I turned and put a foot over. I scraped it around until I found something like a rock to put my foot against. I swung the other one down. I found something like a root. Reasoning my way down, my foot touched the ground soon enough.

"Ori?"

"Tallis!"

I felt someone walk right into me.

"I'm going to lift you up and you can climb onto my shoulders and up onto the edge." I told him.

Kneeling down, we fumbled around blindly until his boot was on my knee and his hands on a root above us. I pushed him up and he was able to kick around and bruise me in the process until he finally got his heavy, hard boots on my shoulders.

"Can you reach the top?" my voice was tight from the strain of holding him up.

"I think so." His weight lifted for a moment as he tested the ledge.

"I am going to give you a push, you ready?"

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. Something wasn't right.

"What's wrong?" Ori asked.

"Shhh..."

We were silent. There was something that almost sounded like breathing. I could feel tenseness in the air.

"One, two, three!" I shouted and vaulted Ori up not a moment before I heard something leap up behind me. I blindly dove to the left and heard something hit the place where I had been standing a moment before. Something snarled right beside me and I felt a hot, moist breath before I kicked out wildly and made contact with something very solid.

"Pull me up!" I yelled. I could hear the dwarves' cries of confused panic. I scrambled up, slipping and scrabbling. A maw of teeth snapped below me and I flailed my feet, kicking the thing in the face. It let go of an angry yelp that deepened into a throaty growl. It was going to lunge again; I could feel its muscles coiling and ready to spring. I got my arms onto the edge and as I lifted myself up, pain ripped through my calf. I screamed. I slipped back with the weight of the thing on my leg, but the rope held fast. It felt like my foot was going to get torn off.

"It's got my leg!"

There was a sudden zip of what sounded like arrows. Something passed dangerously close to my face, but there was a sound of arrow piercing flesh and the thing below let go of my foot with a howl and I was pulled up and over with a heave.

"Tallis, are you alright?"

"Can you move?"

"Fili? Kili?"

I felt three pairs of hands grab me. Fili and Kili under each arm and Ori leading us along with the rope, we made it back to the group. I collapsed down on the hard ground.

"Fili, Kili –how in the world?" I threw out blindly.

"We followed you," Kili's voice was right beside me. "At a distance of course."

"Gandalf let us go when we ran off." Fili added. "We heard you all yelling a while ago so we just followed the path towards you and luckily we ended up where you all were."

"You have been traveling on your own for a fortnight in the forest?" Thorin's angry voice came from across our huddle.

"Uh oh," Kili shrunk down.

"I will deal with you both when it is day." Thorin sounded like he was shaking. "From now on, no one pisses in the middle of the night! Is that understood?" He took our silence as our agreement. "Tallis! Are you alright?"

"My leg doesn't feel too bad." I grimaced.

"You're lying,"

"Yes, yes I am –it feels like it's been dipped in boiling pitch. I can still move my toes, so nothing has been severed, but I can't be sure about anything until I can see it in the daylight."

Slowly, everyone settled down again. I reclined in an awkward position since it seemed the only position I could bear. I could barely move my leg without crying out, so I leaned back on my elbows and kept my leg bent and calf off the ground. Feeling the bleeding of the wound, I clenched my jaw and tried not to whimper. With my full attention taken by my wound, I nearly missed the sounds of someone moving around the group. Suddenly, two strong arms pulled me against their owner's chest, causing me to stiffen.

"Thorin?" I whispered.

"Shh..." he settled me against him.

I couldn't help but smile to myself softly in the darkness as I cautiously let my head fall against his warm and broad chest. His arms never loosened and held me safely. A sudden stab of pain from my leg caused me to jerk and let slip an agonized moan. Tightening an arm around me, Thorin let go with the other and let his hand fall to the exposed skin behind my ear and let the back of his fingers run down to my shoulder soothingly over and over again. I calmed to his touch and suddenly something in my chest released and I was swallowing back tears of pain and of emptiness. My lashes were wet, but I kept from shaking or making a sound. Taking a few ragged breaths, I let the soreness in my throat subside as Thorin continued to stroke me softly.

If I ignored the snores of the other dwarves, it could have just been him and me, alone in the dark. He was mine then, completely and utterly mine. But again, I smiled ruefully, he was never mine. He had told me once that he had thought he had been in love when he was younger. A beautiful dwarven princess from the northern mountains had visited Erebor and smitten, he had foolishly dove right into the rituals of courtship, golden bracelets and wearing her bead in his braid. His father had been more than supportive of the match, since royalty were expected to marry, whether they were in love or no. The lofty princess had accepted the gifts an unsurprised manner and complied willingly enough –he was a prince and she was a princess, what else were they to do? But the dragon had come and he had little time for marriage and courtship after that. Realizing later on that his feeling for her been perhaps a little less strong than he had thought, he was hardly devastated when she went back to her people. He had to lead his people and he was a now a prince without a kingdom. Learning to hide his vulnerabilities, he hardened over time. His father and grandfather with dragonsickness ever lingering in them left their people without care. Thorin had to fill the void as his father and grandfather grew evermore distant. He needed a strong, dwarvish queen to give him heirs and to restore their people to their former glory. I could never be his queen. I was a mere girl who wandered aimlessly through the world.

But perhaps, in the dark, I could pretend for a while that we were shaped to be together.

I slowly relaxed, but sleep did not truly come. I dozed fitfully and in the morning when we all woke, I looked up and saw Thorin wincing and realized that I had been digging my fingers into his arm the entire night.

"Sorry," I swallowed.

His face softened into a rare gentle smile and he helped me sit up. I groaned as a stab of pain shot through my leg. It had dulled to a low throbbing in the night. As I reluctantly turned to look at my leg I immediately regretted it seeing the bloody mess below my knee. Whatever had bitten me had gotten its jaws around my calf and though my boot was in the way, the teeth had still gotten through. Unlacing my boots, pulling my woolen socks off, and rolling my pant leg up with agonizing slowness, I slowly revealed the wound. Oin boiled a little of our precious water and he washed the wound as I gripped Thorin's arm so hard he grimaced at me. There was a perfect circle of punctures on my calf left from what seemed to have been a wolf.

I pulled out my little wineskin, handed it to Oin and put my glove into my mouth.

"Thorin, please –," I took the glove out of my mouth to ask him, but he nodded already –he had been with enough healers on the battlefield to know what was to happen next.

I moved slowly onto my hands and knees and replaced the glove in my mouth. Feeling Thorin's hands press down on my knee and ankle, I steeled myself.

I bit down hard enough to have bitten my tongue clean through if my glove was not there when the wine touched my leg. My vision clouded at the edges. When it was over, I collapsed forward on my elbows as my head swam and I blinked away the stars. As I spat out the glove, panting, the weight lifted off my leg and instead, Thorin moved before me and placed a hand on my shoulder. The warmth steadied me as I lifted my head to find his face searching mine urgently for indication of relief from the pain. Pressing my lips together, I give him a weak smile and he sighed in relief. Concern for me wiped the hardness from his features momentarily. Nearly reaching a reassuring hand up to his face, I reigned myself in. There was no need to lose control. He sensed my hesitation but placed his other hand on my other shoulder comfortingly as Oin dressed my wound and wrapped it up. Turning over and sitting down, I wiped off the blood from my boot and sock the best I could and put them back on.

Thorin and Dwalin helped me up as gently as they could and Gloin had fashioned a crude sort of crutch for me I could use until I could bear putting weight on my foot. Testing it, it held and my foot throbbed away, but no longer stabbed with pain. I was worried about how it would heal, but I pushed the thought away for the moment as I shouldered my pack very slowly and adjusted myself to walk down the path.

Thorin went on angrily at Kili and Fili for a long while. Finally, he told them he would not send them back, not because he approved of them coming, but because we could hardly travel back and make it across the forest in time.

The day wore on. The trees watched me contemptuously. We were unwelcome guests and they had exacted their displeasure upon me.