Thank you so much for the support! It really means so much! Hope you enjoy Mirkwood! *cue evil laugh*

Emi had never loved air so much as she did at that moment. That one moment when air seemed all but strangling her. This forest of Mirkwood was like nothing she had ever felt before. And she hoped never to feel the same again. If the forest felt sick from outside the land beneath the trees was far, far worse.

Nothing moved. Nothing pleasant anyway. The air was stagnant; there was not the sound of birds, or even bugs in the air. Only the occasional creak of limb or leaf. A rock crumbling from age down a cliff. A small rustling in the bushes. The quiet was what drove them mad.

It started simple at first. A shadow would move on the edge of your vision. Or you would hear an unearthly cry from the trees far beyond your sight. It was unnerving, but bearable. Then Emi began to notice more. The sounds of the dwarves echoed in strange ways. Her feet were walking backwards… no, that couldn't be right. Were the others seeing this? They must be. How can someone walk backwards and move forwards at the same time? She looked behind her to mention it, and found herself staring at… herself. Hadn't it been Dori just a moment ago? He was nowhere in sight now. Moved awful quickly for someone so old. But then, she wasn't too young herself. She waved at her and turned forward again. Wait.

She looked behind her. It was Dori. But hadn't it just been….

Emi slapped herself roughly. She couldn't be nodding off already. They'd only been walking for a few hours yet! Or was it days? Maybe minutes? It was so hard to keep track of time. She was so tired.

"This way." A dwarf's voice called from ahead. Which way? Oh. Bugger it all. I'll just follow Bombur. He knows where he's headed. Or was that Bofur? They looked so similar after all. But that made sense. They were brothers. Right…

"Air. I need air." The dwarf in front of her gasped. Bombur…. Bofur…. Bifur?... The one with the hat.

"My head," another dwarf. An old one. "It's spinning." The ointment one. That was it.

"Emi! Look out!" Someone grabbed her from behind and pulled her backwards. The hobbit scrambled around for a moment before finding her balance and looking around in alarm. There was a river across the path. She had almost walked into it.

"Where's the bridge?" someone asked. Emi looked around tiredly. Oh. There it was. Or used to be, at any rate.

"We could try and swim it."

"No. Don't touch the water." Emi turned in surprise. Thorin's voice. It was strange and echoing. But, she knew it was Thorin's. It was… cleansing somehow. "Remember what Gandalf said? This River is enchanted."

"Doesn't look very enchanting to me." Bofur frowned looking over into the murky water. Emi smiled to herself as she looked into the river. She knew it was Bofur. It was easier to focus now. For some reason. She didn't know why.

"Hey look over here!" Kili's voice sounded from somewhere behind her. "We can probably get across this way."

"No wait," Thorin stopped him. "We send the lightest across first." Hmm, good plan. Emi nodded to herself. I wonder which of the dwarves is the lightest? They're all pretty heav…y…. oh. She turned around to see all of the dwarves looking at her. Oh.

Grab. Swing. Wobble. Move to the next vine. Swing. Wheeeeeeeee. No stop. Focus! Right. Grab. Move. Jump. Grab. Opps… Uhoh. Phew. Safe. Kind of. Water. It's sparkly. Kind of murky, but charming up close. Need sleep. Sleep? Up close? No focus Emi! Focus! You can't fall asleep now.

Emi shook her head to clear it. This forest really was starting to get to her. Heaving her strength. She moved cross the rest of the river. She collapsed at last to the other side, panting slightly.

"This…. Is not right… there is something very wrong about this." She muttered to herself, trying to push herself up from the stone step. "Don't go across!" she called to the others. But when her eyes opened, she groaned loudly. All of the other dwarves were already tangled up in the vines, attempting to cross the river. What were they thinking? Those… those… Dwarves! Emi sat back against the stone exhausted. It wasn't her fault if they all fell in and drowned! She had tried to warn them. But had they listened? Nooooo.

The large thudding of boots next to her knocked Emi from her thoughts. She looked up to see Thorin successfully on the other side. Emi wearily climbed to her feet and froze. What was…

A white… stag. Glowing in the dank of the forest. What a pretty thing. What was it doing here? Something moved slowly in the corner of Emi's vision. She looked over to see Thorin slowly raising a notched arrow towards the creature.

"What… are you doingg?" Emi frowned. Her words seemed drawn out and slurred. Emi looked back at the stag, her head tilting to one side. Such a pretty thing. The arrow leapt out of Thorin's bow, flying straight at the stag, which scrambled away quickly, completely untouched by the arrow. "Shouldn't have done that." Emi watched the beautiful thing disappear into the forest. It was a shame to see it go. "It's bad luck."

"I don't believe in luck." Thorin snarled, lowering his bow again. "We make our own luck!"

"That explains it then." Emi turned towards the path again.

"Explains what?" Thorin demanded.

"Why this journey has been so unlucky." The hobbit looked dazedly at the dwarf. "Because you don't believe in luck. You should trust it more. Maybe things would go your way more often…" her focus seemed to drift of for a bit before it snapped over to the river where Bombur had fallen into the water. And he started snoring. The dwarves wearily made a little carrier for him and rolled the large dwarf on. Then they carried him. Along the path.

How long had they been walking?

And walking?

And walking…

Walking…

Walking?

Emi collapsed wearily beside a tree as Dwalin and Thorin tried to find the path ahead. They were bickering. Silly dwarves couldn't make up their minds about where the stupid path was. What's that? White stuff… Looks familiar, but I can't seem to place it. She couldn't place it for the life of her. Her hand reached out tentatively and plucked at it. It made a strange waving sound that seemed to reverberate through the forest some how. Interesting. She plucked it again. Wibble wibble wibble all through the trees. Huh.

"This way!" Thorin shouted, heading off into the darkness. "Quickly, follow me!"

"Where are you going?" Emi stood quickly, stumbling a little at the sudden movement. "Where… where are you going?" She watched the dwarves follow their leader. "No. We need to stay on the pa… We must STAY on the path!" She shouted after them. They ignored her. "Ganda… Gandalf said. We must stay… on the… path…" she looked around. Where was the path? Was she on the path? Oh bother it all. "Wait for me!" and Emi stumbled after the dwarves. She didn't want to be alone in here, that's all she knew. These dwarves were better than nothing.

Walking again.

Again.

They were walking before this?

They'd been walking for ages. Ages and ages. They were all old now. Must be getting old. We've been in here for years it seems. How many days had passed? How could they tell? Not even the sunlight…

"What's happening?" someone asked.

"Keep Moving. Nori, why have we stopped?" Thorin… who was Nori?

"The path… it's disappeared!"

"What's going on?"

"We've lost the path!"

"We lost it quite some time ago." Emi muttered to herself. Though no one paid any notice.

"Find it. All of you look." Thorin sounded desperate. Why was he so worried? He's the one who lost it in the first place. She had tried to warn them. But no one listened to her. "Look for the path!"

They couldn't find the path.

Emi knew they wouldn't find it again. Gandalf said they wouldn't. He told them not to leave the path. But dwarves don't listen. They never listen…

They were walking again.

"I don't remember this place." Someone said. "None of it's familiar." That means we aren't going in circles then. Right? Unless we're going backwards…

"It's got to be here." What's got to be where? What are we looking for? Why are we here? Why am I here?

"What hour is it?" Thorin. Who cares about the hour? It doesn't matter.

"I don't know." Someone answered. "I don't even know what day it is."

More walking.

Walking.

Walllkkkkkkiiiinnnngggggggggg…

"Look."

"A tobacco pouch. There's dwarves in these woods."

"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less. This is exactly the same as mine!"

"That's because it is yours." Emi hissed stomping over to the dwarves. Who knew what their names were any more. "Don't you see? We're going around in circles! We are lost!"

"We're not lost." A dwarf snapped at her. "We keep heading east."

"But which way is east? We've lost the sun!" The sun… Emi looked up. Trees. Trunks. Branches. Leaves. And behind that…

"The sun." she whispered. "We have to find… the sun. Up there." She looked around at the others. "We need to…" they wouldn't listen. They don't listen. They're dwarves. She would have to find the sun by herself.

She scrambled sloppily up a slanted tree. Going up. Up. She had to find the sun. She was in the branches. Still going up. Thank goodness hobbits are light. Up. In the leaves now. Up…

The sweet relief of sunshine and fresh air hit Emi like a wave of the most refreshing things she could think of. It was like a cold glass of water after a night of stuffy noses and horrible headaches. It was glorious. Emi took a deep breath, reveling in the sweet smell of leaves and mist blowing down from the mountains. At last, she opened her eyes. The sun was just peeking up from the horizon and… butterflies. Black butterflies filled the sky, flitting around in such beautiful patterns. Emi let out a breathy laugh as she watched. She felt alive again. After so, so long of being trapped in that accursed forest, she was alive. She could breath. She could think. She was back. Right, down to business.

The hobbit peered out over the waves of trees. It went on for a while, but not forever.

"I… I can see a lake!" Emi called out in excitement. "And a river… And the Lonely Mountain! It's so close. We're almost there! I can see it!" Silence was what she got in return. "Are you guys even listening? I said I saw the Lonely Mountain! I know which way to go!" The leaves rustled. Emi gulped. "Hello?" Taking another look at the open sky, Emi took a deep breath and stuck her head back under the leaves. Stillness. "Hello…" Absolutely nothing. Hadn't the dwarves been arguing when she left? She should be able to hear that, even from up here. They hadn't gone on without her, had they? They wouldn't do that… Emi held back a scream as something snagged her feet and she plummeted through the branches. You have got to be kidding me.

At last, she caught herself on a branch, hanging onto it with her two hands. When it started to move, she feared it was about to snap under her weight. But then she realized that it was moving sideways. She glanced over to see… eight… eyes. Emi let go in shock as a giant arachnid spat in her face, hissing angrily. She dropped again, this time to be caught by a large, sticky, white web. Oh no. She couldn't free herself as the gigantic spider came rushing at her through the branches. It wrapped its eight legs around the web, spinning it around her. Around and around. Something stabbed her in the side. She couldn't move. She couldn't think. She could only sleep. And sleep she did.

Mirkwood is always a challenge to write. What do you think? Did I do a decent job with it?

Spiders next. :P Not a big fan of them. We'll see how that goes. *shudder*