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On the Road Again

It was a few days later that the Greenwood company once again set off into the mountains. The Lothlorien party had left the previous day, and the seventeen travellers followed Elrond's instructions about which path to take into the mountains. Brethildíl waved them off, standing in fellowship with Elrond's household, for she had been offered apprenticeship with Elrond for the coming years.

The passage East was significantly quieter than the passage West, as the goblins who inhabited this pass had but recently been cleared out by a war patrol from Imladris.

They met no resistance to their passage in the mountains and soon found themselves reaching the eastern border of the Greenwood.

Legolas and Tathar offered to scout, and Rílglín, mollified by a sharp look from his father, stayed with the main group.

Legolas enjoyed riding beneath the trees, but soon decided that running the canopy would be much more productive. Leaving his horse to follow Tathar, Legolas leapt into the branches, easily keeping pace with the easy trot of his best friend on the path.

Suddenly, Legolas caught sight of a web, stretched right through the branches. He stopped short of becoming entangled, and dropped to the ground to warn Tathar. The pair immediately turned back to meet the group, and Legolas reported his finding. Ladlaurë immediately asked to have a look, for she would need more silk to complete all the orders that had been placed while in Imladris.

Thranduil ordered them draw weapons, and they continued, with Legolas, Brethilríl, Rílglín, and Aldanna in the canopy. Rílglín first saw the spider, and he expertly placed an arrow in its eye. The beast fell, keening horribly, and suddenly the forest was alive with the foul beasts. Thranduil yelled a fierce battle cry, "Belegalen!" as he launched himself at the nearest spider.

Not twenty minutes later, the spiders were dispatched, but Miruial had been stabbed while she fought with her small blade. The elleth was paralysed, and a few moments later, Tathar informed the group that his father, Lothellon, was also senseless. Thranduil sighed, and shook his head. "This makes thirty times he has gotten in the way of danger to me," he commented sadly. "He will be fine in short order, his body is well used to spider venom by now." As the injured were loaded onto horses, the warriors and Ladlaurë collected the webs, rolling the silk into large balls to load onto the horses.

Soon, Legolas, Brethilríl, Aldanna and Tathar were sent into the canopy, to keep an eye out for other nests, and to free up horses for the bulky load of webs. The group encountered three more nests, each larger than the last, on their way up the Elf path.

At the crossing of the Enchanted River, the horses, now all loaded with webs, for in the days they had spent crossing the forest, Miruial and Lothellon had awoken, were lead across the narrow rope bridge. Most of the Elves used the canopy path now, leaping from branch to branch, using ropes and vines to span the larger gaps in the canopy. Within the Greenwood, most of the Elves (including all of the Silvan Elves) usually travelled in the treetops, where the only real danger was the occasional spider, though these usually lived in the lower canopy.

The fierce hatred of all Elves of the Greenwood towards the Giant Spiders was legendary among other Elves, who still refused to consider them a blight upon the great Forest. Thranduil, though, was perhaps the fiercest in his vendetta against the beasts, for his second son, Belegalen, had been the first Elf to be killed by the spiders. When they reached the fourth, and largest, nest of spiders, Thranduil convened the group to work out a plan.

Aldariel and Miruial, being the slightest and least dangerous-looking of the group, would accompany Silivren into a clearing just to the south of the path, where they would talk and laugh loudly to attract the attention of the spiders. The rest of the group would lie in wait, concealed among the trees, to ambush the spiders as they approached.

It was a starless night, for the sky was veiled by clouds, and Legolas was grateful for this as he climbed into a high branch, perching ready to shoot spiders. Spaced evenly around the clearing were the other archers: Brethilríl, Tathar, Aldanna, Thranduil, Bragolmel and Hîmdol, and the seven, including Legolas, were well out of the way of the clearing itself, while perfectly positioned to shoot spiders.

The rest of the group hid themselves among the trunks, knives and swords drawn.

Silivren let out a loud tinkling laugh, and this was echoed by Miruial and Aldariel, who then burst into song. The song, a simple tune heralding the evening, attracted spiders like nothing else.

These first score of spiders were easily shot down, and then the knife-work began. Legolas stayed in the treetops, shooting arrow after arrow into the clearing, while Thranduil and Aldanna dropped to the ground to fight. Abruptly, there were no more spiders entering the clearing, and Legolas picked off the remaining few that tried to swarm the Queen where she fought.

Legolas dropped to the ground, and Ladlaurë crowed at the prospect of claiming all of their webs.

Thranduil kicked one spider in the swollen abdomen, glaring at the beast as if it had personally insulted him. He then knelt to draw out his arrow, and the other archers silently collected their own arrows.

"These should not be so close to the path," Lothellon murmured, and the words shattered the silence.

"There should be a patrol in this area, taking down the spiders that move this far north," Thranduil added, a frown of concern crossing his face.

Murmurs of assent followed this remark, from the advisors, who were examining a particularly large spider. "I think this is the leader," Hîmdol proclaimed.

"There are very few webs," Ladlaurë announced, having checked for silk. "I think they were driven north."

The group moved on, and sure enough, they did not meet any more spiders as they went. When they finally reached the caves, Ladlaurë immediately took the horses and their precious loads to her workroom, a hut built in amongst the trunks across the river from the caves.

The others all retired to their own rooms, and did not surface until the call for dinner.