After five minutes of travelling through the Mirkwood, I understood how much had changed since I last walked the elven paths. After nearly a week of travelling in the Mirkwood, I realized that I never wanted to step foot in this light-forsaken forest again. Each and every member of the company, with the exception of Master Baggins and myself, had pale, ashen skin and dark circles under their eyes. From the way they stepped, staggering into one another, I gathered that they were hallucinating or close to fainting, and I cursed my father, thinking that it was one of his enchantments.
"Aeyera?" Kili asked that night. We could not light a fire because of the giant moths that lived here, so we sat in darkness, waiting desperately for the dawn.
"Hm?" I answered, turning my head to face him. Because of my keen eyesight, I could make out his dim outline and the sleeping forms of the other dwarves scattered around the path.
"Are you alright?" He asked, concerned. "You're quite pale, and you seem…" he trailed off, thinking. "Sick," he finally said, struggling to find a word that described my ailments.
I sighed, feeling weaker than I had in a long time. "I'm fine," I whispered. In the pressing silence, it was if I had shouted. "It's just… this place used to be my home," I explained sadly. "When I lived here, it was the Greenwood, and there were no giant moths, no sickness, no darkness. Each night, the woods would be soaked in starlight and moonlight, so bright that you could travel the same as if it were day." Kili's outline nodded, and I continued. "Elves often reflect the state of the land they are in," I said softly, "and this land, it's…"
"It's dying," Kili finished.
I nodded. "The farther East we go, the worse I will become. Esgaroth, from what I've gathered from the rangers, has fallen into decay, and now is called 'Laketown'. Erebor is under the influence of a dragon. Dale is made up of crumbling ruins. If one travels farther, he would reach Rhûn, before that, the Iron Hills."
"What is Rhûn?" Kili asked. "I've heard of it, but I know nothing of it."
"Rhûn is the East," I explained, "And I am one of the few people in Middle Earth who have been there who did not already live there. There is little to report, as the land is made up of unnamed forests, lakes, and plains. There is a sea there, called the Sea of Rhûn, which is unpleasant and salty. Beyond the sea, there is naught but desert."
"Oh," he said, going silent. After a moment, though, he spoke again. "What happens if you go south?" he asked curiously, "Or north?"
"To go south from here would mean walking into Dol Guldur, something I will never do again." My voice took on a cutting edge, and I shuddered in remembrance of my time as prisoner there. Kili's hand touched my arm hesitantly, and I leaned against him, feeling calmer than I had previously. "The land of Mordor lays south-east of here," I said, resting my head on his shoulder, "But the woods of Lothlórienlay south of the Greenwood." In a quiet, longing voice, I sang of it, wondering if I could rest there after the quest was finished. "In Dwimordene, in Lórien, seldom have walked the feet of Men, few mortal eyes have seen the light that lies there ever, long and bright. Galadriel! Galadriel! Clear is the water of your well; white is the star in your white hand; unmarred, unstained is leaf and land in Dwimordene, in Lórien, more fair than thoughts of Mortal Men."
"It sounds beautiful," Kili said. "Who is Galadriel?"
"She is the Lady of Lórien," I said softly, closing my eyes. "That is all I can say, and all you can hear. She is wise and fair, and my wish is to travel there, to Lórien, before I—" I stopped myself suddenly. Kili didn't know that I planned on leaving.
"'Before' what?" Kili asked, frowning.
I took a deep breath. "Nothing," I said. "It's nothing."
We both remained silent for the rest of the night, and when the company awoke, grey faced and bleary eyed, we continued on.
Because of my obvious weakening, Thorin had allowed Nori and Dwalin to lead the company while I hung back with Kili and Fili, who both seemed concerned for me. More than once, I stumbled, only to have one or both of them catch me. I felt faint, and began walking above the trees, dreaming in the way only elves can.
Suddenly, I ran into the back of Balin, who had stopped moving, and snapped back into reality. I looked around, confused, then looked down at my feet, feeling a rush of panic wash over me. I stood on a dirt path strewn with leaves, and several broken, dirty tiles sat underfoot. I didn't know how far from the path we had travelled, but one thing was for sure: we were in serious danger.
"What is it? What's going on?" The dwarves questioned as I forced my way to the front of the company. When I broke through the crowd of dwarves, one of them grabbed my elbow and pulled me back just as I started stepping out into thin air. My heart jumped into my throat as I realized that I had almost walked off the edge of a cliff, and I began shaking violently.
"We've lost the path!"
Thorin turned to the rest of the dwarves as he released his grip on my arm. "Find it. All of you, look!"
"Look for the path!" Dwalin yelled. They obediently begin to search, although all their efforts are in vain. I shook my head suddenly to clear it. 'We're lost… we're never outing get… getting out.' I pressed my hands against my temple and sank down to my knees. 'Come on… pook for the lath… look for the path!' I let out a frustrated yell and stood, staggering slightly, looking around. All the other dwarves, though they seemed to be searching, were doing so slowly, as if in a dream.
"I don't remember this place," Balin said, looking around, "none of it's familiar."
"It's got to be here," Dori exclaimed.
"It doesn't," I said. No one heeded me.
"What hour is it?" Thorin called. I closed my eyes.
"I don't know, I don't even know what day it is!" One of the dwarves cried.
"Is there no end to this accursed place!?" Thorin yelled. We sat down, resting, and Bilbo sat next to me. I opened my eyes just as Bilbo plucked a thick strand of a massive spider web next to him, which caused a vibration to run through it. If I'd been thinking straight, I would have yelled and grabbed Bilbo's wrist to keep him from touching the web again, and rushed the dwarves away from this accursed resting place. But I wasn't, so I didn't; I only watched as he touched the web again.
A bit of common sense remained, so I stood and staggered over to Thorin. "We need to keep moving," I told him. He nodded and gave the command, and we continued onward through the forest.
We wander for hours, and the dwarves become more and more irritable and disillusioned as we continue on. A few hours before sunset, a commotion from the front of the company caused us all to halt, and I looked around to see why we were no longer moving.
"Look, a tobacco pouch. There's Dwarves in these woods!" Dori said shrilly, eyes bugging out as he took the pouch from Ori. The image was frightening, to say the least, and I felt myself grown more nervous than before.
"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less," Bofur said, examining it with wide eyes. "This is exactly the same as mine!"
Bilbo, the only one who still had their wits about them besides me, stepped in, irritable. "Because it is yours, do you understand? We're going around in circles, we are lost!"
"We are not lost!" Thorin bellowed. "We keep heading east."
"But which way is the east? We've lost the sun!" Dwalin exclaimed hopelessly.
The dwarves begin arguing amongst themselves about whether they're lost or not, shoving each other and yelling furiously.
"The sun," Bilbo muttered, tapping his head and looking around. "We have to find… the sun." He looked up and tapped his head again, a smile on his face. "Up there," he said, turning to the others. "We need to—" he broke off at the sight of the dwarves pushing and hitting each other as they begin fighting.
"Come on," I gasped, shaking my head. I pulled Bilbo over to a nearby tree and boost him into it before following him, reveling in the thought of reaching the sun."Enough! Quite! All of you!" he yelled. "We are being watched," I heard him whisper. If I hadn't been so dizzy, I might have been afraid, but I couldn't focus on anything but the sunlight seeping through the dead leaves and branches above my head.
As my head broke through the canopy, a cool wind hit my face, immediately blowing the cobwebs away from my mind. I was myself again. For the first time since I stepped foot in the Mirkwood, a pang of homesickness hit me. Looking out over the sea of scarlet and gold leaves, glowing like fire in the light of the setting sun, I felt like an elfling again. As I push myself all the way out of the woods, hundreds of blue monarch butterflies lift themselves up off the treetops, swirling around me in the early autumn breeze. It was early September now, or late August, I couldn't tell which. I look around and laugh with joy at the beauty surrounding me. 'This is what all of the Greenwood should be like,' I thought sadly, 'this is all that is left of Greenwood the Great.'
Bilbo, whom I had forgotten had come up here with me, was exclaiming, "I can... see a lake! And a... a river." He pushed a branch down, revealing Erebor. "And the Lonely Mountain!" He laughed to himself. "We're almost there!" He looked down, trying to catch a glimpse of the dwarves. "Can you hear me?" he called, "I know which way to go!"
I listened carefully, but heard nothing from below us, and an icy dread seeped through my bones. "Bilbo," I whispered, looking around.
"Hello?!" he yelled, a worried look on his face. He still received no response, so he looked over to the east, where the treetops were moving: something was coming, fast. "Hello," he frowned. He tried to take a step forward but looked down to see that his feet were bound in a spider's web. "Look—" he tripped. "Oh come on, whoa!" he yelled, plunging headfirst off the branch.
"Bilbo!" I yelped, looking down. I felt relieved to see that he had caught himself on another branch, but froze in horror as a giant spider emerged from the shadows and let out an ear-shattering screech before lunging at the hobbit. Bilbo yelled and released the spider's leg, falling down and landing, eagle spread, in the spider's web.
His struggles were fruitless; the spider wrapped him up and began scurrying through the forest, ignoring me. I took a shuddering breath as the shock of what had just happened wore off and the fear of being alone set in. 'I'm alone,' I thought, beginning to shake. 'And if I'm found by anyone besides my friends, I'll be imprisoned for the remainder of my short life.'
I closed my eyes and climbed back into the treetops, taking care not to touch any stray webs. Once I was back in the sun, I could think clearly again, and I drew one of my long knives, taking comfort in the familiar, leather-wrapped grip. Taking a deep breath, I began to follow after the spider, praying that I would not be noticed by anything or anyone that would do me harm.
-O-
After what felt like an eternity, I began to hear familiar voices from far below. The first voice I recognized was Thorin's, and he sounded panicked. "Dwalin! Kill it! Kill it!" Taking a deep breath, I crouched down and plunged back into the murky shadows of the Mirkwood.
The first thing I saw was an enormous spider gripping Thorin in several of its legs, only to be beaten off by Dwalin, who swung his ax with deadly precision as he hacked off the spider's legs.
"Fili!" Kili yelled. I sheathed my knife and drew my bow in one movement, sending an arrow flying into the spider's ugly head with the next. At the same time, Fili stabbed the spider and shoved it off his brother before pulling him to his feet.
I remained where I was, firing arrow after arrow, until another spider, this one much bigger than the others, lunged up at me. I let out a shrill scream as I fell backwards off the branch and plunged towards the ground, terrified.
As I fell, my boot was caught in a web, and I yelled in pain as I jerked to a stop, suspended upside-down by my foot. The spider appeared above me, and I realized with no small amount of horror that I couldn't reach my arrows from my position; they were tied in such a way that they couldn't fall out of my bow, but if I tried to reach them, I would never get them out. The dwarves, who didn't hear my scream, continued yelling at each other, urging each other to move.
"Come on, Keep up!" Dwalin yelled, pushing the younger dwarves ahead of him.
Thorin looked around, not seeing any spiders. "Clear—"
They jumped back as a spider landed in front of them, and I looked up to see at least a dozen more descending from the treetops.
The spider that had cornered me tried to get near my face, but I kicked it hard as it moving upwards, using the momentum to turn my body right side up. Sheathing my bow, I drew my knives and began hacking at the spider web, finally falling through the shredded remains to a thick branch below. The spider followed me, but was quickly ended. Once I was on my feet, there was little I couldn't do to defend myself. In all the commotion, I had lost track of the dwarves, and I froze at the sight of a tall, elven warrior skidding to a halt in front of them, his arrow trained at a spot between Thorin's eyes.
"Do not think I won't kill you, Dwarf," I heard him say. I still was so dizzy from fear that I couldn't make out his face, but it was coming into sharper focus now that anger was replacing my terror. "It would be my pleasure."
Suddenly, screams for help rent the air and I turned, the blood draining from my face, to see who it was. "Kili!" Fili screamed, unable to help his brother because of the elven guard holding him at arrow point.
Leaping off the branch, I fell a good thirty feet before landing, rolling down to the ground, jumping back up, and using the momentum to hurl my knife into the spider's skull. It let out a small squeal as it crumpled to the ground, and I yanked the knife out and began fighting another spider, panting. With a yell, I pushed it back, slicing my blade across one of its mandibles, causing it to shriek in pain and cower back. Kili, who until now had been frozen in a sort of dazed stupor, suddenly snapped out of it.
"Behind you!" he yelled. Before I could turn around, my legs were swept out from under me, and I fell hard, hitting my head on a rock. As I lay gasping, the wind knocked out of me, Kili tried to pull me up but only succeeded in pulling me halfway into his lap. My vision was fuzzy, but I vaguely could make out a red-haired warrior fighting off the spiders with amazing agility and grace.
"Throw me a dagger!" Kili yelled as I blinked, my vision going back to normal. "Quick!"
The she-elf ignored him, not noticing when I stood and began running back to the main company, drawing both knives as I ran.
"If you think I'm giving you a weapon, Dwarf, you are mistaken!" As she spoke, she turned and flung her dagger at the spider haunting Kili, which quickly ended it. Suddenly, an arrow embedded itself in the trunk of a tree not two inches from my face, and I stopped running, feeling anger bubbling up inside me as I panted for breath. "Do not move," I heard her say. Without answering, I swung around, lashing out with my knife. She countered, using her other dagger to try and slash across my ribs. With a growl, I jumped back, blocking out everything but the fight. As we continued to fight, I realized how different fighting a fellow elf was as opposed to fighting an orc, or even a man. In those fights, with the exception of several rangers, there was no grace involved; the entire fight was a tangle of lunges, parries, and strikes. Fighting an elf, however, was similar to dancing. Each strike was planned out, and both opponents moved with grace, measuring each blow carefully before dealing it.
Swinging my leg out, I managed to trip the she-elf, but as she landed on her back, I felt the cold, steel tip of an arrow pressed against the back of neck. I froze, breathing heavily as the angry voice of the commanded of the elves reached my ears. "If you move, I will kill you," he growled. The she-elf stood, her face flushed with anger, and she disarmed me, taking my knives, my bow, and my arrows. The elf behind me lowered his bow—I could tell because the arrowhead no longer touched my skin—but traded the bow for a dagger, which he held to my throat. I had a feeling that he thought I was a dwarf—if he knew that I was an elf, he wouldn't be treating me like this. However, I'd rather him think I was a dwarf than a princess; the instant my identity was realized, I was a prisoner. The elf walked me back to the main group and shoved my forward, removing his knife. Fili caught me, whispering a hurried 'Thank you' as Kili joined the group as well. The other dwarves were being disarmed, and I couldn't help but smirk slightly when Fili's turn came. He had so many weapons hidden in various pockets of his clothes that it would be a miracle if everything were found.
However, my smirk quickly turned into a glower as one of the elves turned to me, and I held up my hands. "Nothing for you to take," I growled, glaring at him.
The she-elf and the commander began speaking quietly in Elvish, but I caught their conversation all the same.
"Are the spiders dead?" The leader asked.
"Yes, but more will come," The she-elf answered. "They're growing bolder."
I looked up and choked, freezing, as one of the elves handed the commander Thorin's sword. I didn't even respond to the elf searching me, I was so afraid.
"This is an ancient Elvish blade," my brother said. "Forged by my kin." He turned to Thorin, holding the sword delicately. "Where did you get this?"
"It was given to me," Thorin whispered. Legolas pointed the edge of the sword at Thorin, and I tensed.
"Not just a thief, but a liar as well," he sneered.
"Let us go!" I commanded angrily, striding to the front of the company. The few dwarves that knew my story tried to hold me back, but I shook them off. "We have done nothing wrong," I growled, looking up at the startled face of my brother.
"You are trespassing on the land that belongs to the Woodland Realm and the Elven king Thranduil," he said, narrowing his eyes at me. I recalled my reflection in Beorn's lake, and how much older I appeared now than when we last had met, and I knew I was wasting my chance at remaining undiscovered, but I didn't care.
"Since when has Thranduil prevented weary travellers from passing through the forest?" I asked haughtily.
"You must be young indeed, dwarf, if you do not know the answer to that," he replied. "It has been nearly two centuries since dwarves were allowed on our land."
"I am older than you think," I replied angrily.
"Know your place, dwarf," he snapped. Without thinking, I brought my hand back to strike him, and he grabbed my wrist, holding me in place. The remained of both companies fell silent in shock as the two of us stood, glaring at one another. "How dare you," he snarled, tightening his grip on my arm like a vice. "How dare you attack the prince of the Woodland Realm, dwarf."
I felt the fight drain out of me as I stared into the eyes of the elf who was my brother, and my shoulders slumped under the weight of the anger and hatred and grief in his gaze. "What happened to you?" I asked.
Both he and the other elves started when they realized that I could speak elvish, and my brother frowned. "How—?" he started. His gaze drifted over to my hand, which he still held, and his scowl deepened. "How did you come by this?" he asked angrily. I looked over to see his ring still safely on my finger, and I understood that he thought I had somehow stolen it."This belonged to me, how did you—?"
"You gave it to me," I whispered, tears pricking at the corners of my eyes. "Don't you remember?"
He stared at me in shock, and my heart warmed as recognition flared in his eyes. "Aeyera?" he whispered, touching my face and letting go of my wrist. Tears burned my eyes as he pulled me into a bone-crushing hug, one hand in my hair and the other on my back. I gripped him back tighter, burying my face in his chest. "You're alive," he whispered shakily. "Thank Eru, you're alive."