Chapter 8: Flies and Spiders
They walked in single file. The entrance to the path was like a sort of arch leading into a gloomy tunnel. The path itself was narrow and wound in and out among the trunks. Soon the light at the gate was like a little bright hole far behind, and the quiet was so deep that their feet seemed to thump along while all the trees leaned over them and listened.
It was not long before they grew to hate the forest as heartily as they had hated the tunnels of the goblins, and it seemed to offer even less hope of any ending. But they had to go on and on, long after they were sick for a sight of the sun and of the sky, and longed for the feel of wind on their faces. There was no movement of air down under the forest-roof, and it was everlastingly still and dark and stuffy.
The nights were the worst. It then became so dark they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. They slept all closely huddled together, and took it in turns to watch.
Although it was not yet very cold, they tried lighting watch-fires at night, but they soon gave that up. It seemed to bring hundreds and hundreds of eyes all round them, though the creatures, whatever they were, were careful never to let their bodies show in the little flicker of the flames.
All this went on for what seemed to them ages upon ages. As days followed days, the forest seemed just the same, they began to get anxious. The food would not last forever: it was in fact already beginning to get low. They tried shooting at the squirrels, and they wasted many arrows before they managed to bring one down on the path. But when they roasted it, it proved horrible to taste, and they shot no more squirrels.
They were thirsty too, for they had none too much water, and in all the time they had seen neither spring nor stream. This was their state when one day they found their path blocked by a running water. I
Dawn knelt on the bank of the river and smiled. "There is a boat against the far bank!"
"How far away do you think it is?" asked Thorin.
"Not at all far. I shouldn't think above twelve yards," Dawn replied.
"Twelve yards! I should have thought it was thirty at least, but my eyes don't see as well as they used to a hundred years ago. Still twelve yards is as good as a mile. We can't jump it, and we daren't try to wade or swim."
"Can any of you throw a rope?" Dawn asked.
"What's the good of that? The boat is sure to be tied up, even if we could hook it, which I doubt."
"I don't believe it is tied," said Dawn, "though of course I can't be sure in this light; but it looks to me as if it was just drawn up on the bank, which is low just there where the path goes down into the water."
"Dori is the strongest, but Fili is the youngest and still has the best sight," said Thorin. "Come here Fili, and see if you can see the boat Ms. Summers is talking about."
Fili thought he could; so when he had stared a long while to get an idea of the direction, the others brought him a rope. They fastened on it a large iron hook they had used for catching their packs to the straps about their shoulders. Fili took this in his hand, balanced it for a moment, and then flung it across the stream.
Splash it fell in the water! "Not far enough!" said Dawn who was peering forward. "A couple of feet and you would have dropped it on to the boat. Try again."
Fili picked up the hook when he had drawn it back. This time he threw it with great strength.
"Steady!" said Dawn, "you have thrown it right into the wood on the other side now. Draw it back gently." Fili hauled the rope back slowly. "Carefully! It is lying on the boat; let's hope the hook will catch."
It did. The rope went taut, and Fili pulled in vain. Kili came to his help, and then Oin and Gloin. They tugged and tugged, and suddenly they all fell over on their backs. Dawn was on the lookout, however, caught the rope and pulled the boat across.
"It was tied after all," said Balin, looking at the snapped painter that was still dangling from it. "That was a good pull, my lads; and a good job that our rope was the stronger."
"Who'll cross first?" asked Dawn.
"I shall," said Thorin, "and you will come with me, and Fili and Balin. That's as many as the boat will hold at a time. After that Kili and Oin and Gloin and Dori; next Ori and Nori, Bifur and Bofur; and last Dwalin and Bombur."
"I'm always last and I don't like it," said Bombur. "It's somebody else's turn today."
"You should not be so fat. As you are, you must be with the last and lightest boatload. Don't start grumbling against orders, or something bad will happen to you."
"There aren't any oars. How are you going to push the boat back to the far bank?" asked the hobbit.
"Give me another length of rope and another hook," said Fili, and when they had got it ready, he cast it into the darkness ahead and as high as he could throw it. Since it did not fall down again, they saw that it must have stuck in the branches. "Get in now," said Fili, "and one of you haul on the rope that is stuck in a tree on the other side. One of the others must keep hold of the hook we used at first, and when we are safe on the other side he can hook it on, and you can draw the boat back."
In this way they were all soon on the far bank safe across the stream. Dwalin had just scrambled out with the coiled rope on his arm, and Bombur (still grumbling) was getting ready to follow, when something bad did happen. There was a sound of hooves on the path ahead. Out of the gloom came suddenly the shape of a deer. It charged into the dwarves and bowled them over, then gathered itself for a leap. High it sprang and cleared the water with a mighty jump. But it did not reach the other side in safety. Thorin was the only one who had kept his feet and his wits. As soon as they had landed he had bent his bow and fitted an arrow in case any hidden guardian of the boat appeared. Now he sent a swift and sure shot into the leaping beast. As it reached the further bank it stumbled. The shadows swallowed it up, but they heard the sound of hooves quickly falter and then go still.
Before they could shout in praise of the shot, however, Dawn yelled out. "Bombur has fallen in! Bombur is drowning!" she cried.
Bombur had stumbled, thrusting the boat away from the bank, and then toppled back into the dark water, his hands slipping off the slimy roots at the edge, while the boat span slowly off and disappeared.
They could still see his hood above the water when they ran to the bank. Quickly, they flung a rope with a hook towards him. His hand caught it, and they pulled him to the shore. He was drenched from hair to boots, but that was not the worst. When they laid him on the bank he was fast asleep.
"The stream must have been enchanted," Dawn said as the dwarves agreed. "Good thing Beorn told us not to drink from any water in the forest."
No amount of effort could waken Bombur. Then they heard the sound of dogs baying and a hunting party.
Suddenly on the path ahead appeared some white deer. Before Thorin could cry out three of the dwarves had leapt to their feet and loosed off arrows from their bows. None seemed to find their mark. The deer turned and vanished in the trees as silently as they had come, and in vain the dwarves shot their arrows after them.
"Stop! stop!" shouted Thorin; but it was too late, the excited dwarves had wasted their last arrows, and now the bows that Beorn had given them were useless.
They were a gloomy party that night, and the gloom gathered still deeper on them in the following days. They carried the heavy body of Bombur. In a few days a time came when there was practically nothing left to eat or to drink. Nothing wholesome could they see growing in the wood, only funguses and herbs with pale leaves and unpleasant smell.
About four days from the enchanted stream they came to a part where most of the trees were beeches. There was a greenish light about them, and in places they could see some distance to either side of the path. Yet the light only showed them endless lines of straight grey trunks like the pillars of some huge twilight hall.
Still Bombur slept and they grew very weary.
Two days later they found their path going downwards, and before long they were in a valley filled almost entirely with a mighty growth of oaks.
"Is there no end to this accursed forest?" said Thorin. "Somebody must climb a tree and see if he can get his head above the roof and have a look round. The only way is to choose the tallest tree that overhangs the path."
Of course "somebody" meant Dawn. And up she went. She pushed her way through the tangled twigs with many a slap in the eye; more than once she slipped and caught herself just in time; and at last, after a dreadful struggle in a difficult place where there seemed to be no convenient branches at all, she poked her head above the roof of leaves. Her eyes were nearly blinded by the light. She could hear the dwarves shouting up at her from far below. She looked around frowned for all she saw was a sea of dark green. There was no end to the forest.
Dawn climbed down full of despair. She knew unless they found their way out that their only hope lay in her amulet. Elrond has said it would bring her back to him. But he also said she could bring someone with her.
"The forest goes on for ever and ever and ever in all directions!" Dawn said. "I see two outcomes. We can try and see if we can find our way out. Or …" she held up the amulet. "My father gave this to me. He said it could return me to him at any time and I could take someone with me. The problem with that is it would take us back to Rivendell."
The dwarves nodded in understanding. On one hand they knew they were getting closer to the Lonely Mountain. On the other hand they could get out of the accursed forest. Both had their pitfalls. If they stayed in the forest they might be lost forever. But if they used Dawn's amulet they would be on the far side of the Misty Mountains again. And it would take a long time for them to get back to this point. In the end they decided to wait to use Dawn's amulet. If they could find their way out of the forest, good, if not then they would use the amulet.
That night they ate their very last scraps and crumbs of food; and next morning when they woke the first thing they noticed was that they were still gnawingly hungry, and the next thing was that it was raining and that here and there the drip of it was dropping heavily on the forest floor.
Just then Bombur woke up suddenly and sat up scratching his head as he remembered nothing of the last couple months other than the party in the Shire where they had met Dawn. And they had great difficulty in making him believe their tale of all the many adventures they had had since.
When Bombur heard that there was nothing to eat, he sat down and wept, for he felt very weak and wobbly in the legs. "Why ever did I wake up!" he cried. "I was having such beautiful dreams. I dreamed I was walking in a forest rather like this one, only lit with torches on the trees and lamps swinging from the branches and fires burning on the ground; and there was a great feast going on, going on forever. A woodland king was there with a crown of leaves, and there was a merry singing, and I could not count or describe the things there were to eat and drink."
"You need not try," said Thorin. "In fact if you can't talk about something else, you had better be silent. We are quite annoyed enough with you as it is. If you hadn't waked up, we should have left you to your idiotic dreams in the forest; you are no joke to carry even after weeks of short commons."
They then trudged along the track. Bombur wailed that his legs would not carry him, he was a tad bit weak after not eating for several days, and that he wanted to lie down and sleep.
"No you don't!" the dwarves said. "Let your legs take their share, we have carried you far enough."
All the same Bombur refused to go a step further and flung himself on the ground. "Go on, if you must," he said. "I'm just going to lie here and sleep and dream of food, if I can't get it any other way. I hope I never wake up again."
At that very moment Balin, who was a little way ahead, called out: "What was that? I thought I saw a twinkle of light in the forest."
They all looked, and a longish way off, it seemed, they saw a red twinkle in the dark; then another and another sprang out beside it. Even Bombur got up, and they hurried along then, not caring if it was trolls or goblins. The light was in front of them and to the left of the path, and when at last they had drawn level with it, it seemed plain that torches and fires were burning under the trees, but a good way off their track.
"It looks as if my dreams were coming true," gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
"A feast would be no good, if we never got back alive from it," said Thorin remembering the warnings of Beorn and Gandalf.
"But without a feast we shan't remain alive much longer anyway," said Bombur.
They argued about it backwards and forwards for a long while, until they agreed at length to send out a couple of spies, to creep near the lights and find out more about them. But then they could not agree on who was to be sent: but they could not agree on who as no one wanted to get lost further. So they all left the path and plunged into the forest together.
After a good deal of creeping and crawling they peered round the trunks and looked into a clearing where some trees had been felled and the ground levelled. There were many people there, elvish-looking folk eating and drinking and laughing merrily.
The smell of the roast meats was so enchanting that, without waiting to consult one another, every one of them got up and scrambled forwards into the ring with the one idea of begging for some food. No sooner had the first stepped into the clearing than all the lights went out as if by magic. Somebody kicked the fire and it went up in rockets of glittering sparks and vanished.
"It was a trick," Dawn said. "Like the water. And now …"
They turned around to look for the path and found it gone in the darkness of the night.
They then settled down to rest and Dawn was just beginning to close her eyes when Dori said in a loud whisper:
"The lights are coming out again over there, and there are more than ever of them."
Up they all jumped. There, sure enough, not far away were scores of twinkling lights, and they heard the voices and the laughter quite plainly. They crept slowly towards them, in a single line, each touching the back of the one in front. When they got near Thorin said: "No rushing forward this time! No one is to stir from hiding till I say. I shall send Ms. Summers alone first to talk to them. They won't be frightened of her since she is obviously of their people."
Dawn could see the reasoning and nodded, she was after all an elf now. But at the same time she had to wonder if this was not another trick. She hoped it wasn't as she went forward alone.
Just as she stepped into the light out they all went again and complete darkness fell.
If it had been difficult collecting themselves before, it was far worse this time. And the dwarves simply could not find Dawn. Every time they counted themselves it only made thirteen. They shouted and called: "Dawn Summers! Ariel! Daughter of Elrond! Daughter of Buffy! Dawn, confusticate you, where are you?"
There was no answer.
They were just giving up hope, when Dori stumbled across Dawn by sheer luck. In the dark he fell over what he thought was a log, and he found it was Dawn curled up fast asleep. It took a deal of shaking to wake her, and when she was awake she was not pleased at all.
"I was having such a lovely dream," Dawn grumbled, "all about having a most gorgeous dinner. But more than that I was home, I was home with Buffy."
"Good heavens! She has gone mad like Bombur," the dwarves said. "Don't tell us about dreams. Dream-dinners aren't any good, and we can't share them." Then they stopped. "You saw your mother?"
Dawn nodded, so her dream was not quite the same as Bombur's. Which gave them slight hope.
That was not the last of the lights in the forest. Later when the night must have been getting old, Kili who was watching then, came and roused them all again, saying:
"There's a regular blaze of light begun not far away—hundreds of torches and many fires must have been lit suddenly and by magic. And hark to the singing and the harps!"
After lying and listening for a while, they found they could not resist the desire to go nearer and try once more to get help. Up they got again; and this time the result was disastrous. Thorin stepped into the light this time and …
Dead silence fell in the middle of a word. Out went all light. The fires leaped up in black smokes.
Behind them Dawn had finally roused and when she noticed the dwarves gone she got to her feet. As dark as it was she knew she had to wait till morning before trying to search for them. So she sat down with her back to a tree as thoughts of home entered her mind. Then she felt something touch her. Something like a strong sticky string was against her left hand, and when she tried to move she found that her legs were already wrapped in the same stuff, so that when she got up she fell over.
Then a great spider, who had been busy tying her up while she dozed, came from behind her and came at her. Dawn was thankful that her right hand was still free as she grabbed her sword and unsheathed it. The spider jumped back, and Dawn had time to cut her legs loose. And then Dawn attacked. The spider tried to hurry away but Dawn managed to come up to it before it could disappear and plunged the sword between the creature's eyes.
Dawn let out a sigh of relief as she slid to the ground exhausted and fell asleep once more. When she woke this time there was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about her. She got up and looked around. Now it was time to find the dwarves and hope they had not met the fate that had awaited her.
Dawn thought back on the night before. She then remembered what had roused her when she had found the dwarves gone, their cries. So closing her eyes she played back the memory and then turn in direction those cries had come from.
Dawn picked her way stealthily for some distance, when she noticed a place of dense black shadow ahead of her. As she drew nearer, she saw that it was made by spider-webs. And she saw more spiders such as the one she had killed. She put on the ring, thinking it best that they could not see her as she continued her search for the dwarves. Dawn watched the spiders for a moment and was about to leave when she realized they were speaking, about the dwarves!
"It was a sharp struggle, but worth it," said one. "What nasty thick skins they have to be sure, but I'll wager there is good juice inside."
"Aye, they'll make fine eating, when they've hung a bit," said another.
"Don't hang 'em too long," said a third. "They're not as fat as they might be. Been feeding none too well of late, I should guess."
"Kill 'em, I say," hissed a fourth; "kill 'em now and hang 'em dead for a while."
"They're dead now, I'll warrant," said the first.
"That they are not. I saw one a-struggling just now. Just coming round again, I should say, after a bee-autiful sleep. I'll show you."
Dawn looked around and nodded as she spotted the cocoons that held the dwarves
To the fattest of these bundles one of the spiders went and nipped hard at the nose that stuck out. There was a muffled yelp inside, and a toe shot up and kicked the spider straight and hard and the enraged spider fell off the branch, only catching itself with its own thread just in time.
The others laughed. "You were quite right," they said, "the meat's alive and kicking!"
"I'll soon put an end to that," hissed the angry spider climbing back onto the branch.
Dawn knew she had to do something and then smiled as a thought came to her. She remembered Gandalf and the goblins. But first she had to get their attention. She picked up a rock and threw it at the spider approaching the cocoon.
The stone struck the spider plunk on the head, and it dropped senseless off the tree, flop to the ground, with all its legs curled up. The next stone went whizzing through a big web, snapping its cords, and taking off the spider sitting in the middle of it, whack, dead.
After that there was a deal of commotion in the spider-colony, and they forgot the dwarves for a bit. As quick as lightning they came running and swinging towards Dawn, whom they could not see, flinging out their long threads in all directions, till the air seemed full of waving snares.
Dawn moved away from the snares and smiled as she pulled out her sword.
The spiders saw the sword and at once the whole lot of them came hurrying after Dawn along the ground and the branches, hairy legs waving, nippers and spinners snapping, eyes popping, full of froth and rage. They followed her into the forest until Dawn had gone as far as she dared. Then quieter than a mouse she stole back.
Dawn knew she had to work quick before the spiders returned. She removed her ring so the dwarves would know it was her and began using her sword to cut them loose. As Dawn finished with the last of the dwarves the spiders returned.
"Now we see you, you nasty little creature! We will eat you and leave your bones and skin hanging on a tree. Ugh! She's got a sting has she? Well, we'll get her all the same, and then we'll hang her head downwards for a day or two."
"I think not," Dawn said as she and the dwarves scrambled out of the webs.
Then the battle began. Some of the dwarves had knives, and some had sticks, and all of them could get at stones; and Dawn with her sword. Again and again the spiders were beaten off, and many of them were killed. The ones that were left hurried away into the darkness.
Soon after they made their way back through the forest and came to the edge of the ring where the elf-fires had been. Whether it was one of those they had seen the night before, they could not tell. But it seemed that some good magic lingered in such spots, which the spiders did not like. And so they lay there and rested.
All of a sudden Dwalin opened an eye, and looked round at them. "Where is Thorin?" he asked.