The Spiders of Mirkwood

I don't own Digimon or the Hobbit

After receiving the supplies from Beorn, the company followed the skin changer out of his house to a group of ponies and horses that were grazing nearby. "You must go now while you have the light, your hunters are not far behind." Beorn told them.

"Understood. Farewell Master Beorn, thank you for all your help." Daisuke said with a smile which Veemon copied and the skin changer nodded. The company set off as fast as the ponies and horses could travel, over hills and through fields they rode until finally coming upon the forest of Mirkwood.

Gandalf climbed off his horse and walked to the border of the forest and looked around. "The Elven Gate. Here lies our path through Mirkwood."

"No sign of the Orcs. We have luck on our side." Dwalin said dismounting his pony as did the others. Daisuke and Veemon shared a look before looking at the forest.

"I've got a bad feeling about this, something isn't right here." Veemon muttered and his partner nodded before she saw Beorn in the distance in his bear form.

"Set the ponies loose. Let them return to their master." Gandalf instructed the company who began to dismount their ponies which set off back to Beorn's house followed by Daisuke's horse once she and Veemon got off and they stood beside Bilbo.

"This forest feels sick. As if a disease lies upon it." Bilbo said listening to the trees creak in the wind. "Are you sure there isn't a safer option?" he asked the Wizard who walked down the path slightly.

"Not unless we go two hundred miles north, or twice that distance south," Gandalf answered walking towards statues of elves that had been overgrown with plants, as he did so Daisuke's hand slipped into her pocket and she grabbed the ring and began hearing a whisper coming from it almost begging her to put it on again.

"Something moves in the shadows unseen, hidden from our sight. Every day it grows in strength." The voice of Lady Galadriel spoke in the mind of Gandalf. "Beware the Necromancer. He is not what he seems." Gandalf removed some of the overgrowth from the statue and saw a symbol shaped like an eye painted on the statue causing Daisuke to briefly tense as she saw the same eye she saw before in a dream and she quickly pulled her hand out of her pocket. "If our enemy has returned, we must know. Go to the tombs in the mountains." She told Gandalf.

"The High Fells." He muttered. "So be it." he turned back and walked towards the company as Nori was about to remove everything from Gandalf's horse. "Not my horse. I need it!" he said causing the company to look at him shocked.

"You're not leaving are you?" Bilbo asked.

"I wouldn't be doing this unless I had to." Gandalf answered looking at the Hobbit. "Be strong Bilbo Baggins, you're not the same Hobbit that left the Shire twelve months ago." He said proudly causing Bilbo to smile upon hearing that, Gandalf then looked at Daisuke and Veemon with a different look. "You've changed since our journey began Daisuke, you're not the same as you were when we left the Shire." Daisuke winced at his words but she did admit she felt different some days.

"I was going to tell you." She said softly. "I found something in the Goblin Tunnels, when Bilbo and I were separated from the others."

"What did you find?" Gandalf asked curious noticing Daisuke's hand slip into her pocket as she was silent.

"Strength that I didn't know I had." She answered.

"Good…well that's good. You might need it," Gandalf said with a smile before walking to his horse as it began to rain. "I'll be waiting for you at the Overlook, before the slopes of Erebor. Keep the map and key safe, do not enter the mountain without me." He said looking at Thorin who nodded. "This is not the Greenwood of old. The very air of the forest is heavy with illusion. It'll seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."

"What does that mean?" Bilbo asked looking at Daisuke who shrugged.

"You must stay on the path, do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again. No matter what stay on the path." Gandalf told the company as he rode off.

"Let's get moving. We've got to make it to Erebor before the sun sets on Durin's Day, it will be our only chance to enter the mountain." Thorin said walking into the forest and everyone followed him.

"So, we just have to stay on the path?" Veemon asked Daisuke and Bilbo.

"I hope it'll be that easy, but something else lies in this forest, and I don't think it's the elves who live here." Daisuke answered.

"The elves can't be that bad, can they?" Bilbo asked in a whisper.

"You heard Thorin, these elves didn't lend any aid to the Dwarves when Smaug took Erebor. And Beorn said the elves of Mirkwood were less wise and more violent than the ones of Rivendell, also Lady Galadriel warned me to be wary of their king as we left Rivendell." Daisuke whispered back.

"And you think she was telling the truth?" Bilbo asked.

"I have no reason to doubt her, trust me." Daisuke replied and both her partner and the Hobbit nodded as they followed the company down the path.

They followed the path for what seemed like forever, soon they couldn't even remember what day it was or what hour it was. The further they ventured into the forest the more confused and disoriented they became.

"Ugh…my head is spinning…" Veemon groaned holding Daisuke's hand.

"Yeah…Gandalf wasn't kidding about the air in this forest." She replied grabbing Bilbo by his overcoat before he stumbled off the path.

"Air…I need air," Bofur said in a daze.

"My head, it's swimming!" Oin cried stumbling over a fallen branch before the others steadied him.

"Just keep going guys, remember to stay on the path…" Daisuke said before she stopped and looked at the ground to see the path had vanished. "The path…where the hell is the path!?" this caused everyone to stop and begin looking around.

"We've lost the path…" Fili said.

"Hurry find it!" Thorin ordered and the group spread out not knowing that the path was nearby, but due to the air in the forest they had trouble telling right from left and up from down.

"I don't remember this bit, none of it looks familiar." Balin said wandering aimlessly through the forest as everyone searched for the path.

"It's got to be here." Dori said.

"What hour is it?" Thorin asked his voice seeming to echo through the forest.

"I couldn't even tell you what day it is," Veemon answered sitting on a rock beside Bilbo.

"Is there no end to this accursed forest!?" Thorin asked. Daisuke groaned and leaned against a tree before she walked off.

"The path has to be around here somewhere. I'd ask Veemon to digivolve into Ex-Veemon and fly around until he found it but right now I'm more worried about him being able to stand." She thought.

"You certainly look pathetic." She turned around and to her shock saw someone she thought she would never see again.

"Arukenimon…but how?" she whispered causing Arukenimon to chuckle.

"Did you really think that Digimon die only once?" another voice and this time she turned to see Mummymon emerge from the trees.

"This shouldn't be possible…you're not of this world…" Daisuke told them and both smirked.

"But you remember us brat, that's all it takes for an illusion to be formed." Arukenimon said as she walked towards Daisuke who drew her sword and swung it at them but they vanished and she blinked shaking her head.

"Motomiya hurry up, we're moving on!" she heard Thorin shout and saw the others leaving and she ran after them.

They continued to walk through the forest and as they did the illusions seemed to get more and more frequent, Daisuke blinked and looked behind her to see another her and she stopped for a second before rubbing her eyes to see Kili behind her.

"Why am I walking backwards?" Veemon asked looking down to see his feet moving backwards.

"You're not. This damn forest is messing with our minds. Curse that idiot Gandalf for leaving us, we needed his help!" Daisuke shouted angrily.

"Look a tobacco pouch," Ori said picking up the pouch from the forest floor.

"There are Dwarves in these woods." Dori said taking the pouch before it was taken by Bofur.

"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains no less, this one looks like mine," he said.

"Because it is yours. We're walking in circles, we're lost." Bilbo said.

"We're not lost. We keep heading east," Thorin said.

"But where is that, we've lost the sun." Oin said.

"You're meant to be the expert," Dwalin told the half-deaf Dwarf as Bilbo looked up and saw the sun shining through the canopy.

"Sun…we need to get up above the canopy." He said but the Dwarves had descended into arguing while Daisuke and Veemon were silent but noticed Bilbo climbing a tree, Daisuke smiled and she began to climb a tree as well with Veemon following her.

"Enough! Quiet all of you!" Thorin shouted silencing the Dwarves. "We're being watched." As they all began looking around trying to figure out where they were being watch from, Bilbo continued to climb the tree, he soon reached the top and stuck his head above the canopy and the wind blew through his hair and he smiled happily as dozens of butterflies left the trees and flew into the sky making him laugh in joy.

"I can see a lake! And a river, and the Lonely Mountain. We're almost there! Can you hear me? I know which way to go!" he shouted down to the others but he didn't know if he was heard, Daisuke and Veemon poked their heads out of the canopy moments later and took deep breaths.

"We heard you. But I think the others have wandered off again." Daisuke told him before they began hearing branches snapping.

"That doesn't sound good." Veemon said, they ducked beneath the canopy again and began looking around until Bilbo's feet began stuck in webbing.

"Oh, come on." He muttered before he fell from the branch and grabbed another branch covered in webbing and that is when he, Daisuke and Veemon saw one of the many spiders of Mirkwood and it was massive.

"Holy shi-!" Daisuke was cut off as she and Veemon fell from the branch and collided with Bilbo and landed in a giant web, they struggled and tried to get free but the web was too sticky and the spider crawled down to them and began wrapping all three in one large cocoon of web and at they passed out.

When they finally came too they found themselves being dragged by the spider into a large nest in the trees where many other spiders where already hanging up cocoons that held the others inside them, the spider looked at them and was about to feed when Bilbo freed his sword and cut through the webbing and stabbed the spider and it screeched before it fell off the branch and landed on the forest floor.

"Veemon, I think it's time we turn up the heat." Daisuke said ripping the webbing out of her hair.

"Right, let's do it." Veemon said and Daisuke took out her D-3 and D-Terminal which began glowing bright orange as did Veemon. "Veemon…armour digivolve too…Flamedramon the Fire of Courage." he shouted as he digivolved into Flamedramon.

"Um that's new," Bilbo commented.

"Trust me. He's got this," Daisuke told him with a grin as they heard a growl and saw the other spiders had noticed they were free and were crawling towards them.

"Barbequed spider anyone?" Flamedramon asked jumping over a spider. "Fire Rocket!" he launched three fireballs at the spider setting it ablaze and it shrieked as it was burned alive. "Flame Fist!" he punched another spider with his flame covered claws and it began burning.

"Let's free the others," Daisuke said drawing her sword and Bilbo drew Sting and they ran towards the cocoons of web that held the rest of the company.

"Make it quick!" Flamedramon shouted catching a spider as it lunged at him and he flipped it over with his feet before launching another fireball setting fire to that spider and during the battle the webbing in the nest began to catch fire.

"You could have not set this place on fire!" Daisuke shouted to her partner as she cut Nori, Ori and Dori free and slapped them awake.

"Wha?" Ori asked still groggy from whatever the spiders had used to incapacitate the Dwarves.

"No time to explain, get down." Daisuke told them and they nodded and began climbing out of the trees down to the forest floor. Bilbo cut free Bombur, Bifur and Bofur as Daisuke freed Fili and Kili.

"You took your time." Fili said.

"Do you want to become a spider's dinner? If not then get moving!" Daisuke shouted at the twins running to Balin, Dwalin and Thorin while Bilbo freed Oin and Gloin. "Bilbo time to go, I'll be right behind you." She told the Hobbit as she freed the last three Dwarves and helped them stand.

"Good timing lass," Dwalin said as he and Balin began climbing down to the others.

"We should never have come to this accursed forest, and tell him to stop setting fire to everything. We do not need the Elves to find us and accuse us of attacking them." Thorin told Daisuke pointing to Flamedramon who finished the last spider off.

"Flamedramon turn back to Veemon and go," Daisuke told him and her partner nodded and turned back into Veemon in a flash of orange light and he jumped down and was caught by Fili and Kili and Thorin began climbing down, Daisuke sheathed her sword and sighed relieved that everyone was okay. "We need to get out of this damn forest," she thought, she then heard a noise and turned around only to be stabbed by a spider's stinger and she grunted as the venom began coursing through her body paralysing it and the spider began wrapping her up in webbing.

"No!" Thorin shouted having seen what happened just and he climbed back up and charged the spider only for it to begin crawling away carrying Daisuke along with it.

The end of the chapter

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