Leaving Beorn's house was quick, yet sufficient. It was nothing like leaving Rivendell, in which we had stuffed our bags full of our things and sneaked away in the early hours of the morning. No, leaving Beorn's house was less...rushed.

We'd packed our bags with skins of water and food. Beorn had even given me a pair of gloves and a new cloak. I didn't bother to ask him why he had a small cloak, rather than a massive one to fit his large form - I was too happy to finally have something warm on me.

'Do you need some help getting up there, lass?' questioned Bofur, appearing by my side. I had been carefully pulling myself up onto the pony, but it had not been going well. The rest of the company were attaching their bags and such to their ponies saddles, while Gandalf, Thorin and Bilbo crowded around Beorn. I remember wondering whether I would see the guy again.

I cast Bofur a grumpy look. 'Yes, please,' I had grumbled.

The taller Dwarf grinned. 'Look, come 'ere. Stand on my hands and I'll lift you right up onto the pony - lass, I won't drop you'. After me nearly falling over about five times, we finally managed to prop me rather ungracefully onto the back of the pony. Bofur tilted his hat to me at my thank you, his shoulders shaking with laughter as he turned away.

Ten minutes later we were all ready to go. Beorn's last warnings to us were to not take the main-forest road, and Gandalf bowed his head at his warnings, as the rest of the Dwarves thanked him kindly, vowing that they were forever in his debt. I'd just given a spasm of a wave, trying not to fall from my ponies back.

I'd held the reigns rather uneasily, scared that I would topple over at any trot that the bloody thing took. The rest of the Dwarves quite happily drank from their water and chatted among themselves.

'Ah,' said Gandalf. 'I have found the warning that Beorn told us about, Thorin - the one to warn those that he is no 'Orc-friend', it would seem'. I'd immediately been interested, obviously. Beorn had told me about such a warning, and considering that we were now passing his hedges and fences, I had supposed that it was a note of some sort, stuck onto the wood.

It wasn't.

'Lovely,' remarked Bilbo as he past along the Orc head, nailed rather messily onto the fence of Beorn's land. My mouth fell open in horror as the rest of the Dwarves admired Beorn's work.

My eyes found the grass beneath my pony instead, and my fingers dug into her mane.

The mountains were dark and foreboding to our left, but it was not nearly as bad as the forest that was drawing closer in the distance. As soon as we had left the safety of Beorn's grassy lands, Thorin had ordered that we break into a faster trot. 'The Orcs and their Wargs will not be far behind,' he had said, and so we sped up.

I was well aware of Kili and Fili trotting just behind me, in case you're wondering. I hadn't spoken to him, not since we had left. We were both distracted by the journey ahead, the dangers that lay in the forest. Yet, I had wondered what he would have said to me, what would have happened if I had moved forward too. What would have happened if bloody Bombur hadn't decided to call for us.

That night, we camped up against some trees, munching on the food that was given to us by Beorn and discussing when we would reach the forest of Mirkwood. 'The land is beginning to slope, and the birds are singing less,' said Gandalf. 'Soon, we will find ourselves at the forest gate'. He stared into the fire that we had made, chewing on his dried fruit.

But then Kili looked at me, and I looked back. He moved, as if to stand, but Dwalin was in front of me before I could tell whether Kili was coming for me, or to get more food. 'Time to practice,' said the balding Dwarf, nodding once at Snowthorn.

While the others lounged, ate and sang tales, I put all of my efforts into learning anything that could save my life, if we ever did get into battle again. Considering that the Pale Orc still hunted us, the idea seemed very likely.

We started before dawn the next day, and it was only when I awoke (I had fallen asleep before the rest) that I realized Kili and Fili had found their places beside me in sleep. My hand found Kili's hair, and I tugged lightly on it until he awoke. In the dim blue light of morning, I saw him look at me, before I said,

'Early start today, pookie'.

I still don't know what possessed me to call him 'pookie', so please, don't ask.

Now that Gandalf had mentioned it, as we rode along I did notice that the trees around us were much quieter. There were no birds, no crickets, no sound of rivers - none of the sounds that I had forced myself to grow used to. The sounds that I had found comfort in.

'Well, isn't this place just all sunshine and daises?' I piped up, as the talking of the Dwarves had retreated into the odd passing comment and a pointed finger in the direction that we headed in.

Ori just shook his head and scoffed out a laugh.

I sunk forward onto my ponies (Francis, I had named her) back, tilting my head to the side to watch Kili and Fili, who passed pieces of bread between the two of them. I had smiled at that, my fingers twirling within Francis' mane. Wherever Fili went, Kili went - and so it went the other way around. I'd always envy their friendship with one another, as I'd always wanted a brother or a sister.

My mum, in her thick French accent, had said, 'You were a bloody 'nough, Alexandria'.

Charming woman, really.

I must have dozed off, because next thing I had been shaken upright my Kili, who nodded to the tree line before us. 'Well, here is Mirkwood!' said Gandalf, who stopped his horse in front of the great, gnarled and twisted trees. The leaves of the trees were dark, long and sticky looking, and the grass on the brink of the forest was yellowing and brittle. 'The greatest of the forests of the Northern world!'

'I'd hate to see what the others look like,' I had muttered, stretching sideways to get a better look. Kili steadied me when I almost fell from the horse, though his eyes were fixed on the forest in front of us. He looked as uneasy as I had felt.

'Dismount,' said Thorin. 'We must send our ponies back now, the rest of the way will be on foot'. He jumped from his own pony, as did the others.

I was, to put it lightly, horrified. But I quickly hopped off of Francis with the help of Fili, and stroked the ponies nose while getting my bag from the saddle. 'Bye, Francis'.

'You named your pony Francis?' asked Fili, hitching his pack onto his back. 'Francis?'

I chose to ignore him and waved at the ponies as they trotted away from our grumbling gathering. 'Do not grumble and groan,' said Gandalf, leaning on his staff. 'Beorn has been watching us, as Bilbo noticed last night. He's been making sure that we send his ponies safely back once we reached the eaves of Mirkwood and so we have, and so we keep a friend'.

Dori and Nori looked highly affronted at the idea of being spied on, while Thorin just said, quite flatly, 'Yes, we have sent them back. Now, let's go forward-' He cut himself off short, looking unblinkingly at Gandalf. 'You have not sent back your horse'.

It had been true. Gandalf's own horse huffed behind him.

'I am not sending my horse back, Master Dwarf, because I am not joining you the rest of the way. I promised that I would see you past Beorn's house, and so I have,' replied Gandalf. 'I shall ride my horse back the way we came'.

'You're leaving? Now?' I'd yelped.

'I have some pressing business to attend to in the south, Millie. We may meet again when this is over, and then we may not. I think you will all do quite well with Bilbo in your company, because apparently the Hobbit has more sense and courage than the lot of you may think'. Bilbo had blushed quite obviously at that and shifted from left to right.

The idea of Gandalf leaving for good had me quite nervous, I guess. I mean, he had been the first one I saw when I had come to Middle Earth and had been the one to help me meet the Dwarves and join the company. Without him, it suddenly felt like I didn't quite belong, like I was just a guest of Gandalf's.

'Thorin,' said Gandalf. 'Remember that the Wood Elves reside in the forest of Mirkwood - King Thranduil will not take kindly to strangers finding his people and causing bother. He has grown wary with the dangers of Mirkwood growing, and very suspicious'.

Thorin practically sneered at Gandalf. 'I would not dare to approach that Elf's kin, do not fret, Gandalf'. Gloin huffed in agreement, looking quite angry and annoyed at the mere mention of the Elves. I was pretty sure that Thranduil had been the one to ditch Thorin and Co. when Smaug had attacked. In case you're wondering, he had been. Dick move, really.

'I can only hope that you will seek help from those around you when you truly need it, Thorin,' said Gandalf, bowing his head.

Thorin just nodded and reached up to clasp Gandalf's shoulder tightly, thanking him for what he had done so far for us. After many good-byes, I had moved forward to wrap my arms around Gandalf's waist, while the others peered past the big trees. 'Thank you,' I'd whispered. I think he understood, because he nodded and brought me to eye-level and said,

'I hope you find what you were brought here for, Millie'.

I patted his arm awkwardly. 'Same here, Gandizzle. Hope everything goes well down south'. I had closed my eyes in silent horror and pulled away from him. 'Forget I ever said that, my God'.

He said his goodbyes to Bilbo, then. He spoke in low voices with the Hobbit, clasping his shoulder and watching as the Hobbit looked up at the Wizard, listening quite intently. I don't know what they had said to one another, and I still don't.

He had left not long after, and Thorin had wasted no time in pushing us all forward into the forest. The moment we past the tree line, the air was denser, warmer, and smelt of rotting egg. I gagged and brought a hand to my mouth, announcing a very useful,

'Well that just smells'.

'Indeed it does,' said Bofur. 'Might as well get used to it though,' he huffed.

I had just pulled a very sad and pitiful face.

The inside of the forest showed many trees that were sticky with some unknown substance and that twisted around one another, the bark all spirally and old and rotting. The ground was barely even dirt, but more mushrooms and twigs and tree roots. There wasn't any sky, and after an hour of walking in a straight line along the pathway, I'd wondered if it was night time already.

Fili had just said a bitter, 'It's probably only just past midday'.

We all walked in a straight line, and I had found myself between Fili and Kili, the only two who would answer my questions without snapping at me. It seemed that everyone had grown tired of the forest very quickly. 'Can you hear that?' I'd muttered, referring to the constant scuttling and bashing of bushes that sounded outside of the path.

Kili pushed me forward more, his voice close to my ear. 'That is why we shouldn't stray from the path'.

Sometimes we would see a break through of sunlight in the above canopy, but it would quickly be blocked out by a wandering black squirrel, an animal that we had seen often, but Kili hadn't yet managed to arrow down.

The first night of camping had been the worst. We had rested against two gnarled and wide trees and a build up of rock that the roots twisted into, to the side of the pathway, shuffling against the ground to find some source of comfort.

I saw Thorin and Bilbo conversing together and chose not to bother them until they were quite finished. When they were, I finally voiced up my request, and said, 'I'll go on first watch tonight'. The others simply stared, stopping what they were doing. 'Don't look at me like that. I'm sure I can stay awake and kick one of you if I do see anything,' I had replied with snark.

'If you fall asleep, you'll be putting all of us in danger,' warned Thorin.

I'd bristled, and Bilbo had looked at Thorin in mild horror. 'Well it's a good thing that I won't be falling asleep then, isn't it?' I'd bit back. Thorin just raised his eyebrows and went about taking a small sip from his skin.

We were running low on water, on top of everything else.

The nerve of him! I didn't have to offer up to do anything. Okay, I did. I've not done one watch while I've been with them. I've been pretty lazy, actually. I don't think I've cooked once either. I did gather wood that one time, though.

'There's a snake over there,' said Ori nervously. 'Do you think they're poisonous in these parts?'

Balin leaned forward. 'I wouldn't risk it. Kili, kick it away'.

It was only then that I had realized what they were talking about, and both Bilbo and I had shuffled back slightly, myself a lot paler. 'I don't like snakes,' I had muttered, quite unhelpfully. I watched as Kili did as he was told, and the slithery thing went hissing off in the other direction. Fili patted my shoulder, while Kili plopped down beside my feet.

'Everything in this place is probably poisonous,' he grumbled quietly to Fili, who just tilted his head in agreement.

Should probably talk to him about what happened, shouldn't I?

I gave his back a little poke with my boot, but Dwalin gave a gruff snap of, 'Kili - the tree above us!' And heck, Kili was drawing his bow and arrow so quickly that I had jumped back in surprise. I'd practically screamed when he'd jerked, and a black squirrel came falling down right in front of me, arrow stuck in its eye. 'Yes!' Dwalin cheered, giving a quick clap of his hands.

Kili yanked the arrow from the squirrels head, ignoring my very obvious gag of disgust. 'Weren't we just talking about how everything in this place is probably, you know, deadly?'

'Beorn said nothing about the meat being off,' said Bilbo to me, kicking his large and hairy feet out in front of him. 'Should we try a taste?' he'd asked. I'd remembered then about what Beorn had said to me, about Bilbo hiding something. The heck could he be hiding?

'I'm not having any'. Ori, Nori and Bifur agreed with me. Kili just looked up at and pulled a knife from his person, smirking lightly, dark eyes bright.

'Good. More for the rest of us then,' he said. 'Fili, go start a fire, will you?' And then, without warning, he began skinning the squirrel right in front of me. I'd never seen anything skinned before, and it was the most repulsive thing I had ever seen. All the peeling and - ugh, no.

'Give me some warning,' I'd moaned, sliding from my place against the tree trunk, and instead moving toward the rest of the group. Thorin sat with his sword in his hand, while Dwalin considered the dried fruit before him, before putting it away. Everyone had been quite quiet, and the only other sound was of Fili making a small fire, and Kili skinning the dead animal.

The ground was quite uneven, considering that we had all been perched on that formation of rock. As well as that, there'd been some blue, sticky stuff sliding down the roots of the tree at my feet.

'Did you know that the most painful thing that a being can go through is being burned alive?' I'd asked, placing my hands on my hips and wobbling to gain balance. Fili paused in making the fire, looking up at me with a disbelieving look on his face. 'Giving birth is the second most painful'.

There was a very apparent and loud silence.

'I don't really know why I thought you guys should know that'.

And then I had remembered that Thorin's whole Kingdom had been attacked by a giant fire breathing dragon, and things just grew even more awkward. I'd looked at him, mouth a little open and had moaned out an, 'Ah, shit. That was probably a little insensitive'.

Balin just clapped a hand across his forehead, while Thorin stared blandly back at me. Bombur had the bravery to let out a large guffaw, which only resulted in Bofur snorting quite loudly. Kili had to turn away completely and Fili continued to stare with a mix of horror and amusement. Gloin and Oin were looking on in mild interest.

'I've got other useless facts!' I rushed quickly and nervously. 'Did you know that a person will usually laugh thirteen times a day?' Fili just raised his hands in utter confusion as to why I was still talking. I had looked back at Thorin, the frowning and moody looking Thorin. 'Well, that's the statistic for most people anyway'. He didn't even blink.

'Lass!' burst out Bofur. 'Just stop talking!'

I couldn't stop. I just don't stop when things get awkward, I'll always try and deter the awkwardness as much as I can. 'Ants stretch when they wake up,' I supplied weakly.

Silence.

'So how's that squirrel coming along, Kili?' burst out Bilbo, sitting on the edge of the rock in front of me, his legs placed neatly in front of him. Bifur gave a little start at the Hobbit's sudden outburst, as he sat beside Bilbo. I just huffed and fell rather ungracefully onto my butt, my face burning.

While they prepared the squirrel and cooked it, Bombur came and sat beside me. In his silence, I found a kind smile and a rather amusing roll onto his back. He clasped his hands over his stomach and looked up at me.

'Tough crowd, huh?' I'd muttered, rubbing my arms. Dwalin had me training hard, when we could train.

He just smiled.

In the end, I had to let out a small snort of laughter. 'Thanks, Bombur,' I'd chuckled, realizing that the puff of his cherry red cheeks and the stretch of his lips had been for my benefit. 'I don't mean to come out with these things'.

'I know,' he'd huffed, kicking out his legs to gain some comfort. 'How we're going to be able to sleep on this rock, I'll never know,' he muttered, unhelpfully slapping the rock, as if to flatten it out.

He was silenced by a sudden, sharp call that echoed throughout the creaking forest. The very trees seemed to still with the sounds.

'Orc?' said Kili, who crouched beside his brother, cooking the meat. 'It didn't sound like an Orc'. Well then, why say it?

Thorin looked up slowly, sword in hand from studying it. 'A creature of the forest that I cannot name,' he said quietly, sharing a troubled look with Balin. 'We should not light the fire for much longer. Cook the meat and then we shall put it our for the night'.

Kili and Fili cooked the meat as quickly as they could, grimacing lightly at the silvery look of it. Ori, Nori, Bifur and I looked on as small lumps of the meat was handed out to the company, as we huddled together closely upon the uneven rock. The moment Bombur took a large mouthful, he quickly spat it back out rather messily and loudly.

'Oh - no, dude!' I yelped, scrambling to get away from the retching, ginger man.

Then the rest of them began coughing and spluttering. Kili had to whack Fili on the back, while I grabbed the front of Bombur's shirt and yanked him forward off of his back. 'I told you!' I reminded them. 'Was it that bad?'

'Orc would have tasted finer,' wheezed Bofur, throwing away his share of the meat.

'Goblin,' replied Dori.

I bit back a smile upon seeing Ori and Nori cackling, aimed only at their brother. 'You alright?' I'd asked Bombur, who'd just nodded sourly. 'Well that was fun!' I said, plopping back down onto my bum.

Bilbo just looked sadly back at me, upset about the loss of seemingly good food.

We settled back down after that, each of us looking around the forest and murmuring of the dankness of it - the wetness, the stickiness, the ugliness. It was dark now too, seeing as the fire had been put out. Near black. 'I can understand why they changed the name of it to Mirkwood,' observed Dwalin.

After a short time, each of the Dwarves settled into sleep. I'd moved away from the snoring Bombur and sat myself carefully between many of the Dwarves, squishing beside Fili and Kili. Fili had groaned in his sleep, throwing an arm over my foot. Kili cracked open an eye, patted my knee and then retreated back into his sleep.

The next sentence is going to make me sound like such a creeper, but I was told that I was to be on watch for the next two hours, until Bilbo took over, so I was bored. But, you know, I kind of...watched Kili sleep. Only a little, mind you. Everyone else had fallen asleep, so what else is a girl to do but watch, quite possibly, one of the prettiest Dwarves she had seen sleep?

I had remembered what Fili had told me, about Kili being one of the lesser 'attractive' Dwarves among the people in the Blue Mountains. I guess that to people outside of the Dwarves race, he was handsome. Short, but handsome. But to Dwarves themselves...he wasn't quite so hairy, he was leaner, he didn't have a funky beard, nor braids. I didn't mind that, though. I'd quite liked his prettiness.

Anyway, even if he had been covered in hair and had a belly the size of Bombur's, I would have liked him the same anyway. He was Kili - reckless, brave, charming, funny, lovely Kili.

I'd brushed a bit of his hair straight then, and it was possibly one of the few movie-like things that I had done in my lifetime. Well, that, and actually be sucked into a movie.

I'd sat alone for a while that night, listening to the horrible sounds of Mirkwood, feeling small as I glared out at the trees and the small bit of what lay beyond. It had felt like a prison, and I couldn't understand how Elves lived here willingly. It was so dark.

After two hours, I had thrown a small rock at Bilbo's curly head and shared a tired look with him. He had sat upright, dangling his legs out in front of him and taking on the role of the nights second watchman. 'Goodnight,' he had murmured to me, and I had replied with something the same.

Curling up into a very uncomfortable position, I'd found solace and comfort in Kili's warmth, away from the darkness of Mirkwood, away from the Dwarves that were pressing in at every corner.

And his hand found mine.

Okay, I know you're all gonna be like 'BUT THEY DIDN'T TALK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE BLOODY BOMBUR CAME ALONG!' But that's coming, I promise. I just wanted to introduce Mirkwood, seeing as it's such a big part of the journey, as well as get the other Dwarves in there a bit, as well as some of Millie's inner dialogue about the whole thing.

I'm excited for the next chapter! People who have read the books will know what is coming!

I hope you liked my description of Mirkwood. A lot of the inspiration came from the stills that have been released for The Desolation of Smaug. Anyway, yeah, I hope you like the pace of things, seeing as the book rushes quite a lot of what happens.

Thank you so much for the reviews, guys. I mean, shit, over 700 reviews? I can't even begin to comprehend it. Thank you, thank you so much. You brighten my day more than I can say. You're all beautiful and lovely.