Chapter 9: Flies and Spiders
They walked in single file. The entrance to the path was like a sort of arch leading into a gloomy tunnel made by two great trees that leant together, too olds and strangled with ivy and hung with lichen to bear more that few blacked leaves. 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.
As their eyes became used to the dimness they could see a little way to either side a short of darkened green glimmer. Occasionally a slender beam of sun that had the luck to slip in through some opening in the leaves far above, and still more luck in not being caught in the tangled boughs and matted twigs beneath, stabbed down thin and bright before them. But this was seldom, and it soon ceased all together.
The nastiest things they saw were the cobwebs: dark dense cobwebs with threads extraordinarily thick, often stretched from tree to tree, or tangled in the lower branches on either side of them. There were none stretched across the path, but whether because some magic kept it clear, or for what other reason they could not guess.
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. Even the dwarves felt it, who were used to tunneling, and lived at times for long while without the light of the sun; but the hobbit, now felt that she was being slowly suffocated. The nights were the worst. It then became pitch dark, so black that you could see nothing.
They seldom talked, it was just too miserable to do much of anything but march forward. It was not yet very cold, but they still 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 to never let their bodies show in the little flicker of the flames.
All this went on for what seemed ages upon ages; and they were always hungry, for they were extremely careful with their provisions. Even so, as days followed days and still the forest seemed just the same, they began to get anxious. The food would not last forever: it was already beginning to get low. 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 one day when they found their path blocked by running water. It flowed fast and strong but not very wide right across the way, and it was black, or looked it in the gloom. It was well that Beorn had warned them against it, or they would have drunk from it, whatever its color, and filled some of their empty skins at its bank. As it was they only thought of how to cross it without wetting themselves in the water. There had been a bridge of wood across, but it had rotten and fallen leaving only broken posts near the bank.
Bella kneeling on the brink and peering forward cried: "There is a boat against the far bank! Now why couldn't it have been this side!"
"How far away is it, do you think?" Thorin asked, for by now they knew that she had better eyes than all of the dwarves.
"Not all that far. I'd say it's about twelve yards."
"Twelve yards! We can't jump it, and we daren't try to wade or swim," Throin said, growing increasingly frustrated.
"Can any of you throw a rope?" Bella asked, thinking perhaps they could tow the boat across 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 the hobbit is talking about."
"Ouch," Bella thought. "Again with the hobbit…" Fili turned to give her a small reassuring smile, assumedly guessing her thoughts. She gave him a weak one back.
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 had several with them, and on the end of the longest they fastened one of the large iron hooks 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.
"Steady!" said Bella, "you have thrown it right into the wood on the other side now. Draw it back gently." Fili hauled the rope back slowly, and after a while Bella said: "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. Bella was on the lookout, however, caught the rope, and yelped when the boat came rushing across the stream towards her. Thorin was suddenly in front of her, his bulk blocking her as he stopped the boat with his hands, being pushed back a foot or two. When he turned to look at her, she gave him a small grin of which he returned.
"His mood swings are giving me whiplash," she thought as Balin came over.
"Who'll cross first?" asked Balin.
"I shall," said Thorin, "and Fili, and Balin, and the hobbit. That's as many as the boat will hold at a time. After that Kili and Oin and Gloin and Dori; next Ori and Nor, Bifur and Bofur; and last Dwalin and Bombur."
Eventually they were all soon on the far bank safe across the enchanted stream. Dwalin had just scrambled out of the boat and was helping Bombur, when something bad did happen. There was a flying sound of hooves on the path ahead. Out of the gloom came suddenly the shape of a flying deer. It charged into the dwarves, knocking over the lot of them, and would have trampled over poor Bella if not for Thorin who had grabbed her and pulled her out of the beast's path. High it sprang, and cleared the water with a mighty jump and disappeared on the other side.
A dreadful wail from Bella caught everyone's attention as they all got back on their feet. "Bombur has fallen in!" she cried. Only his hood was visible, so they quickly flung the rope and hook towards him. His hand caught it and they pulled him to shore. When they laid him on the bank he was already fast asleep and they were unable to wake him.
They stayed by the stream for the rest of the day and the following night. The following day they were forced to carry Bombur along with them as best they could, taking the wearisome task in turns of four each while the others shared their packs. Of course, Thorin refused when Bella offered to take a turn in helping to carry Bombur. So, she carried her pack and took some of the others, and could only watch the others while feeling utterly useless.
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. They were at first inclined to be cheered by the change, for here there was no undergrowth and the shadow was not too deep. 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 the endless lines of straight grey trunks like the pillars of some huge twilight hall. There was a breath of air and a noise of wind, but it had a sad sound. A few leaves came rustling down to remind them that outside autumn was coming on. Their feet ruffled among the dead leaves of countless other autumns that drifted over the banks of the path from the deep red carpets of the forests.
Still Bombur slept and they grew very weary. At times they heard disquieting laughter. Sometimes there was singing in the distance too. The laughter was the laughter of fair voices not of goblins, and the singing was beautiful, but it sounded eerie and strange, and they were no comforted, rather they hurried on from those parts with what strength they had left.
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.
"Hey," Bella said, placing a hand on his arm to try and soothe his anger. It didn't appear to work when he turned his fierce gaze down on her. "Let me climb one of these trees to see if I can poke my head out of the branches to see if I can see the end of this forest."
Consenting, the dwarves watched as Bella walked over to a tree that looked particularly sturdy. The lowest branches were too high from the ground for her to reach, so Thorin and Dwalin boosted her up so that she could grab them. Up she went as best she could, pushing her way through the tangled twigs with many a slap in the eye. Many times she slipped, until after one particularily bad fall where she had lost her grip and fell a few feet before catching another branch in her grasp, when Thorin called up to her. "Stop this! This is madness and you're going to achieve nothing but getting yourself injured or killed. Come down and we'll send up Fili or Kili!"
Risking a glance down at him, she shuddered at how high she was. "No!" she called down. "They'll be too heavy for these branches. I can do this!"
At last, she got to the very top of the tree. Bella's eyes were nearly blinded by the light. She could hear the dwarves shouting up at her from far below, but she could not answer, only hold on and blink. The sun was shining brilliantly, and it was a long while before she could bear it. When she could, she saw all around her was a sea of dark green, ruffled here and there by the breeze.
Gazing as hard as she could, she could see no end to the trees and the leaves in any direction. Of course, she realized that they were in a valley, so it was possible that the ending to the forest could just be hidden from view. She climbed back down, scratched up and hot, and she could not see anything in the gloom below when she got there. Her report didn't do much to cheer them up.
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. That only reminded them that they were parchingly thirsty, without doing anything to relieve them. The only scrap of comfort there was came from Bombur.
He woke up suddenly and sat up scratching his head. He could not make out where he was at all, nor whey he felt so hungry; for he had forgotten everything that had happened since they started their journey that May morning long ago. The last thing that he remembered was the party at the hobbit's house, and they had great difficulty in making him believe their tale of all the many adventures they had had since.
When he 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."
There was nothing now to be done but to tighten the belts round their empty stomachs, and hoist their empty sacks and packs, and trudge along the track without any great hope of ever getting to the end before they laid down and died of starvation. This they did all day, going very slowly and wearily; while Bombur kept on wailing that his legs would not carry him and that he wanted to lie down and sleep.
"No you don't!" they said. "Let your legs take their share, we have carried you far enough!"
All the same he suddenly 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 torches and fires were burning under the trees, but a good way off their track.
"It looks as if my dreams were coming true," said Bombur, coming up behind. He wanted to rush straight off into the wood after the lights. But the others remembered only too well the warnings of the wizard and of Beorn. However, in the end, in spite of warnings, hunger decided them, because Bombur kept on describing all the good things that were being eaten, according to his dream, in the woodland feast; so they all left the path and plunged into the forest.
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, all dressed in green and brown and sitting on sawn rings of the felled trees in a great circle. There was a fire in their midst and there were torches fastened to some of the trees round about; but most splendid sight of all: they were 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 asking for 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. They were lost in a completely lightless dark and they could not even find one another, not for a long time at any rate. After blundering frantically in the gloom, falling over logs, bumping crash into trees, and shouting and calling till they must have waked everything in the forest for miles, at last they managed to gather themselves in a bundle and count themselves by touch. By that time they had, of course, quite forgotten in what direction the path lay, and they were all hopelessly lost, at least till morning.
There was nothing for it but to settle down for the night where they were; they did not even dare to search on the ground for scraps of food for fear of becoming separated again. But they had not been lying long, and Bella was only just getting drowsy, when Dori, whose turn it was for first watch, said in a loud whisper: "The lights are coming out again over there, and there are more of them!"
Up they all jumped. 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 go near Thorin said: "No rushing forward this time! No one is to stir from hiding till I say. I shall send the hobbit to talk to them alone first, since they won't be frightened of her. We'll watch over from the bushes in case you need us."
When they got to the edge of the circle of lights they pushed Bella suddenly from behind. Before she had time to slip on her ring, she stumbled forward into the full blaze of the fire and the torches. It was no good. Out went the all the lights again and complete darkness fell.
Once they were all collected again, they settled down for sleep again, when Kili roused them. "There's a blaze of light off not even a hundred yards," the young dwarf said.
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. As soon as Thorin stepped into their midst, dead silence fell. Out went all light. The fires leaped up in black smokes. Ashes and cinders were in the eyes of the dwarves, and the wood was filled again with their clamor and cries.
Bella found herself running around calling out for all the dwarves. "THORIN!" she screamed! "CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" The sound of her companions had disappeared altogether, and she was left alone in the complete silence and darkness.
That was one of her most miserable moments. But she soon made up her mind that it was no good trying to do anything until day came with some light, and quite useless to go blundering about tiring herself out with no hope of any food to revive her. So she sat herself down with her back to a tree, and began to think about Thorin and the events that had taken place since they'd entered Mirkwood. He hadn't been ignoring her or avoiding her, more like it was just such a gloomy place that no one wanted to speak or sing with one another. Oh how she prayed that she'd find them all in the morning. She was deep in thought about Thorin and the others when 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 the great spider, which had been busy tying her up while she dozed, came from behind her and came at her. She could only see the thing's eyes, but she could feel its hairy legs as it struggled to wind its abominable threads around her. It was lucky that she had come to her senses in time. Soon she would not have been able to move at all. As it was, she had a desperate fight before she got free. She beat the creature off with her hands – it was trying to poison her to keep her quiet, as small spiders do to flies – until she remembered her sword and drew it out. Then the spider jumped back, and she had time to cut her legs loose. After that it was her turn to attack. The spider evidently was not used to things that carried such stings at their sides, or it would have hurried away quicker. Bella came at it before it could disappear and stuck it with her sword right in the eyes. Then it went mad and leaped and danced and flung out its legs in horrible jerks, until she kicked it with another stroke; and then she fell down and remembered nothing more for a long while.
There was the usual dim grey light of the forest-day about her when she came to her senses. The spider lay dead beside her, and her sword-blade was stained black. Somehow the killing of the giant spider, all alone by herself in the dark without the help of the wizard or dwarves made a great difference to Bella. She felt much fiercer and bolder as she wiped her sword on the grass and put it back it its sheath. "I will give you a name," she said to it, "and I shall call you Sting."
After that she set out to explore. The forest was grim and silent, but obviously she had first of all to look for all her friends, who were not likely to be very far off, unless they had been made prisoner by the elves (or worse things). Bella felt that it was unsafe to shout, and she stood a long while wondering in what direction the path lay, and in what direction she should go first to look for the dwarves. "O! Why did we not remember Beorn's advice, and Gandalf's!" she lamented. "What a mess we are in now! It's terrible being all alone."
In the end she made as good a guess as she could at the direction from which the cries from the dwarves had come in the night – and by luck she guessed more or less right. Having made up her mind she crept along as cleverly as she could. Slipping on her ring in case, she 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 one behind and over and tangled with another. Suddenly she saw, too, that there were spiders huge and horrible sitting in the branches above her, and she trembled with fear. Standing behind a tree she watched the group for some time, and then in the silence and stillness of the wood she realized that the loathsome creatures were speaking one to another. Their voices were a sort of thin creaking and hissing, but she could make out many of the words they were saying. They were talking 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."
With that one of the fat spiders ran along a rope till it came to a dozen bundles hanging in a row from a high branch. Bella was horrified, now that she noticed them for the first time dangling in the shadows, to see a dwarvish foot sticking out of the bottoms of some bundles, or here and there the tip of a nose, or a bit of beard, or a hood.
To the fattest of these bundles the spider went, of which Bella assumed encased Bombur, and bit the tip of the nose that stuck out. There was a muffled yelp inside, and a toe shot up and kicked the spider straight and hard. There was life in Bombur still. There was a noise like the kicking of a flabby football, 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.
Bella saw that the moment had come when she must do something. She could not get up at the brutes and she had nothing to shoot with; but looking she saw that in this place there were many stones lying in what appeared to be a now dry little watercourse. Bella was a pretty fair shot with a stone, and it did not take her long to find a nice smooth egg shaped one that fit in her hand cozily. While she was picking up stones, the spider had reached Bombur, and soon he would have been dead. At that moment Bella threw. 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, I can tell you. They could not see Bella, but they could make a good guess at the direction from which the stones were coming. As quick as lightning they came running and swinging towards the hobbit, flinging out their long threads in all directions, till the air seemed full of weaving snares.
Bella, however, soon slipped away to a different place. The idea came to her to lead the furious spiders further and further away from the dwarves if she could; to make them curious, excited and angry all at once. When about fifty had gone off to the place where she had stood before, she threw some more stones at these, and at others that had stopped behind; then dancing among the trees she began to call out to the spiders to infuriate them and so that the dwarves could hear her voice: "Can't catch me you silly spiders! Come catch me if you think you're up for the challenge!"
Practically all the spiders in the place came after her: some dropped to the ground; others raced along the branches, swung from tree to tree, or cast new ropes across the dark spaces. They made for her noise far quicker than she expected. They were frightfully angry. Quite apart from the stones no spider has ever liked being teased. Off Bella scuttled to a fresh place, but several of the spiders had run now to different points of the glade where they lived, and were busy spinning webs across all the spaces between the tree stems. Very soon the hobbit would be caught in a thick fence of them all round him – that at least was the spiders' idea.
She soon found that the last space between two tall trees had been closed with a web – but luckily not a proper web, only great strands of double-thick spider-rope run hastily backwards and forwards from trunk to trunk. Out came her sword and she slashed the pieces.
The spiders saw the sword and at once the whole lot of them came hurrying after the hobbit along the ground and the branches, hairy legs waving, nippers and spinners snapping, eyes popping, full of froth and rage. They followed Bella into the forest as far as she dared. Than quieter than a mouse he stole back.
She had precious little time, she knew, before the spiders were disgusted and came back to their trees where the dwarves were hung. In the meanwhile she had to rescue them. The worst part of the job was getting up on the branch where the bundles were dangling. She went to the first bundle. "Fili or Kili," she thought by the tip of a blue hood sticking out at the top. "Most likely Fili," she thought by the tip of a long nose poking out of the winding threads. She managed by leaning over to cut most of the strong sticky threads that bound him round, and then, sure enough, with a kick and a struggle most of Fili emerged.
Somehow or other Fili was got on to the branch, and then he did his best to help Bella, although he was very ill from the spider's poison and from hanging upside down for almost 24 hours. Between them they began to free the dwarves, who were no better off than Fili. Eventually they were all free, when they noticed that the spiders had tied up poor Bombur again and were dragging him away. The dwarves all scrambled and began to hack and stab the spiders, freeing Bombur and killing off many of the creepy beasts.
Then the battle began. Some of the dwarves had knives, and some had sticks, and all of them could get at stones; and Bella had her elvish dagger. Again and again the spiders were beaten off, and many of them were killed. But it could not go on for long. Bella was nearly tired out; only four of the dwarves were able to stand firmly, and soon they would all be overpowered like weary flies. Already the spiders were beginning to weave their webs all round them again from tree to tree.
In the end Bella could think of no plan except to let the dwarves into the secret of her ring. She was rather sorry about it, but it could not be helped.
"I am going to disappear," she said. "I shall draw the spiders off, if I can; and you must keep together and make in the opposite direction. To the left there, that is more or less the way towards the place where we last saw the elf-fires."
It was difficult to get them to understand, what with their dizzy heads, and the shouts, and the whacking of sticks and the throwing of stones; but at last Bella felt she could delay no longer – the spiders were drawing their circle ever closer. She suddenly slipped on her ring, and to the great astonishment of the dwarves she vanished.
Soon she was teasing the spiders once again from among the trees away on the right. That upset the spiders greatly. They stopped advancing, and went off in the direction of her voice. Then Balin, who had grasped Bella's plan better that the rest, led an attack. The dwarves huddled together in a knot, sending a shower of stones they drove at the spiders on the left, and burst through the ring. Away behind them, the shouting from Bella suddenly stopped.
Hoping desperately that Bella had not been caught the dwarves went on. Not fast enough, though. They were sick and weary, and they could not go much better than a hobble and a wobble, though many of the spiders were close behind. Every now and then they had to turn and fight the creatures that were overtaking them; and already some spiders were in the trees above them and throwing down their long threads.
Things were looking pretty bad again, when suddenly Bella reappeared, and charged into the astonished spiders unexpectedly from the side. "Go on! Get going!" she shouted. "I'll handle things here!"
And she did. She darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came to near. The spiders swelled with rage, and spluttered and frothed, and hissed out horrible curses; but they had become mortally afraid of Sting, and dared not come very near, now that it had come back. So curse as they would, their prey moved slowly but steadily away. It was a most terrible business, and seemed to take hours. But at last, just when Bella felt that she could not lift her hand for a single stroke more, the spiders suddenly gave it up, and followed them no more, but went back disappointed to their disappointed colony.
The dwarves then noticed that they had come to the edge of a ring where 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. At any rate here the light was greener, and the boughs less thick and threatening and they had a chance to rest and draw breath.
There they rested for a while, until Bella decided to do one last headcount and nearly shrieked aloud. "Where is Thorin?" she gasped, standing up. The others all looked around, and suddenly it was realized that no one had seen him since before the spider incident. In Bella's exhaustion, she too had missed the fact that he was gone. Turning to look at her surroundings, tears welled up in her eyes. Yet there was nothing for them to do, but stay where they were for the night.
As a sort of coping method for not thinking about Thorin, she told the dwarves all about her ring that she'd found in the mountain, before they dropped off one by one into uncomfortable sleep filled with horrible dreams; Bella's being the worst. While the dwarves and the hobbit slept, they were grabbed in their sleep and dragged away by tall figures into the night.
Thorin had been caught much faster than they had. As soon as Thorin had stepped into the circle of light and the lights went out he fell like a stone enchanted. All the noise of the dwarves lost in the night, their cries as the spiders caught them and bound them, and all the sounds of the battle the next day, had passed over him unheard. Then the Wood-elves had come to him, and bound him, and carried him away.
To their cave they dragged Thorin – none too gently, for they had little love for dwarves, and thought he was an enemy. Consequently Thorin was angry at their treatment of him, when they took their spell off him and he came to his senses; and also he was determined that no word of gold or jewels should be dragged out of him.
The king looked sternly on Thorin, when he was brought before him, and asked him many questions. But Thorin would only say that he was starving. Watching, hidden from Thorin's view, were the dwarves and the hobbit, bound and gagged by the Wood-elves that had stolen them in the night. They could see Thorin, but he was not aware that they had been taken.
"Why did you and your folk try three times to try to attack my people at their merrymaking?" asked the king.
"We did not attack them," answered Thorin. "We came to beg for food."
"Where are your friends now and what are they doing?"
"I don't know, but I expect starving in the forest."
"What were you doing in the forest?"
"Looking for food and drink."
"But what brought you into the forest at all?" the king asked angrily.
At that Thorin shut his mouth and would not say another word.
"Very well!" said the king. "Perhaps bringing in these thirteen folk with change your mind."
Bella and the dwarves were suddenly dragged roughly by the elf guards into Thorin's view and brought just a few feet from him. The dwarf king's eyes darted to Bella immediately, looking her over for injuries. Other than a few bruises and scratches, she was relatively unharmed. As he looked over her, Bella noticed that the elf king say Thorin's concern for her well-being. A dark smile crossed his face.
"Ungag the female and bring her forward!" the king snapped. The guard tore the gag off of her. Thorin yelled.
"NO! Leave her be," Thorin shouted, anger filled his features as he was restrained by two pale blond elves.
The guard behind her gave her a hard shove forward; so hard that she fell over directly in front of the elf king. Awkwardly (because of her bound hands) she stood up and looked hard at the blond king. His crown of finely crafted twigs and gems glinted in the torch-lit cavern, and his cool eyes regarded her with interest. Thorin growled, but was silenced by a blade to his throat, which caused Bella to cringe nervously.
"What are you?" the King inquired, looking her over with a judgmental eye. She hated the look of this elf. He was nothing like Elrond; this elf was cold and cruel. "You're certainly not a dwarf."
"A hobbit," she said simply.
"Where do you come from?"
"The Shire."
"A hobbit from the Shire," the king mumbled. "I believe I have heard tales of this place once or twice before. What would you be doing with a bunch of male dwarves alone in the forest?"
Now she really hated this man. Quirking her eyebrow, she glared hard at him. "I hardly see how that is any of your business. You kidnap us in our sleep and drag us into your palace and question our morals! This is hardly just. You asked us some interesting questions. Just what exactly do you wish to hear from us?"
The king looked positively angry, and Bella caught the shocked looks on the dwarves' faces. Before she could blink, the elf's hand was around her throat and was starting to lift her off of the ground. Beside her, she could hear Thorin begin to struggle again, along with many of the other dwarves. "Just what kind of a creature are you?" the king asked, setting her down on her feet once more. His hand released her throat but moved up to trace her cheek and turn her head slightly away from him. "No being has ever come into my palace and dared to speak to me in such a manner."
A sigh came from Bella, as if she were growing bored. "You've yet to answer my question. What do you wish to hear from us?"
"The truth!" the king shouted, standing upright. "I know why you're here. You are the company of Thorin Oakenshield and you travel to the Lonely Mountain to claim back the city of Erebor from the dragon Smaug! I'm going to offer you a deal."
"I don't want your deal," Thorin snapped, but Bella raised her hand, shocking the entire Company and Thorin.
"Let's hear the king out Thorin," she said, looking into his icy blue eyes before turning back to the elf. "What do you propose?"
"Ahh, you care for negotiation. Very well; I offer you two deals. The first, I will offer you my aid and my followers' aid in exchange for the pure white gems of starlight that lie in that mountain."
Thorin immediately shouted his dislike of that deal, but it was Bella who spoke. "We will have to decline your first offer, oh King," she said, trying to be polite. Perhaps they could yet get out of here alive. "But I am particularly interested in your second deal." She felt that this second deal would involve her and be their ticket to getting out of the elven palace.
The king grinned a wicked grin. "12 hours with you, for the freedom of you and your companions." Thorin yelled and began cursing in khuzdal.
Bella was momentarily shocked but nodded her head. "Does that include Thorin?"
"Yes. All of you will go free," the king said.
Bella thought for a moment before nodding her head. She doubted the king's intentions were to bed her. More likely he wished to study her and learn more about her kind. The vibe she got from the elf, though cruel, was not one of malice and evil. No, he was more like a scholar; a deeply devoted scholar who went to many difficult means for the gift of knowledge. "I accept your offer as long as no harm comes to any of them."
"NO!" Thorin yelled, breaking free of the guards and was about to lurch forward when several more elves latched onto his arms.
"Then it is done," the king said as a sentinel came up from behind her and dragged her from the room. The last thing she saw before the doors closed was tears starting to leak from Thorin's eyes. That image would haunt her for the rest of her life.