Chapter 19
Soon after, the Company was preparing to leave Beorn's home. Each dwarf had been given a pony to assist them in their journey toward Mirkwood, while Gandalf and Annelise had been given horses.
Along with these animals, the Company was able to fill their packs with what food they would be able to carry once they were back on foot.
Annelise was standing to the side with Gandalf and Beorn watching the others preparing to leave.
"You will leave my ponies before you enter the forest," Beorn said to Gandalf as they walked through the trees surrounding the others.
"You have my word," Gandalf responded as a crow sounded above them. The wizard and Beorn looked above and following its flight as it left the trees.
"We're being watched."
"Yes. The orcs will not give up," Beorn responded. "They will hunt the dwarves until they see them destroyed."
"Why now? What has made the Defiler crawl from his hole?"
"There is an alliance between the orcs of Moria and the sorcerer in Dol Guldur," Beorn spoke, causing Annelise to look up at Gandalf in surprise.
'Could this sorcerer be what Radagast needed to speak to Gandalf about?,' she wondered to herself.
"Are you sure of this?"
"Packs have been seen gathering there. Each day, more and more come."
"What do you know of this sorcerer?," Gandalf asked, looking down to Annelise quickly, as if reluctant to speak of the topic in front of her. "The one they call the Necromancer."
"I know he is not what he seems. Fell things are drawn to his power. Azog pays homage to him."
Annelise opened her mouth to ask Gandalf if this would affect their traveling through Mirkwood, but she was cut off by her father.
"Gandalf, Annelise. Time is wasting."
The wizard and young woman began moving toward their horses when Beorn began to speak again.
"There is more. Not long past, word spread...the dead had been seen walking near the High Fells of Rhûdaur."
"The dead?," Gandalf spoke in a grave voice, pausing in his steps.
"Is it true?," Beorn continued. "Are there tombs in those mountains?"
"Gandalf?," Annelise questioned quietly when the wizard hesitated in answering.
In response, Gandalf looked into her eyes sadly and placed a hand gently on her shoulder before turning to look at Beorn.
"Yes. Yes, there are tombs up there."
"I remember a time...when a great evil ruled these lands. One powerful enough to raise the dead."
Annelise stiffened under Gandalf's hand as she realized the meaning behind the man's words.
"If that enemy has returned to Middle Earth...I would have you tell me."
"Saruman the White says it is not possible. The enemy was destroyed and will never return."
"And what does Gandalf the Grey say?"
With this more crows began cawing around them and Annelise could see the others in the Company getting restless.
"Go now," Beorn said to the two before him, "while you have the light."
Annelise then could hear a warg howling in the distance.
"Your hunters are not far behind."
With these words, Gandalf used his hand still on Annelise's shoulder to lead her to her horse next to his.
She mounted her horse before turning to the wizard next to her.
"Gandalf, what-"
"Not now, Annelise," he interrupted quietly before motioning with his head to her father moving his pony toward them.
She nodded her head before nudging her horse after the others.
After some time riding, Annelise was able to pull away from her father to ride ahead next to Gandalf at the front of the Company.
"May we speak now?," she asked the wizard quietly.
Gandalf sighed before looking over at her.
"I had hoped that no one in this Company would be burdened with such knowledge."
"But wasn't Sauron destroyed when Isildur cut the Ring from his hand?"
"As long as the Ring exists, the Dark Lord will never truly be defeated," Gandalf said sadly. With these words, Annelise looked into the wizard's eyes and for the first time, instead of seeing a simple old man, she saw a haunted and heavy look in his eyes that could only come from everything he had seen in his long life.
It was a look that she had only seen in her Uncle Elrond's eyes, when he spoke to her of the Last Alliance and Sauron's defeat.
"And this Necromancer? Is he-?" Annelise began to ask, but found herself unable to speak her thoughts for fear that she was right.
Instead of answering, the wizard looked at her with sad, knowing eyes understanding what it was that she was asking. At this look, she felt a chill run down her spine and moved her eyes up to the sky, offering up a quick prayer to the Valar.
The Company soon reached the borders of Mirkwood and Annelise's thoughts were turned toward the Elvenking and his son that lived within the woods before her.
Annalise quickly dismounted her horse, before pulling her pack from its back and moving toward the edge of the forest before her.
She then followed behind Gandalf as he moved into the entrance to the path through the forest.
"The Elven Gate. Here lies our path through Mirkwood," he called back to the rest of the Company still on their ponies.
"No sign of the orcs," Dwalin said. "We have luck on our side."
Annelise then saw Gandalf look into the distance, where she could just make out the form of a bear atop one of the hills. She knew it to be Beorn, not luck that had prevented the orcs from finding them.
"Set the ponies loose!," he suddenly yelled to the others. "Let them return to their master."
"This forest feels...sick. As if a disease lies upon it," Bilbo said, moving to Annelise's side at the entrance. "Is there no way around?"
"Not unless we go 200 miles north. Or twice that distance...south," Gandalf trailed off moving deeper into the forest toward a statue covered in vines.
"Gandalf, what is that?," Annelise asked following behind the wizard as she felt the air around her grow heavy and stifling.
"You feel it, as well?," he asked turning toward her quickly in surprise, before suddenly pulling the vines from the Elven statue.
Suddenly a fiery eye flashed before Annelise's eyes, causing her breath to be stolen from her and forcing her to take a step back. She then looked toward the statue and saw that underneath the ones was revealed a crude painting of the same eye that she had just seen.
Once she recovered from her shock, Annelise looked at Gandalf and heard him mutter something under his breath before turning suddenly.
"Gandalf, wait!," she called after the wizard. "What was that? That eye I saw? It looked just like the one drawn on the statue."
With these words, the grey wizard stopped suddenly and looked at her strangely.
"What did you see?," he said urgently under his breath to prevent the others from hearing.
"It was an eye…surrounded by bright flames," she answered. Upon seeing recognition flash in the wizard's eyes at her words, she continued. "What was it?"
Instead of answering her question, Gandalf looked at her with worry.
"You are much more in tune with your surroundings than I expected. Even with your Dunedain blood, you should not be this sensitive to the evil in this world. I can only hope that it is your innocence that is the cause of this."
"Then the eye is what I believe it to be?," she said in response to his strange words.
"Yes," he said quietly before moving quickly toward the others.
"Not my horse! I need it!,'' he yelled upon seeing Dwalin releasing Beorn's ponies.
Bilbo quickly moved to the wizard's side as he prepared to leave.
"You're not leaving us?," he asked in desperation.
"I would not do this unless I had to," Gandalf said looking down at the hobbit before glancing at Annelise, who had placed a hand on Bilbo's shoulder.
"You've changed, Bilbo Baggins. You're not the same hobbit as the one who left the Shire."
"I was going to tell you. I…found something in the Goblin tunnels."
At this Annelise and Gandalf looked down at the hobbit in surprise.
"Found what? What did you find?," Gandalf asked Bilbo curiously.
Bilbo seemed to pause for a moment, and Annelise was once more overwhelmed with a sensation of pure evil closing in around her. Gandalf seemed to notice her discomfort and frowned at her sadly.
At last, Bilbo finally responded. "My courage," he said in a strained voice.
"Good. Well, that's good," Gandalf said straightening up. "You'll need it."
"Look after each other," he said looking between the two in front of him, before turning to address the Company.
"I'll be waiting for you at the overlook, before the slopes of Erebor. Keep the map and key safe," he said looking toward Thorin. "Do not enter that mountain without me."
"This is not the Greenwood of old. There is a stream in the woods that carries a dark enchantment. Do not touch the water. Cross only by the stone bridge. The very air of the forest is heavy with illusion. It'll seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."
"'Lead us astray'. What does that mean?," Bilbo asked Annelise quietly.
"You must stay on the path," Gandalf continued after mounting his horse. "Do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again."
"No matter what may come, stay on the path!," he shouted, finally riding away from the Company.
Annelise watched as her father began moving toward the edge of the forest where the path started.
"Come on. We must reach the mountain before the sun sets on Durin's Day. It is our one chance to find the hidden door."
At this, Annelise squeezed Bilbo's shoulder one last time before moving to follow the others.
For a time the journey through the dark forest was uneventful. The path was easy to distinguish before them and any enchantment that Gandalf had spoken of seemed to have no effect on the Company.
"The path turns this way," she heard her father say from the head of the group.
The further they ventured into the forest, the darker the air around them became. After what felt like hours, the forest seemed to be closing in around them and the Company had to rely on Dwalin beating the bottom of his ax on the ground to keep on the path.
By this point, Annelise had developed a strong ache in her head and was finding it difficult to focus on anything around her other than her cousin's head in front of her.
Suddenly she heard Kili call out in front of her. "We've found the bridge."
Annelise could only assume that he was speaking of the stone bridge that Gandalf had mentioned earlier. But when she looked to see the bridge, she saw that part of the bridge had collapsed, leaving it impassable.
"We could try and swim it," she heard Bofur say in front of her.
"Didn't you hear what Gandalf said?," her father responded. "A dark magic lies upon this forest. The waters of this stream are enchanted."
"Doesn't look very enchanting to me," Bofur responded, squinting his eyes down at the water.
"We must find another way across," Thorin said, moving to search around the stream.
"These vines look strong enough," she heard Kili say, although the words barely broke through her mind. The longer she stared at the water, the foggier her head became.
"Kili!," Thorin yelled, bringing Annelise out of her trance. "We send the lightest first."
At this everyone in the Company looked toward Bilbo.
With this, the hobbit moved toward where Kili was standing and grabbed on to the first vine.
After he had gotten a little further, Thorin turned to Annelise.
"You should go next. You are lighter on your feet than the rest of us."
With a nod, Annelise moved to follow after Bilbo.
"Do not follow us until we tell you to, alright?," she said to her father before moving to the next vine.
"It's alright. Can't see any problem," Bilbo was saying from in front of her.
Suddenly, Bilbo missed a handhold and fell upside down with his legs wrapped around a vine.
"Bilbo!," Annelise shouted, trying to reach the hobbit before he fell into the water.
"There's one," he said, struggling to regain his hold. "Everything's…fine."
Somehow he ended up with his feet and hands on two different vines, suspended above the water. Annelise noticed that he seemed to be staring at his reflection for a moment and knew that there was definitely something wrong with the water below her.
As she tried to continue after the hobbit, she noticed that her mind was beginning to go blank and that she could not seem to focus on what she was doing.
She began to simply follow in the hobbit's footsteps and managed to make it across the river just behind him. When her feet finally hit solid ground, she fell to her knees with her head bowed to try and clear it a bit.
"Something's not right," she heard Bilbo saying from beside her. "It's not right at all."
"Stay where you are!," she heard him yell to the others.
"Oh."
When she heard Bilbo's tone of voice, she turned to see what had made him so disappointed.
She looked up to see the remaining members of the Company tangled up in the vines, trying to cross at the same time.
"Oh no," she muttered under her breath, knowing that this situation could not end well.
She turned to the side to see Bilbo slapping himself gently in the face, and realized that she was not the only one feeling the effects of the forest.
She finally stood up when her father landed on the ground beside her and held a hand out by her head.
She took it and nodded in thanks after he helped pull her to her feet.
He and Bilbo then looked off in to the forest ahead of them, and Annelise saw a beautiful white stag walk out from the trees in front of them, into a beam of sunlight.
She could tell that Bilbo appreciated the sight as much as she did.
"What are you doing?," she heard him say to her father, and she looked to see that he had placed an arrow on his bowstring.
"Father, no," she tried to yell, but her voice only came out in a whisper.
Thorin quickly pulled up his bow and fired the arrow toward the stag. Annelise could not help but breath a sigh of relief when the arrow missed and the stag ran off out of sight.
"You shouldn't have done that," Bilbo said quietly. "It's bad luck."
"I don't believe in luck," Thorin responded angrily. "We make our own luck."
With these unfortunate words, Annelise turned her head quickly at the sound of a large splash. She saw that Bombur had somehow fallen asleep and tumbled off the vines into the river below.
"Hurry!," her father yelled. "Get him out of there!"
This event ended with the members of the Company rotating carrying Bombur on a makeshift stretcher through the forest.
"We need to take a rest," Annelise heard Nori say ahead of her. She had fallen to the back of the group and was simply following whoever was in front on her. This, of course, led her to bumping into said person any time the Company would come to a halt.
At Nori's words, the entire group stopped without any word from Thorin, and Annelise sat down in the middle of the path where she stood.
She looked up at the forest around her, and everything began to move.
"What is that? Voices?," her brain registered Bilbo saying from ahead. "Voices. Can you hear them?," he said to the people around him.
"I hear nothing," her father responded. "No wind. No birdsong. What hour is it?"
"I don't know," Dwalin answered. "I do not even know what day it is."
"This is taking too long," Thorin said. "Is there no end to this accursed forest?!"
"None that I can see," Gloin responded. "Only trees and more trees."
"There," she heard her father say. He then began stumbling toward her. "This way," he gestured to everyone.
"But Gandalf said-," she heard someone protest before Thorin cut them off.
"Do as I say. Follow me."
Annelise struggled to her feet, stumbling a few times as she tried to gain her balance with the world spinning around her.
She felt a hand on her elbow, helping to keep her steady. She looked over to see that Fili was standing next to her, lending her his support as he had done so many times when she was growing up. She smiled down at him brightly in thanks, before moving to follow after the rest of the group.
"Wait!," she heard Bilbo yell suddenly from behind her. For some reason, she could not force her body to stop and wait for him, or to even see what he was yelling for.
"Wait! Stop! We can't leave th-leave the path! We must stay on the path!"
What transpired over the next who knows how long is anybody's guess. All Annelise could remember was the back of Fili's head as he held onto her hand and led her along. She could vaguely remember possibly having to climb a cliff.
Then again, she also remembered seeing Gandalf and her parents, with an occasional glimpse of a young Estel running through the forest, so her memory really could not be trusted.
"I don't remember this place," she heard Balin say. "None of it's familiar."
"It's got to be here. It can't have just disappeared!"
At these words, Annelise realized why it seemed that they had been walking around aimlessly.
They had lost the path.