Chapter 20

"Have you always had three eyes, Ori?," Annelise asked the dwarf walking behind her.

"I-I think so. It would account for my unparalleled archery skills, wouldn't it?," he answered slowly in a slurred voice.

"But Ori, you're not good at archery," Annelise replied simply.

"Oh…I suppose you're right."

With this Annelise turned back to Fili walking in front of her, and both promptly forgot the conversation.

These kind of conversations had been popping up amongst the Company as the enchantment within the forest began to mess with their brains.

"Look, a tobacco pouch," Dori said from up ahead. "There's dwarves in these woods."

"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less. This is exactly the same as mine," Bofur said, grabbing the pouch from Ori, who had picked up the object.

"Because it is yours," Bilbo said suddenly, breaking through the fog in Annelise's mind and clearing her thoughts. "Do you understand? We're going round in circles. We are lost."

For some reason, these last words from the hobbit completely cleared any remains of the enchantment that was clouding Annelise's brain.

"We'e not lost. We keep heading east."

"But which way is east? We've lost the sun," Oin responded in despair.

This resulted in an argument among the dwarves, while Bilbo and Annelise began to contemplate their dilemma.

"The sun. We have to find…the sun," Bilbo muttered to himself, before beginning to tap himself on the forehead to clear his thoughts.

"Climb up this tree," Annelise said, turning to the hobbit and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Figure out where we are and which way we should be going."

"Right, yes of course. Good idea," Bilbo said nodding his head quickly before moving to climb the tree next to Annelise.

As Bilbo began climbing, the rest of the Company continued their argument. Annelise moved to stand between Fili and Kili and Dori and Ori, when she heard her father suddenly shout out.

"Enough! Quiet! All of you!," he yelled causing the group to go silent.

"We're being watched."

After Thorin's words there was a flurry of activity as Annelise and the dwarves moved to draw their weapons and look for their enemy.

Now that her father had pointed it out, Annelise could feel the eyes of the unseen presence on her and it made her skin crawl. She had also become aware of the webs that had been covering every inch of the forest that they had walked on.

The forest suddenly became eerily still and quiet. Annelise found herself standing next to Kili, holding her breath.

She then heard a scream from above, and found herself turning her eyes up to the canopy with the rest of the Company.

In this moment of distraction, six gigantic spiders sprang from the trees around them and began attempting to capture them.

Ori, Nori, Dori, and Bombur were quickly wrapped up and pulled away by four of the spiders, while the rest of the Company fought to reach them, while defending themselves from the other two monstrous giants.

As Annelise continued to fight next to her cousin, she saw five more spiders emerge from the trees at their backs.

"Kili!," she yelled trying to alert him to the danger, while defending herself.

It was at this moment, Annelise realized that she had been feeling a sharp pain in her shoulder and remembered her injury. 'Oh no,' she thought to herself. 'When was the last time I cleaned and changed the bandages?'

In the back of her mind, she realized it was that night at Beorn's house. 'I'll be lucky if it isn't infected,' she thought ruefully. But judging by the growing pain, she knew that it was unlikely that it wasn't.

After killing a spider, Annelise looked around to see that it was just she, her father, Fili, Kili, and Dwalin that were left fighting against six spiders. As the others were nowhere to be seen, Annelise could only assume that they had been taken off by the spiders.

As she was thinking this, four of the other spiders returned and Annelise knew that their chances of making it out and saving the others were slim.

To make matters worse, she could feel liquid flowing down her shoulder and knew that her wounds had reopened. She was quickly beginning to feel the effects of the blood loss and infection and her movements were beginning to slow.

Just as she was beginning to pass out, she felt something grab her and start wrapping her in a strangely warm, yet soft material. 'I guess a small nap couldn't hurt,' she thought with a half-conscious mind, forgetting her current situation.

With this, she lost consciousness and snuggled into the warm cocoon.

The first thing Annelise noticed when she finally regained consciousness was a sinking feeling within her stomach. When she stretched her awareness out from that feeling, she realized that she was falling through the air and began panicking.

Before she had much time to panic, though, the feeling stopped and she felt herself being lowered gently before hitting the ground.

"Annelise!," she heard her father's voice, before the wrapping was pulled from her face.

"Father? What happened?," she asked.

Her father looked at her with confusion and worry in his eyes before answering her.

"Spiders. You seemed to faint suddenly while in the middle of fighting them."

"Oh," was the only reply he received, as Annelise looked down at herself and realized the soft material she was wrapped in was actually spider webs.

With this revelation, she quickly began pulling the stuff away from her body trying to rid herself of the sensation of bugs crawling all over her skin.

"I hope I never have to see another spider ever again," she said with a shiver as her father helped her from the ground.

"You spoke too soon," her father replied picking up his sword once more.

At this, Annelise looked around to see at least a dozen spiders running through the trees towards them.

"Come on!," her father yelled to the others running towards where she had just seen Bilbo fall.

Because of the effects of her wound, Annelise found herself unable to keep up with the others and she began falling behind.

"Hurry Annelise!," Kili yelled stopping to wait for her.

The two were soon separated from the group and surrounded by three spiders.

Annelise and Kili began fighting together trying to kill the spiders.

She saw Fili and the others fighting nearby so she was not too worried, until she began losing the feeling in her left arm.

Because of this, she was finding it difficult to defend herself and Kili moved away from the others to help her.

"I'm sorry, Kili," she said, as she continued to attempt to fight.

"Are you hurt?," he asked in panic, blocking a blow from one of the spiders' legs that was heading for Annelise.

Instead of answering, Annelise found her world spinning and saw that ground coming up to meet her face.

"Annelise!," Kili yelled, as he watched his cousin fall flat on her face. In this position, he could clearly see blood seeping through her clothes along her back and left shoulder.

Kili did not have time to worry about his cousin though, as he found himself surrounded by spiders on all sides.

One of the spiders managed to grab hold of his legs as he tried to defend himself and Annelise.

"Help!," he cried out, praying that the others would hear and be able to help them.

He breathed a small sigh of relief when he heard his brother's voice calling out to him, but his relief was short-lived as he found himself being dragged away from Annelise's defenseless form.

Suddenly Kili felt something fly past his head toward the spider that had a hold on his leg. He breathed a sigh of relief, thinking his brother had arrived at seeing that it was an arrow that had pierced the spider and allowed him to get free of the creature. He was shocked to turn around and see a she-elf with long auburn hair fighting off the still advancing spiders.

"Throw me a dagger! Quick!," he yelled to her in desperation, seeing that he was unarmed with a spider nearing him quickly.

"If you think I am giving your a weapon, dwarf, you're mistaken!," she yelled back, finishing off the spider she was fighting before throwing her dagger through the air with deadly accuracy to defeat the other advancing on Kili.

Kili stares at her in awe for a moment before his eyes turned back to his cousin lying prone on the ground.

"Please, my cousin, she is injured," he said as the she-elf began to approach him with a menacing air, knowing she was likely to try and take him captive. He could only assume that she was a part of a larger group of elves that would have found the rest of the Company already.

These words from the dwarf halted the woman's movements momentarily before she changed course to go to the girl some feet away from her. The elleth examined the young woman for a moment before standing and lifting her into her arms gently.

"She is badly injured. You will walk before me to the others. Do not try to escape," she said to Kili sternly, leaving no room for argument.

"Search them," the elf standing before Thorin ordered to the others surrounding them.

The elves around began following their leader's orders and striping the Company of their weapons.

"Who is this?," the blonde elf said to Gloin, pulling a chain from his neck. "Your brother?"

"That is my wife," the dwarf replied angrily.

"And what is this horrid creature? A goblin-mutant?"

"That's my wee lad, Gimli!"

With these words, the elf raised his eyebrows before handing the object back and moving to stand before the Company and observe the scene before him.

Thorin allowed himself a brief moment of relief when he saw Kili walking toward them with a she-elf behind.

Although, any relief he might have felt was sucked away when he saw what was in the arms of the elf.

"Annelise!," he yelled in panic, fearing the worst and trying to move toward his precious daughter.

He was held back by the leader of the elves, as the woman began walking toward him.

"Who is this girl?," the elf asked, turning toward Thorin.

"She is my daughter, now let me pass," he ordered the blonde elf, trying to pull from his grasp.

"She is alive," the elleth spoke, both to Thorin and to her leader as she laid the girl down on the forest floor. "She has deep wounds on her back that seem to have come from claws. They are infected. If they are not treated, she will die."

With these words, Annelise began to stir from her place at her father's feet. Thorin knelt down to stop her from standing.

"Do not stand. You are very weak."

"It hurts," she responded softly struggling to get her words out through the pain.

"Why did you not tell me that you were injured?," he asked angrily, though he was truly angry with himself for not noticing sooner.

"Gandalf and I were taking care of it," she responded simply, ignoring Thorin's hand on her shoulder and climbing to her feet unsteadily.

Annelise looked around and found her eyes landing on the blonde elf standing next to a red-haired elleth. 'Legolas?,' she thought to herself, wondering if this could be the son of the Elvenking that she had met so long ago.

"Your name is Annelise?," he asked her, with a sad look in his eyes.

She only had the strength to nod and take a step toward him, before feeling her world tilt again.

As she stumbled into the arms of the elf before her, ten words slipped from her lips.

"'Ego, your woods seem to have a serious spider problem…"

Legolas could not help but feel sad when he first learned that the girl's name was Annelise, reminding him of the small child that had left Middle Earth far too soon all those years ago.

As the young woman stumbled toward him, he instinctively reached out his arms to catch her as she fainted. But the words that fell from her mouth, he could never have anticipated.

Legolas gasped under his breath upon realising that the strange girl had called him by a name only one other person had ever used for him.

As he looked down at the unconscious woman in his arms, he noticed a golden chain around her neck that disappeared under her tunic.

Legolas could not help the surge of hope that rushed through his body, as he reached to grab the chain that rested at the joining of her neck and shoulder.

He soon had the breath stolen from his chest as he saw the pendant hanging from the chain.

"It can't be," he whispered just loud enough for the dwarf standing before him to hear.

"How did she come by this necklace?," Legolas asked suddenly, looking at the dwarf claiming to be her father.

"It was a gift to her from Lord Elrond of Rivendell," he responded grudgingly, beginning to realize just who it was standing in front of him. He should have known this might happen, especially after finding out how close the Elvenking and his son had been to his daughter before she came to him.

"She is who you believe her to be, Prince," he continued quietly, loathe to admit the truth. Seeing the elf's eyes widen in shock, Thorin knew he had guessed his identity correctly.

Legolas quickly laid the young woman in his arms down on the ground at his feet, smoothing the hair from her face that had fallen free from her braid, before standing up again.

"You are either very brave or very foolish to bring the Jewel of Men back into my forest injured," Legolas said angrily. Despite his outward reaction, his heart was singing with joy at the knowledge that the child he had grieved for over the past twenty years had returned.

He was then handed the sword that had been taken from Thorin while he was being searched.

His shock at the day's events was then multiplied, as he recognized the craftsmanship of the sword the dwarf leader had been carrying.

"This sword was made in Gondolin. Forged by the Noldor," Legolas said, turning the blade over in his hands before turning to Thorin once more. "Where did you get this?"

"It was given to me," Thorin said lowly.

Legolas looked at the dwarf before him skeptically before brandishing the sword in front of him threateningly.

"Not just a thief, but a liar as well," he said to Thorin in a dark voice.

He then sheathed the sword and bent to gently lift Annelise into his arms once more, before yelling an order out to those in his command.

"Take them!"