Into the Fire: Book 2

6

We stood silently. The high I was feeling moments before seemed to fade away and I was brought back to my senses. Something felt off and I went to look for Bilbo in the crowd.

"Thorin," I whispered, pulling on his arm, "Thorin I can't find Bilbo."

He didn't answer me but he put a protective hand on my shoulder so I knew he was at least thinking about Bilbo. We all waited for something to happen. The forest had grown too quiet for my liking and I looked wildly around at the trees. They were not mocking me anymore. Instead their moving branches looked like they were quivering, not laughing. Branches broke in distance and the group turned towards the noise. Whatever was coming our way was good at camouflage.

"Stay together," Thorin whisper shouted as the noise got louder, "What ever comes this way, no one leave the company."

We all nodded in response, some of us scared to let any sound out. Something moved in the forest in front of me and I squinted my eyes to get a better look. Some of the branches were moving. Before I got the chance to pull on Thorin's arm the moving branches jumped out at us from all directions. I couldn't fully see what it was and only remember being engulfed in sick, sticky darkness.

••••

When I awoke I felt suffocated. I was trapped in white sticky string from head to toe. I couldn't move my arms or legs and I couldn't look around. I felt paralyzed. My breathing sped up and tried to move something small. I put all my concentration on my fingers and felt the tips move the smallest bit. Next, toes. Something moved beside me and I shut my eyes. It grabbed me by my feet and dragged me towards an overhang. I was picked up and hung upside down from a tree branch. The blood rushed to my head and I knew my face must have been tomato red. I stayed like that for what felt like hours. My stomach was starting to feel queasy and bile formed in my throat. It was hard to concentrate on anything and my eyes started to feel heavy. Sleep started to sound really good right now.

The creatures started chittering and I heard a dwarf beside me groaning in fear. I opened my eyes, the chittering pulling me back to my senses. I focused on appearing dead, hoping this would draw attention away from myself. The creature moved beside me, assessing me up and down. I felt it's breath on my body and did everything I could not to cry out or shudder in fear. As much as Thorin's protectiveness bugged me sometimes, I could use some of that right now. It slowly moved away and towards the dwarf beside me. If I moved my head ever so slightly I could see that the dwarf was moving around, kicking at the creatures. I had assumed they were some sort of hybrid spider due to the web-like texture of the material I was trapped in. A tree cracked in the distance and the spiders jumped up, crawling over to examine the noise. My blood pressure decreased and I finally took a solid breath. One spider had stayed behind however I was convinced it wouldn't try and attack without its "friends".

The spider cried out in pain, moving around wildly. My heart started racing again. There was something in these woods even the spiders were afraid of. My brain could not handle anything else and I was ready to just die if some fucking hybrid frog jumped out from the trees. Instead I heard the voice of the one person I wanted.

"Here!" Bilbo said, hitting the spider again with his sword.

I couldn't see him but I felt the relief wash over me. Bilbo was alive and if anything, able to walk, talk, and move around. The spider chittered again and Bilbo took another wack at it and it fell to the forest floor with a thud.

"Sting," I heard Bilbo say to himself, "That's a good name. Sting."

He started walking towards me and used his sword to cut down the webs that held me to the tree. I fell to the ground and landed softly on some leaves. I violently ripped the webs off my body, pulling at my face and hair. It was all I could do to stop myself from being sick. Some of the dwarves weren't as lucky as me and landed on the hard ground. I helped some of the dwarves up, looking for Thorin and Bilbo.

"Y/n!" I heard Thorin behind me.

I ran towards him and he engulfed me in a bear hug. I buried my face in his chest and listened to his heartbeat. Unlike usual, his heart was pounding in his chest. He had his hands tangled in my hair and he was holding me as close as possible to his body. I let myself forget about everything for a brief moment and just be with him. He kept whispering "thank god" into my hair and I had to pull away to make sure he knew everything was ok.

"Where's Bilbo?" I heard Bofur call from behind Thorin.

"I'm up here!" He called back from atop a tree.

I sighed in relief but it was short lived. A spider lunged at him and they both fell backwards.

"Bilbo!" I yelled as we watching him disappear into the forest.

I went to run after him, there was no way I was losing him now. Thorin stopped him, grabbing my arm and pulling me back to him.

"Don't. We have more of these buggars coming and I will not lose you in these voodoo woods," He said, pulling me behind him as spiders starting their descent down the trees.

They surrounded us. One thing I noticed as the dwarves fought the spiders off was their lack of coordination. They were fast but they were stupid and didn't work with one another. This made them easier targets. Two or three would focus on one dwarf which would allow the other dwarves to attack the spiders from behind.

I wanted to get in on the fight but Thorin had made it clear he wanted me away from harm. I stood at the ready, prepared to fight any spider that got close but none came to me. I looked around, trying to find holes of defence I could fill. I was interrupted by Thorin who yelled for attention as a spider grabbed hold of his legs, bringing him to the ground. This was my chance. I ran at it with my sword, driving the blade into his chest and through its heart. It dropped dead and Gloin rushed over to help me pull its lifeless body off Thorin. He jumped up once he was free and put his hand on my shoulder, his eyes filled with surprise.

"You are a wonder my dear," He smiled, throwing his sword at a spider to his right.

I smiled with pride, excited that I finally did something to prove myself. The spiders continues crawling and attacking, there seemed to be no way to get rid of them.

"Is there no end?" Fili called out in frustration.

"Fili!" His brother yelled from further off in the distance.

A spider had gotten hold of him. The group turned around, ready to come to the aid of the brunette princeling, but we all stopped and stared in shock as wood elves had joined in the fight. They used the spider silk as a rope and slide down the trees, firing arrows at the spiders. We were too stunned to move and all stood, mesmerized by them. I flinched in surprise as I turned around and was met with the sharp end of an arrow. Thorin was quick to pull me away but found he too had a target on his head. A tall blonde elf stood in front of him and looked him up and down with disgust. Thorin went to step forward but the elf tutted in response.

"Do not think I won't kill you dwarf," He said to Thorin, "It would be my pleasure."

Thorin's response was cut off from another blood-curdling scream from Kili in the distance. His brother turned around and called out for him. The elves did nothing and I pushed Thorin aside.

"You have to save him. The spiders, they'll kill him," I said to the elf, straining my neck to look up at him.

"I don't have to do anything," He paused and looked me up and down, "What are you?"

"That is no concern of yours," Thorin told him, standing protectively in front of me again.

I rolled me eyes.

"Legolas," I redheaded elf called to the one in front of us, walking from a thickly covered area of the forest with Kili in her grasp.

I sighed happily as he was reunited with us. We were only missing Bilbo but a gut feeling told me he knew how to stay safely hidden from harm. The blonde elf looked at the group again after conversing with the she-elf in what I assumed was a type of elvish.

"Search them."