his exception

chapter eight: spiders

Thorin and his Company turned toward the forest. No one moved for a moment still processing Gandalf's words.  "Come on. We must reach the mountain before the sun sets on Durin's Day." Thorin broke the silence.  "Durin's Day. Let's go!" Dwalin cheered and the other dwarfs followed pursuit. "This is our one chance to find the hidden door." The Company entered Mirkwood. They  followed the paved path that started at the Elven Gate with Thorin leading. At one point, the path turns a corner.  "The path goes this way." As the dwarves and Bilbo keep following the path through the forest, it twists and turns over all sorts of terrain such as bare ground, high ledges, fallen tree trunks, and more. 

The colour palette used is very blue/gray, and gloomy. Dwalin thumped the handle of his hammer on the ground to find the paving stones of the trail. "This way." Dwalin ordered. The company followed him and they carried on following the path until they reached nightfall. "Air...I need air.." Bofur grumbled. "My head, it's spinning! What's happening?" Ori clutched his head as he held it back. "Keep moving." Thorin commanded as he looked around the forest with a serious expression plastered on his face. Very suddenly, Nori, who's was leading them stopped. "Nori, why have you stopped?" Thorin asked and Nori put his arm out in front of him, pointing in front. "The path, it's disappeared!" Ori walked straight into his brothers back, "What's going on?" Bofur looked just as confused as he looked at Thorin, "We've lost the path!"

"Find it. All of you, look." Thorin suddenly snapped. "Look for the path!" Dwalin ordered as they all started to look for the path. Not too long later they started to feel dizzy. "I don't remember this place, none of it's familiar." Balin whispered to Dori who was walking by his side. "It's got to be here." Dori whispered back. "What hour is it?" Thorin thought out loud to himself. "I don't know, I don't even know what day it is." Dwalin grumbled. "Is there no end to this accursed forest!" They stopped when Ori picked up a pouch from the found, Dori took it from him. "Look, a tobacco pouch. There's Dwarves in these woods." Bifur took the pouch from Dori. "Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less. This is exactly the same as mine."

Bilbo Green frustrated. "Because it is yours, do you understand? We're going around in circles, we are lost!" Thorin quickly turned around to face Bilbo, "We are not lost. We keep heading east." There was more grumbles from the dwarves who was starving and exhausted. "But which way is the east? We've lost the sun![" As the dwarves continued to argue amongst themselves about being lost, Bilbo looked up. "The sun. We have to find.. the sun." He looked down and tapped his head, "Up there." He said to the others. "We need to..." He saw the dwarves  now pushing each other as they fought amongst themselves. "Enough! Quiet! All of you! We are being watched." Thorin shouted. Bilbo climbed the nearby tree, when he got to the top, he breathed and started to feel like himself again, he saw butterflies fly around him and then spotted the sun shining over a lake. "I can...see a lake! And a...river. And the Lonely Mountain!" The hobbit chuckled to himself. "We're almost there!" He called down to the dwarves. "Can you hear me? I know which way to go!" There's no response. "Hello?!" Bilbo still got no response, so he looked over to the sun and lake when he suddenly felt himself being pulled down. "Hello." He looked down and noticed his feet were bound in a spider's web.

"Look...come on!" As he goes to move he fell off the branch of the tree, he managed to catch himself on another branch but as he does so suddenly a giant spider emerges and lunges at Bilbo, who fell down onto the spider's web and the spider started to wrap him up in the web. Bilbo is carried off to the nest of spiders, where the rest of the dwarves are also being held, as the spider that captured Bilbo crawls over him, suddenly Bilbo takes out his sword and stabs the spider with it and kills it, then he freed himself from the web and used the ring to become invisible, he started to hear the spiders communicating amongst themselves. "Kill them. Kill them! Eat them now while all their blood is running." One spider hissed. "Their hide is tough. This could be juicy inside." 

"Stick it again. Stick it again. Finish it off." Came the first voice again. "The meat's alive and kicking." Came the other. "Kill them, kill them now. Let us feast, feast, feast. Feast, feast!" One of them seemed to lunge towards Bilbo but it passed through as Bilbo is invisible. "Kill them now!"

 "Feast! Feast!" The spiders started to attack the dwarves wrapped in their webs when Bilbo threw a piece of wood away and to the side, causing all the spiders to rush after the source of noise. The rest of the spiders took up the chant, "Feast! Feast!" One spider stayed behind and prepared to eat a wrapped and squirming Bombur. "Fat and juicy. Just a little taste." The spider dropped Bombur to the tree trunk and prepared to eat him. Bilbo sneaked up and striked it on its rear with his sword. The spider spun around and hissed, but Bilbo is invisible to it. Bilbo kept slicing at it, slicing away a leg and part of its head. "Curses! Where is it? Where is it?!" Bilbo pulled off his ring, revealing himself to the spider. He gave a little smile before he speaks. "Here!"Bilbo thrusted his sword directly into the spider's head.  "It stings! Stings!" Bilbo pulled out his sword and the spider, dead, crashed to the ground. Bilbo looked at his sword. "Sting. That's a good name."  Bilbo used Sting to cut down all the dwarves. They landed on the forest floor and proceeded to rip off their wrappings, cursing and yelling the entire time. "Where's Bilbo?" Bofur shouted. "Bilbo!"

"I'm up here!"