The Gathering Storm. The Hobbit fanfic. A Thorin Oakenshield love story.

Chapter 61: An Enchanted River and Bloody Spiders.

As Taryn slapped Thorin, it brought him back to his rightful mind. The voices were gone and he was left staring at his wife. She was crying, heavy tears rolling down her creamy cheeks. Her left hand was cut, and bleeding. Her right throbbed from smacking him hard.

"Taryn you're hurt," he said with a sad sigh. He could not remember the events that had just happened. All he could remember was entering this damn forest and then darkness clouded his mind.

"I'm fine really," Taryn replied as she shrugged her packs off of her shoulder. With her right hand she opened the pack which had her healing items in it and reached into it. Her hand still throbbed, but she obviously could not use her left hand. In the pack she grabbed cloth for her hand, and other items she would need to fix her cut hand.

"Óin, please help her." Thorin begged as the heaviness of guilt took over him. He couldn't remember anything, but he had a feeling this was his fault. Especially as he looked down at the Oricrist, he saw her blood on the blade. 'What did I do?' He wondered to himself. He had made a vow to never let harm come to his wife, and now he had harmed her himself.

Óin nodded his head and walked forward to where Taryn stood. He took the items needed and helped Taryn fix up her cut hand. With little supplies all he was able to do was clean the wound, put some herbs on it for it would not get infected, and wrap it with the clean cloth.

Once Taryn's hand was fixed they began walking down the path through the dark forest again. Taryn led the way, and no one complained this time. Soon they were deep within the murky forest.

Taryn's cut left hand was sore, but it no longer hurt do to the numbing cream Óin had applied to it. Suddenly Taryn stopped, which caused Thorin to crashing her and causing a domino effect. "Why did we stop?" Kíli who was in the back of the company exclaimed.

"Because I almost walked off of a cliff," Taryn replied back as she turned and walked along the narrow path that followed close to the edge. Soon they had to walk along many cliffs in the dark forest. Thick dark vines hung down from the twisted branches of the dark trees. They traveled down into the darkness of the gap beyond the cliffs. Thick white webs hung onto the vines, which caused Taryn to widened her eyes. "Keep on moving, and don't touch the webs!" Taryn shouted out to the company.

Thorin stayed silent while they walked. He was welled up with guilt for hurting Taryn, even if he didn't know how he did it. He silently walked along her side and reached out for her unhurt hand. The hand she had slapped him with. "Taryn, I um..." he started to speak, but stopped himself.

Thorin looked down at the path and then back up at his wife. He could see that she had tears welling up in her pale blue eyes. "I'm so sorry," he simply said calmly.

Taryn tilted her head to the side to look at him as she walked. "It is okay Thorin. I know you weren't yourself. This forest is affecting all of us," she replied with a sigh.

Thorin let out a sigh, but nodded his head. "So this was your home?" He asked her curiously. He didn't see why anyone would want to live here.

"Well it was not always so dark, murky, and evil," she began to explain. "I was born here in the Third Age in 241 when it was still called Greenwood the Great. There was lush green grass, as far as the eye could see. The trees all around us were full of life, and were beautiful. Birds sang and all kinds of animals lived here. There were beautiful flowers of many types. My Grandfather made his capital at what is now known as Dol Guldur, back when it was a beautiful place called Amon Lanc. Then it all went away, a darkness took over the forest. The Wood Elves and my kin had to retreat even farther north. The whole population soon resided exclusively in the Elvenking's Halls. We became increasingly withdrawn and wary of strangers."