Loyalty, Honor, and a Willing Heart

Chapter 19 - Mirkwood

They followed the song and made their best to be away ere break of day. Although they did know it was expected to happen, they hoped that Gandalf would change his mind and not part from them right then. Although he made sure they would send the ponies back to Beorn along with the horse the elf was riding, he himself didn’t bother to let his own horse go back with them. Thorin was resentful of having to send all the ponies away when they had so a heavy load to carry when Gandalf was keeping the horse Beorn leant to him to his own use.

“Thorin, my friend, I swore that I would return the horse to him, and so I’ll do, in due time. Now a wizard is in need of haste, and he knows it. Fare you well! Don’t forget to trust Bilbo’s eyes and ears, and more!”

And so the gray clad man went away, while the Company finished to fill their water skins in the creek close to the forest’s entrance and to repack their supplies proportionally according to each one’s ability.

“Do you remember, Aunty, the first time we went to a trail with you?”

The elf laughed.

“Sure! You complained about the weight of your backpacks from beginning to end, I was almost to swear I’d never take you into a tracking again!”

“And now here we are.”

“Yes, here we are.”

The three women embraced themselves in a tight hug, as if knowing they were about to tread a path that would lead them beyond everything they ever dreamed or dreaded about.

Mirkwood was no fun at all. As soon as they got under the shadow of its leaves, a sort of “watching and waiting feeling”, and Bilbo put it, got over them. It was utterly dark, almost as if at night, and as they got further in the light at its borders faded as the memory of a dream.

None of them had the slightest inclination to sing, as they used specially when in troubled times. The heavy backpacks were a case of double approach-rejection, as they were heavy of food, but the food had to be spared as much as they dared, so they would be slow to get lighter from consumption, but when they got lighter it would mean they were going short of food.

Ellen tried to forget the boring walking calculating how much they would have to walk based on what Gandalf told them about going round the forest instead of crossing it. Lily had had enough geometry classes to be one to discuss the matter with.

“See, if Gandalf stated to Bilbo that there would be two hundred miles to the north and twice that to the south to get round the forest, and we know by our map that this forest’s shape is almost round at its northern borders, then we have a six hundred miles perimetersemicircle.”

“Yes, and we have to get through its diameter, which means, twice this imaginary circle radius.”

“With perimeter being twice p.r, then we can change the formula to radius being perimeter divided by twice p, right?”

“Sure! Then we have twice six hundred miles divided by six dot three, to simplify.”

“All right, less than two hundred miles, then? Can we guess hundred ninety miles, maybe?”

“Hmm, it seems fair to me. At a rate of twelve or a little more miles per day, we should do it in fifteen or sixteen days, with luck.”

“What crap are you talking about?”

The two laughed at each other to Fili’s angry question.

“Just making some calculation to waste time, why?”

“You seem to be talking in an almost completely foreign language.”

“Hmm, easier than Khuzdul, I bet.”