An unexpected journey

Chapter 11

  "How long have we been walking?" I asked stopping to take my coat off since it was really warm. I felt eyes on me as I tied my coat around my waist. I looked up and found Thorin's eyes watching me. He quickly averted his eyes and cleared his throat.

"A few hours" He said. I nodded and picked up my bag that I had to take off. We came to a turn and Thorin stopped us all.

"This way" He said pointing towards the turn. I rolled my eyes.

"Thorin... We could see where the path was heading" I said. He shot me a small glare. I held my hands up in surrender.

"Just saying" I said. He rolled his eyes and continued walking. I saw Fili and Kili laughing and Thorin replied by hitting them upside the head. I stifled a giggle and looked away, only to find Oin with a raised eyebrow. I blushed and looked down. We walked for a few more minutes, me looking down, avoiding anybody's eye.

"Air... I need air" Bofur said.

"My head. It's spinning!" Oin added.
We suddenly stopped and I bumped into somebody's back. It was Kili's. He looked down at me and winked.

"If I dint know any better, I'd say you were after my heart" He said playfully. I rolled my eyes and pushed him away.

"Lucky for you, you do know better" I said. We laughed before we heard Thorin's voice.

"Nori, why have we stopped?" He asked.

"The road! It's disappeared!" Nori exclaimed in a panic. I walked up to the front and stood beside Thorin.

"What's going on?" Dwalin asked.

"We've lost the path!" Oin said from beside Nori

"Then find it! Everyone start looking for it!" Thorin yelled out the order. The dwarves dispatched and looked everywhere for the beginning of a path.

"I don't remember this place" I stated while looking at our surroundings.

"My thoughts exactly. None of this is familiar" Balin added. I nodded, agreeing with him. While looking, the sun set quickly.

"What hour is it?" Thorin asked.

"I don't know. I don't even know what day it is" Dwalin replied, looking at the sky.

"Is there no end to this accursed place?" Thorin replied. I leaned against his shoulder

"I'm going to climb a tree, see if I can figure something out" I said. He nodded. I broke away from the group and started climbing a tree. I broke through the surface and gasped at the magnificent sight. It was beautiful. You could see the whole forest and there were blue butterflies flying around me. I smiled as one landed on my nose. I blew it away and looked around to see if I could find which way we needed to go. Once I saw it, I started climbing back down and heard a yell of horror. It made me jump and lose my footing. I let out a sharp yell of surprise but then I landed on something soft and sticky. Kind of like... Spider webs... I hate spiders! I let out a scream as a giant spider came into my sight. It let out this kind of screech and rolled me up. I passed out from dizziness a few moments later.

I woke up with a giant headache. I opened my eyes and something was making my vision weird. I then realize I was being moved...dragged actually. I lifted my head a bit and my eyes widened. It was one of those god damn giant spiders. I supressed a shiver of fear and moved my hand towards my sword. I pulled it out without the spider noticing and it started crawling over me. Once its stomach was right over me, I shoved the sword up. It broke through the webbing and embedded itself into the stomach of the giant spider. I shoved my sword to the side and made the spider fall off the tree. It fell with a loud 'THUD'. I quickly sat up and ripped most of the webbing off of me. I quickly realized that a spider was coming my way so I hid behind the tree that was well placed. The spider passed right by me as I held my breath.

"Wait a minute..." I trailed off. I reached into my pocket and found the ring. I put it on and everything became these different shades of grey. I could instantly hear what the spiders were saying.

"Nice and tender" One said

"Juicy" another said. I heard a thud and a spider saying that it's alive and kicking.

"Kill him now. Kill them now and let us have a feast" One said. I came out of my hiding place and immediately ducked as a spider crawled over my head exclaiming 'FEAST!' They were about to chomp on one of the dwarves. I couldn't tell which one. He was covered in webbing so I quickly picked up a branch and threw it in the opposite direction. They took the bait and they all went to investigate... Except for one. It cut the dwarf down and was about to take a bite but I stabbed him in the butt. It made this howling sound in pain and turned around. It lunged but I ducked and cut off its head. It fell to the ground dead. I quickly cut the dwarf out of the webbing. It was Dwalin.

"Thanks lass" He said. I nodded and we proceeded by cutting down the rest of the dwarves. We climbed down the tree as fast as we could and we were met by a spider swinging down in front of us. Thorin raised his sword to attack but something caught his eye. It caught mine too actually. It was a man...No an elf! It killed two spiders in the time lapse of about 20 seconds and landed with his bow aimed towards us. Many other elves came out of hiding and also aimed their weapons at us.

"Do not think I will not kill you dwarf. It would be my pleasure" he said.

"You're a guy!?" I exclaimed. The attention was brought to me.

"Sorry...Carry on" I said looking away. Suddenly, we heard a familiar yell of fright.

"KILI!" Fili and I yelled. We saw him about to be spider food. I took out my sword and ran towards him but an elf stopped me.

"Let go! I have to help him!" I exclaimed. The elf just glared at me. A redheaded dwarf came out of nowhere and started killing spiders and saving Kili at the same time.

"Throw me your dagger! Now!" He exclaimed as he saw a spider approaching him.

"If you think I'm giving you a weapon master dwarf, you are sadly mistaken" She...definitely a she, said as she threw the dagger into the spider's head, effectively killing it.

"Search them!" Blondie ordered. They started searching us, taking our weapons. A man tried to search me.

"Yeah no. The girl searches me. I will not be searched by a man" I said. He glared at me and tried to grab me. I slapped his hand away. The woman stopped him before he could hit me.

"It's ok. I can handle her" She said. The man glared at me once more before walking to another dwarf.

"You are quite brave little one" She said taking away my sword. I shrugged.

"I'm a Took. Runs in my blood" I said. I let her take the rest of my stuff.

"My name is Tauriel" She says holding her hand out for me to shake.

"Bella. Bella Baggins from the Shire" I answered shaking her hand. She smiled.

"A hobbit? Now what are you doing with these dwarves?" She asked curiously. I quickly thought of a plan.

"As a young child, I was taken from my home and sold to many different people. The leader of the company is now my master" I said. She looked at me shocked.

"You are a slave?" She asked. I nodded and let out a fake tear. I love my acting skills. It always did come in handy as a kid. She looked around and made sure no one was watching before giving me back my weapons.

"Go that way and keep straight. There's an entrance to the forest there. Go home little one" She said and pushed me away. I gave her a thankful smile and ran. I quickly hid behind a tree and put the ring on. I walked back towards the group and saw they were on the move. I followed them straight to an opening. Blondie looked back as I accidentally kicked a stone off the bridge. He walked inside and the guards closed the gates... I was going to have to find another way in.