Lost Starlight [Book Two]

Chapter Six

She was falling. She could feel herself falling from a great height and with no way to stop herself. All she could see was whiteness. An ugly whiteness that reminded nothing of the things she associated with the color white.

Arirua's back made contact with the ground, causing her to groan in pain. Around her, she heard the struggling and the complaints of her fellow travelers. She struggled against the whiteness, which she discovered to be webs.

Spiders! She thought bitterly.

"You all right there, Bofur?" Gloin yelled.

"I'm all right!" Balin said.

"Get off of me!" demanded Thorin.

"Where's Bilbo?" Bofur asked.

Arirua got to her feet, pulling what of the webbing she could from her hair and clothes. Her once nice clothes where now ragged, stained, and covered with webs.

"I'm up here!" Bilbo yelled before the screach of a spider could be heard over the top of his voice. Bilbo screamed out in fear.

Arirua looked up into the treetops wildly, Lalar now in her hands. But she could not see her friend.

"Bilbo?" she yelled, worry evident in her voice.

"There's more coming!" Fili yelled. Arirua looked up to see several huge spiders crawling through the webs towards them.

"Time to go!" Arirua told them. "Run! Run!"

The dwarves all took off running away from the spiders. But the devious creatures were not too far behind them and were gaining speed quickly.

They quickly had the small Company surrounded and greatly out-numbered.

Dwalin was the first to take a spider down, bring his axe down on its head. Thorin cut one down with his sword.

As one beast came at Arirua, the star turned from it, ran to a nearby root that had grown up and out of the ground, and used it to leap from so she could land on the beasts back. With one quick movement, she brought her sword down into the beast's back, killing it. She skillfully leapt off its back and back onto the ground. Arirua took off running, and slide underneath of one spider as it ran past. Her sword cut t several of its legs out from under it. She got to her feet. Bring her sword down, she chopped off the spider's head.

Around her the dwarves fought their own battles against the spiders. Several had teamed up together, mostly family members, to defeat the spiders. But they were always moving forward. Thorin seemed be trying to lead them away from the spider's nest.

"We're clear!" Thorin yelled.

Just as he said it, a spider dropped down in front of them, snarling.

But before the creature could attack, a figure came down from the treetops, using one of the spiders own webs to slide down to the forest floor. The figure killed that spider and slide underneath the one standing in front of the Company, killing it instantly.