Where She Went

Regrettable Introductions

Talia couldn't remember how long they had been in the forest. A week? Two weeks? She couldn't recall. Every day, her body made her feel like she was dragging dead weight down the path. The Terran could hear every little creak in the bushes and branches, but she doubted she'd be able to fight anything that might pop out of them.

Her reaction time was nowhere near one hundred percent. She even failed at slapping away Bofur's hand whenever he shook her awake. The air was becoming so thick, it made breathing feel like hard labor. Needless to say, everyone was miserable.

The scariest thing was that they didn't know how much longer they'd be in the forest, and their food supply was running low. Talia only hoped they would be out of there as quickly as possible, before she either lost her sanity or starved to death.

"We found the bridge!" Bofur sluggishly announced. The company walked closer only to find that the bridge was practically split in half. There was no way they could cross. "We could try swimmin' it." Bofur suggested. That made Talia blink. Did the Dwarves even know how to swim?

"Didn't you hear what Gandalf said? A dark magic lies upon this forest. The waters of this stream are enchanted." Thorin slowly growled.

Bofur looked back at the stream. "Doesn't look very enchanting to me." he said, causing Talia to smile a little.

"We must find another way to cross." Thorin said, his breath growing heavy. Talia was staring at the water, and it was almost as if she could see the magic that enchanted it. She could vaguely hear Kili in the background, saying something about vines. "...lightest first." she heard Thorin say.

Hold on. She was the lightest in the group. Talia turned around to the leader with droopy eyes. "I'm sorry, what?"

"The vines. We'll send you across first since you're the lightest." Thorin told her.

"Whatever." she slurred, and tried to widen her eyes to focus on climbing.

The vines weren't too horrible, as long as she kept her focus. Most of them were big enough for her to walk on, and there were enough smaller vines she could grab with her hands. As she was making her way across, however, Talia heard something.

Voices. They were whispering inaudible words in her ear. Looking around in attempts to find the source, Talia's hand slipped on a vine. The Terran gave a yelp of surprise as she fell, but she managed to grab hold of the vine before she could fall into the stream.

As she looked into the water, Talia could see a clear reflection of her face staring back at her. Suddenly, it began to change. Talia no longer saw her face in the water. The young woman widened her eyes as she saw the face of a boy staring back at her.

He looked about her age, maybe a little older. He had brown hair that was similar to hers, only it had more of that copper shade than hers did. His skin had a lighter olive tone, and then there were his eyes. His eyes were the exact same as Talia's. Dark chocolate brown irises that could be soft and light hearted, but also fierce and penetrating.

The young woman was completely still. She only stared at the reflection, looking deep into those eyes that mirrored her own. "Talia? Are you alright?" That was Kili. Talia turned her head around and shouted back that she was fine. When she looked back, the copper-haired boy was no more.

When Talia finally got across, she cringed. Something wasn't right. Her body felt even heavier than before, and she could have sworn that those voices she was hearing were getting louder. "Don't cross! Stay where you are!" Talia called, but then she looked up.

All thirteen Dwarves were lazily swinging their way across the vines. The young woman did a couple of exaggerated blinks and began to pinch the skin of her arms in hopes of waking herself up.