The Lord of the Rings - War of the 4th Age

Book I - Part II

Chapter IV - Mirkwood Forest

It was a long 3 days to reach the new forest road, the very same road that Bilbo, Thorin and Company went on their way to Erebor, of course these three learned from the dwarves mistakes. They saw the gate and were glad to see it. "It looks like it used to be guarded, look there's the post." Talios said pointing to a small building behind the gate. The three of them moved cautiously to the building. "I don't like the look of this." Ebony said with a slight waiver in her voice. Tom made a sort of grunting noise in agreement. They reached the building and noticed the door was ajar, Talios slowly opened it the rest of the way. All three of them were shocked at the sight of half a dozen elven corpses lying there.

"Who-Who would do this?" Asked Ebony feeling a little sick. Talios was checking the place out and saw three arrows in a soldier, he pulled one out and saw the head was rusted iron, the barb was diamond shaped and traced of poison could be seen on the tip. "Goblins." He pointed out. They left the building and started to walk, ever cautiously down the track, not too far away there were another half dozen elves lying there unmoving full of arrows or stab wounds. The companions wearily kept walking, but little did they know they were walking to their dooms.

"How long exactly, does this road go for?" Tom asked getting agitated and tired. "Apparently more than a day Tom." Talios answered back, Ebony let out a small laugh at that. It seemed to be getting darker as they were walking, of course they thought it to be turning to night, but it was only three in the afternoon. They kept walking for a few more hours until they could see no more patches of sun, and they decided to make camp on the road, right in the middle.

Tom woke up hoping to find his breakfast waiting for him on the table at home, but of course realisation dawned on him when he saw Talios and Ebony sitting around a small fire cooking sausages. "Breakfast smells great." Tom tried to be optimistic. The others just raised an eyebrow at him, then they all ate. then they decided to get moving again.

About Midday they came across a spider being attacked by a group of goblins, now this wasn't just any ordinary spider, it was huge, I was black and grey, but it was getting defeated by these goblins, now not that any of them liked spiders but they hated goblins. Talios drew his bow and in a matter of seconds three goblins were corpses, Tom took the other two eagerly, slashing and stabbing them with serious speed and power. The spider scuttled over to them.

"You have done a great service to the great Mirkwood spiders, we will repay thee kindly." The spider told them, it sounded like it was hissing and talking at the same time. "Wait you can talk?" Talios asked in amazement. "Why of course I can talk elf, how else would we plan on killing goblins in the forest and the mountains of Mirkwood." He answered almost grinning(if a spider can grin). The spider scuttled off and so odd others who were watching of which the three companions only just noticed. "What sort of service could he do us?" Ebony asked.

"I do not have a clue, but I'm hungry!" Tom answered. And so they kept on walking.

It was two days after the spider incident when they found the river, the stories of people falling asleep and not awaking are all too familiar in Middle-Earth these days. "Whatever you do, don't touch the water." Talios warned.

"Why?" Ebony asked.

"Because it wipes your memory and puts you in a deep sleep." Answered Tom, the hobbit has shown lots of courage so far, but can it hold through this forest? "So how do we cross?" Tom asks. "Meant to be a boat somewhere." Talios answered looking across the river. "There!" Tom called out pointing to the other side. "That's it, now how do we do this?" Ebony asked. "Well we can climb over, throw a hook to try and catch it or-""Or we could use this to go get the bigger boat." Talios interrupted Tom. "Tom you're the smallest and lightest." Ebony points out nominating him. "I had to be a hobbit didn't I?" Tom whispered to himself. He climbed into this small one man boat, Talios and Ebony pushed him out onto the river. He row over with an old rotten paddle and set his feet back on dry land, he walked slowly to the bigger boat and climbed in, rowed across and picked up the others. And soon they were off walking again.