The Last of the Guardians Part 2 - A Hobbit Fan Fiction

Chapter 7 - The Lair of the Spiders

The clicking grew louder and louder. Bilbo pressed his back up against the tree, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. He half-wished the forest air would cloud his mind again, because whatever it was on the other side of the tree, he didn't want to face it in his current fearful state.

Click. Click, click, click.

His undershirt was damp with sweat. It was running in tiny rivers from his brow and into his eyes. Bilbo wanted to lift a hand and wipe the sweat away, but he dared not to move.

Click, click.

A foul smell reached Bilbo's nostrils and he nearly retched. It smelt like rotting flesh, like fish left too long in the sun.

Click...click...click.

The sound was so loud that Bilbo knew the beast had to be within touching distance. Slowly, reluctantly, he turned to his left. A high, petrified squeak escaped his lips. Staring back at him with eight, pitch black eyes, was a gigantic spider, with long, razor sharp pincers that clicked incessantly. Bilbo gulped. Now would have been the perfect time for Gandalf to return and perform some spell to scare the spider off.

But Gandalf wasn't there, and neither were the dwarves. As for the Guardians, they seemed long gone. Bilbo was alone.

The spider suddenly let out a loud screech and raised its front legs in preparation for attack. Bilbo stumbled backwards and tripped over a tree root. He fell, throwing out an arm in an attempt to save himself, and in the same moment that his body met the ground, the ring rolled out of his pocket and settled among the leaves. 

The glinting gold seemed to pull at his very soul. Somehow, Bilbo knew what he had to do. Just as the spider lunged at him, he grabbed the ring, slipped it on his finger, and rolled out of the beast's way. A strong wind began to buffet Bilbo, yet the forest air was as still as ever. Not a single leaf was swayed by the breeze. He watched the spider scampering around the spot he had just been, bewildered by his disappearance. Eventually it gave up, and scurried away.

The hobbit would have given anything in that moment if he could just walk away. But Bilbo knew there was a distinct possibility the disappearance of the dwarves had something to do with the over-sized spider. Loathe as he was to follow, Bilbo set off after the beast.

As he walked, colossal webs began to appear through the gathering gloom. He had to be careful not to tread on any twigs, or kick the leaves about, so as not to alert the spider to his presence. Bilbo was being so careful to watch his step that he neglected to watch where he was going, and ended up walking right into a web stretched between two trees.

He was stuck within seconds. Bilbo struggled against the web, trying to free himself but it was no use. It had him in its sticky grip and did not seem willing to release him. The spider he had been following heard him wrestling with the web, and turned its ugly head. But it was no longer alone. As Bilbo had been trying to free himself, more spiders had appeared. Many were watching the apparently empty web in confusion, knowing they had trapped something but being unable to see what.

Bilbo stilled, having just become away of the hundreds of eyes watching him. His heart began to beat faster, and his mouth went dry as he racked his brains for a plan. It was then that, having looked up in the hopes of seeing something that would help him, Bilbo saw exactly where he was. He seemed to be standing beneath what looked like fifteen dwarf-sized cocoons, all hanging from thick branches. Some of the cocoons were still, but a lot of them were wriggling like Bilbo had just been, as though trapped.

And then it hit him. They were not cocoons at all. They were the dwarves, wrapped up tight in spider webs. Bilbo counted again. There were definitely fifteen, which meant the Guardians were in those webs too.