The Three Women Of Durin

Dancing Over Death

Gandalf did not lie about the sickness of the forest, almost instantly the company fell prisoner to its effects. The girls were grouped together in the middle of the line, Fili and Kili ahead of them, Ori, Dori and Nori behind. Frankie took lead, Cece in the middle and Rosie at the end. They understood that the company would fall to its sickness, awaken a few spiders and be captured by the wood elves. That had to happen, and if they told any of these tenacious dwarves of it, they would surely go out of their way to stop it.

The girls were still persistent that they themselves would not fall to the forest's mind games, that they, out of all of them, would remain strong and calm figures. But it got harder and harder with each step they took.

It wasn't as if there was something pushing against you that you had to resist for as long as you could, no. It was just something. This something first took a toll on the small things, it would make you hear things that did not even exist, things scuttling around you and whispering to each other. It would make you see things in the shadows, faces, hands, teeth. It was something which you could only sit and watch yourself fall convict to it.

It would cloud your mind and stop you from thinking straight, play games with all your senses. It would turn things upside down, inside out, back to front, and all the while it would laugh. It would laugh and laugh and laugh at how you fell for its tricks, for how you tripped on its games and how you became wrathful of your repetitive loss.

Soon hours past. And every step, every second, every moment, was worse than the last. The dwarves audibly complained, their frightened voices sounding miles off, the only other thing that you could hear was Thorin's shouts from the head of the group, trying to pull his company together.

The girls, however, stayed silent. Frankie concentrated on the hair of Kili in front of her, she stared at the clasp that held the front part of his brown mop together, surely, something that was of his heritage. She traced the intricate patterns with her eyes over and over until she realized that she could draw it perfectly with her eyes shut. She concentrated on her friends behind her, who currently were following her. Putting their feet where her feet went, if she was to make one wrong move, surely, they would follow.

Cece was the best of the three, she felt comforted by the presence of her two friends before and after her. She concentrated that Fili was only two bodies ahead of her, strong Fili who she had talked to none stop over the past few days. She put one foot in front of the other and ignored the games of the forest, she was prepared for what she would find.

Rosie who was at the back was no better than Frankie. She saw her two friends in front of her, she watched how their bodies moved and followed them herself. She found herself being affected by the whispers in her ear and the shadows which followed her. She, however, was stubborn in her own way and every time she found herself falling for mind tricks she would close her eyes and think of home, of her parents, her rabbits, her friends. This kept the monsters at bay, but sometimes, it wasn't enough. Soon the company came to halt.

"We've found the bridge," Bofur called from the front, looking down at where the bridge had collapsed in the middle.

"We swim across?" Bilbo suggested looking down into the murky water.

"No, Gandalf forgot to mention," Cece spoke up looking into the waters, "The reason this forest is sick is because there is an enchantment on the stream which runs through it. We can't touch the water," She nodded.

"If that is true then we must find another way across," Thorin said turning and looking around. Cece smiled realizing that Thorin had now reached a point where he trusted the girls without a second thought.

"These vines look strong enough," Kili called tugging on one as if he was about to swing across.

"Kili!" Thorin called, obviously worried for his sister-sons, "The lightest goes first," Thorin said turning back to the company, Cece looked down at Bilbo. He is not going to like this she thought. She then looked up at Thorin and found his eyes on her, realization dawned on her.