Bloodstained (Thorin x OC)

Panic! In the Forest

The days went on, and everyone found it even more difficult to sleep now. What worried Agarwaen were the webs. They started high up in the trees from what she could see, just one here and there, but they began to grow bigger the farther they walked, some spanning from the tree canopy down to the ground. They'd run out of food and water finally, and Kili constantly had his bow at the ready in case a deer were to run across the paths.

"How much longer until we're out of this place?" Dori asked.

"I...I don't know. I think we should be almost there." Agarwaen really wasn't sure, now that Bombur was slowing them down considerably. It was extremely easy to lose track of time in this forest, and she'd quite forgotten how long they'd been in here already.

It was about midday when they stopped short, just before a small chasm.

"What..." Agarwaen was confused. The path shouldn't have brought them to a drop. She sifted through the leaves under her feet to realize that they were not actually on the path anymore, just a stretch of ground that felt like one. She looked over to Thorin with wide eyes.

"Where's the path?" He asked, growing nervous himself.

"I...I thought this was the path. It felt like the path."

"We lost the path?" he raised his voice.

"I...I'm so sorry, I..."

"Let's backtrack. We have to have lost it somewhere." He had everyone turn around and go backwards the way they'd come.

"It's all my fault, Thorin. I'm sorry. I thought it was the path, I-"

"Stop blaming yourself. We're all dizzy with sleeplessness and clouded with whatever the forest is doing to our minds."

"But I am your guide. I was supposed to know these paths. I was supposed to get you through safely."

"There's no safe way through this forest." Thorin muttered. He knew normally he would blame the elf, but she'd only gotten snatches of sleep since they'd entered the forest. Out of everyone here, she slept the least and he understood why. It would be unjust of him to blame her for losing the path when she was not of sound mind. Thinking about that made him wonder when his opinion changed so drastically of her. Yes, he knew she was an elf, a woodland elf no less, yet he could not find it in himself to blame her for getting them lost, when at one point, he blamed her for forsaking the dwarves of Erebor. No, for this he blamed himself for not listening to her and taking the old forest road. Had they gone that way, they might have been out already or travelling through the marshes, not lost in a place where they were told many times not to lose the path.

"Which way did we come?" Balin asked as they reached a split in their path.

"I think it was this way." Nori said.

"No, it wasn't," Dori responded. "I remember that tree."

"But the ground doesn't look the same."

"What about sled tracks?"

"The ground is so thick with leaves, it didn't leave tracks."

"This way looks lighter."

"Enough!" Thorin yelled over them all. "Agarwaen, do you remember?" She looked between the two paths, searching desperately for any memory of where she'd been, but the whole forest looked the same, and with the days melted together, nothing was clear.

"No." She muttered sadly, and couldn't bring herself to look the dwarf king in the eyes.

"The path has to be around here somewhere. I remember for a fact we were still on it this morning. There were bricks." He said. "If we come to a dead end, we will turn around. We'll go right first." He led them down the way to the right.