The Hobbit: Third-Age Generation

by PlymouthFury58

Chapter Eight: Flies and Spiders

Chapter Eight: Flies and Spiders

Beorn had thankfully supplied the company with riding ponies for those who were not quadrupeds, and a horse for Gandalf. He also promised to watch the company as they made their way to the entrance to Mirkwood, but no further. The sunshine from before was becoming shadowed under an oncoming rain cloud, though Pipp felt like it was a coming warning for the journey that was yet to come.

By what she assumed to be the late afternoon, the company arrived at the arch-gateway to the gloomiest looking forest she had ever seen.

"The elven gate," Gandalf said.

"Do elves live in this forest too?" Zipp asked.

"Unfortunately," Thorin sighed, greatly resentful.

"Here lies our path through Mirkwood."

"No sign of the orcs," Dwalin smirked dismounting. "We have luck on our side."

Zipp stuck close to Gandalf, and in the distance they could both see the form of the giant bear watching them from a distance.

"Set the ponies loose," Gandalf declared to the company. "Let them return to their master."

"Even if we could keep them, I doubt they would follow us in anyway," Pipp remarked to Sunny.

Bilbo then approached the entryway as Gandalf inspected the forest road on his own, this time Zipp reluctant to enter. "This forest feels...sick, as if a disease lies upon it," he mused.

"It's like Bridlewood all over again," Hitch remarked.

"It does kind of remind me of home," Izzy smiled.

"Except I don't believe there will be anything welcoming in there this time."

"Is there no way around?" Bilbo asked to Gandalf.

"Not unless we go two-hundred miles north," he replied, taking in the unpleasantness the forest was surrounded with. "Or twice that distance south."

Bilbo stood beside Zipp as they looked into the forest with such a foreboding that is was standing her feathers on end. Then, all of a sudden, the voice from back in Beorn's house resurfaced through her ears, and she looked down to see Bilbo's hand twiddling with a small object out of his pocket.

"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul,

ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum ishi krimpatul."

And in a snap, Bilbo repocketed the object, and the shadow that was encompassing his face had parted. It was as, if not more, foreboding then the look of the forest itself, though she felt like the evil it carried matched that of the forest, and it did feel sick. There was no road block to discourage her and her friends from entering this time.

Sunny was helping Nori unsaddle Gandalf's horse, when suddenly he came running out of the forest.

"Not my horse! I need it," he cried, stopping them dead in their task.

The company was once again taken much by surprise, the Equestrian ponies the most.

"You're not leaving us?" Bilbo spoke up, with much worry shared between them.

"I would not do this unless I had too."

Thorin shared his state of mind with Bilbo, though Pipp and Izzy were more confused than their friends being worried.

"You've changed, Bilbo Baggins," Gandalf said to the hobbit. "You're not the same hobbit as the one who left the Shire."

Bilbo felt flattered by the wizard, then his face turned sour. "I was going to tell you," he stammered. "I...found something in the goblin tunnels."

"Found what?"

When he did not answer immediately, Zipp's gaze shifted to where his fingers were stuck in his pocket, shifting nervously.

"What did you find?"

After another few moments, Bilbo finally responded: "My courage." He immediately took out his fingers.

Though she felt flattered by Bilbo's response, she could see that Gandalf too could see between the lines of what he said, but chose not to dwell longer on the matter, mostly because his time was being wasted hanging around.

"Good. Well, that's good," he smiled, and he meant it. "You'll need it."

He turned and walked to his horse, and Bilbo turned back to Zipp, who averted her attention to the gathered raincloud.

"I'll be waiting for you at the overlook, before the slopes of Erebor," Gandalf said to Thorin, halting for a moment as he talked. "Keep the map and key safe. "Do not enter that mountain without me."

He mounted before turning back to the company with another downcast warning. "This is not the Greenwood of old. The very air of the forest is heavy with illusion. It will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."

"Lead us astray?" Pipp asked to the others. "What does he mean by that?"

"You must stay on the path; do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again."

"Is the thicket that...thick?" Hitch pondered aloud.

"Can't tell from here," Sunny replied.

"No matter what may come, stay on the path!" Gandalf called to the company, right before his horse galloped into the distance.

"Come on," Thorin called the others. "We must reach the mountain before the sun sets on Durin's Day."

"Durin's Day. Let's go!" Izzy chimed in.

"This is our one chance to find the hidden door."

"Lead on, my liege," Zipp called from the back.

The moment the company entered the forest was also the moment they lost the sunshine for the most extended time period of the journey. Bilbo's remark about the forest feeling sick felt more literal as they traversed the forest path the more throughout and passed the twisting trees. The color pallet became more dreary as they hiked all the more into the very depths of the forest, as the path turned and twisted across cliffsides and up tree roots, with Dwalin at the head, thumping the end of his ax staff on the ground.

"This way," he said, leading them down and past the Mirkwood oak trees, like they were all gasping and grasping for their last bits of breath.

The biggest nuanced change of the forest was how dense it became the deeper the path delved into.

"Air," Bofur gasped. "I need air."

"My head, it's swimming," Oin dazed. "What's happening?"

"Did you always look that way, Sunny?" Izzy said, spinning her head about her neck.

The only other populace that provided local company were the various insects that buzzed about above their heads, almost like they were taunting them.

Presently, Zipp called from ahead of the company, as she went ahead with Fili and Kili to scout ahead. "We found the bridge!"

"Bridge?" Bofur dazed.

The company had arrived to the river that ran right through the forest of Mirkwood, running calmly right under an old stone bridge, which unfortunately had collapsed right in the middle. Pipp came right up to the very edge of their bridge end, somewhat enchanted by the river, not by how pretty it looked for it had gone the path which dragged the forest itself under. It sounded dream-like, and her eyes drooped a little.

"We could try and swim it," Bofur suggested.

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

"It doesn't look enchanting to me," Pipp said in a dream-like state.

"We must find another way across," Thorin declared.

Pipp meanwhile was becoming all the more entranced by the waters of the river. All her life this was the first time she took an unconscious entrancement to something that did not shine with the sun, if there was even a sun to shine.

"These vines look strong enough," Kili called, stepping his boot right onto the leading branch.

"Kili!" Thorin stopped him. "We send the lightest first."

Bilbo had also been entrancing to the river, stammered at the suggestion but saw no reason to attempt a talk back. The ponies, minus Pipp who was becoming drowsy in her own thoughts, watched as Bilbo made his way across the river via the stable but shifting black vines. His feet and hand grips were a burden to watch, as the vines did not look as dry as first anticipated, though his quick reflexes seemed to pay off greatly. At one point, Hitch bit his lip as Bilbo caught himself from dumping into the river, but relaxed as he threw himself right onto the end bank.

Without second's thought, Kili and Zipp led the company on a gymnast's wet dream as they all hopped from one vine to the next. Zipp carried each one of the ponies across without much delay, though after dropping off Izzy she slumped over while trying to keep awake, to which she did after a splash was heard, followed by another: poor Bombur lost his grip after dozing off, and Pipp lost concentration dozing off while hovering right above the river, which luckily was greatly shallow.

"Are they-?"

"No, Sunny," Zipp sighed, more annoyed than concerned. "They're both fast asleep. Say, what was that noise I just heard right before they fell in?"

"Thorin's arrow missed hitting a white stag," Bilbo replied, nearly yawning.

Some time had to be taken out of the trek to not only fish out the sleeping Bombur and Pipp, but to also fashion a four-dwarf stretcher for the fat cook while Zipp carried her sleeping sister over back, seething in silence as Pipp sighed and muttered in her sleep. It was grateful to Zipp that she had no prior knowledge of her younger sister getting high or drunk, though the dense forest air was not helping her own case in any shape or form.

Hitch was not faring any better: the stillness of the forest was beginning to overcome his common senses, the trees no longer felt friendly, he even thought he was hearing voices, though unintelligible and no more than mere whispers.

"There's nothing I can see," Gloin exasperated. "Only trees and more trees."

Even though Zipp kept her wings steady and her pace cool, her vision became shifty, unbalanced waves, swimming about in her head like she was caught in a vortex.

"There's..." Thorin spun, steadily becoming all the more disoriented. "This way. Follow me."

"As I said, there is nothing like the warmth of the spotlight, and the fuzz of the carpet," Pipp sighed, still vastly asleep. "Mmm...sooooo...soft." Zipp cringed as she shifted herself among her back.

Izzy became distracted from the pressing company, twiddling her hoof against a large cobweb attached to a tree and amusing herself as the vibrations shook throughout the cobwebs above in the trees, right before she rejoined the company. Whatever Bilbo shouted from behind her became lost in her joyful twirl around Sunny, though it was not long before something disorienting finally reached the whole of the company

"Nori, why have we stopped?" Thorin called, having noticed that they had all halted in their tracks.

"The path," Nori replied, pointing ahead full of puzzlement. Right ahead was nothing but a cliff drop. "It's disappeared."

"What's going on?" Dwalin asked.

"We've lost the path!" Zipp groaned.

"Find it. All of you. Look for the path!" Thorin ordered.

The company became disoriented to split into wherever they lost where to continue, and the air was feeling purposely dense by the minute.

"I don't remember this place," Balin sighed. "None of it's familiar."

"It's got to be here!" Dori exasperated. "It can't have just...disappeared!"

"Unless someone's moved it," Dwalin said.

"It's a piece of the ground, how can someone move the ground itself?" Sunny looked around, feeling more sick and disoriented as the forest.

"It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack!" Hitch groaned loudly.

"Oh!" Izzy groaned.

"What?"

"I just remembered: I forgot all my needles back home."

"It's not over 'ere neither!" Ori cried from down below.

"What hour is it?" Thorin asked.

"I don't know," Zipp moaned. "I don't even know what day it is."

"Just place the pad right on my neck, Sergio, and wake me at precisely 2:30 p.m. sharp," Pipp dreamily mumbled.

"Is there no end to this accused place?!"

Soon, the company was trekking down what they assumed to be the correct path, however wrong the entire place had now become, especially with how pain inducing Sunny understood the forest to be; not a shred of comfort alike Bridlewood. She felt like she was walking backwards, and she thought so too, but looking behind she was witnessed to an older looking stallion who felt so familiar; so loving.

"Daddy?" she mumbled, right before she lost full consciousness.

Izzy caught Sunny right as she fell, carrying with her hoof over her neck, but not faring any better from the dwarves carrying Bombur or Zipp. Presently the company stopped right in a ring of trees, and Ori happened to find a small pouch, which Dori took to look at as well.

"Look," Ori said.

"A tobacco pouch," Dori added. "There's dwarves in these woods."

"Dwarves from the Blue Mountains, no less," Bofur said, taking a look at it with familiarity. "This is exactly the same as mine."

"Because it is yours. You understand? We're going round in circles. We are lost," Bilbo frowned.

"We're not lost. We keep heading east," Thorin insisted.

"But which way is east?" Oin grumbled. "We've lost the sun."

"Perhaps if we could make ourselves a home-made compass," Izzy suggested, only to be shot down by the shouts and near-on brawls from the dwarves.

Zipp stood beside Thorin, to which they could both hear distant whispering, and she could tell for a fact that it was different to that of the voice from before.

"Do you hear that?" she said.

"I do, but what is it?" Thorin puzzled, his face quickly turning to that of dread. "Enough! Quiet! All of you!" he called to the company. "We're being watched."

Hitch then caught the whisper, wandering in his own dizziness to behind a tree away from the company. Suddenly, a shiver became sent down his spine, feeling more like a warm garbled breath, and turning apprehensively around he froze at the sight: eight shining and dead-black eyes accompanying giant snarling tusks. He just managed to count eight spindly legs before he stumbled back, smacked his head a rock, and knew no more.

---

The world felt completely black for Sunny, almost infinite in some places, so much so that she almost forgot the entire day's events. In fact, she became trapped in the memory of her own experience of that first day in...Middle-Earth was it called? And, maybe there was an entire party of dwarves in the hobbit hole of...Bilbo Baggins? What kind of a dream is this? Then there was a moment where she was drinking an entire mug of ale, and then she felt like falling right before...

A great bump to her head snapped her back to the attention of reality, which was unfortunately herself being entangled in sticky cobwebs, and then a small sword cutting open the webs. Thankfully she calmed down as she saw that her rescuer was none other than good old Bilbo Baggins.

"Bilbo! You scared me half to death!" she gasped.

"I didn't mean to, you know," he quietly apologized.

"What happened?"

"We've been captured by the giant spiders of Mirkwood, and I've just managed to escape, right before I found you first hanging right above me. I've even given my sword a name: Sting, from one of the spiders."

Speaking of spiders, crawling legs were fast approaching the pair.

"There's more of them coming, and fast," Bilbo worried.

"Leave them to me," Sunny assured.

"Are you sure?"

"You're the quickest and most discreet between us, and I have the louder singing voice." She then unsheathed Dagmor. "My friend, I have hoped to never take another, but should they threaten my friends when they're defenseless flies...let's do it. Good luck, Bilbo, and Sting."

Bilbo smiled. "Good luck to you as well, Sunny, my friend."

Sunny blushed with flattery, nodded, and took off into the branches. She turned back to see Bilbo, however he had vanished in a flash. The cackles of the spiders soon filled her ears, and mustering whatever courage she could find left, she began to sing:

"Sunny: Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can't see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won't you stop.
Stop your spinning and look for me?"

She definitely caught their distracted attention, one of which came to close to Dagmor, and this time not hesitating she impaled it right through the biggest eyes.

"GAH! IT STINGS! STINGS!" the spider cried, right before it fell from the branches.

"So that's where Bilbo got the name," Sunny noted. Keeping Dagmor stiff, she began the second verse:

"Sunny: Old Tomnoddy, all big and body,
Old Tomnoddy can't spy me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Down you drop!
You'll never catch me up your tree!"

"Curses and splashes!" a spider growled. "Where is it?! Where is it?!"

"Right here, I am!" Sunny cried, right before slashing right into its abdomen, before turning around and slitting another's throat. Though her singing was adept to its purpose, she had to make up the lyrics right off the bat, and she figured that Pipp would squirm at the words she devised for the song, if she could call it that.

"Sunny: Lazy Lob and crazy Cob
are weaving webs to wind me,
I am far more sweet than other meat,
but still they cannot find me!"

"Where is the cheeky little meat?!" a spider growled.

"Sunny: Here I am, naughty little fly;
you are fat and lazy,
You cannot stop me, though you try,
in your cobwebs crazy."

Now, when she felt like her task more than fulfilled its purpose, she made her way across and down the trees reuniting with the remainder of the company as they all fought greatly against the remainder of the spiders.

"Sunny!" Hitch cried. Practically all of the company were all covered in cobwebs, being all over his mane. "Where've you been?!"

"After Bilbo freed me, I led them away as he did his own work!" she explained.

"And where is Master Baggins?!" Thorin called from across the way.

"You mean he's not here, again?!"

"Look out!" Hitch cried.

Sunny looked and swung just in time to cleave an oncoming spider right in the face. Hitch soon made short work of two more spiders, with help from Dwalin, Gloin, and Bofur. Pipp, however, was still wide asleep as Zipp twanged Dailir wherever she could, while Izzy blinded the spiders using the brightest source of light-magic she could muster.

"Let's get out of here!" she called to Thorin.

"Agreed!" he called back. "Come on!"

The company rushed in his footsteps through the leaf infested undergrowth, more observant and careful about which way and wherever the spiders might reemerge. One did, dropping right in front of them, followed by a few others, but also a dark-green clothed and long blonde haired elf made himself known by dropping under the first spider, slicing its underbelly before aiming his arrow right for Thorin's face. Soon enough, the entire company was once again surrounded, but this time by the Wood-Elves of Mirkwood.

"Do not think I won't kill you dwarf. It would be my pleasure," the first elf, no doubt their captain, hissed to Thorin.

The company had no choice but to stand down, much to Thorin's resentment. "Search them!" their captain called.

The wood-elves then began searching through their belongings, with plenty of "Do you mind?" from Dwalin, "Don't touch me there!" from Nori, and "Hey, that's a present! Give it back!" from Izzy.

"Hey! Give it back! That's private!" Gloin roared at the elf captain, having taken out a locket from around his neck, containing only two small pictures of dwarves.

"Who is this? Your brother?" he taunted.

"That is my wife!"

"And who is this horrid creature? A goblin mutant?"

"That is my wee lad, Gimli!"

Another elf had been attempting unsuccessfully to remove Anvil from the sleeping Pipp, much to the amusement of Zipp, who just had her own weapons removed.

"If it won't come off, stop trying," she remarked, causing the elf in question to stand back in surprise. "Yes, us ponies can talk."

Fili was faring no better, an elf had been removing so many hidden daggers and knives from his coat. The captain, meanwhile, had been given Orchrist and Anguirel for inspection.

"Where did you get these?" he said to Thorin.

"They were given to us," Thorin replied, rather dryly. "Myself and the stallion."

Hitch nodded without hesitation, while the captain then pointed the blade's end right to his neck. "Not just a thief, but a liar as well. Enwenno hain!"

Now that the company had been removed of their weapons, the wood-elves began marching them through the forest, no doubt to where they were all sheltered, or where their kingdom was hidden, with Thorin being the most perturbed at the situation.

Sunny, on the other hoof, had noticed something. "Thorin," she hissed. "Where's Bilbo?"

Thorin spun around to confirm her suspicions, and she was right.

Bilbo Baggins was once again not among the company.