I looked all around me as we continued walking through the dark forest. The sunlight was disappearing and the forest seemed dead and yet full of life with it's dull colored leaves. Their orange colors weren't bright, but in a strange way they were. However, some of the trees looked the same as ones before.

"We should turn around." Caleniel stopped and stared at Thorin. "We are losing the sun, and we still have much to walk before reaching our destination."

"We do not have time to turn around." Thorin glared at her. "The orcs may already be on this path and our ways could cross."

"We do not have time to walk in circles. They could easily catch us this way too." Caleniel's brows furrowed.

Thorin turned away and continued leading us. He kicked a pine cone out of his way. "The path leads this way." He turned to Caleniel. "We may not have needed you at all." He walked to lead.

Caleniel sighed and continued walking.

I walked by her side. "If you know we're on the wrong path, why do you let us keeping walking?"

"Because standing still will hurt more than walking around. Arguing with this Dwarf will not listen, and none of the other Dwarves will listen so long as their leader does not. However, I must stay with you as the only way you will all reach the mountain is if I reason with my kin." Caleniel looked at me. "Without me, my kin may not think twice."

"Why would they kill us," I asked. "The Elves in Rivendell did not."

"I never mentioned being killed." Caleniel stayed silent. "That is not what my king would want with you."

"Wait. So do these other Elves dislike Dwarves?"

"Is it not clear," Kili asked me. "Elves hate Dwarves. They dislike us because they think we are greedy pieces of dirt that lie with nothing more than the ambition of mining for gold."

Caleniel's eyes looked up for a moment. She looked at Kili. "Not all Elves are the same. If we run into my kin and you are to see my king, you will know why he would have you all caged without a second thought."

"Why would he cage us," Bilbo asked. "I thought Beorn said the Elves would kill them."

Dwalin glared at Caleniel. "Does he wish to torture us for sport? Give us a fate worse than death?"

Caleniel shook her head. "Beorn simply said my kin do not like their kin, and I doubt Lord Thranuil would do such a thing to this company. Any other, he may."

Thorin turned back toward us. "And why exactly would your king cage us if not for torture or death?"

Caleniel stared at Thorin with fierce eyes, saying nothing for a long moment.

"As I thought." Thorin glared. "Now, ELF... if you would not share with my company why your king would cage us, why would I, or any of my company, trust you?"

Caleniel took a firm step forward. "I will answer you the way I did to Gandalf. I am here to assure you pass through Mirkwood and are able to leave to reach the mountain."

"And why should I trust that? What are you to Thranduil?"

Caleniel remained silent.

"Gandalf trusts her." Everyone turned to Bilbo. He looked at everyone and then to Thorin. "He-he said she would help us. Doesn't that mean... we should trust her? She said it herself. She's here to make sure we make it through."

Thorin walked toward Bilbo. "Tell me, Master Baggins, is Gandalf here?"

Bilbo paused and his brows furrowed. "N-no."

"Then there is no assurance that I can trust her. Gandalf had told me himself he did not plan to bring more than fourteen in our company."

"We had fifteen with Bre," Bilbo said. "Why is Caleniel different?"

"I know Bre's story. The Elf filth has yet to speak a word of herself to me," Thorin said gravely. "Tell me, does it not strike odd that an Elf would all too willingly want to help? Is it not strange that same Elf is a subject to the king that would cage us, and that same Elf would not tell us the reason?"

Bilbo lowered his head in silence.

Thorin closed the space between him and Bilbo and whispered, "If she was so trusting, why would she even try to hide the fact that Thranduil would cage us." He stepped away and began to lead us again. "Let's go."

Bofur placed a hand on Bilbo's shoulder. "I don't know what he whispered to you, but he's kind of right. She could just change her mind about leading us on the right path. She doesn't even look like she wants to return home." He looked at Caleniel. "No offense about not trusting you."

I nodded. "If she didn't want to return, she could just make the wrong turn."

Caleniel looked away from me and kept walking.

                                                       ~~~~~~~

I ran up to Thorin. "We've been walking around for hours. And there's nothing but dirt for the path you think we're taking."

"Are you trying to sway me to trust the Elf?" Thorin glanced back at me for a second. "She's been quiet for quite some time. Even Master Baggins stopped trying to lighten her spirits."

I shrugged. "Let's try your way one more time, and if it doesn't work, then can we try trusting Caleniel?"

Thorin stopped and turned to me. He eyes Caleniel and pulled me aside. "I shall trust her as a very last resort. As of now, we have a bit of light. When the light's time runs thin, I am more than sure she shall show us the path for she will not want to be here in the dark. For now, we shall try to find our way back to the path."

"How long before we let Caleniel find the path?"

Thorin looked at me and lowered his eyes. "Dwalin, check if we are still on the path."

Dwalin slammed the base of his axe on the ground. It made a metal-against-rock sound. "The path is this way."

Dwalin led us walking for another hour. I felt a strong wind touch my face, but there were no leaves moving with the wind. In fact, no leaves were moving at all. It was like only I could feel the wind. My brows furrowed as I looked down, spotting butterflies crawling in a line beside me.

Caleniel tapped my shoulder. "Bre, are you all right?"

I gasped and turned to her. "Yeah... I'm fine."

Caleniel smiled. "Good."

I bumped into Fili as I turned to walk.

"Nori," Thorin said, "why have we stopped?"

"The path... it's finished," Nori replied.

"What?" I ran to Nori. I paused as I saw the edge of a cliff. I turned to Thorin.

"We've lost the path!"

"Find it," Thorin ordered. "It cannot be far."

I looked at Caleniel, and she shook her head at me. I rose a brow at her strange refusal to help.

Thorin stomped towards Caleniel. "You will help us find it. You know where it is. Find it."

Caleniel stared down at Thorin. "It may take a few hours, but I believe your patience is already thin. However, I shall--" She froze with wide eyes.

Thorin paused. "What is the matter with you? Has the realization of being lost stricken you with fear?"

Caleniel took a slow step back as she kept her eyes on Thorin's shoulder. My brows frurrowed as I walked towards Thorin. "Thorin?"

Thorin smacked a spider off of his shoulder.

"Kill it!" Caleniel ran and hid, crouched behind Bilbo.

Thorin let out a small laugh and stepped on it. "An Elf afraid of a mere spider. Fearing that, you must be afraid of other things. What a coward of an Elf." 

"I fear nothing else." Caleniel stood up straight. "However, that breed of spider is not a natural resident here."

"What does that matter?" Thorin grinned.

"It matters because that means something strange is happening here. Something has changed while I've been away."

"Hmph." Thorin turned back to face everyone. "Find the path." 

I tapped Thorin's shoulder. "Weren't we going to let Caleniel lead us," I whispered.

Thorin grinned. "I shall hold a spider in my hand when I ask for her help."

We scattered, not to far from each other, and began looking around for the path. I moved all sorts of leaves around, but there was only dirt and no bricks.

"I think I remember this tree," Fili said and turned to Kili and me. 

I sighed. "How can you tell it was that tree specifically? All the trees look the same. I noticed that hours ago."

Kili frowned. "She's right."

I paused as I heard some sort of vibration. "Wait." The vibration happened again. "Did you hear that?" The vibration struck again.

Kili let out a small laugh. "Probably just the wind."

"I was scared it might have been an Elf she heard." Fili laughed.

I pursed my lips and nodded. I hope Kili's right.

We had walked for more hours as the sunlight began to disappear. We still had no sign of the path, and there seemed to be no hope of ever finding it again. I started getting tired, my body started becoming heavy with a sway, and the world seemed to be spinning around me. I fell to the ground.

Kili and Fili helped me up. "You'll never get anywhere like that."

I blinked twice as I looked at Fili and Kili. My brows crashed together. "Why do you guys have pointy ears? I thought you guys were Dwarves, and weren't you guys smaller?"

"What are you talking about?" Kili smiled with fangs.

I pushed myself away and looked back at them. They were normal and looking at each other with confused looks. My eyes shifted as I looked for an answer as to what was going on. I cleared my throat. "I'm... I'm gonna keep walking."

"What's wrong?" Bofur sounded like Thorin.

My eyes widened. "No-nothing." I looked down, eyeing the same line of butterflies as before. "Everyting is fine."

                                    ~~~~~~~

"Look at this."

I snaped my attention to Nori and the pouch he was holding.

Dori took the pouch from him. "It's a travling pouch. There are other Dwarves here in the forest."

"And they are from the same place." Bofur took the pouch. "This is exactly the same as mine."

Bilbo walked towards us with furrowed brows. "That IS yours, you understand? We are walking in circles."

Dwalin glared at Bilbo. "We are not lost, we keep heading east."

"Which way is East," Dori asked. "We've lost it."

"Ask the Elf for the way back," Nori said.

I turned to Caleniel, but she was frozen and staring at the ground. I turned to Dwalin. "Doesn't the sun rise in the East?"

"The sun," Bilbo said quietly as he stared up. "We must find the sun."

I looked up. "Someone has to climb the trees to see it."

Bilbo nodded and pointed from the ground to the trees as he thought. The dwarves began arguing amoung each other. I stepped back and watched them argue beside Caleniel. They all began pushing each other as they lashed out their ideas to each other.

"Enough! Quiet," Thorin ordered.

I froze.

"Silence." Thorin looked around with a glare. He glanced at every one of us. "We're being watched," he said lowly.

Everyone slowly turned to Caleniel, and she slowly looked up, her eyes widening. Her chest slowly rose as Thorin walked up to her.

"Is it your kin," Thorin asked. He was now on her toes. "Tell us what you see or hear."

Caleniel fainted, falling backwards. My brows furrowed. "What the hell just happened?"

There were low sounds of twigs snapping. Ori looked at me with wide eyes.

Balin looked up with wide eyes. "Run!"

Instantly, I fell to the ground as something grabbed my ankle and began to drag me away.

"Bre!" Kili grabbed my hand. Thorin rushed to his side and grabbed my other hand. They both began to pull me away from whatever was dragging me away.

My eyes widened as a giant spider rapidly crawled towards Kili and Thorin. "Watch out!"

Thorin turned around, but it was too late. The spider grabbed Thorin and began spinning a web over him.

"Unlce!" Kili turned from Thorin to me. The giant spider trying to take me hit him away with its leg. Another spider rapidly crawled and snatched Kili, making a web around him.

I was under the spider's face as a web bound my legs and began to cover my face. "No! No!" I could no longer see. I could barely struggle, and I couldn't reach my sword. I sat in my sack and hoped. I wasn't afraid. I just didn't want to die. I didn't want to be eaten, but there was nothing I could do. Just wait and hope. I eventually fell asleep in the darkness.

                                                 ~~~~~~~

I woke up as my sack fell and hit something. I tried to look around, but I couldn't see past the web that covered my face. There was very loud muffled screaming next to me as I heard something slimy move toward the high pitched scream next to me. The scream increased in volume and stopped suddenly.

The slimy noise moved closer to my ear, but then there was a noise of a something hitting the hard ground somewhere. The slimy noise moved away, and it increased in number. But the noises moved away.

"Hey," I whispered, but there was no reply. "Hey!"

There was still silence, and I sighed. Then there was a muffled voice not too far from me, but it sounded more manly. I heard a few more slimy noises and sword-cutting noises. There as some sort of squeal in pain.

"Right here," I heard Bilbo say. There were two loud thuds. "A stinger? That's a good name. Sting."

"Bilbo," I yelled.

"I'm coming!"

I felt myself falling, and I softly touched the ground. I began scrambling to free myself. I grinned as I saw the clearing of our party getting out of their webbed prisons.

"Where is Bilbo," Bofur asked.

"Up here!"

I looked up, but I didn't see Bilbo. "Bilbo?" I looked at Thorin, and he walked towards the tree. I looked at the sack with no movement. I rolled my eyes and walked to it, figuring it was Caleniel. I cut it open carefully.

Caleniel sat up with a gasp and quickly stood up, looking around. "We are still here."

"But we're okay. Or at least, we'll be okay." I looked around.

"This way, there are more coming." Thorin began to run out of the clearing we were in.

"Come on. Let's go." I began to run after the others. My eyes widened as I glanced back and saw several spiders following us. "Don't look back Caleniel."

Caleniel let out a small scream as Thorin cut the head of the spider in front of us in half. One landed on Bombur and began to try gnawing on him.

"Pull," Thorin ordered.

I grabbed the leg next to the leg Kili grabbed, and we all pulled the leg we held, killing the spider on top of the fat dwarf.

I laughed. "That was so cool!"

Caleniel pulled out to daggers and began looking around. "There's more!"

"Thorin," Fili yelled.

Several spiders crawled into the clearing we were in. Caleniel cut the leg of a spider coming closer to her. It hissed at her and she took a deep breath.

My eyes widened as I glanced at all the spiders. "We're out numbered."

"In quantity, but not in strength." Thorin ran forward and slammed his sword into the head of the spider.

Caleniel and Bifur began to kill a spider together.

A spider grabbed Kili and tried to cover him in webs. My eyes widened, and I cut the leg of the spider. I grabbed his hand. "Let's go!" 

The spider pushed me back with its leg.

"Bre!"

I sat up. "Kili!" I ran towards the spider and cut another one of its legs. I turned to call Thorin, but I paused as Thorin froze. Another spider landed behind the spider he faced, and a blond Elf slid under the spider that was in front of him. The Elf was on one knee in front of Thorin with an arrowed pointed at the dwarf. He was clad in green and had blue eyes glaring at Thorin.

"Legolas," Caleniel whispered.

Elves surrounded the edges of the clearing and had their arrows pointed at us.

Legolas glared at Thorin. "Do not think I will not kill a Dwarf." He pulled his arrow back more. "It would be my pleasure."

The spider pushed me back, and I moved out of its leg's way, cutting it off.

"Kili," Fili cried.

The spider hovered over Kili as I stepped forward to kill the spider, but it stepped back, still over Kili. I stabbed the base of the spider's shoulder and grabbed Kili away from it. An arrow flew past us in between us, and whirled around to see a red-headded Elf turn around to kill the spiders behind her.

I turned around, seeing a spider crawling towards us. "Kili."

Kili's eyes widened as he spotted the spider. He turned to the Elf. "Give me a dagger." He kept whirling between the spider and the Elf. "Quick."

"I can face it." I looked at him.

"I don't want you to face it alone." Kili locked his gaze with mine.

"You think I'm giving you a weapon, Dwarf?" The Elf stabbed the spider in front of her. "You're mistaken!" She slit the spider's face and threw the dagger at the other spider's forehead.

Kili and I stared at her.

She grabbed us by the back of our clothes and moved us forward. "Come on. With the rest of your company." She pushed us with the rest of the Dwarves.

"Legolas." Caleniel stepped towards him. "We are not here to--"

"Silence." Legolas frowned. "As of right now, you are a part of their company, therefore, you will be treated as such. Now hand me your bow, arrows, and daggers before I have to take them from you myself."

Caleniel lowered her eyes and did as Legolas told her to. Legolas stood closer to her, whispering in her ear. He moved a stray brown hair away from her face and stepped back.

"Same with you," the red-headed Elf said to me. "Hand me your sword."

I pointed it at her. "Not unless you are a friend. Right now, you're a foe."

"Bre," Thorin called.

I paused as I stared at him.

"Give her your sword."

"But--"

"Bre." Thorin stared at me and nodded.

I sighed and handed the Elf my sword.

She grinned. "Be glad. You made the right choice."

My brows crashed together. "I have. Choosing to be a part of this company has made me see what filth you are."

Kili placed a hand on my shoulder. "Calm down. Do not worry." He smiled.

"Hey," Gloin yelled with his brows knit together. "Give it back. That's mine!"

Legolas took a small photo frame out of Gloin's pocket. "Who is this? Your brother?"

Gloin continued glaring at Legolas. "That is my wife."

Legolas's eyes narrowed at the picture next to it. "And who is this horrid creature? A goblin mutant?"

"That's my wee lad, Gimli!"

Legolas raised a brow as he looked at Gloin. He turned and spoke Elvish to the red-headed Elf. The red-headed Elf replied back in Elvish. Caleniel stepped forward and began speaking Elvish, only to be stopped by Legolas saying her name. She stared at him with wide eyes, and Legolas turned to an Elf who showed him Thorin's sword. He said something in Elvish as he examined it and held it.

Legolas glared at Thorin. "Where did you get this?"

Thorin glared back at Legolas. "It was given to me."

Legolas pointed the sword at Thorin's throat. "Not just a theif, but a liar as well." He ordered the Elves in Elvish.

"What did he say?" Thorin turned to Caleniel, and Legolas glared at us.

Caleniel lowered her eyes. "To take us to my king." The Elves began pushing us away.

"Where's Bilbo," Bofur asked Thorin as he was pushed away by an Elf.

Thorin glared back looking for Bilbo through the trees.

"Thorin?" I tried to step into his view, but an Elf pushed me.

"Come on." Thorin walked away as he was pushed.

I walked beside him. I glanced back at Kili, and he gave me a small smile. I looked back and saw Caleniel arguing with Legolas. I wondered what they were saying, but I guess I wouldn't know until later.