You've literally got to be kidding me
Transcripts Wiki shut down
Now I can't fvcking HMMMMMM
DAMMIT
Anyway what you guys think of the new cover? :3

¤¤¤

Beorn had been generous enough to lend the Company his horses, which were very pretty, but under the agreement that they would turn them loose before they entered Mirkwood.

Magauna was handed the reins of the tallest horse, as they were small, and more so suitable for dwarves, and not Half-Elves.

Kili had still taken a liking to annoying Magauna by constantly asking if she needed help or if her arm was ok. At that time, he had asked her if she needed help mounting her steed, and she had been about to turn on him with Algar.

As the Company all mounted their own horses, and prepared to continue their journey, they waited on Gandalf, who was having a hushed conversation with Beorn. Their expressions were grim, and full of foreshadow.

Magauna, due to her enhanced senses, could hear every bit of what they were speaking about. And it was nothing good.

"Maggie!" Whispered someone behind her.

The Half-Elf turned around on her horse to see Fili. "What?" She asked with a sigh.

"What are they saying?" He questioned.

"Like I've said before, nothing you want to be involved in, Fili." Magauna answered, dismissing his question and turning back around.

It wasn't easy, being able to hear everything people whispered to one another. It was stressful, if anything, because she knew things that could very well threaten the existence of everybody on Middle-Earth. And not being able to tell a single person made her anxious. She was like an unintentional secret keeper.

Thorin, who'd been waiting impatiently for Gandalf, tried calling the Wizard away from Beorn. "Gandalf, time is wasting."

The Wizard started to make his way back to the dwarves, but paused as Beorn spoke again. Gandalf turned back around, and once more discussed the horrible things that were about to happen. Magauna became irritated. She hadn't slept well the night before, and wanted to get going as soon as they could so she wouldn't have to sit tall on her horse anymore.

She was just about to try and call Gandalf away again when the loud cawing of crows above head made them all look up.

Beorn looked back down at Gandalf and said quietly, "Go, now, while you still have the light." Gandalf nodded very slightly and started walking to the others. "Your hunters are not far behind."

¤¤¤

The Company rode the horses across a hilly plain for a short while. They stopped when they were met with the boarder of a grand forest. It was gloomy looking, and grey, almost dead, like it was vacant of life.

Magauna jumped down from her horse once they slowed to a stop outside of the tall trees, and she looked up at them with a scrunched nose. She didn't know why, but it repulsed her, and she hadn't even been there more than one minute.

Gandalf had dismounted his horse as well and had already edged towards the forest, walking tentatively through an ancient archway which marked the beginning of a stone path. "The Elven Gate." He announced, looking around. He turned to face the rest of the Company and called to them. "Here lies our path through Mirkwood."

"No sign of Orcs." Dwalin said in his hoarse voice. "We have luck on our side."

The dwarf dismounted his horse as Gandalf turned his attention to Magauna. She was staring at the forest with a blank expression, and hadn't moved from her spot. Gandalf tore his gaze from the Half-Elf and looked up over the hills they had rode over, seeing Beorn in the distance, in his bear form, watching them.

"Set the ponies loose." The Wizard ordered. "Let them return to their master."

The other dwarves all slid off their horses and began to remove their luggage and bags from their saddles.

Bilbo had walked up behind Magauna now, and looked out at the large forest in front of them. "This forest feels...sick." He said. "As if a disease lies upon it." The hobbit turned to Gandalf. "Is there no way around it?"

Magauna answered Bilbo instead, still making an expression of distaste. "Hm, no. Well, not unless we go two hundred miles North. Or be even more difficult and go twice that South. It just comes down to working smarter and not harder." She looked down at the Hobbit next to her, and noticed the skeptical look on his face. She smirked slightly. "Don't worry, I'm not keen on going into these woods either."

"Why's that?" Bilbo asked. "I'd thought you out of all of us would want to."

Magauna shook her head, almost too quickly. "No, definitely not. I gave up searching for my father decades ago. And besides, Mother said he was already seven thousand years old when she met him. And that was two hundred and eighty one years ago."

"You're two hundred and eighty one?" Bilbo repeated, obviously shocked at the Half-Elf's true age.

Magauna nodded, smirking again. "Two hundred and eighty nine, actually. Though I'm young for a Half-Elf, technically. They usually live about half the life of an average Elf, which is ten thousand years. So if i don't get murdered by Orcs, I should live to be five thousand."

Bilbo's eyes were wide while he listened to all of this, but then his eyebrows furrowed a bit. "But if Elves live to be at least ten thousand years old, and your father is only seven thousand, how come you're assuming he's dead?"

Magauna looked down at him and raised an eyebrow. "I never said I thought he was dead."

"I deduced it."

She snorted quietly as a result of trying not to laugh. "Oh my, of course you did. You're clever for a Hobbit, I keep forgetting that." She smiled and then sighed. "You're right though. I do assume that my father is dead. Yes, he would've been only seven Thousand, but he was a soldier, warrior, whatever it is they call themselves, so he could've very possibly died in battle in the near past three hundred years."

Bilbo nodded, understanding what she meant. "Does it bother you, though? That your father could be dead?"

Magauna paused at that. She had been abducted by Mordorian Orcs when she had attempted to travel to Mirkwood and find her father almost thirty years ago, and it had almost cost her life.

"Um...no. No, not really." She responded after thinking for a moment. "I don't truly care, to be honest. I never knew him, and he never bothered to try and meet me, so why should I? I almost died trying to meet someone who probably never even knew I existed." She shook her head, seeming to be convincing someone of this. "No, it doesn't bother me all that much."

She didn't let Bilbo ask her anymore questions because she cleared her throat and walked back to where she had left her horse, and began to take her pack off of its saddle.

The last of the horses were starting to trot off soon after that, and Nori had moved to begin unsaddling Gandalf's steed. But he was stopped as the Wizard came rushing out of the forest where he'd been lingering.

"Not my horse!" He called. "I need it!"

Magauna looked up from examining the wound on her arm; the wrappings had become undone again. "You're not seriously leaving us again?" She said, her voice high pitch with shock and irritation.

"I would not do this unless I had to." Gandalf said. "Besides, you know how to handle things when I'm not around, Magauna."

The Half-Elf scowled and crossed her arms, grumbling things under her breath as Gandalf walked pass her. "Say that to the trolls..."

Gandalf glanced over at Thorin, who too seemed irritated that he was leaving them once again. The Wizard then turned to look down at a dejected Bilbo. He studied the Hobbit for a moment before speaking.

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

Bilbo stared up at him for a moment. He was debating on whether to tell him something, it was obvious. "I was going to tell you; I...found something in the Goblin Tunnels." He stuck his hand in his pocket.

Gandalf leaned down toward him, speaking quieter. "What did you find?"

Bilbo hesitated now. He knew that if he told Gandalf what he had really found, the Wizard would take it from him, and he wouldn't have his little handy power anymore. No, he wouldn't tell Gandalf, he would tell Magauna instead. She would understand.

Deciding on that, Bilbo quickly drew his hand out of his pocket and said something else. "My courage."

Gandalf, expecting a darker answer, nodded slowly, and backed up. "Good, well, that's good, you'll need it."

He turned away and started walking towards his horse, speaking as he passed Thorin. "I'll be waiting for you at the overlook, before the slopes of Erebor. Keep the Map and Key safe." He stopped to give Thorin a hard look. "Do not enter that mountain without me." He continued walking back to his horse. "This is not the Greenwood of old. The very air of this forest is heavy with illusion. It will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray."

"Lead us astray?" Dwalin repeated in exasperation. "What does that mean?"

Several of the dwarves turned to Magauna, as if she held the answer. The Half-Elf shrugged and crossed her arms. "Don't look at me. I haven't a clue."

Gandalf mounted his horse. It started raining as soon as he did. It was only a light drizzle, and the sun was still out, but it was easy to tell it would only get heavier.

"You must stay on the path; do not leave it." Gandalf instructed sternly. "If you do, you will never find it again." He steered his horse around and began to ride off, away from them. "No matter what may come, stay on the path!"

They watched him ride back over the plains on front of them, and then turned back to the ill forest that lie ahead.

"Come on, we must reach the mountain before the sun sets of Durins Day." Thorin said, starting for the trees.

Dwalin nodded and waved the rest of the Company to follow. "Durin's Day, let's go!"

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

Magauna walked forward with the group. She lingered at the edge of the trees while the others entered the archway.

"Maggie, are you going to come?" Kili asked, noticing her hesitation when he looked back. "Or do you need help walking?"

The Half-Elf glared down at him and huffed in irritation. "I can walk on my own, but thanks for the offer."

"No problem." The dwarf grinned and then turned back to follow his kin.

Magauna sighed and stared up at the ancient, crumbling archway and ginormous trees. She didn't want to step inside this forest. She wanted to turn around and join Gandalf with whatever he had gone after, though she knew it was probably worse than what this forest had to offer.

"Its just a bunch of trees, it's nothing to worry about..." Magauna whispered to herself.

She sighed one last time, and took a few steps forward. As soon as her feet hit the top of the stone path, a strange, uneasy feeling spread through Magauna's body, causing a chill to run up her spine. She rubbed her arms at the feeling, and continued forward with the rest of the Company.

"You of all people would know these aren't just trees..."

¤¤¤