"Mithrandir, athrabed ar nin!" Agarwaen begged after the wizard had yelled for his horse to not be turned loose. It had begun to rain and a few dwarves put up their hoods to try and stay dry. Thorin watched as Gandalf pulled the elf aside and they shared hushed words, his obviously upsetting her. When they were finally finished, Agarwaen looked scared, and fiddled with the hem of her sleeve, something he discovered she did when she was nervous. Gandalf talked with Bilbo for a moment before addressing the group from atop his horse.

"This is not the Greenwood of old. The very air is heavy with illusion. It will seek to enter your mind and lead you astray. You must stay on the path. Do not leave it. If you do, you will never find it again." And with that, the wizard rode off, and into the forest went the company. Agarwaen led the way, instantly feeling an overwhelming sense of sickness upon entering. The eerie air drifted among them, draining any joyous thoughts and the usual merry feeling the dwarves usual carried about them. Every so often, rain would drip onto them from the thick canopy of trees above them, but they felt less and less of the rain the further they travelled. The forest grew darker as they went on, not because of waning daylight outside, but because of the dense tree cover. The air soon became extremely stuffy and the dwarves found it harder to breathe, forcing them to slow their pace slightly.

When the forest did begin to grow darker as the sun set, it became dark, dark. They could hardly even see their own noses.

"We cannot go any further for the night." Thorin called from somewhere behind Agarwaen. Everyone began bumping into each other due to lack of sight. "Gloin, start a fire." Said dwarf then began working blindly in the dark to start a flame.

"Oh, Mahal bless me, what is that?" Bofur's voice shook.

"What's what?" Bombur asked.

"The eyes, can't you see them?" Everyone looked around, finally seeing what Bofur was talking about. Pairs of yellow and of red eyes stared at them from beyond the path, into the forest. Agarwaen's hair stood on edge and a chill ran up and down her spine. A red pair blinked at her, and then disappeared. She heard Gloin work faster, frantically trying to light the tinder. When he did, the company sighed a breath of relief, and gathered around it.

"Do we have everyone?" Thorin asked. "Balin, Dwalin, Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Ori, Nori, Dori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Bilbo, and Agarwaen." He counted one at a time. "We need to all look out after one another in this darkness, else one might get lost. You three," He pointed to the 'ori' brothers, "Do not lose each other." He began, and then teamed up the rest of them. Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur were the second group, Oin, Gloin, and Bilbo the third, Fili, Kili, and Agarwaen the fourth, and Balin, Dwalin, and Thorin the fifth.

"Each group will switch off with keeping watch, and will walk together at all times. No one gets separated, understood?" Everyone voiced their agreement. Agarwaen was surprised Thorin paired her with his nephews, as being trusted to look after the princes took immeasurable trust on his, and the entire company's ends.

After the fire had started, the eyes seemed to disappear some, but a few kept watching them. Everyone seemed afraid to look at them, so they focused instead on the gigantic black moths the size of their hands that decided to swarm around the fire. They swatted at them and squished them, but when one would fall, it was almost as if two more took its place. They ran into everyone's faces, and knocked things out of their hands, causing frustration to quickly settle upon the group.

"Just put it out." Thorin eventually said, after it reached the point where over a hundred moths overtook the area. Oin and Gloin then started throwing dirt upon the flames, effectively getting rid of all their light and heat. The company was then enveloped with a thick and heavy darkness, and the eyes returned tenfold. Everyone called after each other, trying to find their group in the dark and stay together.

"Agar?" She heard Kili's voice asked as he bumped into her, and found her arm, grasping tightly to her hand. "Can you see anything? Tales say that elves can see better than anyone."

"I cannot. Everything is black."

"Except the eyes. Fili found his brother, and from there, felt his way to Agarwaen. He took her other hand, and the three huddled together.

"Eat your rations for the night, and then get some rest. We start back on the path as soon as we can see." Thorin gave his last order for the night. Agarwaen sat down with the brothers, making sure she still felt the path clearly beneath her. They rummaged blindly through their bags to find and eat their food for that night, along with a little bit of water from their skins. Everyone had just barely enough to last them until the day they were supposed to exit the forest, so they had to be extremely careful with their provisions.

After eating, the brothers laid down together, and she laid next to them, but didn't want to intrude on their space, so she left some area between them. It wasn't until she felt Kili reaching for her, that she moved a little closer.

"They're looking down at us." Fili whispered. Everyone saw the eyes in the trees now. It wasn't just the ground. Kili squeezed her hand in fear. She squeezed back in reassurance, but it did little to comfort them. By the time it was their turn to take watch, none of them could even force their eyes to close, so they just sat up where they laid, and looked all around them for two hours, hands gripping the hilts of their swords the entire time.

Usually there were heavy dwarven snores coming from the group, but tonight there was none. No one was sleeping.

"Get up." Thorin called when he could finally see his own hands again. Everyone stood up with their group, and continued on in threes, the majority of them all holding hands. This was not a place they wished to stay for much longer, and even less a place they wanted to get lost. No one spoke, no one laughed, no one did anything but walk and glance into the brush every so often.

"Can...can we stop a moment?" Dori asked, a few hours into their travels. "I can't breathe. I just need a minute to breathe." Agarwaen halted the group, and everyone tried their best to breathe in the still, warm, air. It was old air, air that hadn't moved in years. They could take a deep breath, but yet still feel like they couldn't breathe. There was no circulation beneath the trees, no sunlight, no nothing. Just them. They moved even slower now, going at what would normally be considered a leisurely pace. Even poor Bilbo looked a little faint. That was how the day went, until again, they could no longer see.

Gloin tried to light a fire again, but just like the night before, they were swarmed by hundreds of moths and had to put it out. No one could sleep that night either, even though none of them had slept in almost 48 hours.

"How long until we're out of here?" Kili asked, the next morning.

"Fifteen days at least." Agarwaen replied, hating the answer herself. The entire company groaned at the reminder.

"Everytime I look into the forest, I get a chill." Fili said.

"We all do." she murmured.

"How about we take our mind off the forest then, and talk about something."

"Anything." Fili agreed.

"Any beautiful dwarven ladies back home that have caught the eyes of the princes?" Talking about home would bring a feeling of nostalgia, and quite possibly comfort, so that's what Agarwaen decided to talk about. She was right, as Kili mustered up a small smile and elbowed his brother.

"Well, there is this one..." Fili began.

"Tell me about her."

"She has the most beautiful blue eyes, brown hair and wonderfully braided beard. She wants to learn to work the forge, but she helps her mother as a seamstress currently."

"What's her name?" Agarwaen smiled. To see Fili talking about this woman with such adoration in his eyes made her happy.

"Asbera."

"He gave her flowers before we left." Kili sniggered.

"That's so sweet of you, Fili. I'm sure she loved them."

"I'll bet you she'll be one of the first to arrive in Erebor. And then before you know it they'll be braiding each other's hair." Kili teased.

"Do elven braids mean anything?" Fili asked, now curious.

"What do you mean?"

"To dwarves, braids are very important. Dwarrowdams wear braids that show that they are, in fact, female. Sometimes it can get a little confusing depending on the dwarf." Fili explained.

"And then there are braids that show royalty and occasionally social status." Kili added.

"Thorin's braids that come from behind his ears mean that he is the heir to the throne of Erebor. That he is of the line of Durin. These mean that I am second in line." Fili picked up the braids on either side of his head, and draped them over his shoulders."

"And then there are the braids that say if you are spoken for." Kili pointed out.

"Very intricate and difficult, those are. They change throughout courtship, betrothal, and marriage. Widowed dwarves will still wear them, but with a different kind of bead at the end." Fili finished.

"That's very interesting, I didn't know that braids were that important to you. And no, elven braids are just to look nice and keep our hair away from our bows."

"Oh. Do elves have any traditions, like braiding?" Kili asked. Since the three had begun talking, so had the groups behind them, and soon the forest didn't seem as scary as it had before.

~~~~~~~~~~

Mithrandir, athrabed ar nin- Gandalf, speak to me!