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.

"This does look a little familiar." Bofur said after a while. They still hadn't found the path, but they didn't really know how long they'd been looking for it.

"The whole forest looks the same." Dwalin argued.

"It's getting dark. We should stop for now." Thorin suggested. Everyone sat down where they stood, and tried to ignore the pain in their empty stomachs.

"I don't know where we are." Agarwaen mumbled quietly to herself. "I don't know which way the path is. I don't know if we're going the wrong way. I don't know if we're close to the palace. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know...We're lost, so lost..." She clutched her head, the need for food, water, sleep, sunlight, and air making her head spin and her thoughts mix together in a mushy mess.

"We'll get out of here." Fili rested a hand on her back.

"We'll find the path." Thorin added.

"No, no, no, you don't understand. This was my job, not to get us lost, to get us to the mountain in time...I..I promised Gandalf, I promised myself... I can't let us all starve to death here. I have to get us out. It's my job, it's my duty, it's my only purpose in life." She rambled word after word, never taking a breath. Her head pounded, and the forest looked like it was closing in on her. She pulled her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth, mumbling incoherent elvish words.

"Uncle, what's wrong with her?" Kili asked, worried. Thorin sighed, his expression pained.

"Sleep deprivation. She's so terrified of what she sees at night that she refuses to sleep."

"All of us have been having nightmares, though." Balin said, also worried for the elf.

"We can sleep through them. She either wakes up after a few minutes or refuses to sleep. It wasn't so bad at first, but now...I think it's causing some sort of panic." Thorin scooted over closer to her.

"I'm fine." He heard her mumble. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine." She couldn't feel anything, couldn't breathe. All she could hear was the thumping of her heart in her ears and muffled voices around her. She'd been scared before, but never this bad.

"I've seen this happen to soldiers before. Those that came back from the worst of battle." Oin stood up and came near to her. "The lass needs to breathe, and take her mind off of whatever she's thinking about."

"Hey," Thorin tried to get her attention. He took her shoulders, and tried to get her to look at him. "Agarwaen, look at me." His voice grew stern, and with the fading light, he could barely see her now. "We'll get out of here." She continued to mutter in elvish, hearing his words but not processing them.

"No, I told you, get her to think about something else!" Oin corrected. Thorin tried to figure out what he could possibly say to her that wasn't about the forest.

"That-that drinking song from the skin-changer's house," He abandoned trying to get her attention by shaking her shoulders, and instead took her face between his hands. "How did it go?" She felt rough calloused hands on her cheeks, and Thorin's words bounced around in her head. The drinking song. The melody echoed in her mind. Memories of singing dwarves and merry smiles began to push the thoughts of the forest away. She looked up into Thorin's blue eyes, barely visible in the dark, but still there.

"Pour your brother one more round, pick each other off the ground..." Thorin started. His voice low and comfortingly gruff, creating a fuzzy sensation in her stomach. As her senses began to return, she took in everything. Everyone was staring worriedly at her, Fili and Kili both had hands on her back, and Thorin was so close she could feel his breath as he sang.

"Let another chorus sound, pour your brother another round..." She replied in a whisper, shivering while clenching and unclenching her fists.

"There you go." Thorin smiled. "Just breathe. Lassies say they never drink, they're scrubbing pots and pans, you think..."

"But they keep the mead below the sink, lassies say they never drink." She finished, a small smile spreading on her face now, as she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Thorin returned his hands to his side and moved back, leaving her feeling cold all of a sudden.

"Are you okay?" Fili asked to her right.

"I'm so sorry..."

"No, stop that." He gripped her arm. "We care more about you being alright than being lost."

"I'm sorry about that, yes, but this too." She hid her face, ashamed that she'd lost her mind right in front of everyone.

"You've been put under a lot of pressure lately, lass." Balin sighed. "Don't be sorry about this. We're just glad you're alright." She let out a sad breath, thankful that it was now too dark for any of them to see the tears that fell down her cheeks. Thorin heard her open her mouth and prepare to argue, but he cut in first.

"Close your mouth and go to sleep for Mahal's sake." His characteristic annoyed and stern tone returned. "Don't argue with us because you will lose. I don't care what nightmares you'll see tonight, and you shouldn't either, because we are all right here and we will see you safe." She shut her mouth and stared into the darkness where his voice came from.

"Don't tell me what to do." She muttered before laying down between Fili and Kili. Thorin smirked, glad that her classic remarks hadn't been lost with her sanity. He didn't say anything in return, and simply laid down next to Kili.

Agarwaen rolled over onto her side, and ended up silently crying herself to sleep. Not because she was sad or scared, but because she was happy. Someone genuinely worried for her well being, and it wasn't just just one person, no, it was an entire company.

Yay! Panic attacks sure are fun, aren't they?

I've never actually experienced a full-fledged panic attack, so if this isn't exactly accurate on what happens during them, I apologize.