✓ | Forget-Me-Not ~ Fili FanFiction / Hobbit FanFiction / Fili FF

「 Chapter 22 」

Hiss.
Whispers.
Noise.
A headache.
A Huge headache.
Voices.
Lots of voices.
Air.
She needed air.
Right away.
Ilèyn opened her eyes carefully. Her back ached. Her legs ached. Her arms ached. Everything ached.
All she saw was a milky white wall. A wall of... cobwebs?
Webs. Spider webs.
Oh damn...
She had seen it coming, all along she had seen it coming! Why wasn't she just turned back?
"What is it?"
"What is it?"
"What is it?"
All around her the voices began to whisper wildly. There was creaking and crackling as dozens of spiders crawled through the trees.
Ilèyn could not really have a clear thought of what was happening around her when she heard thuds from a sword. Before she knew it, it jerked and suddenly it went downhill. With a muffled groan, Ilèyn hit the floor. It must have taken this blow to get her body going again.
The dwarf began to wriggle and stretch. She tried to push her arms, which were clinging to her, away from her body. Eventually she managed to drill a hole in the sticky mass around her with her elbow. She tore open the net and freed herself from the unsightly substance. All around her lay cocoon-like figures, everyone was moving and making strange noises. Ilèyn fell to her knees next to the first figure and began to tear the net apart. Thorin emerged from beneath the white mass, working his way out of his prison. Ilèyn held out her hand to him. The dwarf reached out and she pulled him to his feet next to her. Most of the others had also freed themselves from their nets and staggered to their feet.

"Where's Bilbo?" Ilèyn shouted "Bilbo!"
"I'm up here!" it echoed down from one of the trees. Ilèyn immediately looked up to see Bilbo on a large branch. Before anyone could react, however, a giant spider shot up the trunk and attacked the Hobbit.
"They're coming back..." Ilèyn mumbled. She turned to the others "They're coming back!" she called.
"Come on, go!" Dwalin said. The dwarfs started moving. With a look over her shoulder, Ilèyn's blood froze in her veins. A horde of giant spiders approached behind them. They were faster than the dwarves and caught up with them in no time. They climbed down the trees and surrounded the company like a pack of wolves around a young deer.
The dwarves drew their weapons and Ilèyn took her bow. Dwalin ran into the first spider and hit it with full force. Thorin did another. Ilèyn shot one arrow after the other, each one hit its target, fatally, right between the many eyes. As the spiders began to circle around them more and more, the dwarf drew her long daggers and used them to work on the spider that was closest to her.
"Ilèyn!" she heard her name.
"Fili!" The archer looked around. She spotted the blond dwarf with his back to a tree and in front of her two spiders trampling on him.
Ilèyn sprinted off.
She slid under one of the spiders and slashed its entire stomach with deep stabs. Before the greenish-brown slime-like liquid could pour over her, she had slipped under the spider and came to a stop next to Fili, who had already put the other eight-legged creature out of action with two aimed swords.
"Fili!" His brother's voice immediately made Fili run in his direction, followed by Ilèyn. Both reached him just as he was being clasped tightly by a spider.
Fili struck the creature's legs so that it let go of the brown-haired dwarf. This hit the spider hard in the skull with his blade.
Thorin stormed past the group followed by a few others.
"Come on, keep up! We're clear!"
At that moment, another huge spider descended on them.
Ilèyn placed an arrow on her bowstring when her gaze suddenly wandered up into the treetops.
A figure whizzed over the long branches of the trees. As fast as lightning it reached the spiders, dropped onto one, slid on it to the next, which was done with a few stab wounds. The man came to a halt in front of the dwarves, bow and arrow at hand, and aimed directly at Thorin's head. At the same time archers dressed in green and brown appeared next to Fili and Ilèyn and also next to all the others.
Elves.
"Do not think I won't kill you, Dwarf. I would be my pleasure."
At that voice, Ilèyn felt her heart skip.
Her eyes widened in shock and she felt as if the ground was being pulled away from under her feet. She got cold, the nausea returned, her body and mind were filled with fear. She squinted carefully to her right to see the Elf speaking there.
But then a scream rang out farther away between the trees.
Fili immediately spun around and looked in panic after his brother.
"Kili!" he exclaimed in horror.
A few last spiders crawled down the trees and pounced on the young dwarf. But a red-haired Elf appeared out of nowhere, armed with a bow and dagger. She shot down a spider, killed another with her daggers. Kili escaped the grasp of the dead spider, but the next one was already heading for him. Without further ado, the Elf had killed the last two spiders and grabbed the dwarf. She led him to the group and watched what happened.

"Search them!" came the order.
Ilèyn immediately looked down when an Elf began to disarm Fili next to her. The dwarf watched the tall warrior very skeptically as he began to pull the innumerable knives, daggers and other blades from his fur-trimmed vest. The blonde pulled two more knives from holders on his sleeves and another pair from his boots. Ilèyn looked over at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow. The Elf just pulled a knife out from under the hide of the dwarf's vest, and Fili let out an annoyed sigh.
When the dwarf provocatively showed the Elf the vest that had been empty of weapons, the latter grabbed the blond's back and pulled out a knife.
Suddenly another tall, slender figure appeared next to Ilèyn.
"You..." the voice she was so familiar with said.
The dwarf did not dare to look up and face the situation. She felt like at any moment she was going to lose consciousness and simply fall over. To never wake up again.
"You here." The voice could be heard that its owner was also reminded of the painful past.
"Obviously." Ilèyn growled.
"What have you become...?" the figure whispered.
Now Ilèyn raised her head, her gaze full of anger, contempt and disappointment met that of the blond Elf, whose gaze she could not read.
"I could ask you the same!" she said softly and with a trembling voice. The Elf couldn't meet her gaze and turned his back on her.
Another order and the Dwarves were led away, circled by the Elves.

As she walked through the forest, Ilèyn felt a heavy sense of guilt. Fear overwhelmed her. The fear of disappointment, of her real self and the fear of what was about to await her.
All of this numbed her body and made her doubt.
The dwarves did not defend themselves against the elves of the forest, after all they were disarmed and exhausted. They walked silently side by side in the direction the warriors led them.
"Fili..." Ilèyn said in a lowered and brittle voice. The dwarf walked a little ahead of her. He turned his head to her and looked at her questioningly. Ilèyn could see the despair of their hopeless situation in his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, do you hear me?"
Fili nodded hesitantly, he didn't understand. Before he could ask, one of the elves pushed him further forward. The march through the forest ended at a stone bridge over a rushing river.
The elves led the company over. As Ileyn crossed the bridge, she stumbled and came dangerously close to the edge of the bridge. Fili reacted immediately and hurried over to her. He pushed her back into the middle of the path and eyed her worriedly.
"What is this place doing to you?" he asked carefully "What is happening here?"
Ilèyn made no answer. Her gaze was fixed on the iron gate in front of her, which opened as the group approached.
Fili didn't move away from her anymore and glared at the elves who tried to separate him from her.
The overwhelming silence of the forest was replaced by the echoing footsteps of the marching elves and the angry dwarves in a huge palace with high ceilings, long corridors and open architecture. Thorin at the head looked around disapprovingly, and his companions followed suit. Ilèyn had continued to look down, as if she were being brought before the hangman.
Her heart beat up to her neck and her hands began to shake. She just couldn't concentrate on what to do.
For the first time in her life, Ilèyn had no plan how to get out of this situation. For the first time in her life she felt helpless, with no way out.
The troop followed the tall blond elf until he suddenly stopped. Everyone stopped behind him. Slowly he turned around. His penetrating gaze went through the group to Ilèyn, who stood up to him with concentration.
"Ilèyn." the Elf said without looking away. Immediately the eyes of the elven warriors and especially the confused and shocked looks of all the dwarfs rested on her. Thorin in particular looked horrified and annoyed.
"You know this Elf?" he poisoned "All this here?" The dwarf leader stomped at her furiously, but the elves responded directly and held him back.
Ilèyn met the dwarf's evil eye.
"I see." the blond Elf said "Of course you didn't tell them..."
"Why should I?" it burst out of the dwarf full of hatred. She looked around the group and the reactions to what was happening here were by no means pleasant.
The dwarves backed away from her like from a traitor who had crept into their ranks. Fili also took a few steps back in horror.
"Throw the prisoners into the cells!" the fair-haired Elf said, turning to the red-haired Elf, "My father, the King, will soon wish to speak to their leader."
Then his gaze fell on Ilèyn again.
"You come with me." he said seriously, "Father will be very interested in seeing his niece again after so long."

"What..." Fili uttered next to Ilèyn.
The archer looked at him with wide eyes.
"Fili..." she said softly, she looked helplessly for the right words.
"Take them away!" came the order from the red-haired Elf. The warriors dragged the company away, and Ilèyn looked after them desperately.
"Fili!"