Insanity | A Hobbit Fanfiction

Chapter 14

They walked through the forest in near silence.

Zephira had been unusually quiet, no sarcastic remarks or flirtatious actions.

Thorin knew something was wrong, but didn't want to bother her. He worried about her, although he would never admit it.

He knew he had feelings for her, but he couldn't tell exactly what they were; if they were positive or negative.

All he did know was that he trusted her. With his life.

"We're nearly there." Krayna called back, leading the Company through the trees. "Shouldn't be much longer now."

Zephira sighed.

Krayna looked at her. "You know what that means."

Zephira closed her eyes.

"What?" Thorin asked, stopping. "What does-?"

He suddenly felt faint. "I... I... Oww, my head." He moaned, touching his forehead.

"Uncle?" Fili asked, stepping towards him. "Are you alri-" he stopped suddenly, clutching his own head. "Ahhh,"

Slowly, each member of the company became light-headed, and eventually they all fainted.

All of them, that is, except for Gandalf.

Zephira opened her eyes. "I'm sure there's no point." She said to the wizard. "Considering you already know where we are going."

He gave her a stern look. "I will not accompany you where you are going. I'll wait for you, however. Don't be more than 3 days." And with that, he walked off and disappeared into the woods.

Krayna was looking at Zephira, mild amusement in her eyes. "You are becoming weak, Zephira. I remember a time when you could do that and carry out conversation."

"Well, you'll have to excuse me if I'm not a my best." She snapped. "They are my friends. And ever since the goblins... Since I've been Broken, my powers obviously don't work as well."

Krayna shrugged. "Simply an observation. Now c'mon, help me tie 'em up. You've got rope, I hope."

They did, and together they managed to bind up the Company's hands and blindfold them. Krayna wanted to gag them as well, but Zephira said it wasn't necessary.

"We'd better tie them in a line. I'm not herding them like cattle the whole time."

"Alright, fine. But hurry, they're waking up."

Kili was the first to wake up. He moaned a bit, and then realizing what was going on, cried out and struggled against his bonds. "Zephira?" He called out, the fear in his voice making her want to turn around and run before she got them into anymore.

Instead, she just said, "I'm here."

"What-what's going on?"

Zephira stayed silent.

"Zephira? Zephira!"

The others started waking up, and each had the same reaction as Kili had.

Thorin felt horribly betrayed. "Where are you taking us?! Zephira!"

"You'll see." She said softly.

"Will I? Because I'm currently /blindfolded/!"

She swallowed, but said nothing.

They walked on, and after a while Fili said softly, "Zephira?"

She didn't say anything.

"I know you're there."

She remained quiet.

"Look, I'm not mad at you. I know there's a reason you're doing this, and a good one. Or, a at least a /reasonable/ reason... Zephira, please. Say /something/."

"Like what?" She asked, her voice cracking.

"Just let me know that you're still here, that you haven't abandoned us."

She seemed to droop down, although Fili couldn't see. "Oh, Fili. I'd never abandon you. None of you."

A small smile tugged at the dwarfs lips. "Good to know."

"Alright, we're here." Krayna called from the front of the line. "Zephira, untie them."

She untied their hands first, and the ropes around their waists to keep them together, and then let them untie their own blindfolds.

"Where are we?" Was the first thing Thorin snarled when he saw forest still surrounding them.

The two witches said nothing, simply walked towards a dense clump of trees. Krayna turned to face the Company. "Come and see for yourself." She said. She smiled, took a step back, and vanished.

There were more then a few gasps, and Thorin turned to Zephira. "We're did she go?"

She held out her hand and grinned. "Come and see for yourself."

Thorin didn't move.

"Oh, come on Thorin. I thought you trusted me?"

"That was before you tied us up." He answered, real hurt in his voice.

Zephira's smile faltered, then went back to normal. "Alright then. Fili?" She looked over at the blonde dwarf. "Come on, take my hand."

Kili's eyes narrowed as his brother walked up to the witch and took her hand. He looked at her, somewhat afraid. "Just take a step." She said gently. "You'll be alright."

They stepped foreword together, and vanished.

"Fili!" Kili cried out racing forwards.

"Whoa, slow down!" Zephira called, appearing again. "You need to come in holding hands with one of us." She took Kili's hand and pulled him through.

Krayna appeared as she disappeared. "Alright, who's next? Dwalin?" She turned to the dwarf she had flirted with. "Care to join us?"

He took her hand and the vanished as well.

They kept this up until it was only Zephira and Thorin left. "Come on." She said, holding her hand out once again. "It'll all make sense. I give you my word."

"Your word means nothing to me now." He said coldly.

Her eyes narrowed. "Perhaps you forget, dwarf, that I am a witch. I can /make/ you come with me if I needed to." Her accent became slightly stronger; a sign that she would go mad soon if pushed.

Thorin swallowed and reluctantly took her hand.

"Thank you." She said sweetly, and pulled him through the trees.

Thorin stumbled a bit, and when he straightened up, he couldn't help but gasp.

"Welcome," Zephira said with her arms spread out. "To the home of the Mäläi Clan."

~~~~

Whoooaaa there Thorin, where were you going with all that feelings stuff?! even /I'm/ not sure.

I hope you all know I wrote this when I was supposed to be doing homework, and now my English teacher is gonna hate me.

BUT I did finish it, so what do you all think? Technically not a cliffhanger again...? Ah, whatever. But if you really didn't see that coming, I'm a bit surprised. I thought I hinted pretty well that they were going to see the witches...

Anyways, vote and comment, let me know if you liked it, if you didn't, what I can improve on, what I should keep doing, ANYTHING!! ...

... Mainly because I am bored and want to talk to someone.

Xoxoxo

Okay, WOW. Just noticed that Gandalf hadn't been in the last few chapters. *covers face in shame* I fixed it, though.