▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ━︎━︎ 𝐄𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐬 ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐀 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌 through the woods, keeping all her senses sharp, watching the path closely as it turned. The dwarves and Bilbo followed close behind her, Thorin thankfully not complaining about her leading the way. They grew deeper and deeper into the woods, Ellaria's shoulders tense the entire time, hand hovering over the dagger that was at her side. The dwarves were starting to be affected, one complaining about needing air, another one growing uneasy, but Ellaria kept herself level headed. She's faced these woods before, she liked to believe that meant it had no tricks left to play on her.

     "Nori, why have you stopped?" Thorin's voice made Ellaria pause, turning to look at him.

     Nori stood there, fear on his face as he stared at the ground in front of Ellaria. "The path, it's disappeared."

     "What's going on?" Dwalin asked from the back of the line.

     "We've lost the path!" Oin cried out.

     Ellaria furrowed her brows. "No we haven't, it's right there." She pointed at the path that was very clearly there.

     "It's gotten to the elf," Ori whimpered.

     Ellaria scoffed. "It has not. The path is right in front of me."

     However, none of the dwarves could see it. "Find it." Thorin ordered.

     "There's nothing to find! The path is here!" She was too late, they all began to disperse. Ellaria frowned, turning her head only to find that the path was in fact no longer in front of her. Instead, she was face with a cliff and had she stepped two feet forwards she would have fallen to her death. A soft gasp left her lips as she stumbled backwards. An annoyed growl left her lips. "Damn these woods."

With hesitancy, she followed the dwarves in trying to search for it, the dwarves question what time it was, what day it was, their minds completely muddled with the curse of the forest. A sound echoed in her ears and Ellaria paused. The sound came again and she quickly turned her head, narrowing her eyes on Bilbo who was sitting by a giant thick web, strumming the strings on it. Her eyes widened as she ran over to him, grabbing his arm to keep him from plucking it again.

     "You do not want to awaken the beasts that come with these webs." Ellaria warned. Bilbo furrowed his brows. "We need to stay together," Ellaria called. "No more of this separating."

     They gathered back together, walking in a line, growing deeper into the woods. Ori walked forwards, leaning down and picking up a brown pouch that was lying on the ground. "Look," he said, his voice sounding far away.

     "There's dwarves in these woods." Dori said, taking the pouch.

     Bofur took the pouch next. "Dwarves from the blue mountain, no less. This is exactly the same as mine."

     Ellaria sighed, "Because it is yours."

     Bilbo took a step towards him. "Do you understand? We're going 'round in circles. We are lost."

     "We are not lost." Thorin argued. "We keep heading east."

     "But which way is east?" Oin asked. "We've lost the sun."

     "I thought you were the expert." Dwalin mumbled.

     "I'm not the one who lost the sun!" Oin snapped back.

     "The sun." Bilbo mumbled from beside her. "We have to find the sun. We need to get above the canopy." However, none of the dwarves listened, too busy arguing with one another.

     "Climb," Ellaria instructed Bilbo. "Climb the tree. Get to the top. Find the sun." She snapped her head towards a sound. She slowly pulled her bow out, notching an arrow into it. "Do it now." Bilbo listened, quickly he began to climb the tree.

     "Enough!" Thorin shouted at the dwarves. "Quiet, all of you!" The dwarves listened as Thorin whispered, "We're being watching."

Suddenly, there were large spiders everywhere. Ellaria instantly began shooting arrows at them, killing two of them instantly. The dwarves were being taken, getting wrapped up in the spiders webs. A spider came out her from behind and she quickly spun and released and arrow into its head. She ran to it, pulling the arrow out and notching it again. When she turned, she realized it was just her. She looked up, all of the dwarves were wrapped up, and four spiders were slowly crawling towards her at once.

     "Shit," she cursed.

The sound of dying spider reached her ears, alerting her that someone else was still out there with her. She straightened her shoulders, pulling back her arrow, her eyes switching between all four of the spiders and they all came at her at once. She released an arrow, imbedding it into the head of a spider, quickly notching two more and letting one fly and then another, killing two more of the spiders. She pulls out her dagger, quickly tossing it and killing the last spider. She ran forwards, collecting all of her weapons.

A breath fell from her lips only for her to pause when a small, but thick, piece of wood fell at her feet. She slowly looked up, and watched in horror as all of the spiders began to climb from the trees, heading towards the sound the wood had made. Quickly she ran, hiding behind a tree and placing her back against it. She carefully peaked her head out from behind the tree, at least ten spiders surrounding the area in search of what they had thought was a person.

     She pulled her head back, carefully drawing an arrow and placing it in her bow. She pulled it back silently, subtly peeking from behind the tree and aiming. She released the arrow, watching as it flew and landed in the eye socket of one of the spiders. She smiled proudly only for it to fall when all of the spiders turned in her direction. "I should've thought that through," she muttered. Quickly, she put her bow back around her and pulled her sword out, stepping out from behind the tree as they all charged.

Some of the spiders began to separate as the dwarves were cut free thanks to Bilbo, the spiders now diverting all of their focus from her and some of it going to the dwarves. She quickly stabbed one of the spiders, pulling her sword out and kicking it away from her only for another one to jump on top of her, knocking her to the ground. She used her sword, keeping the spider from biting at her. She grunted, using her strength and pushing the spider back long enough for her to take her sword and stab him from the bottom and through the top of his head.

A breath left her lips as she stood, the rest of the spiders now gone. The sound of multiple bows could be heard and Ellaria quickly ran. When she found the dwarves, she also found that they were surrounded by elves.

     "Do not think I won't kill you, Dwarf. It would be my pleasure." The sound of Legolas' voice made Ellaria straighten.

     "Help!" Kili called from the distance. "Help!"

     "Kili!" Fili yelled out.

     Not too long after, Kili joined them and Tauriel was hauling him. Ellaria clenched her jaw as Legolas called out, "Search them."

     The elves listened as they began to search the dwarves and Ellaria finally made herself known. "Must you do that?"

     Instantly, both Tauriel and Legolas turned at the sound of her voice. Legolas glanced at her for a moment before continuing his search. Ellaria frowned, hurt crossing her face. She watched as he grabbed a picture from Gloin, opening it and staring at it. "Who is this? Your brother?"

     "That is my wife!" Gloin yelled in outrage.

     Legolas looked at the other side. "And what is this horrid creature? A goblin-mutant?"

     "That's my wee-lad, Gimli!"

     Ellaria strode forwards. "Must you be so cruel?" Ellaria snapped, snatching the picture from Legolas's hands and handing it back to Gloin. "Why are you taking all of their weapons? We just wanted passage through, we had no intention of coming into your home."

     "In case you've forgotten, these woods are part of my home." Legolas replied. He turned to Tauriel who was approaching them. "Are the spiders dead?"

     "Yes, but more will come." Tauriel answered. Legolas cocked his head. "They're growing bolder."

     "Legolas, stop this." Ellaria hissed.

     Legolas glanced at her. "I will talk to you later." He turned as one of his men approached him, handing him Thorin's elven blade. Ellaria scoffed in disbelief. Legolas lifted up the blade, examining it. "This is an ancient elvish blade. Forged by my kin." He looked at Thorin. "Where did you get this?"

     "It was given to me." Thorin answer, voice low and heavy with anger and distaste.

     Instantly, Legolas pointed the blade at him. "Not just a thief, but a liar as well."

     Ellaria stepped in front of Thorin, the point of the blade pressed into her chest. "He is no liar, nor is he a thief. He tells the truth. Careful who you point a blade at next time, Prince. You might not like the outcome."

     Legolas' eyes narrowed at her as he shouted for his men to take them back to the palace. The two of them stood there, Tauriel standing back and switching her eyes back and forth between them. "Why are you with the company of dwarves, Ellaria?"

      "Why are you being so cruel?" Ellaria shot back. "Just because they are dwarves?"

     "That did not answer my question." He lowered the blade.

     "And you did not answer mine." Ellaria snarled. "Is this how you treat a friend?"

     Legolas sighed. "Can we talk after this is handled?"

     "Depends on how its handled." Ellaria replied. She took a step closer to him, their faces mere inches apart. She hadn't realized how close she had gotten until their noses had almost touched. Her heart beat picked up, blood pumping in her ears, she swallowed thickly, searching his blue eyes for a moment. Their usually soft exterior was hard and she frowned at the sight. "Do not treat them as if they've done something wrong. They are not your prisoners."

     Legolas shook his head, his eyes softening for a moment. "You know that is not up to my discretion."

     Gently, she grabbed his hand. She closed her eyes, silently begging him. "Please, Legolas. It is hard for me to stop their dislike for our kind when you treat them like this."

     He gave a gentle squeeze to her hand. "I will do what I can, but you know as well as I that my say will not matter. He will do as he pleases, and you will not like it."

     Ellaria nodded, taking a step back and dropping his hand. "Do not expect me to sit idly by as my friends get imprisoned." She turned and walked away. Instantly, Tauriel followed after her. "Is he always this grumpy?"

     Tauriel sighed. "As of late? Yes." She hooked her arm with Ellaria's. "But, you always seem to break through that hard exterior that's been put in place by his father. Tell me, how do you do it?"

     "I guess I just have that affect on people."

     "On him," Tauriel corrected. "You have that affect on him."

     "Maybe it's from our many years of friendship."

     Instantly, Tauriel rose a brow. "Sure, love. Friendship." She shook her head, smiling to herself before they continued their walk towards the palace.