The Path Through Mirkwood: 15 - Advice
Characters/Pairings: Fíli/Bofur, Thorin, Thorin's Company
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Horror
Warnings: Body Horror, Oviposition, Medical Procedures, Character Death, Hallucinations
Summary: The things Thorin’s company encounters in Mirkwood are beyond their worst nightmares. As Fíli’s uncle says, the faster they travel, the sooner they will leave the forest and all its horrors behind - if they manage to....
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hobbit.
Chapter 15: Advice
There were frantic discussions in Elvish, complete with wild gestures in Bofur’s direction. Fíli didn’t think he had ever seen elves this perturbed.
“What’s going on?” Bofur asked Fíli. “How did they know a wasp stung me?”
Fíli shrugged. “I don’t know, elves are sometimes strange like that. But I’m sure it will all be fine.” The knot in his stomach spoke a different language, but he didn’t want to upset Bofur, just in case it turned out to be nothing after all.
Bofur nodded and started humming quietly.
Finally, the red-haired elf came over, keeping a safe distance from where the dwarves huddled together.
“Was he the only one stung? And where did it happen?” she asked.
“I was also stung,” Fíli said, immediately feeling uncomfortable as the elves’ scrutiny turned to him. “He got stung when he tried to protect me from the wasp and chased it away from me so it couldn’t eat me. It was about five days of travel into the forest on the path from the west.”
“Did you get two stings or only one?” The elf asked.
“Only one. Why, is it important?”
“You really have no idea, do you? That wasp wasn’t trying to eat you; it wanted to lay its eggs in you. It sounds as though you might have been lucky, but your friend here wasn’t. The first sting is usually to paralyse you and then the wasp lays its eggs with the second sting.”
“Did you really not notice there was something wrong with him?” the fair-haired elf asked. “There’s a larva moving about in his face, for Valar’s sake!”
Thorin bristled and stepped forward even though his hands were still tied up and useless.
“Legolas, don’t mock them,” the red-haired elf said, quickly followed by some rapid Elvish.
Fíli bit his lip. He glanced at Bofur, who was still humming quietly, prodding at some glowing mushrooms with a stick. Of course there had been signs that something had been wrong with Bofur. The constant hunger, the cheerfulness and detachedness when it wasn’t appropriate and the twitching muscles had all disturbed him at one point or the other, but he had never added it all together. After all, the forest had affected them all in one way or another. Fíli suddenly wished he were still hallucinating, but for some reason, everything had begun feeling terribly real the moment the first elf mentioned the wasp.
Legolas scowled but remained silent as the other elf turned towards the dwarves again.
“The larvae are going to continue growing until they hatch, probably killing him in the process. They might already be influencing his personality, making sure he does what is best for them. Your best bet is going to be cutting them out of him as soon as possible; it might not be too late yet. Is there a healer amongst you?”
Óin stepped forward. “I am a healer.”
The elf tossed him a small flask.
“This is a sedative. Give him five drops so he won’t feel anything, ten if he is to sleep.” She tossed a larger flask. “Put this on the wounds to prevent inflammation. Make sure you get all the larvae; there should be about six to fourteen. If you don’t...” she shrugged and shook her head.
She looked at Fíli and Balin, the only ones who didn’t have their hands tied up. “You have knives, don’t you?”
After a moment of hesitation, they nodded.
“Then I’ll leave it to you to free your companions. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck.” She turned around and went over to the other side of the clearing, where the other elves were waiting. They dumped the weapons they had taken from the dwarves on the ground and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Thorin bellowed. “You cannot leave us here like this! We will starve!”
Legolas turned around. “I am not staying out in the forest any longer than necessary if there might be death-curse wasps about. I will not risk the lives of my people because a horde of dwarves was too stupid to treat the sting of a death-curse wasp correctly. Really, how can you not know that you have to cut out the eggs as soon as possible? You are lucky Captain Tauriel here insisted on helping you. The safest course would have simply been to kill him and burn his corpse.”
“We will starve in the forest! Our food is nearly gone and we are lost! If you leave us here like this, we can only die or follow you. So unless you want us to come after you, you have to at least give us some food and show us the way back to the path!”
Legolas hesitated, clearly not wanting to lose any more time or be anywhere near the dwarves. “Alright, we leave our food here; we won’t be continuing this hunting expedition anyway. The forest path is in that direction, just follow the trail by the markings in the trees.”
The other elves unloaded the food they had in their packs in a rush, throwing it on a large heap on the forest floor. Fíli looked in the direction Legolas had pointed. There was indeed a barely visible trail and the faintest of marks carved into the trees. When he turned back towards the elves, he saw the last bit of a dark green cloak disappear into the forest.
Fíli turned around to help Balin and Bilbo, who had reappeared, free the other dwarves. Fíli bent down to cut the ropes off Bofur’s wrists first, painfully aware of the larva now twitching down his jaw line. Bofur’s eyes were wide and his hands trembling.
“Did they say I have to be cut open?”
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Rating: PG-13
Genre: Horror
Warnings: Body Horror, Oviposition, Medical Procedures, Character Death, Hallucinations
Summary: The things Thorin’s company encounters in Mirkwood are beyond their worst nightmares. As Fíli’s uncle says, the faster they travel, the sooner they will leave the forest and all its horrors behind - if they manage to....
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hobbit.
Chapter 15: Advice
There were frantic discussions in Elvish, complete with wild gestures in Bofur’s direction. Fíli didn’t think he had ever seen elves this perturbed.
“What’s going on?” Bofur asked Fíli. “How did they know a wasp stung me?”
Fíli shrugged. “I don’t know, elves are sometimes strange like that. But I’m sure it will all be fine.” The knot in his stomach spoke a different language, but he didn’t want to upset Bofur, just in case it turned out to be nothing after all.
Bofur nodded and started humming quietly.
Finally, the red-haired elf came over, keeping a safe distance from where the dwarves huddled together.
“Was he the only one stung? And where did it happen?” she asked.
“I was also stung,” Fíli said, immediately feeling uncomfortable as the elves’ scrutiny turned to him. “He got stung when he tried to protect me from the wasp and chased it away from me so it couldn’t eat me. It was about five days of travel into the forest on the path from the west.”
“Did you get two stings or only one?” The elf asked.
“Only one. Why, is it important?”
“You really have no idea, do you? That wasp wasn’t trying to eat you; it wanted to lay its eggs in you. It sounds as though you might have been lucky, but your friend here wasn’t. The first sting is usually to paralyse you and then the wasp lays its eggs with the second sting.”
“Did you really not notice there was something wrong with him?” the fair-haired elf asked. “There’s a larva moving about in his face, for Valar’s sake!”
Thorin bristled and stepped forward even though his hands were still tied up and useless.
“Legolas, don’t mock them,” the red-haired elf said, quickly followed by some rapid Elvish.
Fíli bit his lip. He glanced at Bofur, who was still humming quietly, prodding at some glowing mushrooms with a stick. Of course there had been signs that something had been wrong with Bofur. The constant hunger, the cheerfulness and detachedness when it wasn’t appropriate and the twitching muscles had all disturbed him at one point or the other, but he had never added it all together. After all, the forest had affected them all in one way or another. Fíli suddenly wished he were still hallucinating, but for some reason, everything had begun feeling terribly real the moment the first elf mentioned the wasp.
Legolas scowled but remained silent as the other elf turned towards the dwarves again.
“The larvae are going to continue growing until they hatch, probably killing him in the process. They might already be influencing his personality, making sure he does what is best for them. Your best bet is going to be cutting them out of him as soon as possible; it might not be too late yet. Is there a healer amongst you?”
Óin stepped forward. “I am a healer.”
The elf tossed him a small flask.
“This is a sedative. Give him five drops so he won’t feel anything, ten if he is to sleep.” She tossed a larger flask. “Put this on the wounds to prevent inflammation. Make sure you get all the larvae; there should be about six to fourteen. If you don’t...” she shrugged and shook her head.
She looked at Fíli and Balin, the only ones who didn’t have their hands tied up. “You have knives, don’t you?”
After a moment of hesitation, they nodded.
“Then I’ll leave it to you to free your companions. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck.” She turned around and went over to the other side of the clearing, where the other elves were waiting. They dumped the weapons they had taken from the dwarves on the ground and turned to leave.
“Wait!” Thorin bellowed. “You cannot leave us here like this! We will starve!”
Legolas turned around. “I am not staying out in the forest any longer than necessary if there might be death-curse wasps about. I will not risk the lives of my people because a horde of dwarves was too stupid to treat the sting of a death-curse wasp correctly. Really, how can you not know that you have to cut out the eggs as soon as possible? You are lucky Captain Tauriel here insisted on helping you. The safest course would have simply been to kill him and burn his corpse.”
“We will starve in the forest! Our food is nearly gone and we are lost! If you leave us here like this, we can only die or follow you. So unless you want us to come after you, you have to at least give us some food and show us the way back to the path!”
Legolas hesitated, clearly not wanting to lose any more time or be anywhere near the dwarves. “Alright, we leave our food here; we won’t be continuing this hunting expedition anyway. The forest path is in that direction, just follow the trail by the markings in the trees.”
The other elves unloaded the food they had in their packs in a rush, throwing it on a large heap on the forest floor. Fíli looked in the direction Legolas had pointed. There was indeed a barely visible trail and the faintest of marks carved into the trees. When he turned back towards the elves, he saw the last bit of a dark green cloak disappear into the forest.
Fíli turned around to help Balin and Bilbo, who had reappeared, free the other dwarves. Fíli bent down to cut the ropes off Bofur’s wrists first, painfully aware of the larva now twitching down his jaw line. Bofur’s eyes were wide and his hands trembling.
“Did they say I have to be cut open?”
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