It was the most miserable moment of his life, but he quickly resolved not to make a move until dawn, and he did not want to grope around in the dark at the risk of exhaustion, without breakfast to replenish his strength the next morning. Therefore, he leaned against the tree and sat down, once again beginning to miss his distant hometown with its beautiful dining room. He was lost in his fantasies of cured pork, eggs, toast, and butter when he suddenly felt something touch him. A sticky and tough thread wrapped around his left hand. When he tried to stand up, he found that both his legs were wrapped in the same thing, so he fell to the ground as soon as he stood up.
Then, while he was in a daze, the big spider that had packed food ran over from behind and prepared to cook this delicious meal. He could only see the creature's eyes, but his body could feel it wrapping its deadly spider silk around him. He was lucky enough to regain his senses in time. If he had delayed any longer, he would have lost the ability to move. He had to use all his strength to struggle just to regain his freedom! He kept hitting it with his hand (it was like a spider against a fly, trying to inject poison into him), and finally remembered that he still had his sword with him, so he immediately pulled it out. The spider immediately flew back, trying to buy time to cut the spider silk on its feet. After that, it was his turn to attack. The spider was obviously not used to dealing with creatures with thorns. Otherwise, it would have escaped even faster. Before it could escape, Birbo had rushed up and stabbed its eyes with his sword. It began to twitch crazily and struggle non-stop. In the end, it only died after another sword strike. Then, Birbo lost consciousness and couldn't remember anything for a long time.
When he woke up, the forest was already gray from the day. The dead spider lay beside him, the blade of the sword stained with black blood. For Mr. Baggins, the bravery of slaying a giant spider in the dark without the help of wizards or dwarves seemed to have changed him. He felt like he had been reborn. Even though his stomach was still empty, he found himself braver and fiercer as he wiped his sword on the grass.
" I'll give you a name," he said to it."I'll call you Needle-Needle!"
After that, he began to explore the forest. The atmosphere in the forest was very heavy, but it was obvious that he had to find the whereabouts of his companions first, because unless they fell into the hands of the elves (or something worse), they should be not far away. Birbo did not think it was safe to shout, so he stood there for a moment, wondering where the path was, and which direction he should look for the dwarves first.
"Oh, why did we forget Gandalf and Beon's advice!”He said ruefully,"Look at what we're in! Speaking of us! I really hope that this is really us. It's so scary to be alone.”
In the end, he managed to guess the direction of the cry for help last night. With the help of luck (he was born with a lot of good luck), his guess was actually not too far off. You'll know when the time comes. After making up his mind, he began to move forward carefully. Hobbits are very good at moving silently, especially in the forest, as I should have told you before; Besides, Birbo had put on the ring before he started his adventure, which was why the spiders did not see or hear his arrival at all.
He walked carefully for a short distance and found that there was a place in front of him that was plunged into darkness. It was darker than the surrounding shadows, as if it was shrouded by the eternal midnight. As he got closer and closer, he realized that it was formed by layers of spider webs. Not only that, but he also found a huge and terrifying spider on the branch above his head. Regardless of whether he had the ring or not, he was trembling in fear of being discovered. He hid behind a tree and looked at the monsters. In the quiet atmosphere of the forest, he found that the monsters were talking. Their voices sounded like a combination of faint hissing and rubbing, but he could still hear most of them clearly. They were discussing dwarves!
" This was a good struggle, but it was worth it," one said."Their skin must be very old, but I bet there must be sweet juice inside!”
"Ah, they'll taste much better after hanging them for a while!”the other said.
" Don't leave them hanging for too long," the third said."They're not fat enough, I guess it's probably because they haven't been eating enough lately.”
" I said kill them first," the fourth one hissed,""Kill them first and then hang them up.”
"I bet they're all dead by now," said the first.
"I don't think so. I saw one struggling just now. I think they've probably just woken up from a beautiful dream.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a fat spider ran down the silk and came to the place where a dozen oval balls were hanging on the branch. Birbo was now noticing the things hanging from the trees, and couldn't help feeling very frightened; Some of them had dwarves 'feet, noses, or a part of their beard and hat sticking out of them.
The spider walked to the largest ball, and Birbo thought,"I bet it was poor old Uncle Pang!”Then, the spider bit hard on its protruding nose. A muffled scream came from inside the ball. A foot stretched out and kicked the spider hard. Pang Bo was still breathing. The spider made a sound like a football being kicked and fell down. It was not easy for it to rely on its own spider silk to save its old life.
The other spiders laughed. "You're right!" They said,"Our food is still alive, and our legs are quite strong!"”
"I'll end all of this soon!”The angry spider climbed back onto the branch angrily.
Birbo immediately understood that it was time for him to do something. He couldn't fight these monsters head-on, and he didn't have a bow and arrow. However, after searching for a while, he found a dry waterway nearby with many small stones on it. Birbo was an expert at throwing stones. It didn't take him long to find a stone the size of a goose egg. When he was still young, he would often throw stones at all kinds of things. In the end, even rabbits, squirrels, and even birds would run away as fast as lightning as soon as they saw him bend down. After he grew up, he still played games that required aiming and throwing, such as darts, rings, and bowls. In fact, other than blowing smoke rings, guessing riddles, and cooking, he has many other interests. It's just that I didn't have time to tell you in detail before, and I don't have time to talk about it now. When he picked up the stone, the spider had already walked to Pang Bo's side. Soon, he would die under the spider's venom. In that split second, Birbo threw a rock, which hit the spider in the head and sent it tumbling from the tree to the ground, all its legs curled up.
The second stone mercilessly pierced through the spider web, tore it apart, and accurately killed the spider in the middle of the spider web. Then, the spiders caused a huge commotion. This time, they had no time to care about the dwarves! They couldn't see Bilbo, but they could guess where the stone was coming from. They immediately rushed out of their nests at lightning speed and charged at the hobbits, their spider silk covering the sky, hoping to catch the enemy.
However, Birbo had already slipped away in another direction. He had a sudden inspiration to lure these angry spiders away from the dwarves. He wanted to make these spiders angry, curious, and excited. When there are about fifty
After a spider rushed to his previous position, he aimed at it and threw a few stones. He also threw many stones at the other spiders who were hesitating. Not only that, he even boldly sang in the forest, trying to provoke the spiders and make them all rush over. At the same time, he also wanted the dwarves to hear his voice. He sang,
The fat old spider was weaving a web on the tree!
Can't see me, it's old and fat!
Spiders! Spiders!
Stop it!
Look for me, don't weave the web again!
Spider Spider, fat beyond words.
Spider, Spider, you can't find my direction!
Spiders! Spiders!
He fell to the ground!
If you want to catch me, don't hang on the tree!
This song might not sound like much, but you must also know that he had made up his own song in a hurry. In any case, it did achieve its goal. As he sang, he threw more stones and stamped his feet so hard that almost all the spiders in the vicinity came after him: Some of the spiders jumped to the ground, some spread soup on the branches, or threw their webs into the darkness in vain. They moved much faster than he had imagined, and besides being thrown stones, spiders hated it most when people called them pig-like, not to mention Bilbo's mockery of them.
Birbo changed his hiding place, but a few spiders had already rushed to different places and began to weave nets in the open space. Soon, the Hobbit was surrounded by thick webs. At least, this was the intention of the spiders. Bilbo stood among the angry insects, summoned his courage, and began to sing another song:
Lazy Robber, Silly Cabo,
Weaving a net to catch me.
My flesh is sweet and fragrant,
You still can't find me!
Here I am, naughty little fly;
You're so fat and lazy.
If you can't catch me, don't think of winning
It made you so angry in the spider web.
As soon as he finished singing, he realized that the last space between the two trees was sealed by a spider web. Fortunately, it was not a complete spider web, but two thick threads that were intertwined between the trees. He pulled out his short sword, cut the spider web into pieces, and continued to sing.
The spiders can see the sword, but I don't think they know what it is; At once, the whole swarm of spiders was charging angrily at the hobbits. Their eyes were protruding, and their furry antennae were waving around. They chased Birbo all the way into the forest, and then he slipped back noiselessly.
He knew that he only had a short time before the spiders gave up their pursuit and returned to the tree where the dwarves were hanging. During this time, he had to save these guys. The most troublesome part of this quest was to climb up the low branch with many dwarven balls hanging from it. If it wasn't for the spider's thread, he might not have been able to climb up at all. With the help of the spider silk, he managed to climb up even though the sticky thing was wrapped around his hand and hurt it. To his surprise, there was an old and fat cunning spider in front of him. It was left behind to guard the captives. It was busy poking around to see which captive was juicier and tastier. It was preparing to enjoy the delicacies in front of it when no one else was around. Unfortunately, Birbo was in a hurry to get down to business and had no time to waste. Therefore, before it could come back to its senses, the needle had ended its life.
Birbo's next job was to loosen the dwarf's shackles. What should he do? If he cut the thread, the poor dwarf would crash to the ground. He carefully climbed up the branch (his footsteps made all the poor dwarves shake like ripe fruits) and finally reached the first ball.
" Philip or Kili…" he speculated from the blue hat tip that emerged from the edge of the spider web. Amid the complicated spider webs, the long nose that stuck out allowed him to make a judgment."It's most likely Philip!" It took him a lot of effort to cut off most of the sticky and tough spider web. Philip kicked hard and revealed half of his head. Seeing the other party struggling clumsily, Birbo couldn't help but laugh. In fact, he couldn't be blamed for this. The scene in front of him was too much like a puppet doll dancing!
In the end, Philip finally climbed up the branch and began to assist the Hobbits in freeing their compatriots. However, because he had been hanging on the branch all night, only his nose was exposed to breathe, and there was still the residual poison of the spider in his body, he felt a little dizzy. However, Philip's condition was already the best. Some people almost stopped breathing (a long nose indeed had an evolutionary advantage), and some people were more deeply poisoned.
And so they rescued Kili, Beaver, Boffo, Dori, and Nori. Poor Pombo was tortured. As he was the fattest of the dwarves, he was the most frequently poked and stabbed. In the end, he was even toyed with until he rolled off the branch and fell to the ground. Fortunately, he was lucky and landed on a pile of dead leaves. However, when the spiders returned in anger, there were still five dwarves hanging from the tree.
Birbo immediately rushed to the trunk closest to the branch and forced back the spiders that were crawling over. He had taken the ring off when he had rescued Philip, and had forgotten to put it on afterward. The spiders could see him clearly now, and they began to hiss and hisse,"We can see you now, you bad boy! We will eat you and hang your bones on the tree. Wow! Look, he still has a thorn! Well, we'll catch him anyway, and we'll hang his head to dry.”
As the spiders advanced step by step, the other dwarves desperately cut the spider silk with their knives to save the remaining prisoners. Before long, everyone regained their freedom. However, no one was sure what would happen after that. Last night, the spiders had easily caught them, but that had been in the dark, when they had been caught off guard. It seemed like a bloody battle would ensue if they fought a second time.
Suddenly, Birbo noticed that some spiders had gathered around Pombo. They tied him up again and prepared to drag him away. He shouted and swung his sword at the spider in front of him. They quickly retreated. He jumped down from the tree and landed right in the middle of the spiders. His sword was like a needle that they had never encountered before. Wherever the sword passed, the spiders suffered heavy casualties! When Birbo brandished the needle, the sword seemed to glitter with joy at the prospect of slaying evil creatures. Before the other spiders retreated and gave up on Pang Bo, there were already dozens of corpses on the ground.
"Come down quickly! Come down quickly!" He shouted at the dwarf on the branch,"Don't stop at the top and fall into the spider web again!”This was because he found many spiders gathered on the nearby trees, and some of them had even eaten their heads.
The dwarves jumped, fell, and tumbled from the trees in a panic. Most of them were still in shock and could not even walk steadily. In the end, a total of twelve dwarves were finally gathered together, including Pang Bo, who was helped up by his cousin Biff and younger brother Boffo. Birbo kept brandishing his sword and needles, while hundreds of angry spiders continued to advance from all directions. The situation seemed quite dangerous.
The battle began. Some dwarves carried knives, some picked up branches, and others picked up rocks. Birbo held a sword forged by elves. The spiders 'attacks were repelled wave after wave, and many corpses piled on the ground. However, the dwarves could not hold on any longer. Only four dwarves could barely stand up straight. They would soon be killed like dying flies. The spiders had already begun to weave a deadly net on the nearby trees again.
In the end, Birbo had no choice but to reveal the secret of his ring to the dwarf. He felt rather regretful, but he couldn't think of any other way.
" I'll disappear later," he said."I will think of a way to lure the spiders away. You must gather together and run in another direction. It's best to go left, that's where we last saw the elven campfire.”
In this chaos, the dwarves 'heavy heads found it difficult to understand what he was saying. However, the spiders continued to advance and shrink the encirclement. At last, when Bilbo felt that he could not delay any longer, he suddenly put on the ring, and the dwarves were surprised to find that he had disappeared.
Soon, a voice came from the forest on the right.”And "Sloth!" Curses. This made the spiders very angry. They stopped in their tracks and rushed towards the source of the sound. Then, Balin, who was the only one who understood Birbo's plan, led the others to launch a counterattack. The dwarves gathered together and threw a large number of stones at the spiders on the left. They took the opportunity to break out of the encirclement. The shouting and singing behind them suddenly disappeared.
The dwarves secretly hoped that Birbo would not be discovered by the spiders, but the situation forced them to keep moving forward. Unfortunately, they were not fast enough. They were tired and sad, and could only drag their way forward at a rather slow pace, even though they were being pursued by many spiders. As they were too slow, they were forced to stop from time to time to fight against the spiders that were chasing them. Not long after, some spiders had already rushed to the trees near them and dropped sticky spider silk to hinder their progress.
It seemed that the battle situation had fallen into a desperate situation again, but Birbo suddenly charged into the spider encirclement from the side.
"Hurry up and leave! Hurry up and leave!" "Let me cover the rear!" he shouted.”
He really did it. He stabbed forward and backward, cutting the spider silk and cutting the spider legs. As long as the spiders dared to approach, he would pierce through their fat bodies. The spiders were filled with anger and let out terrifying sounds, cursing the small enemy in front of them. However, they already knew the power of the needles and did not dare to get too close. Therefore, no matter how much they cursed, the prey kept slipping away. This process was extremely torturous, as if it had taken several hours. At last, just when Birbo felt that he could no longer lift his sword, the spiders suddenly gave up and gave up their pursuit. Instead, they turned back and ran back to where they were gathered.
Only then did the dwarves notice that they had arrived at the place where the elven campfire had appeared. However, they were not sure if this was the place where the campfire had been found. It seemed that there was still some kind magic left in these places, so the spiders did not dare to act rashly. The sky was greener here, and the trees were no longer ghostly. They finally had a chance to rest and catch their breath.
Everyone lay there and rested for a while, but soon, they began to ask questions out of curiosity. They made Birbo explain in detail how he had disappeared. They were so interested in finding the ring that for a moment they even forgot their own troubles. Balin was particularly interested, and insisted that Bilbo tell Gollum's story from beginning to end, including the riddles and the ring. After a while, the sky gradually darkened, and they began to ask other questions. Where was this place? Where was the original path? Is there any food? What to do next…They asked these questions over and over again, as if expecting little Birbo to answer them all. You can see from their attitude that their opinion of Mr. Baggins has completely changed, and they have begun to show considerable respect for him (Gandalf has long predicted it)! They really thought that he would come up with a good way to change all of this instead of just complaining. They knew very well that if the Hobbits had not risked their lives to save them, they would have been dead. A few dwarves even immediately bowed at a 90-degree angle. However, they immediately fell to the ground because their legs were weak, and they could not get up for a while. Even after knowing the truth of the mysterious disappearance, they would not belittle their view of Birbo because they all understood that Birbo not only had a magic ring, but also had quick wits and good luck. These were all precious assets that they needed very much. In fact, their praise for Birbo made him feel that he was a great adventurer. However, if there was something to eat, he would be braver.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to eat at that time, and no one had the strength to search around. They couldn't even find the original path. The original path! These were the only words in Birbo's tired mind. He could only watch as the endless trees continued to grow. Not long after, everyone fell silent again, except for Ba Lin. After everyone quieted down and closed their eyes to rest, he continued to talk to himself freely and smiled happily."Gollum! Hehe, so that's how it is! So this was how he snuck in? Only then did I know. Mr. Baggins, you say you snuck in? He even spilled buttons all over the floor! Good Bilbo-Bo-"And then he fell asleep, and there was complete silence.
All of a sudden, Devarin opened his eyes and looked around. "Where is Thorin?" he asked.
Everyone was extremely shocked. There really were only thirteen people here: twelve dwarves and one hobbit. Where did Thorin go? They began to imagine what kind of terrible fate Thorin had encountered. Was he captured by magic or an evil monster? Everyone could not help but feel a chill run down their spines. Then, they could not resist the drowsiness and fell asleep one by one. As evening fell and night fell, everyone's dreams were filled with all kinds of terrifying nightmares. As they were too tired and sad, they did not have the strength to take turns to keep watch. Therefore, let us take a look at the situation on the other side.
Thorin had actually been captured much earlier. Do you remember the time when Birbo fell asleep as soon as he stepped into the elven campfire? Next time, it was Thorin's turn to be the first to go over, so he also fell into a deep sleep caused by magic. The noise of the dwarves was drowned out by the night. When the spiders tied the dwarves up, no one heard their cries. The shouts of battle on the second day did not disturb him at all. Therefore, the Wood Elf appeared silently, tied him up, and took him away.
Of course, the ones singing and feasting were the wood elves. They were not evil creatures. If there was a flaw in them, it was that they did not trust outsiders. Even though they had strong magic power, they were still very careful these days. They were different from the High Elves in the West. They were more warlike and not as wise, because most of them (and their compatriots scattered in the mountains) had never gone to the Western Paradise. The light elves, deep elves, and sea elves all lived in the celestial mountains for a long time. They became more beautiful, wiser, and more knowledgeable. They also invented their own magic and researched how to create beautiful and magical things. It took them many years to return to this world. In this world, the Wood Elves wandered between the light of the sun and the moon, but they loved the stars the most. They would wander in the vast forest that had long been lost today, and most of them lived at the edge of the forest. There, they could sometimes enter the forest to hunt, and sometimes they could gallop on the plains under the moonlight or starlight. After the arrival of humans, they became more and more isolated from the world, only appearing late at night or early in the morning. However, these creatures were still elves and a kind race.
There was a huge cave on the eastern edge of Gloomy Jungle, where their greatest king lived. In front of his huge stone door, a river flowed through the forest and flowed into the plains outside. This huge cave had countless small openings in all directions. Moreover, it was deep underground and had many tunnels and halls. This underground world was much cleaner and brighter than the places where the beastmen lived. It was not as deep and dangerous. In fact, most of the king's subjects lived and hunted in the forest, and most of their houses were on the ground or on the branches. Cypress trees were their favorite. The King's cave was his palace, where he kept his treasures, and the fortress for his compatriots to fight against foreign enemies.
Similarly, it was also the dungeon where they kept their prisoners. Therefore, they dragged Thorin there without hesitation (because they did not like dwarves and considered him an enemy). In ancient times, they had accused the dwarves of stealing their treasures and had started a war with them. However, there was another version of the Dwarves 'story: The Elven King asked them to forge and refine gold and silver, but later refused to pay them. If the Elven King had any weakness, it would be his greed for treasures, especially silver and white gems. Although his treasury already had countless treasures, he was never satisfied because he believed that he had not obtained the same shocking wealth as the ancient elf nobles. His people did not mine, cast metals or make jewelry, and were too lazy to spend time on trade or farming. Although Thorin's ancestors had nothing to do with this ancient dispute, every dwarf knew about it. Therefore, when the magic on his body was removed, Thorin was very dissatisfied with the attitude of the elves. He secretly decided that he would never let them get any information from him or find any gold, silver, or jewelry from him.
When Thorin was brought to the king, the king looked at him seriously and asked him many questions, but Thorin only kept saying that he was very hungry.
"Why did you and your compatriots try to attack our compatriots who were celebrating three times?”The King asked.
" We didn't attack them," Thorin replied."We are here to beg because we have been starving for a long time.”
"Where are your friends? What are they doing now?”
"I don't know, but I think they're probably still starving in the forest.”
"What are you doing in the forest?"
"Looking for food and water, because we've been starving for a long time.”
"Why did you enter the forest?”The King asked angrily.
Thorin shut his mouth and stubbornly refused to answer.
"Excellent!" The King said," Take him away and keep an eye on him. We'll see when he's willing to speak. Even if it takes a hundred years, it doesn't matter!”
The elves tied him up with belts and locked him in the deepest cave. They gave him a lot of food and drinks. Although they were not the best, they were in large quantities. The wood elves weren't beastmen. They wouldn't lose their sense of propriety even when dealing with their mortal enemies. The only thing that would make them merciless was those giant spiders.
Thorin lay in the king's dungeon, and after a hearty meal, he began to miss his unfortunate friends. It was not long before he knew what happened to his friend. However, this was recorded in the next chapter, which was also the beginning of another adventure. The Hobbit once again showed everyone his strengths.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。