Mirkwood

The path led to a gloomy tunnel that was made of two big trees that leaned toward each other. The trees were old and ivy looked as if they were strangling them and lichen dangled from every one of their branches. Curvy and narrow was the path among the tree trunks which we walked on. Soon, the light, from which we came, had turned into a teeny little dot. It was like a bright little hole that continued to shrink as we went deeper into the forest. It was so quiet that our footsteps sounded like loud thumping and no matter what we did to stop it, it remained the same. The trees seemed to lean over us and listen to the sound of our feet as we walked by. There was no sign of light although it was still daytime in the outside world. 

Every now and again, there would be a little beam of sunlight through a gap in the leaves above. But that stopped when we got deeper and the trees had fuller branches. Our eyes eventually got used to the darkness and we began to notice things that were beside us as we walked along the path. There were black squirrels but only Bilbo and I could see them. While we walked, we heard weird noises like scufflings and grunts. They sounded like they were coming from underground and near thick piles of leaves on the side of the path. The most frightening things we saw were the cobwebs. They were thick and often stretched from one tree to the other. They were also tangled in low branches and bushes. The webs did not touch or stretch across the path whatsoever.

"Why do you think they aren't disturbing the path?" I asked quietly.

"Maybe a spell is cast on the path so others can travel safely on it," Bilbo whispered.

"Well, I suppose... I can't think of any other reason why," I replied. It was not long at all before we all began to hate the forest and its darkness. It looked as if the forest had no end and it was hard, even for me, to see the bright side. We were all craving sunlight, the sky, and the air on our faces. We wanted to have at least a moment of fresh air and a glimpse of the outside world. Under the thick forest roof, there wasn't any air circulating for us to breathe. It was stuffy and still; nothing felt to have life in it. It felt like we were being suffocated, slowly but surely. The worst parts were the pitch-black nights. Every night, it was so dark that if you waved your hand in front of your face, you still wouldn't see anything. We stayed together during the night and took turns but I was not sleepy; I suppose my mind was busy thinking. Hobbits can notice things better than dwarves so I offered to be on the look-out almost every night. Bilbo would stay up with me for a little while but eventually fell asleep. Another thing that creeped me out was the eyes.

I saw them all around us and up in the trees. They were different colors like red, yellow, and green. The terrifying eyes would stare at us all throughout the night. But the same eyes would not glow forever. They would gleam for a little while and then fade. Then before you knew it, they had completely disappeared and another pair took its place in a different spot. The dwarves tried to have a fire going during the night so we could have some light. But it was in vain for it seemed that more eyes watched us than usual and the light drew giant moths and bats towards us. Some moths were almost as big as your hand and they came towards the fire in large numbers. The dwarves governed how much we could eat so we wouldn't run out so quickly. We all began to feel hungry continuously. I never ate much anyways, but I still was a little hungry. They tried to find something else in the forest that they could eat that was not poisonous.

There were squirrels and there was a lot of them; they figured one less squirrel in the forest wouldn't do any harm. And, I forgot to mention that Beorn had given some of the dwarves bows and quivers with arrows. They weren't enchanted like mine, but they had them. And might I also mention that they know how to use them but they aren't very good at it or not very good at all. But nonetheless, they tried their luck to shoot one down. They wasted almost all of their arrows and still did not have one. They asked me to try and I took one down in one shot. They didn't make a big stink out of it or say anything in gratitude. I don't know why they didn't ask me in the first place but I guess they were to proud to admit I could most likely get one before them. They made a valiant effort though, sort of. After I shot it, they roasted it and ate it. It smelled horrible when it was cooking and I did not want to take any chances with the taste of it. According to the dwarves, it did not taste good at all so we would never shoot another squirrel again.