((Written on 14th August, 2015))
Dear Diary,
Finally I had the courage to venture into the dark Old Forest and seek traces of my pa there. One early morning, ere the break of dawn, I took my bagpack and my axe and stepped onto the road, clutching a safety biscuit in my hand. I bade farewell to my two ponies, Roseanne and Creamy, who did not pay much attention to my departure; they were more interested in the flowers on my neighbor’s yard. I went on, passed the Southfarthing gate, past Tuckborough, past the Bywater fields. The safety biscuit was already gone into my belly as I reached Frogmorton. When I finally crossed the Brandywine Bridge, I stopped for a moment and looked back. The Shire was waking up without any haste into another merry sunny day. I saw fishermen climbing down to the river bank, I saw farmers inspecting their crops, probably stomping some shrewholes, and I saw the last customers of the Golden Perch return to their homes. I have never loved the sight more. I tried to treasure it all in my mind, for a gloomy path was ahead of me, without a lovely sight to be seen.
Arriving in Buckland, I ate a rich breakfast at a farmhouse. I thought that it would be hard to keep up with the hobbit meal schedule in the forest, so I tried to fill my tummy as full as I could beforehand. When I had finally managed to wolf down a raspberry pie, crispy bacons, eggs and a mushroom salad, I made my way slowly towards the Old Forest gate. I stopped for a moment by the gate and looked grimly into the darkness that waited on the other side. It felt like the moment before you jump into dark and cold water (except that I have never done a thing like that). It was too late to turn around now. ‘My pa went in, and so will I,’ I encouraged myself. ‘We are made from the same wood, he and me. I can do this.’ I took a few steps, and there I was, swallowed by the dark, gloomy forest.
It took some time for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. The forest wasn’t pitch dark – there was this strange, blueish gloom all around me, like some old magic that oozed from the trees themselves into the air. There was an unnatural silence that seemed to swallow all sound. The only thing I heard was my own breathing – or at least I hoped it was my own breathing! The paths were trickier than the Hedge maze near Bree Town. Here there were no unruly tweens running around, just bats, wolves and even bears. I did my best to avoid them. As an Overhill lass, I was used to move about stealthily in the forest, without being seen by any creature. But here I was even more careful: even the trees seemed to have eyes, and if I wasn’t mistaken, I would say that they moved.
I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, and where. I didn’t have a clue why my pa had come to the forest in the first place, but I bet it wasn’t for a nice picnic. He was in the habit of making campfires and sleeping in a hammock during his lumber trips, so I tried to keep an eye for those. I ventured deeper and deeper, into the very heart of the woods, trying to chase the rising fear from my mind.
After a while the path seemed a bit different than before. It was more narrow and overgrown, almost invisible. The trees were covered in pale threads here and there. Suddenly I realized that I had arrived at a relatively large clearing inside the forest. I hid myself inside a bush and looked at the place more carefully. By now I realized that the pale threads were actually cobwebs. The edges of the clearing were covered in them. At the other side of the clearing there were huge cocoons in a neat row. And then I saw them: huge, gleaming red eyes, moving about. I shivered in my bush. A large black spider was standing near the cocoons. Smaller ones were gathered around it. It seemed that they were eating something, there was such a fuss going on. I thought that it would be no use to take part into this feast as I would likely enter it as a dish and not a guest. But before I had managed to turn my toetips towards the path I had come from, I saw a spider entering the clearing from the path. Probably they were all gathering for a meal, and probably more were coming from the same path. I couldn’t hide from them on that narrow path. ‘I have to find another way out,’ I thought.
Heart bumping, I looked around. The clearing was surrounded by thick wall of trees and undergrowth, all covered with sticky looking webs. My spirits sunk – I seemed to be trapped. But then, I saw something strange in the undergrowth nearby. By the tree wall, there was a strange bundle of branches. Those branches were newly fallen – they had green leaves on them. Maybe it would provide a better hiding place, I thought, and so I sneaked carefully to the branches and jumped behind them. And then I saw it.
Someone had cut a little hole into the thick undergrowth that surrounded the clearing. It was just the size of a hobbit to crawl through. I crawled inside without hesitation, hoping for the best. I came to a little room – or that’s how I would call it. It was a tiny space surrounded by trees, probably the size of my own bedroom. And there was daylight, pouring down from somewhere high up. I could smell the fresh air even from the bottom of the forest. But it wasn’t the only thing to cheer me up. Before me, on the ground, there were the remains of an old campfire. This was indeed a room, and someone had lived in it. ‘I must have been pa!’ I thought. I could have cried from happiness, but I didn’t dare. I peered up towards the canopy and got an idea. I started climbing. The air had never felt more fresh nor the sunlight brighter. When I reached the top, my eyes where blinded by the daylight, but it didn’t matter. I heard the birds chatter and sing, I felt a lovely breeze on my face. I opened my eyes slowly and looked at the trees beneath me. I saw that I was actually quite near the forest edge. I could see green hills before me, and a river glittered somewhere in the distance. I was relieved. ‘Maybe I can get out of here alive,’ I thought. But first, I needed to find out something important.
When I started to climb down the tree, I saw something on the trunk. Something had cut a deep line into the bark, probably a rope. Probably a rope of a hammock! I saw a similar mark on another tree nearby. Someone had hung a hammock up here, away from the spiders and the darkness. It had to be a hobbit, a hobbit that liked hammocks! I was excited. I had to search the ground below for more clues, so I continued to climb down. This time, the darkness didn’t seem that bad. When I was back at the bottom, I dug my fingers into the leaves, trying to find something else. Everything seemed to be gone, along with the traveller himself. He had left a while ago. The campfire was old. Suddenly I saw a little tunnel at the other side of the little room. It was pretty small, but still enough big for a hobbit. The edges were cut rather hastily. The hobbit had to leave this place in a hurry, but he had left it, nevertheless! But then, just when I was about to crawl into that tunnel, I felt something hard beneath my knee, under the fallen leaves. I picked it up and shook the leaves off. It was a book with leather covers. On the cover, there was a carving of a lily, my pa’s favorite flower. The discovery made my hairs stand up in my neck as well as on my toes. This was my pa’s journal! I opened it and tried to read it, but it was too dark. I needed more light. I put the journal into my pocket and decided to climb up again, where there was more light for reading. But then I felt a slimy grasp on my left foot.
I looked back and I saw a bundle of thick, pale webs around my ankle. A little spider had seen me from the clearing through the hole in the wall, but the hole was too small for it to enter, so it had tried to draw me with its webs. It looked at me from the other side with its soulless, hungry eyes and began to pull me towards its jaws. I shook my leg and tried to get rid of the web, but it was too sticky and tight. The spider pulled me faster towards it. It was quite strong for a little spider. Only then I remember the axe I had strapped to my bagpack. I grapped it and cut the webs with it. But when the spider saw that I was escaping, it went furious. It pushed itself against the little hole with all its strength and somehow, it managed to get through. I screamed in horror and crawled away from the spider, towards the exit tunnel on the other side of the room. But the spider was faster and it jumped over me. I flung my axe towards it and felt how something cold and slimy fall on my face. At the same time, I felt an awful pain in my leg. I heard a scream that was not mine, it was an unnatural sound, hard to describe. I remember crawling into the little tunnel, hoping it would lead me to safety.
I stopped crawling only when I could feel the first rays of sunlight on my skin. I looked up andrealized that I was lying somewhere near the forest edge. A squirrel peered at me from a nearby tree, a puzzled look on its face. I tried to stand up, but the pain in my leg was too bad and I couldn’t take one single step with it. There was a black, swollen spot on my leg. The spider had stung me. I needed help, but I was still in the middle of nowhere. I tried to crawl away from the forest, but it was no use. The pain seemed to spread from the leg with every movement I took. I fell on the soft grass and looked at the blue skies above. It seemed to get a bit darker. I cried help a few times, or at least tried. My head started to become dizzy. I tried to remember the fireworks above the Green Dragon on Friday night, I thought how soft the rug on my kitchen floor felt like. I wanted to taste the blueberry muffins my ma made every Sunday morning. Licking the dough was always the best part in any baking. ‘I shouldn’t give up now, I have to fight to enjoy all these things once again,’ I thought.
I cried out one last time, and then I fell into the darkness. The last thing I remember was a kind, pale face of a lass, looking down at me with a friendly smile. When I woke up, the face was gone, but so was the darkness – and I knew I was safe.
I will write more later, dear diary. I am still a bit weary of this all. I still need to study pa’s journal a bit more. It seems that there were so many things I didn’t know about him. But I will probably get to that later on.
