Author's Note: Please forgive me this delay (again...). I have soo many stories I'm writing on at the moment. I simply don't know where to continue :/ Hope you're not mad at me? No? Okay, great, then JUST ENJOY NOW. We're finally in Mirkwood and as you can tell from the title... WE ARE NOT ALONE O.O

R&R pleeeease :))

Duck, Duck, Duck, Spider

Sandra observed a brief second's silence as her friend had demanded her to.

She was used to Natalie forming a certain emotional bond with pieces of furniture or other inanimate objects at times - when she, for instance, bumped a doorframe, she didn't swear like other people do, but apologised and sometimes put a hug on top of it if she was worried she'd injured it too badly. The fact that she treated her lunch almost like family was new to her, however. When grilling the sausages she had lifted from the dwarves one had started whistling, which Natalie, who wasn't nearly as experienced as her friend when it came to cooking, had apparently considered crying or screaming. A poor soul must be held captive in it, she said. That's why she insisted on paying her last respect to it by pausing for a moment before finally devouring it. Sandra had sighed in relief. She had almost thought Natalie would expect of her to generally refrain from eating the meal, but that was too crazy, even for her.

After lunch they went to the timber line as planned, where they stopped for a moment, exchanged a look in anticipation and subsequently entered. They kept to the forest river for their own safety, because, despite what other hikers may say, one could easily get lost without a fixed point of reference, even with a map.

"Look, there's another duck over there!", Natalie called out. It was the third one that had crossed their path within the hours they had spent here, although the others sported black, partially green feathering. This one had a plump one consisting of numerous shades of brown. "How are we gonna call this one?"

Sandra didn't answer right away as she wanted to catch up to her companion who was standing further ahead first. Uphill wasn't her friend at all. "Hm... It looks similar to Bard, a bit rundown but strong. Let's call it Bard."

"No, we can't do that. She's a girl."

"Oh, really? How would you know?"

Natalie raised a brow. "Concerning birds males are always prettier, are more colourful and stuff. It's so clear that you don't know that with your phobia. Are even afraid of reading up about them. Stay put, I gotta pee."

While her friend entered the thick wood, Sandra tried to pierce her with her glare, which didn't really work due to the inattention of the other.

"It's not a phobia!", Natalie, who'd finally found a suitable tree to do number one, heard her call after her. Laboriously rolling up and down her clothes respectively, so that she wouldn't wet them unintentionally, she listened to the dull voice of her companion with a smirk, shaking her head. "I am not afraid of birds. I simply have a healthy respect for them. And I find them disgusting. Quite rightly, though. NATALIE!"

Although she hadn't finished yet, the smaller one got dressed lightning-fast and ran off.

Reaching the river again, she spotted Sandra, who was stiff as a statue pointing at something, grimacing. At the streambank lay something that seemed like some abstract rock formation at the first look, but on a closer examination...

"Strike me pink... What a fat crab or insect or whatever this ought to be!", Natalie said in a cheerful tone and hopped straight up to it.

Sandra gave her a shocked look. "You won't touch it, will you?!"

Though, hardly had the words left her mouth, her friend already poked the animal a few times. "What's wrong with you? It's dead anyway."

"No, what's wrong with you? This thing is gross and you touch it right away!"

The small one had her notebook whipped out in a matter of seconds and began to scribble into it with joy, inspecting the crab/insect from all sides. Its body was about one foot tall and protected by a robust, pale shell, the numerous legs were tucked up, as if it was hugging itself. "Don't tell me you're scared of creepy-crawlies as well."

"Again: I am not scared. But this, this fat thingamajig here, is just grooooss! And now stop pretending you don't feel that way too! You were the one urging to go sleep in your brother's room, when I stayed over with you, just because there was this big bug in your room!"

"That's an eternity ago.", Natalie defended herself, drawing the last lines for her sketch. "In case you didn't notice, beetles and stuff are no problem for me anymore, for years not. When I spot one at my place, I greet it politely and don't pay any attention to it again. Except it annoys me with buzzing, then I carefully pick it up and gently toss it out of the window."

"Gently toss?"

"Y'know what I mean, casually throwing."

"It's surely not as casual for them as you think."

She got up from squatting, eyeing the creature once more, before slowly turning to her friend. "Don't take that from me. I don't kill creepy-crawlies anymore. Just like this big one here they're also living be- GIANT SPIDER!"

Her scream made Sandra start with fright and spin around, whereby she could barely avoid the bite of the gigantic spider behind her. Immediately, Natalie yanked her, who just stared at the thing in front of her, completely perplexed, by her arm. The smaller one had drawn her sword, threateningly holding it out towards the spider, while letting loose some roaring sounds in hopes of scooing the critter away thereby. However, it had no effect.

The spider attacked again, like a unit the two of them dodged, shrieking.

"RUN!", Sandra screamed and shot ahead into the wood, her tight grip around her friend's wrist.

The hasty scuttling the spider legs created behind them was like whiplashes to the two of them, impelled them. As fast as their bodies allowed it they sprinted over the ground dotted with leaves, past trees, through the covert, not a clue whereto actually. But they couldn't care less at the moment. Away, simply away, was the name of the game. Natalie mentally thanked her friend for working on her dexterity the past weeks, since if she stumbled now, as so often in the past, slipped or simply fell, it'd be over with them.

As if she'd put the kiss of death on it, Sandra stumbled over her own feet, right after she'd leapt over a thick root, graceful like a roe, though, fortunately, didn't fall to the ground, but against the next tree that was covered in cobwebs. Swiftly, her companion helped her to free her from the sticky filaments. There the same scuttling, that had just haunted them, sounded from above. Natalie looked up shortly and spotted another giant spider, abseiling down to them, which even drove her otherwise useless left hand to a top performance. With a few last movements she tore Sandra away from the tree and they dashed off again, this time anxious to not touch the countless white structures.

As well as possible they tried to run in zigzags, hoped to confuse and outdistance those massive creepy-crawlies thereby and as by a miracle the scuttling became less and more and more quiet. Looking back, Natalie couldn't even spot a single one of them, which was why she motioned to her friend, whereupon they let themselves fall down behind a tree and hid beneath its roots that hung like a ledge over the ground wave they'd just jumped over.

Huddled, they only perceived their own panting and pulse that pounded in their ears for a few moments. Then Sandra whispered: "I thought such critters are no problem for you anymore, you hypocrite..."

Still out of breath, the smaller one looked at her with widened eyes. "You've got shit for brains or what?! Those were GIANT SPIDERS!", she spat as quiet as she could. "Whoever doesn't run away from that, is not normal!" She rubbed her face, tryed to calm her body down by taking a deep breath. Sandra followed suit.

"Are they gone now?"

"Dunno. Check it."

"Why me?"

"Because you asked."

"Oh no, that's not how it goes! Gimme your fist."

Natalie shifted to make space for their two fists.

"Rock, paper, scissors!"

Sandra grimaced as she saw Natalie's paper formation across from her rock fist.

"Ha!", the smaller one uttered and pointed up.

"All right... But in case I don't see anything, you gotta check again."

"Fair enough and now go."

Sandra took one more deep breath, gathered all her courage and let her head jolt up. As quick as it was there, it went down again.

"And?"

"You gotta check. T'was too short, everything was blurry."

Another look of indignation was shot at her. "This is not what we agreed on!"

"We didn't discuss how long I have to look."

Just like her narrowed eyes Natalie's lips formed a straight line, which didn't seem to intimidate her friend and she gave in reluctantly. "All right then..." She sighed and got on her knees. "But just to clarify matters: You're a dud."

Other than her companion the small one stretched as slowly as possible in order to not rouse anything unnecessarily. Trembling, she looked around in that dark forest, though, even after a few moments she couldn't realise any danger and sat down, just as cautious as earlier. "Nothin'."

Sandra let out a sigh of relief, leant back, her eyes closed, while her friend rummaged about her coat and fetched the map.

"Do you have an idea how far we ran?"

A weak head-shaking was the only response she received.

"Hm..." Pensively, the smaller one studied the lines before her eyes. "I think we ran in this direction. Well, on the whole at least. Considering our speed and the time we spent running, then w-"

She choked on her words, as she suddenly got yanked forwards. With widened eyes, Sandra barely managed to grab her friend's hands, while the huge spider, who'd rammed its fangs into Natalie's shank, kept tearing at her.

"IT WANTS TO EAT ME! IT WANTS TO EAT ME! KILL IT! HACK IT TO DEATH!", she yelled and Sandra tightened her grip to not let go unwittingly. Back and forth she looked between her hands and the axe on her back in desperation. She wasn't sure if she should grab her weapon, if one of her arms spent enough strength against this beast, but she wouldn't be able to remain that way for hours as well. What was she supposed to do? She absolutely had no clue and Natalie's screeches didn't make thinking easier.

Out of nowhere one of the animal's many eyes got gored by an arrow, the pressure on Natalie's leg ceased and both of them bobbed up, whereby they shrieked again at at the sight of all the other approaching spiders. Paralysed by fear they didn't budge, simply clutched each other and watched in astonishment, as one creature after the other got caught by blades and arrows. The long-haired figures moved so gallantly and fast over both the branches of the trees and the ground that it was hardly discernable how they acoomplished the killing exactly, but that wasn't relevant. At the moment the two women weren't able to think straight anyway.

Only when all of those creepy-crawlies were dead or fled, the two dared to exhale.

"Oh dearie me!", Natalie laughed, panting. "And I thought this would be our-"

There douzens of arrowheads were held in front of her and Sandra, which again conjured a horrified expression to the taller one's face.

Natalie seemed rather surprised than shocked. "Well... Shit."