In the spiders' nest, everything was already decided. The arrival of the Silvan Elves had completely sentenced the creatures; they were exterminated with precision and speed. But even with the threat eliminated, a new confrontation seemed imminent.
The Elven squad surrounded the dying Dwarves and the Elden, who regrouped, raising their weapons, making it clear that they were not easy prey... and that the Elves were not rivals to be feared either.
Speaking in their Elvish tongue, the rangers discussed the strange intruders in their forest. But soon the conversation turned to an even more worrying matter.
"They are contaminated," warned one of the scouts, checking a Dwarf who could barely stand.
Under normal circumstances, no Dwarf would allow an Elf to examine him as if he were a wounded beast. But none had the strength to prevent it. Only Thorin, dazed, tried to lunge at an Elf; he ended up tripping and falling flat on his face, unable to get up.
"It is the Red Curse," another Elf declared, inspecting the others.
"What do we do, my Lord? Do we eliminate them?" asked one, drawing his blade. The Elves felt no sympathy for the Dwarves, and the infection had already demonstrated its horror. Killing the contaminated seemed, outwardly, the most reasonable thing to do.
"Wait," Legolas intervened.
As Prince of Mirkwood, he didn't appreciate the Dwarves either; but he was unwilling to take lives without understanding what was happening. He needed answers. His gaze then fell on the humans present.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" he asked, aiming his bow at them, showing no mercy as he saw them all with weapons raised.
None of the Elden responded. They looked at each other and then at Malenia. In Miquella's absence, she was in command, and everyone awaited her decision.
Malenia took a step forward, instantly tensing the Elves. Her imposing height and the dangerous aura surrounding her made more than one shudder.
"We are the Elden. We are accompanying the Dwarves toward Erebor to fulfill a mission," she declared, without a trace of fear despite the dozens of arrows aimed at her heart.
Legolas frowned. He looked at the Dwarves more closely and finally recognized the one who had fallen: Thorin Oakenshield. That complicated everything. It wasn't something he could decide alone; he had to inform his father, King Thranduil.
"Search them," he commanded. If he was going to take them prisoner, he wasn't going to allow them to keep their weapons.
The Elden raised their arms, ready to confront the Elves despite recognizing them as being like those from Rivendell. Recognizing them didn't mean obeying them. But Malenia raised a hand, asking them not to resist. She clearly remembered Trina's words and her brother's agreements, so she preferred to cooperate for now.
Reluctantly, the Elden threw their weapons to the ground. The Elves began to search them.
For the Silvans, the surprise was great. They knew men, but these... these were different. Their aura, their demeanor, their presence: each one seemed an exceptional specimen among common humans. Even so, the Elves maintained a certain consideration: they didn't take advantage of the women during the search or try to rip off masks. Even with the dying Dwarves, they avoided abuse, beyond a rough movement when taking their weapons. They were barely conscious anyway.
Of course, two Elden stood out more than everyone else: Latenna and Malenia herself.
With Latenna, the Elves were first surprised when they separated her from her wolf, which growled protectively, and noticed she didn't stand up.
"Get up," one of them ordered, finding no visible wounds or signs of the Scarlet Rot.
Everyone looked at her... and Dwalin, leaning against a tree and panting, let out a mocking snort.
"Elves... Heh... they don't even know how to treat ladies... or cripples," he scoffed with his limited strength.
The Elves looked at Latenna again, who tried to obey Malenia's previous order to cooperate. She leaned on the trunk behind her... but only managed to lift herself a few inches before falling again. It wasn't that she didn't want to get up: it was that she couldn't.
Legolas was the first to understand.
"It's alright. Stay seated," he said, lacking the stomach to demand more from a disabled person.
"Can I ride my wolf?" she asked calmly.
The Elves looked at each other and then at Legolas.
"Muzzle it and tie it up. And keep it watched," the Prince ordered.
With improvised ropes, they tied the wolf's snout. The creature disliked it immensely but did not resist under Latenna's soft gaze and voice. Her hands were also bound, although at least she could settle onto her companion's back.
The next issue was Malenia. As the leader, the Elves did not plan to leave her unsearched or allow her to keep her weapons. However... when they approached to inspect her, their expressions of surprise and disbelief were impossible to hide on their normally serene and cold faces.
Her blade was joined directly to her prosthetic arm, indicating they would have to remove it completely. Malenia, adhering to her brother's plan not to oppose the Elves, offered no resistance. In doing so, she exposed what was so clearly visible: the Scarlet Rot had advanced deeply through her body.
The Elves, examining her prosthetics and observing the magnitude of the corruption running through her flesh, were speechless. No one contaminated to that level should still be alive. They no longer saw the imposing warrior whose aura had tensed them minutes ago; they saw someone who, by any standard of Elvish healers, did not have much time left.
"That level of contamination... is not something we can treat," Legolas said solemnly. It was not a threat, but a statement: to the Elves, she was condemned, whether she was with them or not. With the Dwarves, they planned to attempt treatments to extract answers, but Malenia's case was far beyond their reach.
"I don't need you to try," she replied calmly, only giving a superficial answer without wanting to explain further. "My prosthetics are forged with a metal capable of containing the Scarlet Rot."
Legolas's eyes widened in genuine astonishment. A metal capable of containing that sickness? What she called the "Scarlet Rot" and what the Elves knew as the "Red Curse"... that was invaluable. His interest in the Elden immediately multiplied. The importance of taking them before his father increased: something that could curb or control the corruption was exactly what his people needed.
They could not allow her to keep the blade, but Malenia managed to detach the blade from its join with her prosthetic arm, keeping only the prosthesis itself. Legolas did not object; demanding she also remove her metallic limbs, after what they had just discovered, would have been shameful even for an Elven prince.
With this resolved, Legolas wanted to leave for the Mirkwood kingdom as soon as possible.
"Tauriel?" he called, looking for the Elf who had not yet been seen.
"There's another one here," a female voice replied from above, next to a cocoon of spider silk. It was the same one Bilbo had failed to reach. "Another Dwarf," she deduced from the size.
"Bring it down. We must take them all before the contamination is irreversible," Legolas ordered.
Tauriel cut the silks with a quick motion and dropped the cocoon, which descended between branches until it hit the ground.
At that instant, the Elden erupted in fury. Unarmed, disadvantaged, uncaring of anything else: they all stepped forward to lunge at the Elves. They had counted every member of the Company; upon seeing the size of the cocoon, they knew exactly who was inside. That way of handling it... that offense could only spark a thirst for blood.
The Elves, taken by surprise, instinctively retreated from the aggressive reaction. What was about to happen would be bloody.
But...
"Stop!" Malenia thundered in a hard, commanding voice that stopped Elden and Elves alike. "Calm yourselves!"
The Elden—especially Leda—looked at Malenia with visible disgust. They could not understand why she was stopping them. How could she allow the Elves to treat their lord Miquella this way? Fury boiled in their chests, and more than one felt the urge to disobey her, even for an instant.
Malenia, however, ignored those emotions. She simply raised a hand, ordering silence and retreat.
If one thing was certain, it was that she would never let anything happen to her brother. In fact, she had been the first to be one step away from ripping off the Elven prince's head and unleashing a massacre. Had it not been for Trina's voice, whispering that Miquella was safe, previously protected by a magical membrane, the forest would have burned with Elvish blood.
The Elves, disconcerted by the sudden outburst, reinforced their vigilance. Their front line tensed their bows; the seconds drew their swords. Some rangers who had ended up rolling on the ground after being rammed already knew that, even unarmed, the Elden were dangerous, almost bestial enemies.
Legolas narrowed his eyes, prepared to reprimand, perhaps even insult, the Elden for their madness. But his gaze drifted toward the recently thrown cocoon on the ground. He could only assume that someone extremely important to them was inside. By the size, it had to be a Dwarf... and with Thorin present, it was hard to imagine who else could cause such a breakdown.
"Open it," Legolas ordered Tauriel.
She nodded. Her weapon remained firm in her hands; after seeing the Elden launch themselves like wild creatures, she was prepared to fight without hesitation.
Tauriel ripped the top of the cocoon. Then her face completely changed. She froze.
"It's... a child," she said in Sindarin, with disbelief. "An Elf."
Legolas felt the air escape him for an instant. He ran to her to check. Upon seeing the face of the sleeper, he was equally surprised. It made no sense. What was an Elven child doing among this group?
Tauriel finished tearing the webs, freeing Miquella's body, who was sleeping deeply... or so it seemed.
"He has no wounds. He is simply... in a very deep sleep," the Elf commented, with a touch of guilt for having dropped the cocoon earlier.
Legolas was confused. An Elven child, too important to these humans, in the hands of such an unusual group... and he had thrown him from a tree. He felt no guilt for being rough with the Dwarves—their ancient grudges were hard to ignore—but with one of his own people... that struck his pride.
Tauriel gently stroked the child's face. Miquella, as if responding to a warm dream, stretched out his arms and hugged her, clinging to her tenderly. Tauriel was petrified, surprised; then she returned the embrace, using it to hold and lift him. She ended up carrying him against her chest, as if he were a small sleeping animal.
The rangers who had heard that it was an Elven child were alarmed. Some misinterpreted the situation and aimed their arrows at the Elden, suspecting kidnapping or worse. Legolas immediately calmed them and assured them that the answers would come in the kingdom.
They couldn't waste any more time. He turned around, ready to give the command to depart, but in doing so, he bumped... into something. Or rather, someone.
Malenia was right behind him.
It was the first time anyone had managed to surprise the Elven prince in that manner. He had to take a step back, feeling almost stunned. He looked up to meet those intense eyes that watched him with such force that his heart instinctively tensed with danger.
"That one there... is my brother," was all Malenia said, her voice firm, cutting, loaded with a silent threat.
Legolas, though confused, swallowed before responding.
"We do not mistreat children. He will be well cared for," he assured. He received nothing more than that cold, piercing gaze before Malenia stepped aside.
Finally, he raised his voice in Sindarin:
"Back to the kingdom! Quickly! Someone go ahead and notify the healers for the Dwarves."
Thus, the Elves began to escort the group. The Elden, still tense, themselves carried the Dwarves who could not walk. And Miquella... remained "asleep," clinging to Tauriel's body like a small golden koala.