Peregrin Took was in tremendously high spirits. He was on his third bowl of coney stew, despite Frodo's warnings that if they ate it all now, there would be nothing left for lunch. Pippin didn't know how Frodo could exist on as little as he did. Sometimes he wondered if Frodo would eat at all if Sam wasn't constantly stuffing a plate into his hand.

It hadn't always been that way, Pippin mused. When they had been younger, and more innocent, and had never left the Shire, Frodo had eaten as much as anybody. The business with the Ring had changed him. It had changed all of them, Pippin included. It just didn't show on him as much. He kept the changes inside, preferring his lighthearted ways of the past. He tried not to think on everything he had seen, or to remember those who had been lost, such as good old Boromir.

Pippin had been very fond of Boromir. The Man of Gondor had taught him how to fight. He had been brave, if not overly wise, but Pippin did not consider himself to be overly wise either, so that had never been a problem. Boromir had fallen to the influence of the Ring and been ruthlessly slaughtered by the orcs who had carried him and Merry off and nearly done them in as well. Pippin hated orcs, though occasionally he wondered what they might taste like. He imagined that far too much cleaning would be involved to ever find out. Besides, he made it a policy never to eat anything that could talk.

Now that Boromir was gone, Pippin was equally fond of Faramir, his brother, to whom Pippin had given his allegiance. He hadn't seen good old Farey in a while, and he supposed he ought to make a visit to Gondor soon…though all he really wanted was to go back to the Shire and get started on settling down. Pippin looked over at Angelica, who was merely picking at her stew, and looking around anxiously. He got up and moved closer to her, sitting beside her on the ground.

"You're getting to be just like Frodo," Pippin said. "Not eating, sitting there with that worried look on your face."

"I'm sorry, Pip," Angelica sighed. "I'm worried about Gimli.

"Oh, I'm sure he's with Legolas," Pippin said confidently, but just then Legolas, Ciendriel, and Haldir strolled back into the camp. They were not, Pippin noticed, carrying any food. "Well, they certainly didn't get much hunting done," he said.

"I don't know about that," said Angelica, smiling slightly. She handed Pippin her bowl and hopped up, hurrying over to Legolas. "Have you seen Gimli, Legolas? He is the only one still missing…"

Pippin took in the state of the three Elves. Their clothes were wet and sodden, and their hair in not much better condition. Ciendriel was already rummaging around in her pack, and she quickly pulled out a brush, looking at it as if it were the One Ring. She sat down and began unbraiding her hair with deft fingers. Pippin ran a hand through his own brown curls and was glad he didn't have four feet of hair to untangle.

"No, I have not seen Gimli," said Legolas, frowning. "I should have thought he would have returned to the camp."

"Good riddance," said Haldir, who was rummaging through his own pack. Ciendriel smacked his behind with her brush.

"Don't be unkind!"

"Ow! Princess, I did not know you enjoyed such pleasures," Haldir said, looking at the brush. She smacked him with it again, but Pippin swore he saw a light sparkle in her eyes.

"She does," Legolas said plainly. Pippin nearly choked on his stew. Haldir pulled his brush out of his pack and sat down next to Ciendriel, attempting to straighten out his own hair.

"I thought you did not care for the Dwarf any more than I do," Haldir said casually to Ciendriel.

"He is a friend to Legolas, and therefore I shall try to make him friend to me," Ciendriel said.

"After all," Legolas said, turning to grin at Haldir, "That is why she speaks to you."

Haldir merely grinned back at him. "If that is what you choose to believe, Legolas, so be it."

Pippin was amazed to see such lighthearted camaraderie between the three of them. Something must have happened out there in the rain, he thought. He had been wondering why there was such tension between three who were so obviously attracted to one another. He, Merry, and Angelica had never had this problem. It was odd, since Elves were known to be even more free-spirited in the ways of love than Hobbits.

It made him happy, but what would make him even more happy was if Angelica would stop worrying about Gimli, and the best way to make that happen would be to actually go and find the Dwarf. Hopefully he would have found some more food for their trip, unlike the rest of the Elves.

Pippin put down his bowl, stood up, and walked over to Angelica and Legolas. "Come on, Angelica, we'll go look for Gimli while the Elves stay here and brush their hair," he said, grinning.

"I will come with you," said Legolas.

"I think you ought to take the opportunity to brush your hair," said Haldir.

"It can wait," said Legolas, but he ran a hand through it and grimaced as his fingers got stuck.

"Thank you," said Angelica gratefully. She kissed Pippin on the cheek.

"See to it that the camp is broken and you are ready to go when we return," Legolas said to Frodo.

"We'll be ready," said Frodo.

Pippin took Angelica's hand and led her and Legolas off into the wood.

***

Legolas did not think it would be difficult to track the Dwarf. Dwarves were not known for their ability to slip silently through the woods. Surely there would be a path of broken plants and frightened animals to point out the path he had taken. He looked carefully for these signs and he followed Pippin and Angelica, whose idea of tracking someone involved calling their name out loudly and repeatedly. Still, it gladdened his heart that the Hobbits were so fond of his Dwarf friend that he did not try to silence them.

The rain, though it had ceased, made things difficult. It washed away all trace of scent (usually a good thing where Gimli was concerned) and muddied the ground. His growing concern made it difficult for him to enjoy the beauty of the forest in the early calm of dawn. The sun shined through the trees, turning the drops of water still clinging to the plant life into sparkling gems. Legolas breathed deeply, inhaling the lush scent of the largely untraveled forest.

"Maybe we should get the others to look for him as well," Pippin suggested after they had walked for perhaps fifteen minutes.

"He should have been easy to find," Legolas said, starting to worry himself.

"We never should have let him go off on his own," Angelica said. The female Hobbit looked close to tears. Legolas hoped she would not cry. He was not good at handling weeping females.

Pippin, however, seemed to have no problem with this. "There, there, Angelica. We'll find him, no worries." He stopped and put his arms around her. She clung to Pippin for a minute, dabbed at her eyes, then let him go. "Look!" Pippin said excitedly. He pointed at a tree that had fallen into his line of vision when Angelica hugged him. Legolas moved fleetly over to it, kneeling down to look at what Pippin had spotted.

"A cut from Gimli's ax. You have a good eye, Pippin," he said.

"So he was here," Angelica said excitedly.

"Yes. Let us hurry." Legolas took the lead and dashed ahead of the others in search of the Dwarf. He spotted a broken plant, then another. The trail was not cold after all. He knew Pippin and Angelica were struggling to keep up with him, but he was now even more eager to be assured of Gimli's safety.

He stopped when he came across a small burrow in the ground.

"That's the hole of a coney, for certain," said Pippin. "At least we know Gimli was on the track of some dinner."

"I just hope something didn't have him for dinner instead," Angelica said worriedly.

"I pity whatever beast would try to devour him," Legolas said, smiling. "I think he might hack their way out of its belly with his ax."

Pippin was staring at the burrow. Finally the Hobbit straightened up and looked at Legolas. "This hole is still occupied," he said. "Gimli didn't get the coney."

Legolas nodded. He looked about for any other signs of the Dwarf's trail and moved cautiously ahead. Angelica and Pippin began calling out his name again. Soon they came to a clearing in the woods…but Legolas knew at once that this was not a natural clearing. A fight had taken place here, and he would have bet everything he owned that Gimli had been involved in it. Trees limbs were broken, and plants were trampled. Some were hung with a gossamer thread that Legolas recognized right away.

"No," he whispered in disbelief, running his fingers over the sticky material. "I thought we were too far South for this yet."

"Legolas!" Angelica cried out. She had been poking around in the bushes. She turned around, and fear ran through the Elf as he saw that she was holding Gimli's battle ax.

“We must hurry,” Legolas told her. “I need the both of you to go back and get the others. I’m going to go on ahead. Come back this way and follow the trail of the silk.”

“Silk?” Pippin asked. Legolas pointed out the shimmering threads on the bushes.

“What...is that?” Angelica asked, looking ill.

“It is from the spiders.”

“Spiders!”

“Giant spiders,” Pippin said, sounding less cheerful. Angelica looked at Legolas and he nodded in agreement.

“Giant spiders have Gimli?” she squealed.

“Do not fear for him. They do not devour their prey immediately. We may have several days before--”

“What if they were hungry today?” Angelica said, not calming down.

“I am just as concerned for him as you are,” Legolas said gently, putting his hand on her arm. “Now go, get the others, and follow this way.”

The two Hobbits turned and ran back in the direction of the camp. Legolas watched them go for a moment then hurried onward.

For two days and two nights, talking for neither food nor rest, he tracked the path. He did not allow himself to think that the Dwarf might not survive this, any more than he had allowed himself to think that the orcs had killed Haldir. The rest of the party had not caught up to him -- he could hear them a mile or two behind him always, and he knew they were all safe, that Haldir would look after them, keep them all together.

He hated giant spiders with a passion. They had always haunted the perimeters of Mirkwood forest, and he had hunted them with his brothers many times. He had no doubt that he could hand at least three of them on his own, and that they would not eat Gimli until they had taken them back to their own web. Prey must be truly scarce for them to have moved this close to Lothlorien.

Legolas knew they were intelligent creatures, and some of them could talk, though he himself had never learned their language or encountered any who had known any language which he did know. Truly, he had never had any interest in talking to them, only in killing them. Not only were they a threat to the Elves of Mirkwood, the poison in their fangs could be used to make many different kinds of medicine.

He was reasonably certain that Gimli would be unconscious, in a coma-like state, when they reached him. The poisonous bite of the spider induced a state of unconsciousness that mimicked death. Frodo had been bitten by one before, so Sam would be aware of this, and hopefully the two of them would fill in the others on what they knew.

Legolas knew he was getting closer to the spiders as he came across more and more quantities of the sticky silk, almost as if the creatures were purposefully allowing him to follow. This bothered him intensely. Towards dawn on the third day, close to the edge of the river, Legolas came upon another clearing. It was strung liberally with taut silk strands -- it was a web.

He drew his bow and notched an arrow, on his guard. He looked up into the trees, strained his ears for rustling, but all was still...until he heard a familiar moan.

“Gimli!”

The sun began to rise, shining on the dew beaded on the silvery spider web. It might have been a thing of beauty if it had not represented such a threat... and if the Dwarf had not been suspended in the middle of it. Gimli was bound up from ankle to throat in a casing of silk. Amazingly, he was still wearing his helmet.

“Legolas...” he mumbled. His eyes were swelled closed, and he was barely conscious. Legolas hurried to the edge of the web. He didn’t want to touch it, as it was extremely sticky, but he had to get Gimli down.

“Thank the stars you’re alive.”

“Of course I’m alive,” Gimli muttered. “Can’t marry Angelica if I’m dead.”

Legolas laughed softly, hiccuping slightly. He felt a prickle in the back of his throat, hardly understanding why he felt this way.

“I’m going to cut you down.”

“Cut me down?”

“From...the web.”

Gimli struggled to open his eyes. They were red, and Legolas knew he had probably been bitten by one of the spiders, had been unconscious and probably a little bit out of his wits. Where were they, he wondered?

“Web! Legolas, the spiders! It is a trap...you should run,” Gimli said desperately.

“I won’t leave you here.” Legolas took out his knife and began cutting at the thick ropes of silk.

“Don’t worry about me. I can take them.”

Legolas chuckled. “I think rather they have taken you. I have followed for near three days.”

“Legolas-- go!”

Legolas had sliced a hole in the web, but it was slow going. “Absolutely not.”

“Above you...” Gimli moaned, shivering.

“You have a fever from the poison.”

“Legolas, look up!”

He heard the rustling too late. When he looked up, a dozen ravenous looking spiders bigger than he was were descending from the trees above.