Back in the throne room of the Great Goblin, dozens of goblins carry massive instruments of torture on their shoulders, bringing them to the Great Goblin. Meanwhile, the Great Goblin is dancing and singing lustily.
“Bones will be shattered, necks will be wrung! You’ll be beaten and battered, from racks you’ll be hung. You will lie down here and never be found, down in the deep of Goblin-town.” He kept singing dancing slightly, if you count jumping from one foot to another dancing. All the dwarves besides Fili and Kili couldn't even look at Artemis. They were all horrified and disgusted. The daughter of Smaug.
Artemis kept looking over at the group with guilty and pleading eyes. Fili and Kili were scared for her. Thorin wouldn't even look up at her, as she slowly stop resisting against the chains and just let them push her around.
Grinnah, one of the goblins, is examining the weapons the dwarves brought with them. He picks up Thorin’s sword, Orcrist, and slides it a few inches out of its sheath. Recognizing the sword, he gasps in horror and throws down the sword. It lands in view of all the goblins. Recognizing it, the goblins howl in fear and rage as they retreat from it; the Great Goblin runs rapidly to his throne, trampling many goblins on his way. He speaks loudly, pointing at the sword.
“I know that sword! It is the Goblin-Cleaver, the Biter, the blade that sliced a thousand necks.”
As he speaks, Grinnah and the rest of the Goblins begin whipping the dwarves with ropes and leaping upon them, biting and slashing. Artemis started to grow angry and hurt as her hands clenched and fire sparked slightly with her growing anger.
“Slash them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all! Cut off his head!” The Goblin King shouted, as that was the final straw. Goblins went to hold Thorin down, and one of them pulls out his knife and prepares to behead Thorin.
"NO!" Artemis screamed, as a fireball erupted from her hand, knocking down half of the goblins on the platform before she fell to her knees. The dwarves were shocked that she would try to help them, as her hand just had smoke rising from the gloves. The Goblins started to swarm the deck once again, holding her down as their started attacking the dwarves once more.
Suddenly, there is a massive explosion of bright light; the sound goes muted as a shockwave rips through the area, flinging goblins in the air and destroying the torturing machines. Everyone is knocked down, including the Great Goblin. When the force of the explosion has passed, most of the lights in the area have been snuffed out; in the background, a shadow with a tall pointy hat walks up. It is Gandalf, holding his staff and his sword, Glamdring. Light slowly returns to the area as the goblins and the dwarves slowly look up, recovering from the shock. They all stare at Gandalf.
“Take up arms. Fight. Fight!” Gandalf shouted, as Artemis grabbed her red blade, snapping her chains as she stood alongside the dwarves as they were all quickly getting up and beginning to start fighting the goblins. As goblins run at Gandalf, he kills them with his sword and staff. The Great Goblin, still lying on the ground, sees Gandalf’s sword and points at it, crying aloud to his goblins.
“He wields the Foe-Hammer, the Beater, bright as daylight!”
Some of the dwarves reach their pile of weapons and begin tossing the weapons to each other; they use their weapons to defeat the goblins around them. Oin manages to reclaim his hearing trumpet, although it has been quite flattened. Nori, while fighting, lands on the floor; the Great Goblin runs at him and swings his mace.
“Nori!”
Thorin jumps forward and deflects the Great Goblin’s blow, causing the Great Goblin to stumble backward and fall off the edge of his platform, falling to the depths below. The rest of the dwarves and Gandalf continue to fight.
[Gandalf:] “Follow me. Quick! Run!” Gandalf cried. Artemis was at the back of the, group, slowly setting fire to in a distance. Cutting down the goblins around them, the dwarves and Gandalf run along a pathway leading away from the throne room. Gandalf and the dwarves are running through the suspended passageways of Goblin Town, with hundreds of goblins running after them.
“Quickly!” Artemis shouted to the group as she was starting to catch up. Dwalin sees several goblins running at them from in front
“Post!” Dwalin shouted as he and some of the dwarves cut a guardrail post from the side of the path and they hold it out in front of them like a massive spear.
“Charge!” He and the other dwarves charge at the oncoming goblins and sweep them away with the long rail. Dropping the rail, Dwalin pulls out his axes and begins knocking aside goblins. The rest of the company do the same. Gloin hits one goblin who falls and lands on another suspended path, breaking the path and dropping all the goblins on it into the darkness below. The rest of the Company also fight the goblins around them with their various weapons and fighting styles. Several goblins snarl as they swing on ropes toward the dwarves.
“Cut the ropes!” Thorin shouted as Artemis easily ran along the line cutting the ropes swiftly. As Kili fights, several goblins start shooting arrows at him. He deflects some arrows with his sword; he then grabs a nearby ladder and drops it on the oncoming goblins. Kili and some of the other dwarves run forward, pushing the ladder and the goblins it has trapped in front of them. As they approach a missing area of the path, the goblins fall down into the darkness; the ladder, however, acts as a bridge for the dwarves to cross to the rest of the path. As soon as they cross it, Dwalin breaks the ladder, preventing the goblins chasing them from crossing it.
“Quickly!”
The dwarves and Gandalf continue running through the maze-like paths; they get on a section of the path suspended by ropes from above. They slice some ropes, and the pathway swings away from the rest of the path, approaching a different path.
“Jump!”
Several of the dwarves manage to jump to the other path; however, before the rest can, the suspended path swings back like a pendulum to where it started, and several goblins leap on. Artemis blocked a sword that would have killed Kili in the back. As the path swings back again, the rest of the dwarves and Gandalf manage to jump to the new path as well,
"Artemis!" Fili shouted, as she ran along the path as it was swinging away, she cut the ropes. The path began falling under her feet as she dove, just to be get hold of Fili as he lifted her up and they kept on going. Gandalf strikes a rock above them with his staff, causing the rock to fall down and begin rolling in front of the Company, squashing all the goblins in their way. Soon, they approach a bridge between two walls of the cavern. As they try to cross it, the Great Goblin suddenly breaks through from underneath the bridge and pulls himself up onto the bridge, in front of the Company. As the Company pauses, hundreds of goblins approach them from all sides.
“You thought you could escape me?” The Goblin King sneered as he swings his mace twice and Gandalf, causing Gandalf to stumble back and almost fall.
“What are you going to do now, wizard?” He questioned. Gandalf leaps forward and strikes the Great Goblin in the eye with his staff. The Great Goblin drops his mace and clutches his face in pain. Gandalf steps forward and slices the Great Goblin in the belly; the Great Goblin falls to his knees, clutching his belly.
"That’ll do it.” He nodded before Gandalf again swings his sword and slices the Great Goblin’s neck, causing him to fall down dead. His weight causes the bridge to start shaking; suddenly, the section of the bridge on which the company is standing breaks away from the rest of the bridge and starts sliding down the side of the cavern. The bridge slides at a terrific speed down the cavern’s wall, demolishing everything in its way; the dwarves cling on, screaming in terror. The bridge slows down and lands at the base of the cavern, breaking apart and burying the dwarves in the timber and wood. Gandalf gets up from the pile of wreckage and inspects the rest of the dwarves, who are still stuck in the wreckage.
“Well, that could have been worse.” Bofur joked as suddenly, the heavy corpse of the Great Goblin lands on the wreckage, squishing the dwarves further. They cry out in pain.
“You’ve got to be joking!” Dwalin cried out annoyed.
"You just HAD to say something!" Artemis snapped. As the dwarves extricate themselves from the rubble, Kili looks up and sees thousands of goblins running at them. Kili and Filli were trying to help Artemis get herself out from the rubble as she was wedged under.
“Gandalf!” Kili cried, just as they were able to get Artemis out from under the broken bridge.
“There’s too many! We can’t fight them.” Artemis panted as Gandalf bit his lower lip glancing over at her.
“Only one thing will save us: daylight! Come on! Here, on your feet!” Gandalf decided. Getting everyone up quickly, helping each other out of the rubble, and they run away, following Gandalf. They kept running not looking back, Artemis many times had to tell Fili and Kili to just rung forward instead of turning round to make sure she was still behind them.
Blinded by the late afternoon daylight, they squinted holding their hands over their eyes as they kept on running. When they finally stopped, Artemis was taking deep breaths as Gandalf went round counting them to ensure everyone was here.
“Five, six, seven, eight...Bifur, Bofur...that’s ten...Fili, Kili...that’s twelve...and Bombur - that makes thirteen. Where’s Bilbo? Where is our Hobbit? Where is our hobbit?!” He called as Artemis and the others started circling round trying to find Bilbo.
“Curse the halfling! Now he’s lost?!” Dwalin cried out.
“I thought he was with Dori!” Gloin snapped
“Don’t blame me!” Dori shouted as they all started accusing each other.
“Well, where did you last see him?” Gandalf asked worriedly as Thorin was just glaring at Artemis.
“I think I saw him slip away, when they first collared us.” Nori muttered as Gandalf looked hopeful.
“What happened exactly? Tell me!” Gandalf was almost begging.
“I’ll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it! He’s thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door! We will not be seeing our Hobbit again. He is long gone.” Thorin snapped as Bilbo, who is still invisible, hears everything Thorin said. He leans on the tree as he ponders what he has just heard. The dwarves look at each other.
“No, he isn’t.” Bilbo stated as he came into view. Artemis sighed with relief to see him only to gag a little at the nasty smell of Gollum surrounding the hobbit. The dwarves look up in shock and relief. Gandalf laughs as he speaks.
“Bilbo Baggins! I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life!” Bilbo strides forward into the group; he pats Balin affectionately on the shoulder.
“Bilbo, we’d given you up!” Kili chuckled.
“How on earth did you get past the Goblins?!” Fili questioned.
"How, indeed.” Dwalin asked him with narrowed eyes. There is an awkward silence as Bilbo tries to think what to say. In the end, he gives a nervous laugh and puts his hands on his hips. Gandalf and Artemis are the only one to notice Bilbo sliding the Ring into his waistcoat pocket. Gandalf looks a bit perturbed however Artemis sneakily changed to dragon vision as she glanced inside his pocket to see the golden ring. She blinked out of it slightly unsure of what she was seeing.
“Well, what does it matter? He’s back!” Gandalf spoke to change the subject.
“It matters! I want to know: why did you come back?” Thorin snapped at the Hobbit. He knew he had been dreadful to the hobbit.
“Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you’re right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that’s where I belong. That’s home. And that’s why I came back, cause you don’t have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.” Bilbo smiled as Artemis just smiled at the Hobbit. After Bilbo speaks, there is silence as the dwarves think about what Bilbo said. Gandalf smiles slightly, happy that Bilbo has changed so much - for the better. Just then Artemis drew her sword glancing the way they came as she let out a small growl.
"Artemis?" Gandalf asked her, as Thorin glared in her direction. Just then up at the top of the mountain Azog and his Warg Riders, whimpering to her smell of dragon appeared. His wargs jumped forward running towards them, as Gandalf just gasped.
“Out of the frying pan...” Thorin growled
“...and into the fire! Run! RUN!” Artemis shouted.