Disclaimer: I don't own The Hobbit characters or plot of the story!
*******
Days had passed by since Belle had run out of her door, and the company trudged on their long and weary way. It wasn't long before the company came upon the ruins of what used to be a farm house.
"We'll camp here for the night." Thorin announced to the company. They got down from their ponies and set to work to set their camp sight. "Fíli, Kíli look after the ponies." Thorin ordered. "Make sure you stay with them."
The boys obeyed their uncle's command and went to gather the ponies, after they helped Belle get off hers.
*******
Gandalf meanwhile went to inspect the old farm house ruins, and by the look of the place; it looked like it had been destroyed recently.
"A farmer and his family used to live here." He observed and was clearly disturbed it's wreck.
"Óin, Glóin, get a fire going." Thorin ordered as he made his way to Gandalf.
"Aye, right ye are." Glóin nodded and set off to collect firewood.
Gandalf overheard them and has no intention of camping here; who or what destroyed this farmhouse is very likely to come back.
"I think it would be wiser to move on." Gandalf advised cautiously to Thorin. "We could make for the hidden valley."
Thorin gave Gandalf cold hard look; he was not pleased to hear that.
"I have told you already." Thorin said stubbornly. "I will not go near that place."
"Why not?" Gandalf asked in frustration. "The Elves could help us; we could get food, rest and advice."
"I do not need their advice." Thorin growled firmly.
"We have a map that we cannot read." Gandalf convinced. "Lord Elrond could help us."
"Help?" Thorin intensified. "A dragon attacks Erebor, what help came from the Elves? Orcs plunder Moria desecrate our sacred halls. The Elves looked on and did nothing."
Thorin replied as he gazed up at Gandalf with eyes filled with fiery rage.
"And you ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather." He accused with a pain in his voice. "Who betrayed my father?"
"You are neither of them." Gandalf confirmed firmly. "I did not give you that map and key for you to hold on to the past."
"I did not know that they were yours to keep." Thorin answered back with an infuriated glare.
Filled with silent anger, Gandalf turned and stormed away from the stubborn Dwarf.
*******
Belle was helping Balin with his equipment when she noticed Gandalf with an angered look on his face and was storming away from Thorin. She knew something was wrong.
"Is everything alright?" Belle asked uneasily, noticing that he was leaving she started to panic. "Gandalf, where are you going?"
"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense." Gandalf answered in annoyance.
"And who's that?" Belle questioned.
"MYSELF, Miss Baggins!" Gandalf yelled as he walked away towards his horse. "I've had enough of Dwarves for one day." He muttered.
"Come on Bombur, we're hungry." Thorin ordered Bombar to get the food started; obviously he was not bothered by Gandalf's sudden departure.
But Belle felt more worried as she watched helplessly at Gandalf as he rode away from the company.
"Is he coming back?" Belle asked fretfully when she turned to Balin. But he shrugged with uncertainty which troubled her even more.
*******
By evening, the company; apart from Belle, Fíli and Kíli, had all gathered around the camp fire and helped themselves with Bombur's and Belle's hot stew.
Belle was keeping a look out to see if Gandalf might come, but there was no sign of him in the darkness. She got up from where she sat and made her way to and company and the warm camp fire.
Bofur who was helping Bombur serve the stew and handed them to the company, took notice Belle coming over to them with a face that was full of worry.
"He's been gone a long time." Belle said to Bofur.
"Who?" Bofur inquired as he was filling up two bowls with stew.
"Gandalf." Belle clarified.
"He's a wizard, he does as chooses." Bofur said casually, clearly he's not at all worried about the wizard's sudden disappearance. "Here, do us a favour, take these to the lads." He handed to her the two bowls of steaming stew.
With a sigh, Belle reluctantly took the bowls and set off to where Fíli and Kíli are with the ponies. As she went she spotted Thorin near the ruin farmhouse smoking his pipe. She can't help feeling annoyed by him for driving Gandalf away. So she silently went past him, she was unaware Thorin was staring after her as she left.
*******
Belle headed towards the ruin of what was once a stable, which was where the company placed their ponies. She eventually found the boys and came up between them to give them each their bowls, but they didn't take them from her; she noticed a worried look on their faces.
"What's the matter?" Belle asked with concern.
"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies." Kíli answered in anxiety.
"Only we've encountered a slight problem." Fíli said uneasily.
"We had 16." Kíli explained.
"Now there's 14." Fíli concluded as he showed her the rest of ponies that are left. This alarmed her.
Soon, both she and boys looked around the ruins; counting as they went to see which ponies are missing.
"Daisy and Bungo are missing." Kíli discovered.
Belle followed them around, still holding their bowls of stew.
"Well that's not good." Belle said timidly. "And that's not good at all, shouldn't we tell Thorin?"
"NO!" Fíli called out in a sudden panic, but quickly calmed down a bit. "No, let's not worry him. As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into it."
Belle hesitated for a moment, but went to investigate to find clues of what could had happened to the missing ponies. Then she noticed some fallen trees with their roots that looked like it had just been pulled from the ground hours ago.
"Well... it looks like something big uprooted these trees." Belle inspected at the fallen trees.
"That was our way of thinking." Kíli agreed.
"It's something very big." Belle said nervously as she examined the wreck. "And possibly quite dangerous." At that moment, she thought it was best to tell Thorin and secretly wished Gandalf was still with them.
They looked through the wreckage of the trees until Fíli spotted something.
"Hey, there's a light." He alerted to them in a hushed voice. They gathered round the fallen tree trunk to see what he spotted. "Stay down." He warned at his sibling and their burglar, they crouched down behind their hiding place. "Over there." He pointed at a faint fiery glow between the woods and then they heard a low and gluttonous laugh in the distance.
"What is it?" Belle whispered to the brothers.
"Trolls." Kíli growled in a low voice and then in a flash the two brothers rushed towards the light. Not knowing what to do, Belle decided to follow them; she nearly forgotten the bowls and went back to get them and set off after the dwarf brothers.
The quietly raced through the woodland towards the light that was getting a bit brighter as they ran, Fíli and Kíli reached some large overgrown roots of a tree and knelt down for cover to spy on where the light was coming from.
As Belle caught up with them, she suddenly heard thunderous thuds of footsteps coming from her left side, she gave a small gasped at what she saw and ducked for cover behind a tree near the where the boys were hiding. She peeked out and saw a very big, grey bulky figure stomping through the woods and in each of its arms were a couple of frightened ponies and she recognized one of the ponies in horror.
"He's got Myrtle and Minty!" She whispered in shock at the boys as they watch the giant creature headed to the light. "I think they are going to eat them. We have to do something."
The dwarf brothers looked to her.
"Yes, you should." Kíli suggested and walked up to her and took his bowl from her. "Mountain trolls are slow and stupid and you're small they'll never see you." She stared at him.
Belle didn't like this idea at all and tried to tell them she refused to go along with this stupid insane plan, but they didn't give her a chance to reply.
"It's perfectly safe." Kíli assured her. "We'll be behind you."
Before she could give them her refusal, Fíli began to push her towards the way where the troll had gone.
"If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl." Fíli instructed to her as he took his bowl of stew from her, then they backed away to their hiding place.
Belle faced to where the troll, the ponies and light are as she muttered to herself the instructions Fíli gave her.
"Twice like a barn owl, no twice like a brown." She muttered to herself as she was getting ready. "Or was it once like a... Wait a minute; Barn owls don't hoot, they..." Belle realized as she turned to correct the boys but she found they were gone.
"...Screech." She finished, she turned back to the direction of where the troll gone, she gave a deep sigh of defeat.
"Why do I have a feeling that this plan isn't going to work?" Belle thought miserable to herself.
But she had no other choice, those ponies need help. Taken a deep breath, Belle set off quietly towards the Troll's den.
*******
From a distance, Fíli and Kíli watched cautiously at Belle as she sets off on her own through the woods.
"What would happen if she discovers that he's there?" Kíli asked his brother with anxiety.
"I'm more concern about his safety from those trolls." Fíli countered with concern as he looked towards where the trolls camped. "I just hope the trolls won't discover him before she does."
Fíli finished as they continued to watch their burglar.
*******
Meanwhile Belle got a little bit closer to the where the light of the fire was, she kept herself hidden amongst the bushes and then she overheard rough and gravelly voices.
"Mutton yesterday, mutton today." Belle heard the first gruff voice complained. "And blimey; if it don't look like mutton again tomorrow!"
"Quit your griping!" The second voice scorned at the first voice. "These ain't sheep, these is fresh nags." He argued.
At that moment; Belle parted the bushed in front of her and saw to her horror; two huge trolls sitting by the fire; one named Bert was cooking something in a small cooking pot hanging over the flames, the other troll sitting next to him named Tom was slightly a bit thin with a dribbled nose that hasn't been blown properly and the third one called William looked bigger that the other two, walked towards where the missing ponies are kept and joined the two ponies he had taken with the herd and went to join the others around the camp fire.
She read about trolls in her books but never had she seen one up close; their skins are so wrinkled and grey that look like they had never been outdoors in their whole life, their teeth are rotten but still intact, their face were big with a little deformity shown on their complexion and from the smell they hadn't had a bath in days. She spotted the scared ponies in a small troll made fence and under cover of bushes she slowly and quietly made her way towards them.
"Oh I don't like horse, I never have." Tom fussed as he looked at the nervous ponies. "Not enough fat on them."
"Well it's better than the leathery old farmer." Bert said as he stirred the revolting stew. "All skin and bone he was. I'm still picking bits of him out of my teeth." When Belle heard that comment she felt sick of what happen to that poor, unfortunate farmer and his family.
But when got she round near the trolls she saw Tom sneeze straight into the stew. That repulsing moment made her feel queasy.
"Well that's lovely that is; a floater." Bert said sarcastically as looked at the snot floating in the stew.
"Might improve the flavour!" William mocked.
"Ah there's more where that came from." Tom assumed stupidly and was about to snort more snot into the stew but William stopped him by grabbing his nose to block up his nostrils.
"Oh no, you don't!" Bert shouted and shoved Tom back to his seat. "Sit down!" Tom nervously sat up and took out a dirty handkerchief that hasn't been washed in years.
At last Belle finally got the ponies and tried to untie the rope that was keeping the ponies locked in, but the rope was too tangled up and thick to break free.
Just then Tom turned towards the ponies and Belle quickly hid from sight.
"Well I hope you're going to gut these nags." Tom inquired as he was examined the skittish ponies. "I don't like the stinky parts."
Bert have had enough of his complaining and hit on the head with his ladle.
"I said sit down!" he ordered.
After making sure that they're not looking, Belle went back to try to free the ponies but still she was not successful.
"I'm starving, now are we horse tonight or what?!" William complained.
"Shut your cakehole!" Bert argued. "You'll eat what I give you."
While they were busy arguing; Belle spotted behind tom's back a long curved sword that once must had been an elven sword but now it was nothing but a troll's knife, but it was still sharp.
"That knife will help free the ponies." Belle thought as she slowly and quietly sneaked up towards the back of the snot dribbling troll.
"How come he's the cook?" William continued with a grumbled face. "Everything tastes the same, everything tastes like chicken."
"Except the chicken." Tom added. "It tastes like fish!" William finished.
Belle tried to pluck up the courage to come nearer but as soon as the troll moved an inch and slowly walked back towards her place near the ponies to try again.
"I'm just saying; a little appreciation would be nice..." Bert justified.
Just then one of the ponies spotted Belle and gave a thrilled whinny. Then trolls thought they heard something and went suddenly quiet to listen. Belle quietly afraid to make a sound hid herself by the ponies and shut her eyes tightly shut and held her breath; hoping that she won't be discovered.
A few seconds of silence past by until...
"'Thank you very much, Bert.'" Bert continued. "'Lovely stew, Bert,' how hard is that?"
Belle silently breathed out a sigh of relief. Just to make sure she doesn't get caught; she crawled towards the trolls. The ponies were trying to get her attention. But she placed her fore finger to her lips to them.
"Ssshh, I'm here to save you, please be quiet." She whispered to them.
Then her hand fell on a strange object, she lifted it up to her look and realized that it was a blood stained bone. Quickly she put it down in repulsion and saw to her dread that she was surrounded by litter of bones of the unfortunate animals or people that crossed the path of the trolls. But she knew that she must be brave she have to rescue the ponies.
Suddenly a large troll hand loomed over her head and she stayed perfectly started to panic a bit that she was caught, but the hand didn't grab her instead it wandered away from her to grab a barrel like tankard. She calmed herself down a bit and carried on her task.
"Just needs a sprinkle of squirrel dung." She heard Bert said as she was nearly almost there to Tom's back.
Bert spotted Tom about to drink his brew. "Here, that's my grog!"
Tom must have realized he had picked the wrong one and looked up at Bert in fear.
"Sorry." He apologised but Bert hit him again with his ladle.
Tom fell backwards nearly squished Belle but luckily got away before he landed on her; he doesn't seem to noticed her and went back to his seat again.
Bert tasted his stew to see if it was ready.
"Ooh, that is beautifully balanced that is." He offered the spoonful to Tom. "Wrap your laughing gear around that, eh? Good isn't it? That's why I'm the cook."
While Tom was busy sipping the revolting stew, Belle finally managed to get behind Tom's back and his knife. But she realized there was a problem. "How on earth could I get this knife from this thing without him noticing me?" She thought with frustration.
While she was trying to figure out how to take the knife from Tom's belt, then she felt Tom started to sat up, she crouch down and saw to her nauseate was Tom scratching his filthy, stinky bottom.
"That's disgusting!" Belle thought with a scrunched face.
She quickly got back to work to figure to unattached the knife as she overheard one of them talking.
"Oh me guts are grumbling." William complained. "I got to snaffle something. Flesh, I need flesh."
Just when Belle managed to nearly unravelled the knife, when suddenly she was grabbed from behind and next thing she knew she was face to face with one of the troll and gave her a huge snotty blow from his nose.
Never In all her life had something revolting like this happened to her by a troll using her as a handkerchief and now her clothes were covered in snot from head to foot.
But right now she was in greater danger.
"Aaahh!! Blimey, Bert, Bert! Look what's come out of me hooter!" Tom cried out in shock of what he thought came out of his nostrils. The other two trolls gathered round to look at the strange, petrified little creature.
"It's got arms and legs and everything." Tom shrieked.
Bert took a closer look. "What is it?"
Belle shook out of her stunned state and started wriggly about trying to get away from the trolls hand.
"I don't know. But I don't like the way it wriggles around." Tom screeched and dropped poor Belle down to the ground.
*******
Fíli and Kíli who were keeping an eye on Belle had watched the whole scene and when they saw that Belle had been discovered they immediately set to action.
"Kíli I'm going back to the others to get help." Fíli instructed to his brother. "You stay here and if anything else happens; just run in there and bring them both back safe, do you understand?
Kíli nodded as his brother set back to their camp sight and slowly drawn his sword and headed towards the trolls.
*******
As soon as Belle hit the ground, she got into a fearful panic and tried to get away but Bert and Tom had blocked her way out, she ran the other way, but there was William and he took out a sharp jagged knife and pointed at her.
"What are you, then?" William asked the terrified Hobbit. "An oversized squirrel?"
"I'm a burglar- uh, Hobbit." Belle blurted as corrected herself in terror.
"A Burglar-hobbit?" Tom said in confusion.
"Can we cook her?" William inquired sinisterly, Belle did not like the sound of that and start to quiver with fright.
"We can try." Tom suggested.
They tried to grab her but she was too quick for them and made a quick escape, but was blocked by Bert and his large ladle spoon.
"She wouldn't make more than a mouthful." Bert criticized of the weight of the Hobbit. "Not when she's skinned and boned."
He pushed Belle back towards where the campfire was. Now the trolls had completely surrounded her.
"Perhaps there are more Burglar-hobbits around these parts." William indicated. "Might be enough for a pie, grab her!"
Belle did not want them to know about the company she was with back at the old farm house.
"If can just escape from them, I must warn Thorin and the others." Belle thought and began to take her chance.
Bert and Tom were too busy trying to catch the fast little Hobbit but they were a bit slow to catch her.
"She's too quick!" Tom whined as he tried to get hold of her.
Belle managed slip away from them and seized her chance to escape.
"Right, come here you little-!" William called and caught her by the legs and held her upside down.
"Gotcha, now are there any more of you little fellas hiding where you shouldn't?" He interrogated to hanging Hobbit as he pointed his knife.
"No." She lied quickly as she felt the blood rushing to her head.
"She's lying." Tom suspected.
"No, I'm not!" Belle strained felt uncomfortable of dangling upside down by brutal trolls.
"Hold her toes over the fire, make her squeal!" Tom suggested menacingly.
Bert and William were about to agree with Tom's idea when he gave sudden yelp and grabbed his left leg like he was injured and Belle saw to her delight and relief that it was Kíli who came to her rescue.
"Drop her!" He shouted at the trolls when he saw Belle hanging helplessly in the hand of the troll.
"You what?!" William bellowed rudely at the intruder.
"I said, drop her." Kíli demanded as he held up his sword at them.
Belle felt Tom give a huge big swing of his and let go of the Hobbit straight at the foolish dwarf, Belle let out a scream as she went flying over the fire and landed on Kíli, who dropped his sword aside and caught her just in time and fell to the ground.
Swiftly just as they fell down, the whole company burst out of the bushes with their weapons raised and begun their battle against the three trolls.
The trolls were a lot bigger than the dwarves; they only did a lot of damage to the troll's legs and only when they crouch down pain did the dwarves battle their faces. Trolls keep tossing up the dwarves in every direction but that doesn't harm the dwarves for they were tough. Thorin and Dwalin fought the hardest against each troll and many others battled hard and well.
"Get the sacks!" William shouted to Tom and Bert. "Stick them in the sacks." But they were too busy battling rather catching the dwarves.
Belle managed shake off the dizziness off been tossed around like a rag doll, she and Kíli got up and he went to fight with the dwarves. Belle dodged the swish of the swords and weapons of the dwarves and the heavy arms of the trolls to avoid the fight and saw that ponies are still trapped in the fence prancing wildly to get free.
This was her chance to free them she looked to where Tom was fighting with Kíli and Glóin and spotted the knife on the ground where it fallen and made a bolt for it. She got the knife and ran towards the ponies and started to cut the rope.
Moments later the rope had been cut and Belle stepped out of the way as the ponies raced out away into the darkness of the forest; Belle hoped that they made it back to camp.
William heard the ponies' whinny and turn to see the ponies had escaped and saw who was responsible. In anger he stomped towards Belle.
The dwarves kept on fighting until they heard a scream and beheld to their horror their burglar held captive in the hands of the trolls.
"Belle!" Kíli shouted as he tried rush to help her
"Stop." Thorin ordered as held him back to stop him from putting his nephew in the same danger.
William and Bert held Belle by the arms and legs and faced the dwarves.
"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip hers' off!" William threatened; to confirm their threat he and Bert squeezed Belle's arms causing her to cry out in pain.
Thorin and the other dwarves flinched at the sound of her pain and the scared look in her eyes; they had no choice but to obey to the trolls command, Thorin was the first to lower his sword into the ground and the rest of the company threw down theirs to with Ori the last to throw down his slingshot.
*******
A few minutes later the trolls made a wooden spit over the camp fire and tied up six dwarves, Dwalin, Bofur, Bifur, Dori, Nori and Ori on the spit and the rest of the dwarves and the Hobbit were tied up very tightly in the sacks.
The dwarves on the spit cried and struggled from the heat of the fire as William turned the wheel of the spit along with Bert and Tom just helped by putting more logs on the fire.
"Don't bother cooking them." Tom grumbled as he put the logs on the fire. "Let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly."
"They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage." Bert recommended as he sprinkled the seasoning over the dwarves that made some of them sneeze.
"Oohh. That does sound quite nice." Tom agreed.
The dwarves in the sack and the hobbit were struggling to get free but it was just too tightly bound.
Belle blamed herself for getting herself and the company caught, now she'll never see the Shire or Frodo again.
"I wish Gandalf was here." Belle thought miserably, thinking there was no hope for them, until something caught her attention.
"Never mind the seasoning, we aint got all night." William said in irritation. "Dawn aint far away, let's get a move on. I don't fancy being turned to stone."
When Belle heard this, a plan formed in her head and knew exactly what to do.
"WAIT!" Belle called to them to get their attention. "You are making a terrible mistake."
The dwarves tried to stop her putting herself in any more danger.
"You can't reason with them, they're half-wits." Dori cried from the spit.
"Half-wits, what does that make us?" Bofur inquired when he was turned on the spit.
Belle managed to get up from the others in her sack and hopped over near the camp fire.
"I meant with the seasoning." Belle clarified to the trolls hoping her plan will work.
"What about the seasoning?" Bert questioned the little Hobbit.
"Well, have you smelt them?" Belle suggested as she pointed at them in her sack. "You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."
The dwarves could not believe what they are hearing. In their outrageous anger they called a traitor and other insults. Belle heard them but did not heed them knowing that her plan was their only way of saving them and hope that they will forgive her for this.
"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" William asked her, clearly did not believe her.
"Shut up." Bert silenced William and turned his attention back to the hobbit. "Let the flugabur bur hobbit talk."
"The secret to cooking Dwarf is um..." Belle began hesitantly trying to come with something to stall time for the sun to come. "It's, uh..."
"Yes? Come on, tell us the secret." Bert asked impatiently.
"Yes, I'm telling you." Belle said in a rush. "The secret is...."
Everyone leaned closer to hear her answer.
"...To skin them first." Belle answered but later regretted it.
The dwarves were outraged by her response and threatened her to make her pay for her treachery.
"Tom, get me filleting knife." Bert instructed Tom.
"I won't forget that." Dwalin threaten her from the spit. "I won't forget that."
"What a load of rubbish." William said in suspicion. "I've eaten plenty with their skins on, scarf them, I say boots and all."
Belle started to panic, the plan wasn't going as it should and tried to think of something and something caught her eye, she caught a figure running very quietly amongst the bushes dressed in grey and was holding a wooden staff, it was Gandalf, he came back.
Belle was now filled with hope, he came back to rescue them after all. She turned her attention back to the trolls knowing that everything was going to be alright.
"He's right, nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf." Tom agreed and went over to the dwarves in the sacks and took hold of Bombur from the pile and held him upside down in the air towards his mouth. "Nice and crunchy." Tom opened his rotten mouth about to eat poor whimpering Bombur.
Belle had to think fast and said the first thing that came out of her mouth.
"No not that one! He's infected!" She called out quickly to stop him.
"Huh?!" That definitely got Tom's attention from eating Bombur.
"You What?!" William asked rudely.
"Yeah he's got worms in his...tubes" She invented rather in a stupid way she thought.
But as Tom immediately threw Bombur back with other dwarves, Belle knew it had worked.
"In fact they all have." Belle carried on. "They're infested with parasites, it's a terrible business I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't." She said convincingly.
The trolls looked a bit hesitant for a moment until the dwarves open their mouths in protest.
"Parasites, did she say parasites?" Óin asked Kíli next to him to make sure he heard correctly.
"We don't have parasites!" Kíli shouted at her unaware of what she was trying help. "You have parasites."
"What are you talking about, lassie?" Óin asked her also.
Belle rolled her eyes of their stupidity. "The idiots."
But Thorin caught up on what Belle was up to and kicked Kíli's head to shut him up. They all went silence as they looked up to him and they finally realized on what their burglar was trying to do was save them.
"I... got parasites as big as my arm" Óin bragged.
"Mine are the biggest parasites, I got huge parasites!" Kíli boasted the most.
Then every dwarf was saying that they got infected with parasites and other such diseases, and then Belle shrugged at the trolls to show that she was right.
The trolls were a bit put off of what they said. Even the dwarves on the spit joined in
"We're riddled!" Nori announced.
"Yes, I'm riddled!" Ori joined his older brother.
"Yes we are, badly." Dori he told the trolls.
"What would you have us do then?" William asked suspiciously as he walked closer to the Hobbit. "Let them all go?!"
"Well..." Belle said hesitantly and looked up at the sky to see if the sun is rising but it was still getting a bit lighter, they need more time.
"You think I don't know what you're up to?" William sneered at her while poking her with his finger and went back to the spit. "This little shrew is taking us for fools."
"Shrew?!" Belle appalled.
"Fool?!" Bert asked in disbelief, wondered if William insulted him.
"Hey! How dare you called us fools, you big oaf!" shouted a voice that sounded like Tom's
"Who are you calling an oaf, Tom?!" William demanded at Tom who looked at him innocently.
"But I didn't call you an oaf. Honest William!" Tom defended.
"Don't you dare lie to me, you stupid imbecile!" William raged at Tom by grabbing him by the neck.
"Not as stupid as you are simpleton." A voice uttered that sounded like Bert's.
This enraged William even more and looked at Bert who was busy turning the spit.
"What did you say?!" William shouted at Bert, he was confused at why William is shouting at him.
"I didn't say anything." Bert said, not having a clue of what was going on.
"I'll deal with you later." William threatened tom and tossed him to the ground, He headed straight to Bert.
"You just called me a simpleton, why did you call me that?" William inquired Bert in the face.
"I did not call you that!" Bert insisted.
"You did so!" Shouted the Tom-like voice.
"I did not Tom, you liar!" Bert accused at Tom.
"You did so!" Shouted the voice that now sounded like William's
"DID NOT!!!" Bert shouted at both of them felt really angry now at this stupid game they seemed to be playing with him.
"Why did you just called me a liar, you bunch of nitwits?" Tom's voice yelled.
Both the angry Trolls' head turned to Tom with red in their faces, Tom face went white with fear.
"That wasn't me I swear!" Tom claimed, but they didn't believe him.
The dwarves and the hobbit looked on at the trolls in confusion, the voices they kept hearing sounded everywhere that made the trolls have a go at each other, while they were too busy arguing and fighting each other; Belle noticed that the sky was getting brighter and lighter, the dawn was coming and then all of sudden.
"THE DAWN WILL TAKE YOU ALL!" Gandalf called out as he appeared on a rock that the light was coming from behind. Everyone including the trolls looked at him in confusion and bewilderment.
"Who's that?" Asked William.
"No idea." Answered Bert.
"Can we eat him too?" Tom asked idiotically.
Then with the power of his staff Gandalf cracked the giant rock he was standing on in half and the bright light of dawn came shining out.
The light spread over the camp site and when the light touched the troll's skin they suddenly gave a yell of great pain as if the light was burning them, rapidly their wrinkled skin started to turn solid, they tried to block the sunlight but it was too late and in a matter of seconds the trolls had stopped moving and stood still until they were nothing more but solid stone statues.
Belle stood there in amazement of what just happened; she and the dwarves gave a cheerful cry of laughter for Gandalf for coming to their rescue, they were very glad that he came back; she even caught a glimpse at Thorin who cracked a real smile that Belle thought he looked quite handsome when he smiled.
"Oh get your foot out of my back!" Dwalin complained uncomfortably from the spit.
*******
Later everyone was helping each other out the sacks and the spit and even apologised to Belle for the things they said and she forgave them, while Gandalf looked around the troll statues and gave a whack from his staff in satisfaction.
"Where did you go to may I ask?" Thorin inquired as he made his way over to Gandalf.
"To look ahead." He simply answered.
"What brought you back?" Thorin asked.
"Looking behind." Gandalf responded rather teasingly.
Thorin smiled a bit glad to have the wizard back.
"Nasty business." Gandalf observed at the troll statues and the company. "Still you're all in one piece."
"No thanks to your Burglar." Thorin blamed on Belle's foolishness.
But Gandalf smirked at him.
"She had the nous to play for time, none of the rest of you thought of that." Gandalf remarked.
Thorin felt a little bit ashamed as he looked towards Belle, He secretly admitted that she was very clever and was quite brave to save the ponies and tried to save the company too.
He turned to Gandalf again. "Well that little show you did with the voice saved our lives too."
Gandalf gave him a mysterious smile. "Oh, but I wasn't the one who did those voices."
Thorin looked confused. "Then who...?" he asked.
Just then Bofur and Bifur were helping Bombur back on to his feet when he gave a yelp and tumbled backwards over the troll's cooking pot that lay abandon and hit a tree behind him that shook and then something small fell out of the tree and landed on Bombur large belly as a soft landing.
"Lads look!" Bofur pointed at the small thing that was covered in a green cloth, it slowly moved to untangle itself and slowly lifts the cloth to reveal what it was that surprised the company and gave Belle a shocking gasps.
"Frodo?"
*******
How did Frodo come with the company in secret?
Find out in the next chapter...
With thanks to yinyangswings for proof reading my work, until next chapter Ta-ra!