It is morning. Bilbo wakes up on his bed, and suddenly realizes that his house is very quiet. He walks all
around his house expecting to run into the dwarves; however, there is no one there. The house has been cleaned up completely from the mess of the party last night, almost as if it had never happened. He calls out "Hello ?" He looks a bit lonesome. He sees the Contract sitting on a table; he looks at it, then looks up with a determined face. He runs out the door of Bag End and down the path, wearing a travelling pack and holding the contract. He runs through Hobbiton, jumping over fences and pumpkins in his haste. His neighbors shake their heads at him. One of them asks him "Hey ! Mr. Bilbo ! Where are you off to ?" Bilbo answers "Can't stop, I'm already late !" His neighbor asks "Late for what ?" Bilbo shouts "I'm going on an adventure !" Meanwhile, the dwarves are riding their ponies, and Gandalf his horse, down a path through a wooded area. A few words of their conversation are heard, including "waste of time" and "use a hobbit". Bilbo runs up from behind them "Wait ! Wait !" Some dwarves says "Woah !" and stop their ponies. Bilbo catches up to them and hands Balin the contract "I signed it !" Balin takes the contract and inspects it with a pocket-glass. He then smiles at Bilbo "Everything appears to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield." The dwarves cheer. Thorin doesn't look too impressed "Give him a pony." Bilbo says "No, no, no, no, that--that won't be necessary, thank you, but I--I'm sure I can keep up on foot. I-- I--I've done my fair share of walking holidays, you know. I even got as far as Frogmorton once-WAGH !" His speech is cut off as Fili and Kili ride alongside him and pick him up from behind to put him on a pony. He is riding a pony and looking quite terrified. The pony neighs and tosses its head, making him quite uncomfortable.
Oin says "Come on, Nori, pay up. Go on." Nori tosses a sack of money to Oin. Sacks of money begin passing between the dwarves. Oin laughs "Hey, hey, hey !" Some of the dwarves laugh as well. Bilbo asks "What's that about ?" Gandalf tells him "Oh, they took wagers on whether or not you'd turn up. Most of them bet that you wouldn't." Bilbo asks him "What did you think ?" Gandalf mumbles "Hmmm." He catches a sack of money tossed to him and puts it in his bag "My dear fellow, I never doubted you for a second." Bilbo sneezes loudly "Ohh. All this horse hair, I'm having a reaction." He searches his pockets for his handkerchief. He is unable to find it, and he looks up in shock "No, no, wait, wait, stop ! Stop ! We have to turn around." The entire company comes to a halt, and the dwarves start objecting and asking what the problem is. Gandalf asks "What on earth is the matter ?" Bilbo says "I forgot my handkerchief." Bofur tears a strip of cloth from his clothing and tosses it to Bilbo "Here ! Use this." Bilbo catches the rag and looks at it in disgust. The dwarves laugh and begin to continue their journey. Thorin tells them "Move on." Gandalf tells Bilbo "You'll have to manage without pocket-handkerchiefs and a good many other things, Bilbo Baggins, before we reach our journey's end. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you; the world is ahead." We see the Company travelling through many beautiful areas of Middle-earth, including forest, hills, and plains.
*In Rivendell*
Thyri looks at a statue. Behind her, the one, who taught her to improve her skin-changer powers, Lord Elrond, stands behind her. He says "It has been a long time since I saw you looking at this statue." The dwarf smiles "It always helped when I was just a beginner." She sighs "Do you think my brother and his fellow companions will forgive me for not being here for them ?" He says "Nowadays, you were too dangerous because you didn't know how to control your animal spirit." She says "I didn't know anything about my animal spirit." He asks "You will join them in their journey then ?" She nods and looks at him "I will. They'll need me." The elvish lord replies "The slayer needs a new trophy." She says coldly "Smaug will perished. I will slay this slug's head." He chuckles "You still have this fire in your eyes when you talk about slaying." He walks away. Thyri looks at the starry sky "I wonder what they are doing and how are they."
*Back with the Company*
The company has camped for the night near the edge of a cliff. As Bombur sleeps, tiny flying insects get sucked into his mouth every time he inhales, and they are expelled when he exhales. Bilbo watches in disgust, then finally gets up and walks around. Most of the dwarves are asleep; Gandalf, Fili, and Kili are awake. Bilbo walks over to his pony and gives her an apple, after checking to see that no one is looking "Hello, girl. That's a good girl. It's our little secret, Myrtle; you must tell no one. sh, sh." He hears a scream in the night air and becomes worried. He runs over to Fili and Kili "What was that ?"Kili says "Orcs." Another scream is heard. Thorin, who was dozing, jerks awake upon hearing the word "Orcs." Bilbo steps closer to the princes "Orcs ?" Fili answers "Throat-cutters. There'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them." Kili tells the scared hobbit "They strike in the wee small hours, when everyone's asleep. Quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood." Bilbo looks away in fright; Fili and Kili look at each other and begin laughing. Thorin asks angrily "You think that's funny ? You think a night raid by orcs is a joke ?" Kili, ashamed, says "We didn't mean anything by it." Thorin says "No, you didn't. You know nothing of the world." He walks off to the edge of the cliff and looks out over the valley; Balin walks up to Fili and Kili "Don't mind him, laddie. Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs. After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria. But our enemy had got there first."
*Flashback of the Battle of Azanulbizar; thousand of dwarves and orcs fight in front of the gates of Moria. We see Thorin, Thror, Thrain, Balin, and Dwalin fighting fiercely. A massive, pale, orc wipes out many dwarves with his mace, then engages King Thror.*
Balin : Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs lead by the most vile of all their race : Azog, the Defiler. The giant Gundabad Orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin. He began by beheading the King. *Azog, having defeated King Thror, holds up his beheaded head as he roars; he then flings the head, which bounces and rolls to Thorin's feet. Thorin shouts "Nooo !"* "Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief. He went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we did not know. We were leaderless. Defeat and death were upon us." *In the flashback, the orcs have overpowered the dwarves, and the dwarves flee for their lives.* "That is when I saw him: a young dwarf prince facing down the Pale Orc." *Thorin faces Azog; Azog swings his mace and knocks away first Thorin's shield, then his sword. Thorin falls down an embankment and lands on the ground.* "He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armor rent.. wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield." *Azog leaps to smash Thorin, but Thorin, grabbing an oaken branch lying on the round, manages to roll away in time. Azog continues wielding his mace against Thorin, who is still on the ground, but Thorin blocks his mace with the oaken branch, which he uses as a shield. As Azog swings one last time, Thorin, grabbing a sword lying nearby, cuts off Azog's left arm, his mace arm, from below the elbow. Azog clutches the stump of his arm as he howls in pain.* "Azog, the Defiler, learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken." *Azog is rushed into Moria by other orcs; Thorin, yelling "Du Bekâr ! Du Bekâr !" [To arms ! To arms !], rallies the dwarves to battle. They stop fleeing and return to battle, fighting ferociously. The dwarves now seem to have the advantage.* "Our forces rallied and drove the orcs back. Our enemy had been defeated. But there was no feast, no song, that night, for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived." *The battlefield is covered in the corpses of dwarves and orcs; the surviving dwarves weep with one another over their loss. A younger Balin and Dwalin hug and put their foreheads together as they weep. Balin, still weeping, looks up and sees Thorin framed in the sunlight, holding his oaken branch.* Balin says "And I thought to myself then, there is one who I could follow. There is one I could call King." In the present, Thorin turns away from the view beyond the cliff; the entire Company is awake and standing in awe, staring at him. He walks between them toward the fire. Bilbo asks "But the pale orc ? What happened to him ?" Thorin replies "He slunk back into the hole whence he came. That filth died of his wounds long ago." Without them knowing, a group of Wargs and Orcs is there, spying on the Company. Their leader, talks to the rest "[Send word to the Master. We have found the Dwarf-scum.]"
*The day after*
The Company rides their ponies through a muddy forest as it rains. They all look cold, wet, and miserable.
Dori asks "Here, Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge ?" Gandalf tells him "It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done. If you wish to change the weather of the world, you should find yourself another wizard." Bilbo asks "Are there any ?" Gandalf asks "What ?" Bilbo says "Other wizards." Gandalf tells him "There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman, the White. Then there are the two Blue Wizards; you know, I've quite forgotten their names." Bilbo asks "And who is the fifth ?" Gandalf says "Well, that would be Radagast, the Brown." Bilbo asks "Is he a great Wizard or is he...more like you ?" Gandalf looks slightly offended "I think he's a very great wizard, in his own way. He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always Evil will look to find a foothold in this world."