Author's intro: First off, I don't own any of Tolkien works, of course.
This is my first fan fiction and hopefully the first in a series I'd like to write in this story line. Its based off the last movie so be prepared for spoilers.
Also, I am not going by cannon. I mostly tried to leave things as they are in the book and movie, but I changed some things and if you are against that sort of thing, this is your warning.
NOTE: For those of you who have read this story before, I have gone through and done a complete overhaul of it. One change is that for those of you who read this before, Frodo has been edited out. If you are reading for the first time, I had taken a kind of alternate universe route and put Frodo in as Asphodel's brother. This second time around, I decided to get rid of him. I had to completely overhaul the story in order to edit him out and I was pretty thorough, but if you see any mention of him, please let me know immediately so I can edit it. Thanks! I'm putting this notice in "In the shadow of erebor" and "Choices" as well.
Thorin awoke with pain in his head. Groaning a bit, he opened his eyes.
"Easy there," came Balin's calm voice, "You banged your head when they threw us in here." Thorin sat up and blinked a bit as he gazed around at his surroundings. They were in some kind of dark, wet dungeon cell. There were walls of iron bars on three sides, and a wall of rock in the far back of their large cell. The ceilings leaked water and the cold stone floor was lightly covered with molding hay.
Getting slowly to his feet, Thorin glanced around at the faces of his company, doing a quick head count. The hobbit was there, of course. And the two elves that had been chasing them. Then there was Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin, Dori, Nori, Ori, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur... Thorin gazed around and a flash of alarm lit his eyes when he realized there were two Dwarves short.
"Fili! Kili!" he exclaimed as he recalled what had happened just before they got caught. They were in barrels cascading down the river. The orcs were attacking and in a reckless attempt to save them, Kili had leaped out of his barrel to attack the orcs… No! he thought to himself has he remembered seeing an orc's spear slam hard into his youngest nephew's leg. And now, seeing that Kili wasn't here, Thorin began to fear the worst. And where was Fili? He hadn't seen Fili get out of his barrel and he thought his eldest had been right beside him as the orcs overwhelmed them at the shore and beat them all into submission.
"They aren't here," Balin confirmed, bringing Thorin out of his thoughts, "Where that filth took them, we know-"
Balin was suddenly cut off by a loud cry of pain echoing through the dungeon from some distance. Thorin could recognize that voice anywhere.
"Kili!" he yelled, rushing to the front of their cell and slamming into the bars. He felt fear and fury as he shook the bars to no avail. He was relieved to hear that Kili was still alive, but the thought of the orcs causing his kin such agony made him almost feral with rage.
"Trying to break down the doors will do you no good, Dwarf," Legolas said irritably as he and Tauriel stood silently in the corner of the cell with the Dwarves.
Thorin stopped his assault of the bars only long enough to shoot the elves a deadly glare before returning to his fury, though he found himself only slightly pleased that the elves were with them and that they would share whatever fate he and his company endured.
Balin watched Thorin and sighed as Kili's pain wracked screams continued to fill their ears.
"Poor lad," Balin sighed sympathetically to his brother. But Dwalin wasn't looking at them. His gaze was focused towards the dark back part of their cell.
"Brother," Dwalin whispered, though it was hard to hear anything over Kili's screams and Thorin's yelling and cursing and the loud thump of the king's body repeatedly crashing against the iron bars. But Balin then noticed slight movement in the dark corner of their cell.
"We aren't alone in this cell." Dwalin said slowly heading towards the rear of the dungeon, fists up and ready for a fight. But what they found when they peered into the far corner surprised them both.
"Hobbits!" Balin exclaimed in surprise. That caught the attention of the rest of the company, especially Bilbo who pushed past the crowd of Dwarves to see what the commotion was about.
"I beg your pardon?" Bilbo said, then his eyes widened in surprise when he saw the cause of Balin's exclamation.
"Posco!" he exclaimed in disbelief as a curly haired hobbit stood up from where he and the others had been cowering in the corner.
"Bilbo Baggins! So this is where you've gone to!" said Posco, his smile wide as he hugged Bilbo tight. Balin raised an eye brow as he and Dwalin exchanged puzzled glances.
"How are you here?" Bilbo asked, putting his hands on his hips. "I thought I was the only Hobbit to leave the shire." He glanced at the Dwarves who looked at them with confusion.
"It's a long story, Cousin." Posco responded as he motioned for the others to get up. There were two women with him, one another hobbit, and the other... Balin glanced at her curiously. She didn't quite look like a hobbit. She was slightly shorter smaller than a hobbit. Her dirty feet were small, rather than large and furry like Bilbo's. And instead of the distinctive large leaf shaped ears that distinguished a Hobbit, her ears were large, round and almost Dwarfish.
All three of these small folk were a mess. They were dirty and their clothes were torn. They were all skinny and emaciated and their skin bore many scars.
"These Hobbits are your kin, Master Baggins?" Balin asked as the four of them glanced around at the Dwarves.
"This is my cousin Posco Baggins," Bilbo said, "His wife Gilly, and..." Bilbo seemed to notice the other woman for the first time, cocking his head to the side in slight confusion, "You aren't a hobbit."
"No," the woman replied, "I'm a gnome. My name is Bringa."
"We didn't leave the shire of our own will," Posco explained, "Shortly after you left, the shire was visited by a band of slave mongers. They captured us and sold us to Bolg who keeps us in here for his own sport."
"Slave mongers!" Bilbo exclaimed angrily, "And where is your daughter?"
"Asphodel is in the next cell," Posco said sadly, "They separated us so they could cause us more anguish."
"Dwarves, hobbits, and gnomes," Legolas sighed, looking over at Tauriel, "If we had stayed in Mirkwood as my father had instructed, we wouldn't be in this trouble."
"You shouldn't have been chasing us then," Dwalin pointed out, "We were no threat to your precious kingdom."
Legolas opened his mouth to give a retort but was interrupted by another anguished scream echoing through the walls and sending Thorin into a renewed fury...
