My 70th fanfic on this website! And it so happens to be an AU to the movie I watched yesterday, based on the book I fairly enjoyed reading.

I've tried to put there the quote from the movie's final (you know, Thorin's bear hug and all...), but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I had to forget about it and move on. Also I didn't have in mind any particular poisonous creature, nor spell from Middle Earth univaerse. Most of it is actually made up. I only hope this story is still good.

The trial

He didn't mind it, at first. Actually, in the rush of events Bilbo didn't even recognize the fact that in addition to many bruises and cuts he received during the battle with orcs, there was also a quick stab in the heel. Maybe it was also because the stab itself wasn't strong enough to alarm him, while he tried to save the leader of the company and had been cornered by the enemy. To be fair, he thought that he had just stepped on a branch. Anyway, too much was happening around him to bother with faint pain in his foot.

He also didn't recognize that something was wrong, when they were saved by eagles; when they were far away from their enemies and when his pounding like crazy heart started to slow down. Although this weird pain in the heel felt… different than his numerous cuts and bruises, it didn't alarm him yet. It was because it felt less painful and he actually had more things to worry about, like: where were they flying? How was Thorin? Were others save and sound?

He didn't have much space to move. He could only lay on eagle's back and observe his surroundings. Some of dwarves were as much bruised as him, some of them were even unconscious, like Thorin.

Thorin actually hadn't woken up from his fall. Bilbo was watching him, worried that dwarf prince wouldn't wake up at all. Bilbo hoped that Thorin hadn't got injured enough during this battle with orcs to stay unconscious or die, and looked for any signs of dwarf coming back to his senses. Bilbo knew he wasn't the only one. The whole company was worried, maybe even more than hobbit himself. They all waited. And this waiting was disturbing, dared he say – even frightening. Frightening enough to make even the loudest and talkative dwarf to be silent and still, while eagles were transporting them to some unknown place.

And when the eagles suddenly stopped, all dwarves, except Thorin, were already conscious, and company stood on the solid ground. When Bilbo was on his legs too; when his heel touched the earth, he felt sharp pain, which surprised him very much. And then it started to pulsate. Bilbo raised the leg and turned back to look at his foot carefully. He immediately spotted one small, purple dot on his footing. It looked weird, but Bilbo didn't have much time to examine it closer, because all dwarves quickly moved to their unconscious leader. Bilbo, however, stood in one place. He watched everything from the distance.

Everybody gathered around Gandalf, who used magic to wake up Thorin. At first the dwarf prince didn't react, but after few seconds he opened his eyes. The first thing that came to his mind was a flashback from the earlier fight. The image of small curly figure who just charged with his equally pitiful sword towards the orc, who tried to cut Thorin's head off, flashed before his eyes. He still hardly believed that what he saw was true… Maybe it was just some weird dream.

Halfling's head started to throb and he suddenly felt a little dizzy. Maybe he was just tired. All those emotions, running and fighting had to finally affect his body somehow…

Thorin stood up and saw Bilbo. Everything – the dirt, the cuts, even the lack of buttons on his vest – was reminding him once again of hobbit's heroic deeds. If Thorin had any doubts about what Bilbo did, they faded right away now. And sudden rush of different emotions overwhelmed the dwarf prince. He started to go towards the hobbit…

Bilbo realized that it wasn't just tiredness, because the dizziness got stronger and he started to get double visions. He was hot, so hot he felt, how his shirt got glued to his sweated skin. What was happening to him? Why he suddenly felt so dizzy? He remembered the stab from the battle and the wound on his heel. Maybe it wasn't just a branch, maybe it was something else? He has read once a book about snakes, scorpions and many poisonous creatures. Was he attacked by something like that back then, during the battle with Azog? If so, that wouldn't end well for him. Without quick and proper treatment, it could end with paralysis, at best. But the death was more probable. Bilbo felt sudden rush of panic. He wanted to look back at his heel, but he saw Thorin walking towards him…

There were two conflicting emotions inside Thorin, right now. The first one was – of course – a gratitude. But the other was anger. He was angry because of Bilbo's reckless actions; because this little hobbit, who was so fragile and defenseless, dared to charge on the orc; because he put his life at risk and almost got killed; because he did so to save him, Thorin Oakenshield. And anger had to be released first…

But suddenly he stopped and his eyebrows raised. Because he saw that Bilbo Baggins was pale and sweaty, and was taking deep breathes, and barely stood on his two feet. Others have seen it too. Suddenly all the gazes were on hobbit, just like they were on dwarf prince few minutes ago. And Thorin forgot about his anger.

"Bilbo?" Killi was the first to speak.

"Are you alright, Bilbo?" Asked right away his brother, Filli.

They were asking him, if he's alright. The throbbing in hobbit's head started to rise. The words spoken by dwarves sounded distanced and Bilbo had hard time connecting them with their meaning. Then all his ears could hear was beating of his heart. And then he fell on the hard ground. His eyelids closed slowly, but he opened them. Actually he could only move his head, the rest of his body was stiff and numb.

The shadows fell upon him. In spite of his blurry vision, he knew that dwarves and Gandalf were standing around him. In spite of his pounding heart, he recognized Gandalf's voice ordering others to move on and give him some space. He felt wizard's hand touching his neck to examine his face.

"Gandalf…" Bilbo began, still breathing erratically. His voice was weak, so horribly weak… Nevertheless, it caught the attention of the wizard. So Bilbo continued: "Gandalf… my… my foot…"

Gandalf moved his gaze away from hobbit's face to his feet. And so did the dwarves. They all quickly found the small wound. The look on wizard's face was sad and filled with anxiety. Gandalf observed the small dot for a few seconds, before looking at Bilbo's face again.

"Ga-Gandalf…"

Bilbo wanted to say a lot of things. He wanted to ask what had stung him. He wanted to ask if it is too late. He wanted to know if he was going to die. But the only thing that escaped his tightened throat was a weak and barely hearable:

"Help."

Funny thing. Few seconds ago Thorin was going to scold the hobbit for his recklessness, and now he was bending over him, genuinely worried. He turned and gave Gandalf a stern look.

"Don't stare at him like that, wizard. Do something!"

"I can use a spell to suck the poison out and purify his body, but he needs to stay awake."

Bilbo came to his senses with a lot of effort, but he at least was conscious enough to hear what others were saying.

"You've heard, lad?!" Balin called to him. "You can't fall asleep!"

"Don't worry!" Exclaimed Oin. "We will be talking to you!"

Actually the hobbit was worried. Mostly about his life. He wasn't sure if he would be able to stay awake during this whole magic procedure, and how said procedure would go. Would it be painful? He hoped not. But then again, it was Gandalf. Everything can happen.

"That's not all." Gandalf looked at Thorin. "We need his will of life. He must put his mind to resist the poison or else this spell won't work."

Even though the mage didn't say it out loud, Thorin knew from his eyes what he was expecting the dwarf prince to do. So – while Gandalf was chanting the words of spell – the Okenshield kneeled beside Bilbo and put his hand on sweated forehead, giving the hobbit the most fierce and determined look, he could muster.

He was going to save his burglar.

Bilbo, on the other hand, felt dizziness rising again. Although, he heard perfectly fine what Gandalf said about his will of life, the hobbit couldn't resist the impression that, all in all, he should have stayed in Shire. He wasn't trained in fighting, he wasn't even a burglar. If he didn't sign the contract and went on this "adventure", he wouldn't be captured by trolls, he wouldn't have to fight with orcs, and he surely wouldn't be stung by some unknown creature. He wouldn't be in this situation.

Gandalf put his hand on Bilbo's foot, the tip of his middle finger rested on the purple dot.

Bilbo swallowed. But it wasn't the most horrible part of this. The most horrible part of this was that he didn't even got to the Lonely Mountain. He was going to die before he helped the dwarves reclaim their home. He felt weak, and helpless and so completely useless.

"Talk to me."

The harsh tone of Thorin sounded like a far echo, but it helped Bilbo focus on something else, than his own misery. He even put an effort to turn his head and look at the dwarf prince.

"Tell me, mister Baggins," the dwarf said again. "do you want to go home?"

At first Bilbo wanted to respond: "Yes, yes, I do.", but then he thought that it's not the right answer. Both because he wanted to help dwarves, and because they would feel horrible to hear that he want to run away from them.

"Of… course… not." He replied between breathes.

He felt a weird stinging pain coming from his wounded heel, but then it was back to that pulsating feeling from before. He remembered, when he once had been treated with leeches. Back then he also felt this stinging, at first, and it also died down after few seconds.

"You're lying, mister Baggins." Once again this voice. But this time Thorin sounded… less away. Maybe it was because Gandalf's spell started to work, or maybe because Bilbo wanted to hear Thorin. Nevertheless he heard dwarf's next words well: "You want to return to your home, just like we want to return to ours. Don't you think that it would be shame, if you end your life here, and not in your hobbit-hole?"

"Yes… I do. And… I know… what you… want to say. You… were… saying it… from the first time… we met."

Thorin remembered all the times he told the hobbit that he doesn't belong; that he is useless and shouldn't have go with them in the first place; that he is a weakling and sooner or later will die. And then he remembered Bilbo's tries to buy some time until down, when they got captured by trolls; and his brave charge on orcs. And Thorin Oakenshield felt like never before that he made a mistake.

"Maybe… you… were… right… all this time." Weak voice of Bilbo Baggins brought him back to present.

Killi was going to protest, but Thorin silenced him, raising his hand, and with the same firm confidence as before, he said:

"No, hobbit. I was wrong."

Bilbo's eyes snapped open and he blinked few times at dwarf prince to realize that he heard right. Thorin smiled to him and continued:

"Actually, I'm glad I was wrong. I'm glad that you signed the contract. I'm glad that you came after us. And I'm glad that you didn't run away."

The burglar smiled. Such kind words coming from such harsh dwarf as Thorin the Okanshield were really lifting his spirit up. But it wasn't the end. Thorin's expression got serious again, and the dwarf said:

"Mister Baggins, you've told us, you want to help us reclaim Erebor. Have you lied to me, back then?"

This time the halfling heard it loud and clear. And the mere suggestion that his words wasn't sincere, made his blood boil.

"No, of course not." He almost screamed. Actually, he also felt that he can breathe normally now. "I was prepared to go with you to Erebor."

Another light smile graced the face of Thorin Oakenshield.

"So why are you lying here? We need a burglar, not a sloth. Do you understand, hobbit?"

Bilbo felt insulted once again. Did Thorin really thought that he was just making a nap here? After all, he wouldn't get poisoned, if he didn't try to save His Dwarven Majesty. And he really wanted right now to stand up and scream all of this into His Dwarven Majesty's face.

"It's not my fault." Was hobbit's only reply, but the anger was clearly heard in his tone. That only made Thorin happier.

Bilbo's heartbeat was coming back to normal. If he had enough will and strength to lift his head up, he would see that Gandalf's hand, rested on halfling's foot, was glowing a bit with white light.

"I've come to know you, Bilbo Baggins." Dwarf prince went on, titling his head up and shooting Bilbo the proud gaze. "You aren't what you seem. There's a lot of virtue in that small body of yours."

Another moment when Bilbo hardly believed what was said to him. He almost felt blush on his cheeks.

"So don't you dare die in this rotten place. Don't you dare die, before we get to Erebor and fight with Smaug for what is ours. You will survive, burglar. You will come back to Shire and tell other hobbits a story of our journey."

"Story of hobbit that defeated trolls just by talking to them." Added Balin with soft smile.

"Of hobbit who was fighting with orc three times larger than him." Oin joined in.

"Of hobbit who helped restore kingdom of dwarves!" Shouted Bombur.

"One and only, burglar Bilbo Baggins." Thorin whispered, grinning.

They all were grinning. Even Gandalf, who was constantly preoccupied by enchanting his wound. They all wanted him to live. They all wanted him to continue the journey. They all believed in him. Bilbo couldn't help but believe in himself too. He almost felt how every manifestation of poisoning – throbbing, fever, dizziness, blurry vision – was slowly fainting, losing its fight with Bilbo's body and spirit. When Gandalf moved away from him, alongside with others, Bilbo stood up with no effort and his heel wasn't even aching, anymore. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and smiled to his thoughts.

It looked like he was going to live a bit longer.

And when he opened his eyes once more, he saw majestic summit on the horizon. And he already knew that it's a Lonely Mountain.