Invisible, Bilbo had followed Gollum in the tunnels for some time. Then the creature had suddenly turned around, ceaselessly groaning and complaining. The hobbit had soon understood why : the clamours had meant that the goblins were close by. They had come back to the inhabited parts of the caves. Sick with fear but reassured by his fortuitous invisibility (or at least he thought it so) the improvised adventurer had continued on his way, always hoping above all else to find an exit. Besides, he had been quite worried for his companions but he had not seen how he could hope to find them in the maze of this vast underground kingdom. There he was, thinking about all this when, coming out on a ledge, he caught sight of the company a hundred meters away from him in the centre of an incredible jumble of shaky footbridges. They were prisoners and things seemed to go rather badly for them, although from this distance he could not grasp the entirety of the situation.

Bilbo hesitated.

He was afraid of approaching.

In this swarming mass of goblins, he was nearly sure that somebody was eventually going to bump into him and notice his presence. Nevertheless, did he really have a choice ? Could he try to run away and abandon the company ? This company who did not accept him within them anyway and most of whom despised him !

Resigned, the hobbit shrugged : no matter how much he tried to convince himself, to find reasons to run, he simply could not abandon the dwarves to their unenviable fate. He could even less since he remembered that all, without exception, had agreed to surrender to save him from an atrocious death when the trolls had captured him. His ring represented an unhoped-for chance; he should not hesitate longer.

While he was deciding which footbridge to take and how to slip close to his companions in the most slowly way possible, things had grown worse. Fearing to be crushed in the confused fray which took place before his eyes, Bilbo spotted the crusher of bones, momentarily abandoned, and felt a burst of revolt when he saw the half crushed unfortunate Ori. So he deftly sneaked towards him and freed him. Then he felt sick. It certainly was not in the Shire that you could witness a torture session or see its results and, when Bilbo slowly pulled Ori out of the now harmless jaws of the device, he had to let him just for one moment to go and puke a few feet away from him. The bloody clothes and the crushed flesh almost made him faint. He had to make a great effort of will to return to the young dwarf and finish releasing him. Luckily, Ori, as for him, had fainted for good as a result of all the pain and so, he was not aware of anything.

With that, Bilbo assessed the situation around him. Things hardly looked bright, one could not say otherwise. He noticed the dwarves' weapons abandoned on the ground within easy reach, provided that they could use their hands. He had to cut the captives' bonds. However the invisible hobbit had to deploy a wealth of imagination to sneak in between the fighters. He slipped on all fours between the legs of a goblin who was maintaining Bofur on the ground and cut Bofur's bonds… before pushing his sword into the guard's foot. The orc let out a terrible howl and jumped in the air, and Bilbo passed onto the following one. He pricked, cut, stabbed his enemies, freeing a dwarf every time he could but, when he approached Thorïn and grabbed his wrist to cut the ropes which were numbing his fingers, the dwarfish prince violently hit him right in the face with his shoulder and Bilbo saw stars for several minutes. You would think that he had recognized him and thus showed him the little consideration he felt for him :

- Mind your own business, Mister Baggins, Thorïn would probably have said. I do not need your help !

With that, the company's weakening resistance led the prince away from Bilbo who, a little stunned by the shock, carried on with his operation nevertheless.

When he had the opportunity to approach Thorïn again, he preferred to guard himself against all eventualities and opened his mouth for the first time :

- Do not move this time, I am going to cut your bonds.

He also learnt this day that the invisibility does not solve all the problems : for, despite everything, he knew that if Gandalf had not so conveniently showed up, he never would have been able to set his companions free all by himself.

And they had not won yet.

It had been a harsh chase through the caves, all the while carrying those who could not walk anymore. They had had to fight hard. One thousand times Bilbo had feared the worst. One thousand times he had been afraid of losing the group. He brandished his short sword of which the blue blade cast a thousand small flames. He was sure he had managed to hurt several goblins but, naturally, his awkward blows could not compare with those of seasoned warriors... Finally, Bilbo had thought that they were all going all to crash at the bottom of an apparently bottomless crack, he had closed his eyes waiting for the shock and his mind hurriedly escaped towards his dear Shire and his comfortable abode… It was said, however, that his hour had not come yet !

OOoOO

So, when the Company, after a new frantic flight, finally came out on the light of day, safety guarantee, they hurtled down the side of the mountain without further delay, eager to put as much distance as possible between them and these caves in which they had almost disappeared forever.

While running, Thorïn glanced at Bilbo (the latter had had the presence of mind to remove his ring during the chase in the fear that he would be lost or forgotten: it was best, he thought, if the dwarves could see him). The dwarfish prince had to admit he was surprised. He never would have believed that the hobbit would have had the necessary capacities and especially the guts to come to their help. He also noticed his swelled cheekbone and the enormous bruise forming on his face. True, he could have gotten this bruise at any time in the fight, but Thorïn suddenly remembered he had hit somebody with his shoulder without knowing who it was, and he had the feeling that Bilbo owed this bruise to him.

When they estimated that they were at a sufficient distance from the caves, the dwarves stopped, out of breath, and assessed the situation. Several of them were hurt, Ori was in a serious state and they had lost all their belongings in the adventure. They only had their weapons left. Still, Thorïn considered himself happy to have been able to take the map and the key that his father once handed to Gandalf away from their enemies' eager hooks.

While Bilbo and most of the dwarves, exhausted, collapsed on the ground, the magician, as for him, not allowing himself to take a moment's rest, began to take care of the wounded. There was not a single member of the company who did not get hit ; all the faces were swollen, but some of the dwarves were in a more critical state than the others.

Bombur, Oïn and Nori had a wounded head and the dried blood had made them a terrifying mask. Kili still had a shoulder lower than the other one and his able hand held his wounded, unmoving arm in place against his side. His lips had split and the blood smeared his chin, his neck and stained the front of his clothes. Sat on a rock, his eyes dull, he kept his head lowered and said nothing.

Fili approached him, with a worried look on his face :

- Kili, are you ok ?

The young dwarf vaguely nodded, without even raising his eyes. A few feet away from there, Gandalf stood up after having done some magic tricks over Nori. The latter's eyes had recovered their lucidity ; he had let out a few growls, which the wizard had interrupted ordering him to remain quiet for a moment.

- You are out of danger, he told him. Now you must recover.

He quickly scanned the group, and approached Kili who was still motionless. Putting his stick on the ground, he delicately felt the wounded limb and made a face. Quickly, he took off one of his grey and frayed fingerless glove and handed it to the young dwarf :

- Bite into this, he simply told him. It will hurt.

Taking place behind the wounded Kili, slightly on his side, he concentrated a brief moment and then, with a snap, put the dislocated joint back in its place. The blood seemed to disappear from the patient's face under the pain, and he gritted his teeth so much that he could have broken them on the magician's fingerless glove.

- It's over, Gandalf said, in a soothing voice.

The evening fell and those who were still fit to think wondered with concern if, under cover of the night, the goblins were not going to come out of their caves and rush to their pursuit.

However, they did not have to worry about it for a long time : mysteriously alerted, they all suddenly turned their eyes to the surrounding heights to discover an important troop of orcs mounted on their wargs.

It was like going from the frying pan into the fire !

oooo

And the movie can resume its course from here.

oooo

THE END

You wonder maybe why I did not speak again any more Ori at the end. Well, in fact it is because that would have complicated a lot things. Naturally, Gandalf is going to do his best for him, but that could not be far well. And as the dwarfs get ready for a pursuit race with wargs, etc., etc., I did not too much know how to tell the way they are going to have to manage with Ori. I thus preferred not to speak about it about the whole, but do not worry you : Ori will be looked after by the elfs of Mirkwood, even if they do not love the dwarfs !

00000

I know, it is a little bit short. Be indulgent, it was my first one fic on The hobbit. An other one is in the course of review at Titvan, longer and enriched.

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