"Wake up halfling! Dawn is coming!" Bilbo woke up with a sharp pain in his back; the green-eyed Elf had kicked him awake. The hobbit gave the Elf a confused look, not sure where he were or what the time was. He was lying in a moss-covered grove; the sun's ray's barely made it through the thick forest canopy. Bilbo suddenly remembered yesterday's events; his dead father laying beside their dead dog on the floor, his dead mother with her throat bleeding out. His family was dead and he was all alone. His chest started aching painfully and tears burned in his eyes.
"Mother… Father… Buffo…" he whispered painfully and started sobbing. Bilbo had never known pain like this before; he had never been without his family, the only life he knew was with his family and now they were gone. Dead. The boy crawled into a ball of shaking, sobbing mess but the green-eyed Elf disturbed him with another kick of his leather boot.
"I said UP! Not lying down again!" the Elf growled furiously and pulled Bilbo harshly from the ground and up on the horse's back again. Bilbo grunted from the pain of being thrown on the hard horseback and lost his breath for a moment. The green-eyed Elf sat up on the horse, kicked its sides and the horse went into a trot. Its hooves were almost inaudible on the soft forest ground. Bilbo cried for a while until the Elf snarled that he should shut up or else he would kick him again. Bilbo bit back the lump in his throat and managed to swallow it down; afraid of the pain the Elf may cause him.
The light of the day soon turned to an orange soft light before turning dark as they rode through the forest. Crickets chirped playfully in the dark, an owl hooted and Bilbo could hear the soft flutter of its wings over his head. He wondered how long they had ridden, it was a cold nip in the air and goose bumps covered his arms. He only wore his night-gown after all and even though it was made of sheep's wool, it still wasn't warm enough to keep the cold of the night away.
The Elf suddenly stopped the horse; Bilbo looked up at the Elf's neck, wondering why they had stopped. Long, pointy ears protruded through a curtain made of silver hair, Bilbo wondered how the hair would feel against his fingertips. Would it feel rough like Buffo's fur or would it be as soft as his father's velvet waist coat? Curiosity took over him and he tried to stretch out his hand but the elven ropes around his wrists stopped him. He pouted angrily and sighed, hating that he was bound like a cow to a pole. The Elf steered the horse to the right into a dense spot of the forest close to the pathway before he jumped off, his feet landing inaudibly on the ground. He made sure Bilbo was securely fastened before sneaking away, hiding behind a tree a couple of feet from where Bilbo was.
Two young men, taller than hobbits but still around the average hobbit size were walking down the forest path. The dark-haired man held the reins to a piebald pony that walked behind them. They were talking with each other, laughing and making jokes, the second more lame than the first.
"Have you heard about this one then Fíli? About the elven man who fell into a barrel of fish?" the man with dark-hair said.
"No Kíli! I haven't!" the blonde haired man replied and smiled at the other man. The dark-haired man was just about to tell the blonde-haired man his joke but was interrupted by an arrow piercing his leg. The piebald pony neighed and galloped away from them. Bilbo watched in horror as the silver-haired Elf went out from the forest and stood in front of the men with his daggers and bow. Bilbo didn't dare to warn the men, afraid the Elf might hurt him again. The dark-haired man growled from pain, he grabbed a sword that hung on his back and limped towards the Elf, a war cry escaping his mouth. The blonde man grabbed a war hammer that hung from his belt and ran to the Elf, ready to crush the elf's head with his hammer.
"Dwarves! You can do nothing against me!" Silver, which Bilbo just had named him, shouted. In a flash, Silver had shot another arrow into Kíli's leg. The dwarf dropped to the ground, grunting in pain, desperately trying to drag out the arrows from his legs.
"Kíli!" Fíli shouted horrified, slung his hammer over his head to crush Silver's head but the Elf was too quick, escaping the impact within seconds. He laughed maniacally and shot an arrow at Fíli's leg, making the dwarf fall to the ground with a loud thud and a snarl of pain. Silver quickly tied them together with a similar rope he had used for Bilbo, and then he dragged them back to the spot where Bilbo was. Silver bound the dwarves' rope tight around Bilbo's waist before he gracefully sat up on the horse and started riding again. The dwarves limped slowly behind the horse, not even trying to struggle, their eyes dimmed with shame. Bilbo whined painfully as the rope dug into his waist when Silver made the horse trot.
"It hurts!" he whined and tried to wrangle his way through the rope but it was securely bound and it hurt even more to struggle. "Please bind them off me!" he begged but Silver didn't reply, he just continued to ride on the small pathway.
Night turned into dawn and Bilbo must have fallen asleep because he couldn't remember when Silver had untied the dwarves from him. Fíli and Kíli were sitting next to a little creek, bound to a large stone but still able to move a little. Fíli's wounded leg was in the water, he winced when the water touched the wound. Bilbo noticed that Silver was nowhere to be seen. He also noticed that he was still bound to the horse. Sighing disappointed, he watched the dwarves, trying to forget that he was still tied up.
"We have to clean the wounds, otherwise they will be infected! Especially yours Kíli since you have two wounds!" Fíli said angrily to Kíli but the dwarf ignored him, staring at the water. Fíli continued to clean his wound until he thought it was clean enough, he tore off a piece of his clothing and enveloped the wound with it.
"Now it's your turn brother! Don't be so darn stubborn!" Fíli growled and pushed Kíli's legs into the water. Kíli screamed and tried to struggle but Fíli was stronger than him. He cleaned the wounds quickly and tore off two bits of clothing from Kíli and bandaged his brother's wounds with them.
"You will regret this!" Kíli said sourly, crossing his arms and looking away from his brother. Fíli rolled his eyes at his brother's childish behavior.
"You should be happy I care about you! Unlike the damn Elf that came out of nowhere and made us his prisoners!" he growled but his younger brother didn't listen. Bilbo looked at the dwarves and chuckled a little, he had seen hobbit siblings fighting before but not like this.
"What are you laughing about hobbit? Don't you have anything else to do?" Fíli grunted, his blue eyes piercing Bilbo's eyes.
"No actually, I don't. I'm distracting myself from hunger by laughing at you", he smirked and wiggled his toes teasingly. Fíli rolled his eyes again and stared out into the woods, wondering when the Elf would come back.
Bilbo sighed at the two now sleeping dwarves', they had been quiet for some time now and he had started getting bored. His bum hurt from the horse's stiff back, he was hungrier than a starving wolf, he was dirty and longed for a bath in the creek. Silver came noiselessly from an opening of the wood with another horse and a carriage. He stopped the horse beside Bilbo and went to the dwarves' kicking them awake and dragging them to the carriage. The dwarves' climbed up on the carriage, still not struggling. They sat down on the carriage like a pair of obeying dogs; let their hands be bound stiffly behind their backs and their legs be bound together.
Silver nodded pleasingly at his catch and seated himself on the carriage in front of the bound dwarves. He grabbed the other horse's reins and made the both horses trot. Bilbo winced in pain and hunger over the next couple of hours while the dwarves' were quiet as mice. Bilbo had been complaining for three hours until both Silver and Fíli in a choir growled him to shut up.
"But I haven't eaten for so long, I'm so hungry, please Silver, let me eat something!" Bilbo begged desperately, looking at the Elf with big eyes. Silver stared back at him, anger flaring in his eyes.
"What did you just call me?" he snarled. Kíli and Fíli both stared at the Elf in fear, afraid of what he might do to the hobbit child.
"S-silver…?" Bilbo stuttered his cheeks flushed in embarrassment and fear. "You haven't told me your name so I came up with one myself. Your hair is colored with silver so I thought Silver might fit", Bilbo managed to say, horrified.
"Your stupid bravery and wild fantasy will be your end Halfling!" Silver hissed, he steered the carriage closer to Bilbo and slapped Bilbo's cheek with his palm. Bilbo's face went white and he looked away from Silver while holding his aching cheek with his hand. He tried not to cry but some tears escaped his eyes.
"You NEVER come up with a nickname for an Elf, and especially not in Westron tongue! It pains me to even speak this disaster of a language!" Silver growled and then he, at least what it sounded like, cursed in the language of the Elves and made the horses gallop just to make Bilbo hurt more.
Bilbo tried apologizing and begged for the Elf to make the horses stop or at least walk again but Silver didn't listen, he just stared at the road in front of them and ignored everything that Bilbo begged about.