~BILBO POV~

I pulled my eyes open just in time for a big rock to fall on me. Except it didn't feel like a normal rock.

I managed to get out from under it and stood up. It was one of the Big People - a girl. She seemed to be unconscious. What was one of the Big People doing down here? I nudged her with my foot to try and wake her up. Sure enough, she stirred.

~IZZY POV~

I let out a low moan and opened my eyes. "God, is my head killing me," I murmured.

In front of me there stood a hobbit.

"Oh, um, hi," I said lamely. "You're, um, the hobbit that Gandalf picked to go to the Mountain, right? What was it... Mr. Baggins?"

"That's me," he said.

I smiled slightly. "I'm Izzy. Now how do we get out of here?" Suddenly, I heard a voice, and looked up.

"We hears voicessss, precious! Fresh meat, so juicy sweet! Gollum! Gollum!" I raised an eyebrow and stood up.

"Call me fresh meat again and you're fresh meat!" I called. Then the thing that had spoken revealed himself, and I could barely suppress my laughter.

"Well, um, you certainly are, uh... shorter than I am!" I managed, having to "cough" several times to not crack up.

Bilbo looked at me funny. "I don't know what game you're playing at, but I don't - "

"Games?" interjected Gollum excitedly. "We loves games, precious!"

" - think it's a good idea," finished Bilbo half-heartedly.

"Come to think of it, why don't we play a game? Bilbo and I on one team, and if we win you show us the way out." I smiled. "That might be fun."

"A game of riddles!" said Bilbo. I guessed he was good at riddles.

"And if they loses, precious, what do we get?" He thought for a moment. "We eats them, of course!" He turned back to us. "If strangers loses, we eats them whole."

I grinned. "Fair enough." Bilbo frowned at me again, and I ignored him. "So, Gollum, is it, you'll ask Bilbo a question, he'll answer, you'll ask me a question, I'll answer, then we'll both ask you questions. Repeat, until someone can't answer." Gollum nodded excitedly.

At the time, I didn't notice Bilbo pick something up off of the ground. That would be my future downfall.

Gollum turned to Bilbo, and began.

"What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes,
and yet never grows?"

Bilbo smiled. "The mountain, I suppose."

Gollum hissed, then turned to me.

"Voiceless it cries,
Wingless flutters,
Toothless bites,
Mouthless mutters."

I bit my lip and racked my brain. But I'm very scatterbrained, and my thoughts wandered back to flying here, the wind on my face. Wind!

"Wind," I said triumphantly. "The answer is wind."

Gollum hissed louder, and looked at Bilbo. "Ask us," he said menacingly. Bilbo sucked in a breath and thought for a minute before conjuring up a classic.

"Thirty white horses on a red hill,
First they clamp,
Then they stamp,
Then they stand still."

"Chestnuts, chestnuts," muttered Gollum. "Teeth! Teeth, my precious, but we has only six!" He crawled back to me. "Ask us," he said.

"Ummmmm..." I said. "Uh, let's go with: "

"An eye in a blue face
Saw an eye in a green face.
'That eye is like to this eye,'
said the first eye,
'But in low place
Not in high place.'"

I honestly have no idea how I came up with it. Anyway, Gollum murmured to himself, before coming up with the answer. "Sun on the daisies, precious." He then made his way over to Bilbo again.

"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter."

Bilbo smiled again. "Darkness." Why was he getting the easy ones? I huffed in the corner, at least until Gollum crawled over to me.

"Alive without breath,
As cold as death,
Never thirsty, never drinking,
All in mail never clinking."

I bit my lip and walked around a bit, trying to think. But my mind wandered again, back to Rivendell and the river with all the rainbow-colored fish - oh. "Fish," I said, relieved that somehow my unconscious mind was interfering and handing me the answers. Gollum looked like he was seething as he turned back to Bilbo.

"Ask us."

Bilbo bit his lip, and said:

"A box without hinges, key or lid,
yet golden treasure lies within."

Gollum hissed for about five minutes, started making a noise like a kettle boiling over, then shouted, "EGGSES! Eggses!" Then he turned back to me. "Ask us," he said.

Oh god, I couldn't think. Cold sweat began to drip down the back of my neck.

"Ask us!"

I frantically racked my brain. He had never seen anything like me, right? Desperately, I asked:

"I have wings, and I can fly.
I am not a bird.
What am I?"

"Not fair!" he hissed/yelled. "Give us three guesses!" I nodded to him.

He spluttered and threw rocks at the wall for a while, before he came up with "Bat!"

"No," I said.

He hissed, then went back to thinking. "Butterfly!"

"Um, no."

He hissed even louder and rocked himself back and forth. "Bee! or Fly!"

I grinned. "Do I look like a bee or a fly?" I said, before whipping out my wings.

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