The trolls left a wide path so it was easy to follow it without having to be to close for Eleona. It was making it's way back to the dwarf camp. As it neared the camp it smelt the dwarves but veered off to where they had kept the ponies and horses. Eleona ran ahead of it. Leaping lightly through the undergrowth she made it a good 40 seconds before the troll. She did not come out of the cover of the leaves for Kili and Fili were there and she did not want another encounter with the two. She heard the troll take at least 2 of the ponies. But the brothers did not notice anything amiss. Bilbo promptly

came over to them handing both Fili and Kili a plate of the jerky that most of the others had been eating around the fire. There were some potatoes on the dish ware as well but Eleona guessed they were tough and not cooked well.

Bilbo went over to pet his little pony fondly but found she was not there.

"Where are three of the ponies?" Mr. Baggins asked Fili.

"What some of them are missing? You must be mistaken."

Though Fili saw he wasn't when he came over to the hobbit.

"What is happening?" Kili asked. "Thorin won't be happy about this."

Fili hushed him saying, "Did you hear something?"

The dwarves and the hobbit went to investigate the sounds and saw a warm glow as they got closer. Eleona was already in the trees around the campfire of the three hideous trolls. Fili and Kili pressured Bilbo to go an find out what the light was and who if anybody was around it. Poor Bilbo was chosen for this task because Gandalf had impressed upon the dwarves before they had left Bag End that hobbits could pass unseen by most people. Though Eleona knew this was true she also knew unlike the dwarves that most hobbits did not use this talent unless it was to pinch food or something of that sort. Bilbo soon came upon the light and saw the trolls. They had three of the ponies tied to a six foot long rail. The poor animals brayed and snorted in fear of the towering monstrosities. Bilbo's little heart felt for them. He had began to love the little beast that had carried him for some miles. He crept silently over to the rail that the ponies were tied at. They whinnied softly as he came up to them. Bilbo saw they were tethered tightly to the rail by a thick, mangled rope. As much as Bilbo pulled and tugged the rope he could not undo it. He stood as long as he could uneasily very near to the trolls. It was a good thing that the trolls had poor eyesight and did not notice things as small as hobbits. Finally he noticed a scimitar like sword on the on of the trolls belt. It was not more then a small knife to a troll but it was quite large for a hobbit. He edged toward it nervously. Eleona stooped in the branch of a near by tree. She watched the hobbit closely afraid that Bilbo's nerve might fail him and he would be unable to free the ponies. She could have easily done it herself but she had left her sword back at the camp. So she chose to stay in the trees where she would be of the most use or down in the foliage. Without her sword her arrows would do better if they came unexpected and with no indication of where they came from. At last Bilbo gathered the courage to reach out and grab the sword. He was able to get it off the belt with no trouble. Quickly he turned around and began to saw through the rope restraining the ponies. He had sawed through the rope and was shooing the animals away from the trolls when one of them started to build up a violent sneeze.

"Aaaa... Aaa.. Achoo!" he sneezed. But in that instance he had reached behind his back and grabbed unfortunate Bilbo, who had just been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thinking that he was going to sneeze into his handkerchief instead of a hobbit the trolls was extremely taken a back when Bilbo was in front of him covered in the snot of this monster.

"Look, Look what's come out of me hooter!" He called to the other two. Bilbo had been caught!