"Bofur, there is something I must admit to you," Nori started, and Bofur watched as his lips continued to move and form more words, but the sound of them was drowned out by someone's excited shouting. Usually he was rather excellent at reading quietly mouthed words, but the ones Nori had spoken must have been very unfamiliar to Bofur. Letting his hands drop to his sides, Bofur gave Nori a look of confusion, hoping for the other dwarf to repeat his previous sentence. However, the yelling coming from the rest of the group only grew louder and, fearing trouble, Nori and Bofur both grasped at whatever weapons they had on their persons, running towards the cries. Once caught up to the remainder of the group, both dwarves realized there was no trouble at all. In fact, in his frustration and sadness, it was Ori who had stumbled across the barely hidden troll cave. How did any of us miss that?
The youngest Ri brother was standing at the mouth of the cave, not wanting to go in, but also not wanting to move from his spot. Thorin pushed past him, not saying much anything at all, least of all a praise or congratulations. Gandalf was a little kinder, offering a smile to the young dwarf, and Dwalin, who didn't actually enter the cave, gave Ori a strong pat on the back to show that the boy had done a good job. As Ori looked up at the older dwarf, eyes wide and still wet, Bofur let his curious nature getting the best of him and ran ahead of the group, following Thorin into the cave. Mahal, this must be the worst smelling place in all of history, he though, although he wasn't sure if he had actually voiced his opinion or not. He was too busy thinking of what golden and pricey objects he would find in the hoard, some of which were already shining under the light from Gandalf's torch.
"It seems a shame to just leave it lying around," Bofur suggested, turning to whoever it was that had entered the troll cave behind him. Gloin and Nori, as it turned out, were the only other two in the cave, and both looked to Bofur at his opinion. Gloin gave him a strange look, maybe with greed and possessiveness and also a bit of sneakiness, but spoke to Nori instead.
"Agreed. Nori, get a shovel," he commanded, and Nori did as he was told. It was only a moment later that Nori had come back with the shovel, and by that time a small chest was filled with gold and jewels. The three of them dug a hole, not caring who saw their hands grabbing and pulling dirt out of the way, and filled it with not only the chest, but more fancy-looking things that had caught their eyes. "We're making a long-term deposit," came from Gloin's mouth, suddenly enough that it would have startled Bofur, had he not been distracted by the precious objects around him. Apparently, at some point during their activities, Dwalin had, in fact, entered the troll hoard after them, likely because he was too loyal to Thorin to allow the king out of his sight. Bofur looked up in time to see a rather rude eye-roll come from the dwarves warrior.
"Let's go," Thorin said, though his loud voice made it seem more like a shout. "Bofur, Gloin, Nori." The group, now including Dwalin, followed after Thorin, but left Gandalf behind, though only for a minute.
Out of the cave, Bofur glanced around everyone quickly. Ori was sitting on a rock not far from the cave's opening, with Dori and Bilbo huddled around him. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and he wondered if Bilbo knew about the dwarf's hidden love for Dwalin. Not far away from the upset looking trio, Bifur was handing a confused looking Kili a skull he had found. A warm laugh, one that Bofur knew belonged to Nori long before looking his way, made its way to Bofur's ears. Bofur did not have long to enjoy the sight himself, as Gandalf was soon out of the cave, calling out to the hobbit. Being as nosy as he was, Bofur tried to listen into the conversation between the wizard and the hobbit. Finding he could not hear them without wandering obviously close, Bofur settled on short, frequent glances their way, hoping to at least get a clue as to what they could be speaking of.
Without being able to hear the entirety of Gandalf and Bilbo's conversation, Bofur guessed he knew a majority of what was being said, just by seeing their facial expressions and the wizard handing a dagger of sorts to the hobbit. Poor Bilbo probably doesn't know what to do with the thing, having never been in a fight in his life. Bofur's own train of thought was derailed as a loud shout from Thorin gathered the attention of the group. "Something's coming," he shouted, which apparently prompted Gandalf to believe he now had the authority to start yelling orders.
"Stay together," the wizard said, "hurry up, and arm yourselves." With or without the orders from Gandalf these were the steps the dwarves would have taken to prepare themselves for an attack, but they moved swiftly, getting into as tight a group as possible in the few short moments they had. Bofur wasn't sure what to expect, and he was sure the others felt the same way, but the hurried rustling of leaves meant that whatever was coming their way was charging towards them at speeds rather great. However, when a man of some sort rode into the clearing on a sled lead by rabbits, shouting things about thieves and murder, Bofur knew instantly that this was the furthest thing from his mind when he was thinking of what to expect.
