Sherlock heard a cracking sound. He turned around to see a crack forming in the middle of the cave. Bilbo noticed it too.

"Quick wake up!"

Bilbo frantically ran around trying to wake everyone. He managed to wake up Fili, but it was taking awhile for everyone else. Sherlock knew what to do, he went up to a sleeping Thorin and kicked him.

"Wake up, unless you would rather die."

With that Thorin shot up and glared at Sherlock, until he noticed the crack growing bigger.

"Everybody up! Hurry!" Thorin shouted at the sleeping dwarves.

Everyone woke up immediately and confusion and chaos began. While everyone was getting up, the crack still kept sliding across the floor. There was a moment when it stopped, and everyone became silent. Then a loud crashing sound came, and Sherlock felt the floor fall underneath his feet. He heard the screams of the dwarves, as they slid down a tunnel.

"Ow!"

"What's going on?!"

"Help!"

It was uncomfortable. The dwarves and Bilbo were bumping into him. And what was that thing he just saw? Was it an orc? Someone's foot hit his head and Sherlock started falling head first. All of a sudden his body slammed into something hard. For a second he lay there, shocked and not feeling anything, but then the pain began to creep in. His head throbbed, and he tried to open his eyes to see where he was. But when he tried, all he could see was darkness slowly ebbing in. Soon darkness was all he saw.


Sherlock felt the impact of hitting the ground again. His head was spinning, and he couldn't think properly. He was able to open his eyes, but he couldn't see clearly, so he decided to listen. Something with a deep horrible voice was shouting orders.

"Make them squawk!" He heard.

Sherlock opened his eyes again, his head still hurt and he was still dizzy, but he could see better. He was in a enormous cave. He was able to make out a awful looking creature towering over the dwarves. He glanced up at Dori, who must have been carrying him. All around the group of dwarves were orcs, or something that looked like them. Sherlock closed his eyes. The pain was very slowly leaving. He heard the smooth sound of a sword being unsheathed. Then Sherlock heard a cry from one of the creatures.

"Ahh! I know that sword, it is the Goblin Cleaver, the biter, the blade that sliced a thousand necks, kill them!" The giant creature screamed.

Sherlock jumped to his feet, then lost his balance and fell to the ground again. Fighting was going on all around him. The dwarves were running all around him. When he dared to look up a light flashed through the darkness of the cave.

"Run!" The voice of Gandalf yelled.

Sherlock remembered one of the dwarves grabbed him and ran. He couldn't recall anything else until they somehow escaped the cave. After a few minutes, the dwarves and Gandalf stopped for a rest. Sherlock leaned against a tree. He could stand now, and his nausea wasn't so bad anymore. Kili came up to him and told Sherlock everything that had happened. After falling down the tunnel, he had been knocked out. Dori had grabbed him, and the group was held captive by the goblins. The horrible creature was the "Great Goblin" who was thinking of holding them for ransom. The Great Goblin had ordered their weapons taken away, but when he saw Thorin's sword Orcrist, he became furious and tried to have them all killed. Luckily Gandalf had shown up temporarily startled the goblins, leaving the dwarves time to grab him and escape.

"Gandalf! You came back!" Cried Gloin.

"Yes, I knew you would need me sooner or later." Explained Gandalf.

Sherlock watched the dwarves and Gandalf talk, until one of them asked where Bilbo was. Wasn't Bilbo with them? Sherlock

"I though he was with us in the tunnels."

"Weren't you carrying him?" Asked Dwalin.

"No, I thought someone else was." Said Dori.

"Oh dear, I believe our burglar is still inside the mountains!" Exclaimed Gandalf.

"No, no I'm right here!" Sherlock turned to see Bilbo a few feet away from him. The dwarves were all shocked! Bilbo hadn't been there a second ago!

"My dear Bilbo, I thought we had lost our burglar!" Gandalf cried!

Sherlock got up to see Bilbo and Gandalf. The dwarves all started asking Bilbo questions.

"He's back!"

"How did you escape?"

"Where were you?"

Sherlock noticed Bilbo glance at his pocket, and then back up at the dwarves.

"I'm a burglar, aren't I? I escaped with my burglar skills!" Sherlock could tell Bilbo wasn't telling the whole truth. It was dusk now, and the sun was beginning to set.

The dwarves seemed happy with that answer.

"And a fine burglar you are! No one has ever been able to escape my watch before!" Balin said.

Sherlock was about to ask Bilbo what really happened, but the group turned around to see orcs running out of the mountains! Thorin seemed especially scared.

"Hurry, keep running! We might be able to outrun them!" Shouted Gandalf.

Sherlock ran with the dwarves, following Gandalf. They didn't look back to see how close the orcs were. It was hard dodging rocks and trees, Sherlock was still a bit dizzy from the past events of the day. Gandalf seemed to know where he was going. Every step they took lead them closer to a cliff! His lungs burned. Just when Sherlock thought he couldn't go any farther, they came to some pine trees around the edge.

"There's no where else to go, climb up the trees!" Yelled Gandalf.

Everyone did as they were told. It took Sherlock longer than he would have liked, but he finally made it up in time despite his injured head. When the last dwarf was in a tree, a the orcs reached the clearing. The leader of the pack, a white one with half of his arm cut off stepped menacingly forward. His face was covered with scars and so was his chest.

The orc muttered something in another language, one that Sherlock had never heard. He then shouted a command at the wargs, and they rushed forward into the trees. A warg jumped up, nearly catching Sherlock's leg. The tress began to shake from the weight of the animals pushing. Suddenly the smell of smoke came, Gandalf threw Sherlock a flaming pine cone, and signaled for him to throw it. the dwarves did the same, and soon a fire spread, scaring off the wargs. The wargs backed off. It worked for a little while, but then the tree next to him began to fall onto his tree, making it topple over. Screams filled the air. Desperate to stay alive, Sherlock jumped out of the tree, and onto the ground. As he looked around he noticed that's what all the others had also done. The lead orc smiled on top of his warg.

The pale orc said something in a deep gravely voice that Sherlock once again couldn't understand. He did make out one word however, Oakenshield. Stepping out from behind Gandalf came Thorin, with his sword out. Thorin walked slowly over to where the pale orc was. No one else moved. Thorin grabbed a log from one of the burning trees, and started running. Sherlock watched in horror as the pale orc rode his warg into Thorin. Then the pale orc motioned for another orc. The orc preceded to behead Thorin. Sherlock knew he had to do something. He ran with his sword and stabbed the orc, killing it. The pale orc was furious, his warg ran to Sherlock from behind, and would have killed Sherlock if Bilbo hadn't killed it first with his little dagger.

Relief flooded through Sherlock for a second, but then something large picked him up and he felt his feet lift off the ground.