Gandalf counted to see if every dwarf was present in the company and noticed Bilbo was missing.
"Where's Bilbo? Where is our Hobbit?" the wizard asked.
"Curse that Halfling! Now he's lost?" Dwalin spoke in a bitter tone.
"I thought he was with Dori!" said Gloin.
"Don't blame me!" said Dori.
"Well, where did you last see him?" Gandalf asked.
"I think I saw him slip away when they first collared us," said Nori.
"I saw him slipping away too," said Keith.
"And what happened, exactly? Tell me!" the wizard became even more uneasy.
"I'll tell you what happened. Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our Hobbit again. He is long gone," Thorin spoke in a bitter tone.
"There's no way for Bilbo to make it back home alive as the wilderness is dangerous," Keith argued.
"No. He isn't," Bilbo appeared making everybody glad and relieved.
"Bilbo Baggins. I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life," Gandalf spoke in a glad tone.
"Bilbo. We'd given you up," said Kili.
"How on earth did you get past the Goblins?" Fili asked.
"How indeed?" the hobbit muttered.
Gandalf spotted Bilbo putting something in his pocket and the buttons on his waistcoat were missing, "Well, what does it matter? He's back."
"It matters. I want to know. Why did you come back?" Thorin asked in a serious tone.
"Look, I know you doubt me. I know you always have. And you're right, I often think of Bag-end. I miss my books. And my armchair and my garden. See, that's where I belong. That's home. And that's why I came back. Because … you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can," said Bilbo to the dwarves who were out of words.
"I hope I can return home after this mission somehow," Keith muttered.
Azog and the orc pack caught up to them in a distance; their wargs were first deployed.
"Out of the frying pan," Thorin muttered as everybody heard the howling.
"And into the fire. Run," Gandalf ordered. "Run!"
The wizard led everybody down the slope, but the distance between the warg scouts and Thorin's company shortened every second. One of the wargs cut Bilbo off and was impaled into the hobbit's short sword. Thorin slashed another warg and Keith gunned down a warg. Everybody ran into the cliff.
"Up into the trees. All of you! Come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" Gandalf ordered.
Bifur threw a rock at a warg but it was useless.
"They're coming!" Thorin shouted.
Everybody climbed up into the trees to take refuge and Gandalf used a moth as a messenger.
"Hang on!" Bofur shouted.
"Hold on, brothers!" Gloin yelled.
The warg riders and more wargs without riders arrived. One of the riders was pale, taller and muscular equipped with a mace riding a white warg. He had a nasty metal claws in the place of his left arm.
Thorin recognized him, "Azog."
The pale orc spoke in a language that the men did not understand.
"It cannot be," Thorin spoke in disbelief.
Azog ordered the wargs to get in there as not only he wanted Thorin's head but also the head of the stranger. The wargs all began jumping at the trees attempting to bring them down. As a result, the trees began falling like dominos. The dwarves, the hobbit, and the V.S.S.E. agent all hopped tree by tree to Gandalf's position. One of the trees fell off from the cliff and Azog laughed sadistically. "Man, I'm starting to hate that guy," Keith thought.
Gandalf lit a pinecone and threw onto the wargs. Though he missed, the projectile started the fire. The wizard lit more pinecones then gave it to the dwarves, Bilbo, and Keith to throw. Most of the projectiles missed but caused the flame to grow. One of the flaming projectiles caught a warg on fire causing to scurry. Keith aimed and hurled a flaming pinecone at an orc catching him on fire.
Everyone cheered as the wargs fell back to their master; however it only lasted for seconds. The tree began to fall but it did not go off from the cliff. "No!" said Gandalf.
Ori held onto Dori and muttered, "Oh, no."
"Mr. Gandalf!" Dori shouted getting the wizard's attention. The dwarf grabbed onto the wizard's staff as he could not hold onto the branch any longer.
"Oh, no, Dori!" Ori spoke in a tone of panic.
"Thorin, what are you doing?!" Keith shouted.
Thorin instantly got off from the tree and took an oaken branch as a shield like in the battle of Moria. The wargs all ignored the dwarf prince and Azog saw it was an opportunity to kill his only hated enemy. The V.S.S.E. agent saw Azog had his warg leapt at Thorin.
After the Thorin got up, Azog and his warg ran towards him, the pale orc uppercut the dwarf prince. "NOOOOOOOO!" Balin shouted.
Azog's warg bit Thorin holding onto him very firmly with every force and Azog gained pleasure from that. "THORIN!" Dwalin shouted as he attempted to help but nearly fell.
Keith struggled to climb off the tree while watching. Bilbo managed to get up and drew his short sword. Thorin slammed onto the warg's snout causing it to throw the dwarf prince. Azog ordered another orc to behead Thorin and it dismounted.
To the surprise of Keith and the pale orc, Bilbo lunged at the orc and Thorin became unconscious. The orc's sword was knocked off at the process and the hobbit mercilessly stabbed it killing his first orc.
Fili, Kili, and Dwalin charged at the warg riders while Keith gave a warg rider a headshot with his pistol. Bilbo clashed blades with another orc but bumped into Azog's warg. It shoved him off and Azog turned to finish the hobbit that foiled the attempt.
"You want the hobbit? You'll have to take me down first," Keith boldly stood between Bilbo and Azog while aiming his pistol at the pale orc.
The moth returned to Gandalf with a message and the V.S.S.E. agent heard squawking. Though Dori could not hold onto the wizard's staff any longer, he and Ori landed onto the back of an eagle.
"Giant eagles," Keith muttered as he could not believe his eyes that the eagles were larger than the ones back home. The giant eagles swooped knocking the wargs off the cliff as well as grabbing the warg riders then dropped them to their deaths. An eagle was seen flying towards the unconscious Thorin and carefully picked him up, the oaken branch fell off. The eagles carefully picked up the dwarves without injuring them with their talons. A dwarf landed onto the back of another eagle. An eagle picked up Bilbo and let him landed onto the back of another eagle. An eagle picked up Keith and dropped him into the back of another eagle.
The tree fall and Gandalf landed onto the back of the eagle leader. Azog roared with rage seeing the eagles helped Thorin and company escaped.
The eagles ferried Thorin and company east to the peak of a small mountain. They gently placed the dwarves while the others got off from their backs.
"Thanks," Keith said to the eagle.
After everybody regrouped, Gandalf revived Thorin who became bitter towards the hobbit, "You! You nearly got yourself killed! Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the Wild? That you had no place amongst us? I have never been so wrong in all my life." The dwarf prince hugged Bilbo to his surprise. The hobbit hugged him back. Everybody cheered and laugh while Keith smiled. "But I'm sorry I doubted you," Thorin apologized.
"No, I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero or a warrior. Not even a burglar," said Bilbo.
"You will have those traits one day, Bilbo," said Keith.
Something caught Thorin's attention and Bilbo asked, "Is that what I think it is?"
Everybody turned to the direction.
"Erebor … the Lonely Mountain … the last of the great Dwarf kingdoms of Middle-earth," Gandalf spoke as he knew what it was.
"Our home," Thorin muttered.
"A raven! The birds are returning to the mountain," said Oin as they heard chirping.
"That, my dear Oin, is a thrush," the wizard knew what the small bird was.
"But we'll take it as a sign. A good omen," said Thorin.
"You're right. I do believe the worst is behind us," said Bilbo.