Spock couldn't see everything that happened in the town but what he saw wasn't very reassuring. The whole town was on fire, though at some point someone shot the dragon and he fell into the water. Once the dwarves were aware of that they went into the cave to examine the gold that the dragon had gathered. Bilbo seemed now to be accepted as a full member of the group. Spock saw this as a good time to say goodbye. He had to look after Jim, who was his top priority now.
"I will leave you to your own devices now. The dragon is dead so you shouldn't have any more difficulties on your travels," he said to them.
"You really come from far away, don't you? Safe travels," Thorin answered who still didn't know what to think of that strange guy who had ears like an elf but behaved very differently.
After he had made sure that the dwarves and Bilbo couldn't hear him, he flipped open his communicator: "Spock to Enterprise!"
"Scott here," came the reply, which told Spock that the Captain hadn't had the opportunity to beam back up yet.
"Did you hear anything from the landing party, Mister Scott?"
"The Captain ordered us to beam up. He wanted to wait for you in the town," McCoy informed him, who obviously was back on board, and on the bridge again. Spock still tried to figure out why, but he had made a guess that McCoy was worried something might happen to the Captain as soon as he set foot on a planet that wasn't Earth. Given past experiences he had to admit that the worries of the CMO were logical where Jim Kirk was concerned.
"The town burned down. I am not there yet. But he should be on the shores of the lake. I will inform you when I have located him. Spock out."
He tried to comm Jim but he didn't answer which could mean two things: either he had lost his communicator during the fire or he was lying unconscious somewhere. Spock tried not to think about the third possibility: that he could be dead. That wasn't an option. Jim Kirk, the man who had beaten so many battles simply didn't die in a fire.
It took longer than he expected to get to the lake and once he had arrived there it was even more difficult to locate the survivors. Spock was sure he would meet Jim there. But as he watched all those humans around him he didn't see the one human he was looking for, the one human who meant more to him than he was able to admit even to himself.
"Can I help you? You look like you are looking for a friend of yours?" An old man asked him.
"Yes. A blond human. He was in the town when the dragon arrived," Spock answered and noticed that the man himself didn't look like he belonged into the town. He looked as much out of place as he felt.
"They carried the wounded to that tent over there. Come with me."
Spock followed the man, and was surprised to see not only humans but also some elves in the tent. In one corner he spotted a blond man, and sprinted right over to him. He had a big wound on his head and was unconscious, but alive. Then he took a closer look, and saw that this man wasn't Jim. He was wondering why he hadn't noticed this fact at once. Apart from the hair the two men looked nothing alike.
"This is your friend?" the man asked. "They found him in the water."
"No. He isn't," Spock answered. The man clearly wanted to make small talk, and asked him what Spock had been doing on that mountain. Surely no one would stay with the dwarves voluntarily?
"Nothing. I thought that the hobbit, Bilbo, could use some assistance, because he didn't seem to be fully accepted by the others. But now he is."
Spock observed the busy people around him and couldn't help noticing that some of them blamed the dwarves for what had happened to the city. This whole affair is far from over, he thought. Coming events would prove him right.