21/05/2018 Author's Note: Sorry for the wait with this chapter. I had some issues with writing it... hence why it's quite long. It just sort of went on and on, but it's done now and that's the main thing. I've also been rather focus on writing my other Hobbit Fanfic, which I will hopefully start posting soon as it is, I think, just a few chapters away from being completed, which is exciting but I won't say anymore in case I jinx myself.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 13

Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Bilbo sides ached from how hard she was having to run to try and catch up with the company. Even though she had escaped her fall and fight with Gollum relatively unscathed, she was certain her body was decorated black and blue with bruises.

Just a bit further, she wheezed as she ran. Just a few more steps and she would be safe again.

Still far ahead of her she could hear Gandalf voice ringing out in the dusk air. It sounded as if he were counting.

The dwarves, she thought as she pressed on, he's counting the dwarves and he will see that I am missing and… and she didn't know what would happen then.

They hadn't seemed to notice her being missing when they raced past her near the exit to the goblins' network of caves and tunnels. Maybe they hadn't realised she was gone… or maybe they simply didn't care.

She stumbled on a root that seemed to be doing its very best to trip her up, but with a lot of waving of her arms, she was able to catch herself only for her to end up falling painfully into a tree

The fall against the tree hurt but at least she was still more or less upright, for if she had fallen to the ground, she might never have gotten up again.

Oh, she chided herself sternly, stop that! You must never think like that. Not ever. A brief image of her father crossed her mind but she shoved the thought aside.

"Where is Bilbo?" Her head snapped up at the sound of her name being belted out in the relatively silent dusk.

"Where is our hobbit? Where is our hobbit?" Gandalf sounded angry and… and concerned… thank goodness.

Her feet slowed to a brisk trot as she finally caught up to the clearing that the company were all standing around in, looking utterly exhausted as they glanced uncomfortably around at each other.

It hurt a little to see that only a few of them actually appeared to be concerned that she was missing.

Did she truly mean so little to them that they were fine to leave her to a possible awful fate within the mountains where goblins and other foul things ran wild?

She winced as she listened to Dwalin curse her. Curse her and call her 'halfling'. She so did hate being referred to as 'halfling'. As if she were neither here nor there. She was not half of anything! She was a hobbit and that was nothing to be ashamed of!

She listened with a sinking heart as the dwarves fought, squabbling over who she was last with and where the last place she had been seen by any of them had been.

"I think I saw her slip away, when they collared us." Nori finally spoke up over the tin, loud enough for both Gandalf and her to hear.

"What happened exactly?" Gandalf thundered, "Tell me!"

"I'll tell you what happened," Thorin stepped forward, his brow forward and a deadly scowl painted across his face.

Bilbo sank heavily against the tree she was leaning against, heart pounding wildly in her ears.

"Master Baggins saw her chance and she took it! She has thought of nothing but her soft bed and her warm hearth since first she stepped out of her door! We will not be seeing our Hobbit again. She is long gone."

Bilbo's chest burned with anger as she fiddled with her newly found magic ring, silently thanking it again for gifting her with invisibility.

How-how dare he! Had she not proven time and again that she was here to very end! That she would do everything in her power to do her part? How could he… Yes, of course, she missed home! How could she not? How could anyone not miss their home? How…

The silly little ring slid off of her finger and the world returned to normal – thank goodness, the sick look the world had taken on while she was wearing the silly little thing had been quite disconcerting… and made her feel quite ill, if she was being truly honest with herself – and with a deep steadying breath, she stepped out from behind her tree.

"No, she isn't."

She would have laughed at the hilarious expressions that crossed the faces of the dwarves as they all snapped to look in her direction, but she couldn't drop her eyes from Thorin whose expression had become a peculiar one indeed.

"Bilbo Baggins!" Gandalf cried out in relieved gladness. "I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life!"

Bilbo looked away from Thorin's expressionless face and smiled widely at Gandalf, all the while accepting the fond pat on the back from Balin who had been one of the few dwarves who had looked disturbed at the fact that her fate had been unknown and now looked relieved to see her safe and sound.

She waved brightly at the Broadbeams who looked as if they were seconds away from tackling her with a huge hug. She hoped they, or at least, Bombur would hold off until her bruises were a little less tender.

"Bilbo!" Kili was exclaiming, grinning widely at her from his brother's side, "we'd given you up!"

Yes, I know, I heard, was on the very tip of her tongue and something must have shown on her face for Fili quickly jumped forward, asking, "How on earth did you get past the Goblins?"

"How, indeed?" Growled Dwalin and Bilbo felt her earlier annoyance at the dwarf raise its head again.

It would be so easy to give into the temptation to yell, but instead she found herself wavering because… did she even want to tell the dwarves what happened to her after she became separated from them when they were captured? To tell them of her attempt to follow after them when they were captured by the goblins and she was left behind? Of being jumped by a goblin, the fight between it and her before they both went tumbling off the cliff into the cavern below. To tell the dwarves about Gollum and the battle of riddles, of her finding the…

The ring felt suddenly heavy in her hand and she found herself suddenly desperate to hide it away, to keep it secret, to keep it safe.

Let them wonder how she escaped, she thought with a hint of bitterness, they did not deserve to know the truth, not with how they have doubted her from the very beginning.

So instead of answering, she simply smiled an exaggeratingly sweet smile at Dwalin and shrugged her shoulders, ignoring the sharp pain that cut between her shoulder blades from her multiple falls over the course of several hours.

She slipped her funny little ring into her waistcoat pocket, feeling reassured when she felt the weight of it as it sat there, nice and safe.

"Well," Gandalf voice broke through her thoughts and she was startled to see him watching her closely with an odd expression written across his old, wise face, "what does it matter? She's back!"

"It matters!" Bilbo jumped at Thorin's voice, her head twisting around to stare hesitantly at the dwarven king. He was still wearing the same peculiar expression as he had worn the moment she had appeared before them, his piecing blue eyes seemed to be staring straight to her soul.

"I want to know," He continued, his voice oddly quiet, "why did you come back?"

She stared him for a long moment, because why had she indeed?

Was it because she knew that she would certainly die in the Wilds if she tried to make it back to Rivendell on her own? Or because…

She remembered the unkind and almost cruel words she had snapped at Bofur only – was it truly just hours ago? It felt like a life time now – about dwarves not having a home; that they didn't belong anywhere.

She had been hurt then, angry for once more bringing Thorin ire down upon her head because of something she had been unable to help and had lashed out at the one of the few dwarves who had always been kind to her, lashed out with words that would have hurt him deeply, and had, and yet he had still been kind, so kind to her and…

"Look," She scrunched up her face a little as she spoke, forcing herself to think carefully over her words, because she knew, she knew the next few words she spoke to Thorin Oakenshield and company would be the most important words she ever spoke to them and if she got them wrong, if she got them wrong...

"I know you doubt me. I know you always have." And though she was speaking to the company as whole, her eyes were focused purely on Thorin, refusing to lower her gaze for a moment as she spoke, determined to be more than just a bothersome burden in his eyes for once.

"And you're right, I often think of Bag End." She shrugged and gave a weak, but unapologetic smile, for after all, it was her home.

"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, cause you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can." She looked around at the dwarves and at Gandalf who smiled at her and then back at Thorin, who after a long moment, lower his eyes to her, his head tilting ever so slightly forward before he looked back at her as she let out a shaking breath as she shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, suddenly becoming acutely aware that she was the centre of everyone's attention.

"Um, so yes, uh." She blushed red as she scuffed a foot against the ground, "that's-that's all I have to say."

She was saved, if it could possibly be called saving, from her embarrassment by the horrific sounds of shrieking and howling from behind them.

"Out of the frying pan…" Thorin growled as the company ran about grabbing weapons and whatever packs they had managed to save from being lost in the Goblin caves.

"… and into the fire!" Gandalf finished before roaring for them to run, herding Bilbo along in front of him as the company once more started running down the mountain side.

She was keeping pretty good pace with the company right up until the moment a Warg jumped over her head and landed with a snarling thump directly in front of her.

She grabbed her sword and shoved it in front of her as the Warg charged, knocking her clean of her feet.

I'm dead, she thought as she landed with a painful thump to the ground.

She waited for the Warg to bite her or to do some other horrible thing that would result in a painful death only for her to belatedly realise that the creature, in its haste to kill her had actually impaled its forehead upon her sword, killing itself instantly.

Bilbo simply stared for a long moment before remembering with the help of another petrifying howl that she was in terrible danger and she needed to run.

She could hear the company yelling and the sounds of fighting and wargs dying but, and she knew she needed to move only… her little blade was lodged deep in the Warg's head.

Leave it! Her Baggins side screamed. Come back for it later.

But would there be a later? Bilbo didn't know and something inside of her just couldn't bear to leave this little blade that was now glowing blue with the approach of orcs.

She didn't know how long she struggled to pull the blade out but it was long enough for when it did finally come free she was alone and there was a nasty pack of wargs racing towards her.

"Bilbo!" Bofur roared from up one of the pine trees.

"We've left the Burglar behind again." She hears someone, she thinks it is Nori, the utter arse, call with a tone far too amused for her taste. "Better hurry up lass or you're gonna be eaten!"

"Shut up!" Bilbo shrieked because she has been threaten quite enough today with the notion of being eaten.

It had been a good many years since Bilbo had last climbed a tree. And when she had climbed said trees during her tweenhood, it had not been what you would say, by her own choice. It had usually been because she was being chased by one or more of Farmer Maggot's beastly dogs after she had stolen a bag of mushrooms from his garden. And really, where was the difference with the two situations? Absolutely none. Good heavens, how she hated dogs!

But even so, her running and climbing trees to avoid Farmer Maggot's dogs had actually given her an essential skill and she was able to be up a tree with the dwarves with such speed she had impressed even Dwalin and Gloin, who stared at her with open mouths.

"Fear," Nori yelled to her with a grin, "powerful motivator, ain't it?"

Bilbo, in return, made a very un-lady-like gesture of flipping him the bird which had him and several other dwarves who had seen her do it, throw their heads back and laugh.

"Stop laughing!" She shrieked at them as she watched Wargs come tearing into the clearing, leaping up against the trunks of the trees, their great white teeth flashing in the dusk light. "None of this is funny."

She clutched desperately at the tree she was in, as the wargs snarled and circled them below.

"Bilbo!"

She looked around just in time to see a flaming pinecone being thrown at her by Gandalf. Her hands shot out without thought, grabbing it out of the air and yelping when she had realised what she had done. Only, it didn't burn. The pinecone was a lovely and warm, but the flames did not burn her flesh.

She looked at Bofur in amazement before helping him to light his own pinecone, and then she took aim.

She landed a cracking shot to a Warg's head, setting the creatures whole head and neck aflame, sending it racing away, yelping its head off.

"Nice shot!" She heard Fili yell as he threw his own pinecone, this one hitting the rump of a warg and making it squeal.

Bilbo, despite herself and her ever growing fear, grinned and took special delight in that every single throw she made, she hit a Warg right in their ugly face, setting them on fire from snout right down to their tail.

She was just beginning to think that maybe just maybe they might be alright when the wargs that were still circling the trees suddenly withdrew as a low growling horn sounded.

Bilbo looked up around her in surprise, seeing her surprise echoed in the faces of the dwarvens around her.

"Orcs!" She squeaked when she saw where the wargs had withdrawn to, her heart racing as a pack of orcs suddenly appeared a little ways off, led by a huge pale orc mounted upon a massive white wargs back.

She sucked in a breath as her memories stirred.

No, it couldn't be… could it?

"Azog?!" She heard Thorin whisper, answering her unasked question, from a tree near to her own. His face had lost all colour as he stared at the Pale Orc, his expression stricken with old grief and pain.

She heard the Pale Orc speak, his tone almost lazy as black speech rolled from his foul tongue.

"It cannot be." Thorin whisper his tone filled with disbelief.

"Thorin!" Dwalin roared pulling Thorin from his agony as the pack of wargs once more started lunging at the trees the company were sitting in. They jumped as high as they could, snapping off branches with their large jaws.

"Jump Bilbo!" Bofur yelled as the tree they were in started to be uprooted by the wargs attack.

Bilbo jumped with all her might into the next tree, almost falling into the jaws of the wargs below, only to have the back of her coat caught by Thorin – Again! Saved by that dwarf again! Bilbo groaned, oh, would the humiliation never end? – and he dragged her bodily onto a branch.

Gandalf dropped more flaming pinecones for Bilbo and the dwarves to throw at the wargs and once more, the wargs howled in pain and outrage as they were hit by fire-y projectiles.

But as many wargs as they managed to drive back and away, more seemed to simply come forward and take their place and before long, Bilbo felt the tree that she, the dwarves and Gandalf were now all standing in, start to give way.

With a pounding heart, she looked down and saw what she had not noticed before, that they were in a tree at the very edge of a cliff and the roots of the tree had started to pull away from the ground and they were now beginning to lean precariously over the edge of an immense drop.

"Oh," Bilbo found herself sighing as the tree went further and further over the edge, "I am getting so very tired of falling off cliffs."

She thought she heard an amused snort from her side only to remember that it was Thorin and he found nothing about whatever she did amusing.

"Oh no, not again." Bilbo groaned as the tree gave a final awful creak and suddenly they were all hanging desperately to their branches over the edge of the cliff.

She heard the horrible sound of Ori's frighten scream as he lost his grip on his branch. Bilbo didn't have time to even scream out in horror before relief crashed down upon her as the young dwarf managed to grab a hold of his oldest brother's leg.

"Mister Gandalf!" Dori yelled before he too lost his grip upon his own branch only to catch hold of the end of Gandalf's staff that he had thrusted down towards the two brothers' just in time.

Bilbo gasped for air, unsure of just how much more her poor heart could take of this.

She watched as Nori desperately tried to reach for his brothers, only for the tree to sway dangerously and being yelled at to stop moving. The middle Ri brother had shot them all a furious, challenging look but ultimate stop his struggle to get to his brothers. At least, for the time being.

Bilbo yelped when her own branch moved in a stomach dropping fashion, her head snapping in the direction of Thorin whose face was set in a look of pure hatred and rage.

"What are you…" She trailed off as he hoisted himself on top of the tree trunk, brandishing his sword and his oaken branch shield seated upon his arm.

"No!" Bilbo yelped in horror because surely he would not do something as stupid and reckless as try and take on Azog by himself.

"Dwalin!" She shrieked to the only dwarf who might have a chance of stopping Thorin, bodily if nothing else.

"Thorin!" Dwalin bellowed in the same moment as she yelled to him, "Don't ya dare!"

But the dwarf king paid neither of them any heed as he started barrelling down the tree trunk, sword raised as he hurtled toward Azog who smirked widely, his white warg lowering itself into a crouch.

"THORIN!"

Bilbo dragged herself further up onto the branch watching in horror as Thorin in one lunge from Azog Warg was knocked clean off of his feet before he managed to swing his sword even once.

The scene before her only grew worse as Azog managed to knock Thorin yet again to the ground with the massive mass he carried at his side.

She pressed a hand to her mouth when the massive white warg picked Thorin up in its great jaws and bit deeply into his torso.

"THORIN!" Dwalin bellowed as the dwarves around her cried out in pain and horror, each scrambling to reach their leader.

She didn't know what possessed her to do what she did next. In fact, in years to come, her memory of this night would become very foggy, especially when it came to how she went from hanging from the tree branch over the edge of the cliff to finding herself running as fast as her short legs could carry her to Thorin's side.

She didn't even remember who she had been aiming for and it had been by pure luck that she happened to crash into the orc who had been about to cut off Thorin's head.

She slammed with all her weight against the solid foul creature, snapping her head back painfully as they both tumbled to the ground. But despite the screaming pain in her head, she somehow managed to keep her wits about her long enough to kick the orc's sword well away from him before stabbing him repeatedly in the chest with her own little sword, slamming the blade in as deep as she could go and as often as she could while the orc screamed and shrieked beneath her. She did not stop until he grew still and silent.

She didn't think much when the orc finally died, simply leapt away from him and towards Thorin's unconscious body, her sword waving madly in front of her at the orcs who were all looking at her with stunned expressions.

Azog was the first to recover and snarled at her, coaxing his great warg to advance forward.

Bilbo slashed out with her little blade, cutting the white warg across its nose causing it to let out a hate filled growled as black oozing blood splattered the ground.

A great paw to her chest sent her flying backwards into Thorin's unconscious side and it might very well have been the end of them both if it were not for the arrival of the dwarves who had managed to pull themselves up from their precarious situation to run head-long into another situation just as hazardous and dangerous as the last.

Bilbo sagged against Thorin's side, her breath ragged as she looked at Thorin's bloody face.

"Don't you dare die!" She gasped as she tried to put pressure on one of the many wounds inflicted upon his chest from the sharp teeth of the warg, "I forbid you to die! You did not drag me over hills and under hills, across roaring rivers and under waterfalls, chased across great plains jagged by rocks, to be almost eaten on several occasions for you to go and die before this mad quest is complete! I did not put up with all your yelling and berating for you to die here and now because you were a colossal majestic idiot!"

She could hear the sounds of yelling, both from the dwarves and from orcs but she did not turn around to look, not until she heard her name being yelled and to look out did she turn and feel her mouth drop in disbelief as when she looked over her shoulder and saw a massive eagle swooping towards her and Thorin.

She wasn't necessarily proud of her reaction to seeing a huge eagle swooping towards her and Thorin, sharp talons outstretched.

She let out a little scream and ducked away, rolling out of the way of the huge talons, which proceeded to neatly pluck Thorin from the ground, scoping him and his sword up and before flying away.

"Wait!" Bilbo screamed before seeing that other dwarves were also being picked up by Eagles, some in their talons while others members of the company were already on the eagles backs.

Bilbo's mouth hung limp as she watched the eagles swoop back and forth, plucking up dwarves and wargs up unlike, but while the company were being pulled to safety, the wargs were simply being dropped over the side of the cliff and left to fall howling to their doom.

Bilbo, her head throbbing as she moved, picked up Thorin's oaken branch shield as she continued to watch the amazing sight around her.

That is until the moment came when she saw an Eagle swooping towards her once again and all her amazement fled from her body as she filled with the desire to simply run and hide.

"No!" Bilbo shrieked as the talons came to grab her, her sword and the oaken branch shield and started to carry her away from the cliff side only for her to be promptly dropped, a truly terrifying experience, onto the back of another eagle.

She grabbed madly for anything to hold onto, her hands buried deeply into the eagles feathers around its neck, her fingers grasping tightly at the roots. Most uncomfortable for the eagle, Bilbo was sure, but it was all that she could do to keep her from sliding off the great bird's back.

"Don't pinch!" The eagle said giving Bilbo quite a shock that had her almost falling from the great bird's back, "You need not be frightened like a rabbit, even if you rather look like one. It is a lovely night to flying is it not, with so little wind. What is finer than flying?" And Bilbo at any other time might have listed a great number of things that she thought were finer than flying but decided, or rather her stomach decided, it would be rather better for her to simply keep her mouth shut, her eyes closed and simply continue holding on for dear life.

Around her she could hear members of the company yell and gasp over the sights they were seeing as they flew away to safety – she hoped. She did not fancy becoming food – her eagle had mentioned she looked rather like a rabbit! – for these great birds, no matter how magnificent they were! – but poor Bilbo had never liked heights at the best of times. She may have climbed trees in her misspent youth but that did not mean the experiences hadn't turn her stomach every time.

She did try to peek a glance every so often to see the truly awe-inspired view of moonlight shining upon the dark forests and mountains tops below before her empty stomach would heave and she would have to bury her face back into the sleek feathers.

It was not an enjoyable flight by any means, what with her churning stomach, her hands cramping from holding on so tightly to feathers and Thorin's bloody oaken branch shield digging painfully into her ribs where she had managed to tuck it beneath her arm during the flight.

The flight seemed to last for a very long time to Bilbo, though when they finally did land, dawn was only just breaking against the horizon.

She rolled unceremoniously off of her eagle's back – who had very kindly lowered itself as close to the ground as it could manage so that when Bilbo did finally stop rolling to simply drop, the drop wasn't too far nor painful, though she was rather winded when she hit the rock.

"Thank you." She finally wheezed once she had managed to roll shakily to her feet, swaying as she did so on the spot.

The eagle seemed to look down upon her with an almost amused expression before taking off as other eagles flew down to unload dwarves upon the massive, oddly shaped rock structure that stood all by itself looking out over the land.

"Thorin!" Bilbo jumped at Gandalf frantic shout. "Thorin!"

Thorin… she twisted around on the spot, clutching the dwarf's shield close to her chest as she looked on with others of the company as Gandalf moved to the side of the still form of Thorin.

Oh, please… please he couldn't be dead! Please, let him live.

She watched in silent wonder as Gandalf waved a hand briefly over Thorin's bruised and bloody face all the while whispering a soft chant of power. Quenya, Bilbo was certain.

She let out a huge breath that she hadn't known she had been holding when Thorin stirred, gasping weakly for air as he struggled to sit up.

"The Halfling?"

Oh no… what had she done now? Why was she the first thing he was asking for? There were far more important things to be asking after rather than her!

She saw when she glanced around at the dwarves they were taken just as much by surprise by their leader's query as she was.

"It's all right," Gandalf looked up at her with a wide smile, "Bilbo is here. She is quite safe."

I don't think he cares Gandalf, Bilbo thought with a tight chest when she saw Thorin's face twisting into a scowl as he struggled to get to his feet. His nephews and Dwalin moved to help him, but he brushed them aside, his gaze burning hotly in her direction.

She wondered if she just threw his shield at him he might simply forget whatever it is she has done now to anger him so this time.

"You!" Oh no, he truly was angry with her this time, was he?!

She sunk further into herself as the injured dwarf took a step towards her, his face dark with a furious scowl.

"What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed! Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild and that you had no place amongst us?" She tried to keep eye contact with him during his rant, she truly did, but it was so very difficult and soon enough she found herself looking dejectedly down at her feet, wishing she could just slip on the funny little ring and simply disappear.

She could hear him getting closer, his boots coming into her eye line and forced herself to meet his eyes, her nose scrunched up in a vain attempt to keep back the tears of frustration and anger.

Never again, am I going to try save your life! She thought rather brutally as she tried to scowl up at the uncaring, insufferable dwarf king who really wasn't worth all the heart fluttering he caused her.

She was just about to say something along those lines when the dwarf king proceed to knock her proverbially off of her feet, following with literally doing just that.

"I've never been so wrong in all my life." And then he pulled her into his arms, pulling her into a warm solid chest that made her feel so safe that it was amazing that this was the same dwarf that had been shouting at her only seconds before.

This crush you have, Bilbo dear girl, is truly getting ridiculous! He was yelling at you not a minute ago, don't you go getting all star-eyed over him just because of a hug! He's still a bastard, 'member! Her Took side was badgering and while Bilbo did agree that her Took side had a point, she was going to enjoy the hug while it lasted.

From around them she could hear cheering and when Thorin released her she had smiles being rained upon her by all company members.

"I am sorry I doubted you." Thorin said looking strangely red around the ears while Bilbo's whole face simply felt like it was on fire.

"Oh no," Bilbo squeaked in embarrassment, waving her hands pathetically in front of her – hands that still held Thorin's shield, which was threatening to take out people left and right with her panicked hand waving. Dwalin removed it from her hands before she could do any real damage to anyone. "No, I would have doubted me too." In fact, I still do!

"I'm not a hero or a warrior," She continued on, shuffling her feet and feeling so very embarrassed to be the centre of attention, "I'm not even a burglar." She added with a shrug and a weak cheeky smile that had Gandalf and a few dwarves chuckled over.

"Hey!" Kili said breaking the moment and freeing Bilbo from being centre of attention as the young boy pointed eagerly in distance, "Look at that!"

The company turned to look in the direction Kili was eagerly pointing in, at the outline of a lone, solitary peak.

"Is that…" Bilbo said softly, "is that what I think it is?"

"Erebor – The Lonely Mountain." Gandalf smiled, "The last of the great dwarf kingdoms in Middle-Earth."

"Could they, the eagles, I mean," Ori spoke in a small voice as he glanced sheepishly up at the early morning sky where the eagles still flew, "could they have not taken us the whole way?"

"Aye, would not be so great a distance for them." Gloin grunted in agreement.

"Oh no," Dori moaned, burying his face into his hands, "I would rather walk than fly again. My poor heart…"

Bilbo rather agreed with the fussy dwarf. The idea of continuing to fly on the great birds had rather made her stomach turn and her heart flip with fear.

"And walk we shall, Master Dori," Gandalf replied as he lifted a hand in farewell to the great birds, "for the eagles have done us a great service flying us as far as they have already. They will take us no further than this for there are men who would shoot them down, believing they were after their sheep."

While some dwarves grumbled over this, others like Dori and herself looked rather relieved to hear that they would be keeping their feet planted firmly on the ground from now on.

"How much food do we have on us?" Nori asked as the company fussed over packs and weapons that had not be lost to the caves and goblins. "I'm famished."

"I am nearly dead from hunger." Bilbo mumbled in agreement from where she sat rubbing her throbbing head which up until a few moments ago had had Oin fussing over it. He hadn't been able to examine her as much as he would have liked but he had at least been able to look over the cuts on her head that had been bleeding, tending to them and assuring her that she didn't need stitches, something Bilbo was rather grateful for as she was not particularly fond of needles.

The food situation proved to be rather sad one indeed, as the main pack that had held their food appeared to have been lost and any food the company might have been carrying on their person or in their own packs was mushed and crumbled beyond recognition.

"Well," Gandalf said with a deep sigh, "we have no choice. Yes, yes, no choice at all that I can see."

"Gandalf?" Bilbo asked tiredly but the wizard seemed not to hear her as he paced back and forth on top of the huge rock structure.

"Come," He called finally as he peered over the edge of the rock, "we must take our leave, for though we have left our hunters well behind, it will not be long before they catch us up once more."

The dwarves and the hobbit limped their way over to the where Gandalf stood, looking down the side of the rock structure and surprised to see what appeared to be massive stone steps carved into the side of the rock.

Bilbo frowned at them, partly because she was having to look down and was forced to see just how high up in the sky the company actually was but also because… who had carved the steps? They were massive! Far too large, she was sure for any man to have made them, so who…

"Come now, all of you. We have a long way to travel yet, and not much time to do so. Take care now."

"Gandalf who made these steps?" Bilbo asked as she carefully lowered herself onto the first step, her legs wobbling just a little.

"All in good time, my dear girl, all in good time. Now mind your feet. We cannot have you fall."

"Again." She heard Dwalin call teasingly down to her while she grimaced.

"And no wandering off either, ya hear lassie." Gloin rumbled, "Can't expect us to keep an eye on you all the time." There were several hums and grunts of agreement that made Bilbo's blood boil and caused for something deep inside of her chest to burst as she rounded upon the red bearded dwarf with the legendary Took fury, made particularly famous by both Bilbo's own mother and grandmother, who were able to shut up whole halls of rowdy hobbits with one good shout when truly aggravated.

"Wandered off! Wandered off!" She shrieked, hands clenched into fists at her side as her whole body shook with rage, "I DID NOT BLOODY WANDER OFF! I fell off the side of a bloody cliff after I was attacked by a goblin! AND THEN!" She shouted when she saw that Bofur had come over to her side, seemingly to try and calm her down, "I had to get into a battle of riddles with a foul creature that wanted to eat me! I barely escaped! And you bloody…" Someone caught her around the waist and lowered her down to the next step.

"DON'T!" Bilbo yelled up at Gandalf still utterly furious at the dwarves who she was all rather fed-up with. "Not in the middle of my yelling at the ungrateful, miserable sods!"

"Now is truly not the time my dear girl," Gandalf interrupted her calmly as he hopped down another step and gestured for her to follow him. "You may yell to your hearts content when we are safe and sound."

"But I'm angry now!" She ranted furiously as she grudgingly let him help her down another step, "by the time we're safe and sound, I won't be angry anymore! And all the anger inside of me right now will simply go to waste!"

"I'm sure a time will come, sooner rather than later, when the dwarves have irritated you enough that you anger will resurface and you can give them all the tongue-lashing they truly deserve.

"Oi!"

"And I can yell at them without interruption?" Bilbo asked with a huff and a pout.

"To your heart's content, I promise you." Gandalf gave her a tired smile and Bilbo took note again of his bruised face and wondered where it was he had gotten to when he disappeared during the Thunder Battle and how he had come to find the dwarves again.

"What happened to you?" She asked deciding to take the Wizard's advice and put her anger towards the dwarves aside.

"Oh, I fell off a cliff."

Bilbo stopped and glared at him, trying to decide if he was simply making fun of her.

"That's my thing," She grumbled as the wizard help her down another step, "Don't steal my thing."

Gandalf threw back his head and laughed. She might have heard the odd snigger from behind them from the usually quiet dwarves.

"Come my dear girl, we have a long way to go yet and many dangers to avoid before we can call ourselves safe. Once we are safe and sound, I will tell you my tale of finding the dwarves in the Goblin Kingdom and you can share your tale of escaping the darkness on your own."

Bilbo winced at the idea of relaying her tale about riddling with Gollum and the frightful chase that did eventually lead her back to the company, but she nodded her head in agreement and allowed for herself to be helped without complaint down the rest of the large steps.

And there was no time for any of them to truly catch their breath once they had reached the bottom of the stairs, with the most Gandalf would give them was time enough to fill their water skins and relieve themselves behind trees, before he was ordering them to run, run like their hunters were truly behind them and not many leagues away.

Author's Note: So An Unexpected Journey is officially finished with in the fic... YAY! I've written a lot of bits and pieces here and there for DOS and TBOTFA. The next couple of chapters that cover the company's stay with Beorn have pretty much been written since February 2014.

I wrote them because I wasn't entirely, and by entirely I mean not at all, happy with how the DOS covered Beorn's section of The Hobbit. Don't get me wrong, I really liked Mikael Persbrandt as Beorn, I just felt the movie had lost the magic of that particular chapter. It also what really made me aware of just how much the movie/s were going to diverge from the book. Which in some parts was quite interesting (Gandalf journey, the white council, so on) and in others... I was just disappointed with they ended up doing, like with Queer Lodgings.

Thank you all very much for reading. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. It should not be a long wait for Chapters 14 and 15. As I said, those already been written for quite some time. I guess it will just depend on how I'm feeling and how busy my week turns out to be.