I grabbed onto one of the barrels and Bilbo grabbed another. Or, he tried. Whenever he went to touch one it would start spinning uncontrollably. It wasn't long before the dwarves were yelling at Bilbo to stop.

We were swept out of Mirkwood, and the trees that gave the dwarves claustrophobia slowly thinned out and were gone. Now the riverbank had flat, grassy ground.

The river narrowed out and the barrels blocked their own path. I felt the water behind me rise as Dakota tried to straighten the barrels and let them pass. Then, as if the river had sneezed, we were pushed ahead faster than before. In no more than a day, we reached a dock that had a net spread across the river beside it. I slipped out of the water, Bilbo vanished, and Dakota flew off. The people at the dock began to unload the barrels.

"How are they going to get out?" Dakota asked as one of the people wandered off, leaving one.

But then the last person at the dock stood up and left, too. Probably to use the bathroom. We wasted no time in opening a barrel. Inside was a soggy Nori.

Dakota rescued Kili, Fili, Thorin, and Bombur. Fili and Kili were nearly dead and had passed out. Thorin was almost too beat up to move, and Bombur was sick.

Bilbo got Beth out of her barrel, and then opened as many barrels as he could. I got the amazing job of replacing the lids, which I wasn't good at.

After we had unloaded all of the dwarves, we ran away from that dock as fast as possible.

Then we got to a long stone bridge. It reached across a lake, and into the city that was half in the lake and half on the edge.

"This, my friends, is Dale." Thorin told us."

"We know." Kili grumbled. "We used to live here too, you know. We've only been gone 160 years."

"That's a really long time. And you were only how old? Thirty?"

"You're 190?" I asked. "How are you guys not like Gandalf?"

"Why don't we just go into Dale." Beth suggested impatiently.

"Good idea. ONWARD, MY MINIONS!" Thorin said. Nobody moved.

"Now you owe us. You just made a Gandalf mistake." Balin said.

Two minutes later, Thorin was wearing a pink elvish dress and pretending to be an elleth. He was picking flowers and throwing them in the air, and skipping around, pretty much what Gandalf did. However, it didn't get really funny until some guys drove by in a cart led by three donkeys. They pointed and laughed at Thorin, and he started to cuss them out. It terrified the strangers in the cart and they hurried into the bridge.

"Apology accepted." Balin decided, and we slowly walked across the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge a crowd of people were waiting for us. Well, they were waiting for the dwarves. Since we were with the dwarves, though, they liked us too.

When the people of Dale saw the dwarves, they cheered. People ran home to hang banners outside their houses, and others tried to get us to try some kind of food, but somehow we made it to the middle of the town, where the Master (that's what the leader of Dale was called) was.

"So." He said, leaning forewords. He was fat.

"Hello." Thorin answered.

"You are the heir of Erebor?" The Master asked.

"I am." Thorin answered. "And this is my family. Mostly."

The Master grinned. "So you will free us from the dragon?"

"Even though you haven't seen it in sixty years and you think it's dead, yes, we will save you from the dragon." Thorin answered.

"WE SHALL HAVE A FEAST!" The Master declared. "Come with me."

We followed the Master through a marble hallway into a large room with beds. "Is this a good place for you to sleep?" He asked.

"Absolutely." Bilbo said. Thorin glared at him.

"It's suitable." He corrected.

We followed the Master back to he middle of the town where a huge table had been set up. The whole town was sitting around it, and there were only enough spaces part for the rest of us. The food had already been made and was set up.

"TO THE PEOPLE WHO WILL FREE US OF THE DRAGON SMAUG!" The master yelled, raising a glass cup. Everyone copied him, and the feast began.

Most of the food was too hot and tasted strange, so I didn't eat much. Bilbo was sneezing into his hankie and wiping tears out of his eyes.

Dakota was avoiding the meat, and Beth was talking to the random people of Dale.

"SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH!" Everyone started chanting. Thorin got up and began.

"Friends and people of Dale, I am pleased to know that you remember the ancient prophecy. I am on my way to kill the dragon..."

Suddenly Bilbo jumped onto the table. "Thag you berry bunch!" He yelled. His cold was already affecting his speech. Thorin looked ready to kill Bilbo for interrupting, but he just sat down instead.

"So when will you leave to go to the Lonely Mountain?" The Master asked Thorin.

"In three days, and by then we should have found ponies and supplies for the travel." Thorin answered.

"I will give them to you for free, if you leave tomorrow!" The Master said.

"DEAL!" Thorin agreed loudly, and then the table became silent.

Then one, little Daleperson said, "You don't like us?"

Thorin looked embarrassed. "Of course I do, but-"

"I KNEW IT! DWARVES ARE EVIL!" Half the people yelled, and than someone said the magic word.

"JINX!"

Everybody became silent, because the rule of the jinx was that if you talked after being jinxed, you had to jump in a lake.

"We need to go earlier because we need to save you sooner!" Balin explained. Everyone was silent for a moment, and then cheered. People rushed out to find ponies and food for the ten- mile hike to the mountain, and we just sat there.

Finally, we were allowed to go to our sleeping room.

"You know, I think the Master was trying to trick us." Nori said as he tried and failed to fall asleep on the marble floor.

"I think I would have better luck on the roof." I grumbled.

Then a loud snore came out of nowhere, making us all jump. Bombur had finally fallen asleep.

"That's it. I'm using Bombur as a mattress." Thorin growled, and moved all of his stuff.

Nobody slept well that night, and we decided it was the morning at 2:00.

"This place is evil." Beth said she put on a shoe.

"I can't wait to leave!" Gloin agreed. We got our ponies and left the town.

After an hour Bilbo was sneezing constantly. "I absolutely hate these cursed horses!" He spat. "Giving me allergies-"

"Well, Bilbo, to be fair, you had a cold to start with. That's probably why you're sneezing now." Beth pointed out. Bilbo didn't talk to her until we got to the mountain.

-At the mountain-

"WOW." Thorin muttered. "It has changed."