The company consisting of dwarrow, a wizard, and a supposed hobbit traveled on for several days without incident. That is, until it started raining there were no incidents.
They had been traveling fairly silently, but in relatively good spirits. Passing through the Lone-lands was boring. Thankfully however, it was not difficult. Those lands were devoid of all people, completely barren and abandoned. Castles littered the hills surrounding the path the company was on. Old and dreary, they towered over them as they plodded along.
Bilbo noticed one hill in particular that seemed to have a large burn scar stretching across it. Perhaps these lands were once inhabited by man before being attacked and driven out by dragons during the old ages? he speculated. The castle on the hill seemed to support his theory, with multiple towers collapsed in what seemed to be an intentional fashion and the banners and flags that used to signify who lived there were now nearly burned to a crisp.
The rest of the company did not seem to be very interested in the lands they were passing through, but Bilbo was fascinated. Was it dragons that had destroyed the people who used to live there? If so, why did they destroy them? Or did something else happen?
Even though Bilbo was in relatively good spirits, that all changed when the rain started. The ponies were tired. The company was growing grumpier and grumpier, especially after their shoes filled with water. It drizzled down the back of their cloaks, drenching even the parts of them that were supposed to be dry.
To make it worse, Gandalf had straight up disappeared! Just when he could have been useful too. The rain was absolutely miserable and they couldn't even find a dry spot to stop for dinner. Perhaps Gandalf would have told them that he wouldn't change the weather even if he had been around to ask, but no one could really be sure of this. Needless to say, Bilbo was rather bitter about the wizard's vanishing act.
The company stopped for a short time to take stock of their surroundings and the missing wizard and Bilbo took that opportunity to take out a water skin to take a long sip.
After a short second, as the rain continued cascading down on the group, Bilbo took that as an opportunity to pour a small amount of his personal water onto the ground along with the rain. This earned him more than a few strange looks from the dwarrow that weren't too engrossed in their brooding about the rain.
"What're you doing?" Dori asked, looking shocked at the blatant waste of water.
"Well you see," Bilbo paused, trying to find the words to explain himself. "I like to sacrifice some of my water to the earth when it's raining because I always get a very vague feeling that if I don't I'll be cursed with bad luck."
The confused looks did not go away, so Bilbo felt the need to attempt to explain more.
"It also feels generally polite to acknowledge that this is keeping me alive. I partially do it to thank Yavanna, and partially just because I pride myself on being a polite hobbit." He stifled a smile, fully aware that none of the company had any knowledge of his secret.
"Alrighty lad," Gloin said, shaking his head to try and get some of the wetness out, although this was wildly unsuccessful due to the rain continuing down. "If you say so."
They continued on in sullen silence after that, with a small incident in which one of the extra ponies bolted into a river, taking their baggage along with it. Fili and Kili went after it, getting soaked to the bone in the process. They managed to retrieve the pony but, upon further inspection, they learned that all the luggage it carried had been lost. Very unfortunately for them, that particular baggage had contained a large amount of food.
This did nothing to improve the mood of the company and at this point, even Bilbo was feeling rather run down at the notion of less food. They settled down underneath a large rock overhang for the night.
Bombur made a small dinner and they separated into family groups to sleep for the night. The place that Bilbo found for himself was not very comfortable, and after tossing and turning for several minutes, he decided to voice his complaints.
"It feels like there's snakes in my spine," he muttered. This again earned him multiple concerned glances shot his direction, but he did not notice a single one as he finally managed to fall into a deep sleep.
He woke up to jostling from Nori, who was kicking him in the side in an attempt to awaken him. He shot upward, glaring at the dwarf for the harsh treatment. Nori just smirked and left to help pack up their temporary camp. As Bilbo sleepily looked around, he noticed with excitement that the rain had stopped! The sun bore down on Middle Earth in a splendid manner, bringing joy once again to Bilbo's heart.
Nothing much occurred the following day, but Bilbo was still satisfied with the lack of rain. Gandalf even showed up again at some point, inserting himself into a very odd conversation with Nori, Bombur, Bofur, and Balin about roasted chicken and umbrellas and how best to combine them.
When they finally stopped for the night, Bilbo was feeling rather cranky again. The lost food had led to a cut in rations. He had been used to seven large meals a day! A measly 3 small plates of food was not enough for the small hobbit.
As the company came up to where they had decided to rest for the night, they had seen a faint light in the distance. If they had continued on through the forest, they could have seen who or what was creating it. However, they collectively decided that it was too risky to send any one of their crew out on a surveillance mission without any idea of what was out there. Instead, they sent Fili and Kili off to watch the ponies while the rest of them set up camp for the night.