Bilbo Baggins was an interesting being. While he normally took the form of a small, weak, and defenseless hobbit, he was fully capable of turning into a large dragon. This helped him immensely in certain situations, but it could get him into trouble.
When he carried two bowls of soup toward Fili and Kili, who were watching the ponies off by themselves he instantly sensed that something was wrong. Even though he didn't quite notice that two ponies were missing, something seemed off. Therefore, he wasn't too surprised when the two dwarves looked at him with something akin to horror in their eyes.
"So," Kili began as Bilbo came into hearing distance. "We have a slight problem."
Bilbo had already been glancing around, trying to find the source of the strange feeling. His eyes landed on the ponies. "How many ponies did we start with?" he asked, his voice full of suspicion.
"That's just it," Fili said.
Kili continued the thought. "We had sixteen ponies."
"And now we only have fourteen." The pair looked very uncomfortable at the reminder of their mistakes.
Bilbo considered the situation for a few seconds, finally recognizing the olid scent that was clinging to the trees. Troll, he was sure of it. He knew just what to do with trolls. Turning back toward the two dwarrow, he pushed them in the direction of the camp. "Don't worry, I can take care of this."
They looked skeptical. "All by yourself? You don't even know what's out there!"
"I am this company's burglar. Why don't you give me a chance?"
Filli still seemed unconvinced. "But how will you survive with no training?"
Bilbo rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine, and so will the ponies. Now go back to camp and tell Thorin that I'll be taking over watching the ponies." He handed over the bowls of soup and made his way into the forest.
Fili and Kili didn't look entirely sure of the plan, but took the bowls and went back to the rest of the dwarrow to wait it out.
As Bilbo continued, he started noticing the light in the distance again, as well as large scrapes and footprints littering the area. Yep, he thought to himself. Definitely trolls.
He hid in a thorn bush at the edge of the clearing that the trolls had set up in. It may have not been his brightest idea, but at least the trolls wouldn't attack him in his small, fleshy hobbit body. Not that he would be staying in that body for long.
There were three trolls huddled around a pot that had some sort of toxic looking smoke oozing out of it. On occasion bubbles would burst, sending green sludge flying.
"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey, if it don't look like mutton again tomorrer," said one of the trolls.
"Never a blinking bit of manflesh have we had for long enough," said a second. "What the 'ell William was a thinkin' of to bring us into these parts at all, beats me and the drink runnin' short, what's more," he said elbowing what appeared to Bilbo to be William in the side as hard as he could.
William spluttered. "Shut yer mouth!" he said as soon as he could. "Yer can't expect folk to stop here forever just to be et by you and Bert. You've et a village and a half between yer, since we come down from the mountains. How much more d'yer want? And time's been up our way, when yer'd have said 'thank yer Bill' for a nice bit o' fat valley mutton like what this is." He tore a chunk off of a lamb's leg that he was holding. He was the only one with meat, which did not seem to make the other trolls particularly happy with him.
This started a sort of brawl amongst the trolls, which immediately stopped when Bilbo revealed himself, which he did by standing up from the bush, tearing his overcoat in the process, and walking into the clearing.
The trolls turned to him in unison. They were hideously grotesque and hairy, towering over him in what would have been a threatening manner if he hadn't been a dragon at heart.
"Now wha' do we have 'ere?" one of the trolls said, sounding incredibly confused by the sudden appearance of such a small being that seemed to hold no fear at the sight of them.
"Can we et it?" another one asked, almost hiding behind one of his friends.
"I am a hobbit," he said, with his mouth stretched into a cheshire smile that showed off his shiny teeth. "But," he paused for dramatic effect. "I am also a dragon." The teeth sharpened and he grew an impossible amount, now towering over the trolls.
Their eyes filled with horror and they scrambled backwards, throwing themselves away from the dragon that was now sitting quite contentedly where their pot of stew used to sit.
"Please," one of the trolls begged. "Don't 'urt me."
"Yeah!" another shouted. "Take Bert instead!" He shoved the third troll toward Smaug, who was incredibly amused by the performance they were putting on. It wasn't like it mattered anyway. They were all going to be eaten.
And so he did. In a manner reminiscent of some snakes, Smaug practically unhinged his jaw, swallowing the aforementioned Bert in one fell swoop. There was nothing left of poor Bert, and the other two trolls looked stricken at the thought that they were next. Smaug didn't spare a single minute in following suit with them. Despite how horrid they looked, trolls did have a nice flavor. It tasted rather similar to deer in Smaug's humble opinion.
When he was finally content that there were no further trolls, he transformed back into a hobbit. All that was left was a crushed cauldron that had previously held some nasty stew that was now on the ground and a few other items that could only hint at the fact that trolls had once made that clearing their campsite.
Bilbo happily took the reins of the two ponies that had yet to be eaten and practically skipped back to the others.
"Hey laddie!" Gloin called from across the camp as he reentered the clearing they had chosen as their temporary abode. "Do ya want some supper? I don't think you ever got any!"
Bilbo smirked, rubbing his hand over his stomach. "It's quite alright Gloin! I already feel as full as I need to be."