When Bilbo woke up, chaos was reigning supreme. As it turned out, Gandalf had left at some point the previous day, like the old coot he was, and had recently returned. While out on his so-called scouting mission, he had apparently come across some gossip of trolls making camp and roaming the forest in which he had left the company. He had hurried straight back to warn them and had found just a single dwarf standing guard, Dwalin to be specific, and everyone else fast asleep and dead to the world.

Immediately taking it upon himself to awaken everyone, Gandalf went to the first huddle of peacefully sleeping dwarves and harshly shook them, loudly informing them of the danger. The Ur family then spread out, waking up more and more members of the company as they went. Bofur went straight toward Bilbo, who was sleeping without a care in the world

"Trolls!" Bofur practically yelled in Bilbo's ear, startling him awake. "In the nearby forest. We must be wary, cautious, and above all, you must keep on your toes." He moved to run off and immediately tripped over a rock that was sitting on the ground not three feet away.

While still slightly unsure of what was going on due to having just woken up, Bilbo had to stifle a laugh as the dwarf pulled himself up, brushed himself off, and ran away, continuing to flail his arms about in panic as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.

Fili and Kili were standing off to the side, looking minorly uncomfortable with what was going on around them. While they weren't entirely sure, they both had a sneaking suspicion that these trolls were the reason for the missing ponies the night before. But if so, how did the small, weak Master Baggins take their ponies back? They however, chose to ignore this in favor of going to help pack up the camp.

Only once everything was sufficiently packed up and the company stood before Gandalf ready to hear exactly what he had heard did the wizard divulge his whole story.

"I went to scout ahead," he started, pulling his pipe out of what seemed to be nowhere in an attempt to seem more mysterious, or at least that was what Bilbo assumed. "I came across a small group of travelers, not unlike yourselves, who told me a very intriguing story about these woods." He paused again, taking a long drag from the pipe. "They told me that when they ventured through this area, they had come across a group of three trolls. They barely escaped with their lives! Their food was stolen, as well as a few packs. I, of course, helped them along their way before rushing back here. I knew that you were foolish, but this is on a whole new level!" He glared at the company. "Sleeping so soundly in a forest where trolls were recently spotted? How idiotic can you get?"

"How were we to know that trolls were around here?" Thorin exploded, not looking at all happy at the fact that he and his company had just been called foolish and idiotic in such a short span of time.

"Pish posh," was all Gandalf responded with. He then continued on as though Thorin's remark meant nothing more than a leaf falling from a tree in the middle of Fall. Completely inconsequential. "As the opportunity has presented itself, I believe that we should go searching for these trolls!"

As the company expressed their doubt at how safe that particular venture would be, Gandalf flung his staff onto the ground, creating a loud bang. "Silence!" he roared. "If I say we're going to find and kill and loot the trolls, then that is exactly what we shall do! And you will like it." With that final note, he spun around and strode into the forest toward the clearing in which Bilbo had eaten the trolls the previous night.

Bilbo smirked, following closely behind the wizard. He knew that they wouldn't be finding or fighting any trolls that day. The remainder of the company trailed behind, whispering amongst themselves.

"Trolls?"

"What is the wizard thinking? We'll all be killed!"

"Don't worry lads, I'll protect ye."

"I bet I could kill a troll with just one swing!"

This comments confused and also concerned Bilbo, at least a little bit. Why would these dwarves be going to fight a dragon if they were scared of some trolls? And more importantly, he knew that he was likely the only one in the group that could kill a troll in one swing. Really with more of a bite than a swing, but details were unimportant. Smaug was feeling pretty proud of his accomplishments.

After not too long, they came across the clearing in which Bilbo had run into the trolls the night before. At the looks of complete and utter confusion of the faces of the company, Bilbo was finding himself hard pressed to not burst out cackling and, unfortunately for him, he was only mostly succeeding in this goal.

Gandalf in particular was looking at the small hobbit with a special incredulous look that was typically reserved only for other wizards who were completely baffling him. Bilbo found it likely that the wizard was bewildered by his laughter, which only made him want to laugh harder.

The clearing was empty of all trolls, but that didn't mean that there were no signs of trolls ever living there. The crushed cauldron still lay in the center, with drying ooze still slowly leaking out of it. Small animals had come to sample the free food, but found the substance too foul to take more than a small taste. Even the rats had turned away at the taste of the troll's supposed stew.

"I thought…" Gandalf trailed off, visibly straightening himself out in an attempt to make it seem like he knew what he was talking about. "Come. All trolls have a cave and we will find the cave of the trolls who lived here."

He started off, the company scattering, glancing around warily and hoping to any gods that were out there that the trolls weren't simply hiding. It didn't take very long for Bilbo to stumble across a door that he had missed the previous night.

"G- Gandalf?" he called. "Is this it?"

The wizard, along with the rest of the company hurried over and, upon closer inspection, it was revealed that the door did in fact lead to the troll's lair. "Now for the key," Gandalf muttered, scanning the ground in hopes of spotting it.

"To 'ell with a key," grunted Dwalin who seemed fairly fed up with the whole business. Everyone else quickly backed up and, after a few practice swings, Dwalin busted the door down.

"That'll do," Gandalf said, stooping down and stepping through the door. Inside, they found piles of gold, which the dwarves seemed excited about, multiple weapons, which Gandalf was excited about, and piles of bones, which Bilbo was decidedly unhappy about. He decided to go outside of the cave to wait it out and avoid the stains of unknown origin that covered the floors and walls. The absolutely horrid smell also played a part in his departure.

When the rest of the company emerged, they did so with much happiness. They had found plentiful amounts of food, as well as a few weapons that Gandalf had deemed important enough to take with them.

Thorin was carrying one, Gandalf was carrying the other two. "Here," he said, thrusting the hilt of one of the swords in Bilbo's direction. "It is important that you have this."

"What?" Bilbo exclaimed incredulously, looking horrified at the sword that he seemed to be expected to take. "I don't need a sword!"

"Yes, you do." Surprisingly enough, Thorin was the one to respond instead of Gandalf.

"I can defend myself well enough," Bilbo shot back, hands on his hips.

"You will take it," Thorin rumbled. Bilbo was intimidated into taking the weapon, but he resolved to drop it at the first opportunity. For what use had a dragon for a sword?

AN: It's a Christmas miracle! I've updated 3 of my fics all on the same day! If you have the free time, you could check some other of my fics out. Don't worry about it though. Just take this chapter as a Christmas present. Merry Christmas!