Diclaimer: I don't own the hobbit.

Another chapter down. Please read and enjoy.

"Perhaps they wandered off?" Marie said hopefully. Kili recounted the herd but Fili shook his head, "No these ponies are trained to remain together. They would not go too far." He walked carefully around the forest looking for clues. Marie placed the bowls of gruel on the remains of a wagon and joined in, "You really think they were stolen?"

Kili finished counting the ponies again, but still came up two short. "Daisy and Bungo are missing." He said as Marie and Fili stared at a freshly upturned tree. "This can't be good." Marie muttered and turned to leave, "I'll go tell Thorin."

"Ah, no Marie." Kili caught her arm and turned her back around, "Let's not bother him."

"But what ever took the ponies must have been huge, and very dangerous." She pointed to the tree, "Personally, I wouldn't want to be out here if it comes back."

"And I wouldn't want to be at the mercy of Thorin."

"Hey," Fili called the two over, "There's a light ahead."

Marie squinted her eyes and saw the light he was referring to. It was faint, mostly due to the over grown fauna around them. The brothers took off towards it and Marie had no choice but to follow, for if she was left alone with a possible monster lurking about, she may not have had the courage to even scream for help.

The trio ducked behind a log as the light grew stronger and gruff, almost guttural voices could be heard. A large shadow danced about the trunks, increasing Marie apprehension about this.

"Could it be men from around here?" She whispered to Kili, but the young dwarf knew better and frowned. "No. Trolls."

"What?!"

Kili acted impulsively and took off again, Fili and Marie close behind. As they got closer, the trees and bushes to their left groaned and snapped as something large stomped its way through the forest. The brothers and Marie hid quickly as it passed them, oblivious to the trio.

Marie got her first look at a troll. It was over ten feet tall, hunched and stocky with skin that looked like dried leather in the dim light. Every step it took it groaned and grunted, and under each arm it had a struggling pony. To Marie's horror, one of them was Murtle.

In every story she had heard about trolls there was always mention of their ungovernable hunger.

"We have to do something before they eat the ponies." She whispered to the brothers. They both looked at the small hobbit and thought the same thing.

"Yes." Kili snuck over to her and gave her a little push forward, towards danger. "Trolls are slow and stupid, so use that to your advantage."

"No, are you crazy? I can't ..." Marie paled at the thought of facing the trolls alone.

"You're so small and quiet, they'll never see you. It's perfectly safe and we'll be right behind you."

"This is as safe as juggling knives." Marie grumbled. Fili gave her another gentle push and whispered into her ear, "If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl."

"Alright," Marie gave up resisting and took a step towards the danger, but stopped. "Wait, Kili I don't know what a brown owl sounds like." But when she looked back, the two had already scarpered. Marie groaned in frustration, but it was too late to do anything else other than investigate. She took a huge breath and quietly followed the trail left by the troll.

"Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and blimey if it don't look like mutton again ..."

"Quit your groaning, these ain't sheep, these is Westnads."

The troll camp, complete with a simmering fire with a cooking pot nestled in its heart, was settled at the side of a rock face and was littered with the bones and rotten leftovers of various animals. There was an unpleasant smell in the air, likely due to the remains and whatever the trolls were cooking in their large pot.

"I don't like horse, not enough fat on them." The slimmer one of trolls sniffled, and wiped his nose with a dirty cloth.

Who would have thought that trolls had hankerchiefs too?

Marie kept low and well hidden in the bushes. She counted three troll, but there may have been more. The one she had been following placed the two ponies in a makeshift pen with the other two already missing. The placement of the pen was behind the trolls, meaning Marie might have been able to free the ponies without any hitches, that is if the trolls didn't turn around. She began creeping around the edge of the camp, staying well out of the light while the trolls complained to one another about the cooking.

She made to the pen, but Murtle snorted and started to make a racket at the sight of her. Marie tried to calm her down but the troll with the ladle and ragged leather apron heard the commotion and looked over his shoulder. All he saw was an agitated pony, and not the scared hobbit hiding behind it.

"I'm starving. Are we having horse tonight or what?" The largest of the trolls yelled to the cook, waving about a broken sword as a knife.

"Shut your cakehole, you'll eat what I'll give ya."

Marie breathed a silent breath of relief. They hadn't spotted her ... yet. She attempted to undo the rope keeping the pen together, but it was too thick for her to undo. She tugged and tugged but the rough texture of the rope started to burn her hands.

Just as she was about to give up, she spotted the very thing she need. A knife. But it was attached to the belt of the slimmer troll with the runny nose.

'Well then, let's see if I'm as effective with trolls as I am with dwarves.' Marie crouched down on all fours and slowly inched herself towards the troll, while trying not to be sick from all the waste and half chewed bones she felt under her hands and feet.

The slimmer troll's hand stretched out in her direction and for a minute Marie thought she was done for, but the hand was blindly searching for a mug of sorts. She remained still, waiting for it to be safe again.

"Oy, that's my grog." The cook hit the troll with his spoon so hard, the troll toppled over and Maire was face to face with it.

'Don't open your eyes, don't open your eyes, don't open your eyes.'

By some miracle, the troll had kept his eyes closed as he pushed himself back up and neither of the others had seen the hobbit.

'Kili was right, they are slow.'

"Oh that is beautifully balanced that is." The cook tasted his concoction, "Here," He shoved the spoon at the slimmer troll, who gladly slurped it down noisily. Marie took the opportunity to make a dash at the knife, but stopped. She had to be extra cautious and need to be slow to pull this off, but she felt a rush of fear and excitement, the same feeling she used to get when hiding from the farmers.

Once she steadied herself, she examined a possible way to slip the knife out. 'Maybe if I just ... no that won't work. Perhaps if I pull it up ...'

While she formulated a plan, the trolls were getting hungrier and hungrier. "My guts are grumbling. I've got to snuffle something."

'Alright then, I got thiissaaaAAW!"

Unfortunately, the troll decided to sneeze at that moment and reached around for his hankerchief, which Marie was stand right in front of. The troll grabbed both the cloth and Marie and covered the two in green slimy snot. When the troll pulled them away from his face, he got quite the surprise.

"Bert! Look what's come out of me hoota! It's got arms and legs and everything!"

The three trolls stared down at the hobbit, who was too shocked and disgusted to be worried that she had been discovered. The troll threw her to the ground which brought her back to her senses and she thought it best to run, but the largest troll threatened her with his own blade.

"What are you then? An over sized squirrel?"

"nnnNo I'm a burgglllaarrhobbit." Marie's tongue was in a knot.

By now all three trolls realized that she was something edible and their hunger took over. "A burglarhobbit? Can we cook it?"

"We can try."

"Grab it!"

Each on tried to catch her, but each attempt was sloppy and Marie was able to dodge their hands. But the years had taken their toll and Marie was not as fast as she once was. She slipped on a bones and fell face first into the dirt, allowing one of the trolls to grab her leg. He dangled her like a doll high above the ground and prodded her with the tip of his knife.

"Here, are there anymore of you hiding where you shouldn't be?"

Marie shook her head, her face flushed with all the blood rushing to her head. "No, I'm alone."

"It's lying." The troll with a cold sneered, "Hold its toes over the fire. Make it squeal like a pig."

"Wait please!"

But it was the troll that squealed. Kili jumped from his hiding place and slashed at his leg, unleashing a fierce battle cry as he did.

"Drop her!"

The trolls looked a little dumbfounded, "You what?"

"I said, drop her." Kili's cockiness was in full view now, and Marie was sure he was going to get pulverized by the three troll.

The one holding her let out a growl and tossed her at the dwarf, knocking him clean off his feet. Once Marie was out of the way, that's when the rest of the dwarves made their move. Thorin led the charge and the other eleven ran at the trolls, aiming for their legs and stomachs. Kili joined in once he had pulled Marie away from the fight.

It was here that Marie witnessed the fighting capabilities of each individual dwarf. Some used only brute force and large war hammers to fight, others used their size and stealth to outwit the trolls. Kili, Fili and Thorin proved to be the maser swordsmen of the company.

Marie saw all this mayhem as another chance to free the ponies. Finding the troll's disregarded knife, Marie ran through the fight unnoticed and thankfully unscathed and began slicing the rope of the pen. The ponies were all frightened and desperate to flee, and gladly did so when Marie cut the rope in two.

"Come one, go. Move." She urged the four beasts away from the fight, totally unaware that she had been spotted until a thick hand wrapped around her.

"That's enough!" The large troll bellowed and brought the fight to an end, holding Marie up with his reclaimed knife pointed at her throat.

"Marie!" Kili screamed, but was held back by Thorin. One by one the dwarves stopped and backed away.

"Lay down your arms, or I slice this one open." He pressed rusted metal harder into her jugular, drawing blood. Thorin saw no choice but to surrender. He thrusted his dwarvish sword into the ground and the others followed suit.

The troll dropped Marie into the group unceremoniously and rounded the company up. While being herded, Thorin kept his head down in shame. Not because they had lost, but because a very small part of him was actually willing to chance Marie's life for the sake of winning the battle. That is until he saw the look in her eyes. It was not the fear or the pain he saw, but the simple message in them that moved him.

The simple message 'I'm sorry.'

xxxxx

"Don't bother cooking them, let's just sit on them turn them into jelly."

"They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkling of sage."

"Oh, that does sound quite nice."

This did not look good for the company. Half were stripped to the undergarments and tired to a log that rotated over a rekindled fire by two of the trolls while the rest lay helpless in hemp bags, piled up on top of one another unable to stand. Marie tried kicking the bag off her, since all their hands had been bound. They had to get out of the mess somehow.

"Never mind the seasoning, it'll be dawn soon and I don't fancy being turned to stone."

The trolls had unwittingly given Marie the answer she needed. The sky was already a little brighter, so all she needed was to stall them just a little longer.

"Wait! I'm afraid you're making a very bad mistake!" She shouted. The trolls turned around and stared down at the wriggling hobbit as she tried to stand up.

"You can't reason with them Miss Marie , they're halfwits!" Dori cried from the turning spite.

"Halfwits? What does that make us?" Bofur added.

Marie ignored them for a moment and went on with her plan. "What I meant was your choice of seasoning."

The cook stopped turning the spite and crouched down, "What about the seasoning?" He said, his vulgar breath making Marie's eyes water a little.

"Well these dwarves have been traveling for weeks. And I can safely say that none of them have bathed in that time, I mean have you smelt them. Sage is not going to do the trick."

The dwarves took great offense to Marie's statement, not seeing her intentions.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" The largest troll growled at Marie but the cook seemed convinced, "Shut up and let the flurbaherbit talk."

'Good, I have their attention ... now what?'

"Thank you, the ah ... proper way to cook these types of dwarves is ... to skin them."

"What?!"

"Traitor!"

Marie cringed at the amount of backlash from the dwarves.

"Tom, get me filleting knife." The troll called to the smallest of the trio. Marie glanced over at the rocks to see if the sun had risen just yet. There was a small hint of red in the sky, but she also spotted Gandalf sneaking through the undergrowth.

He had come back.

'Just a few more minutes.'

"What a load of rubbish. There's nuffing like a bit of raw dwarf." The troll named 'Tom' stomped over to the pile and picked up Bombur, "Nice and crunchy."

The troll liked his lips and dangled Bombor above him, ready to chow down the plump dwarf. Marie panicked and shouted before thinking, "Not him, he's infected!"

That stopped him, "What?'

"Ah yes. He has ... worms ... in his tubes."

Tom dropped Bombur back onto the pile in disgust.

"In fact, if he's infected I wouldn't be surprised if all of them are infected with all sorts of parasites."

For some reason, the dwarves took great offense to this. "We don't have parasites, you have parasites!"

Marie rolled her eyes, 'What are you Kili, twelve?'. She looked back at the complaining dwarves and glared at them, hoping that they would at least stop talking. Only Thorin put together what the hobbit was doing. With one swift kick, the dwarves stopped and realized what they were doing wrong.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm." Oin claimed.

"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!"

"I've got them too!"

"We're riddled!"

It was working. Two of the trolls bought the parasite lie and stared at the dwarves disgusted. But the largest one was still skeptical. "What would you have us do then? Let them all go?" He pushed the cook away and stood imposingly over Marie.

"I never said that. There are ways that you can get rid of the infection, but it's a very tricky task. Boiling works best, but you have to make sure that the temperature is just right. Also the older the dwarf the less time you have to leave it in the pot, but still you need to account for how badly they're infected. Do you have any Rosemary? Not only does it help get rid of parasites it brings out a sweeter flavour. If not Mint would work too, with a little bit of sugar."

The troll just stared, completely stumped. Even the dwarves were surprised o hear so much come out of Marie at once.

However the troll became frustrated and sneered his yellow teeth at Marie, "Shut you face." He flicked his hand and sent Marie into a rock, winding her badly. "The little ferret is taking us for fools."

"The Dawn will take you!"

A tall figure appeared on the boulder above the troll camp, raising his staff over his head.

"Who's that?"

"No idea."

"Can we eat him too?"

The staff came down hard and cracked the boulder in two, sunlight pouring into the camp. Marie watching in amazement at the tough skin of the trolls cracked and turned to stone, their bodies groaning as they shielded their eyes from the light before completely freezing them where the stood.

The dwarves cheered out of sheer happiness that they didn't end up as jelly or boiled stew.

Even Thorin smiled a very rare smile. Gandalf always had excellent timing.