A/N: I'll be using some direct passages from the book, The Hobbit – namely sections of dialogue – for the purpose  of staying as true to the story as possible.   However, as it is already known, I don't own any of Tolkien's works, so I am merely borrowing them for the fanfic.

Chapter 2

              Roughly, the blue-hooded Dwarf was dropped on the ground of the grand marble Hall Thranduil sat in.  The bonds binding his wrists were cut and the blindfold taken off.  The long sword, which the elves instantly recognized as Orcrist, was taken from his side.  Then, the sleeping spell Brethilorn had placed on him was removed.

              Groggily, the dwarf opened his eyes, moaning.  He slowly got to his feet, and blinking, took in the sight about him.  Apparently, he wasn't at all pleased to be sitting in front of the Elvenking of Mirkwood, though Thranduil was equally as displeased with having a dwarf in his halls – especially one who had led his party to "attack" the various feasts going on several times, as he had recently found out.

              "You are Thorin Oakenshield, are you not?" asked Thranduil.

              The dwarf nodded slightly, trying not to show his surprise at the Elvenking knowing his name.

              "Why did you and your folk three times try to attack my people at their merry making?" asked the King.

              "We did not attack them," answered Thorin brashly, "we came to beg, because we were starving."

              "Where are your friends now, and what are they doing?"

              "I don't know, but I expect starving in the forest."

              "What were you doing in the forest?" asked Thranduil, his patience quickly burning out.

              "Looking for food and drink, because we were starving," repeated the dwarf.

              Legolas lowered his head slightly, biting his lip to keep from laughing out loud.  Beside him, his brothers and sister were doing the same.

              "But what brought you into the forest at all?" demanded Thranduil, his usually pale face turning rosy and losing some of his kingly composure.

              No response came from the dwarf, who looked slightly amused at the King's reactions as well.

              ""Very well!" seethed Thranduil, "Take him away and keep him safe, until he feels inclined to tell the truth, even if he waits a hundred years!"

              "He'd be dead in a hundred years," murmured Legolas almost inaudibly to no one in particular.  Lucky for him, Thranduil had not heard the comment.

              "Ada wouldn't be too pleased to find his prisoner dead," responded Adrahil in an equally soft tone.

              The brothers smiled slightly as they thronged the dwarf and had him taken into one the innermost caves, left food and drink, and gave relatively little more thought to him.

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