Bella slipped through the woods, leading the remaining fourteen ponies quietly through the trees. She had made sure that all the ponies were tacked and loaded for she was certain that they would be leaving as soon as possible once they escaped the trolls.

Her heart sank when she heard protests from the dwarves but no fighting. Securing the ponies to a tree, she crept forward. She bit her hand when she saw her brother held spread-eagle between two trolls. With her brother thus threatened, it appeared that the third troll was having no trouble bagging the dwarves one by one.

Fili caught sight of her. He edged her direction. "Get out of here," he urged a low voice.

That shocked her out of her horror. She rolled her eyes. "You really think that I'd leave you lot to their mercy? The longest I'm going to leave you lot be is to be sure that we have our lost ponies safely with the rest."

"It would appear that Bilbo managed to free them before he was caught," Fili said, watching the trolls. "But they seemed pretty panicked when I saw them."

"I'll handle it," Bella said. "You lot keep yourselves from being killed or eaten."

"That is slowly being taken out of our hands."

"If Bilbo starts a scheme, go along with it. I'll be back."

Bella scampered off before she could be noticed. She imitated a couple whistles she'd heard the others use to call the ponies. She was rewarded by the four missing ponies coming. She calmed them, even as her heart raced at the sounds of vehement protests echoed through the trees. She quickly tacked the remaining ponies like their fellows before rummaging in her pack. She had no intention of being seen, but if she was, she couldn't afford to be recognizable as something living.

Fili struggled to roll over so that his face wasn't in the dirt. As far as he could tell, they were all done for. Six of their company was already being turned on a spit as the trolls did their best to roast them alive. Eight, himself included, were bundled into burlap sacks unable to do little more than squirm. The only consolation he had was that Bella was free and safe.

He didn't pay much attention to what the trolls were talking about. He didn't fancy knowing or hearing the numerous ways he could be prepared and eaten. Then something not about food floated through. "We ain't got all night. Dawn ain't far away, so let's get a move on. I don't fancy being turned to stone."

Not a half minute later, Bilbo shouted, "Wait! You are making a very big mistake."

Fili only half-heard Dori and Bofur protesting. He was craning his neck to see the hobbit behind him. What was he getting at?

Bilbo somehow managed to hop closer to the trolls as he explained, "I meant with the, with, uh, with the seasoning." Had the hobbit gone mad? Yet, Bella had said to go along with him.

"Oh, yes," Fili agreed, managing to roll to his back. "Seasonings all wrong."

"What about the seasoning?" one of the trolls asked.

"Well have you smelt them?" Bilbo asked. "You're gonna need something a lot stronger than sage before you plate this lot."

"Aye," Fili said, giving the hobbit a wry smile. "Though I'm a bit partial to nutmeg myself, I'd have to say that for at least half of us, garlic or onion greens may be needed." He just barely escaped a kick to the head. He managed to rock himself enough that he was now sitting. The hobbit better have an idea of what he was doing.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" another troll asked.

The first troll to speak to Bilbo waved the second off. "Shut up, and let the, uh, flurgaburburrahobbit talk."

"Uh, th-the secret to cooking dwarf is, um–"

"Yes? Come on."

"It's uh–"

Bilbo was struggling. How could Fili help? Could he help?

"Tell us the secret."

"Ye-yes, I'm telling you. The secret is to," he met Fili's eyes just as he hit upon an idea, "skin them first."

"Wait," Fili said. "I thought we were best served dragon-grilled. Charbroiled to a black crispness." He couldn't currently think of his brother and the rest as they hurled such accusations as traitor at him.

"Well, I suppose for less civilized folk that's how it's done," Bilbo said. "But those more cultured always skin their dwarf meat before any sort of cooking."

Before Fili could return with a proper comeback, a shrill, agonized scream filled the air. His heart stopped. That sounded suspiciously like Bella. He turned to Bilbo, heart in his throat.

Bilbo was searching frantically about. Yet his face wasn't one who feared the loss of a loved one. It was the face of someone who had heard a legend become reality. "It couldn't be," he murmured, just loud enough for the trolls to hear. "I didn't think she would wander so far out here."

"What are you talking about?" the third troll asked.

"Home is behind, the world ahead." That was definitely Bella's voice, but the words themselves were . . . haunting. They were drawn out and wavered unnaturally. It was as though they were the words of a ghost.

"Who, Bilbo?" Fili asked. "Who wouldn't wander so far?"

"Th-the Lost Maiden of the Shire," Bilbo answered with horrified awe. "Before I was born, even before my mother was, there was an adventurous hobbit lass. She wished to see the world. But," he turned his gaze to Fili and the dwarves behind him, "she barely left the borders of the Shire."

"And there are many paths to tread."

Fili shivered. No living person should sound so lost, mournful, alone, . . . or absolutely, hauntingly ghostly! How in all of Middle Earth was Bella managing to do that?

"What happened to her?" Thorin asked.

Fili looked back and noticed that his uncle was apparently the first dwarf to figure out on his own that this was a ploy.

"No one knows for certain," Bilbo answered. "Some, mostly naysayers who disapprove of any adventuring, said that it was the Big Folk. Others who are more reasonable suggested bandits or other ruffians. Still others suspect that it was some roaming orcs or trolls. All anyone knows is that just out of sight of where she was last seen, they found her cloak, stained as though it had been dipped in blood. But she was nowhere to be found."

"Through shadow, to the edge of night."

"We-well what's with this singing then," a troll asked. "How's that connected?"

"A short time after that attack, travelers would say that they started to hear a voice when no one was around. Always soft, always lonely, always grieved, always singing the same song," Bilbo went on. "It wasn't until some travelers fell into trouble that more came of the stories."

"Until the stars are all alight."

"What happened then?" Kili asked, genuinely curious and a touch terrified. As he always was when he was hearing a ghost story.

"It was a band of robbers attacking some unarmed dwarves, do not ask me how they came to be so unprepared and weakened, they did not say. Suddenly this wraithlike being attacked, bringing down vengeance upon the robbers, slaying them, but left the dwarves in peace. The tale wouldn't be known if it wasn't for the dwarves reacting to a song they heard in a tavern afterward. They said that before the attack and during it, the creature had been singing that very song. This was the first of many stories that started to trickle through."

"Mist and shadow."

"All the stories told of travelers in great distress, under attack, but never were the travelers harmed by the mysterious figure. It wasn't until the slain hobbit lass's brother was among a group of travelers that they realized who it was defending them."

"Her spirit took it upon herself to save other people from the same fate," Fili murmured.

Bilbo nodded. "Precisely. Though I never imagined that she would travel so far beyond the Shire."

"Cloud and shade."

"Is there any escape?" a troll asked.

"For the attackers? None, unless they somehow manage to disguise themselves as a victim, but she usually sees straight through the act. For the travelers? Occasionally, it is touch and go. Although it is sometime afterwards that it is discovered that she had just cause to set upon that traveler. But even that is a very rare case, so I doubt that we're in any danger," Bilbo concluded, looking pointedly at all the dwarves.

"All shall fade."

Fili shifted a bit. "Do you ever know when she'll attack?"

"It varies, depending on the situation of the traveler," Bilbo answered. "But in our case, she'll sing the entirety of her song through once before her initial attack."

"How much more to the song?" one of the troll's asked, a touch nervous.

"One more line," Bilbo said.

Then the haunting voice slowly drew out every last note. "All shall fade." A pause, then "The dawn shall be your executioner for taking these travelers!"

Fili twisted round, nearly falling on his face, but he saw her, against the early morning grey sky. All grey and off-white, a phantom with hardly any shape. She brought down a staff upon the rock she was standing on. The stone fell away, revealing a blinding glare of brilliant fresh dawn sunlight.

The trolls cried out, trying to shield themselves from the light before stilling forever into stone.

Fili looked as hard as he might, but he saw no further sign of their rescuer, of Bella. "Where did she go?"

"Did my brother not get the chance to tell you?" Bella asked cheerily, stepping out from the trees twirling a familiar hat. "Once she has accomplished her task, no one sees her." Yet over her arm was what appeared to be a collection of shredded rags.

"How did you manage to sound so . . . ?" he couldn't find the words.

"Haunting and ghostly? Lots of practice," she answered, freeing Bilbo from his sack. "You honestly didn't think that we didn't have some backup plan if something like this were to happen did you?"

Fili laughed. "I'm now sorry that I ever doubted you."

She scowled as she crouched beside him. "I'm still mad that you sent my brother into this all by himself." She then looked up to Thorin. "And miffed that I was not allowed to even follow along."

"We couldn't afford to lose more ponies," Thorin said.

"All of which are now waiting to carry us onward once you're all free," Bella said. She paused then giggled. "I must say though, a couple of you almost look cute, like oversized dwarf babes."

A couple dwarves protested, but Kili laughed and proceeded to make his puppy faces. "Oh, now you've done it," Fili said laughing. "Now you won't get him to stop, even if you managed to wrestle him out." He then considered. "Is it just me you're mad at, or are you also angry at him?"

Bella smiled a little too sweetly. "You figure it out." She then knocked him to his back before planting the hat over his face. At his brother's protest, Fili figured that she had proceeded to do something similar to him.

"It would appear," Gandalf said from about where the spit was, "that this time the protector of the travelers has a reason to torment some of the travelers."

"Those two sent Bilbo into harm's way without any real plan."

"We did have a plan," came Kili's muffled reply.

"Oh, yes," Bilbo said. "What was it again, Fili? Hoot once like a brown owl and twice like a barn owl?"

"Turn around the order and you've got it," Fili said.

"Did you even think to check that he even knew how to do that?" Bella asked. "I don't even know any difference in owl hoots. Who, who-who. That's it."

"Is there anyway to get back in your good graces?" Kili asked.

"Let me think about it for awhile, you two scamps," she answered.

Fili sighed within the rather dim confines of the wizard's hat. He'd messed up and bad. He deserved whatever she threw his way. He could only hope that it was something other than completely breaking his heart.

Author's Note: And that is how you turn trolls into stone. The Maiden of the Shire is a tale that Bilbo and Bella came up with. Were you convinced? Or did you guess it was all made up?

Thank you to GoodShipSherlollipop who made a guess for Bella's plan. In this case, her running into Gandalf was happy chance. Bella and Bilbo knew during their initial plans for adventuring that they would more than likely be on their own and thus made a couple plans to help the other get out of trouble.

Looks like Fili and Kili are still in trouble. How much do you think Bella will punish them? How badly do you think they should be punished? We'll see what further happens next chapter.