After a short while, Halien had not returned and Bilbo was instructed to take two bowls to Fili and Kili.
"We're supposed to be watching the ponies. Though, we have encountered a slight problem. We have sixteen ponies; we only count fourteen." Fili said, when Bilbo asked what was the matter.
"Mitsy and Myrtle are missing." Kili added. "Torwen, too. Halien is not going to be happy if anything happened to her mare and the ponies."
Fili and Kili nodded and Fili saw a light up ahead. The laughter they heard meant only one thing.
"Trolls."
"They must have just come out, now that it is night. No wonder Halien couldn't find a trace of them anywhere." Bilbo commented.
Fili and Kili insisted on Bilbo going to free the ponies when they saw one of the trolls carrying Daisy and Myrtle, pointing out that he was far faster and smarter than the trolls. Bilbo began to walk toward the trolls, but he began to doubt himself. Turning around, he saw that Fili and Kili had disappeared. Halien was nearby and heard was going on, so she came up to the hobbit. "Don't worry about them, Bilbo. I'll be right behind you." Halien said, drawing her bow and notching an arrow.
Bilbo nodded and continued forward. "Why didn't you notice them before? Was it because it was day when you scouted the area?"
"Trolls cannot travel in daylight, so yes, it would make sense that I could not find a trace of them anywhere because of that. If they are the ones who uprooted the trees and not that storm, then they must have done so a while ago. There is no freshly disturbed soil at the roots and there were no footprints. Perhaps that is because trolls have indistinct tracks that make it easy for them to hide from trackers. Their tracks could have been easily disguised by native animal tracks, as they passed along their migratory road ways."
Bilbo understood and watched as Halien climbed up into a nearby tree, gaining her a clear line of sight of the trolls. She glanced over at the pen they had crudely made and saw Torwen in with the other ponies. She felt anger and worry for Torwen and Bilbo, as well as Mitsy and Myrtle, rising in her gut. Taking a deep breath, she positioned herself into a more comfortable spot, her arrow ready to fly. Up ahead, Bilbo was sneaking around the three trolls. He tried to grab for one of their blades, but the one troll grabbed his handkerchief- grabbing Bilbo as well- and blew his nose.
Squealing, the troll freaked out about what come out of his hooter. He threw Bilbo to the ground, not likely how he was wriggling around. Bilbo got to his feet quickly, but the trolls had already started trying to grab him to see if they could eat him. He ducked and dodged, doing well to avoid them, but one of them grabbed him by the legs.
"Now, are there any more of you hiding where you shouldn't?" the troll asked.
"Nope, no there isn't." Bilbo replied.
Another troll said, "He's lying, hold his toes over the fire. Make him squeal!"
At that point, Kili came running out of the bushes and slashed his sword at the troll's leg. "Drop him!" he demanded.
"You what?" the troll said.
"I said, drop him!" Kili repeated.
Halien at that point jumped out of the tree, her arrow trained at the troll holding Bilbo. "You heard him, lads. Drop the hobbit and you may walk out of here alive."
The troll growled and tossed Bilbo at Kili. Just as Kili caught Bilbo, Thorin and the others of their company came charging out of the bushes. They hacked, cut, and swung their axes, shot rocks and arrows at the trolls, trying to drive them away. They went on like that for a while, but were forced to stop when two of the trolls grabbed Bilbo, each holding an arm and a leg.
"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip his off!" one of them said.
Seeing no other option, Thorin, Halien, and the others laid down their weapons. The trolls forced them into sacks, tying them tightly. They threw them to the side, only tying about half of them to a spit and turning it over the fire.
The trolls began to argue about how to cook the dwarves, but when one of them mentioned that dawn was approaching and they didn't fancy being turn to stone, Halien smiled when Bilbo got an idea, hearing it as it popped into his head.
"Wait! Wait!" he said. "You are making a huge mistake!"
"You can't reason with them," Dori said. "They're half-wits!"
"Half-wits? What does that make us?" Bofur asked.
"I mean about the seasoning." Bilbo said, once he had managed to get himself up.
"What about the seasoning?" one troll asked.
"Well, have you smelled them?" Bilbo asked. "You're gonna need something a lot stronger than sage before you plank this one up."
"What does he know about cooking dwarf?" another troll said.
"Shut up." the other replied. "Let the, uh, flur-ber-er-a-hobbit talk."
"The, uh, secret to cooking dwarf is, uh..." Bilbo said, trying to think.
"Yes?" the troll said. "Come on! Tell us the secret!"
"Yes, the secret is... to skin them first!" Bilbo said.
The dwarves were enraged, yelling insults and retorts back at him. "I won't forget this," Dwalin said.
"Tom, get me filleting knife." the troll said.
Behind him, Gloin was threatening to skin Bilbo as the other troll said, "What a load of rubbish! I like them better with their skin on."
The third troll agreed. "He's right! Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf. Nice and crunchy." he grabbed Bombur, opening his mouth.
"Bombur!" Halien yelled.
"Not-Not that one, he's infected!" Bilbo said.
"He what?" one troll said.
"He's got worms in his... tubes." Bilbo explained as the troll threw Bombur back to the pile of dwarves, Bombur landing on Kili and Oin. "In fact, they all have. They're infested with parasites, it's a terrible business. I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."
"Parasites?" Oin asked. "Did he say that we have parasites?"
"We don't have parasites!" Kili said, freaking out.
Halien giggled to herself, knowing what Bilbo was doing. As the dwarves bickered amongst themselves, denying that they had parasites, Thorin heard her giggle and suddenly realized what Bilbo was doing and kicked Kili. Kili and the others stopped, realizing at that point as well and decided to play along.
"I've got parasites as big as my arms." Oin said.
"I've got the biggest parasites, I have huge parasites!" Kili said, the others soon joined in, saying how big their parasites were.
One of the trolls said, "What would you have us do? Let 'em all go?"
Bilbo thought about it for a moment. "Well..."
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing," the one troll said, advancing on Bilbo. "The ferret is taking us for fools!"
"Ferret?!" Bilbo asked, offended.
"Fools?!" the troll retorted.
"The dawn will take you all!" Gandalf said, coming to the top of the large rock behind the trolls.
"Who's that?" one troll said.
"No idea." said the second.
"Can we eat him, too?" said the third.
Then before they could do anything more, Gandalf struck the rock with his staff, cracking it down the center and the sunlight of the dawning day burst through, shining upon the trolls. The trolls screamed and writhed in pain, quickly turning to stone. Finally safe, Gandalf came down and helped the dwarves out of the sacks and to their feet.
Halien stretched and told Bilbo he did a great job, thinking on his feet. Behind them, Gandalf was pointing the same out to Thorin, adding that Bilbo was the only one of them to try and stall until daylight. She made sure that everyone was OK, using her healing magik to heal a few minor injuries. Gandalf was worried about the trolls coming that far south.
