Title: Thoughts in the night chapter Five

Author: Dís Thráinsdotter

Disclaimer: I don't own Tolkien´s characters, I merely borrow them.

Summary: Glóin sits thinking about his life one night when he can't sleep. Post Hobbit but before LotR.

Rating: M.

When I think about Bilbo Baggins I almost laugh, he did all he could to seam prowsy but he couldn't hide the fact that he was eager to go on the journey with us. He listened to the tales we told him and the songs we sung, as well as the tales and songs of others that we met.

We stayed at Inns along the road as long as there were any to be had, but then we made camp in the forest along the East road. We set watches as the road was by no means safe, there were robbers and other threats around and we didn't want to get waylaid. At the end of a rainy day we came to an old bridge and crossed it. Bilbo grumbled a bit about the rain getting into our food bags and clothes bags, and I think we were a bit angered by it as well.

We stopped and wondered where we should go, it was then we noticed that Gandalf was missing but when he had left and where he had gone to we didn't know. Finally we decided to make camp where we were so we moved to a clump of trees so as to be out of the rain, which we were but the dripping from the boughs was annoying. It didn't help matters when a pony took fright at nothing and bolted straight into the river, Fili and Kili got the pony back to the shore but by the time they had done it they were nearly drowned and the food on the pony was washed away. To add insult to injury, neither Óin nor I was able to light a fire.

We were arguing about it and finally started to fight when Balin, always the lookout man, told us that he saw a fire. We looked at it and discussed it for some time until Thórin told Bilbo to go and see what it was. Bilbo went to the fire but didn't look at all happy about the instructions he had been given. He later told us that he could hoot like an owl as much as he could fly, which he couldn't. After a while we heard strange noises coming from the fire and as we had neither seen Bilbo come back nor heard any owl hoots, we started to make for the fire to see what was going on. We were going one by one with Balin as the first and so it was that Trolls who put us in their smelly sacs took us. Some of us were able to fight them but it didn't save them from being put in those sacs and placed near the fire. Finally Thórin came, expecting mischief and Bilbo told him that Trolls who were waiting for him with sacs had taken us. I think Bilbo tried to warn us but didn't have the time to cry out. Thórin and Bilbo fought with them but Thórin was also put in a sac and I didn't know where Bilbo went.

Then the Trolls sat down and discussed how to cook us, an altogether horrible thing to listen to. Added to that the fact that I could hardly breathe in the sac and the whole situation looked most dreadful. Fortunately for us Gandalf had returned and kept the Trolls arguing until the Sun rose and turned the Trolls to stone. To hear Gandalf´s voice as he told Bilbo about what he had done, and then to be released from the sac was such a relief. All of us demanded an explanation from Bilbo who told us that the Trolls caught him and that the strange noises we heard was the Trolls fighting and calling each other names, fully applicable according to Bilbo.

After some discussions about fire and food we found the footprints of the Trolls leading to a cave, which Gandalf opened with the key that Bilbo had found and then we entered. The smell inside the cave was horrible but we found food and drink there, and also all sorts of plunder. We also found clothes and weapons; they weren't Troll size so their victims must have worn them. Two of the swords caught our eyes, with their jewelled hilts and sheaths, so Gandalf took them and looked at them saying that we would learn more about them in better light as there was runes on them. He took one sword and Thórin took the other, and Bilbo took a dagger, which looked like a short sword on him. We took food and drink, and made breakfast by the embers of the fire and after sleeping we buried the gold coins we found in the cave, replenished our supplies and went on our way.

As we went on Gandalf told us that he had been scouting the road when he met some friends from Rivendell. They had told him about the Trolls and as he had felt he was needed with us he had gone back, but before he had done so he had given a message to them so they could tell Elrond that we were coming to him. He also told us to be more careful next time and we didn't sing or tell tales for some days.

TBC