It seemed that fiction became fact once more for the company as they traipsed over through the Misty Mountains. They had rescued and befriended a mermaid, an now they had witnessed a thunder battle between three stone giants. Bilbo had nearly fallen to his death, but was saved by Thorin. Said dwarf king was not pleased with the hobbit. He reprimanded Bilbo for almost getting himself killed and told him he never should have left the shire.
They sought refuge from the rain and cold in a small cave in the cliffside of the mountains, checking first for any unwanted guests. Finding none, the company set down their bedrolls and tried to catch a little shuteye. After they had all fallen asleep, Bofur stirred when he heard something rustling next to him. He looked up to see Bilbo, his pack on his shoulder and sword at his side. Bofur realized what Bilbo intended to do and tried to persuade him to stay. Bilbo had looked to Bofur sadly, explaining to him why he had to leave, when they heard mechanistic sounds coming from below. Thorin had heard the noise and moved to wake the company, but it was too late.
The floor opened into a trap door and the company slid down a large wooden shaft. They landed in a heap in some sort of cage-like structure when there were ambushed by goblins. They tried to fight them back, but they greatly outnumbered the dwarves, taking their weapons and prodding them forward along a causeway. The group came to a large platform in the middle of the massive underground cave, where a monstrous goblin sat upon a throne of some sort. He was singing a sort of song about Goblin town and the other goblins joined in, praising their king.
"Catchy, isn't it? Its one go my own compositions," the goblin king sneered.
"That's not a song, that's an abomination!" Balin cried from the middle of the group.
"Abominations! Mutations, deviations. That's all you're going to find down here," the giant goblin said, gesturing to the large expanse of robe bridges and wooden scaffoldings that made up Goblin Town. The dwarves' weapons were stripped from them and thrown into a collective pile before the king. "Who would be so bold as to come armed into my kingdom? Spies, thieves, assassins?!"
"Dwarves, your malevolence," a smaller goblin said.
"Dwarves?" the goblin kind asked.
"Found them on the front porch," the smaller goblin added.
"Well don't just stand there!" he cried. "Search them! Every crack, every crevice!" The goblins began stripping off the dwarves whatever weapons they had missed earlier, even taking Óin's trumpet and smashing it on the ground.
"What are you doing in these parts?" the goblin king asked, eyeing the dwarves suspiciously.
"Don't worry lads," Óin said, stepping forward. "I'll handle this."
"No tricks, I want the truth, warts and all!" The goblin king pounded his crooked staff on the ground.
"You're going to have to speak up, your boys flattened by trumpet," Óin said, holding up the mangled piece of metal.
"I'll flatten more than your trumpet!" the goblin bellowed.
"If you're wanting information, I'm the one you should speak to," Bofur said, stepping forward. The goblin eyed Bofur expectantly. "We were on the road, well its not so much as a road as it is a path, actually, its not even that, come to think of it. More like a track. Well the point is, were were on this road, er a path, er track, and then we weren't! Which is a problem because we were supposed to be in Dunland last Tuesday." He turned to look back at the company, not knowing if the goblin king was buying his tale.
"Visiting distant relations!" Dori added, coming to stand by Bofur.
"Shut up!" the goblin kind shouted, slamming his staff on the ground again. "If they will not talk, we'll make them squawk! Bring up the Mangler, bring up the Bone Breaker! Start with the youngest!" He pointed his staff to Ori, who gulped and took a step back.
"Wait!" Thorin called, stepping out from the group to stand before the goblin king.
"Well, well, well, look who it is. Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, king under the mountain. Oh, but I'm forgetting! You don't have a mountain, which makes you... nobody really. And I know somebody that would pay a pretty price for your head. Just a head, nothing attached. Perhaps you know of whom I speak? An old enemy of yours, a pale orc astride white warg!"
"Azog the Defiler was destroyed, he was slain in battle long ago!" Thorin said defiantly.
"So you think his defiling days are done, do you?" the goblin king chuckled lowly. "Send word to the pale orc, tell him I have found his prize." The goblin king sent a tiny goblin zipping off down a suspended cable in a metal bucket, hurrying to deliver the message. The rest of the goblins scurried to find the devices their king had called for, the goblin king breaking into song once again.
"Ahh!" A goblin cried, throwing down Thorin's sword that he had been inspecting.
"I know that sword!" the king trembled, backing up toward his throne and away from the blade. "It is the Goblin Cleaver! The Biter, the blade that sliced a thousand necks!" The goblins pounced on the company then, the dwarves trying their best to fight them off. "Slice them! Beat them! Kill them! Kill them all!" the giant goblin shouted. "Cut off his head!" he called to a goblin that had a blade raised over Thorin's head.
Suddenly a blast of white light and energy swept through the cavern, knocking everyone off their feet, stunning them for a few moments. A grey figure stepped out of the shadows from the side of the cavern.
"Take up arms," it said. "Fight! Fight!" The company saw that it was Gandalf that had saved them. They scrambled to their feet, pushing the goblins off of them and grabbing their weapons. They sliced and hacked at the goblins, sending them tumbling into the pits below. The goblin king rose his staff to strike Thorin, but Dwalin rushed over, swinging his war hammer at the beast, sending him teetering over the platform.
"Follow me, quick!" Gandalf said, leading them down wooden bridges and through the tunnels.
Gandalf had tracked the dwarves to Goblin town and instructed the eagle to stay with Thessa and told it that he would call to him when it was safe. The eagle soared of the mountain tops, Thessa on its back. She had since regained consciousness, but there was still an unbearable pain in her chest. It felt like someone had her heart and lungs in a vice grip.
She sat up on the eagle's back brushing the hair from her eyes. She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to remove some of the tangles, when she felt a smooth, cylindrical bead brush her hand. She looked at it, confused and followed it up into an intricate braid that lay on the left side of her face under a few layers of hair. How had she not noticed this before? And what was it? How did it get there?
Her breath suddenly caught. She knew where she had seen that bead. It was one of the silver ones that hung on the ends of Thorin's braids. He had braided her hair somehow. Probably when she had fallen asleep against him under the oak tree in Rivendell. It was a courting braid, she thought sadly. He was trying to keep her from leaving. She let a tear slip down her cheek. She had been so blind to what she had wanted all along.
She remembered Lord Elrond's parting words to her then, 'the only journey that matters, is the journey within'. Her journey within had to be then constant struggle between returning home and following Thorin. But as Gandalf explained to her, she didn't have a choice now. If she ventured too far from the dwarf king she could die from heartache. She hadn't know that would happen, since no mermaid that found her soulmate every left them, but she had a duty to her people. Thorin was returning to Erebor, but her home was thousands of miles to the south. Thessa laid her head down on the eagle's feathers crying herself into a brief slumber.
The company had burst from the confines of the tunnels and into the light. They turned around, surveying the group and counting heads.
"Where is Bilbo?" Gandalf asked, looking around. "Where is our hobbit?"
"Now he's lost? I thought he was with Dori!" Dwalin called.
"Don't blame me!" Dori shouted back at him.
"Well where did you last see him?" Gandalf pressed.
"I think I saw him slip away when they first corned us," Nori said.
"What happened? Tell me!" the wizard demanded.
"I'll tell you what happened," Thorin spoke up. "Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He has thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since first he stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone."
"No, he isn't," a small voice said. The company turned to see their hobbit stepping out from behind a tree.
"Bilbo Baggins!" Gandalf sighed in relief. "I have never been so glad to see anyone in my life."
"Bilbo," Kili smiled. "We'd given you up."
"How did you get past the goblins?" Fili added.
"Well, what does it matter? He is back" Gandalf stated.
"It matters," Thorin countered. "I want to know, why did you come back?"
"I know you doubt me," Bilbo began, looking up at the dwarf king."And- and I know you always have. And you're right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my arm chair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong, that's home. And that's why I came back, because you don't have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can."
The company was silent as Bilbo finished his piece. Thorin gave him a nod, and the others dipped their heads to him slightly. They looked up, however, when howling sounded behind them.
"Out of the frying pan..." Thorin said, looking to Gandalf.
"And into the fire. Run, Run!" the wizard boomed. The company took off down the side of the mountain, weaving through trees with the wargs hot on their trail. A few lone wargs jumped ahead of the company, turning back to attack them. Bilbo held out his small sword as a warg unwittingly impaled himself on it when he lunged for the hobbit. The others slashed at the wargs and took three of them down before sliding to a halt and the edge of a cliff.
"Up into the trees!" Gandalf called. "All of you, come on, climb! Bilbo, climb!" The company leaped onto the lower branches of the pine trees and hauled themselves toward the top. Gandalf gently picked up a butterfly he had spotted. He whispered his directions and watched the small creature flutter away. They heard the orcs come up out of the tree line and into the small area where the company was hiding. Thorin looked down to see the old foe that he had slain long ago. Or at least he thought he had slain him.
"Do you smell it?" Azog growled with a wicked sneer. "The scent of fear. I remember your father reeked of it, Thorin, son of Thrain."
"It cannot be..." Thorin whispered.
"That one is mine, kill the others!" Azog bellowed, his pack charging toward the trees the company were in. The wargs slammed against the tree trunks, trying to bring the trees down. As the the thee roots of the pine furthest from the cliff came up from the ground, the dwarves jumped from the boughs and into the next tree. But that tree started to lean as well and tipped into the next two trees. The dwarves hopped between trees until they had all congregated in the last tree at the edge of the cliff. The wargs, however, soon slammed against that one as well.
Gandalf then had an idea. He grabbed a pine cone and used his staff to set it ablaze. He tossed some down to the rest of the company who used them to light more pinecones. They flung them down at the wargs and orcs, setting some the the beasts alight and sending them sprawling back, away from the flames. Azog saw this pack fleeing the flames and gave a loud and menacing roar. The tree the company was in groaned and creaked as it its roots pulled loose from the ground and began to tip backward, hanging over the precipice.
The company fought to hang onto the tree limbs. Ori slipped first, grabbing hold of Dori's leg.
"Mr Ganfalf!" Dori cried, his grip slipping from the tree's trunk. Gandalf thrust his staff out to them, which Dori caught. As they dangled above the canyon below, Thorin looked to were Azog was grinning at them maliciously. The company watched helplessly as their leader climbed off the tree, drawing his sword. Thorin charged the pale orc, getting knocked off his feet by the white warg. The beast picked him up in its jaws, clamping his teeth down on him and crushing his armor. The company screamed and bellowed for their leader, seeing him lay motionless on the ground.
"Bring me the dwarf's head," Azog snarled to another orc. The orc drew his heavy blade, coming to lay it against Thorin's neck. He raised the blade over his head, but suddenly he was tackled to the ground. Bilbo had drawn his small sword and rushed to help their leader, tackling the orc that was about to behead the dwarf king. Bilbo clambered over the orc he had brought down, slamming his blue blade into its chest and staggering back to his feet. He faced the pale orc down, sword shaking in his grasp.
"Kill him," Azog growled. Bilbo sliced at the air in front of him as three orcs on wargs stepped toward him. But the company had regrouped by now and flung themselves headlong into the throng of enemies. They stabbed and slashed at the beasts, protecting their king. Gandalf, meanwhile, had lost his grip on Dori and Ori and they fell from the tree. But a great eagle swooped low and caught the two dwarves on its back.
Other eagles circled above as they stooped down to either fling the wargs and orcs off the cliff face, or gently grasp the remaining company members, lifting them to safety. One eagle gripped Thorin's body carefully, as well as his sword, and the flock of mighty birds ascended into the air. They carried the company above the clouds until dawn broke over the horizon, depositing them on the top of a large stone pillar. All but one eagle flew away, the remaining one circling far above their heads.
"Thorin!" Gandalf shouted as he bolted toward the dwarf king. He dropped to his knees and brought his weathered hand to rest on the dwarf's brow. He whispered and old spell and watched as Thorin's eyes slowly opened. Bilbo came to stand slightly behind the wizard.
"The halfling?"Thorin rasped.
"It's alright, Bilbo is here," he assured him. Kili and Dwalin helped their leader struggle to his feet.
"You," Thorin called. He looked Bilbo in the eyes, struggling to keep his balance. "What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed!" The others were shocked at Thorin's accusation. "Did I not say that you would be a burden? That you would not survive in the wild? And you had no place amongst us?" Thorin paused. Everyone held their breath as he approached the hobbit. "I have never been so wrong in all my life!" Thorin breathed out and embraced him. The company cheered, happy that their leader was alive and that Bilbo had redeemed himself in Thorin's eyes. "I am sorry I doubted you."
"No, no it's alright. I would have doubted me too. I'm not a hero, or a warrior, or even a burglar," Bilbo replied. "Is that... what I think it is?" Bilbo said, looking over Thorin's shoulder.
"Erebor," Gandalf stated. "The Lonely Mountain, the last of the great dwarf kingdoms of Middle Earth."
"Our home," Thorin said softly. Óin looked up as they heard a bird chirp and fly past them in the direction of the mountain.
"A raven, the birds are returning to the mountain," he said, amazed.
"That, my dear Óin, is a thrush," Gandalf stated with a small chuckle.
"But we'll take it as a sign, a good omen," Thorin smiled.
"You're right," Bilbo chimed in. "I do believe the worst is behind us." Gandalf watched the company stare out over the horizon. He had some more news that might make the moment even better.
"My friends," he began, gaining their attention. "I do believe I've forgotten to mention something."
"What is it?" Dori asked. What else could they have overlooked?
"I have brought with me an old friend," Gandalf said with a small smile, his eyes twinkling at their confused looks.
"Who, Gandalf?" Bilbo asked from beside him. Gandalf looked down to the hobbit with a smile.
"A certain mermaid who has come a long way to find you all."