Day slowly changed into night as we rode on. Regardless of the setting sun, the rain continued on as if it hadn't much care in the world other than the express interest in soaking the company. Soon enough, everyone was as miserable as I felt, mud clinging to me in great globs still and making me cringe uncomfortably. If that weren't enough, the ponies began to smell from their furs becoming soaked and because of an incident earlier concerning a frightened pony, Fili and Kili were in sour moods.

Completely drenched from having to try and wrestle a half drowned pony from a river, the two brothers nearly drowned themselves before Dwalin and Thorin managed to pull them out. With the loss of the pony, a good deal of our food was also lost. Though some of the others complained about it, as a Hobbit who knew the ways of how easily rivers could drown, I tried to reassure the brothers of their efforts.

With the rain still falling over our heads and the ponies exhausted from tromping through the mud all day, Thorin eased us along the edge of the dilapidated remains of an old house to stop for the night. As we all dismounted from our ponies, I walked on ahead to get a closer look at what had once been a home, noticing how bushes, ferns, and plants had grown around the wooden structure. The roof was a husk of a shell of its former glory, caved in and warped enough to give it a rather sinister look.

Something faint in the air made my jaw ache...

"Everything alright, Miss Baggins?"

"Huh?" I looked at Balin, grateful for the rush of warmth spread across my cheek, "Yea, just..." The feeling was gone and with it the very thought I had. I smiled at Balin and passed it off as being tired from a long day's journey. As I did so, Gandalf and Thorin had moved underneath the roof of the house and began to speak in animated tones, voices that edged along my senses until I decided to turn away.

It was awkward watching Gandalf and Thorin argue over something because the group didn't really understand what the wizard was even doing there with us. He apparently never signed a contract nor did he indicate any actual intention to travel all the way to Erebor. It felt strange having to decide between the loyalties of one's Leader and one's wizard. To avoid any sense of responsibility in the matter, I tried to ignore it all by intensely petting Balin's pony.

Yes, intensely ignoring whatever argument was currently happening behind my back. Yes, petting the pony.

Balin looking up sharply made me turn around just in time to see Gandalf turn away from Thorin with a look of frustration, "Everything alright?"

I asked him as he headed our way but continued on as if he hadn't heard me. He looked upset and whatever was said between he and Thorin couldn't have been good if Gandalf was now stomping away, " Gandalf! Where are you going?"

"To seek the company of the only one around here that has any sense!"

I looked at Balin, who only glanced at me before looking at where Gandalf was huffing off to. Where was he going? It was the middle of the night and it was still raining! How safe could it be away from the protection of the company?

"And who is that?"

"Myself, Mistress Baggins!"

I winced at the formality of my name, noting that it was the only time that I ever heard such a thing from Gandalf's lips. He was upset, that much was easily deduced from the situation but to just leave! I wanted to run after him to try and make him see reason and the folly of leaving us but the frustration in his voice pushed me back. The guiding sensation was keeping me with the dwarves and there was naught I could do to try and resist it. I ended up just looking at Balin, "Is he coming back?"

The camp was kept busy after that, setting up for the long night ahead and getting the ponies ready for rest – a job given to the brothers – while the rest of us did what we could to try and escape the rain for a bit. The roof was really just as useless as it appeared, barely doing anything at all to shield us from the rain or help Gloin and Oin build a fire.

Despite the fact that the two older brothers would build a fire out of nearly anything, they couldn't manage to do it that night. They swore and cursed colorful words in Westron and some other guttural language until even Dori had to cover Ori's ears. Eventually we just had to settle in for a hard, rough night with no fire and nothing but a cold stew that tasted as unappetizing as it looked.

Throughout all this, I worried about Gandalf. No one had spoken a word of him since his departure and it seemed like I was the only one who worried on whether or not he would return at all. My feelings on the subject were written plainly across my face, if not in how I clenched my mud matted skirts. Bofur's voice distracted me with a fresh tickle across my toes, "He's a wizard, Miss Baggins! He does as he chooses."

"But he's been gone a long time."

"He'll be back, no worries. Here, do us a favor and take this to the lads."

I was still worried and no amount of tickling was going to ease the thoughts of what trouble Gandalf could get up to all alone in the dark. Without thinking, I held out my hands and was surprised when he thrust two bowls my way with a bright smile on his face. Bofur meant the request as a means of distraction and I was thankful for it, wanting to be helpful and busy for it all the same.

Where the younger brothers were watching the ponies was a bit separated from the main company and I hurried back there under the protection of the forest where I was happy to feel that the rain barely trickled through the thick foliage. Quickly I found them at the head of the pack of ponies, their eyes scanning the group and joking about something before Kili jabbed at Fili's side with a snort.

"Glad to see you two in a better mood." I smiled at the two brothers as they looked down at me, their grins still present on their cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing at all." Kili responded a little too quickly but before I could try and figure out what was wrong, I felt a warmth behind me. I startled a little, careful not to up end the bowls that still held the stew, "We're happy that you seem to be in a better mood too."

Fili's voice was underneath my skirts pressing insistently and I tried to move away from him to give myself some space but before I even got an inch, Kili was blocking my path. I was effectively caged between two dwarven brothers who seemed to radiate heat like a furnace regardless of the chill of the night air.

"Um, food?"

I offered to try and distract them, to try and get a moment where I could slip away but even with bowls of food acting as a barrier between us, I felt a hand along my waist. I yelped out in surprise and jumped away because that was an actual real hand on my waist! What was going on?! Was I dreaming again?!

My heart raced as I watched them approach me, slow like I was a skittish creature and I was not at all offended by their behavior. I was skittish and I wasabout to run off and scream for Dwalin, who was only too correct about young lads and what happened to women who wore wet clothes around them. It wasn't even as if I wanted to spur them on but wasn't there protocol... there was courting, right?! There had to be something of such equivalents in dwarven culture!

I did the only thing that I could think of in such times of need.

I offered food.

"Now, boys; Bofur asked me to bring you your food. That's all."

I held out the bowls for them to take and just as suddenly as their new behavior, they seemed to change back into the old mischief makers. Their postures relaxed and their smirks went back into normal grins, looking as if they were almost relieved at the mix up. I was instantly relieved, relaxing and stepping closer so that they could take the bowls. Kili didn't want to try his hand at approaching me, still seeing how nervous I was; he reached out his to accept the bowl as I passed it over. Fili was by far the risk taker of the two, spurring on his younger brother when he was they were younger, no doubt. He closed the distance between us but did nothing more than take his bowl.

His blue eyes looked back to his brother before finding mine again, "Where is your bowl?"

A squeeze against my flesh, playful and teasing.

"Yes, have you eaten already?"

Kili's voice was almost overlapping with his brother's, curled on my other butt cheek and squeezing.

"Did you like the food?"

On the opposite side, Fili's overlapped, curling around soft mounds of flesh.

"Why didn't you bring your food with you too?"

I closed my eyes, willing it to stop, the overlapping voices pulling cheeks apart.

"Do you not want to eat with us?"

Rubbing one after another. My cheeks were turning red with the struggle to remain firm.

"Do we offend in some way?"

Their voices kneading, leaving me short of breath.

"N-no, n-not at a-ll."

"So you accept?!"

Immediately following my answer, Kili cried out happily, shocking me and making me realize that the entire time they had been speaking to me in tandem, I had been steadily stepping away from them.

"W-what?"

"Our offer to eat together!"

"What's that light?"

Light? Kili looked confused by what his brother said as well and looked at him curiously before he noticed we had gone deeper into the forest than before. I looked around in surprise myself because while we were in the middle of where we held the ponies, we were on the far right side, the looming forest in the distance and exactly where Fili saw the light.

Whereas all my previous thoughts had been geared towards one thing and that was how to avoid the brothers in front of me, now my thoughts were focused entirely on the light ahead of us. Bowls set aside on a nearby tree branch, the brothers swept passed me into the dark of the forest, crunching over leaves and snapping over twigs.

The Took and the Baggins in me fought for I knew I wanted to follow them to see what could provide such a light in the middle of a rainy forest. I was also worried about their safety if they were left alone but as a Baggins, I was also worried for my own. I stood there on the spot, wringing my hands in my skirts until I groaned aloud and took off after the brothers. My steps were far lighter than their own, making not a sound over twigs and leaves, and I quickly caught up with them.

They seemed surprised to see me still there but immediately started to look around when they came to a clearing. "If there's a light? Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

I whispered as I came up behind Fili, startling him when he backed up into me and turned to face me. He glanced at me before looking back in the direction of the camp and then to the light up again. He set his hand on my shoulder and started to guide me away from the camp, "Ah, no, best not to worry him."

The statement filled me with no small amount of dread. Fili's hand though steady against my shoulder did not cover for the fact that his voice crept along my backside shakily, nervous and hesitant. Add to the fact that my jaw was starting to hurt again and I was very much not wanting to meet whatever it was that could possibly worry Thorin. I was reluctant to follow Fili deeper into the forest, seeing uprooted trees and destroyed bushes.

The damage in the surrounding forest looked a little too careless to be done by something like a man, "looks like something big uprooted these trees..."

"That was our thinking."

Kili replied to my statement, his voice serious and pushing me along with Fili's hand that still was on my shoulder. As I looked around the clearing, seeing what the brothers were using for tracking purposes, I noticed the ache in my jaw again and how it was getting sharper as the brothers ventured off and I followed.

"Over here!"

Born from the alert and commanding tone of Fili's order, I panicked and rushed up to where I heard him and stopped right in between where Kili and Fili both sought cover beside an overturned tree trunk. All three of us knelt in the cold muddy ground, my knee instantly feeling the chill of it. At the same time as I tried in vain to see whatever it was that Fili had seen, I gripped my jaw from the sharp pain that pervaded my senses. I barely noticed when a warm hand pressed to my lower back, such was the ringing in my teeth. I couldn't stop the low mewl of pain that escaped my lips, hiding my face into the tree trunk. Fili spared me a glance before I heard the laughter in the air again and the sharp ringing pain return.

"What is that?" I asked, my teeth clenched in pain and my fingers digging into bark.

"Trolls!"

Kili whispered fiercely before taking off over the tree trunk and into the forest, still intent on chasing the sound of troll as far as he needed. Fili followed after his brother, leaving me again with the choice to either go back and tell Thorin or follow them.

I followed them without thought or protest, my body working faster than my mind. As soon as I was following them though, I cursed myself for being so stupid. Why was I really following them?! I was going to get myself killed out in the wild if I thought following Fili and Kili to a troll party was the smartest thing to do. I told myself that I really should have gone back but my thoughts were abruptly silenced when I suddenly saw the sight of a giant troll, strolling along in the forest brush.

I stifled my yelp of fright, throwing myself into the nearest tree trunk and pressing against it as flat as possible. I saw the large creature knock over trees easily and push aside branches as if they mattered so little, struggling with something in his arms that I instantly recognized as a sheep.

"Is that a sheep!?"

I had spotted Fili and Kili crouched down together by their own tree, discussing something before they saw me and looked every bit like a child on a wild adventure. They looked red in the face like they were not even aware of what they were doing themselves. The look made me groan in disbelief because why did I ever follow them?! They probably thought all of this was fun!

"You get what we're thinking, Bilbo?"

Kili sounded excited and out of breath and his voice patted at my behind playfully. Caught up in the sensation and the mood, I leaned over from the tree and slipped down to crawl over to where the two brothers were. I was accepted into Kili's arm, his hand on my shoulder pulling me closer. "If there are trolls, there has to be a cave nearby!"

Fili's voice was the same as his brother's, pinching me even as he came to my other side, his face close to mine, "You're our burglar! You should go and- "

"No! No no!"

Absolutely not! I knew exactly what a troll cave contained if only from stories and yes, our food supply was low because of the drowned pony but I would not risk stealing from trolls! I really was foolish indeed to have believed anything these two brothers tried to con me into!

I tried to pull away from Kili's grip, standing up to go back to my own tree, but Kili was beside me the entire time, his body nearly pressed completely to my side. Once we were at the tree, his broad chest pushed into my back that made me shudder, he explained that I would be perfectly safe because I was so small and trolls were so stupid, so of course I should go!

He looked down at me, his breath panting against the back of my cheek with a sharp chuckle, "We'll be right behind you."

Oh, Kili was such a cheeky little thing, and before I could say anything in protest, he was pushing me out from the tree trunk only to be caught by Fili, who turned and directed me over to the camp fire in the distance, "If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl and once like brown owl."

What?!

I was pushed off into the shrubbery and only had a moment to recall in a panic that I hadn't the slightest idea what either a brown or a barn owl even sounded like! I turned back to try and ask them but to my utter horror, where they had been before was completely abandoned!

I wanted to scream and shout because those two bastards abandoned me no further than ten feet from an actual troll camp! I clenched my fists and turned in my place in a fret, knowing full well if I shouted then I would be found and definitely murdered.

Oh! How I wished for Myrtle! She had experience in this matter, I was sure!

I decided to just continue on as Fili and Kili trusted me to do! I was hired to be a burglar after all and what better way than to try and practice a bit on something that was indeed slow and stupid! As I stepped closer to the camp, hearing the trio of trolls going on about mutton and how they were tired of it, I contemplated the thought of just going back to the group and telling Thorin of the trolls. As I thought of everything I should have done, I inched closer until I was on the edge of the camp. I kept low to the ground, feeling a sick rush of adrenaline from being so close to danger and not having died yet.

I couldn't go back now that I was in the camp and so close to a troll! I couldn't just go back to the expectant eyes of Fili and Kili without something to show for our own little adventure. I couldn't go back to Thorin's impassive gaze without something to prove that I was actually a burglar!

I cringed at the sound of a troll actually sneezing into the cooked stew!

I was going to throw up from the smell. I was going to throw up from the painful ringing in my teeth from their crude voices talking of food and farmers and how the chicken never tasted like chicken. One of the trolls had a pocket close by and I figured I might as well try for that since it was the closest thing and books always said that trolls purses were very rewarding, indeed.

I readied to make the move towards the purse. Yes, I would try for a troll purse... I would absolutely not try for a troll purse, I thought as I turned hastily turned back around and retreated at the sight of the troll start to turn around for something.

Oh, but I had to get something and the purse was right there!

I crawled slowly over to the troll, staying silent and still when a hand reached over for something nearby only to be retracted when another troll yelled at him. I continued to crawl over, jumping back when one of the troll was smacked practically into my path and -OH! Gross, they were not tasting the sneezed in stew!

Oh, I really was going to vomit just from how foul the trolls were.

I reached for the purse again only to have to snap back away when the troll got up and scratched himself. I would have cried out in disgust at the image I saw before my eyes. I literally was a foot away from an actual troll ass and the smell and the look of it was just...

It was alright, I assured myself, as the troll sat back down and I waited again for my chance for the purse again...

Only to be whisked off my feet into a large hand and literally shoved into a trolls face where whatever the sensation of a troll sneeze sounded like was covered up by the horribly real sensation of now being covered in troll snot...

I couldn't breathe... I couldn't think...

I shuddered and seethed; I was going to kill Fili and Kili. I was going to murder them myself because it didn't matter if I was a lady or not. I could have had a dick hanging from my legs for all to see and I would have known that this was wrong!

Not as wrong as literally be thrown down no better than a used hanky though that was exactly what I was. I quickly got to my feet, revolted by how my clothes stuck to me in an entirely more unpleasant way than when the rain made them stick.

"What is it?"

My teeth rung and I tried to think of a way back into the woods. I was going to die if I couldn't get away from them now.

"Lumme, if I knows! What are yer?"

"Bilbo Baggins, a bur-a hobbit!" I squeaked out in shock and cursed myself for of all the times for my manners to actually be in tact, it would have to be when the one asking wanted to eat me! I looked around in a fright, wondering just what sounds a barn or brown owl would even make.

"What's a burrahobbit?" One of the trolls asked while another asked if one could eat them. I cowered back in fright, shaking and trembling at the idea that they would actually eat me.

"Yer can try!"

I yelped into action born of pure terror, ducking large hands and turning to the forest only to be stopped in my way by the sight of a troll blocking the way, "She wouldn't make above a mouthful, not when she was skinned and boned."

I was poked by the troll but because I was so much smaller, I ended up stumbling back into the other. I froze at the edge of a knife thrust in my direction, holding up my hands, still unable to speak out of fear. I was pushed off to the side when one troll spoke of there being anymore "burrahobbits" out in the forest and I tried to use that opportunity to slip down underneath one of the trolls and avoid the grasping hand of the other.

Try as I might to have made it back into the forest, I ended up being caught again by the legs, entirely hung upside down and cursing my skirt even as I struggled to hold it down and not reveal my bloomers!

The trolls pulled me closer, asking me more questions and I couldn't think of anything to say other than to deny everything and scream in fright when the troll that sneezed on me suggested to hold my feet over the camp fire to make me squeal. I didn't need a camp fire to make me shriek in fright. I was already scared enough to do that without the need for violence!

I was almost too terrified to notice when something was jumping out from the nearby forest, attacking the leg of one of the trolls and sending him stumbling off away from me. I twisted as best I could, relieved with every fiber of my being that Kili was there attacking the troll! Oh how I could have kissed him right then and there for saving me!

"DROP HER!"

Kili's bellowed command bounced off the trees, a spank across my bottom. I would have wanted to kill him for shouting so close to me, for his voice spanking me at such a time but I was just so relieved that he was actually there. "I said, DROP her!"

"If yer say so."

Being handled like a tiny creature was not fun in the slightest but being thrown into Kili was even worse than being hoisted up by a troll. He caught me well enough, throwing down his sword to do so but we fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

Too quick for me to register, Kili had rolled us away from the main camp before leaving me on the ground. Hearing familiar sensations, I looked up and saw that not only was Kili going back into the fray but that everyone from camp was there as well! I saw Thorin attack powerful limbs, Dwalin smack bulky jaws, and even Ori use his sling shot against the large creatures.

Everyone seemed to be holding their own against the massive trolls but even their large forms were hard to contend with, more than once lifting a dwarf off his feet and tossing them about. It was when I saw the troll who sneezed on me grab Ori and make to stomp on a distracted Bofur that I sprang to my feet. I pushed aside the older dwarf just in time to avoid the massive foot that stomped to the ground beside us.

That was all it took for the trolls to remember me and suddenly the one who had caught me before was making a bee line for me and I though I tried to get away, I was caught again and dragged away from the ground, despite how fiercely I dug into the dirt and tried to fight it.

"Lay down your arms or we'll rip her's off!"

My limbs were being held spread, caught in powerful grips that pulled even as they threatened. It hurt, the pain in my mouth and the pain in my limbs. I couldn't help the look of fear that came to my eyes because I was truly well caught this time and with nothing more to do than lay down their arms, I saw Thorin drop his sword. The others followed suit in short order, a feeling of guilt welling up in my stomach so profound that I couldn't stop the tears that came to my eyes.

Being stuffed into burlap sacks was hardly the best for the group's mood and even greater still was when the trolls tied up Dwalin, Dori, Bofur, Ori, Bifur, and Nori all to a spit and set up to roast them.

The rest of us were forced to watch as they did all this, caught in our bags and struggling with the want to help our friends and no being able to do anything. I frowned and tried to think of something from where I laid across Thorin's legs and Kili's head against my hip but I couldn't think of anything that would actually be of use.

"-dawn's not far away. I dunt fancy bein' turned to stone!"

Suddenly, I had all the idea that I would ever need. I looked up at the sky, happy to see the first tendrils of false dawn and while I still had quite some time to buy, I would try nonetheless!

"Wait!" I struggled to get off of Thorin, hearing him grunt in displeasure at being so roughly pushed against. I struggled and turned until I was up on my feet, nearly tripping over a Fili who lie face first in the ground, "You are making a terrible mistake!"

"Ah-wha?"

"I meant with the seasoning!" I tried again, trying not to shout when the dwarves on the spit yelled at me to not even attempt to reason with the trolls. I didn't want to reason with them though as much as just delay them and it seemed one of the trolls kind of understood what I was trying to do. He tried to argue against it but the troll who was in charge of cooking stopped him.

"Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something a lot stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!"

I winced at the screams and shouts of being a traitor from behind me, tripping away from Fili who actually tried to bite my ankles before I realized that the trolls were arguing again. My teeth were hurting at the sound of their voices and the fact that I actually had to pay attention to them as they spoke, arguing amongst themselves about whether or not to take my advice.

"Let the burrahobbit talk!"

"The secret to cooking dwarf is-"

"Yes?"

I tried to think. I couldn't think of any good answer to give the troll. He kept prodding me for something and my teeth ached and I clenched them against his voice, " Is ah-I'm telling you."

Still his voice prodded me and still it ached me until I just relied on my tried and true teachings of a hobbit and shouted out the first thing that came to my mind, "You need to skin them first!"

What the fuck, Bilbo!? I shouted at myself because what kind of answer was that?! Everyone was yelling at me and their voices attacked me from all sides. I was horrified to see one of the trolls go for a knife though as I watched him do so, I saw a hint of grey on the horizon and felt a press against my shoulder. Was I hearing someone hum?

My attention was pulled away when one of the trolls just up and went for Bombur, distracting the trio as he held him up high overhead to just try and eat raw.

"Not that one! He's infected!"

I shouted out again just to make the troll stop, relieved when he did.

"Yeah, he's got worms in his-tubes?"

At this informative though a completely untrue account of Bombur and what he actually had pertaining to tubes, it did make the troll drop Bombur and look to his companions. All of them looked horrified at the idea that the dwarves were crawling with worms and I immediately spoke, "In fact they all have them. They're all infested with parasites. It's a terrible business, I really wouldn't risk it."

Despite being called a liar and Kili nearly ruining the entire thing by being entirely too loud about his status as a parasite owner, I was so grateful when Thorin kicked Kili into being silence. It immediately changed the tune of the dwarves, who instantly went from not having parasites to being positively riddled with them. I would have laughed at the change of heart if it didn't mean that it would give everything away but as I looked at the trolls, it seemed they didn't buy it anyway.

After the nasty business of being called a ferret and no, I was not a ferret thank you very much, I nearly felt faint with relief when I heard the voice of Gandalf shout into the sky, "The dawn will take you all!"

In a great rush and a sound of something striking, Gandalf split the stone and the first ray of sunlight washed over the camp clearing, blinding me and making me look away.

By the time I looked back, Gandalf was gone from his spot and the trolls were still, frozen into place just as they said they would have been if the sun came upon them.

I breathed out in disbelief because we had actually been saved...