Disclaimer: I do not own anything concerning Middle Earth. That honour goes to the wonderful J.R.R Tolkien. I only own my OC, Eliza.
The trolls began to put some of the company in bags while others on a spit over the fire. Eliza, one of the luckier ones, was put into a bag. The bag stunk, like it really stunk. She didn't even want to know what had been put in it before her.
Worst of all she was thrown onto the pile beside Thorin. He spent his time either glaring at her or the trolls. Eliza knew that he blamed her and Bilbo for this, but it wasn't entirely their fault.
"Don't bother cooking them. Let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly," Said troll number one.
"They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage," argued Bert. He seemed to be the cook, for he wore a rag that resembled an apron.
Ooh, that does sound quite nice," agreed troll number three.
"Is this really necessary?" shouted one of the dwarves from the pile of sacks. Eliza couldn't help but start to panic. She was going to die, by a troll, and the last thing she will remember seeing is an angry dwarf king's glare. Definitely not her ideal way to die.
Besides Thorin, all the dwarves were shouting insults at the trolls. Eliza guessed that it was their way of hiding their fear. She on the other hand was just glaring at the trolls, she thought that it was pointless wasting her breath shouting insults and threats that would only fall on deaf ears.
"Never mind the seasoning; 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," said the troll turning the spit.
"Wait! You are making a terrible mistake," shouted Bilbo. He stood up as fast as he could without falling flat on his face.
"Of course they're making a mistake!" she shouted, "They're eating us! What other mistake is there?"
"You can't reason with them, they're half-wits!" added Dori.
"Half-wits? What does that make us?" asked Bofur. The dwarf was doing his best to find some humour in the situation.
"Uh, I meant with the, uh, with, uh, with the seasoning," Bilbo said as believable as he could, which in fact wasn't very believable at all.
"What about the seasoning?" asked Bert.
"Well have you smelt them? You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up," replied Bilbo. The other dwarves didn't agree with Bilbo at all, most of them were shouting insults at him.
"I knew I stunk Bilbo, but you didn't have to rub it in!" Eliza shouted angrily from among the group. It wasn't like the hobbit smelt any better, she certainly wasn't the only one that hadn't had a bath for more than a week.
"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" asked a troll.
"Shut up, and let the, uh, flurgaburburrahobbit talk," shouted Bert. He leaned in to hear what Bilbo was going to say.
"Uh, th-the secret to cooking dwarf is, um-" Bilbo stuttered. The hobbit looked stumped on what to say next. Served him right. Never ever tell a girl that she stunk.
"Yes? Come on."
"It's, uh-" said Bilbo looking around for some ideas.
"Tell us the secret," said Bert.
"Ye-yes, I'm telling you, the secret is … to skin them first!" answered Bilbo looking pleased with himself. This answer only riled up the dwarves and Eliza even more.
"How dare you Bilbo! The last thing I want is a slow and painful death!" shouted Eliza dramatically. Bilbo turned in her direction and gave her a desperate look. Realisation his her full force on what Bilbo was doing.
Oh. He must be trying to find a way to free them, or maybe spare them some time? Still, couldn't he have come up with anything better than skinning them?
"Tom, get me the filleting knife," ordered Bert. The dwarves were beyond furious with Bilbo now, they were shouting threats at him instead of the trolls.
"If I get you, you little-" threatened Gloin.
"I won't forget that!" added Dwalin from the spit.
"What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scuff them, I say, boots and all.," argued the troll Bert had called Tom.
"`e's right! Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf! Nice and crunchy," agreed the other troll. The troll picked up Bombur and hung him upside down, about to stuff him in his mouth.
"Not-not that one, he-he's infected!" shouted Bilbo in a panic.
"You what?" asked Tom.
"Yeah, He's got worms in his … tubes," said Bilbo actually sounding confident this time. The troll holding Bombur seemed to have believed him, for he threw Bombur back on the pile. Disgust written all over his face.
Eliza considered herself lucky when Bombur hadn't landed on top of her. She could her some of the other dwarves groan and gasp for breath under the sheer weight of Bombur, she most likely would have suffocated.
"In-in fact they all have, they're in-infested with parasites. It's a terrible business; I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't," added Bilbo noticing how easily the trolls had believed him.
"Parasites, did he say parasites?" asked Oin disgusted. Bilbo was soon to be officially on all of the dwarves' hate list.
"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!" shouted Kili.
She decided to try to make the dwarves see that Bilbo was trying to save their necks by saying, "Um guys, Bilbo is tr-."
"What are you talking about, laddie?" Gloin rudely interrupted her. The other dwarves added their own insults to the hobbit. "Fine. If they don't want to listen to me then don't." she thought in a huff.
She then turned to Thorin in a final attempt to get these dwarves to understand what Bilbo was doing. "Thorin, Bilbo's sparing us time," she hissed to the dwarf who was currently giving her the iciest glare she had ever seen. Thorin would have been the last person she would have tried to persuade, but giving the current circumstances she had no choice.
The dwarf in question just gave her a confused look in return. "You know, until the sun comes up, then the trolls will be turned to stone," she added desperately.
Thorin's eyes widened in realization, giving her a curt nod, he kicked at the dwarf beside him which happened to be Kili. All the dwarves turned to look at Thorin, confusion written on each of their faces. Their leader gave all of them a pointed look in return. Eliza gave a small chuckle when each of the dwarves finally realised what Bilbo was doing for them, for they all started to backtrack on what they had just said.
"I've got parasites as big as my arm," exclaimed Gloin's booming voice.
"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!" shouted Kili. Eliza rolled her eyes at this one. Really Kili?
"We're riddled," said Dori.
"Uh-huh," she hummed. The trolls would have to be really, really stupid believe them.
"I'm riddled," said Ori.
"What would you have us do, then, let 'em all go?" asked Tom. He probed Bilbo with his massive spoon while he said that.
"Well..." Bilbo trailed off. 'Yep, they were definitely going to die now. Maybe if Thorin didn't argue with Gandalf, then they wouldn't be in this mess. Talking about the wizard…' Eliza thought.
"You think I don't know what you're up to? This little ferret is taking us for fools!" said Tom bringing Eliza out of her thoughts.
"Ferret?" asked Bilbo affronted. If they weren't about to be eaten by three hungry trolls, Eliza would have laughed at the nickname.
"Fools?" added Bert.
"The dawn will take you all!" said a familiar voice from the other side of the clearing. She glanced over to see Gandalf standing onto of a huge Bolder. How he was going to save them from three trolls, she had no idea.
"Who's that?" asked Bert.
"No idea," answered Tom.
"Can we eat `im too?"
The next thing that happened caught her completely off guard. Gandalf stuck the bolder he was standing on, somehow making it split in half. Sunlight poured into the clearing blinding Eliza, making her close her eyes shut. All she could her were howls of agony, then all become quiet.
She slowly opened her eyes to see the trolls replaced by three huge stone statues. She began to cheer along with the rest of the company. They were saved, by the wizard, and Bilbo too. She somehow managed to live to see another day.
She looked over to see Thorin smile, a genuine smile. It was the first time she had ever seen him somewhat happy, and she thought that he looked nicer than his normal scowl plastered on his face.
"Oh, get your foot out of my back!" shouted Dwalin.
It wasn't until later that morning when all of the company were freed from the spit or sacks. Eliza was happy when she had escaped the horrible stench of the sack, and also to stretch. To have to lie still for that long period of time made it really uncomfortable.
"Even though I know many of the dwarves won't say this, but you're smarter than the whole lot of us put together," she said to the hobbit once he managed to free her from the sack.
The hobbit blushed at her statement before saying, "I didn't really do anything, and it was Gandalf who saved us."
"Yeah right, you keep telling yourself that Bilbo," she replied rolling her eyes at what he had said, "I would have been in a stew with troll snot if it wasn't for you."
"We'll look for the troll cave," ordered Thorin from the opposite end of the clearing. The dwarves immediately followed him and Gandalf.
"And there goes my beauty sleep," muttered Eliza. She stood up quickly and with Bilbo they followed the company, not wanting to be left behind.
It didn't take long for the group to find the cave, Eliza could smell it long before she could see it. The area surrounding the mouth of the cave absolutely stunk, and she thought the sacks were bad. It smelt strongly like something dead was rotting.
Eliza immediately decided to stay outside while a few of the others went to see if there was anything of value in the cave. She thought that if the outside sunk then she knew the inside would be ten times worse.
"Here's you knife back," she said handing the knife Fili had given her earlier back to him. She was standing under a tree with the Durin brothers, the leaves and branches shielding them from the warm morning sun.
"Thank you," he replied. He placed the knife back into the inside of his coat beside a dagger with a leather hilt.
"So Kili," she said to the youngest Durin, "You have the biggest parasites, huh, better make sure to stay away as to not get infected from those mighty big parasites of yours."
"Yeah, well…better than saying I didn't have any than getting skinned alive isn't it," he replied blushing red. Eliza and Fili both burst out laughing at the sight of Kili blushing, he was rarely ever embarrassed. After a moment the young dwarf joined in the laughter.
The sound of someone clearing their throat brought the three out of their laughter. Thorin stood in front of them back to his normal frown, Eliza didn't know how long he had stood there but by the looks of it, he didn't look too pleased.
"These are for you," he said gruffly. He handed her to her utter surprise a bow and a quiver of arrows. The bow was very beautifully made, with intricate patterns of leaves and vines carved into the wood. "Kili will show you how to use the bow, and Dwalin will teach you how to use a sword," Thorin continued. It still looked like he didn't want her to learn how to fight which made Eliza even more confused.
"I thought you said that I wasn't allowed to fight," she said not looking at the dwarf in front of her. She fingered the bow gently afraid that Thorin would suddenly change his mind.
"The company can't afford to be distracted by a defenceless female," he replied annoyance clear in his voice. Wow, what a way to ruin the moment.' She thought close to rolling her eyes in front of the king-in-exile.
"Oh, well thanks for the bow," she said as politely as she could. Thorin gave her a curt nod in return, then he made his way over to where Dwalin was leaning against a tree trunk.
Eliza turned around to find Fili and Kili gaping at her in shock. "What?" she asked.
Both dwarfs were speechless still staring from the bow in Eliza's hands to her face. After a few moments of awkward silence Fili answered her question. "Uncle hardly ever changes his mind once he has made a decision. Our mother used to call him a stubborn old ox whenever he wouldn't let her have her way."
"Oh, um, he must think that it's necessary for everyone to have some sort of weapon?" she replied in more of a question. It was the only answer she could come up with, and it did sound reasonable.
"Can I see your bow?" asked Kili. He was the archer of the company, so he was interested to look at the bow his uncle had given Eliza.
"Sure," she said. She handed the bow to Kili who looked at it with interest. He traced his fingers over the leaves and drawstring.
"It's Elvish," he said once he was finished examining it and handed it back to her.
"Is that good?" She had no idea what Elvish was so she assumed that it was a type of wood found in Middle Earth.
"You could say so," Kili answered, "I made my own bow out of yew, the same wood as yours."
"Oh, okay?" she replied. At that moment there was a sudden loud rustle behind some bushes, and all the dwarves quickly armed themselves all who were grumpy and tired. Eliza really hoped that it wasn't anymore hungry trolls that could be out during the day.
So Eliza is going to learn how to use a bow and sword! The reason why Thorin only gave her a bow and not a sword as well is because Eliza had requested to learn archery. Though Thorin thinks that if she was to fight, she would have to learn how to use a sword as well. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and please let me know what you think. I really enjoy reading all the reviews and I appreciate all the new Follows and Favourites. You guys are amazing!