CHAPTER THIRTEEN-
I felt a slight jolt and was woken from a good dream I was having about the weekend that I married my wife. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. Never before had I felt so rested in my entire life.
The sky was a sapphire blue and the trees around me a dark green dappled with beautiful reds and golds. I saw Gandalf and the rest of the company standing on a large, flat rock below me. Gwahair's son circled low enough that I had the chance to hop off of his back.
"How long were we asleep," I asked Gandalf, "I know that it was an enchanted sleep and that you managed to remain awake." His bright, blue eyes twinkled in amusement at the fact that I managed to figure things out. "Everyone was asleep for four days. We are now closer than before to reaching our goal," he ended the conversation.
"Did I not tell you that you would be a burden, that you were not meant to come on this journey; that you would end up dead," Thorin said as I saw him approach Bilbo out of the corner of my eye. "I-I um...yes, well I," Bilbo stuttered.
"I could never have been more wrong in my entire life," the dwarf smiled as he pulled the shocked hobbit into a bear-hug.
We all had a good laugh at this and climbed down off of the rock. Once down on the forest floor, we lit a fire and had our first warm meal in several weeks. Hot sausage, dried tomatoes, some meet from a deer that one of the twins had shot, and a shot each of dwarfish spirits set us straight.
I made sure that no one was looking and took a slug of miruvor before we erased all sign of our presence in case the orc pack found a way to catch up with us, and we were on our way again. The sun was high as were our spirits, our bellies full, and we were ready to take on the world.
I sure hoped that our spirits and strength held, because we were going to need both.
END PART ONE