"You've suspected Bilbo's invisibility ring was the One Ring all this time and yet you did not tell me?" Thorin demanded, "How could you let him be in such danger, with the dark forces rising in the south?"
The Dwarf king slammed his fist against the wall in frustration.
"I had to be sure." Gandalf sighed, "The meeting shall be held and the Ring's fate will be decided."
"He cannot go alone." Thorin argued, "I will not allow it, the journey through Mirkwood is deadly enough with all the spiders, let alone if there will be servants of Mordor after him."
"I thought you might say that..." Gandalf replied gravely.
Thorin glared at him.
"Thorin you know of the Ring's draw, it will call to those it thinks will succumb to it."
"Are you accusing me of being weak?" Thorin exclaimed, filled with fury.
"You know exactly what I am insinuating Thorin." Gandalf replied calmly, "Gold sickness runs in your line, that is not your fault but ring madness is only a step away."
Thorin wanted to disagree. Say he would never fall prey to a single ring of power, that he'd never hurt Bilbo over a trinket but he couldn't. Not after how he'd acted with the Arkenstone and that was just gold sickness. If he were to go with his son, would he fall prey to it's allure?
"You will be required at the summit of course," Gandalf finished, donning his hat and heading for the door, "But I would advise you to be wary."
The wizard swung the door to the kings chamber open but found his path blocked by Kili and Fili as they fell onto the floor in a heap.
"Durins!" Gandalf growled, "Have you been eavesdropping?"
"No!" They both replies in sync, "Well...yes! Yes, but we didn't mean to get caught."
"Boys..." Thorin growled.
"Well, we heard Bilbo talking to Gandalf about some magic ring and so we decided to follow him and here we are." Kili explained sheepishly.
"We'll go with Bilbo too!" Fili insisted, "We may be Durin's but we wont fall to some ring!"
Thorin sighed, he wanted to deny them but he knew there would be no reasoning with them. Gandalf had wisely slipped through the door and avoided the conflict, sneaky son of an elf.
"If I say no, you're going to come anyway aren't you?" Thorin asked wearily, the boys nodded.
"Fine, hopefully this council will deal with it and we will be home before the week is up."
Fili and Kili grinned, they were lucky. The trip to Mirkwood only took two days if they went through the forest. It was safer to go via Lake Town of course but staying away from populated areas would be wise while carrying the Ring. Thorin hoped he was right about returning to Erebor soon. Just because Bilbo had found the Ring didn't mean it would be his responsibility to destroy it, he was just a lad after all. No, this summit would decide on somebody else, somebody with more training who would be able to resist the Ring within Mordor.
This wasn't their problem.
-oOo-
Surprisingly, Bilbo was happy his brothers and father wanted to come with him. They were geared up ready to argue with the selfless Hobbit and were so stunned they actually froze. Bilbo laughed.
"I knew you'd insist on coming so why bother fighting it." He replied airily, "But is it really okay for all of us to leave the mountain?"
"Balin will take care of everything." Kili replied, hoisting his pack up onto his shoulders.
"Why can't we take ponies?" Fili wined as they began walking.
"We're going through the forest, no pathways, on foot it's faster than trying to get a pony through Mirkwood." Thorin explained, already rubbing his forehead as the chatter began to give him a headache. Why couldn't those three ever learn to travel in companionable silence like Balin, Dwalin and he did at that age? Sometimes he felt as if he'd spent their infanthood teaching them to walk and talk only to spend the rest of their lives telling them to sit down and shut up.
At first the walk was pleasant, through the fields and outer areas of the newly rebuilt Dale, then the light forest before Mirkwood. If they liked, they could pretend they were simply on a camping trip. Bilbo made no mention of the Ring or where he'd hidden it upon his person, despite his resolve Thorin thought it best not to ask. He would never freely admit it, but a dark part of his mind feared the Ring would take him over like it had so many others. He wouldn't put Bilbo in that position. Not again.
It took nearly a day to reach Mirkwood, Thorin was glad when they reached the outskirts and found a small clearing for them to make camp. Since they had retaken Erebor Mirkwood had become a slightly safer place. Thranduil and his Elven warriors were clearing the spiders from the trees, and though some still lived, they were rare. This meant one could travel off the path safely, though it was still very dark, luckily this time they were prepared with torches and a more detailed map which Legolas had gifted to Bilbo a year ago.
"Ah, spiders tomorrow, yay." Fili deadpanned, Kili shivered, having contracted a phobia of the arachnids after their last trip into Mirkwood.
"Look's like they've come to meet us, there's one on your leg Kili." Bilbo added airily.
"WHAT!?" Kili screeched, jumping from foot to foot trying to spot the imaginary spider, making Fili and Bilbo roar with laughter.
"Oh haha very funny." Kili scowled.
The brothers snickered and continued to set up camp, Bilbo made them a simple soup for dinner. After years of proper food again it felt strange to be on the move again, eating simple meals. In a way it was humbling.
Thorin was reluctant to let Bilbo take first watch knowing he had the most sought after artefact in Middle Earth hidden upon his person. No doubt people would be looking for it, maybe even some of those going to the summit, but Bilbo was adamant things stay as normal as possible.
"I shouldn't get special treatment because I was the one to stumble upon the Ring." He argued, "Besides I don't think Gandalf would reveal who owned the Ring. If you're so protective it will be obvious who has it."
He had a point.
"Wake us if you hear anything." Fili nodded seriously.
"Unless it's a spider, you can deal with that alone." Kili joked, earning him an elbow to the ribs from his older brother.
"Ow!"
-oOo-
The worst thing about being on watch was the boredom. Back on the 'Quest for Erebor', as Ori had so kindly named it, two Dwarfs were on watch together at all times. Of course, they had a much larger group then, they were able to rotate more often while still getting a full nights sleep every few days, with only the four of them the watches were longer and lacked any company or entertainment.
Bilbo kept a close eye on Sting, ready to jump into action if it started to glow blue, but it didn't. Out of boredom he found himself finding with the ring, which he wore on a silver chain around his neck. It had began it's strange whispering after a few moments as it always had of late. It was strange, the voice was frightening and soothing at once and he could never quite understand the words it muttered. Not until tonight anyway.
Amongst the usual unidentifiable murmuring was one clear word.
Bilbo...
It continued to call to him but he didn't put it on, despite the fact he was sorely tempted to. It was almost time to wake Fili for his watch when there was finally the sound of a twig snapping underfoot. The Hobbit was on his feet in seconds, ring back inside his shirt, glancing around for the source of the sound and silently drawing Sting from his new sheath.
"Who goes there?" He called, "I know you're there, come forward!"
A shadowed figure stepped forward with his arms open, he'd meant to be found obviously. Still, Bilbo felt his eyes narrow, he could see very little of the figure as he was shrouded in a long dark cloak and hood.
"You are Bilbo of the line of Durin, yes?"
"How do you know my name?" Bilbo asked suspiciously.
The man opened his mouth to answer but closed it again when the Dwarfs sat up, evidently their conversation had disturbed their sleep.
"Wassgoin on?" Kili slurred sleepily.
"We have a visitor." Bilbo informed them, nodding his head in the direction of the man, "and he knows who I am."
"My name is Aragorn." The man introduced, taking off his hood, revealing a young man with shoulder length brown hair and dark eyes, "I'm a friend of Gandalf."
"He's made no mention of you." Thorin replied gruffly, getting to his feet.
"He wouldn't." Aragorn rolled his eyes, "I'm going to the summit in Mirkwood, when I saw your camp and a Hobbit on sentry duty I knew you must have been the same Bilbo Gandalf spoke of. That means that you must be Thorin Oakenshield and Fili and Kili of Durin."
The family regarded the human with suspicion, he seemed genuine in his claim but these were uncertain times. Bilbo resisted the urge to clutch at the Ring, that was hanging on a chain around his neck, just to check that it was still there.
"I haven't seen Gandalf in some time." Aragorn continued, "he was supposed to meet me yesterday after speaking with the head of his order, Saruman, but he has not returned. I had planned on going further but I saw how carelessly the Hobbit was treating the treasure he carries."
"I carry nothing." Bilbo replied a little too quickly.
Aragorn raised an eyebrow at him as if to say 'you're fooling no one'.
"It is dangerous to be sleeping now," Aragorn continued, "Don't you know you are being hunted? Ringwraiths are following that Ring's call."
"Ringwraiths?" Fili swallowed nervously, "You mean those human kings who got turned into soulless servants for Sauron all those years ago?"
Aragorn nodded.
"How do we know you're not lying." Kili questioned suspiciously, "How do we know you're not just after the Ring?"
"You don't." Aragorn sighed, "But I implore you to trust me and whatever you do, do not put that Ring on!"
"Why not?" Bilbo asked, he'd worn the ring in the past with no problems though it had been years ago now, back before the ring started whispering.
Aragorn took a step forward into the camp but Thorin quickly stepped in front of the younger Durin's with a glare, warning the newcomer off. Dwarfs were not the quickest to trust, even more so in times such as these.
"Ringwriaths can follow the Ring yes, but it is still weak and so is it's call." Aragorn explained, "Put it on and Sauron will know exactly where you are and so will the Ringwraiths."
The brothers looked to one another, like all who had grown up among the great kingdoms of Middle Earth they knew the stories of the Ring. They knew of the greedy kings who fell to darkness and became Sauron's puppets. There was a good chance this Aragorn was telling the truth about their being hunted.
"How do we know if we can trust him?" Kili whispered.
Thorin eyed the young man for a few moments before lowering his weapon and placing it back in it's scabbard.
"I believe a servant of the enemy would have taken us by surprise." He decided finally, "Make no mistake, you do not have my full trust, but if you are truly a friend of Gandalf's we shall find out tomorrow when we arrive in Mirkwood. Until then, we will have eyes on you if you make any move to harm us."
"I understand." Aragorn replied seriously, "Now come, we all need to move into deeper Mirkwood."
Like in the first story, I will be following Bilbo and the Durins for the most part. There might be some deviating here and there but mostly it will be from their point of view. Of course, other things will still happen like Gandalf's battle with Saruman but I'm not going to re-write those sorts of scenes because nothing will have changed and it will be boring for me to write and you to read.
Because they age differently Aragorn and Legolas will be basically hr same characters. Though Aragorn will look more like a 20 year old than a 30 year old physically.
Those events still happen but I wont be writing them. If it's important to the story I will have characters explain it of course.