Author's Note: YAY, it's Monday! And I have a rare treat for you guys...a chapter of actual decent length! Whaaaaat? Yeah, hope you guys enjoy it. There's an appearance of Bilbo in this one; lemme know what you think of him. I tried to write him as close to Martin Freeman as I could get him, but I'm not sure how successful I was. And hooray for big brother Fili!

Disclaimer: I have no right to these characters and make no money in my musings with them.

(Do I have to put that every chapter, or just at the beginning of the story? Still new to the Fanfiction thing.)

That Complicates Things

Kili squeezed his eyes shut. His breath came in coughing, sputtering gasps. The last of the brew had been forced down him, and a moment of respite had followed as the goblins waited for it to take effect before continuing. Kili felt his face snatched and jerked up again.

"Another chance, dwarf. Tell me what you and your cohorts are doing on my land."

Kili didn't answer right away and the Goblin struck him across the face. Kili gasped and his eyes flew open wide.

"No. I...I...can't. N-no," he finally stuttered.

The Goblin shrugged.

"Very well," he said, "I think we can find a use for that sturdy little sword you brought into my Halls so brazenly, now."

Kili followed with his eyes the steps of a little goblin, who waddled over to the heap of supply packs and weapons that had been taken from the dwarves. He drew out Kili's sword and handed it, with a sniveling bow, to the Goblin King hilt first. He fingered the edge of the blade, fixing Kili with a decidedly worrying look. Kili felt his breath hitch against his ribs.

"You're killing me already?" he asked, in spite of the raw fear inside managing a tone as if he thought the Great Goblin very stupid indeed.

The Goblin laughed.

"Hardly. I just thought that you might feel a little less the courageous and unshakeable warrior and a little more the terrified and abused prisoner if we sheer that mane of yours."

Kili's heart thrilled with terror. No! Not his hair! A dwarf's pride was his beard and hair. They were going to...he tried, too late, to hide his distress. The Goblin King raised his eyebrows horribly, and tangled a massive paw into Kili's dark hair, yanking his head back further still, so he could see full into his captive's face as he worked.

Kili's face twisted with hatred. He screamed. A long, long scream, one that made his whole body shake with the effort of it. It wasn't a scream of pain, or even of distress. It was a scream of pure fury. The King winced at the suddenness and volume of the outburst, and then laughed, lifting the blade. And Kili bit his lip to keep from bursting into sobs.

Fili sprang to the bars as a long scream reverberated through Goblin Town. There was no doubt this time. That was not the voice of a goblin.

"KILI!" Fili roared back, hoping his brother could hear him. He paused, listening for more. But it was once again quiet. Ominously so. Fili shook the bars.

"Kili! Ki!"

No sound save the echo of Fili's own voice. He felt a cold stone drop in his stomach. What if Kili...was dead? He envisioned a sword being thrust through the young archer, that one shriek being the last thing he would ever utter. Fili suddenly desperately wished Kili would cry out again, of only so Fili would know he still lived.

"What on EARTH is the matter?" A hushed familiar voice asked, trying to mask it's nervousness with an irritated, petulant tone. Fili jumped and jerked his head around to see Bilbo standing free on the other side of the bars, looking dirty and scraped up a bit but none the worse for wear.

Fili blinked.

"Bilbo?"

The hobbit looked apologetic and gave a sheepish little grin.

"Sorry, but I've been out of the loop for awhile. Fell down a hole, barely won a battle of wits with a scrawny little strangler, and had to run for my life to find my way back up here. While trying to find you all I overheard some things, and I think I have a plan to escape. But what's going on?"

"Kili's been taken away. He's being tortured," Fili said. Bilbo paled.

"Oh. Well, that complicates things."

"We can rescue him, Bilbo. If you get us out, we can save him," Fili said, quickly, the words tumbling out over each other. He didn't like the look Bilbo had.

"Well, yes, I can certainly get you out of this cell...it's just, the actual getting-out-of-the-mountain-itself part might take some reconsidering. I don't know how we could do it..."

By now the other dwarves had all gathered at the bars and were listening attentively.

"What's the plan?" Bofur asked, eagerly. "I mean, what WAS the plan?"

"Right. Hang on a minute and I'll tell you. Did the goblins take all your weapons and supplies?"

"Every last thing," Dori crooned, mournfully.

"Even Dori's pipe and tobacco. He's been cranky about it, too," Ori piped up.

"Okay." Bilbo began pacing back and forth in front of the cell, making gestures to himself in the air as he thought for a minute. The dwarves had all got used to Bilbo's endearing hobbit-y quirks. But this time he only used one hand to gesture. Two fingers of his right hand fiddled with something in his pocket.

"Well, that's sort of a good thing, I guess," Bilbo finally said under his breath, as if to himself, apparently just having come to a decision about something. "The goblins are going to take your weapons, and your packs-"

"And Dori's pipe?" Ori interrupted, childishly.

"Shut UP, Ori," Dwalin growled.

"-and Dori's pipe," Bilbo continued, with admirable patience, "down to a back entrance on the forested side of the mountains and trade with some Men. Goblin Town is hardly self-supporting; they have to import things sometimes. So they trade the finer possessions of their unlucky prisoners for supplies. Hang on, hang on a minute, I'm not finished!"

He had to raise his voice a tiny bit to be heard over the sudden chorus of angry remarks from the dwarves. Their own weapons, being traded to feed a bunch of goblins, indeed!

"Silence," Thorin said, sharply. Everyone abruptly stopped talking, and Thorin nodded to Bilbo, who nodded back gratefully and picked back up where he'd been interrupted.

"Right, so the traders might not be goblins, but they're all still a nasty piece of work. They've been told they'll be given some valuable and famous weapons in exchange for their goods, but I think both parties are in for a surprise when they take off the wrappings. I switched your weapons out for old rusty goblin pikes I found laying around, bones, all kinds of junk. I think it's safe to assume there'll be a terrific row down there at the gate when they find out." Bilbo grinned.

Balin nodded.

"So you'll let us out, give us our possessions back, and we'll all go down and escape out of the door while the confusion is up and the goblins are already occupied."

"Precisely," Bilbo said, looking happily pleased with himself and rocking a little on the balls of his feet. It was rather a good plan, after all.

"We may sill need to fight, though," Dwalin said, "How many would we have to reckon with once we were down there?"

"Um...I think the trading party is relatively small; they don't want to scare the traders off. Seven or eight bigger goblins, at the most. There are ten men, so we'll be slightly outnumbered, but if the plan goes according to plan they'll all be hacking at each other and we won't have much trouble breaking through. It'll be a surprise anyway, they won't be expecting a bunch of maniacal blade-wielding dwarves to come charging out of the mountain behind them. No offense."

"None taken," Bofur said, grinning.

Bilbo slid a mangled bit of metal that might have once been a key from his sleeve and held it up for the dwarves to see.

"Well done, burglar!" Oin cheered, remembering to keep his voice down but still managing to sound bursting with sincere enthusiasm.

"Well, organizing jailbreaks wasn't part of my job description, but I'll do the best I can."

Bilbo pushed the key into the lock.

"Now, let's get you all out of here."

Author's Note: So how was that, guys? I think I look forward to updating probably more than you look forward to reading it! XD Um, just as a quick heads-up, though...my "interested young man" is flying in from out of town Friday morning and I have to go pick him up. So would you rather I did my Friday post on Thursday night, or Saturday morning?