Home ↠ The Hobbit

V. Trolls

They heard footsteps approaching but not once did their eyes leave the ponies, unblinking and unmoving.

"What's the matter?" Bilbo asked as he glanced between the three from where he was wedged between the brothers, Fili on one side while Kili and Athena stood on the other.

"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies," Kili stated.

"Only we've encountered a slight problem," Fili added as he spared a glance towards the Hobbit that was still attempting to offer them food, two bowls in one hand while he tried to carefully balance the three portions he had been given.

"We had sixteen," Athena decided to enlighten him on their original number.

"Now there's...fourteen."

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The four of them trudged through the makeshift stables searching once more for the two that they could not find in a last chance attempt to see if they had concealed themselves behind an object or another pony. During the search Athena noticed the state that some of the trees were in, it was as if they had been trampled by something, one of the trees had been entirely uprooted. The older brother made his way towards her upon seeing her fixated on the trees, stopping in his tracks beside her as his eyes settled on what she could see.

"Please tell me my eyes are deceiving me," he voiced, but the look that his friend gave him told him everything that he needed to know, he was not seeing things and something large had taken the ponies.

"Daisy and Bungle are missing," Kili called out as he made his way to where Fili and Athena were standing.

"What? Well that's not good," the Hobbit commented as he followed after Kili, still attempting to balance the stew each step that he took, "and that's not good at all," he added once noticing the fallen tree as well, "shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

At his question, Athena and Fili shared a panicked look before he quickly responded with the first thought that came to his mind. "Uh...no. Let's not worry him. As our official burglar, we thought you might like to look into it."

"Well, uh...it looks as if something big uprooted these trees."

"That was our thinking," Kili informed as Athena watched Bilbo make his way around the trees, baffled that he hadn't thought to put down the food yet.

"It's something very big, and possibly quite dangerous," finished Bilbo, his steps halting as well.

"Oh it's most certainly dangerous. Why else would a large creature take ponies but to eat them? It's not like it can ride them," Athena mentioned while she made her way to Bilbo and patted his shoulder. It was supposed to be a comforting gesture but the way that he flinched from the sudden contact after her ominous statement showed her otherwise.

"Hey, there's a light," Fili pointed out, everyone's head turning in the direction that he had begun to walk, "over here," he nodded his head towards the light and they all followed him in the direction, crouching down to take as much cover in the darkness of the night as they could. "Stay down."

The four of them were crouched, or knelt in Athena's case, on the floor overlooking a fallen log. She glanced at the bowls Bilbo had brought with him before sending him an exasperated look at how polite he was. Her eyes stopped at the light in the distance, surely one belonging to that of a fire. When a booming laughter filled the forest she briefly closed her eyes while letting out a drawn out sigh at the realisation of what they were up against.

"What is it?" Bilbo asked after seeing her reaction, turning to Kili who answered.

"Trolls."

The trio took off running in the direction that the laughter came from, the light guiding their way much easier than the sound would have done. She noticed that Bilbo was not following them and looked behind her only to see him rushing to pick up the bowls once more.