The Companion (Hobbit fanfiction.)

11: More unstable than a king.

"Be twice as powerful
and dangerous as they thought you'd be."

Illdera.

"Where is your hobbit?" Gandalf asked.

Like all the dwarfs I looked around me, wondering where the hobbit might have gone off to. But the back off my head was preocupied. I sat down on a nearby rock as the dwarfs talked.

"Curse the halfling! Now he's lost!" Dwalin said

"I thought he was with Dori." One dwarf accused

"Don't blame me!" Dori said.

"Well, when did you last see him?" Gandalf asked him.

"I think I saw him slip away when they first caught us." Nori told him.

"What happened exactly? Tell me!" Gandalf asked the dwarfs.

One voice brought all my thoughts back to the present.

"I'll tell you what happened." Thorin said.
"Master Baggins saw his chance and he took it. He's thought of nothing but his soft bed and his warm hearth since he first stepped out of his door. We will not be seeing our hobbit again. He is long gone."

I was just as quiet as the dwarfs. So he really is gone. I thought.

"No. He isn't." A voice said behind us.

We all turned. Standing there, was Bilbo.

"Bilbo Baggins! I've never been so glad to see anyone in my life." Gandalf said, clearly relieved.

"Bilbo, we've given you up." Kili said.

"How on earth did you get passed the goblins?" Fili asked.

"How indeed?" Dwalin said.

I saw Bilbo slip something that looked like a ring into his pocket. I looked at Gandalf, alarmed. His eyes met mine and they told me that he had seen it too. They also told me to wait a little.

"What does it matter? He's back." Gandalf said to the dwarfs.

"It matters!" Thorin said. I could see that he was still angry.
"I want to know, why did you come back?" He asked the hobbit.

Bilbo hestaited, but when he spoke, his words were confident.

"I know you doubt me, I know you always have." He told Thorin.
"And you're right, I often think of Bag End." He shrugged. "I miss my books, and my armchair, my garden. See, that's where I belong, that's home. And that's why I came back, cause you don't have it, a home. It was taken from you. But I'll help you take it back if I can."

Thorin lowered his head, ashamed. I smiled. Maybe there was hope after all for the little halfling.

I went to Gandalf. He put his arm around my shoulders, even though I was almost as tall as him, and he smiled.

Suddenly my wolf senses kicked in. I heard a hauntingly familiar voice.

"Run them down!" It spoke in black speech.
"Tear them to pieces!"

"Gandalf." I said, just as the howl of wargs was heard.

"Out of the frying pan." Thorin began.

"And into the fire." Gandalf finished.
"Run. Run!" He shouted at us.

We ran until we came to the edge of a clif. There were lots of trees around us, but there was nowhere to go.

I looked at the trees and suddenly an idea came to me. I jumped at one of the branches and started climbing up the tree.