Chapter Text
As rescue plans went, it wasn’t your best, but it would work.
It would very probably work.
If only the dwarves hadn’t… well, hadn’t been dwarves during the first plan, you wouldn’t need to enact this one. Once the three of you had spotted the trolls, you had agreed on a course of action. Fili was to go back to camp and alert the rest of the Company; they would pack up and move down the road and set up camp at a remove from the immediate danger. Kili was to free the horses and herd them to the new campsite. You, in the meantime, would distract the trolls, drawing them away from Fee, Kee, and the rest of the group, eventually leading them back to their cave where they would find themselves without food and in need of shelter from the coming dawn.
Only you hadn’t quite taken into account the full dwarven temperament. The announcement of a threesome of trolls taking their horses from them had sent the Company into a prideful outrage rather than a sensible retreat. And Kili lost control of the horses when the Company ran headlong at them in full charge toward the trolls’ campfire.
You had seen them running headlong into the situation and had swooped down from your perch in a tree, scooped Bill (who was running reluctantly but companionably along with them) up out of the group, and beat a retreat to a safe vantage point. A vantage point where you could now clearly see most of your companions stuffed into bags and the rest trussed up on a rotisserie.
Now it was up to you and Bill to set them free. The dwarves and the horses, which had been easily recaptured.
“And you’re certain this will work?” Bill’s worry made his voice thin and reedy.
“Yes,” you said firmly. Probably.
Bill fixed you with a look that, just for a moment, made you wonder if Hobbits could read minds. Then, trusting your judgment, he nodded briskly. “Right, then.” He rolled his shoulders, took a deep breath, and shook the hair out of his face. “Let’s do it.”
You grinned at him. For such a diminutive fellow, Bill had a whopping amount of courage and an unwavering moral compass.
“Do what?” boomed a familiar voice from behind you.
Bilbo jumped and let out a small yelp. Your grin grew wider. There was only one person you knew who could successfully sneak up on you. You turned to face your old friend. “Feeling better?”
Gandalf snorted and shook his head. “The stubbornness of dwarves…”
You raised an eyebrow and tossed your head in the direction of the hapless group. “Tell me about it.”
The wizard rolled his eyes and sighed.
“You can do something about this, can’t you?” Bill asked. “I mean, Alia’s plan is… it will work, but surely you can do something that doesn’t involve… well, decoy work?” The hobbit blinked anxiously. “Something a little less risky, perhaps?”
You almost laughed at the twinkle in Gandalf’s eye. “It’s a little late to revert to risk aversion now, Bilbo Baggins. Hobbits do excellent decoy work.”
Bill began to sputter and you laid a calming hand on his shoulder. “He’s giving you a hard time, Bill.”
Bill looked to you, to Gandalf, and back again. Then he pursed his lips and said, “Well, I don’t see where the manners of wizards are so superior to those of dwarves.”
You couldn’t hold in your chuckle.
“Manners, my dear gentlehobbit, have an entirely different place in the wild,” Gandalf replied grandly, his good humor back in full, as he swept away and disappeared from your sight sooner than should have been possible.
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Bofur’s face was still red, only it wasn’t from the heat of the fire over which he’d rotated until he grew dizzy. No, this heat spread across his cheeks was entirely different. He’d had a chance to impress you with his fighting prowess, an opportunity to dazzle you with his courage and spirit, and what had happened?
You’d seen him plucked like a chicken and tied to a spit in nothing but his longjohns. Durin’s hairy balls.
At least you were no more or less kind to him than to anyone else after Gandalf had turned the trolls to stone. If you thought less of him after such a misadventure, you were too kind to let on. You’d brought him water and asked after his welfare, but he was so embarrassed in that moment that he couldn’t meet your beautiful eyes.
Now, however, being fully dressed and on his own two feet again, he was starting to feel a little better. After all, everyone makes a mistake from time to time, don’t they? And he did charge in as bold and courageous as Thorin or Dwalin or any of the rest of them, so you knew he was brave and willing to fight when it was called for. And it wasn’t as though he were the only one who had been disadvantaged by the giant beasts. Everyone had been tied up over the fire or, worse, stuffed in a sack like a big hairy potato to be saved for later.
Why, it could even be said that the trolls had put him over the fire first because they thought he was one of the biggest threats to them! The mighty Dwalin had been tied up right next to him, for cryin’ out loud! (Bofur promptly hushed the part of his mind that whisperingly pointed out that Ori, too, had been on the roasting fire while Thorin had been in a sack, utterly undermining his theory.) He had very little, if anything, to be ashamed of, really.
And now that they were looking for the trolls’ cave, Bofur had a plan. Trolls were notorious hoarders and were as fond of sparkly, glittery things as anyone. He would scour their hideout until he found something beautiful, something grand, something fine enough to accentuate your beauty. Then he would hold on to it and keep it safe until the time was right to give it to you, until he could find a moment with just the two of you, a moment (admittedly in the not very near future) when you were starting to see him as more than just another member of the Company, more than just another of your travelling companions.
A moment when he could confess how he really felt about you and there was a chance it would make you happy rather than uncomfortable.
In the meantime, though, the search for baubles was on!
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Thorin was irritated. Ori had spirit sure enough, but if he didn’t learn to evade capture better, this journey may be over before it truly got underway. It wasn’t the young lad’s fault, of course; Ori’s heart was willing and Thorin had never met a more courageous young dwarrow. He’d also never met a more hopeless fighter. He would have to speak to Dwalin sooner rather than later about transitioning Ori’s skills away from the blasted slingshot and toward a sword, or axe, or even a bloody bludgeon.
Had Ori not been captured by the trolls, Thorin was certain they could have defeated the smelly beasts. As it turned out, however – well, better not to dwell on it unless he was making plans on how to avoid a future recurrence.
Alia’s skills had impressed him yet again. Granted, it would have served him far better had she been pledged to the quest and intent on saving them from their ignominious captivity. But Thorin had to respect her dedication to her commitment. One moment Bilbo had been running near him, and the next, his burglar was nowhere to be found, along with his bodyguard. It was an impressive display of stealth.
He looked over to where you were walking between Gandalf and Bilbo, chatting amiably. He wondered if it would be possible to sway you to join the quest for the quest’s sake rather than for the burglar’s.
Thorin wondered if you could be swayed to join the quest for his sake. He wondered if he could find a way to chat amiably with you, joke with you, see your smile directed at him, hear your laugh in response to something he had said or done to bring you joy.
His eyes widened briefly in surprise as he realized the direction his thoughts had travelled before the usual scowl resettled itself on his face. A distraction. You were becoming a distraction to him. He needed to get himself under control. He couldn’t afford a distraction, not now, not during the most important, most treacherous undertaking of his life.
Thorin turned a bend in the trail and there it was, staring him in the face.
“Ye found it.” Dwalin’s voice came from over his shoulder.
Thorin turned and grinned at his friend. “It must be. Nothing else would smell like this. Let’s see what they had.”
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