07.
Flurgaburburahobbit

While everyone hid in the trees waiting for the right moment to charge the trolls, Aninth climbed up one of the trees that overlooked their camp and scoped out the area. There were just the three Trolls, the four horses penned up, the large campfire and the pot of stew over it.

She looked at Ryvniss and then out at the fire, an idea forming in her mind. She quickly whispered it to him and then looked once more down at everyone. Kili had just told the Trolls to let Bilbo go to which they had responded by throwing Bilbo at him.

While Kili and Bilbo fell to the ground in a heap, everyone else charged out of the bush at the Trolls, shouting and wielding their weapons. A fight immediately began that was hard enough to follow from the outside, let alone from inside.

Aninth launched herself out of the tree, sword in one hand. She dragged her sword down one of the Trolls' backs as she fell to the ground before landing in a crouch and standing back up. The fire crackled on her right and she turned to find another Troll to start fighting.

The fight was pure chaos, Dwarves fighting whatever Troll came close enough to them while jumping and dodging attacks that came at them. When a Troll stepped too close to the fire, Ryvniss blew it at their feet from his position inside the fire.

As the battle continued, it was hard to keep track of who was where or what they were doing. At one point, as she was turning around, she collided with something, or rather someone. Ygritte.

Now standing at Ygritte's side, the two blondes exchanged a glance before dashing forward. They dodged and swung, and eventually, when she was backhanded by a Troll, she rolled deftly to her feet as she noticed everyone else gathering in the same area. They had all been herded over to the one spot so that they could be shown something.

"No," Ygritte said, sounding breathless.  

"Bilbo!" Kili cried, rushing forward.

"Don't!" Thorin instructed, holding an arm out to stop Kili.

Two of the Trolls were holding Bilbo up with his arms and legs stretched out. Bilbo looked terrified, and Aninth was scared for him. She itched to rush forward and get them to drop him, but if she wasn't quick enough... she didn't even want to think of what would happen to Bilbo.

"Lay down your arms, or we'll rip his off," one of the Trolls commanded.

Thorin scowled at the Trolls, but Aninth saw him lock eyes with Bilbo and see how scared the Hobbit really was. He sighed as he stabbed his sword into the dirt. Everyone else slowly dropped their own weapons till they were all defenceless.

With the Trolls' backs turned, Aninth saw Ryvniss skitter off into the bushes where he wouldn't be seen. He knew her plan, and it would work as long as he wasn't seen.

❖

Half of their group was stripped down of all but their innermost layer of clothes before being strung up on a spit above the fire. The rest were tied up in sacks and thrown to the side while they waited to have their turn to be cooked.

"Oh! That's hot, that's hot, that's hot!" one of the Dwarves on the spit protested as more logs were added to the fire.

"Don't bother cooking them," one of the Trolls said, "let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly."

"They should be sauteed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage," another argued as he turned the spit, 

"Hmm, that does sound quite nice," the first one agreed.

"Untie me, Mister!"

"Eat someone your own size!"

Aninth rolled her eyes at the Dwarves' attempts at arguing with the Trolls, who weren't even listening to them at all. Only a few people had been silent while they lay there and that was Bilbo, Balin, Thorin, Ygritte and Aninth herself.

Ygritte was laying across Aninth's legs and Thorin was right next to Aninth, and he hadn't made barely a sound since being tossed down. She certainly hadn't been happy when she was tossed down next to him, especially considering he was at the edge of the rock behind them and Oin was on her other side. 

There was no way Ryvniss would be able to get to her without anyone noticing now.

"Nevermind the seasoning," the third Troll said, "we ain't got all night. Dawn ain't far away. Let's get a move on. I don't fancy being turned to stone."

That was it, of course. If they could find a way to stall the Trolls long enough that the sun was given time to rise above the treeline, they would all be free. They just had to all make it to that point.

Bilbo seemed to have the same thoughts. "Wait! You are making a terrible mistake," he shouted, gaining their full attention.

"You can't reason with them, they're half­wits!"

"Half­wits? What does that make us?" Bofur said from where his body was spinning on the spit as the Troll gave them another turn.

Bilbo, although still tied up in his sack, managed to stand up on his feet. He jumped twice to get a little closer and he began speaking. "Uh, I meant with the, uh, with, uh, with the seasoning."

"What about the seasoning?"

"Well have you smelt them? You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up." Aninth narrowed her eyes at the Hobbit. She knew that Bilbo was stalling, but she found herself a little offended at possibly being lumped in with that statement. And she was sure that Ygritte felt the same way. Unlike the dwarves, they still found the time to bathe when they could.

The dwarves, offended, begin yelling at Bilbo, calling him a traitor. Some even kick him, trying to make him fall back onto the ground, though they fail as he remains upright.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" One of the trolls asked, eyeing Bilbo in suspicion.

"Shut up, and let the, uh, Flurgaburburahobbit talk."

What in the world was a Flurgaburburahobbit?

"Uh, the­ the secret to cooking dwarf is, um­..."

"Yes? Come on."

"It's, uh­..."

"Tell us the secret," the trolls insisted, growing impatient by Bilbo's stalling.

"Ye­--yes, I'm telling you," Bilbo said. "The secret is..." Aninth held her breath as she waited for him to continue and when he did finally reveal the "secret" to cooking dwarves, she sighed. "...to skin them first!"

Aninth closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to resist the urge to jump up and strangle Bilbo. Sure, he was just trying to stall the trolls, but saying that skinning them all was probably not the best decision. After all, they did have to survive until the sun rose and being skinned was a really bad way of surviving.

"Tom, get me the filleting knife," ordered one of the Trolls. He held his hand out with an amused smirk as the Dwarves began shouting at Bilbo.

"If I get you, you little­ -- "

"I won't forget that!"

"What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scuff them, I say, boots and all."

When she felt Thorin's foot kick against her back, Aninth looked back just in time to see Ryvniss crawling down Thorin's sack and disappearing behind her back. She smiled and she felt his paws on her shoulder.

"'e's right! Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf! Nice and crunchy." Bombur was suddenly lifted up and dangled upside down over the wide open mouth of a Troll.

"No!" Ygritte shouted.

"S-She's right," Bilbo said, "not­ not that one, he­...he's infected!"

"You what?"

"Yeah, He's got worms in his...tubes."

The Troll let out a cry of disgust and dropped Bombur back onto the pile the Company was made into. He landed on her foot, making her flinch.

"In­ fact they all have," Bilbo said rather quickly, no longer stumbling for what to say next. "They're infested with parasites. It's a terrible business; I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."

And, of course, the dwarves were clueless as to what Bilbo is trying to do, and begin shouting at him.

"Parasites, did he say parasites?"

"We don't have parasites! You have parasites!"

"What are you talking about, laddie?"

Aninth suppressed a groan as the shouts got louder. Soon, Thorin gave his nephew a kick and the shouting stopped for a moment, only to start up again as it finally clicked in their minds. All the dwarves begin proclaiming about how they were "riddled" with parasites.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm."

"Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!"

"We're riddled."

"Yes, I'm riddled."

"Yes, we are. Badly!"

The Troll, whom one could assume is the leader of the trio, turned his attention away from the Dwarves and to Bilbo. "What would you have us do, then, let 'em all go?"

"Well..."

"You think I don't know what you're up to? This little ferret is taking us for fools!" One of the Trolls gave Bilbo a shove.

"Ferret?"

"Fools?"

"The dawn will take you all!" Aninth turned to look towards the sound of the voice. Gandalf stood high amongst them on the rock formation, his staff in hand.

"Who's that?"

"No idea."

"Can we eat 'im too?"

Gandalf stabbed the rock with his staff, which split it in half and allowed the sunlight to pour into the clearing. As soon as the sunlight touched the Trolls' skin, they began turning into stone amidst loud screams and howls of pain. Within seconds, there were three stone statues of Trolls in the clearing.

The Dwarves erupted into cheer.

Gandalf made his way down, and right over to Ygritte. He helped her up and out of the sack she was in. It fell to her feet and she stepped out, kicking it away with her boot.

"You said you'd be right back. I didn't realize you would be gone all night," Ygritte said.

"A simple thank you will do, my daughter," Gandalf spoke teasingly.

Ygritte rolled her eyes, yet smiled brightly at her father. "Thank you."

He stepped forward, placing a kiss on her forehead. "You are welcome."

Ygritte turned away from her father and held out a hand toward Aninth. She clasped her fingers around her wrist, allowing Ygritte to pull the blonde onto her feet. The sack fell from her shoulders, revealing Ryvniss hanging from her shirt.

"Thanks," Aninth muttered, before joining Ygritte to help free the dwarves. 

The first thing she did was help up Thorin. He looked reluctant, but in the end, did take her hand as she pulled him to his feet. His eyes went to Ryvniss as he was crawling up to her shoulder so he could curl around her neck and presumably go to sleep.

"Your companion chewed through the top of the sack," he told her, holding it aloft after he stepped out of it. There were chew marks going through the rope that held the top of the sack together.

"Yeah, he did the same to mine," Aninth told him, "he was trying to help us. Get us free. If Gandalf hadn't shown up, he would have continued on to the others. That was our plan."

"I don't want him to ever touch me again," Thorin snarled.

Aninth laughed, "fine, next time we'll just leave you tied up and hoping a Wizard will happen by to save you."

He walked away then and she stared after him with her jaw clenched for a moment. Then she sighed, shook her head and turned back to try and find her sword.

When would Thorin learn?