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The camp had been set up, Magauna found herself standing next Kili and Fili as they counted the ponies.

"...thirteen...fourteen..." Fili turned to Kili. "That's it."

Kili crossd his arms. "I could've sworn there was more than that..."

Magauna furrowed her eyebrows. "There was sixteen, wasn't there?"

Fili widened his eyes and nodded. "Yeah, you're right...well that's not good."

It was only a few moments later that Bilbo walked over to the three of them with a few bowls of soup. He noticed how they just stared at the ponies. "What's the matter?" He asked them.

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

"Only we've encountered a slight problem." Fili added.

"We had sixteen."

"Now there's fourteen."

The four of them walked around to see which two ponies had disappeared. When they met up again, Magauna reported. "Daisy and Bungle are missing."

Bilbo looked up at her. "What?" He looked back to the ponies. "Well that is not good. And that is not good." He noticed the uprooted trees nearby. "Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

"Uh...no. Let's not worry him." Fili said as they came to the few trees that were uprooted. "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 said.

"It's something very big, and possibly quite dangerous..." Bilbo said, glancing at Magauna. He still held the bowls of soup.

Fili looked over to the side, and saw a orange light through the trees. "Hey! There's a light!" He looked back at Magauna and Kili. "Over here!"
The four of them all ran up behind a fallen log, and crouched down to get a closer look at the light. It turned out to be a camp fire, and it was surrounded by large, ugly creatures.

"Trolls." Magauna hissed quietly. She and the two dwarves made a run to get closer to the camp fire. They hid behind a large tree, and Bilbo followed them a moment later, still carrying the stew. A large troll passed by in front of them, carrying two of the ponies, which were neighing wildly.

"He's got Mrytle and Minty!" Bilbo whispered. "I think they're going to eat them, we have to do something."

Kili looked up at him from where he crouched. "Yes, you should. Mountain trolls are slow and stupid."

"Me? Me- no,"

"They'll never see you!"

"No, no."

"It'll be perfectly safe!"

Fili nodded. "We'll be right behind you! If you run into trouble, hoot twice like a barn owl, once like a brown owl!"

"Twice like a barn owl, hoot twice like a brown...hoots like a...like a... Uh, are you sure this is a good idea?" Bilbo turned around, only see that Kili and Fili had ran off with their soup, leaving him and Magauna to deal with the trolls themselves.

Magauna glared back behind them. "Cowards." She muttered. She turned back to the trolls, who were now arguing about food in a quite amusing way. "Alright, Bilbo, listen." He turned to her. "You sneak behind them, and try to free the ponies. I'll stay here and keep an eye out." Bilbo started to say something, but Magauna cut him off. "I'll take care of it if they catch you, alright? Do you trust me?"

Bilbo looked at her sincere expression, and nodded. "I trust you."

"Good, now go on. I'll be here." She nudged Bilbo forward, and he slowly started to creep up on the trolls.

"Shut your cake hole!" One of the trolls said to another. "You'll eat what I'll give ya!"

The troll he had yelled at turned to the third one. "How come he's the cook? Everything tastes the same, everything tastes like chicken."

"Except the chicken." The third one said.

"What tastes like fish!"

The first troll spoke again. "I'm just saying, a little appreciation would be nice! 'Thank you very much, Bert. Lovely stew, Bert.' How hard is that?" As Magauna watched, she noticed Bilbo was inching up behind one of the trolls to steal a knife, and she tried grabbing his attention by waving her arms at him. It didn't work. "Hmm, just needs a bit of squirrel dung." As the troll 'Bert' reached for the apparent squirrel dung, his hand flew over Bilbo, who had ducked to the ground. The troll turned back around, and saw that one of the other trolls held his bowl. "Here, that's my grog!"

The other troll made whimpering noises, as though afraid, and sat it down. "Sorry." The Bert troll hit him it the face. "Oww!"

The Bert troll turned back to his stew, and tasted some. "Ooh, that is heavenly balanced." He turned to the second troll. "Wrap your loganbie around that, mate. Good ain't it? That's why I'm the cook."

Bilbo had gotten even closer to the troll who had the knife behind him, and Magauna had still failed to grab his attention.

"Me guts are grumbling." The second troll complained. "I've got to snaffle something! Flesh, I need flesh!"

He got up to grab some ponies, but the troll Bilbo was closest to reached behind himself to grab his giant handkerchief, but instead grabbed Bilbo, and blew his snot all over him. Magauna couldn't help but scrunch her face in disgust.

The troll noticed that Bilbo was in his hand instead of his handkerchief, and shouted in surprise, jerking away. "Blimey! Bert! Bert, look what's come out of me hooter!" The other two trolls gathered next to him to look at Bilbo, who started to try and get out of the troll's hand. "It's got arms and legs and everything!"

"What is it?" The Bert troll asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like the way it wriggles around!" The troll dropped Bilbo, and another pulled put his knife, threatening him. Magauna grabbed her bow from behind her back, ready to intervene when she needed to.

"What are you then?" The Bert troll asked. "An overgrown squirrel?"

Bilbo had stood up by now, and was trying to walk away. "I'm a burglar, uh...hobbit!" Magauna smirked at his mess up.

"A burglar-hobbit?" The third troll repeated.

"Can we cook him?" The second one asked.

"We can try!"

The third troll went to grab him, but Bilbo was able to get away until the Bert troll came up to him. "He won't make more than a mouthful, not when he's skinned and boned!" He pushed Bilbo back.

"Perhaps there's more burglar-hobbits 'round these parts." The second one suggested. "Might be enough for a pie!" The troll went to grab Bilbo, but was interrupted as an arrow flew through the air and hit him in the arm.

They all, even Bilbo, turned to the direction it had come from, seeing Magauna stood there with her bow pointed at them. "Don't touch him!" She hissed.

"Look, it's another one!" One of the trolls reached to grab her too, but she jumped out of the way. The three of them continued to try and get ahold of her and the hobbit, but it wasn't long before Bilbo was snatched up.

"Put him down!" Magauna reached for another arrow behind her back, but was never able to fire it as a troll grabbed her foot, and she was dragged upside down into the air, dropping her bow and spilling all of her arrows onto the ground.

"Gotcha!" The troll said, and looked at her closely. "You're a bit bigger than the other one."

Magauna struggled to look up at it. "Taller, not bigger." She told it.

"Are there any more of you little fellas hiding where you shouldn't?"

"No." Bilbo said quickly.

"He's lying!" The third troll exclaimed.

"I'm not!"

"Hold their toes over the fire!" The troll said, making the half-elf and hobbit turn to him in surprise. "Make 'em squeal!"

Suddenly, Kili appeared out of nowhere, and struck his sword against the troll's leg, making him scream. "Drop them!" Kili demanded.

"You what?" The second troll said.

"I said, drop them!"

The troll holding Bilbo threw him at Kili, and he landed on top of the dwarf. Magauna still hung upside down in the air. Suddenly, all of the dwarves jumped out of the bushes, and charged at the trolls. Remembering the dagger she kept in her belt, Magauna pulled it out, and stabbed the troll holding her. It screamed and dropped her. She jumped to her feet, and found her bow, and collected as many arrows as she could find, and began to attack the trolls as well. Suddenly, two of the trolls grabbed Bilbo again, and held him up in the air by his arms and legs.

Magauna looked up with the others. "Bilbo!" She tried to shoot an arrow at one of the trolls, but Thorin pushed her arm down, she glared at him.

"Lay down your arms!" Demanded the second troll. "Or we'll rip his off!"

The dwarves all looked around at each other, and Magauna saw the pleading look in Bilbo's eyes. Thorin reluctantly dropped his sword, and Magauna slowly threw away her bow. The other followed in step soon after, but Magauna didn't want to know what was going to happen to them.

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The trolls had stuffed everyone in sacks, so they had no use if their limbs, and half of them were tied to a scewer and put above the fire, slowly being turned as the trolls attempted to cook them. The other half of them, including Magauna and Bilbo, were tossed to the side in a pile.

"Don't bother cooking 'em!" Said the third troll impatiently. "Let's just sit on 'em and squash 'em to jelly!"

The Bert troll, who was obviously obsessed with making his food perfect, disagreed. "They should be sauteed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage."

"Oh, that does sound quite nice." Said the troll, and Magauna couldn't help but agree. If she was going to be eaten by trolls, it might as well be the right way.

"Never mind the seasoning!" The second 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!"

Suddenly, Bilbo blurted something out. "Wait, you're making a terrible mistake!" The trolls all turned to him.

"You can't reason with, they're half-wits!" Dori warned the hobbit.

Bofur looked over at him. "Half-wits? What does that make us?!"

Magauna smirked and looked at him. "Eighteenth-wits."

"I meant with the...uh, with the..." Bilbo stuttered. "With the seasoning!"

The Bert troll narrowed his eyes at the hobbit. "What about the seasoning?"

"Well, uh, have you smelt them?" He asked. "You're gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!" The dwarves seemed to get angry at his observation.

"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" The second troll said.

"Shut up, and let the...uh...flugerburbur-hobbit talk!" The Bert troll hissed, silencing his companion.

"Uh, the...the secret to cooking dwarf is um... " Bilbo glanced at Magauna, who gave him a look.

"Yes? Come on."

"It's uh..."

"Tell us the secret!" The Bert troll demanded.

"Ye-yes, I'm telling you." Bilbo assured him. "The secret is...to...skin them first!"

All if the dwarves yelled in anger, and Magauna glared at the hobbit. The troll turned to the other two. "Tom, get me a filleting knife." The dwarves yelled again.

"What a load of rubbish!" The second troll exclaimed. "I've eaten plenty with their skins on! Scoff 'em, I say, boots and all!"

The third troll, apparently named Tom, nodded in agreement. "He's right! Nothing wrong with a bit 'o raw dwarf!" He picked Gloin out of the pile of discarded and sacked dwarves, and held him upside down him front of himself. "Nice and crunchy."

Gloin shouted as he was lowered toward the troll's mouth, and then Bilbo yelled out. "Not- not that one! He's, he's infected!" The troll paused.

The second troll looked at Bilbo suspiciously. "You what?"

"Yeah, he's got worm in his...tubes." Bilbo flinched at his own words, while Magauna sighed and rolled her eyes. The Tom troll screamed in disgust and threw Gloin down. "In-in fact, they all have. They're infested with parasites, it's a terrible business, I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't." He shook his head as he spoke.

Upon his words, the dwarves in the pile became angry and argued against him.

"Parasites? Did he say parasites?" Oin asked.

"Yeah, we don't have parasites!" Kili yelled. "You have parasites!"

Magauna let out a huff of annoyance, and kicked Kili in the back, and he shut his mouth, glancing over at her and then Oin.

"I've got parasites as big as my arm!" Oin exaggerated.

Kili joined in. "Mine are the biggest parasites, I have huge parasites!" Nori, Ori, and Dori, who were all tied on the skewer, played along, claiming they were riddled with parasites. Meanwhile, Magauna noticed the sun was rising, and she only hoped Blibo could stall the trolls long enough for them to turn to stone.

The only unnamed troll turned to look down at Bilbo. "What would you have us do the? Let them all go?"

Bilbo tilted his head, as if considering it. "Well..."

"You think I don't know what you're up to." The troll turned back to the other two. "This little ferret is taking up for fools!"

"Ferret?" Bilbo repeated, while the Bert troll repeated "Fools?"

Suddenly, Gandalf appeared on top of a large boulder behind the trolls, holding his staff high in the air. "The dawn will take you all!"

The trolls all turned to him.
"Who's that?" Asked the unnamed troll.

"No idea." The Bert troll answered.

"Can we eat him too?" Said the Tom troll.

Gandalf brought his staff down onto the boulder, and it cracked in half, revealing the bright sun. The trolls all screamed, and shriveled, turning into stone right before their eyes. The dwarves all cheered and laughed in joy, and Magauna let out a sigh of relief.

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