The Past That Blinds (1 of 3)

One by one our hands get tied and most of the group are stripped to their underclothes and tied to a spit which is then placed over the fire held up by two larger logs. The rest of us - Fili, Kili, Bombur, Oin, Balin, Bilbo and Thorin, get placed in sacks and get dumped on top of each other, Fili ends up rolling off the pile of dwarves and is now face down in the dirt and I get dumped down on top of Thorin, who grunts. I'm now on his lap. All of us are fidgeting trying to get out of the sacks.
“Oh, get your knee out of my back, would you” I grumble, wriggling to get Thorin's knee away from my spine
“So much for the legendary courtesy of the elves”
If he makes one more elf remark… “Those elves didn’t have a knee lodged against their spine, or get put in a sack and dropped on top of an arrogant dwarf” I almost yell trying to wriggle off of him.
“I’m not happy about the situation either, but do you mind not wriggling.” He says sounding a little in pain. More logs get put on the fire and the dwarves tied above it start shouting about the heat.
“Don't bother cooking 'em! Best to sit on 'em, and... Squash 'em into jelly!” One troll says
“They should be salted and grilled with a sprinkle of sage.” Another replies
“That does sound quite nice.”
“If you want to grill anyone grill this one” I say elbowing Thorin in the gut slightly “he enjoys grilling people when they’re only trying to help, why not show him how it feels” disbelieving looks and sounds are heard and seen from some of the other dwarves and he gives me a ‘that’s not funny’ look as I slowly look at the fire.
“Oh… Will you two stop arguing” Gloin says
“We wouldn’t even be in this situation if not for you” Thorin continues as if the previous comments weren’t heard.
“Oh, you can not blame this on me-” I snap my head back to face him
“Wait!” Bilbo shouts stopping our argument, I look to the hobbit as he stands up.
“You are making a terrible mistake.” He’s talking to the trolls
“Bilbo… What are you doing?” I ask
“You can't reason with them, they're half- wits!” Dori states as he’s being turned around the spit
“Half- wits? What does that make us?” Bofur asks
“I meant with the, uh, with the- with the seasoning.” Bilbo says
“What... about the seasoning?” A troll asks coming closer to the hobbit
“Well, have you smelt them? You're gonna need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up!”
We all exclaim in protest at the hobbit and he hops away from us in his sack.
“What do you know about cooking dwarf?” the troll turning the spit asks
“Shut up, and let the, uh, flurgerburburhobbit talk.”
“Uh, the- the secret to cooking dwarf, is umm” Bilbo starts
“Yes? Come on,” The troll keeps pressuring him to answer
“It's, uh,”
“tell us the secret?!”
“Ye- yes, the damn thing is- the secret is... tooooo... skin them first!”
“What?!” I yell and other dwarves grunt and shout at the hobbit and wriggle around in their sacks,
“Tom, get me filleting knife.” The troll Bilbo is talking to says motioning with his hand for his knife
“I'll get you, you little-” Gloin says
“I won't forget that, I won't forget t-” Balin says pointing his finger at the hobbit as he goes round on the spit.
With Thorin’s wriggling and my own I manage to get off of his lap and end up on my side facing away from everyone, I wriggle onto my back and sit up.
“What a load of rubbish” That’s when I see Gandalf sneaking through the bushes behind the trolls who are arguing how to eat us. Then I realize, he’s only stalling them, not betraying us “I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scoff 'em I say, boots and all!”
“He's right!” one troll stomps over to us in a pile “Nothing wrong with a bit o' raw dwarf.” He picks up Bombur and holds him in the air about to eat him “Nice and crunchy.
“Uh no, not- not that one, he - he's infected!” Bilbo blurts
“You what?” The grumpy troll asks
“Yeah he's got worms in his... tubes.”
“Ewww” The troll drops Bombur onto Oin, Gloin and Kili
“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.”
“Parasite, did he say parasite?” Oin asks Kili who nods in response
“But we don't have parasites! You have parasites.” Kili shouts
“He’s stalling them” I whisper to Thorin before standing up and hopping over to the hobbit
I hear a slight thud and the company’s attitude to having parasites changes.
“I've got parasites as big as my arm!” Oin says
“Mine are the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!” Kili says in an almost childish way
“We're riddled!” another dwarf says “Yes, I'm riddled!” and another “Yes we are, badly!” and another
“It’s true, it’s contagious, it started with just one, then it spread. It killed the last troll who ate the last five members of our company.”I look down in mock sadness “Poor Oln, Roli, Gert, Gret and Noli” I say softly, making up names
“What would you have us do then? Let 'em all go?” Grumpy troll walks over to us
“Well...”
“You think I don't know what you're up to. This little ferret... and the squirrel… is taking us for fools!” He pokes us both in turn before walking back to the spit and continues to turn it
“Ferret?” Bilbo asks
“Squirrel?!” I protest and hear a few chuckles coming from behind. I look behind slowly with narrowed eyes and Kili stops looking at his uncle and sees me glaring at him and puts on a straight face.
“Fools?”
“The dawn will take you all!” Gandalf says, I look to where the voice came from and I see the wizard come out from the bushes and stand on a flat surface of rock where the sunrise can just be seen behind him
“Who's that?” one troll asks
“No idea.” Replies another
“Can we eat him too?” the third asks causing me to chuckle slightly at their stupidity.
Gandalf raises his staff then brings it down on the rock, splitting it, revealing the sunrise which starts to turn the trolls into stone with a sizzling and hardening sound.
We all laugh of joy and I jump up and down on the spot a couple of times before almost falling over.
“Well done Bilbo” I say and kiss him on the cheek “You’re a genius”
“Ooh, get your foot out of my back!” I hear Dwalin say. I look at him and chuckle.