Arien, Lady of Rivendell

Dwarf stew

Before Arien had time to come up with a plan she felt herself being swept up into the air, a hand grasping her tightly.
"This isn't a dwarf?" William commented gruffly tipping her from side to side as he inspected her.
"What is it then?" Tom asked peering in to look at her as Bert bagged another two dwarves. Arien gritted her teeth as they tugged on her long hair.
"Looks like an elf to me." William snarled.
"I hate elvish filth, taste of nothing and always to lean for my liking, not enough fat on them!" Bert grunted and suddenly she was stuffed into a sack and thrown to the ground atop the other dwarves, Kili's knee jarring into her stomach.
With a groan Arien rolled over so her back was against him and her legs were crushed under Fili who landed a second later. There she had a decent view of the remaining dwarves kicking and shouting as they were strapped onto some sort of skewer and placed above the roaring fire. This was not good.

"Don't bother cooking them, let's just sit on them and squash them into jelly." Tom suggested, getting impatient as his stomach began to rumble. Bert was having none of it.
"Patience, they should be sautéd and grilled with a sprinkle of sage." He responded turning the skewer around steadily so all the dwarves would cook evenly.
"Oh that does sound quite nice." Tom commented.
William groaned.
"Never mind the seasoning, 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."
Arien frowned and began to fumble around in the sack. If only she could reach the small knife in her boot.
"Wait wait! You're making a terrible mistake!" Bilbo cried out attempting to scramble to his feet in the awkward sack.
"You can't reason with them, they're half-wits." Dori informed him with a sigh, at this Bofur protested.
"Half-wits, what does that make us?"
Finally on his feet Bilbo hopped closer to the trolls.
"I meant uhh, with the seasoning."
"What about the seasoning?" The troll chef asked, the hobbit catching his attention. Bilbo fumbled for a moment seeming to try and think of the words.
"Well have you smelt them? You're going to need something a lot stronger than sage before you plate this lot up."
There were a couple of cries around her but Arien was deadly focused on getting the knife. Her fingers brushed against the handle but she could not quite grasp it.
"What do you know about cooking dwarf?" William grunted then being cut off by Bert.
"Ah ah, let the flur-glur-bur-bur- hobbit talk."
Bilbo's mouth twisted in thought.
"Uh the secret to cooking dwarf is..."
"Yes go on tell us the secret!"
"Yes I'm telling you the secret, the secret is......" Bilbo paused. ".... To skin them first!"
Arien let out a groan, he was not making it any better.

"Tom get my filleting knife." The cook said.
"What a load of rubbish! I've eaten plenty with their skins on. Scoff em I say, boots an all." William spat.
"He's right!" Tom intercepted. "Nothing wrong with a bit of raw dwarf."
With one quick swoop he had Bomber by his feet and was dangling him over the trolls mouth. The dwarf let out a gurgle in protest.
"Nice and crunchy."
She had it. Her fingers closed around the hilt and she pulled the short knife out of her boot. Now for the hard part.
"No not that one, he's infected!" Bilbo stuttered and the troll paused.
"You what?
"He's got worms.... In... In his tubes."
"Ewwrr." Tom squealed, dropping bomber back onto the pile. In the action Arien cursed as she felt the knife dig into her skin and draw blood. Fumbling she got in position again and began sawing at the side of the bag.
"In fact they all have, they're infected with parasites. It's a nasty business, I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't."
"Parasites, did he say parasites?!?" Balin cried.
"We don't have parasites!" Kili added and Bilbo let out a sigh. Thorin quickly caught onto the plan. It was a distraction to buy them time. With a swift kick he shut them up.
"...I've got parasites as big as my arm." Oin agreed.
"I've got the biggest parasites, I've got huge parasites!" Kili shouted and Arien let out a small laugh as she felt the knife pierce the fabric making a small hole.
"And what would you have us do?" Let them all go?" William grunted taking heavy steps towards the hobbit.
"Well..."
"You think I don't know what you're up to, these little ferrets, they're taking us for fools!"
"Ferrets?" Bilbo retorted stunned.
"Fools?" Bert snarled angrily.
Just as Arien ripped a large hole in the fabric a voice boomed out over the encampment.
"The dawn will take you all!"

Gandalf
He'd come back.

"Who's that?" One troll said.
"No idea." Another commented.
"Can we eat him too?"
As the words left the third trolls lips the Wizards staff came crashing down on the stone, with a crack it split in two.
Light burst through and the trolls let out screams of agony as their skin seared. Their flesh turning grey with stone. After a few moments the clearing was still and silent as the trolls remained motionless, their once warm bodies now cold and hard.
The company let out a collective sigh.

Gandalf quickly jumped down from the rock and began to untie the dwarves. With a grunt, Arien tore up the rest of the fabric and wormed her way out of it. Kili looked at her with a shocked expression and she held up the knife, shrugging her shoulders.

After untying a few more dwarves she walked over to Thorin and silently started to untie him.
"You couldn't have done that earlier?" He queried, a slight glimmer in his eye. Arien chuckled.
"Na, I had to wait until Bilbo had finished making his speech. I only thought it polite." She replied and she spotted Thorin smile. It faded again when his eyes rested on the blood dripping from her hand.
"You okay?" He asked, his breath slightly ragged. She suddenly felt uncomfortable and pulled down the edge of her sleeve to cover it.
"Yes I'm fine, it's just a small cut." Arien replied averting her eyes from his and speedily finishing untying the rope.

After helping him up she wandered over to the hobbit who was getting untied by Fili. The blonde dwarf noticed her approaching and let her take over.
"You do make me worry sometimes." She said seriously, pulling the rope open enough so the sack fell down at his feet. The hobbit looked down, he seemed to be ashamed.
"But I'm proud of you." She added lifting his chin up and giving him a smile.
"You did good for one of the shire folk." Bilbo grinned then.
"Well.. I uhh.... Just kind of made it up." He replied blunderingly. The elf laughed.
"I know." She replied walking off to find her weapons. That was a close shave.