One Lucky Winner

Chapter 47 ~ Thorin

Day 4
3:47 PM

I curse in dwarvish as I step in a puddle of watery mud. I'm in a disdained mood.

Bilbo and I reach the spot where we fought the Avengers and Legolas's nemesis last night. I stop and look around at the mud and the dirty snow. The shiny ring will be simple to find in this.

"Where'd you last take it off," I ask Bilbo, trying not to sound too annoyed.

"I'm not sure...somewhere around here," Bilbo says, glancing around at the ground. This just makes me angry. How irresponsible of him to not remember.

Bilbo lost the ring.

We escaped the Avengers last night as fast as we could. We eventually found a place far enough away and slept. He noticed it was gone first thing this morning. We've been looking for it ever since. We haven't had any luck so we decided to come back here and see if it's around. I'm very agitated.

I'm furious at Bilbo for loosing it. First he refuses to tell me about it, and now he looses it. Maybe he's making me angry about it on purpose. I'm frightened that we won't find it. It was our source of power, and now it's gone. Without it, Bilbo would have been killed last night. We can't afford to loose it.

I drop my swords and Captain America's shield on the ground. They get wet; everything in this dreaded arena is wet. All Bilbo and I have is one bag, his sword, my two swords, and the mysterious shield that came from the Captain America. That's it. We lost over half of our supplies last night, and I'm furious about it.

"Start looking," I growl at Bilbo. I walk towards the many trees that were taken down last night. I glance around them. A gold ring should be easy to find in dark snow and ashes.

After a few minutes of looking, I realize this is tedious. I leave the trees and walk around the area, not putting much effort into looking. I want to fight someone again. That was enjoyable. Not this. Bilbo should have been more careful with the ring. We could be fighting and killing someone right now. But, because of him, we aren't. Once we find that ring, I will be the one to hold on to it.

"I fail to see it," I say, exhausted from looking. I turn to Bilbo, who is sitting by the pile of supplies I dropped. He's eating something.

I almost loose my temper. "What are you doing?" I growl, making my way over to him.

"Making sure it wasn't in the bag," he says innocently, standing up.

"You're the one who lost it," I growl. "Now look for it."

"I was looking in the bag!" he says, walking away from me before I can respond. He makes me so angry.

I grab one of my two swords from the pile, wishing I was fighting with someone. I wish another tribute would just show themselves. I want to kill. I drop the sword, cursing at myself.

I look around. The ring really shouldn't be that hard to find. Either it disappeared entirely or we are very horrible lookers.

Maybe the horrid gamemakers took it from us. Maybe Bilbo dropped it here last night and they grabbed it along with Legolas. It seems like something they would do.

"Legolas would be able to find it," I hear Bilbo says somewhat sadly. For some reason, he seems sad that the elf is dead.

"Legolas is the reason we're in this dreaded mess," I hiss at Bilbo. "He's the reason we're in this arena and looking for the ring. He's the reason for everything."

"The last thing he said to me was 'thank you'," Bilbo continues as if he didn't hear me.

"Why would he say thank you?" I ask him, disgusted.

"Because I helped him fight Katniss," he replies.

"Why would you help him," I growl, looking around for the ring.

"Because he was our ally, Thorin," Bilbo says like it's obvious. "You shouldn't have hated him. He was a good person."

I shake my head. I'm quite glad Legolas is gone. He was just a bother to me, and he made me angry. But his elf eyes would come in handy right now. If only he could be here for a few more minutes, and then continue to be gone.

I turn to Bilbo who's a couple feet away, on his hands and knees looking around.

After looking for a few more minutes, I give up. "It's hopeless," I tell him. He looks up and stands. I walk towards him.

"Maybe it tried to escape us," Bilbo says.

"What do you mean," I say, disgusted. I scan the ground.

"Legolas told me a few nights ago. He said the ring has been lost for many years and it's trying to get back to Sauron. He-"

"I know the story," I say rudely.

"So, maybe it escaped us," he says after a pause.

"Don't be stupid. It's a ring. And it's nowhere near Mordor."

"It can escape, though."

I shake my head. "Nonsense," I say, looking around.

"Thorin, listen to me," Bilbo says, somewhat angry. I look at him, dreading this.

"Legolas said the ring can escape people. It wants to get back to Sauron. It's not going to be just laying around out in the open. We really have to look for it."

I sigh. "So you're thinking we should go diving in lakes and digging in the mud."

"No!" he says. "I'm just saying... I think we're wasting our time looking here."

"Fine," I say, eager to quit looking at this spot. "If you think you know so much about it, where do we search."

"Not here," he says. He turns around and walks away.

I grab our supplies and follow him.