Bilbo sighs softly and rests his head against the wall behind him, replaying his conversation with Balin in his head. That the Arkenstone would only cause Thorin's madness to become worse with no hope of ever getting the King's mind back.
Bilbo reaches into his coat pocket to pull the stone out but his fingers brush against something else. He pulls out the little acorn and turns it around in his fingers before he jumps at a loud voice. He twists around to see Thorin marching up to him.
"What is that?! In your hand!" Thorin glares as he marches up to the Hobbit. Bilbo jumps up and moves a few steps back from the Dwarf, hiding his hands behind his back because it was rather silly to carry a acorn around. "It's nothing" Bilbo says.
"Show me" Thorin demands. Bilbo stammers before holding his hand out and revealing the little acorn to the Dwarf King. Thorin looks down at his hand, staring at the acorn.
"I picked it up in Beorn's garden" Bilbo says glancing back and forth between Thorin and the acorn in his hands. Thorin looks up at him, something changing in his blue eyes. A sense of clarity, the first sign since the Dwarf had set sights on the gold. Bilbo stares at Thorin, at his eyes.
"You've carried it all this way?" Thorin asks in a soft voice a small smile forming on his lips. How did a simple little acorn bring back Thorin Oakenshield's mind?
"I wanted to take it home and plant it in my garden at Bag End" Bilbo explains his mind already coming up with a diffrent plan for the acorn in his palm.
"It's a poor prize to take back to the shire" Thorin says still in that soft voice, his clear blue eyes locked onto the hobbit. A soft smile on his face.
"I thought that one day it would of grown. And every time I would look at it I would remember. Remember everything that happened, the good, the bad. And how lucky I am that I had made it home." As Bilbo speaks, Thorin's smile grows larger as he continues to gaze upon the hobbit. His bright blue eyes loosing all of the maddness they had held within the past few days. Looking into them helps Bilbo decide. He ignores Dwalin's call for Thorin, watching as the clarity begins to fade from those blue eyes.
"Thorin" Bilbo reaches out and grabs onto the King's hand, drawing the Dwarf's attention back to him. Bilbo presses the acorn into Thorin's large palm, closing the large fingers over it. "I want you to have it, for...for luck" Bilbo says removing his hand from Thorin's and taking a step back. The Dwarf king looks down at his hand, the maddness fading once again and to Bilbo's delight the clear look to them stays even when Dwalin calls out to him again.
"There are survives from Lake-Town, they are streaming into Dale" Dwalin says once he sees he had Thorin's attention. Thorin glances back to Bilbo then at Dwalin, "Call everyone to the gate". He turns and walks down the corridor with a acorn held gently in his palm.
A hour later the Company of dwarves were gathered at the recently, re destroyed gate. Thorin approaches them all with clear blue eyes, looking over them all. "We are to go to Dale, offer our help to the survivors. And I will fulfill my promise to their Master. I have sent word to Dain to inform him we were sucessful and asked for food that we will share with the survivors" Thorin says, before moving past them and through the gates. Balin gapes in shock, just this morning Thorin was yelling about the Arkenstone, what had happened to bring back his mind?
The Company trail after their King, sharing confused look but make their way down to Dale where Bard meets them with a suprised look on his face.
Bilbo doesn't get another chance to talk with Thorin over the next few days. First he and the Company helped bring the survivors of Lake-town into Erebor where there was shelter and access to fresh water through a very deep well that ran throughout the mountain. He helped Oin with the wounded which took up most of his time.
