Of Monsters and Men

Chapter 14 The Parasite Panic

My breathing was faint as I lay near the dwarves, a fair distance away from the trolls with my body pressed up against the stony rock face that rose a good twelve feet out of the ground behind us in a hill. The firelight washed over my body, but it was clear no one could see me while I tried to soak up as much energy from the heat of the fire as I could.

My body tingled as my nerves began to cool in my body and I managed to regain some strength back – just enough to sit up with my back straight while I waited for my legs to stop tingling with the numbness of being half asleep.

A bundle of branches from the trees around us had been thrown onto the fire that crackled beneath the other half of the company; who were, unfortunately, being turned on a split.

There were complaints of it being too hot and the thin troll – Tom – moved away from the sacked dwarves, muttering. "Don't bother cooking 'em," Tom said in his nasally voice. "let's just sit on 'em, and squash 'em into jelly." He said and I began to shake my legs, trying to get the feeling back in them. My head was throbbing, but for the time, blinking seemed to help, and I was doing an awful lot of that.

"They should be sautéed and grilled with a sprinkle of sage." I watched with a scowl as the aproned troll – Bert – poked at Ori's stomach, and I watched helplessly as Ori squirmed with anxiety and fear welling up in his eyes.

"That does sound quite nice." Tom said and licked his thin and crooked lips.

"Is this really necessary?" Balin called from his spot on the ground; Bilbo leaning against him, both of them tied up tightly.

"Why don't you eat someone your own size!?" Gloin roared angrily as he wriggled between Bombur and Kili's sacked bodies.

"Never mind the seasoning." William – the pony-snatcher – grumbled as he twisted the split over the fire, looking at Bert with a grouchy expression. "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." I managed to crawl over to the ring of stones around the fire. I could hear the grunts and squeaking of the wood as the dwarves faces rolled up and over a foot or two above my head.

I carefully set my hand in the fire and hissed with pain which turned to a sigh of relief as I began to soak up the energy at a slow – yet steady- pace. I could feel the warmth flood through my body and I barely felt the stinging in my hands anymore. I let my hair fall lose around my face as I relaxed a little; closing my amber eyes.

"Wait!" my eyes snapped open and I snapped my head back to look over my shoulder and felt the burn of the rushed movement spread across the side of my neck as I found that it was Bilbo who had raised an objection. "You are making a terrible mistake!" Bilbo said. My brow furrowed as I dabbled concentration between soaking up the energy in the fire, and listening to Bilbo.

"You can't reason with them. They're half-wits!" Dori shouted as he disappeared overhead as the dwarves spun about slowly.

"Half-wits? What does that make us?" Bofur asked sarcastically. I saw Bilbo as he managed to shuffle upwards onto his feet and hop a few inches closer to the trolls that were attempting to cook out companions; rotisserie style.

"I meant with the, uh, with the seasoning." Bilbo said with the strain of getting up evident in his voice as he grunted.

Bert let go of the split and leaned down with his hands on his knees as he looked at Bilbo curiously. His soiled apron fell to the ground as he eyed the small hobbit. "What about the seasoning?"

"Well, have you smelt them?" Bilbo asked and tilted his head in the dwarves' direction. "You're going to need something stronger than sage before you plate this lot up." Bilbo remarked. This didn't sit well with the dwarves and they began to glare and shout at Bilbo in protest.