The dwarves had left the hobbit's house early the next morning, muttering and grumbling amongst themselves as the ponies plodded along the dirt path about what a waste of time the whole endeavor with the halfling had been. In the end Bilbo had refused to come, and seeing no point in delaying further to try and convince him, Thorin had simply made the decision to continue on without him.

Despite the rough start they had had, a few of the dwarves had taken rather a shine to Bilbo, and breaking through the muttering came a shout of "Well, I'd bet he still turns up before we've left these borders!" it was Kili's voice.
"Oh aye, he'll turn up I say!" Oin exclaimed loudly in agreement.
"You think so do you? Well I say it's the last we'll ever see of 'im." grumbled Dwalin with a shake of his head. The argument between them escalated into a proper bet, where the dwarves all began putting wagers of coins against each other as to whether or not Bilbo would join them.

Gandalf chuckled, knowing that the young man would turn up. He put his pipe in his mouth as they heard. Soon enough they heard shouting behind them and Bilbo came out of the grass and he panted, holding his side. "I...I changed my mind...I will..." He had to stop to breath, Gandalf laughing as he watched.

A man stood outside a town hall, two horses nearby. He had white/grey hair which was odd because he was a fairly young man. He had scars across his face and bright yellow eyes. He looked around and muttered "we have to get moving..." The doors opened and a hooded figure walked down the steps and he looked up at them. "Any luck?" The figure shook their and the warrior said "it's early still...maybe we will get lucky with the elves"

Thorin called out for the company to stop as Bilbo ran up to them shouting, and he and Balin turned to face the halfling.
"Well, did you bring the contract with you?" the old dwarf asked, his grey eyebrows raised as he looked pointedly at Bilbo. "We can't have you along without your signature on it lad, assurance and all that."

Bilbo held up the contract, still panting. "Here it is...all signed and everything..." Gandalf nodded and said "it seems we have our thief. Shall we carry on?" Bilbo smiled and nodded, still catching his breath

Balin took the contract from Bilbo, fishing the magnifier out of his pack and examining the signature closely to make sure it was genuine. After looking it over, the dwarf gave a satisfied nod.
"Everything seems to be in order." he agreed. "Welcome then, Bilbo Baggins, to Thorin Oakenshield's company."
"Get him a pony." Thorin ordered sharply, urging his own mount onward. They had wasted enough time already, they needed to make up for it by getting back on the road quickly.

The spare pony was brought up from the back of the group and the reigns were handed to the hobbit, before the other dwarves all headed after Thorin, expecting that Bilbo already knew how to ride, so they didn't wait for him.

Bilbo started shaking his head but Gandalf picked him up and set him on the pony. "No worries, Mr Baggins...you will do fine" he chuckled as Bilbo tried to get a hang of staying on the small pony.

The dwarves began cheering, laughing and grumbling softly to themselves as the wagers were exchanged, small sacks of gold coins flying back and forth as they were tossed between the party members.

Gandalf caught his bag and Bilbo stared and the wizard said "I knew you would come" they rode most of the day, near the end Bilbo getting the hang of the riding when the sun started to set

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Thorin pulled the group over to rest at a rocky overhang not far away from the path, and ordered Oin and Gloin, who were the ones who carried their tinderboxes and flints, to get a fire going so they could keep warm.

Bilbo offered to help gather wood and Gandalf sat by a tree, his pipe in his mouth. He looked over at Thorin and said "We will need to be careful when we cross the valley tomorrow. I have heard strange stories of late of creatures hunting there..."

"What sort of creatures?" the dwarf prince asked warily, looking unsure of himself at the thought of the company being set upon by some beast or other. He hadn't expected this trip to be easy in the slightest, but he hadn't counted on running into trouble from the moment they left the Shire.

Gandalf shook his head and said "that's the thing. No one has seen them to love to tell about it. Most think it's just a story to scare travelers away from using this path...but you and I know better then to not be wary of the tales. After all, dragons were a simple tale were they not?"

"Indeed." Thorin grunted, his tone stiff and warning Gandalf to drop the subject of Smaug now and not speak any more of it, or he would regret it. "Then we will keep our guard up." the dwarf answered gruffly, turning his back on the wizard, he stepped around Gandalf to help the other dwarves unpack their cooking supplies.

Gandalf shook his head and smoked his pipe. "Dwarfs...I am starting to prefer Hobbits..." Bilbo helped the others build a fire and started cooking a stew in the pot.

The pair started out of the village, the young man looking at his companion and said "Is it wise to travel in the dark?" The hooded figure nodded and said "We need to travel quickly...and hopefully no one is foolish to travel the plains at this time..." The young man nodded and pulled up onto his horse, the other doing the same. They took off riding towards the gate, not knowing that their hopes were far from coming true.

Fili and Kili were ordered to keep watch over the ponies, so the two dwarf brothers settled themselves in the nearby clearing where the horses were grazing and watched over them as Thorin asked, hoping someone would bring them a meal when it was ready.

The other dwarves all sat expectantly around the fire as Bofur and Bombur prepared the meal.

After a bit of time Bilbo stood, grabbing two of the plates and said "I think I will take some food to Fili and Kili...they must be hungry by now...Balin? Where were they watching the horses at?"

Gandalf was off by himself a few yards away, thinking carefully.

"Just over the hill there, lad." Balin pointed in the corresponding direction.

Meanwhile, Fili and Kili had both stood and were staring at the group of ponies in shock. They had turned away for only a few moments to peek back at the group, and when they had counted the ponies again, two were missing...They looked around the area but found no sign of the missing ponies, only trees which had been uprooted; whatever had taken them had been very large, indeed.

Bilbo walked over and stood by the two brothers, looking at what they were looking at then back at them. "is everything alright? I brought you lads some food..." He looked around again, still puzzled

(Oops I just realise I've accidentally skipped the Orcs part and gone straight to the trolls part...my bad...my brain isn't really working properly sorry :L)
"We're supposed to be looking after the ponies." Kili began, swallowing the lump that had begun to form in his throat as he started worrying what Thorin would do if they didn't get this under control.
"Only, we've encountered a small problem." Fili murmured as neither of the twins tore their gaze away from the remaining ponies.

"We had sixteen, now there's fourteen..." Kili finished slowly. Neither of them seemed particularly interested in the food.

(No worries, we can do the orcs after this part. No one said we had to go in order. Its our story after all)

Bilbo counted the horses and they were right, two horses were missing. Bilbo nodded and said "That is indeed a problem...well, we can't stand here and hope they find their way back. They most likely got loose and wandered off. We shall go look for them and bring them back and Thorin won't know anything went wrong"