"I am so dreadfully hungry," groaned Bilbo, who was suddenly aware that he had not had a meal since the night before the night before last. Just think of that for a hobbit! His stomach felt all empty and loose and his legs all wobbly, now that the excitement was over.

"Can't help it," said Gandalf, "unless you would like to go back and ask the goblins nicely to have your pony back and your luggage."

Poor things... thought Hannah, feeling terribly sorry for the unfortunate dear animals.

"No thank you!" said Bilbo, knowing all too well what would happen should he be caught.

"Very well then, we must just tighten our belts and trudge on—or we shall be made into supper, and that will be much worse than having none ourselves," said Gandalf.

"We may very well find something we can nibble on as we go," added Hannah. There was generally something edible to be found in nature if you knew where to look and were prepared to lower your standards enough. Why cousins from her father's side had somehow managed to survive by eating tulip bulbs when they were still living in the Old Country, before coming to live in England too, in order to flee from the Nazis.

So as they went on Bilbo and Hannah looked from side to side for something to eat; but the blackberries were still only in flower, and of course there were no nuts, nor even hawthorn-berries. They nibbled a bit of sorrel, and they drank from a small mountain-stream that crossed the path, and they shared three wild strawberries that they found on its bank between them, but it was not much good.

They still went on and on. The rough path disappeared. The bushes, and the long grasses, between the boulders, the patches of rabbit-cropped turf, the thyme and the sage and the marjoram, and the yellow rockroses all vanished, and they found themselves at the top of a wide steep slope of fallen stones, the remains of a landslide. When they began to go down this, rubbish and small pebbles rolled away from their feet; soon larger bits of split stone went clattering down and started other pieces below them slithering and rolling; then lumps of rocks were disturbed and bounded off, crashing down with a dust and a noise. Before long the whole slope above them and below seemed on the move, and they were sliding away, huddled together, all in a fearful confusion of slipping, rattling, cracking slabs and stones.

It was the trees at the bottom that saved them. They slid into the edge of a climbing wood of pines that here stood right up the mountain slope from the deeper darker forests of the valleys below. Some caught hold of the trunks and swung themselves into lower branches, some (like Hannah and Bilbo) got behind a tree to shelter from the onslaught of the rocks. Soon the danger was over, the slide had stopped, and the last faint crashes could be heard as the largest of the disturbed stones went bounding and spinning among the bracken and the pine-roots far below.

"Well! That has got us on a bit," said Gandalf; "and even goblins tracking us will have a job to come down here quietly."

"I daresay," grumbled Bombur; "but they won't find it difficult to send stones bouncing down on our heads." The dwarves (and Bilbo and Hannah) were feeling far from happy, and were rubbing their bruised and damaged legs and feet.

"Nonsense! We are going to turn aside here out of the path of the slide," said the wizard. "We must be quick! Look at the light!"

The sun had long gone behind the mountains. Already the shadows were deepening about them, though far away through the trees and over the black tops of those growing lower down they could still see the evening lights on the plains beyond. They limped along now as fast as they were able down the gentle slopes of a pine forest in a slanting path leading steadily southwards. At times they were pushing through a sea if bracken with tall fronds rising right above the hobbit's head; at times they were marching along quiet as quiet over a floor of pine-needles; and all the while the forest gloom got heavier and the forest silence deeper. There was no wind that evening to bring even a sea-sighing into the branches of the trees.

"Must we go any further?" asked Bilbo, when it was so dark that he could only just see Thorin's beard wagging and Hannah's curls bouncing beside him, and so quiet that he could hear the dwarves' breathing like a loud noise. "My toes are bruised and bent, and my legs ache, and my stomach is wagging like an empty sack." Hannah felt just the same as the hobbit, but remained silent since she knew they had little choice but to keep moving.

"A bit further," said Gandalf.

After what seemed ages further they came suddenly to an opening where no trees grew. The moon was up and was shining into the clearing. Somehow it struck all of them as not at all a nice place, although there was nothing wrong to see.

All of a sudden they heard a howl away down hill, a long shuddering howl. It was answered by another away to the right and a good deal nearer to them; then by another not far away to the left. They all recognized the sound. It was Wargs howling at the moon, Wargs gathering together! To hear it out in the forest under the moon was far more chilling than under the sun during their run to Rivendell. It was almost too much for Bilbo. Even magic rings are not much use against wolves—especially against the evil packs that lived under the shadow of the goblin infested mountains, over the Edge of the Wild on the borders of the unknown. For with their sharp sense of smell keener than any goblin's, they did not need to see you to catch you!

"What shall we do, what shall we do!" the hobbit cried. "Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!"

"Talk about 'out of the frying pan and into the fire'!" exclaimed Hannah.

"Up the trees quick!" cried Gandalf; and they ran to the trees at the edge of the glade, hunting for those that had branches fairly low, or were slender enough to swarm up. They found them as quick as ever they could, you can guess; and up the they went as high as ever they could trust the branches. You would have laughed (from a safe distance), if you had seen the dwarves with their beards dangling down, like old gentlemen gone cracked and playing at being boys. Fili and Kili were at the top of a tall larch like an enormous Christmas tree with Hannah, who very much resembled a tree-angel with the way she was perched nearest its narrow peak. Dori, Nori, Ori, Óin, and Glóin were more comfortable in a huge pine with regular branches sticking out at intervals like the spokes of a wheel. Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, and Thorin were in another. Dwalin and Balin had swarmed up a tall slender fir with few branches and were trying to find a place to sit in the greenery of the topmost boughs. Gandalf, who was a good deal taller than the others, had found a tree into which they could not climb, a large pine standing at the very edge of the glade. He was quite hidden in its boughs, but you could see his eyes gleaming in the moon as he peeped out.

"Where's Bilbo?" asked Bofur.

"There he is!" cried Hannah when she spotted the hobbit, who could not get into any tree, and was scuttling about from trunk to trunk, like a rabbit that has lost its hole and has a dog chasing after it.

"You've left the burglar behind again!" said Nori to Dori looking down.

"I can't be always carrying burglars on my back," said Dori, "down tunnels and up trees! What do you think I am? A porter?"

"He'll be eaten if we don't do something," said Thorin, for the howls were all around them now, getting nearer and nearer. "Dori!" he called, for Dori was lowest down in the easiest tree. "Be quick, and give Mr. Baggins a hand up!"

Dori really was a decent fellow in spite of his grumbling. Poor Bilbo could not reach his hand even when he climbed down to the bottom branch and hung his arm down as far as ever he could. So Dori actually climbed out of the tree and let Bilbo scramble up and stand on his back.

Just at that moment the Wargs trotted howling into the clearing. All of a sudden there were hundreds of eyes looking at them. Still Dori did not let Bilbo down. He waited till he had clambered off his shoulders into the branches, and then he jumped for the branches himself. Only just in time! A wolf snapped at his cloak as he swung up, and nearly got him. In a minute there was a whole pack of them yelping all around the tree in which Dori and Bilbo were, and then went sniffling about till they had smelt out every tree that had anyone in it. These they guarded too, while all the rest went and sat in a great circle in the glade; waiting as a party orcs astride the remaining members of their pack came riding into the middle of their circle, led by a pale orc on a white warg. They had come in answer to the goblins' summons. The dwarves were all in a much tighter spot than they had imagined.

"Azog," said a stunned Thorin, staring down at the pale orc in disbelief. "It cannot be," he said with furrowed brow.

"Do you smell it? The scent of fear?" Azog asked his soldiers and the Wargs in their dreadful language, sniffing the night air. "Your father reeked of it, Thorin son of Thráin." Gandalf and most of the dwarves understood it. Bilbo and Hannah did not, but it sounded terrible to them, as if all their talk was bout cruel and wicked things, as it was. "That one is mine. Kill the others!" Azog ordered his hunting party. "Drink their blood!"

The Wargs and Orcs charged with chilling howls and ferocious snarls, tearing and hacking at the trees. One by one, the trees they had hidden in came crashing down into each other, forcing the dwarves, Hannah, and Bilbo to flee by desperately leaping from one branch to the next; until they all found themselves clinging to those of the wizard's tree, which was to sturdy to be so easily knocked down.

At this point, seeing who they were now dealing with, Gandalf began to be dreadfully afraid, wizard though he was, and to feel that they were in a very bad place, and had not yet escaped at all. All the same, he was not going to let them have it all their own way, though he could not do very much stuck up in a tall tree with Wargs and orcs all round the ground below. The rest of the company watched as he gathered the huge pine-cones from the branches of his tree. Then he set one alight with bright blue fire, and threw it whizzing down among the enemy. It struck one Warg on the back, and immediately his shaggy coat caught fire, and he was leaping to and fro yelping horribly. Then another came and another, one in blue flames, one in red, another in green. They burst on the ground below and went off in colored sparks and smoke. An especially large one hit another Warg on the nose, and he leaped in the air ten feet, and then rushed round and round the circle biting and snapping even at the other wolves in his anger and fright. Azog let out a roar of anger as the Wargs retreated.

The Dwarves and Hannah and Bilbo shouted and cheered. The rage of the Orcs and Wargs was terrible to see, and the commotion they made filled the forest. Wargs are afraid of fire at all times, but this was a most horrible and uncanny fire. If a spark got in their coats it stuck and burned into them, and unless they rolled over quickly they were soon all in flames. Very soon about the glade, Wargs were rolling over and over to put out the sparks on their backs (without regard for their riders), while those that were burning were running about howling and setting others alight, till their own friends chased them away and they fled off down the slopes crying and yammering and looking for water.

"What's all this uproar in the forest tonight?" said the Lord of the Eagles. He was sitting, black in the moonlight, on the top of a lonely pinnacle of rock at the eastern edge of the mountains. "I hear Wargs' voices! Are the goblins at mischief I the woods?"

He swept up into the air, and immediately two of his guards from the rocks at either hand leaped up to follow him. They circled up in the sky and looked down on the glade, a tiny spot far below. But eagles have keen eyes and can see small things at a great distance. The Lord of the Eagles of the Misty Mountains had eyes that could look at the sun unblinking, and could see a rabbit moving on the ground a mile below in the moonlight. So though he could not see the people in the trees, he could make out the commotion among the wolves and see the tiny flashes of fire, and hear the howling and yelping come up faint from far beneath him. Also he could see the glint of the moon on the Orc weapons and armor of the wicked folk in Azog's hunting party.

Eagles are not kindly birds. Some are cowardly and cruel. But the ancient race of the northern mountains were the greatest of all birds; they were proud and strong and noble-hearted. They did not love goblins and orcs, or fear them. When they took notice of them at all (which was seldom, for they did not eat such creatures), they swooped on them and drove them shrieking back to their caves, and stopped whatever wickedness they were doing. The Orcs and Goblins hated the Eagles and feared them, but could not reach their lofty seats, or drive them from the mountains.

Tonight the Lord of the Eagles was filled with curiosity to know what was afoot; so he summoned many other Eagles to him, and they flew away from the mountains, and slowly circling ever round and round they came down, down, down towards the ring of the Wargs and Orcs.

A very good thing too! Dreadful things had been going on down there. The Wargs that had caught fire and fled into the forest had set it alight in several places. It was high summer, and on this eastern side of the mountains there had been little rain for some time. Yellowing bracken, fallen branches, deep-piled pine-needles, and here and there dead trees, were soon in flames. All round the clearing of the Wargs and Orcs fire was leaping. But the Orcs and their rides did not leave the trees. Maddened and angry they were leaping and howling round the trunks, and cursing the dwarves in their horrible language. Orcs were not afraid of fire, and they waved their weapons and clashed them against their shields. Azog was locked in a glare with Thorin, who suddenly jumped down from his branch and descended from the tree to stand before the pale orc, his most hated enemy. Thorin charged boldly into the fray, but Azog's white Warg leaped over the Dwarf, knocking him to the ground with a swipe of its paw. Thorin quickly rolled back onto his feet just as Azog circled round, swinging his mace. The heavy weapon struck the dazed Dwarf in the jaw, knocking him flat on his back.

"Nooo!" Balin and the other Dwarves cried as they watched their brave leader go down. Hannah quickly reached for an arrow as the white warg loomed over Thorin with open jaws, but was painfully reminded of the fact that she had run out when her hand snatched only air. Thorin let out a cry of pain as the beast's jaws snapped against the arm bearing his oaken-shield and armored back.

"Thorin!" Dwalin cried out in alarm. He tried to move to go to his aid, but the branch beneath him snapped, and he found he was dangling just out of reach of the angry Wargs and Orcs below as the others quickly moved to pull him back up. Despite the crushing pain he was in, Thorin struck at the white Warg's nose with his blade, and the beast threw him aside with a yelp and a snarl.

"Bring me the Dwarf's head," Azog ordered the Orc beside him. Watching as the Orc dismounted and began making his way over to Thorin, who was lying prone on the hard ground, Hannah began feeling around for something that could help him, but all she had left on her person was smoke bombs, but they were made to be purely defensive and nonlethal, and they would be of no use against the keen noses of the Wargs. Suddenly, Hannah became aware that Bilbo had left the safety of the tree and was hurrying quickly and quietly towards them with his short-sword drawn.

Thorin opened his eyes when he felt the edge of an orcish blade against his throat and looked up in alarm at the Orc that was now looming over him as it raised the blade, preparing to strike. But the blow never came. With a shout, Bilbo flung himself at Thorin's would-be executioner, tackling the Orc to the ground. Thorin gasped as he tried to get back up, but found he not move still, and watched in amazement as the hobbit quickly used his blade to knock aside the enemy's weapon and deliver a serious blow before the Orc had a chance to recover from his surprise attack. Azog snarled furiously at the interruption of his revenge.

"Kill him," he order angrily. Bilbo did not understand what had been said, but he quickly moved back to stand protectively in front of Thorin, waving his sword about nervously in an attempt to keep the remaining Orcs at bay as they began stalking towards him on their Wargs. But the Orcs soon found themselves thwarted again as they were rushed by the Dwarves and Hannah, wielding the dagger she had taken from the troll-hoard. The knife's blade gleamed with a pale light as she dodged a Warg's snapping jaws and stabbed it in the eye, while Fili and Kili took out its rider. For a moment, Bilbo stood and watched the battle developing before him in surprise, but then he gave a shout and joined the fight, deflecting an attack from the orc that came riding at him. His attacker circled round to try again, but was intercepted by Dwalin and Balin. Instead, the hobbit found himself being knocked flat by a head-butt from the white Warg. Azog had decided to finish off Thorin and his meddlesome protector himself.

"Bilbo!" Hannah cried upon spotting how dire his situation had once again become, she moved to run to his aid, but found it unnecessary, for just at that moment a giant Eagle swooped down and used its massive claws to pull a kindled tree down between the pale orc and his pray, crushing several of his soldiers in the process.

There was a howl of anger and surprise from the Orcs. Loud cried the Lord of the Eagles, to whom Gandalf had spoken, and was now riding. Back swept the great birds that were with him, and down they came like huge black shadows. The Wargs yammered and gnashed their teeth; the Orcs yelled and stamped with rage, and flung their weapons in the air in vain. Over them swooped the Eagles; the dark rush of their beating wings smote them to the floor or drove them far away; their talons tore at Orc faces. Other birds flew in to seize and save the Dwarves and Hannah. In one moment Bilbo was staring in astonishment as one Eagle scooped Thorin up right before his eyes, and found himself panicking in the next when another came straight for him and seized the hobbit only briefly in its talons before letting him drop down on the back of the Eagle that was carrying Hannah.