After a little wasted effort, Bilbo, who had climbed to the top of the tree, finally stuck his head out from the dense canopy.

Now, finally, there are no leaves, branches, or any other broken things that can block his view - all the scenery around the tree crown will be fully visible to him.

As soon as he removed some leaves that were blocking his vision, Bilbo felt dizzy as he looked directly at the sun.

Since he was now at the top of a big tree that was higher than the canopy, there were no dense leaves to help him block the strong light.

Naturally, it can be said that the terrible sunlight made him unable to bear it for a while.

After seeing Bilbo reach the top of the tree, he remained silent for a long time. Thorin and the other dwarves under the tree could only be anxious and helpless and furious. However, no matter how they shouted Bilbo's name at the top of their lungs, the hobbits on the top of the tree were still.

No feedback was given to them, which made the dwarves even more anxious.

If Thorin and the other dwarves were not 100% certain that their heavy bodies could not be borne by the slender branches at the top of the tree crown, the dwarfs with explosive tempers would have personally climbed up to the tree crown to question Bilbo.

After a while, after Bilbo squinted his eyes and completely adapted to the strong light around him, he reluctantly opened his mouth and shouted in response to the inquiries of his companions under the tree.

The surrounding landscape is quite peculiar at the moment. The dense tree crowns form a sea of ​​green that is constantly churning. Black butterflies fly in the gaps between the tree crowns and branches.

Such a strange sight attracted Bilbo's attention. Even though he had experienced many life and death crises in the past few days, Bilbo, who had lived a normal and peaceful life as a resident of the Shire for the past few decades, still had not fundamentally changed.

That belongs exclusively to the traditional thinking of the Hobbits.

Seeing such a strange sight, he quickly forgot that he had the important task of climbing up to look far and confirm the direction and location of the lake.

However, this disconnection-like situation did not last long, and soon the dwarves under the tree began to roar impatiently and angrily, bringing Bilbo back to reality from his distraction.

Unfortunately, the situation in front of him was very bad. No matter which direction he looked, he could not see any boundaries in the sea of ​​trees. His mood, which was cheered up by the sunshine and green scenery in front of him, also began to sink.

My stomach was empty, so I felt particularly deep this time.

As I told you before, they are not far from the edge of the forest. If Bilbo is calm and careful enough, he will find that the trees he is in are actually in the middle of a valley.

Therefore, the scene seen from the top of the tree was dense woods in all directions. Due to the restrictions of the terrain, he could not see where the end of the forest was. However, he did not discover this, and finally

Climbing down the tree in despair.

He was hot and sticky, with bruises all over his body. In the dark environment below, he could not see anything at first. Soon, his report made everyone fall into the same low ebb.

"This forest keeps extending in all directions! What should we do? What's the use of sending hobbits!" the dwarves shouted angrily, as if the bad situation all around was Bilbo's fault.

The dwarves didn't care at all whether there were any beautiful butterflies, and when Bilbo described to everyone the beautiful scene of the gentle breeze blowing on the top of the tree, the dwarves became even more angry.

Because the dwarves are too bulky, they can't climb that high. It doesn't matter if the scenery is gone, they can't see it!

....

That night, everyone ate the last bit of food they carried with various strange emotions.

The delicious cakes and dry food prepared by the generous skin-changer Bion for everyone, now tasted so bitter and meaningless in everyone's mouths.

It's not that the food has gone bad or tasteless, but that everyone knows that after eating this meal, from tomorrow onwards, everyone is afraid that they will have to go back to the painful and painful adventure life of the past... Naturally,

A low mood hung over everyone in the team and could not dissipate for a long time.

What woke Bilbo from his sleep the next day was not the shouts of his companions, but the feeling of hunger that was caused by the lack of food last night...

Just like the thoughts that had arisen in his mind countless times in times of suffering in the past, this time Bilbo instinctively doubted why he had rashly agreed to the dwarves' invitation to adventure, traveled thousands of miles to come to this ghost place, and almost lost it several times.

Regardless of his life, he and everyone else are now deprived of the food that civilized creatures can eat!

Full of complaints and helplessness, even the most optimistic hobbit in the team could only lower his head and follow everyone forward.

As Thorin said, they still have a long way to go, and now is not the time to be lazy.

Not long after we left, it started to rain heavily. These splashing raindrops mixed with earthy mud particles dripped down the branches and leaves of the towering trees, occasionally gathering into a thick puddle of water.

The ball hit everyone's heads.

The people who did not have many rain-proof clothes were naturally in a very embarrassed state. Everyone was soaked in the heavy rain, and they were in such a bad state that they were hungry and unable to provide too much heat for their bodies that were hypothermic in the heavy rain. In this terrible place.

Under this situation, Bomber's muffled sound came from the team.

When Bilbo turned his head to look over, the fat dwarf Bombur had already opened his eyes - he finally woke up from his long-lasting sleep and coma!

To everyone's surprise, Bombur seemed to have forgotten many things when he woke up.

Especially after hearing that everyone's food reserves had been completely exhausted, the gluttonous fat dwarf Bombur burst into tears as if he was on the verge of mental collapse.

"It's better to let me continue to sleep! I want to eat, Du Lin is here. I have been unconscious for so long but I haven't eaten. Now my stomach is almost starving!!"

"Stop, please be quiet!" Thorin sternly stopped him: "We don't have time to care about whether your dreams are good or bad. If you can't provide useful information, then I advise you to shut up. In the past

In order to carry your heavy burden for a few days, everyone's legs are almost broken. You should remain grateful to everyone instead of complaining!"

The cheerful atmosphere brought about by Bombur's awakening only lasted for a short period of time.

Soon, even Bilbo quickly realized a problem: their food had completely run out.

After Bombur woke up, there was one more person eating. It seemed that there was nothing worse.

For the next part of the journey, everyone carried empty luggage, and Bilbo even doubted whether he could see the end of the road before he starved to death.

Bombur shook his head repeatedly as if he was cheating, pretending to be miserable and begging everyone to continue carrying his fat body.

"Give up, we don't want to carry you anymore!" The dwarves, who were exhausted from the past few days, refused without looking back: "We have had enough of your overweight body, you should walk and lose weight on your own.

Lost weight!!”

No matter what everyone said, the fat dwarf Bombur finally sat down on the ground, as if he would not continue walking unless everyone lifted him up.

"If you want to leave, you go." His uncle shook his head as fast as a rattle: "There is no food to eat, and my legs are so sore that I really hope that I will fall into a deep sleep for the rest of my life and never wake up again..."

"

Bombur's complaints did not last long. Before anyone could refute his willfulness, Thorin, who was walking in front of the team, exclaimed: "What is that? There is fire in the forest ahead!"

Hearing this, no one immediately paid attention to Uncle Bomb, and everyone rushed to the front.

It seemed that a red light was flashing in the darkness in a quite distant place, which reminded everyone of the terrifying scene when the orcs attacked them before.

In front of other creatures that may exist, even Bomber got up, and the group of people rushed forward desperately, not caring whether they were trolls or orcs - in fact, for them now, these two

There is no difference between them and they are mortal enemies anyway.

And if the other party is an intelligent creature that is full of goodwill towards them, then everyone can get their most urgent water and food supplies.

Driven by the blazing flame called hope, when they finally came near the fire, it seemed that the torches were burning under the trees, but they were quite far away from the trail.

"It looks like my dream has come true!" Bombur said breathlessly as he caught up from behind. He wanted to rush over to chase the lights, but the others were worried about Gandalf and Beorn before leaving.

The warning made me feel sad.

"Impulse is the devil. Even if you want to eat, you have to live to enjoy it." Thorin said.

"We won't live long anyway without something to eat!" said Bombur, and Bilbo wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Regarding this issue, everyone argued for a while, and finally agreed to send a few spies to quietly approach the lights to find out what the situation was.

But this decision was not easy to implement, because everyone was still unable to decide who to send. Everyone, who was starving, bravely took the risk and tried this dangerous mission that might bring back food.

The argument ended with everyone taking action. So the dwarves all left the path and rushed deep into the forest.

After crawling for a while, everyone finally saw a series of cut down trees dumped on the ground, and the land was leveled to create a clearing.

There are many elven-looking creatures here, all wearing green and brown clothes, forming a circle around the felled trees.

A bright red bonfire was lit in the center of the circle, and these elf-like creatures were drinking and having fun one by one, laughing and toasting each other and tasting delicious food.

For a moment, even the air was filled with the tangy aroma of barbecue and fine wine. This was a kind of supreme torture for the hungry and starving expedition team. Compared with the temptation of delicious food, even the dwarf Thorin, the most ruthless leader of the people, could not restrain his inner urge to have a full meal at this moment.

Under the original impulse to eat, the dwarves rushed out of the grass where they were hiding almost at the same time and rushed towards the circle of elven creatures beside the campfire, hoping that the other party would reward them with some food.

However, the strange thing is that as soon as the dwarves set foot on the camp, the surrounding fires were extinguished at the same time as if they had been cast by an illusion. Someone kicked the campfire, and it exploded into countless sparks and disappeared without a trace. .

Suddenly the dwarves were plunged into complete darkness again, unable to even see each other. After a while, they began to fumble to adapt to the darkness. They kept tripping over trees and bumping into tree trunks, almost yelling. It woke up all the creatures in the forest, and finally gathered together to count everyone by touch.

By that time, everyone had already forgotten the original direction of the trail, and before dawn, they were completely lost.

Everyone had nothing to do in the dark but sit down on the spot; they were worried about getting lost again, and they didn't even dare to fumble for crumbs of food on the ground. They didn't lie down for long, and when Bilbo started to feel his eyelids getting heavier, he Duo Rui, who was on night duty, whispered: "The flames appeared again, and this time there were more!"

At this time, everyone jumped up. Indeed, there were more than a dozen warm light sources not far away, and they could clearly hear the laughter coming from the front.

They lined up in a row, each person touching the back of the person in front and walking forward one by one. When they reached the vicinity, Thorin suddenly signaled: "Don't rush this time, let's follow the plan first!" They must wait for me to give the signal before everyone comes out of the hiding bush together. I sent Mr. Baggins to inquire first. They will not be frightened by him───Bilbo is a hobbit, and the elves generally will not be embarrassed. The Hobbit’s.”

After hearing Thorin's plan, the dwarves nodded almost unanimously, completely ignoring Bilbo's anxious and nervous expression.

When they reached the edge of the fire, everyone suddenly pushed Bilbo from behind. Before the poor little hobbit could put on the magic ring that made him invisible, he fell into the fire. It was useless. All the light went out, and the darkness shrouded me again.

If gathering in the dark was difficult before, this time it was really much worse.

The angry dwarves couldn't find the hobbits no matter how hard they searched. Everyone counted them, but there were still only thirteen of them.

So they shouted: "Bilbo Baggins! Snitch, where have you been? Hello! Hobbit, our companion, where are you?" There were other similar calls, but they always answered. None of the hobbits made any sound or signal in response.
Chapter completed!