Taking advantage of the intermission when the elves were having a grand banquet and having fun, Bilbo, as soon as he rescued the dwarves who were imprisoned by the elves from the prison, led them non-stop to the depths of the prison area of ​​the palace.

The prison where Thorin, the key figure imprisoned by the elves, is located is at the dark and deep end of the prison area...

Even the dwarves, who have always been fearless, were a little frightened at the thought of their leader Thorin being imprisoned in such a dark corner.

After all, who would have thought that their respected leader Thorin would be imprisoned by the elves in such a terrible environment!

For example, the thoughtful old dwarf Balin and others are now blaming themselves for not realizing that they were imprisoned in the same wide prison area as Thorin during the past few days.

While everyone with different thoughts was thinking about it, they heard Bilbo, who was standing at the front of the group leading the way, stop.

When he raised his head, he suddenly met the eyes of the prisoner Thorin behind the iron door of the prison.

"The speed of your arrival is much slower than the originally planned time! I hope that each of you will take a bigger step for me in the future!" No need to ask more, I am familiar with the procrastination of this group of dwarf subordinates, and often

Thorin, who complained about all the characters around him, scolded everyone present with stern eyes.

Of course, when he saw Bilbo, the snitch who played a great role in saving everyone, this descendant of the dwarf king, who was always known for his strict justice, became rare and gentle.

Then Bilbo received the first solemn thanks of his trip from the leader Thorin.

"Thank you, Mr. Bilbo Baggins! If it weren't for you, we would have died in this dark and obscure prison of bullshit elves! Who do those greedy elves think they are? I'm just going to die here.

Nor will I tell them the news about the treasures that belong to us dwarves for generations. Forget it, Bilbo, tell everyone carefully about the escape plan you prepared in advance!"

Just as Thorin asked, Bilbo felt that the most important thing for him at the moment was to let every dwarf know the escape plan that he had carefully prepared in advance.

As for the various twittering complaints from the dwarves, including Thorin, it gave the hobbit, who was optimistic by nature and thoughtful, a headache.

Especially after seeing the indignant and rude behavior of Thorin, who had always been extremely calm, towards the elves' deliberate neglect, this made Bilbo even more worried about the execution of this escape plan: Could it be, dwarves?

After hearing his plan, you can't execute it well, right?

The dwarves complained fiercely after hearing Bilbo's plan, which further verified Bilbo's conjecture about the realization. This made the hobbit call himself a crow's mouth angrily.

"What? Let us a group of dwarves ride barrels down the underground river to escape? Are you kidding, Bilbo... This will drown us!!" Bilbo's carefully prepared plan was to let everyone ride barrels down the underground river.

They fled into the underground river, and the dwarves all voted against it with their actual performance.

Even Bilbo could hear the fat dwarf Bombur grunting: "Seeing how easily you got the key from the elf guard, we thought you were resourceful! This idea is really crazy!"

Seeing that the dwarves did not support or understand the only feasible escape plan that he had racked his brains and almost risked his life, Bilbo was instantly furious.

"Whether you accept it or not, we only have this one feasible escape plan! Only this one! If you think the plan is immature, then please go back to the elf prison and wait for the next mature escape plan.

.Remind you, the next time you escape, you will not be lucky enough to encounter a good opportunity for the elves to hold a banquet throughout the country!"

People always like to compromise. After hearing Bilbo's terrible threat of waiting for the next escape opportunity, the dwarves immediately stood back one by one, and soon everyone unanimously agreed and passed Bilbo's escape plan.

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Seeing the funny behavior of the dwarves, although Bilbo was still angry inside, he could not get angry at this critical moment. In the end, he suppressed the anger in his heart and led the dwarves to the wine cellar at the bottom of the Elf Palace as originally planned.

After arriving at the wine cellar, the dwarves quickly performed their duties under Thorin's arrangements.

The most astute old dwarf, Balin, is responsible for guarding the door. He needs to whistle to alert everyone of the enemy's arrival as soon as he hears any sign of an elven patrol passing by.

Thorin is responsible for looking after the captain and steward of the elf guard who fell into a puddle of mud in the wine cellar because of his drunkenness. If there is anything wrong with the other party, he must inform everyone immediately.

As for the remaining people's task, it is simple but much more important: they need to find a sufficient number of empty wine barrels in a large number of storage cabinets, and this is also a key item for everyone's escape.

After all, if they don't find enough empty barrels to fit everyone in, their escape plan may fail.

In order to prevent this terrible disaster from coming true, Bilbo swore that he and the surrounding dwarves were almost crazy and devoted themselves to knocking all the barrels in the wine cellar, trying to find the empty barrels placed in them as soon as possible.

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Time was running out, and Bilbo knew that elves would soon be ordered to come down and assist the steward in throwing the empty barrels into the water.

They soon found thirteen barrels large enough to hold the dwarves.

But the fateful 14th empty wine barrel has not yet been found.

However, before Bilbo could get anxious, the old dwarf Balin, who was responsible for guarding the corridor at the door, blew a low whistle, signaling the bad news that an elf was about to enter the wine cellar.

It's too late! He needs to quickly stuff the dwarves into the 13 empty barrels that he has found! Bilbo realized this as fast as lightning.

With an urgent sense of mission, Bilbo pushed the barrels into the water. Some of these barrels were solid barrels filled with wine, and some were barrels filled with dwarves. They all fell one after another.

Down below, they collided with each other and swirled in the current.

It was then that Bilbo discovered the fatal flaw in his plan.

As the last bucket pusher, Bilbo himself is still standing by the trap door of the wine cellar, and there is no bucket for him to hide in!!

When he realized the biggest flaw in this plan, Bilbo heard that the elves who were deep in the happy atmosphere of the party, drinking and having fun began to sing songs beside the door.

Hearing the footsteps of the elves getting closer to him, Bilbo knew that there was no time for him to hesitate. He immediately pulled up the iron gate that controlled the water door switch, so that the barrels with the dwarves could open along the way.

The underground river of the river floated out of the cave.

When the elves completely entered the wine cellar, the last barrel in front of Bilbo had been thrown into the water!

Poor Bilbo didn't know what to do. In desperation, he could only hold the bucket and be pushed down by the surging underground river water.

He could only fall into the water with the wooden barrel full of wine next to him, and one person and one barrel floated up and down in the dark water. What was even more unfortunate was that after drifting through several sharp turns, Bilbo felt the pressure of the barrel.

The intense pressure brought on him.

Like a drowned dog, he managed to float up with the bucket in his arms, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't climb on top of the bucket. Every time he thought about it, the bucket kept rolling, causing him to roll into the water again.

.This barrel was filled with wine liquid, so it took Bilbo up and down like a big whale in this underground river that felt bottomless.

Even though his ears had long been submerged by the river water, Bilbo could still vaguely hear the elves singing happily in the wine cellar with the sound of the river water. Perhaps due to various coincidences, these optimistic elves have not yet been released from their prison.

There is news that the dwarf prisoner Li has already escaped from prison.

The songs from the elves did not stay in the hobbits' ears for long. After floating for a while, the songs also disappeared in a sudden turn.

Soon, a gray light appeared in the darkness ahead. He could hear the sound of the water gate rising slowly. At the same time, he also found that he was among a lot of containers of various sizes. He could only reluctantly let himself go.

Not to be hit by these barrels. When the barrels began to flow out, he realized that even if he just climbed up the barrels, it was in vain, because the cave that suddenly lowered its height did not leave any room for Hobbits.

A gap for people to pass through.

The bucket just got out and passed the low-brushing treetops on both sides. Bilbo didn't know what the other dwarves thought. Did a lot of water flow into their buckets? Some of the buckets floating close to him seemed to have water.

It was quite deep, and he guessed it was probably a barrel containing dwarves.

"I hope the lid is tight enough!" he thought, but soon he couldn't protect himself and couldn't take care of these dwarves. He barely kept his head above the water, but the cold water still made him tremble all over. He couldn't help it either.

Know whether you will freeze to death before your luck changes, how long you can survive, or whether you should risk swimming to shore.

Not long after, the hobbit, who had been unlucky many times along the way, finally received one of the few good fortunes in his adventure: the fast river washed several barrels to the old trees near the shore.

On the root, Bilbo seized the opportunity and climbed up while the barrel was relatively stable.

He was soaked and lying on the bucket, trying to keep his balance. Although the wind was also very cold, it was much better than the extremely humid river water.

However, this good situation did not last long, and Bilbo could only stare at the barrels dejectedly before they began to collide with each other and were washed into the river again.

At this time, it became very difficult to maintain the balance of the body, but the dexterous hobbit still managed to do it despite his body shivering from the cold.

The only thing that was lucky was that Bilbo's light weight still fit into the bucket, and the holes in it allowed him to hold a lot of water. This feeling was like trying to ride a round horse without a saddle.

It's like a pony, and this horse wants to roll on the ground all the time.

In this way, Mr. Baggins finally reached a place where the trees on both sides were sparse. He could see the pale sky, and the dark river suddenly opened up and merged with the dense forest river flowing out in front of the king's gate.

The surrounding river surface no longer seemed to be shrouded in shadow, reflecting the clouds and stars in the sky. Then, the rapids of the dense forest river washed all the barrels to the north bank, where there was an entire alluvial sandbar, and to the east was a

A whole rock acted as a barrier, blocking the flow of the river. Most of the barrels were washed up on the beach, and only a few hit the huge rock.

There were many elves standing on the shore. They quickly collected the barrels together and waited to deal with them tomorrow morning.

Seeing that the opportunity to go ashore to rest for the night was just around the corner, Bilbo, who had been frozen for a long time, didn't care what happened to the dwarves in the other barrels.

Without any hesitation, he quickly slipped off the bucket with his hands and feet, ran to the shore, and finally sneaked into the house near the shore.

As long as he had the chance, he would immediately stuff things into his mouth and eat without thinking. He had been forced to endure it for a long time before, and hunger had become his constant companion. Naturally, he would not be polite this time. In addition,

He also discovered a campfire, which was an alluring sight to him, wet and in rags.

.....

The brief personal break on the shore was not without its difficulties.

At least for a hobbit who is not that tough, the cold wind on the shore is very unfriendly to him.

No matter what you say, his wet clothes facing the cold wind can't change the bad situation that he may have a cold.

Not long after this, Bilbo sneezed loudly.

Despite the uncomfortable cold, Bilbo survived the night. He even rushed back to the barrel before the elves had packed it up. To his surprise, the elves actually chose to put the barrel in the river.

The wooden barrels are held together with ropes to form a strangely shaped raft.

The elves used long poles to push the raft away from the shore. Panting and exerting their strength, the elves finally pushed everything into the water. The barrels were now all tied together, floating and sinking in the water.

"It's really heavy this time!" the talkative elf complained: "Judging from the way the barrels are floating up and down in the river, maybe some barrels are full at all."

"I don't want to waste time doing these troublesome things of picking and choosing." I heard another elf who seemed to be the leader ordering: "Let go, just let these barrels leave along the river and return to the group of humans.

Go, that’s where they come from anyway.”

After hearing what the leader said, the elves naturally nodded and let him go.

The raft formed by tied wine barrels that the dwarves rode quickly left the shore and disappeared from the eyes of the elves, heading towards the long lake where the human towns were located downstream.

After experiencing this extra twist and turn, the dwarves who were still in the barrel could finally feel relieved like Bilbo.

In any case, they finally escaped from the underground prison of the cold elven kingdom.

Even if they need to work hard to deceive the human guards' detection, the dwarves who feel they have escaped are still optimistic.
Chapter completed!