This one is (I think) going to be a three parter. Changing it up a little and writing a story from Bilbo's POV (third person) While Thorin, Fili and Kili are my favorite characters, Bilbo is right up there, and I really wanted to write a story about him as the hero. I find a lot of fics make him seem kind of timid and weak, and yeah, he's a hobbit, but there's fire in that hobbit! So this one has a little bit of Bilbo being badass... in his own way ;) I hope you enjoy it. This is my first time writing Bilbo so I hope he doesn't seem OOC. I look forward to hearing what everyone thinks. I'll try and post the next part up tomorrow.

This story is set sometime on the journey, it's not specific. There's some light Kili whump in this chapter, and Bilbo whump in the next one.

Obviously do not own the characters :(

The Courage of Hobbits

A Hobbit Fanfic

Part One

"Do you think we have enough wood yet, Master Boggins?"

Bilbo refrained from sighing as Kili, purposefully this time, refused to pronounce his name right. He bent to add another stick to his growing pile, shifting it with a grunt so that he wouldn't lose any.

"Not yet, Kili, I think a little more would do."

"There's some more of here, Master Boggins." Bilbo could hear his repressed snigger. Seriously, sometimes the lad was completely infuriating. If he wasn't Thorin's nephew, Bilbo would give him a piece of his mind! He might anyway if he continued.

"Bilbo will do just fine, Kili," he said with a slight growl in his voice. He looked up to see Kili trying to keep his face solemn, apologetic, but the sparkle in his eyes betrayed that.

"Of course, Bilbo, sorry." Boggins was whispered under his breath as he turned away along with some more muffled sniggering. Bilbo did sigh this time. He liked the lads well enough, and usually would just ignore their little quips, but he was tired, sore from riding all day, and annoyed with the fact they seemed to be getting nowhere fast. To top it off, Gandalf seemed to have gone off somewhere again. After a long day of travel, he would have preferred to have any other companion besides Kili who was letting loose after the day of travel as well but far more verbally than Bilbo would. He wanted nothing more than to have a good supper and smoke his pipe before he snuggled up in his bedroll for a few hours of sleep before they would all have to get up again in the morning.

"Bilbo, look at this!" Kili called and Bilbo, interested despite himself, went over to where the young dwarf was standing dangerously close to a drop off. Bilbo instinctively took a step back, not being a huge lover of heights in general.

"Kili, step back from there," he demanded, his own unease making him snap at the young dwarf.

Kili laughed. "You sound like my mum! It's fine, look! Isn't it beautiful? The sunset is really colorful tonight."

Bilbo had to agree that the sunset was a particularly nice one. "It would be nicer back in camp with a bowl of stew; and Bomber can't make it until we bring the wood back," he said matter-of-factly.

Kili sighed but nodded. "You're right. We'd best go back." He turned around to leave with Bilbo, but in the course of doing so, his foot caught in a root and he tripped, spilling all the wood from his arms to catch himself. Bilbo had a sudden panic, but Kili grounded himself, and laughed, tossing the hair carelessly back from his face.

"That was close! Give me a hand?"

Bilbo and Kili reached out at the same moment, but the rock that was under Kili's foot suddenly gave away and he slid backward in shock for a few feet as Bilbo flung himself forward to grab him but too late. He barely touched Kili's fingers before the dwarf had slid over the side. He tried to catch himself, scrambling at the edge, but was unable to and slid over, falling and rolling down the steep, rocky slope to a ledge below.

"Kili!" Bilbo cried out, laying on his stomach to look over the edge. The dwarf lay in a heap of stones at least fifty feet below and Bilbo feared the worst, frantically wondering whether he should run for help or try to get to Kili and on top of all that, what on earth he was going to say to Thorin about how he had been unable to save his nephew from a catastrophic fall.

But then Kili stirred below him, and Bilbo let out an audible sigh of relief, leaning further over the edge, forgetting his fear of heights for a moment.

"Kili!" he called down. "Are you all right? Can you move?"

Kili sat up slowly, checking his arms and putting a hand to his head. His fingers came away with blood on them, but he seemed all right. It appeared to be just a scrape. He looked up at Bilbo and forced a smile.

"I think I'm okay; I've had worse. Toss me the rope that I left up there and I'll climb up."

He began to stand as Bilbo scooted back to find the rope and something decent to tie it to, when a gasp from below stopped him and he turned back to look at Kili, curled up on the ground.

"Kili!" he cried. "What's wrong?"

"My—my ankle," Kili said, his voice hoarse from pain. "It hurts really bad. I…I think it might be broken."

"Hold on, don't move!" Bilbo looked around for another spot. He cast a glance back at the camp, but it was too far for them to hear him if he shouted. He knew he should run back to get help, a stronger dwarf to help him get Kili up, but the sun was setting and he didn't want to leave Kili alone. Bad things came out at night and he didn't want the dwarf to be stuck on the ledge, wounded and unable to defend himself. He had left his bow back at camp and only carried a knife. Bilbo finally found a sturdy rock to tie the rope to, and he adjusted his sword belt so the blade wouldn't get in the way and tossed the rope over the side of the cliff, trying not to think of the drop as he eased himself out on it.

"I'm coming down, Kili, hold on," he said.

"Bilbo, don't! Go get help, I'll be fine!" Kili tried to protest, but he didn't look good, and Bilbo ignored him. He had already gotten on the rope anyway, and frankly, he wasn't sure whether he could get off again. He shinned down it, rather pleased with his success before he was only about five feet from the ledge and then he had to trip himself up and he let go before he turned completely upside down and only barely avoided falling on Kili. He lay there a moment, winded, then he sat up, wheezing, and crawled over to the injured dwarf. Kili was levering himself up onto one elbow, and Bilbo helped him up the rest of the way, sitting him against the cliff face.

"Let me see about your ankle," he said in a businesslike manor, grasping Kili's left boot and causing the dwarf to yelp in protest. Bilbo was undaunted, and unlaced the boot, pulling it off as gently as possible. Kili bit his lip but groans eventually found their way past his set teeth. Bilbo couldn't get the boot off without hurting him more, so he took Kili's knife from him and cut the boot off all the way. Kili bit back another yelp as he lifted the already swollen ankle from the boot, and Bilbo set it on his lap to see to it.

Bilbo knew a little bit about first aid, enough to know that the ankle really was, unfortunately, broken. He sighed and took up the knife again, tearing Kili's boot into strips.

"What are you doing?" the dwarf asked, a sheen of sweat had appeared on his brow from the pain and Bilbo patted his knee gently to reassure him.

"I'm going to make a splint for it, so it doesn't jostle too much getting you back up there."

He found several good sticks on the ledge and bound those with the leather strips around Kili's ankle. He then pulled the tail of his shirt out of his trousers and ripped it up to reinforce the cast even more. He sat back when he was finished, pleased with his work.

"How does that feel?" he asked.

"Better," Kili replied weakly. "Still hurts pretty bad though."

"Oin will know what to do," Bilbo said and stood up. "Do you think you can climb the rope?"

Kili shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe if I wait a moment. I think it would be best if you climbed it and went back to get Uncle Thorin and Dwalin to help you pull me up. No offense, Bilbo, but I don't think you could do it yourself." He smiled slightly.

"I'm inclined to agree with you," Bilbo admitted. He took a deep breath and grasped the rope. "I guess there's no other way about it." He really did try to pull himself up, but got nowhere for it. He managed a hand or two, then his body just seemed unable to support itself anymore, unable to move up the rope. He struggled until he jerked so much he nearly fell off and sent the rope swinging to and fro. Kili watched him with growing apprehension and Bilbo felt embarrassment flush him, as he struggled to climb and prove that he could do so, until he finally had to give up because there was no possible way in the world that he could do it and he would have to admit it sometime.

"Bilbo?" Kili asked.

Bilbo sighed and sank down, wrapping his arms around his drawn up knees, and shifting uncomfortably as his torn shirt rode up and bared his lower back to the rocks. "I'm sorry, Kili. I'm not cut out for this kind of thing. I can't climb the rope."

"You got down easy enough," Kili said with a smile.

Bilbo fought the need to give a sarcastic sigh. "Yes, I did that. But I wasn't thinking about the climb upward when I did. Anyone can slide down a rope!" He was silent a moment then turned to look at Kili who was struggling to keep his pain silent, but Bilbo knew better by the set of his jaw. "I'm sorry, Kili. I shouldn't have come down. I should have gone back to get the others first thing."

Kili smiled back weakly. "At least I have some company, though. Even if we are stuck, at least we're not stuck alone. Uncle Thorin is too much of a worrywart when he comes to Fili and I. I give him ten more minutes before he comes out looking for us. We should start yelling to see if anyone might already be out looking, that way they'll be able to find our direction."

"Good idea," Bilbo agreed and the two of them set to yelling out the names of the company.

"Thorin!" Kili cried. "Fili! Dwalin!"

"Balin, Bofur, Nori!" Bilbo added and they went on, yelling and yelling until they were hoarse and the sun was sinking lower in the sky. Kili struggled with the pain of his ankle, and Bilbo felt increasingly horrible about his mistake that was keeping Kili from getting proper treatment sooner.

"Gloin, Uncle, Fili!" Kili cried out again, his voice getting rougher and rougher. "Dwalin—!"

"Hush," Bilbo said suddenly. He had heard something and it wasn't coming from the right direction to be a rescue party. Below them there was a rustling and gravelly voices calling out to each other.

"Right over here, two birds caught in a trap!"

"Make a nice bit of sport for after super!" came another voice.

Kili looked at Bilbo with a sudden fear and Bilbo inched Sting out of its sheath an inch to find that it was glowing. Dread burrowed into the pit of his stomach as he stood up to meet whatever was coming, and try to defend Kili as best he could.

"Orcs," Kili hissed, shifting slightly, but wincing. Bilbo quickly got an arm under his shoulder and Kili leaned heavily on him, taking a knife from the back of his belt.

"Come," Bilbo hissed, pulling him to one side. There was a pathway down into the valley and they might be able to at least find somewhere to hide until the other dwarves found them and saw the trouble they were in.

"I don't know if we can outrun them," Kili panted, trying to suppress his pained moans each time his ankle was jostled when he came in contact with an uneven bit of ground. Bilbo grit his teeth to keep himself from showing any sympathy at that moment. He needed to concentrate on finding them a hiding place, and he couldn't even afford to worry about Kili's condition right then. He would have to wait until later. Right now, he just had to make sure he didn't drop the young dwarf and cause him even more pain.

"There!" Kili cried suddenly. A cave was right ahead of them and Bilbo sighed in relief, pulling Kili in after him and easing him down. Kili bit back a cry and Bilbo squeezed his shoulder comfortingly.

"There, now, everything will be fine soon. We'll just wait here until the others find us."

"I think they already 'ave."

Before Bilbo could register the strange voice that had startled him out of the darkness, dark figures jumped on him and Kili and fires flared up in the cave, revealing its interior to be much bigger than he had thought, and filled with orcs, jumping around in anticipation. Bilbo shot Kili a horrified glance as they were brought to the ground and bound, the young dwarf struggling as best he could, but in far too much pain to do much at all his dagger kicked from his hand. Bilbo wanted to go crawl into a hole and die. He had only made everything worse with his amateur mistake, and now it looked like both he and Kili would pay for it with their lives.