Chp. 17, the Clouds Burst

CHARGE!!!!

In the morning, Bard returns to get Thorin to accept an agreement. When the dwarf again refuses, Bard reveals the Arkenstone. Thorin is crushed, and he turns to Bilbo in rage when the hobbit reveals that he is the one who gave Bard the treasure. Thorin is about to have a Major temper-tantrum, but then one of the messengers throws off his cloak and is Gandalf.The wizard commands Thorin to let Bilbo speak. The hobbit claims that he only took his fair share of the treasure as his contract as burglar had said. Thorin has no choice but to agree, and he offers to pay a fourteenth part of the treasure to regain the stone. The men and elves like this. Thorin, however, secretly hopes that before they make the exchange, other dwarves, who are marching toward the mountain with an army under the leadership of Dain, will be able to capture the stone by force.The new dwarf army threatens the elves and men, when they are about to fight Gandalf tells them that a new danger has come: an army of goblins and Wargs who intend to take the treasure for themselves. The dwarves, elves, and humans are thus united against the goblins and Wargs in what is called the Battle of the Five Armies. The end seems close at hand when the hobbit’s keen eyes spy something in the distant skies: the great eagles are flying toward the battlefield. At that moment, however, a stone falls from the mountain and hits Bilbo on the head, and he loses consciousness.