Chapters 10-12 of The Hobbit

After a long and damp trip down the river, Bilbo reaches the town of Esgaroth and hopes his friends have too. Besides being damp and quite cross with Bilbo, they are in decent shape. Thorin goes up to a captain in the town and demands to see the "Master of the Lake-town". He says he is the son of Thrain and Thror. They take him, Fili, Kili, and Bilbo to see the Master. He confirms they are who they say they are and they stay for about a week and rest up. Then, much to the Master's pleasure, they leave in search of the Lonely Mountain and its treasure. The men of Esgaroth helped them get closer to the mountain, but wouldn't take them very close.

Then the group set off into a wasteland. There were no trees and only a bush or two; it had all been destroyed by Smaug. They searched around the mountain for some time, then they found a ledge. Some of the dwarves and Bilbo went to check it out. They determined this was the spot, but couldn't figure out how to open the door or where it was. They brought everyone up there, but still didn't have any luck. Finally, one night the rock in the center of the ledge started to crack and they shoved the key into it. The key went in and they found the door! Bilbo went down and found all the treasure, but with it was Smaug. He was asleep so Bilbo only took one goblet to show them. Smaug woke up and realized some of his treasure was gone and went on a fiery rampage. Thankfully everyone hid in the tunnel before Smaug reached their side of the mountain.

When all had been quiet for a few days, Bilbo went down to see if Smaug was out. He wasn't and he was only pretending to be asleep. At the last second Bilbo slipped on his ring and Smaug couldn't find him. Instead of looking for him Smaug had a chat with Bilbo. Bilbo (being smart and kind of lucky) decided to not give away his name, but said riddles about his journey which the dragon liked. On accident though, he did mention the town of Esgaroth helping him and his friends. Bilbo left safely, but had a very bad feeling in his bones that Smaug would attack again. He did and then went down to the town of Esgaroth, and I'm sure it was not a pretty sight when he got down there.

In chapter 12, Smaug and Bilbo talked about Bilbo's journey. Bilbo didn't want to give away his identity, so he talked in riddles. This reminded me of how riddles, in a way, saved him from Gollum earlier in the book. At this point, I think the riddles saved Bilbo once again. If he had insulted Smaug with talking to him normally, that could have ended badly. I wonder why Tolkien connected Bilbo's survival to riddles in these instances. Maybe they are important in his life for some reason or maybe he just thought they went well with the story.