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Kili kept his arrow ready but lowered his aim. The man approached the fire slowly, giving the dwarves wide berth. When he noticed the woman sitting among their baggage he seemed to hesitate and glanced at the dwarves, but then he nodded to her and moved to the other side of the fire. Betta sat quietly, and under her cloak, her hand was on her knife. The stranger set aside his bow but did not remove his sword. He showed them as he tied down the hilt to the scabbard, and Fili nodded, accepting the compromise.

Then the man crouched down before their fire and held his hands over the embers, stirring and blowing on them to bring up the heat. He looked at the small pile of wood that they had and shook his head.

"At least I can do this for you," he said, "in payment for your trust." He took the bundle of wood from his back and untied it. "I will soon go where there are trees, but you, I think, do not." There were some thin twigs and kindling in his bundle, but also thick and dense branches of hardwood that would burn for a long while. He laid a small fire and nursed the embers until they cracked with flame and heat.

Fili would not turn down the wood, but his patience was wearing thin. "Who are you," he demanded. He stood with arms crossed over his chest. Kili had seen the stranger's interest in Betta, and he moved to stand near to her, guarding her. He put his bow and arrows away but knew that he could draw his sword faster than the stranger.

Kili had placed himself to protect the injured and least able member of their party, but Fili stood where he was between his brother and the man, and his hand was upon the handle of his axe.

The stranger took no notice of their weapons or their posture. He pulled his cloak under him and sat down as if he were among friends, but when he looked at each of them in turn, his gray eyes were sharp and searching. Both woman and dwarves met his gaze without flinching.

Seemingly satisfied, the man said, "My name is Harandir, and my people wander the land of Eriador. Those who have seen us call us Rangers."

The title was known to Fili and Kili, and Betta looked at the stranger with new interest. There were Rangers in the southern lands, men of Ithilien who were brave and strong-armed, and she wondered what sort of man would be a Ranger of the North.

Harandir spoke on, "As guardians, we range from Nenuial to the Ettenmoors, from the north of the North Downs to the wooded regions of the Last Bridge over Mitheithel, and west to Sarn Ford over Baranduin which we guard; even into Dunland we wander at need, along the steep paths of Hithaeglir. But as all wise men do, we avoid the haunted land and seldom wander so far north and west as this."

"Why do you then?" Fili demanded.

Betta frowned at the discourtesy that she heard in his words. Her mother had always spoken kindly of the Rangers. One had once come on errand to the village near her father's farm. She had seen him, and he had spoken with her youngest brother and showed the older boys his sword. He had also spoken clearly that swords were tools and not toys; it was then, she suspected, that two of her elder brothers at least had set their sights on serving in Gondor's armies one day.

"I track a party of orcs east from the Ettenmoors," Harandir told them.

"You hunt orc alone?"

"Indeed, for no other of my people could be spared to go with me. But the orcs travel fast, and I lost their trail over the hard ground east of Nenuial. I turned north, thinking that they might come this way, but I found the mark of three ponies instead. I followed, wondering of what sort of folk you were, wanderers in the wild north, but now that I see you, I know that you are no danger, and I will return to hunting orc."

"I would not trouble myself further for them," Kili said with a smile.

Harandir raised his eyes to the dwarf.

"We were attacked on the western side of Evendim and killed four orcs there," Fili told him. He described the attack in the ravine and the orcs that they had seen, leaving out only that Betta had failed in her watch and that she had been injured. He did not want to reveal the weakness in their company.

"That was good work," Harandir said when Fili had finished his tale.

"Good, but it was not done soon enough," Betta said. "They killed two men and a young boy west of the River Lhun."

Harandir appeared troubled by the news. "It is bad indeed if orcs have grown so bold that they cross the river as well as the open plain. The western shore should have been better guarded."

"We do not know for certain that it was done by orcs," Fili said.

"There were orc arrows," Kili reminded him.

Harandir looked back and forth between them. His eyes were sharp and saw more than Fili would have willingly revealed to him. But always, the man's gaze rested longest on Betta.

"The news is good, at least," he said finally, "that four of them are certainly killed. I will seek for their bodies to be sure that they are the party for which I sought, but I do not doubt your word. The description fits the ones that I have tracked." Harandir nodded and looked down into the fire.

"Might I ask what business brings you to Arnor?" he asked, not looking up. "It is not merely for the killing of orcs."

"I did not know that we needed the leave of any Man to cross a forgotten realm," Fili said. "There is no king to grant such leave even if we had the desire to ask for it."

"Arnor is not wholly forgotten," Harandir said. "And I did not say you needed the king's leave. I only asked your business. When I saw your camp, and knew that you were not evil creatures, I wondered what brought you to the cold lands. I thought perhaps you were lost, and so I turned aside from my own path to offer aid. Few even of the dwarves wander north of the bridge since the fall of the Witch-king." His eyes fell upon Betta again.

"You are no dwarf," he said, "and if my ears are not deceived, though it is long since I heard it, your speech is that of the southern coasts of Gondor. I most especially wonder what brings you here, and in such strange company."

"You wonder many things, Ranger," Fili said, growing angry. He did not like being called strange by any man.

"Our business is none of yours," Kili told him. He put his hand on his sword.

But Betta was not angry. "I travel with them willingly," she said, "if that is why you ask."

Kili looked down at her, and he remembered her words at the Wall before the Dwarf Halls of Ered Luin when she had tried to convince him that he and his brother should not follow her on this journey. When they first set out, she had not been willingly in the company of dwarves.

Fili was frowning at the Ranger. He did not trust the man but, in spite of her guarded words, he believed that Betta would trust him gladly. The northern kingdom had once been under the banner of Gondor, and she was born of that land. In his heart, Fili knew that her loyalty would always lie with her own folk, with Men and not with Dwarves. It troubled him, the divide that was between them, but he did not know why; his own loyalty would always be first with his kin and with other dwarves.

Harandir watched their faces and seemed in doubt of what he saw there. "If my words have given offence, then I apologize," he said. "It was not intended. Even you must admit that it is unusual to find a woman travelling in the company of Dwarves, but if you say that you are willing, then I will take you at your word." His words were directed at Betta, and his voice was gentle, but his eyes were on the dwarves, and his look was stern.

"I have given you my name and told you of my intentions here. If you wish to keep your business a secret that is your own choice, but I caution you that you are come to dangerous lands. Not all whom you meet here will be as understanding as Harandir the Wanderer. Fewer still will offer you their aid, for I know these lands perhaps better than you and might give you direction."

"You are very free with your trust," Fili muttered.

Harandir nodded but did not answer. Fili looked at his brother, but Kili only shrugged. They had already spent two days searching snow and cold for marks in a land that they did not know. Now that they had crossed the bridge, even Fili's dim memory was useless and Betta had not given them a clear direction in days. If Harandir had knowledge of northern Eriador and the surrounding hills, then his advice could save them many more days of blind searching.

He might also know something of the history of the land that could help them with Betta's riddle, Fili thought. She had told them that the writing on the back of the map was of little use to their current quest, and the map itself was vague and difficult to interpret. Even if Fili trusted her word when she said that she knew no more than what she had already told them, she had suffered as much as they had from the cold, and he knew that she would not have allowed them to wander so aimlessly if she had had better directions to follow.

Fili also knew that it should be Betta's choice whether to tell Harandir her story or to keep it a secret known only to their company; it was her quest that they were on, not his. He had often said that she would take up the reins of their journey once they crossed the bridge and his knowledge failed, but now that it had come time to do it, he found that he could not lay down leadership so easily. The finding of the treasure was as important to him to bring it before his uncle as proof of his nephews success; indeed, it was more important to the dwarves, and if he allowed Betta to make the choice, then she might choose against his will. He did not trust her enough to allow it, but if he fought with her, then he would be breaking their truce. Fili had much more practice making up his own mind than seeking the advice of others.

"We come on a quest with this woman," he told the Ranger, "for her people were once of this land, and in the north she thinks to find the answers to a riddle of her past."

Kili looked at his brother and shook his head. Asking for advice regarding the lay of the land was one thing, but he had not guessed that Fili would betray the true purpose of their quest to a stranger. At least he should have consulted the other two members of his party first.

Against Kili's advice, Fili had refused to trust Betta with the secret of Erebor, but through their talk of other stories, they had led her to believe that they did trust her. She did not know what they held back, and in return, she had told them many things about her family that she might otherwise have kept to herself. Kili knew that it was not their right to tell her tale as if it were their own, but Fili had made up his mind.

In Betta's eyes, Kili saw the same confusion that he felt in his heart. He hoped that she would speak up and stop Fili from making this mistake, but she sat with her hands folded in her lap and said nothing. No good could come of this.