They found him later on that night, curled over upon himself in a dusty storage chamber filled with ancient artifacts. Without a word, they placed themselves on either side of him and simply held him as he wept. The tears were endless, and he feared his inability to stop them. He felt so ugly and useless and weak as he gasped heavily and sniffled against them. Kili braced his hand along the back of his neck and pressed their foreheads together as Nadi shushed him gently and stroked his hair.

"It's okay. It's alright," Nadi said quietly. "You're safe here, see?"

Fili took a shuddering breath in and let his head fall to rest against her chest. Moisture from the snot and tears was beginning to melt along his collar and dampen the front of his shirt. The last time that he had cried had been many, many years ago. He had been a toddler then, and his mother had just finished reprimanding him for not keeping a good enough eye on Kili. The younger brother had fallen out of a tree and knocked his mouth against a jutting boulder. The wound was superficial, and yet the sight of Kili's wailing and bleeding mouth had been enough to drive Dis into a frenzy.

Fili hadn't cried since.

This night, however, unleashed a reservoir of emotions that he had repressed for so long. Though the direness of his predicament was unsettling, it was the abuse from Thorin that had finally broken him. Never, ever in all of his years alive, had Thorin raised a hand against his nephews. And Fili could count on his fingers the number of times that Thorin had raised his voice against them during their youth. His cheek still stung where his king had hit him. There'd be an ugly mark there for days to come, he could see it in Kili's eye when he lifted his head and hissed in sympathy.

"Don't," Nadi said suddenly. "Don't go thinking that you deserved it. He had no right to lay his hands on you."

It was as if she had read his mind. "So what does that say for me when I put my hands on you the other night?" Fili asked.

"You what-" Kili started.

"Strike it from your memory," Nadi said quickly. "I'm sure that you have learned your lesson. And if you haven't-" she gestured at her belt and Fili smiled weakly.

"As always, you are too kind. Kili," he said, turning to his brother. "What have you to say of this cursed blood that we share?"

"I say it's shite."

"For once, I agree with you. Nadi, my dear lady. I am sorry-"

"No." She dismissed his apology with a quick flutter of her hand. "You did not know that he would react the way that he did. You still maintained trust in your uncle. I cannot fault you for that."

"But you warned me - you warned us that he had changed!"

"And so? You did not see it. Gold-sickness is a subtle and slow-acting poison that works beneath the surface. You wanted to see the best in him - you had to, for your own sanity. I cannot imagine the weight that you, as his nephew, now bear knowing that he has become…" she paused and considered her words carefully. "...obsessed."

"That's putting it lightly," Kili said thoughtfully. He lifted himself and moved closer to Fili. The sight of his handsome brown eyes was comforting. Fili could see in them that Kili still trusted him to do the right thing, and perhaps he had never lost that trust at all. Kili's kinship and loyalty was vivifying. It instilled in Fili a sense of strength where he had once thought all was lost. "Nadi's proposition, about Laketown. You must take it. What have you to lose?"

"Everything that we've worked so hard for." Fili pushed himself up and quickly wiped the remnants of tears away from his eyes. "It'd be like starting all over again, with much less promise."

"I can promise you that whatever lies beyond Erebor's doors would suit you much better than the darkness crowding these halls. Fili…" Nadi put her hands over his and sighed. "Kili and I have already agreed to leave tomorrow morning. You don't have to become master of Lake-town if you don't want to but, please. I urge you. Come with us. Leave all of this horror and terror behind."

"But Thorin-"

"Thorin doesn't have to know. Let him stay here and wallow in his own filthy desolation."

"Come on, brother!" Kili added, shaking his shoulders. "He hit you! And he threatened Nadi's life! Who's to say that he won't do it again and go through with it this time? Our lives are worth more than the Arkenstone will ever be!"

"You don't understand-"

"No, I do. Fili. You have to stop thinking of me as your naive little brother. I know you, Fili, and I know your worth. You deserve to be out there in the world, free from our uncle's shadow! You are your own Dwarve and you are…wonderful." Kili snatched his brother's hands from Nadi and kissed them, swiftly. "If you can't bring yourself to make such a decision, then let me do it for you. You know that I have always - and will always - have your best interest at heart."

"Until death?" Fili asked, the corner of his lip upturned slightly.

"Aye. Until death. Along the mirror that reflects the daughter of blood unspooling in peaceful water, turn your eye to the wayward crows, that herald the warrior in deathly throes," Kili recited this last part quietly. Nadi looked between the two Dwarves with confusion, but they ignored her for the most part. "Now, more than ever, we must seek out our freedom…while we can."

"You are right," Fili said. "Though it sickens me to admit it."

"Wait, hold on." Nadi shuffled her way between the two and put her hands on their shoulders. "Kili, what was that that you just said? It sounds familiar. Was it a poem, or something?"

"Never you mind," Fili said but Nadi was having none of it.

"Never-you-mind," she repeated in an affronted falsetto. "Do not use my own lines against me!"

"Or what?" Fili mocked. "You'll get the belt?"

"Dare I say you sound excited by the idea…"

"And if I am?"

"Nadi, Fili, please-" Kili laughed and pushed the two of them away from each other. "The only thing that'll come from this raunchy little exchange is a child. Or two. Or three!"

A strange thing happened, then. Nadi gave a startled shake of her head and glanced at Kili who was holding a silly grin. Fili looked between the two of them. Nadi almost looked horrified and Kili…well, Kili just looked like the regular unaffected Kili. So he doesn't know, Fili thought as Kili began to babble about something else entirely. Nadi forced herself to look away and met Fili's eyes.

Why haven't you told him? Fili wanted to ask but Nadi quickly shook her head again and looked away. Ah, well, Fili thought to himself, it's none of my business anyway.

"Kili, silence!" Nadi commanded and Kili quickly shut his jabbering mouth. "We have much to do."

"And what is the first order of business, my dear lady?"

"Gather all of the gold that you can and store it in the Weeper's Cradle. We take our rest tonight but then tomorrow, when the morning mists start to roll along the mountain, we will leave in secret."

X

The three of them went their separate ways. Nadi slunk along the outskirts of the main floor, surreptitiously filling her pockets while watching out for the others. It was hard to tell if the rest of the Company were sleeping or if they were still searching for the Arkenstone in distant corners. If one of them were to catch her, she'd tell them that she was also searching for the Arkenstone. And if they asked why her coat was bulging, she'd cross her arms and inform them in an annoyed tone that she had almost died, for Mahal's sake, and didn't they know that peppering her with questions only served to further her trauma?

But she encountered no such opposition. Quietly, she treaded about on her tippy-toes and picked up only the most expensive-looking pieces of treasure. Her life in the forests had deprived her of the opportunity to learn about the appraisal of riches. She held a stamped coin up to a beaded line of silver jewels and wondered just what the hell made them so different anyway. At the end of the day, they were just sparkly little things ripped from the bowels of the mountain and assigned a made-up price. Unable to decide, she pocketed them both.

"Silly, pretty, pointless trinkets," she muttered to herself beneath her breath as she stooped to collect more coins. "What use are they on the battlefield when an Orc is bearing down upon your head? Or…or in the forest when it starts to rain and you have no shelter? Let me tell you, I'd rather see an eagle take flight a million times over than lay claim to-"

"Hello-"

"Aiiiee!"

"What are you doing?"

"What am I doing? What are you doing? Sneaking around and asking questions and popping up uninvited and-" she turned and stopped short. "Oh. Bilbo."

"Nadi. Now that we're clear on each other's name, would you mind-" he gestured behind him. She nodded mutely and followed behind as he began to walk away. There had been an odd look in his eye - quite harrowing - and she began to worry that he was upset with her. Never before had she seen the Hobbit look so haggard. But what could she have done to incur his wrath? She pondered this as she followed him through hall after hall. It seemed as if he was leading her back towards the reinforced wall leading out of the mountain. But why?

It occurred to her that maybe he had changed his mind and was actually upset over her hiding the Arkenstone from Thorin. After all, it was this bit of deceit that had caused Thorin to act rashly and threaten her life. Maybe Bilbo was going to give her a stern talking-to or slap her around a bit as had become the disconcerting sport of the disgruntled Company. Whatever it was he wanted to do with her, she was willing to face it with stoicism. She had come to respect Bilbo tremendously. If he decided that it was necessary to take her down a few notches, then so be it. She'd accept his punishment.

They reached the makeshift stone curtaining that had been built to block out the rest of the world. He gave a curt order for her to help him dislodge one of the boulders. Together, they pushed it out of place until it sprung from the rest and rolled across the floor. Then, without another word, he wriggled himself through the hole created and disappeared onto the outside platform.

"Here, hurry up," he said as he held his hand through the hole. She grasped it and allowed him to help pull her through the hole. "Come on…"

She slid down along the other side and landed heavily upon the stony platform. Before her lay the open kingdom of Erebor, its outskirts encircled by the fire-lit city of Dale. There, the citizens of Lake-town had taken up a temporary residence. And below her, the rocky facade of the mountain extended for miles. Shivering, her hands nestled tight in her armpits, she shuffled forward and peered along the ledge. The sight below her made her take a sharp inhale and lean back quickly. The severe drop was all too similar to her experience on the bridge. She closed her eyes against the wind whipping her hair around her face and spoke to Bilbo

"Whatever you plan to do with me, do it now-"

"What?"

"-but if you make a move to remove my clothes, I will chop off your-"

"Oh, for goodness sake! Come on!"

He turned around and led her down a set of naturally hewn stairs that had been created by the erosion of the mountain. Upon the bottom lay a smaller platform extending from a small cave. She jumped as he lit a match behind her and set it upon a bundle of dry grass that had been piled within an enclosing of small stones. The light from the fire blasted across the cave, temporarily blinding her.

"Are you hungry?" He asked as he pulled a roll of dried meat from his pocket. She accepted the piece that he tore off and devoured it ravenously. "Wait!" He cried. "You have to save some."

"Ah," she said after giving a loud swallow. "Is this your idea of a cruel punishment? Giving me a scrap of food and then denying me the rest?"

"Oh, be quiet," he said. She could see the blush that had risen along his cheek. "Here, be still, watch."

She watched in amusement as he fell to his hands and knees and crawled to the edge of the platform. Once at the lip, he began to make an odd array of sounds, much like the chittering of small woodland beasts.

"Bilbo-"

"Shush! Quiet! You'll scare them away!"

"Them?!"

"Shh! Chi-chi-chi-chi, come 'ere, chi-chi-chi!"

All was silent. Then, Nadi heard a rapid succession of clicking as if small stones were tumbling across the mountain. It grew louder as if something - or a group of things - was approaching at a rapid pace. Having recognized it as the sound of animal nails against stone, she fell to her bottom and scooted deeper into the cave. Various coins and trinkets tumbled out and scattered around the cave floor but, aside from that, her pockets yielded no weapons.

Suddenly, a horde of four-legged beasts came crashing into the cave. Their coats were full and glossy black beneath the moonlight. The smallest of them only came up to her ankle, while the largest were tall enough to reach her chest. Their teeth flashed frighteningly in their slack jaws as they surrounded her with lolling purple tongues and glacier white irises. She yelped and covered her head with her arms as they circled her curiously, their moist breath causing steam to flush along her skin. Any moment, she expected them to clamp down on one of her limbs and tear her to shreds.

But they did no such thing.

An uncomfortably warm wetness began to spread along her neck and ear as the youngest of the group began to lap at her with their tongues. She opened her eyes just in time for one of the beasts to bop its wet nose against her cheek and retreat with an excited smile along its spit-slickened jaws.

"Ah-!"

The beasts began to snuffle around her, their leathery noses tracing the scent of the dried meat. There was a wet smacking as one of the animals shoved its snout into her hand and retrieved its prize.

"H…h…" she struggled to breathe. "Hounds. They're hounds!"

"Yes, and they're quite friendly." Bilbo bent down and vigorously rubbed the neck of one of the hounds between his hands. The beast immediately dropped onto its back and rolled around to expose its pale, nipple-speckled belly. Bilbo laughed and gave it a scratch, which was met with twitching legs and flopping of the tail. "I've been coming out here for the past few nights, just to catch a breather. I befriended them quite by accident, actually."

"I…I've seen one of these before," Nadi said with difficulty. She still wasn't sure if she could trust the creatures or not. "Back in the town where I resided, after the initial desolation of the dragon. The hound was huge - m-much taller than me - with a flaxen coat." One of the juvenile hounds nipped curiously at her sleeve and she jerked her arm away. "B-but it was old and covered in lumps. I…I felt so bad for it, but I was always t-to s-scared to approach it."

"These hounds are nothing like their domesticated brethren," Bilbo said. He sat down and happily rubbed the ears of one of the larger creatures. "They're docile. They must have come to the mountain after everyone had left. That's why they're not scared of us. They've never seen a Dwarve or a Hobbit for that matter. Here." He handed her a flask. She took it and sniffed it suspiciously. "Don't worry, it's only water. I have a few crackers and candies here if you'd like."

He dug around in his pockets and produced several parcels covered in foil and tied with red twine. Then, he took his coat off and unwrapped each parcel upon the thick cloth. The hounds sniffed hungrily at the air but otherwise obeyed his curt commands to stay back. They really were quite obedient, Nadi realized, and this brought her comfort.

"I might have pocketed a few items from Bard's pantry," Bilbo admitted, having seen Nadi's questioning glance. He licked a crumb off of his thumb and continued to arrange the food in a neat circle upon his jacket. The fire crackled and let off a woodsy smoke that curled and coiled its way out of the warm cave.

"Master Burglar," Nadi teased. "You really do live up to your title. What's the occasion?"

"Ah, well," Bilbo was grinning in a very abashed way. "No harm in telling you, I suppose. I've been meaning to ask you to dinner, ever since that night when we sat on my porch and blew smoke rings at the sky. Back then, I was so sure that I wouldn't be joining the journey. But now here I am. And this is all that I have to offer you. I hope you find it suitable."

"You could offer me a rock covered in molded cheese, and I'd still find it suitable." She put her fingers to her lips and blew him a kiss across the fire. "I could not have done this without you, bâheluh."

"What does that mean, anyway?" He asked.

"It means that we will be dear friends forever, even if forever is only as long as your lifetime." Suddenly, she made a loud snorting noise with her throat. The hounds looked up in alarm and watched as she spit upon her palm and held it out to Bilbo. He glanced at her wet hand in surprise and then glanced back up at her. "You're supposed to shake on it, silly!" She said with a laugh. "But you have to spit first, on your hand, to seal the deal!"

He hesitated at the sight of her soiled fingers. Then he gave a well-I'll-be-damned sort of smile and spit neatly into his hand. "Better this than a Shire Hog Shake, I suppose," he said as he grasped her hand tightly and gave it an emphatic shake.

"What's that?"

"One day, maybe, I'll show you."

"Well, maybe one day I can show you a neat trick that I can do with an egg yolk and my left nostril! I can get a lot of distance on the first try."

Bilbo laughed boisterously. "No offense, but I hope that day is long in coming. Here, look. See. I've given them all names. That one, there. I named him Bombur because he has a large appetite. That one there is Gloin, and that's Oin. Over there, you see the twins that I've named Fili and Kili…that's Dwalin…that's Ori, the youngest, and that one, besides you. I named that one Nadi."

Nadi turned and set her eyes upon a hound that was scrawnier than the rest. It seemed to hang around the group with some trepidation, its constricted pupils riveted on Nadi's face. At first, Nadi couldn't tell why the hound seemed so different from the others. Its fur was sparse and stringy, and its face was gaunt from what Nadi assumed had been a hard life. Then she realized: its stomach was distended. Its wrinkly brown nipples almost touched the ground as it paced along the edge of the cage.

"Oh," Nadi breathed. "It's a lady."

"The mother of the group, I think," Bilbo said. Two of the juveniles had begun a rather loud wrestling match before the fire. The hound named Nadi suddenly lunged at them with a growl. The juveniles flattened their ears and lowered themselves to the ground as the mother hound licked angrily at her jowls. Nadi couldn't help it. She let out a laugh and the mother hound tilted its head at the sound. Bilbo yawned and gave a luxurious stretch. So comfortable was he with the hounds that he lay back upon the floor with his arms crossed behind his head and let them rustle for a spot beside him.

"You know, Nadi," he said after another yawn. "I noticed something. The stone that you threw at Thorin upon the bridge was the one that I had given to you, not the one that you had in your possession."

She munched on a cracker slowly, simply observing the shadows cast along the walls by the fire. "Aye," she finally said. She held the cracker out to the mother hound and was met with a curious snuffle.

"Are you still going to try and convince me that the one that you have is not the Arkenstone?"

"I wouldn't dare try to insult you."

"Any more than you already have."

Nadi smiled as the mother hound approached and then rolled onto her back. She ran her hand along the silky skin of her full belly as the hound watched her with cautious eyes. The rest of the hounds had settled into a sleepy circle around Bilbo. A few of them remained awake, playfully growling and nipping at the fur around each other's neck. For the first time in a long time, Nadi felt warm and comfortable and completely at peace. The firelight flickered upon the mother hound as she lifted her rear in a rolling stretch. Her dotted tongue uncoiled from between her jaws as she yawned. Then, after turning in a few curious circles, she collapsed onto her legs with her head upon Nadi's knee.

"You're planning something," Bilbo said tiredly. "I can see it in your face. And whatever it is, it requires the Arkenstone."

"Your perceptiveness rivals your handsomeness, Master Baggins."

Bilbo chuckled. His lashes fluttered as he battled his temptation for sleep. "Perhaps it's all for the better," he said in a faraway voice and then yawned again. "Whatever it is you're planning to do, I'd rather see the stone in your hands than Thorin's."

"You'll keep my secret?" She asked. He nodded.

"I will. Just as I will keep the secret of what you carry."

Nadi knew that he was referencing her pregnancy. But how he had found out, she couldn't even begin to guess. She looked down at the hound upon her knee and ruffled its ears lovingly. Though the hound's eyes were open, its pupils were dancing restlessly within its sockets. The warmth generated by so many living beings within such a small space had begun to make Nadi sweat. She removed her coat and placed it gently along the hound's back.

"Why haven't you told him?" Bilbo asked as his eyes fell closed. "Kili, I mean."

"Ah, well." Nadi fell quiet, her eyes on the mother hound as she stroked its domed head. Never before has she felt so close to a creature of the wild. Her palm brushed against the taught and ridged skin of its belly again as she thought, and she imagined the little hairless babies curled tight within the mother's womb. "It's complicated."

"Mmmm," Bilbo muttered in his sleep. "More complicated than going on a crusade for long-lost gold guarded by a vicious dragon?"

Nadi giggled. "Well, when you put it that way! Listen. Many years ago, I was a wee lassie. And for whatever reason, I had grown distant from Kili and Fili. I suppose I was trying to figure out what life was like away from them, trying to achieve my own independence, I suppose. Anyway, all the Dwarves in Erebor had encouraged me to seek out friendship in the womenfolk. Perhaps, they did not want me to taint their dear, precious princes." Nadi laughed good-naturedly. "And so I sought out the friendship of a girl my age named Nina. Oh, she was a wild 'un, she was, haha!

Well, one night, a group of young Dwarven men gathered in the tavern. It was an initiation right, of sorts, and Nina was adamant that we spy on them through the window. 'Just a bit of harmless fun,' she said.

And so! We set out in the middle of the night and hid along the outer walls of the tavern. Kili was there, along with his brother and a few Dwarves that I did not know. And it was a wild party, I'll tell you that. So many shirtless, sweaty Dwarven gentlemen gathered in one place! Mmph! It was magical!"

"Take it easy now," Bilbo muttered and she giggled again.

"Nina and I watched and listened from our little outpost beneath the tavern window. Most of the night was spent trying to hide our laughter as all the boys wrestled around and joked with each other. And all was going so well until they started talking about the women of Erebor. Oh, how they bragged about this and that and whom they bedded and whom they wanted to take to their chambers! It was…strange.

And then I heard someone call Kili's name. And I'll never forget what they asked him, then. They said, 'Kili. What is it like to bed the woodland whore? Are you so tired of riding ponies that you've sought out the next best thing?'" Nadi paused and simply watched her thumb trace a circle around the mother hound's head. The memory was so old that she had ceased to cry over it. But still, the thought of being slandered thus brought a lump to her throat.

"Um.." she cleared her throat uncomfortably. "And I wanted to run away and just cry then. Sometimes it was easy to forget that they all thought so low of me. But then I heard a tremendous cacophony in the tavern. The brothers Kili and Fili had overturned a table and were walloping the Dwarve who had asked the question - I mean, Bilbo, you should have seen them go at it! Fists and hair were flying everywhere! It was the most spectacular fight that I had ever seen! To this day, Kili has a missing tooth beneath his left cheek. Ask him, and he'll show you happily. Haha!

Well, the fight was broken up. And the brothers walked out to find me standing there laughing at the door. And I looked at Kili - I saw him there, standing in the light from the tavern as his brother lit a pipe - and I wanted to thank him for upholding my honor, even if it meant admitting that I had been spying on him. I…thought that, after all had been said and done, he'd pull me into his arms or smile at me or something. But he didn't. He stood there, in the doorway, and looked at me as if I was the guts of a sodden worm smeared under his boot."

She took a deep breath in and looked at the ceiling. Bilbo had fallen asleep and was snoring peacefully beneath a pile of snoozing infant hounds, but she continued anyway. "And I knew then that he had let something slip. He was disgusted with me because, for once, he saw me through the eyes of the others. I wasn't as fascinating or enticing or exciting as he once thought. For so long he had just assumed that the others saw me in the way that he did. So when the Dwarve compared me to a dirty pony, Kili realized that I truly was…odd, in the eyes of his very own brethren.

Agh. Bless him, bless his dear heart. He tried so hard to wipe that look from his face. He pulled me into an embrace and kissed my face until my skin felt numb. And all the while I squirmed and tried to fight him off. He knew that I had seen that damned look, but as always, he used his charm against me and swore that I was the 'above spectacular' and 'a woman wrought of starlight.' I could not say no to his affections - I have not been able to say no since the day he crashed Fili's birthday party. But that damned look - that damn, flitting expression of disgust has stayed with me ever since then.

And so you want to know why I haven't told him of his child? It's because I fear that he'll look at me that way again - that, in a split moment - he will reveal something that I will never forget."

She fell silent. The wood continued to crackle beneath the fire as the hounds and Bilbo snored. A heavy sense of loneliness fell upon her, even though she was surrounded by slumbering bodies. There was a magnanimity about the moment, and she realized that - if all went well - she'd never see Bilbo again. Ahead of them lay two diverging paths: he'd stay back with Thorin and she'd move forward with Fili and Kili. So why not tell him her secrets? Anyway, he was fast asleep.

"Alright," she said. Gently, he nudged the mother hound's head away from her knee and crawled hand over knee towards Bilbo. The hounds sighed and snorted in their sleep as she leaned over him and placed a kiss on his head. Up close, he looked so old and yet young at the same time. There were wrinkles etched along his chubby face, and grime clung to his cheeks and forehead. His nose gave a little twitch in his sleep and the sight of it pushed her to the verge of tears. "Goodbye, friend," she said again after kissing his forehead. "You take care now. Keep an eye on my uncle for me."

She leaned back and turned towards the entrance of the cave where rain was spattering along the ledge. A flash of lightning lit the sky, illuminating a large silhouette in the doorway. She almost screamed, but quickly put her hand over her mouth at the last second.

"B-Bombur?" She whispered in alarm, squinting at the doorway. It was indeed the heavyset member of the Company. He stood there gazing at her as he munched down on a carrot. "How did you get up here? I didn't even hear you!"

Bombur said nothing to this and she sucked her teeth. "Oh, don't give me that 'I used to be quite limber in my youth.'" She mocked. "You're not even young anymore - what?! No, I wasn't referencing your weight at all!"

Bombur chewed slowly and Nadi rolled her eyes. "You know," she said, wagging her finger at him. "You talk too much! And no, don't say that I'm just mad that you heard me voicing my secrets!" She stood up and flushed her shawl around her body in frustration. "Aye," she whispered to him. "I am leaving! And don't you go blabbing to Thorin about that, too!"

She huffed and pushed her way past him. Lightning cracked across the sky and she stood there with her head raised, simply letting the rain wash across her face. Part of her still couldn't believe that she was actually going through with her plan. With any luck, she'd never see Thorin or the rest of them again. Her life had become her own.

"Nadi," came a surprisingly pleasant voice from behind her, but it was not Bilbo's. She turned around and saw Bombur staring pensively at the carrot in his hand. Then, he snapped it in two and held out one piece towards her.

"For the babe," he said. She stared at the carrot in some confusion and then looked back up at him. His face was expressionless, but still, she had a feeling that it pained him greatly to part with his food. But it was not in their customs to decline a parting gift. And so she took the carrot and cracked it beneath her back teeth with a large grin. Nothing else had to be said, and nothing else had to be done. She turned away and hopped happily off of the ledge and onto the second platform. That night, she'd sleep alone in the Weeper's Cradle, and wake to the dawning of her new life.