Kili started a fire. They needed to dry their only clothes now, so they might as well eat a hot meal.

Rhavaniel had found bricks of salt in the Dwarf house and brought some with them. Kili used them now to make a circle around them and their fire, to keep the leech away. He could see the leech peeping at them from the water, and threw a chunk of salt at her. She hissed and dove away.

Rhavaniel was abject in her apologies, "I am so sorry. You never should have gone in the water after me. You might have drowned, and then we would both have been lost for my foolishness. You might have drowned...I thought you said Dwarves cannot swim?"

"We are not supposed to be able to swim." Kili said. "I had hoped it was shallow enough that I could walk to you, maybe hold my breath long enough to reach you and walk out with you. It was a foolish thought, but it was something I was told a brave Dwarf would do. But I floated, and instinct told me what to do."

"If I am Aulë's Elf, perhaps you are a Dwarf made by Ilúvatar himself?" she suggested.

"No story that beautiful explains me." said Kili.

Rhavaniel could tell that Kili was upset at being abnormal for a Dwarf, even though that difference was advantageous, "I suppose only most Dwarves cannot swim, and that was enough for Dwarf mothers to raise all of you to fear water."

"I suppose that is the reason." Kili said, unconvinced.

Rhavaniel put her head in her hands, "I should have known something was wrong. I do not know what I was thinking. I have never seen a leech that size, that shape, with a face...do you think that was what sang to me?"

Kili nodded, "It smelled Elf blood. It came looking for you all the way down to our shelter we thought was safe. That was my fault."

Kili sat down beside Rhavaniel, "I am taking you home now, as I should have done the day we met. I am the one who has been childish and not nearly as smart as you thought I was. I dragged you along on a dangerous journey because...because I did not want to be alone, and I only now realize the full depth of my transgressions."

"You are not to blame." Rhavaniel assured him, "I could have asked you to take me back, or left on my own. I did not want to be alone, either. Forgive me for saying it, but we are both too young to be out here. We should both be safe at home, but ...I think maybe neither one of us really has a home, do we?"

Kili shook his head. "Blue Mountain is beautiful...on those days you can forget it is mined out, hunted out, and the land not suited from growing much. I didn't want to turn back and walk away from that little bit of hope for something better."

"You are my 'something better'." Rhavaniel rested her head on Kili's shoulder. "So we are equally at fault, if one could even lay fault. We did not think of the future beyond surviving to the next day. We never even discussed what to do with me when we finally reached the Iron Hills."

Kili looked down at the ground in shame, "And here I must confess more of my faults. I lied. We were never going to the Iron Hills, but to Lonely Mountain itself."

Rhavaniel sat up and looked at him, "But the Mountain is sealed. Nothing lives there but the sleeping dragon."

"There's a way in, a map and a key. My Uncle has them."

"Oh." Rhavaniel pondered silently for a moment. "I was overdue in my life to be lied to. I needed to know what it looked like. I can forgive you for this lie, because you had no reason to trust me when we first met. You are telling me now, when you do trust me. Why should I be angry - because you did not predict the future and confide then a secret that was not even yours to share? No, I am not upset about that lie."

"But you are upset." Kili said, noticing the welling tears.

"I am upset because you are going on a dangerous quest. My first parents went on a quest, and they never came back to me."

Kili took Rhavaniel's hand in his, "I know, and I am sorry about that. I wish I knew what their quest was, because it must have been important for them to leave you, even for a moment."

"What is your quest for?" she asked.

"It is for the fate of my people. I am sure you have heard the tales of treasure, and yes there is gold in the Mountain, but it is about more than that. My people are scattered and... failing. They don't even have enough hope in the future to have Dwarflings. We need a homeland.

We used to live well beside the tribe of Man in Erebor. That is what happens when there is enough to go around. But in the West where we are all poor, it changed. Now, Man leaves us to fight the Orcs on our own, hoping our two tribes will destroy each other and they will be done with us...as if Dwarves and Orcs were the same. That is how my father died, fighting Orcs, with no help from any but a few Dwarves.

But the signs are here now. There is a chance for all of my people to have a place in this world again. This quest is greater than me, and what I might want."

"But what would you want for yourself," Rhavaniel asked him, "if you could choose?"

"I have been told my whole life about brave Kings - my ancestors - who conquered this land to provide a good life for their people. I want to live a part of that destiny - to take back what is ours. I have always wanted that. I've trained my whole life for it. I felt blessed that I would finally have that chance. I was afraid I was too young to come with Uncle Thorin, but Fili convinced him I was ready. Now, I realize Fili was wrong. A warrior, a real Prince of Erebor, would have taken you to a safe place first, then set out again on his quest."

Rhavaniel began to protest.

"No." Kili stopped her. "You were a little bird that fell from a nest. I should have put you back. Instead, I took you away with me like a selfish child. I need to set that right."