Bilbo could not sleep. He was too anxious about being on the verge of entering Erebor and facing the dragon, Smaug. He did not know which would be worse to face - a fire drake, or the disappointment of the Company if they could not breech the secret entrance. He wished Gandalf was with them, to give him advice.

Bilbo thought he had been pacing aimlessly, but he found himself approaching Dwalin, who had taken first watch. Dwalin, the first Dwarf Bilbo had ever seen, remained the most intimidating to him. Bilbo had established respect with the regal and doubtful Thorin, and camaraderie with the rest of the Dwarves. But all progress with Dwalin had been lost when Kili was lost. All of the Dwarves had grieved, but Dwalin had not joined them in reminiscing about Kili. Dwalin alone had shut himself away, with no moments of hopefulness about the remainder of their journey.

"Good evening, Mister Dwalin." Bilbo said. "Would you care to share a pipe?"

Dwalin nodded an agreement, and reached for his own pipe. "Never much for smoking, but it does keep the gnats away." Dwalin lit his pipe and said. "I never liked bugs, except maybe beetles."

Hmmph, beetles. First time I spent time with Kili, he was just a little whelp and Dwarf pox was going around. All the little ones had it, even Fili, who was never sick. Thorin brought Kili to me and said he needed me to watch the lad for a few days, maybe a week.

I said, 'Have you lost your mind? These are bachelor quarters, no one here knows how to tend to a little one'.

Thorin said all the family men he thought to ask had Dwarflings with the pox and Dís did not want Kili to catch it.

I said, 'Let him get the pox and get over it, like we all did.'

Thorin said that is exactly what he told his sister, but she wasn't having it. Dís said Kili was not as strong as other Dwarflings. He was too thin and if he had to have pox, he needed to be older and the only one sick so the healers themselves could tend to him.

'You can't expect a mother to be rational.', Thorin said. Then he put little Kili down on the floor and says 'Be a good boy, mind Mister Dwalin, and go to bed now'.

Kili scuttled off across the floor and I says, 'Is he not old enough to walk!?'

Thorin said Kili could walk, and talk, and was as housebroken as anyone else at that end of the living quarters. 'He decided this morning that he was a beetle, and well, that is what children do'.

Then, Thorin lit out of there before I could finish my argument.

Kili slept at the foot of the bed, all curled up. In the morning he scuttled all over the floor and decided that he had to pry into everything within reach, since that is what beetles did.

I got crazy babysitting in that little room for a full day, so I took him out laying trap lines the next. He scuttled all over the grass and burrowed anywhere he could.

He ate everything I put in front of him, including a stick of wood I used as a test of how far he'd take acting like a beetle. I had to pull that back fast. Slept curled up at the foot of the bed.

The third day, I was getting used to this beetle behavior when he walks upright, sits in a chair and says 'Good morning , Mister Dwalin'.

I said, 'That is not how a beetle behaves.'

Kili told me. 'I am not a beetle anymore. My spots falled off.'

I lifted his shirt and damned if he hadn't had pox the whole time and beat it like it was nothing.

Funny little boy. Fooled everyone."