A treasure map. Betta pushed a strand of hair behind her right ear. Her fingers touched the line of her scalp and she frowned. She recognized the style of the work on the page. She had seen something like it once before and would never forget…

"It's a pearl," Kili said. "But it can't be. It's too large, and it's purple."

"Purple?" Betta looked up.

Fili held up the pearl so that it caught a beam of sunlight from one of the shafts cut into the ceiling. The sun shone off the blue pearlescent surface of the stone, rippling like water. There was a depth to the pearl that was rich and wonderful; it's colors ranged from deep blue to purple to nearly black, and if had been set in silver on an elven crown, it couldn't have been more beautiful.

Kili stared in amazement. "It must be worth…"

"Not so much as you believe," Fili told him. "Not enough to be a treasure in itself, but it would fetch a good price in an honest market." His words were restrained but there was a light in his eyes. He was thinking of all the ways that he could set this stone, in silver or on golden thread, to enhance its beauty. It wasn't a priceless treasure, but it was a thing of worth and value, and if there were more… Well, that would be a treasure.

"What does it say?" he asked, looking at the pages Betta had laid out on the table.

She shook her head. "I need time to make it out. It's a map. It is definitely a map. I recognize these markings, but…" She frowned and squinted at a shape and symbol on the south east square of paper. "Fornost?" she said, not meaning to speak it aloud.

"Fornost?" Kili echoed. "That was once a city of Men, was it not?"

"It was," Betta said. "I learned my history in Gondor. My father would be ashamed if I did not know the ancient home of the Northern Kingdom. But Fornost was lost in the wars with Angmar and fell into ruin, nearly one thousand years ago."

"That hill is on most maps, anyway," Kili said. "I have not seen it, but they say that it is only a grassy hill now, though one littered with fallen towers and broken stone."

"That is Fornost," Betta said, putting her finger on the small mark on the page. "And this is a line of other hills, perhaps Ered Luin, perhaps Hithaeglir." She frowned and peered at the small letters. She had thought that she had the four squares arranged right, but now, she was not certain. The smoke was in her eyes and the old writing was faded.

She looked up and saw Fili was watching her intently. The pearl in his hand was proof that there could indeed be a treasure out there. He had every intention of holding her to the deal that they had made, but there was no hiding from his searching eyes that she was beginning to regret having made it.

"Well?" he said. "What do you say this is?"

"I don't pretend to be an expert in such things, but it would seem to be a, ah…"

"A treasure map?" Kili suggested, hopeful.

She sighed. "It would seem so."

Kili looked at her then at the pearl. He looked at his brother and let out a roaring laugh. "We're going on a treasure hunt!" he cried and pulled them both into his arms.

Betta was shocked by the embrace, too shocked to react. Fili, too, seemed caught by surprise, and surprised that she had been included. He was nearly as pleased with their luck as his brother, however, and he gave her a friendly pat on the arm before releasing himself from Kili's hold.

"Brother! We will have our adventure!" Kili laughed.

"We will need a plan, first," Fili said, taking up one of the pages. "There's more written here than a simple map. We'll need to know every word. We need warm clothes for the winter, supplies and food, and…"

"We'll have to tell Thorin."

Fili frowned at his brother, and Kili winced. He looked down at Betta, who was pretending not to notice she was still crammed tightly under his sweaty arm. Kili let her go, and Fili pulled him aside for a word. This time, they spoke together in the Common Tongue, and Betta strained her ears to listen.

"We have to tell Thorin," Kili insisted. "We can't just go running off into the wild without giving some explanation. He'll have the whole mountain after us."

"And what do you suggest we tell him? That we found a strange set of papers that may be a map. And this map may lead us to a treasure, but we won't know until this woman translates them. This human woman, who we've allowed into the mountain against his law."

"He doesn't need to know that part," Kili muttered. "What was your plan, then?"

Fili frowned. He didn't actually have a plan. For all that he had hoped for an adventure, he honestly hadn't believed that there would be anything useful in the box, and had put off making plans until it was opened.

They didn't know now, not for certain, that the pages would be useful in any way. Just because it was a map, didn't mean that it lead to treasure. And if the map was as old as Betta's tale suggested it might be, there was no guarantee that any treasure that it had once led to would still be there for them to find. The writing was nothing that Fili recognized, so they would need Betta to translate it, but he still had his doubts about the woman. It wasn't anything that he could put his finger on, but he wished that he had had more proof of her history before he had agreed to march out into the wild with her. Her story was long, but only a small part of it had been proven.

"I… will think of something," was all that he could say. He stared hard at the woman. Betta seemed focused on deciphering the pages, but it was obvious that she was listening to their talk. "I'll close up the forge. Be sure that the woman gets back to her inn without being seen, and then meet me in our room. We will speak with Thorin tonight, after we've had a chance to put our story together."

"And this?" Kili held up the pearl.

Fili took it. "Call it insurance," he said. "We've fulfilled our part of the bargain." He could see Betta watching him out of the corner of her eye. He made sure that she saw him tuck it into his pocket.