Middle-earth, and all who dwell within it, belongs to Tolkien. I am grateful to him for growing this beautiful garden in which our imaginations can play. Please review!

Kili woke suddenly and sat up. For a moment he thought himself back at home at Ered Luin, waking up in his bed in the room that he shared with his brother, but the mattress on his bed had never been so hard, and the walls of that room, though made of stone, were smooth, not rough and cold as the rock behind him now. His heart beat fast and he felt a cold sweat drip down his back, but as he looked around, he could not discover what had woke him.

The fire had burned low and the moon was high in the sky. It was well past the hour when Betta should have woke him for his watch, but she hadn't. He looked around and did not see her. Fili still lay beside him, fast asleep and snoring, but there was no sign of anyone else. What had woken him, then? He thought that it had been the old owl crying in the woods again, but the feeling at the back of his neck told him that it was no owl.

Far up the ravine, Kili heard the snap of a branch that echoed loudly in the night. He thought that he heard something else, a grunt or a gasp that cut off sharply. Silently and slow, he stood up and reached for his sword.

Fili stirred, feeling his brother move. He muttered a curse. "What are you…?"

"Quiet!"

Fili took his sword in hand. He stood up, wide awake and wary. The brothers put their backs together and looked out into the darkness, their eyes searching. It was too quiet. There was no sound of bird or insect, not even the wind whispered in the branches of the trees.

"Kili, what is...?"

And then there came a scream, the same scream that they had heard coming up from the plain the night before, and the same scream that had woken Kili, although he had been too fast asleep to remember it. There was no mistaking it for an animal this time.

A dark shape burst through the trees out of the ravine, running towards them. For an instant, Kili thought it must be Betta fleeing from whatever creater had made the scream, and then the clouds broke and the moon, nearly full, shone down on the twisted black face of an orc. It leapt into the air and down upon the dwarves. It was small and thin, more bone than meat, but it held two long, jagged knives with sharp teeth.

Kili spun around, swinging his sword. There was the crack of metal cutting bone and the orc's head was separated from its shoulders. It fell to the ground and bounced away into the dark. A moment later, the lifeless body collapsed in a heap at their feet.

Kili laughed. "Well, that was…"

A second orc jumped down from the cliffs above them onto Fili's back, shrieking and clawing with sharp nails. It sank its teeth into Fili's shoulder. With a shout, he ducked his head and threw the creature aside. The orc tucked and rolled with a practiced movement that belied its twisted limbs. It landed on its feet and hissed with a malice that was hotter than fire. It cursed the dwarves in its own foul language, but it feared the cold iron in their hands and did not attack. Turning on its heels, it loped away down the hill toward the plain, its red tongue lolling from its gasping mouth.

"It's going to escape!" Fili cried, holding his shoulder where the orc had bitten him.

"It won't," Kili said.

He took up his bow and fit an arrow to the string. He took sight and with the last of the failing moonlight, he loosed his arrow.

It struck its mark. The orc fell with the feathered shaft sticking out of the back of its neck. The dwarves stood still for several minutes, straining their ears for any sound, but all was quiet and slowly the night insects began to chatter again and in the trees they heard the call of an owl. It was a real owl, this time, and the dwarves relaxed to hear it.

Fili touched his shoulder carefully, feeling his injury. The orc's teeth had done more damage to his coat than to his body, but it's clawed hind leg had pierced the leather and scratched him. It was not a bad wound, but it was a sharp pain and it angered him. He kicked over the headless body of the orc that had fallen near the fire.

"Weak and skittish creatures," he muttered. "These are not the great orcs of the eastern lands, nor do they come from the mountains. The goblins there do not often attack, but when they do they come in overwhelming numbers or set sneaking traps to ensnare their prey without needing to face weapons."

"Where are they from, then?" Kili asked. "And are these the throat-cutters who attacked the camp of our friends from the inn?"

"If I were forced to guess, then I would say that they are not. These orcs are only scavengers who ventured out of the mountains of Angmar and are not part of a greater host. They were scared and have not eaten well. Probably they are more used to raiding farms and stealing food or attacking one and two travellers at a time who are unarmed and unwary. They did not expect to meet dwarves this night."

"Lucky for us," Kili said, but he laughed and held up his sword. "That was hardly a fight! Shall we hunt the hills now or wait until morning to drive out any remaining rats?"

Fili was not laughing. He was thinking of orcs and their sharp knives. Throat-cutters, Kili had called them. Sneak-thieves in the night. Fili could think of no other reason why Betta had not woken them or made a sound. The only sign of her was the rumpled blankets on the ground where he had last seen her sitting, looking up at the sky. He should never have agreed to let her take the first watch.

Kili had been swinging his sword, delighting in his victory, but then he stopped to look around. Fili guessed that he had finally missed the sound of his audience; certainly, if she had been there, Betta would not have passed up the chance to point out that Kili had delivered the killing blow to two orcs while all Fili had done was shake loose the one that had got caught in his hair.

"Where is Betta?" Kili asked, looking at his brother.

But Fili shook his head. "We will look for her body in the morning."

The End... or is it? Okay, it isn't. I'm grateful to those of you who've wandered thus far along my poor and long-winded tale. Nothing brightens my day like your wonderful comments and reviews. I am not too proud to beg.

-Paint