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Fili did not sleep at all for the remainder of the night. He sat up, watching over their small camp and thinking hard on his duty. He was responsible for his brother that much was clear. Kili lay beside him, sleeping soundly if not so carelessly as he had back in their safe room at Ered Luin. In Thorin's Mountain, there had been no reason for his nephews to sleep with weapons in their hands.

And that was another duty that Fili had to uphold. What would the great Thorin Oakenshield say to hear that his heir had turned tail and fled at the first sight of orcs? They would face goblins, orcs and worse on the journey to Erebor. They would face a dragon at the end of it!

In truth, it was only one of Thorin's nephews who was choosing to run away. Kili would have ridden on if it was his choice to make. It was Kili who had insisted that the thieves west of Lhun had been killed by orcs. Fili had refused to believe the truth in front of his eyes, and Fili had chosen to camp on the very threshold of the orcs' make-shift den in the ravine. At the least, they should have explored the valley and not sat out in the open for all to see.

It seemed that all of Fili's choices had gone wrong since setting out on this journey. Even the choice to stay at an inn on their first night had exposed them to danger. What right did he have to lead their company, except that he was the elder brother? Would it not be more fitting to abdicate the role to the woman who carried the map and purpose of their quest? Kili already seemed more than happy to follow her and take her side against his own brother.

Perhaps Thorin was right, and they should have never left Ered Luin at all.

Across the fire, Betta murmured in her sleep, something in one of the strange dialects of the southern lands that Fili did not recognize. She had lain awake for some time, he knew, before she fell finally into a fitful doze. She tossed and turned, often speaking, sometimes waking only to fall back into sleep. He guessed that her dreams were troubled by the terror of the orc that had attacked her. She had earned her nightmares, Fili told himself, but as the hours wore on and still her sleep was troubled, he could not shake the feeling that he had done wrong by her.

Like Kili, Fili knew that he had been partly at fault for their attack tonight. Even after all the warnings that they had had, he had ignored the danger. If Betta had been a young Dwarf lass looking to prove herself, would he have treated her as harshly?

He took out the pearl from his pocket and looked at it. It was black against the night and seemed a cold thing now, a jewel that he had bought with his anger rather than earned through the honor of his actions. Was any treasure worth so much?

He stared at the pearl until the sun rose and colored the sky above him. It would be another hour before the golden disk peered up above the hilltops of Evendim. Kili began to stir, but Betta slept on. Fili stood up and stretched his aching limbs. He walked to the edge of their camp and looked down the hill at the bodies of the orcs. He decided not to wake the others. There was no point in hurrying toward the parting that he had all but doomed them to.

.

When Kili woke, he looked for his brother and saw him standing many yards from their camp, his yellow hair glowing in the golden light of dawn. He also saw Betta, still sleeping; her hair was dark, and there were shadows on her face.

Kili rose quietly and went to stand beside his brother. "Good morning," he said. He looked down at the bodies of the orcs and wondered where the missing head had rolled off to.

"It is morning," Fili agreed. "How good it is remains to be seen." He looked sideways at his brother and saw the pensive expression on his face. "Do not trouble yourself with thinking, Kili," he said. "I already know what you would say."

"Do you?"

"You will tell me that I was wrong to be angry last night," Fili said. "You will give me many reasons for why I should apologize for my harsh words, and then you will say that we must all three of us go on in search of Betta's treasure. And finally, when you think that you have worn me down, you will tell me that I should stop being so stubborn and trust her. Have I hit near to the mark?"

Kili shrugged. "Not very near," he said.

Fili looked at him in surprise.

"You were not wrong to be angry," Kili told him. "Your words were harsh, but you had reason and I will not fault you for that. Betta does not fault you for your anger, either; but, although she will not admit it, she was hurt by your words. You do not know how sharp you can be, sometimes, especially to those who do not know you well."

Fili said nothing, and Kili sighed. "I will not say that we must go on, but there is no honor in only beginning a quest and giving up halfway. That will not impress Thorin."

Fili frowned and when Kili added nothing more, he asked, "What of the rest? You will not tell me that I should trust your woman and apologize to her?"

"I think that you already trust her more than you care to admit," Kili said. "You have never been over-fond of Men, yet you agreed very quickly to travel with this one and, until now, you have allowed her to take on a third of our watch. You would not be as angry as you were last night if you had never trusted her. You were angry because you trusted, and now you believe that she has betrayed that trust."

Fili looked at Kili with new eyes. "When did you grow so old, little brother?" he asked. He was learning more and more about his brother every day on this journey.

Kili grinned. "Keep it a secret, will you? I cannot be both handsome and wise. It would be too great a burden to bear," he said. "And anyway, if I cannot see past my own brother's airs after seventy-seven years, then I might as well be blind."

His brother smiled. "But I still do not trust Betta," Fili said. "You may believe what you wish, but I have never trusted her on this journey."

"I believe that you are fooling yourself, but you may trust her or not, as you wish. I do not care if you sit up awake all night every night for want of trust in her. I know you, brother. You swore to yourself – and to our uncle – that you would finish this quest and bring home a noble treasure. If you turn your back now, you will spend the rest of your long life knowing that it was your own short temper that got the better of your courage. You have many sleepless nights ahead of you in either case."

"This has nothing to do with my courage," Fili protested.

"Then you will not be too afraid to ride on. With Betta."

"She put your life in danger, Kili."

"We put our lives in danger when we left Ered Luin. If that is why you wish to return, then say it. Admit that it is because of your own fear and no fault of Betta's that you have changed your mind." Kili turned his back, his arms folded across his chest. His brother had always been stubborn, even for a Dwarf, but on this journey, he was taking it to a whole new level of pigheadedness.

Fili frowned at his brother's back. "If I said that I would return to the mountains and she said that she would go on," he said, "would you go back with me? Or, would you ride north with her? You are old enough make up your own mind; you must begin to choose your own path."

Kili turned back to his brother in surprise. "I do not wish to abandon a quest that I have given my word to perform," he said, "but you are my brother. Where you lead, I will follow, even if you lead us empty-handed back to Ered Luin."

The brothers stood silently, each regarding the other for a long while until Kili laughed and slapped Fili on the back. "I will follow you for now, anyway," he said. "I still hold out hope that you will find your wife and crying babe."

"I would hope more for the goodwill of our uncle," Fili said. "I suppose we cannot turn back, if only for fear of confirming his low opinion of our experience."

"And that we cannot do." Kili said, and his expression was grim. "We will go on?"

Fili nodded. "We go on," he said. "If Betta will agree to it; after all, it is still her map that we follow. But I will not apologize."

"Of course not," Kili sighed. "Fine, then. Do not apologize. I will convince her to forgive you. Only be glad that I am so handsome." He combed his fingers through his beard and grinned.

Fili shook his head, but he smiled at his brother. For all the trouble that Kili caused him, and would continue to cause him in the future, Fili loved his little brother and his heart and mind were both comforted to know that Kili would continue to stand with him.