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 saw his brother reach for his axe and the dark look in his eyes. If there was ever a time for diplomacy, it was here and now. He caught Fili's eye and made a sign with his hand that he knew his brother would understand; seeing it, Fili grudgingly nodded his agreement. He let go of his axe, and the dwarves stepped aside to speak quietly together in their own language.

"I wish that you would make up your mind, brother," Kili said. "We cannot very well pull an axe on him now that you've invited him into our camp."

"I do not like his look," Fili said. "Those are not gray eyes, but stone walls that I see."

"It is too late now. You've all but handed him our treasure. What if he demands a share of it?"

"He will not claim a single gold coin," Fili said. "But he knows these lands and might give us a clearer path to follow. He is right when he says that this can only be done if he knows what we are aiming for."

"I thought that it was Betta's task to guide us," Kili said. He saw his brother flinch and look back toward the fire, to the woman who sat beside it. Usually, Kili knew his brother's mind without needing to ask, but in recent days, he had found that he needed to search and to ask to discover it. The farther north they travelled, the darker was the mood of all the company, and Fili's temper was growing short. Kili knew that there was more danger in that than in orcs or strangers at their camp.

"It is done now, in any case," Kili sighed. "You are right, and we may as well hear the man out. I think that Betta trusts him, and if she trusts him then I will trust him. She seems to know these Rangers better than you or I."

"I do not trust him."

"Why does that not surprise me," Kili muttered.

Fili continued to stare at Betta and frown. Though he could not see her face, he guessed that she was looking at the Ranger with far more kindness than she had ever shown to Fili himself. He shook his head. "I do not trust him, nor do I trust Betta with him," he said.

Kili raised an eyebrow. "Why do you guard our guide so jealously," he asked. "You should know by now that she can look after herself."

"I am taking care," Fili said, "as you should be. She is human and not one of us."

Kili looked at him in amazement, but his brother had already turned away and gone back to the fire. Kili followed him, thinking hard on what had been said. His brother's words had been sharp, but his voice was not, and that puzzled Kili more than the rest of it. Fili was behaving very unlike himself, and it should take more than cold snow and strangers to change the mood of so stubborn a dwarf.

Harandir had finished reading the map by the time the dwarves returned, and he put the pages down upon his knee. His face was expressionless and did not show his thoughts. He said to Betta, "If this is indeed your quest, then it is good that we have met so that I might set you on the proper path. You have wandered far out of your way searching for guideposts in the snow."

"Then you know where the map leads?" Fili said. "Tell me."

"I cannot tell you where to go, for I do not know what it is that you are searching for." Harandir's eyes were cold when he looked at Fili. He may not have understood the words that the dwarves had spoken together, but he understood the tone and the meaning of their conversation.

Fili frowned and looked away.

Harandir held out the box and pages. Once more, Kili retrieved them before Betta could stand. He knelt down to hand them to her and put his hand on her shoulder as he did. She looked up, and he looked into her eyes, searching for some sign of what had turned his brother against her, but her gaze was as honest as it had been at Ered Luin. The secrets that were there there were the same that he had seen before; unless it was that there were fewer of them. She smiled at him and put the pages back into the envelope under her shirt.

Kili stood up. He looked at his brother and shook his head. Fili scowled, but Kili knew the woman better than he did, and he trusted his brother's judgment.

Betta saw their looks and their nods, but she did not understand them. Their suspicions darkened her mood and put a shadow over the happy memories of her homeland, but she did not question them yet. She turned away from Fili and spoke instead to Harandir.

"I would hear all that you know concerning this land," she told him. "My friend spoke the truth, and I do seek answers in the north. If you have them, then I say that you may demand my life story or even my life as payment, and I would give both to you once my quest is over."

Fili looked at her in dismay.

"Say not that," Harandir said sharply. "You are too young to offer your life so rashly to a stranger."

"This journey has been my life," Betta said. "I have had nothing else, and after it is over, I will have nothing more."

"Wait until it is over," Fili said, "then you may decide what your life is worth."

He sat down near the fire and near to her. She looked at him, and it was her eyes now that were stone walls to him. He could only imagine what hard words she would have to say once the Ranger left. If Kili's looks were anything to judge by, Fili guessed that he had earned hard words, but he continued to believe that his suspicions were justified.

Harandir ignored the many looks that were being passed back and forth around him. He nodded as if it were all quite clear to him.

"I will tell you what I know of the history of Arnor, of the people who dwelt there, and of some of the peoples who dwelt along its boarders," he said. "I will not tell all that I know, for that would be a tale for many nights, and I can only spare this one. All I ask for in return is that you look with hope beyond the end of your journey."

He looked at Betta with pity in his eyes. "I think that perhaps you are like the Lost Realm, for though much that has happened here is sad, there is hope for great joy beyond the dark and the danger. And I hope that I do not do wrong in telling you this tale."

With the prospect of a story, Kili finally sat down. He made himself comfortable and threw a few more sticks on the fire. Beside him, Fili's face was dark but earnest. They were both eager for answers and a clearer path to their treasure. Kili was curious to know more of the history of Betta's people, which he felt sure would be full of battles and bravery. Fili finally had reason to hope that he would hear all that he wished to know regarding her past and her purpose, and that it would put his suspicions to rest.

Neither dwarf saw the misery on Betta's face, or the determination that tightened her fists under her cloak as she waited for Harandir to speak. She already guessed what he would say, and she had little hope that her fears would prove unfounded. In her mind's eye, she recalled the bloodless face of her father after the wagon brought his body home. He had died, but his shade had never left her; it stood at her shoulder now, and she felt a cold breath on the back of her neck. She tugged a stray lock of hair above her right ear and pulled her cloak tight about her shoulders.

Harandir sat still, staring into the fire as he gathered his thoughts for the tale he would tell. He began, "If you were born in the southern lands, then you will know the dark and desperate history of the war between the Dunedain of the North Kingdom and the evil Lord of Angmar, but there were others who dwelt in this land before the coming of the Witch-king. They were here before the men of Westerness when the elves were laying the first stones of Mithlond at the mouth of Lhun. Few survived the long, dark years and of those few, most were scattered and lost or mingled with other peoples and they are now forgotten..."