Kili stood with his shoulder to the camp, speaking earnestly with his brother, but Fili's eyes were on the Ranger and he heard little that Kili said. He had seen Harandir take Betta's hand and scowled as he ran his finger along the blade of his axe. The metal was cold, but that would not harm it. He wondered why Betta had allowed a stranger to come so close to her without drawing her knife. Her hand still twitched out of habit whenever he or his brother drew near without warning.

Betta looked up as if she felt his eyes on her, and she looked back over her shoulder at the dwarves.

Fili looked away and put his hand in his pocket. The pearl was still there, but she had given it to him freely this time, and he did not believe that it would hold her if she chose to leave and continue her quest with a Ranger instead of two stubborn dwarves.

"What if she does not want to go on?" Fili said.

Kili frowned. He had been reminding his brother that the laws of hospitality extended even to guests in the wild, and he did not know what had prompted such a question. "Of course she will go on," Kili said, impatiently. "We've come too far to turn back now."

"Well, what if she chooses to go on without us?"

Again, Kili frowned and did not understand. "I suppose that is her choice to make, but you know as well as I that so long as she travels north, we will follow. But why do you worry? She did not turn back when the thieves attacked, nor the orcs, nor the cold of the storm, and she knows that she cannot journey northwards alone now that she is injured and her supplies are few…"

"I did not say that she would go alone," Fili said, frowning at Harandir's back, "only that she would go on without us now that one of her own kind has arrived to tempt her away from the quest."

Kili looked back to the camp and saw Betta and Harandir speaking together. He laughed. "Tempt her away? With what?" he asked. "Where will he take her but on a futile quest for orc bodies? That will not tempt our guide." He shook his head. "You worry for nothing, brother. Betta has more loyalty in her than that."

Fili nodded, but he was not reassured. "We cannot all be as optimistic as you, Kili."

.

Back at the camp, Betta was unsure what she had seen in Fili's face before he had turned away, but Harandir was still watching her with narrowed eyes and waiting for her answer. She knew what he would see if he looked into a dwarf's eyes.

Gently, she pried her hand from his grasp. "I thank you for your offer," she said. "I know that it was kindly meant, but I am here by my own choice. It is true that when we first set out I did not want these dwarves with me, but we have come too far together now to be separated by suspicion. I will not be called faithless and prove true the reputation that your story has given to my father's line."

She was thinking less of her father's family pride and more of the determination that Fili must have to hold together their company when even he had doubted their path. Kili would always follow his brother, but Betta admitted finally to herself that she had chosen to follow Fili as well. She could have demanded the lead of her own quest, and Kili would have agreed that it was hers to take, but if she was baggage on this journey, then she was willing baggage.

"At least," she added quietly, "if I do leave them, it will be because our paths divide and I go my own way, not because I choose to follow the path of another man."

Harandir did not hear her; he was thinking his own thoughts. "If your journey led you through Eriador, I might send word to my friends and they would watch over you and guard you, but where you go there are no friends…"

"I have two friends here who will guard me," Betta said firmly, "and before I came to Eriador, I traveled many hundreds of leagues with no guard but my own. I escaped from the wild men of Dunland's hills and survived the crossing at Tharbad alone. I thank you, but you worry for no reason."

"You should not put your faith in dwarves," he persisted. "Their honor does not extend beyond the protection of their family and their gold, certainly not to a woman of Gondor who happens to be travelling with them."

"That I know," Betta said. "I have known many dwarves." But she was troubled, for his words echoed a doubt that she had had before. Kili said that he would battle an army of orcs to save her, but that was a promise made in jest. Fili had said clearly that he only searched for her in the storm because his brother had wanted it; he would have left her to freeze until morning. How far did their loyalty extend, and how far did her own?

"I make my choice based on my own honor, not on theirs," she said finally.

Harandir sighed and knew that he would not convince her with words, but he had not yet given up. "I wish you luck and good fortune wherever your path may lead," he said. "I have tarried overlong, but I do not begrudge the time spent. I will ask one last time, do you mean to go on into the north?"

"We do," Fili said, coming up behind him and answering before Betta could speak.

Harandir stood and turned to face him. "Then I advise you to reconsider your choice. Though the Witch-king was driven out long ago, the shadow of Angmar is grown long again. The land will become ever more dangerous as you travel farther north and east, and it is to the north and east that you must go if you mean to follow your map."

"What is an adventure without danger," Kili said. He sat down beside Betta and smiled at her. "There is more value in a treasure won than in a treasure found."

Fili shook his head at his brother then turned back to Harandir. "Now I suppose that it is my turn to say, I would speak with you alone, Ranger."

Harandir bowed. He glanced at Betta before following Fili to the place away from the camp where he had gone to speak with his brother. Betta watched them leave with some anxiety.

"They will kill each other, I think," she said.

But Kili had anticipated his brother's request, and he laughed. "I used to think the same thing whenever the two of you were left alone, but I have been proved wrong for you are friends now," he said. "Besides, I have already warned my brother that he cannot murder a guest in cold blood, and the Ranger's sword is still tied."

You guys are getting a lot of chapters this week! I don't know what's come over me - I think it was too much excitement over the new trailer - but I really gotta get back on a set schedule.

As always, thank you all so much for reading, especially to my new followers who have had so much to catch up on! I know I didn't make it easy for you ;-) but please drop me a review. I thrive on constructive commentary!

- Paint