It was late in the afternoon, and Betta still stood on the ridge. She had turned her face to the wind until it brought stinging tears to her eyes, but now, she stood with head bowed against it, her fists clenched tight until they ached from cold. Every so often, she would look up and search the wide, flat plain for movement, and then she would turn her head to look over her shoulder and see that the road and hills behind her were still empty. After she was certain that the land was empty, she would bow her head again and wait.

She had left Kili asleep under the stone near midday – he was still sleeping, or else he would have come to look for her – but now the sun was falling fast toward the horizon. Still, she kept watch, and anyone who looked up from below might have thought she was only a statue carved in ice and dressed in clothes. Her pale face was expressionless and, except when she raised her head or looked about, she might well have been frozen to death at her watch as Helm himself had been.

The sun painted the horizon in red, gold and purple, and the slanting beams that shot through the clouds glanced over the valley and highlighted every hill and fold upon the ground. Under the scrutiny of those relentless search-lights, nothing larger than a jackrabbit could have lain long hidden. They discovered a single, dark speck far away. It separated itself from the trees and walked toward the southern hills; its shadow stretched eastwards like a long finger, beckoning.

Betta watched the speck approach and grow larger until it took on the shape of a man with his back bent under a heavy load. Still, she did not move. Not until he was near enough that she could recognize the long, blond beard and blue hood did she finally unclench her hands and allow her tense limbs to relax. She turned and stepped to the other side of the ridge to watch him pass by.

Fili took the longer road around the base of the hill rather than attempt the steep climb to the ridge with what he carried, but he had seen her. He raised his hand to her and smiled. She raised her hand, and then turned away, hurrying down to the camp and calling for Kili to wake.

It was a pleasant awakening for him, not the least because he had had a good, long sleep. As soon as he understood what Betta was shouting about, Kili jumped to his feet and ran down the hill to help his brother.

The burden was heavy, but the heavier the better, they all would agree – except for Fili who was content to complain how hard it had been to carry so many pounds of frozen meat and bone over so many miles while his companions lounged about in comfort. Indeed, he was tired and had nearly collapsed several times on the return journey, but the welcome he received from them was as pleasant as any homecoming he could wish for.

While Kili had gone down, Betta stayed behind to stir up the fire. She threw more wood on the embers and encouraged the flames until there was a good, roaring blaze. She wanted the heat as much for Fili's cold limbs as for her own; she felt frozen and cold in her heart. After she had filled the cook pot with snow and set it to melt, she heard Kili's excited chatter coming up the hill. She stepped out of the hollow and saw him and his brother only a dozen yards from the camp.

Forgetting the work and her own resolutions, Betta hurried to meet them. Fili's cheeks were chaffed from the cold and he walked slowly and with a limp as his aching muscles protested their overuse. Betta ran to his side, smiling without knowing it, and took his arm to let him lean his weight on her – she gave no thought how it would look to Kili's watchful eyes. She thought of nothing but her relief at seeing Fili safe and whole.

Kili had taken the frozen haunch and the string of rabbit and squirrel from his brother and hurried ahead to begin preparing the food, leaving Betta to help Fili the rest of the way. Frozen meat would need thawing, and the rest must be cut, cleaned and cooked before they could eat. What they did not eat tonight would be prepared and charred, wrapped up and packed away in their bags for the future.

More wood must be gathered to keep the fire burning long enough to complete the work of cooking and to keep them warm through the night, but that task was left to Kili. Fili sat before the fire and warmed his cold hands and feet. Betta sat across from him and had begun the work of cleaning the smaller game that did not need to thaw. Often his eyes would turn to her, and then he would smile, but she kept her eyes firmly on the flesh under her knife and only looked up to stir the fire or to cast more wood onto the flames and keep it hot.

"Nothing disturbed your day while I was gone?" Fili asked, remarking her silence and changed face.

"Only your brother's snores," she answered, forcing her mouth to smile, but Fili knew all her smiles and this one was not true.

He was grateful to find that the camp and its occupants had been left unmolested, but there was a heaviness in his heart when he looked at Betta's passive face, and he wondered if there was not something else that had disturbed her in the hours he had been gone.

It troubled him; he had admitted his feelings to himself and now wished to learn hers, but he could not ask and Kili could not tell him. His brother had slept the day away. It confused him also that she had run to meet him on the hillside, embraced him and smiled so freely at his return. Why the change now when all he wished to enjoy her warm welcome before the shadows fell?

Kili returned before Fili could say anything more to her, and his brother's bubbling excitement and plans for their future journey only reminded him once more that he had decided to abandon the quest and return south in the morning. Fili would take his brother and leave the mountains… he hoped, with Betta at his side, but if she would not go… what then?

That was a question that would not yet be answered. For now, they would eat and be glad of their full bellies. They would tell tales by the firelight and wipe the grease from their mouths. Luckily, they had not fasted for so long that their stomachs would not take the food so long as it was eaten slowly. Fili answered all of Kili's many questions, but kept to himself what he had seen in the glade, the slaughter of the herd of hoofed animals. That story could keep. They were leaving these hills: what did it matter if there were monsters there? He would tell Betta, if she meant to go on, but not yet.

Fili looked up and his eyes found Betta's face. She had been listening to one of Kili's comedic rhymes, laughing in all the right places, but the laughter was not in her eyes and whenever Kili looked away from her, even her forced smiles faltered. She looked at Fili, and he knew that she feigned her pleasure for Kili's sake. There was a shadow over her heart, and he wondered if it was not the same that shaded his, whether she had not already guessed what choices he had made that day.

Tune in next time for another dramatic episode... and the moment that many of you have been waiting for. Some things good, some things bad, and another chance for Fili to show off his wonderful singing voice.

-Paint