"What is that woman doing here?" Fili demanded, separating himself from his brother. He scowled at her, and the heat of his anger made his head ach; he put a hand to his temple, wincing at the pain, but did not cease to glare hot as a branding iron. Betta drew quickly away, her face a mask of surprise and fear, while Kili looked back and forth between them, bewildered.

"Brother, you are confused. This is Betta, our guide. She left us, but she has returned. She saved us from a…"

"Left us!" Fili shouted. "Abandoned us, you mean!" He climbed unsteadily to his feet. Kili tried to prevent him, but he threw off his brother's hands and raised himself to his full though limited height. "She left us to be captured by a… by a…" He blinked his bleary eyes and looked around.

For the first time, Fili saw the various piles of the troll's plunder, the stone and wood and iron, the ice walls and the cavern behind them. He stared in amazement at the huge cook pot – nearly as wide as he was tall – lying shattered in the fire pit, surrounded by a soup of foul water and soaking ash. He looked up at the frozen roof, stretched like tattered, yellow lace, all cracked and broken by the troll's wrath, and at the tall pillar of ice that stood before the mouth of the cave. Finally, he looked at the dark pile of torn meat in the corner and gasped.

"By Durin…" he swore. "This place… This is a troll's hall!" Fili turned to his brother in amazement and horror. He had stumbled forward as he stared around with wide eyes, his mouth hanging open, and Kili had followed him; now, he took his brother's arm and led him back to the fire.

"It is, and it was," he said gently. "The troll is gone. That great block of ice is all that is left of him. Sit down and we will tell you all that went on while you were taking your nap."

Fili turned to stare again at the ice pillar, but allowed himself to be sat down. When Kili was finally able to draw his brother's attention back to their company, Fili's frown returned and he refused to look at Betta. Kili glanced at her, questioningly, but she said nothing. She had returned to her place on the other side of the fire; her head was bowed, and her hands clasped together in her lap. Kili remembered that she had been keeping her distance almost since the death of the troll, and he wondered if she had not had some premonition of Fili's coming anger. It troubled him to think that it was a guilty heart that separated her from his brother who had only yesterday begun to love her.

As if feeling his eyes on her, Betta looked up and seemed to wake from her thoughts. She met Kili's eyes first then turned to look at his brother. Kili followed her gaze and saw that Fili's right hand was still clenched in a tight fist. That part of him seemed not to have recovered, but Fili himself did not appear to notice.

Kili shook his head and put aside his questions; he had more urgent cares. He drew a warm cloak about his brother's shoulders and provided him with plenty of food and warm drink. They had lost their large pot and could make no proper stew, but there were many strips of meat roasted over the fire on the iron spokes that Fili had put into Betta's pack last evening. Kili also had simmered a lump of meat and fat in the shard of bowl that Betta had salvaged from the troll's pile, and it formed a hearty broth that he poured into their only mug for Fili's drink.

The warmth did him much good, and Kili could see the color returning to his brother's cheeks and the strength to his body, but his face was grave and he frowned whenever he caught sight of Betta out of the corner of his eye. His brow was furrowed in stubborn anger and he only grunted in answer to Kili's attempts at conversation.

But Kili was determined to distract his brother. He gave up merely attempting and, without waiting to be asked, plunged into a vivid description of all the events that had taken place since he and Fili had left the standing stone and entered the haunted mist. Fili listened, sipping his drink, as Kili told how they had been separated, and how Kili had been led onto strange paths and into the hills by ghostly lights. He told how, once lost, he had realized that the best way back was to follow his own trail; but how, before he could go far, he had been struck from behind by a heavy weight and knocked into unconsciousness.

"As was I," Fili said softly, but warily, as if he were uncertain of the fact. Instinctively, his eyes looked up, seeking Betta's face. He was so used to hearing her contradict him when he was honest that he expected nothing less of her now that he told an untruth. But Betta said nothing; her eyes were on the fire again and her face was sad. Fili turned his gaze back to his mug and received as many answers from the dregs of the broth as from her.

Kili nodded at his brother's words, accepting them for truth and not seeing the uneasy look in his eyes. He went on to tell how he had woken up in the troll's hall. He had been thrown over his unconscious brother and feigned sleep until he could discover a way to escape with his own and Fili's life.

From there, Kili's voice grew in volume and excitement as he recounted the great battle with the snow-troll. When it came time to describe Betta's role in their rescue, he was careful to play up the risk and her bravery, the danger of her fall and how remarkable it was that she could keep her wits afterwards. He repeated almost word-for-word her conversation with the troll when she had played to the creature's pride and ignorance. As much as he wished to brag of his own success, Kili kept his role to a minimum, describing only how he had turned over the trivet and leaving out the burning branch. He also kept quiet regarding the way that he had dragged his brother's body like a doll by the collar out of the way of the spreading water – he was not sure that Fili's pride would survive the news.

Kili's report ended with the death of the troll by morning light and his finding of Betta perched atop the pile of broken stone, her damp boots steaming in the cold dawn. The whole tale took less than a quarter of an hour to tell; but if Fili had woken in a better mood, there was no doubt that Kili could have dragged it on all afternoon.

As it was, the account of their adventure ended far too soon and they were left to sit in awkward silence while Fili frowned and Kili waited anxiously. Betta had listened to Kili without remark, but she had heard with interest the description of the mist and his separation from his brother. That part, she had not known before.

"Well, brother?" Kili asked with forced cheer. "What say you to our rescue? It was handsomely done and cleverly contrived, was it not? If it were not for our loyal guide, we would undoubtedly have been made a meal rather than be making one!"

Fili could not argue with his brother about that and, though he did not like it, he could not deny that once again he owed a debt to the woman who had betrayed his trust.

"It was clever enough," Fili admitted, "and I am surprised by you, Kili, for I suspect that that you have been over modest and lessened your role in the matter."

"If I did, it does not diminish the part that Betta played. If she had not returned…"

"Yes," Fili said, nodding, "that is also to be considered… for I do not take back my words that you and I were wrongfully abandoned in the early hours of the morning." He turned cold eyes on Betta. "What does your woman have to say to that charge?"

"You told me you agreed with her that we should part ways this morning," Kili said, surprised that his brother did not remember. "If you seek to cast blame for our latest difficulty, then blame me. It was I who insisted on going after her, and I who could not keep up with you on the trail. We both agreed not to wait for daylight to follow her."

Fili knew the truth of his brother's words, but the pearl was hot in his hand and betrayal was cold in his heart. He did not take his eyes off of Betta who sat, looking down and saying nothing.

"I know what my brother would say to my questions, but I will hear from her… from you," he insisted. "Why did you leave? Why did you come back?"

She did not look up but her cheeks flushed red in the firelight, and she said quietly, "You know why I left."

He did. He knew better than Kili why Betta would slip away in the night, but he hardened his heart and clenched his fist, holding tight to his anger. "And why did you return?" he demanded.

Betta finally looked up, and Kili was startled by the change in her. Her face was pale and drawn, her cheeks gray and her eyes stared into the distance as if she were looking into some dark vision or memory.

"I have seen the shadow of Carn Dum," she said, and even Fili was shaken by the dark portent carried in her words. "I saw a light so dark that it would swallow hope and I was afraid. I had a vision on that mountain, of what, I will not say; but I knew that I had left my friends in danger." She closed her eyes and shivered.

The dwarves sat silently, and Kili sought for something comforting to say, but before he could speak, Betta had opened her eyes again. The shadow had passed from her face, and she was once more the woman that Kili knew.

"That is why I returned," she said. "I did not give up my quest." There was pride in her voice and she lifted her chin as if daring Fili to argue.

Kili smiled, but he saw his brother scowl. "Your quest," Fili said, and if Kili had not known better he would have said that he heard scorn in his brother's voice, "as if we know what quest that is." Fili leveled an accusing finger at her. "You have deceived us from the start, and I can no longer say what is lie and what is truth."

"Fili!" Kili cried. "Your head was struck too hard. You are not in your right mind."

"Say rather that I have returned to my right mind, for I have been walking in madness and thought myself wise. Ask your woman what lies she has told!" His finger was still aimed at her, but now he turned over his hand and opened his fist. The pearl sat silently on his palm, as dark and ominous a proof as had ever condemned a criminal before.

Kili stared at it. He had not seen it for many days and wondered how he had never noticed before the way that light fell into it and did not return. It seemed to take the firelight for its own and darken it as it would darken the hearts of all who looked upon it. This was not the pretty sea-jewel that he remembered seeing long ago in the forge under the mountains.

"Well, brother?" Fili said. "Will you not ask your woman what curse is on this stone, and why she would not take it back from me? See! She is afraid of it!"

Betta did indeed stare at the thing as if it were a poison she would not touch, yet her expression was not one of fear but of anger. Kili sat still as stone and looked between the two of them; he was torn in his heart and did not know which side was his. He felt certain that his brother's anger was a symptom of his injury, but he could not deny that Fili's words rang true when the pearl was set beside them. And Betta did not deny the accusations; indeed, the closer he looked, the more certain he was that he saw guilt in her eyes.

In spite of her feelings, Betta's voice was steady when she spoke again. "I am afraid of that damned stone," she said, "not for what it is, but for what it has become. If I am guilty of any crime, it is that of ignorance. I did not know what the stone was and only as our journey progressed did I begin to doubt and investigate the thing as best I could." She did not say what she might have said, that they would have known more about it if Fili had given her the days she had asked for to examine and translate the words on the map before leaving Ered Luin.

Fili was not satisfied with her answer. "What is it? Where did it come from?" he demanded. "Admit that it is the stolen gem of a dragon hoard!" He meant to cast down the stone or to throw it at her, but he found his hand had closed around the thing once more and he did not let it go.

Betta's expression was fierce and she shook her head. "No!" she said, and then more softly, "No, I do not think so."

"What then?" Kili cried desperately. He hated this arguing, but more than that, he hated to see the pain that his brother suffered because of it. "You said that you would tell your secrets, Betta. If it is all a mistake, then explain. I cannot believe that you would willingly harm me or my brother, but explain!"

Her face was a mask again, and she looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before nodding. "I will tell you. I had made up my mind to do so before your brother set about his accusations; but first, I wish to know, who told you about the dragon?" She directed this question at Fili who was staring down at his clenched fist.

His frown deepened. "How do you know that I was told?"

"There is no other way for you to have suspected it. You said nothing to me yestereve."

He looked at her, and for a moment she was the same small woman who had stared back at him last night upon the hillside. He remembered her soft eyes and soft lips, the way she laughed when he joked with her, the sadness of her history. It should have been an easy thing to forgive her, to forget all that had happened and remember only that moment that they had shared on the hill; but the stubbornness of Dwarves was in Fili's blood, and he could not forget.

"I discovered the power of the stone last night," he said. "It was this one and not the one which we camped under that kept back the mist." He looked at Kili and saw the dismay on his brother's face. "I do not deny now that these hills are haunted. I saw the lights that Kili saw, but there were ghosts also which spoke to me. They told me that this thing came from a dragon, and that you had betrayed us."

Kili shook his head in disbelief, but Betta nodded and did not protest.

"I have heard that the spirits of evil will often tell us truths, but carefully, for a lie is easily forgotten, while a painful truth can never be," she said sadly. "I will tell you what I have learned and what I guess regarding the stone that you took from me, but whether these things are true or not, I do not think will ever be known this side of the sea…"

Well, look at us, talking dragons on the same weekend that DOS comes out! And, OMG, I cannot stop grinning. That movie was AMAZING!

Now, just to be clear, I'm not planning on incorporating anything from DOS into our story here. Although AUJ inspired the beginning of our continuing tale, the two stories have been too long sundered to be brought together again. I will continue to draw from the books and any little things you might find that remind you of the second installment... Well, I'm only human :)

Happy viewing to those who haven't seen DOS yet (what are you waiting for!) and to those who, like me, will be seeing it again and again and again...

-Paint