Kili stood peering into the shadows, but he saw nothing. Before he could ask Betta exactly what she had heard, Fili arrived, hurrying up from the stream where he had been searching the water's edge for sign of her. His own guilt had convinced him that in trying to keep her away from the stream, he had in fact driven her down to it and had doomed her to drown in its waves.

He jogged up to his brother and was relieved to see Betta standing beside him. "Where did you go?" he demanded, breathlessly. "You should not have wandered alone!" But he didn't wait for an answer before he pulled her into his arms and held her tight.

Betta winced as his arms tightened around her injured shoulder, but she was so glad to be held and not be floating alone in empty darkness that she did not complain. "I went exploring. It is nothing," she said, "but I heard something down there. It is a tunnel."

Fili loosened his hold a little and held out his torch. He saw which tunnel she meant and frowned. He had explored this side of the cavern yesterday but had not gone far down it, deeming it too far from their camp to pose a danger. Besides, what troll would share his home with any other creature that wasn't dinner?

He glanced at Kili and then handed their guide over to his brother's protection. Holding his torch in one hand and drawing his sword with the other, Fili entered the passage. Kili stayed near the mouth of the tunnel, standing between it and Betta, but his hand was on his sword and he was ready to go to his brother's aid if needed.

Fili walked a few yards down the tunnel, paused, and then walked a few more. He was small in the distance, but Betta and Kili could see that he had turned his head to one side and was listening intently. His eyes searched the passage walls and once he crouched down to examine the floor. After many anxious minutes, he put away his sword and returned to them, carrying one of Betta's extinguished torches.

"I see nothing there," he said. "There is nothing." But his voice was low, and he did not stand long within the mouth of the tunnel.

"I did not say that I saw something," Betta said, angry that she was not being believed. "I said that I heard something, and a great wind knocked me down. I tell you, there is something down there!"

"I do not doubt your ears," Fili said, gently taking her arm and drawing her farther from the passage, "but there are many strange things hidden in the deep places of the world, and many sounds there will seem strange to those who do not know their source. I said that I saw nothing, but I heard in the distance water dripping, and the sound of stone weighing down upon stone. There are living things as well, insects and bats, even strange blind fish that swim in the hidden lakes and pools. No cave is ever, truly empty, not even this far north."

Fili smiled reassuringly, and he also nodded to Kili who seemed unusually uneasy about the whole thing. It took all of his strength not to rush his woman back to the cave where he knew she would be safe, but he also knew that if Kili were afraid then it was Fili who must remain calm and be the voice of reason this time. If he, too, panicked, then they would all panic, and they had to spend at least one more night in this haunted place.

"It was the darkness that startled you, and nothing more," he told Betta. "These tunnels make all sound seem larger and louder than they are. But how did you lose your torch? I cannot believe that you would drop it out of fear."

"The wind that knocked me down also struck the torch from my hand," Betta said. She had begun to feel more like herself, and more safe now that she had a dwarf on either side of her. Slowly, she described to them what she had heard and the gust of air that had seemed to follow the loud noise. When she described the rotten scent of the wind, Fili's eyes widened.

"It seems that you have been lucky once again," he said. "Many caves hold pockets of gas or foul air far underground, and it is not unheard of for such gasses to ignite in the fire of a torch or lantern flame. In the mines, there are many dwarves who have been scarred by terrible burns when one of these pockets is discovered and opened unexpectedly.

"And yet, the fire is not the worst danger. To breathe in the foul air for long has been known to cause death as well. If the wind had not knocked you down so that you lay underneath while the gasses passed overhead, you might have suffocated before we could come to you. Such airs drive the breath from your lungs very quickly if you are not wary."

"I did not know that there were such things," Betta said, looking back toward the passage with amazement rather than fear.

"Indeed," Kili agreed quickly. He was eager to win back his reputation. "Sometimes the foul air leeches out of the stone and hides in still water. You do not even know that it is there until the surface of the pool is broken and the gas released. Then, it is too late."

"Is there so much danger in simple stone?" she said, shaking her head. She looked about the cavern with wide eyes as if she expected the fallen stones to grow limbs and faces and begin to crawl.

"There is no such thing as simple stone," Fili said, turning her away from the passage again. "There is air and water and small creatures within stone; and there are different types of stone, different shapes and formations that are made of it. There is rock and metal and gems to be found beneath the surface of the world that you so carelessly walk upon. Each one touches the others in different ways, and heat and cold touch them also. Like the mingling of dye might color linen differently than wool, stone is never simple."

Betta stared at him, admiration shining in her eyes, and Fili felt proud to win such a look from her. Kili rolled his eyes and spoke up quickly, not wanting his brother to grow too proud to be managed.

"But my brother and I do not know half of what the older dwarves know," he said. "They have lived all their lives underground, while we have been trained above for battle and noble deeds." He smiled. "And yet, you may trust any dwarf, no matter his age, to know what he says about stone."

Betta had been looking at Fili, but finally she turned her eyes to the other brother and returned Kili's smile. "I will trust you now," she said. "If others of your folk had spoken that way to me when I haggled over a bit of metal, they might have found me more willing to agree to their price." And then she laughed. "Or, they may not, but I will trust you two on this for now. One day we will again be camped under tree and sky, and then you must trust me."

Fili nodded. "I hope that the day is soon in coming," he said, "but for now, our torches are dying and we must return to our camp here under the mountain."

"You are right," Betta said. "But take me the long way around. I would like to see this stream that I keep hearing in the distance. It troubled my dreams last night and to see a thing that one fears is to take away its power." She saw Fili's frown and knew that he was reluctant to lead her there. She laughed at what she thought was an excess of caution. "Do not worry. I do not wish to get any nearer than that. I only wish to see the river, not to fall into it."

Fili glanced at his brother, but Kili's face was stern and he kept his eyes firmly on the floor. He said nothing and finally Fili nodded. "As you wish," he said. "But no closer than to see."

He thrust Betta's spent torch into his belt – it was wood and they needed every inch that would burn – then he took her crutch from her and offered his own arm instead. Kili shook his head, but still he said nothing. He walked ahead of them to light the way and Betta followed with Fili to help her down the slope. It was not steep, but her footing was not firm. Fili kept his eyes ahead and his free hand held his torch high so that the light fell unevenly upon his face. He knew that his expression would betray his feelings, and he did not want Betta to ask him why he worried.

Fili stopped several yards from the stream and, though she protested, he refused to lead her any closer. Instead, Kili went on ahead of them and shone his light upon the channel. Betta frowned and looked at in intently, but after several anxious moments she said only that it seemed strange. She did not question the dwarves on the shape of the channel or how it flowed seemingly out of one wall and into another. She trusted the dwarves to know natural stone from stone worked by hand and when Fili urged her to move on, she went without arguing.

And yet, for all that Betta was content, Fili was troubled and uneasy. He knew that he had not told a lie, but he was deliberately hiding information from her, and it did not escape his notice that his was the same offence that he had condemned Betta for committing. However good his motives were, he knew that he was breaking her trust. As they walked up the western side of the cavern, he weighed in his heart his brother's words and his own feelings.

He had nearly made up his mind to tell her when he felt her pull on his arm. They had been passing along the lower side of the cavern. He tried to walk on, but she pulled his arm again and forced him to stop. He looked at her, but she was looking back over her shoulder toward the darkened mouth of a cave.

"What is that?" she said. She let go of his arm and was about to walk back, forgetting for the moment her injury, but Fili held onto her.

"There are many caves on both sides," he said. "Stay. You cannot walk…"

"Give me the crutch," she said. She did not wait for him to do it but took it from his unresisting hand. "I saw something in that cave we passed. I wish to know what it was." She hobbled a few steps then looked back at him. He still carried their torch.

Reluctantly, Fili followed her, bringing the light. Kili had been ahead of them, but now he turned back and joined them at the mouth of the cave, looking it. They found that it was not a cave but another tunnel, this one much smaller than the last, just over five feet in height and less than that wide. In the light of two torches Betta could see clearly now what had only caught her eye before.

"There, inside," she said, pointing. She reached for the torch in Fili's hand, but he pulled it away from her. She frowned at him. "Let me look," she said, suspicion creeping into her voice for the first time.

Reluctantly, Fili surrendered the torch and watched as she limped into the passage. It was not so large as the other, and did not feel as strange, but still she was not eager to go far and held the torch out before her, shining the light upon the ground.

"There is a mark here," she called back to the dwarves who hung about the mouth of the tunnel. "It is carved into the floor."

Fili undoubtedly would have stayed behind, but Kili glanced at his brother and then followed after Betta. This was one of the tunnels that he had seen the day before and, like his brother, he had thought that it was not dangerous. He had hurried by without a close inspection, but now that he did inspect, he saw that there was a mark upon the floor, cut into the stone.

Feeling his brother's eyes upon his back, Kili crouched down and looked at it more closely. Betta stood still, staring down at it in disbelief.

"It is the same," she murmured. Her hand reached up involuntarily to touch the place on her scalp where the hair had been cut away. The new stubble was thick enough to disguise the mark itself, but she did not need to see it to know that it was there. "You drew it, Kili," she said softly. "Is it the same?"

Kili stood up and looked back over his shoulder to his brother who stood still at the mouth of the tunnel. Fili shook his head, and even at a distance Kili saw that his brother looked sick to his stomach and tormented in his heart. As much as he hated to cause his brother more pain, he nodded. "It is the same."

To hide the carvings that they had found was one thing, but to tell an outright lie to their guide was more than Kili could do. "It is as close a match as any image could be that has been passed down over generations," he told her. "It is your father's mark.

The description of the darkness of a cave does indeed come from personal experience, as some of you have guessed. And yes, kboyd912, it really does have to be felt to be believed. I am far too claustrophobic to take up spelunking, but I highly recommend taking advantage of any guided tours that you might find.

-Paint