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!

Betta stared down at the design cut into the floor. Not even the black Standing Stones had made such an impression on her mind. Her world seemed to contract and if the tunnel had collapsed around her, she would not have been surprised. She heard the dwarves voices in the distance, but their words were a noise that she did not understand . She had not needed Kili's answer to tell her that the mark was hers. She remembered it, the design that her brothers used to draw in the dust on the kitchen floor of their home in Lebennin. She remembered the pain of each line that had been stabbed into her skin. Back in their cave, folded in her pack, was a scrap of leather on which Kili had copied the image of her tattoo, but she did not need it to know in her heart that this was the mark that her father's ancestors had passed down to her.

Kili had crouched down once more to examine the carvings and slowly Betta realized that he was looking up at her. He had said something to her.

The walls around her came back into focus. She looked at the mark and admitted that the design was not exactly the same as the one that she knew. There were more lines in this one, and a double-banded circle wrapped around them all. And yet, all the changes could be explained, as Kili had explained them, as being made by the passage of time and the fading memories of the men and women who had passed the image down to her over hundreds of years. It was her father's mark. She had reached the end of the road and now, all that was left was to search for the treasure and the answers to all her questions.

Kili frowned up at her, and then he stood. He spoke slowly, as if he realized that her thoughts were far away from him. "The torches are failing," he said, touching her arm lightly. "We must go back." He led her out of the passage, and she went unresisting, walking as one must walk in a dream.

"We found it," she murmured, as they stepped out of the tunnel. "The map ends here."

Fili had waited outside and now stood frowning with his arms crossed over his chest. "We do not know that," he said.

"Is your brother's word not enough for you?" she asked, looking back into the darkened tunnel. The carving was little more than a shadow against the yellow stone, but still she saw it clearly before her eyes. "I have the copy in my pack. I will get it, and then you can compare the two for yourself. I know that you will see…"

"It is late," Fili said, interrupting her. "Already the sun sets, and Kili and I have work to do before it is wholly dark. There will be no moon tonight."

"Then I will investigate the mark myself while you work. I can be of no use to you there." She did not understand Fili's sour face or his reluctance, but if he was determined to argue with her, then she would be equally stubborn. This was the first clue they had that they were on the right track. All others had been guessed, but there was no denying this mark. She would follow it, but the torch she held was indeed failing as Kili had said and she would need another, fresher branch before she could begin.

"Give me back my torch," she said, meaning the one that she had dropped in the eastern passage and that Fili now carried in his belt. "There is still some light left in it. If you refuse to aid me, then I must manage on my own, for I doubt that you will lend me the use of your brother."

"The mark is cut into stone," Fili told her. "It has lasted a thousand years; it will not wash away overnight. But there are many stone carvings to be found in Middle-earth. Who says that this one means any more than any of the others?"

She frowned, and doubt began to creep into her heart, but something in his choice of words caught her ear. "What others do you mean?" she asked. The shadows of the cavern made it difficult to read the expression on Fili's face, but Kili was closer to her and she could see worry and frustration in his eyes when he looked at his brother.

"Kili?" He looked away from her. "What is this?" she demanded. "What are you hiding from me?"

Kili shook his head. "It was not my choice," he told her. He handed her his torch then walked away. He went only a short distance before he stopped and stood with his face turned away from them. He was far enough to keep out of the argument that he knew was coming, but near enough to intervene if their small battle finally came to blows. Also, he was curious to hear how his brother would answer her.

Once Kili had stepped away, Betta turned her eyes to the elder brother and in the light of two torches he could no longer hide his guilty face. "What have you kept from me?" she asked again, but her voice was soft this time, her anger mingled with hurt and confusion, but her words were no less demanding and firm in their resolve.

"It is nothing," Fili insisted. "I saw other marks in this cavern, that is all. None of them matched the writing on your map or the tattoo you bear. The world is old and there are many ancient carvings in the caves within the mountains. Dwarves and Men and Elves have all dwelt there and left their mark. Even if that carving that you found is the same as that which your father stained upon your skin, what does it matter?" He threw up his hands and turned away.

"What does it matter?" Betta echoed. She stared at him as if she no longer recognized him. "It is our quest! The map has led us this far, and I thought that it must lead off the page, but it did not. I was wrong, and it has led us here! This is where my answers lie hidden, and your treasure. Have you forgotten the gold that you promised to bring back to your uncle?"

Fili kept his face turned stubbornly away, but she did not give up. She stepped in front of him and looked into his eyes. As she spoke, her voice grew louder with her excitement. "We must begin the search now," she cried. "What is the use in worrying over daylight? You are dwarves underground, and there is no light in this cavern that we do not make ourselves. The troll has left us plenty of wood to burn. Why not explore the tunnel tonight? Why do you hold back when there is a clear path to follow?"

"Why are you so eager to go down this dark path?" Fili asked her. "Our supplies are dwindling. Our food is nearly spent. You may think that Dwarves eat only stone, but I assure you that we need meat as much as any Man."

"The troll left us meat," she insisted.

"I would not touch that filth except in greatest need. I would not feed it to my brother or to my… or to you. But leave off the food. You have seen what dangers hide in the untrod stone beneath the earth. Would you ask us to follow you blindly through an unmapped system of caves and tunnels? Perhaps it is easy for you to walk on with little thought for those who follow behind you, but I must think of my brother."

"Your share of the treasure will be…"

"Do not pretend that you care at all for what treasure I may find here," he said angrily. "You look for answers, not treasure. But I tell you, you will never find any answer that will satisfy you. Do you think that there will be new maps for you down there, new pages written in your strange language? You can hardly read the ones you have! There is no one there to answer your questions, no Ranger to sit beside the fire and tell you stories of the past. What will you do when you have exhausted all our food, all our strength, and still you have no answer!?"

Betta stood staring at him, unable to protest or explain herself as Fili's voice grew louder and louder until he nearly shouted in her face, but with every argument that he made, her expression only grew more distant, her mind and heart closed off from him. And, when he finally found no more words to say and fell silent, she simply shook her head and said, "What will I do? I will continue to search, alone if need be, until I have hunted out every clue in this mountain. And if they do not satisfy me, then I will look elsewhere. I will go west to Forochel and walk the rim of the great Bay of Ice where the Lossoth dwell, and then…"

"And then, where?" Fili demanded. "Will you walk into Forodwaith? Will you search the deadly cold of the northern realm until you find some dragon's den and demand your answers from the old worm that lives in it? You are mad! Can you not see that this quest will drive you to your death? Are you blind to all else but the clues that you follow?"

"I will finish my quest," she said.

"There is no finish to it," he cried. "There is no treasure and no end!"

"There must be. I will find it!"

"You will not!"

Not knowing what he did, Fili took hold of her arm and thrust her back against the wall behind her. The torch fell from her hand and sputtered out against the cold floor, but still he held her, and his grip tight enough that she could not break free. He did not let go; he could not. If he must hold her there until the end of time, he would, to keep her from the deadly path.

His own torch was close by her face and in its light he could see that her eyes were wide with surprise, but there was no fear in them. He saw a gleam of something else, however; something that he knew all too well.

"You are mad," he whispered. "I see the madness of your father in your eyes."

"No!" she said, shaking her head violently. "I am not my father. He had no path. I do. I have no ties to bind me, and no home to keep me. My father had a family that needed him, and he abandoned them. I am not him."

"He abandoned you," Fili said gently. He loosened his hand, but still held her. "You are angry with him because he abandoned your family and you. Will you abandon me and my brother? Am I not enough to keep you?"

She stared at him, unable to speak for the pain in her chest. She had hardened her heart after the death of her brothers but it had softened in recent days; she had not realized how soft she had become until that moment.

After several minutes of silence, Fili forced his hand to let her go. He stepped back, and Betta stood, unmoving, slumped against the cavern wall and leaning heavily on her crutch. Her eyes had drifted away from him, and she looked now down at the floor.

When Fili had begun to shout, Kili had hurried back to them, ready to help, but after hearing all that had been said, he did not know what help he could offer.

"Fili…?" He began to speak, but his brother shook his head.

"We must have more wood stacked in the cave for tonight," Fili said. "I will see to it. If Betta wants a torch, make one for her. The one I have of hers is spent."

And with that, he left, walking slowly up through the cavern toward the ice cave and the wood that they had chopped that day. The last lingering traces of daylight still colored the sky deep blue and purple, but there would be no moon tonight and the clouds were gathering. There would be no stars.

Betta watched him go. Kili stood beside her, but he did not look at her. "If you wish to search the passage," he said quietly, "then I will stand guard for you here, but my brother would not like me to go down…"

She shook her head. "Tomorrow," she said, and nothing more. Kili helped her to limp back to their cave, and held her arm as she lowered herself slowly down into the corner near her pack. He fed the fire and laid out meat for their evening meal, then left the cave to go in search of his brother, but before he stepped out past the screen, he looked back. Betta had opened up her pack and taken from it, not the map or the box or even the copied image of her tattoo, but the small, flat mirror inlaid with silver that she had told them came from her mother.

.

Kili found his brother standing just beyond the mouth of the cavern, looking out into the darkness toward the round shape of the hill of meat that the troll had left for them. Behind him, all the wood that they had chopped that day was stacked just within the cavern. It was enough to keep them warm for several nights and needed only to be carried into the smaller cave where they camped.

"You have been hard at work, Kili," Fili said, hearing his brother approach. Part of the wood, Fili himself had helped to cut, but most had been done by Kili while Fili lay dozing in the warm cave with their guide.

"I thought the work would help to loosen the bruises in my back, and it has. I have almost forgotten the pain of them."

"That is good. We will need all our strength to carry enough food and firewood to get us down the mountains and into warmer lands."

Kili nodded, but said nothing. They stood in silence while his torch burned low and finally the flame turned to smolder and smoke. He thrust it into the snow. It was not yet fully dark, and he could just make out the profile of his brother's face, but they were dwarves and had walked the path through the cavern many times. They would need no light to get back to the cave where Betta waited.

"You were right, brother," Fili said, finally. "I was wrong to keep hidden the clues that I had found. I was angry with her when she kept from us her suspicions regarding the pearl, and she has admitted that she was wrong to do so; but now, how do I respond to her apology? By holding back information vital to her quest. And then, when she tells me that I am wrong, I grow angry with her again. This is a fine lesson in trust that I have taught to her." He sighed.

"What will you do now?" Kili asked him.

"I do not know." He shook his head. "There is only so many times that I can expect her to forgive me."

They stood in silence again. His argument with Betta was too bitter to recall so soon, and Fili found himself thinking instead of other things. "I wonder…" he said, and then he frowned and looked at his brother. "You remember that I told you that our mother used to worry over Thorin, that she was suspicious of his interest in the Lonely Mountain and did not like the oath that he had sworn to Thrain?"

Kili nodded.

"I do not know how to explain, but what I saw in Betta's eyes, her obsession and determination to finish this quest, I have seen something of that look on Thorin's face, as well. I have seen a similar gleam in his eyes when he speaks of the treasure of Erebor."

"Our uncle is determined, yes," Kili agreed, "but you called Betta mad. I do not know whether she is, but her father certainly was. Surely you do not think that Thorin…"

"No," Fili said quickly. "No… but I am worried. He has thought long on the dragon and the lost treasure. I wonder whether he does not think too much of it. Did you not say the same thing of me when you saw that the pearl was weighing heavily on my mind?"

"I do not recall who said it."

"No, but it was said," Fili insisted. "I have heard the old dwarves say that dragons brood overlong upon their gold, that it is part of their curse to desire and hoard lovely things, keeping them though they cannot love them for their beauty. In this way, the gold is cursed by their greedy thoughts. I begin to wonder whether one need hold such a cursed coin in order to be effected by it. Could it be that the desire of such a treasure is enough?"

"I think that it is you who have dwelt too long upon dark thoughts," Kili said. "The night is dark enough for me without adding shadows to it."

"I suppose that it is," Fili said. "Did she speak to you after I had gone?"

"Only to say one word: tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Fili frowned. "What does she mean by that?" he muttered.

Kili shrugged. "I do not know. You might ask her," he suggested. "Really, Fili, I cannot always be the go-between for the two of you. What will you do when we are all back at Ered Luin and I have other duties to attend to? I have no doubt that she will answer all your questions if only you would ask rather than order."

Fili could not help but smile at his brother's exasperation. He laughed and put his hand on Kili's shoulder. "I suppose that that is the lesson that I must learn," he said. "Come, let us return to the cave. We must not leave our guide alone for too long or she will wander off again and be lost in the dark."