All of them grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Elrond's house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Or so Bilbo thought. He did not spend much time with the Dwarves, who he felt preferred their own company, so he was not aware of whether or not their initial opinion of the place had improved. Actually, the one he ended spending the most time with was Hannah, when she was not studying or tinkering with something. But when she was busy Bilbo found he had no problem at all with wandering the peaceful halls and gardens of Rivendell on his own. In fact, he quite enjoyed it.

It was on one of these occasions that Bilbo had the chance to speak personally with their gracious host. He had paused on a balcony over-looking the Valley to admire the splendid view, when he found himself being joined by the elf-lord.

"Not with your companions?" said Elrond.

"Uh, no, I... I shan't be missed. The truth is that most of them don't think that I should be on this journey," admitted Bilbo.

"Indeed? I have heard that Hobbits are very resilient," said Elrond. Bilbo let out a small chuckle, thinking he must be joking, but looking up at the elf-lord's wise face he was surprised to find that he was being perfectly serious.

"Really?" Bilbo asked. Elrond nodded.

"I have also heard they are fond of the comforts of home," he added.

"And I've heard that it's unwise to seek the council of Elves, for they will answer with both 'yes' and 'no'," said Bilbo in reply. For a moment the hobbit was afraid he might have caused offense as the elf-lord stared down at him, but then a small smile formed on Elrond's face.

"You are very welcome to stay here, if that is your wish," he told Bilbo, placing a hand on the hobbit's shoulder as he turned and left just as silently and mysteriously as he had arrived.

Unfortunately for Lord Elrond, not all of his guests were so well mannered.

"The kitchen is under enormous stain," said Lindir as they walked together, conversing in Elvish; "we are almost out of wine. How much longer do you think they will be with us?"

"That has yet to be decided," said Elrond. They both halted when they heard the sound of deep-throated laughter and caught sight of a rather disturbing scene. In one of their great fountains, out in the open where anyone might see, the Dwarves were swimming and roughhousing with each other, stark naked.

"Lord Elrond!" Hannah called, coming up behind the two Elves, carrying the watch she had been repairing for him. Her grandfather had taught her a bit about watchmaking, so she often put her skills to use for the Elves when asked.

"I've just finished... What are you doing, Mr. Lindir?" she asked, puzzled when she found the Elf's hands swiftly clamped over her eyes faster than you could say knife, sparring her the trauma of having to witness the sight of thirteen naked dwarf-men.

"I wonder..." he said, glancing at his Lord. This was starting to get ridiculous. Something had to be done.

"Is this a game?" asked Hannah curiously.

"Yes," said Elrond, taking the repaired watch from her hands. As usual, Hannah had done some very fine work. "It's called: Don't look until Lindir tells you to." And with that, Lindir began guiding her to a much safer area while still keeping her eyes covered. Elrond glanced down at the watch in his hand. It was time he had a talk with Gandalf.

Later that evening, Hannah was teaching Bilbo the names for some of the stars that the Elves had taught to her. She had just finished pointing out Eärendil when they heard Gandalf's voice below. They peered down over the railing of the balcony and saw that he was talking with Elrond in the courtyard below.

"Of course I was going to tell you," said the wizard as they walked. "I was waiting for this very chance. And really, I-I think you can trust that I know what I am doing."

"Do you?" asked Elrond. "That Dragon has slept for sixty years. What will happen if your plan should fail? If you wake the beast?"

"What if we succeed?" countered Gandalf. "If the Dwarves take back the Mountain, our defenses in the East will be strengthened. "

"It is a dangerous move, Gandalf," said Elrond.

"It is also dangerous to do nothing," argued Gandalf. "Oh, come. With or without our help, these Dwarves will march on the Mountain. They are determined to reclaim their homeland. The throne of Erebor is Thorin's birthright. What is it you fear?" Hannah and Bilbo suddenly became aware that they were not alone. Thorin had come up from behind and now stood with them, listening.

"Have you forgotten? A strain of madness runs deep in that family," Elrond reminded him. "His grandfather lost his mind. His father succumbed to the same sickness. Can you swear Thorin Oakenshield will not also fall?" Bilbo and Thorin watched as Hannah quietly began to slip down the stairs, wondering where she thought she was going. "Gandalf, these decisions do not rest with us alone. It is not up to you or me to redraw the map of Middle-earth."

"If you don't redraw it, then someone else will," Hannah said gravely as she joined the wizard and the elf-lord. Gandalf and Elrond both looked at her in surprise. "Lord Elrond, when I first came here, I told you about what happened to my home. Do you remember? We were in a similar situation. We did nothing because we were afraid, and look where it got us. Do you want the same thing to happen here? Please, let us do something. Before it's too late." Elrond was silent and grim as he regarded her.

"Very well," he said at length, turning back to Gandalf. "As you have said, the Dwarves will go with or without our help. If that is indeed the case, I may as well give you what aide I can." He would give them until August. After that Elrond felt he would have to bring their quest to the attention of the White Council during their meeting, and there the next move would be decided.

"Oh, well, in that case..." said Gandalf, turning his gaze up towards the Dwarf and the Hobbit on the landing above. "There is something in particular that I was hoping you might be able to help us with."

Although they had somehow managed to convince Elrond to help them, Thorin was now acting more difficult than ever after overhearing the elf-lord's opinion on the history of his family's mental health.

"Our business is of no concern of the Elves," said Thorin as he stood in Elrond's study with everyone who had been present for the conversation in the courtyard and Balin.

"For goodness sake, Thorin, show him the map," said Gandalf gruffly, starting to get impatient.

"It is the legacy of my people," said Thorin stubbornly. "It is mine to protect. As are its secrets."

Yes, so secret you don't even know what they are, thought Hannah. She thought it was understandable for him to be upset this time; but she also thought expressing it by withholding the map was a pointless act of defiance, as useful as the 'g' in lasagna.

"Save me from the stubbornness of Dwarves!" said Gandalf. "Your pride will be your downfall. You stand here in the presence of one of the few in Middle-earth who can read that map. Show it to Lord Elrond." Thorin was silent for a long moment. Slowly, he withdrew the map from his coat and handed it over.

"Thorin, no," said Balin, still hesitant to let a stranger look at it. But it was already in Elrond's hands. The elf-lord carefully unfolded the map and studied it closely.

"We think it may contain hidden text," said Gandalf. "You still read ancient Dwarvish, do you not?"

As Elrond stepped into the light of a moonbeam streaming into the room, he paused when something caught his eye. "Cirth-ithil," he said upon taking a closer look, holding the map up in the light.

"Moon-runes?" asked Hannah, furrowing her brow slightly as she did a quick rough translation in her head.

"Ah, of course," said Gandalf. "An easy thing to miss."

"Well, in this case that is true. Moon-runes are rune-letters, but you cannot see them when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon shines behind them," said Elrond, explaining for Hannah. "And what's more, with the more cunning sort, such as these, it must be a moon of the same shape and season as the day on which they were written."

"Can you read them?" asked Thorin.

Elrond led them to a special crystal he used for such purposes. It was large and stood erect with the top slice clean off and polished flat and smooth so that it could be used as a podium to read at.

"These runes were written on a midsummer's eve by the light of a crescent moon nearly two hundred years ago," Elrond said as he laid the map upon the crystal. "It would seem you were meant to come to Rivendell. Fate is with you, Thorin Oakenshield. The same moon shines upon us tonight." The cloud that had been covering the silver sliver hanging in the night sky soon passed, and the light that shined down in the Valley was refracted within the crystal to shine much stronger and brighter through the thick parchment, so that the moon-runes glowed sharp and clear upon the map. "Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond, "and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the key-hole."

"Durin's day?" asked Bilbo and Hannah together.

"It is the start of the Dwarves' New Year," said Gandalf. "When the last moon of autumn and the first sun of winter appear in the sky together."

"This is ill news," said Thorin grimly. "Summer is passing. Durin's Day will soon be upon us."

"We still have time," said Balin.

"Time for what?" asked Bilbo.

"To find the door," answered Balin. "We have to be standing in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time. Then, and only then, can the door be opened."

"Well, then," said Hannah, "it sounds as though we haven't a moment to lose."

"Gandalf," Elrond said, holding the wizard back while the others left to inform the rest of Thorin's company of what they had just learned. "Why involve Hannah in this? Why the Hobbit?"

"I do not know. Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found it is the small things, everyday deeds of ordinary folk, that keeps the darkness at bay; simple acts of kindness and love," said Gandalf thoughtfully. "Why Hannah Hayes and Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it is because I am afraid. And they give me courage."

The company prepared to depart the very next day. It was a midsummer's morning as and fresh as could be dreamed: blue sky and never a cloud, and the sun dancing on the water. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were improved with the best advice. And they were provided with new ponies.

Now they rode away amid songs of farewell and good speed, with their hearts ready for more adventure, despite the danger that awaited, and with knowledge of the road they must follow over the Misty Mountains to the land beyond.

There were many paths that led up to those mountains, and many passes over them. But most of the paths were cheats and deceptions and led nowhere or to bad ends; most of the passages were infested by evil things and dreadful dangers. The Dwarves and the Hobbit, helped by the wise advice of Elrond and the knowledge and memory of Gandalf, took the right road to the right pass.

Long days after they had climbed out of the valley and left the Last Homely House miles behind, they were still going up and up and up. It was a hard and dangerous path, a crooked way and a lonely and a long one. Now they could look back on the lands they had left, laid out behind them far below. Far, far away in the West, where things were blue and faint, Bilbo knew there lay his own country of safe and comfortable things, and his little hobbit-hole. He shivered. It was getting bitter cold up here, and the wind came shrill among the rocks. Boulders, too, at times came galloping down the mountain-sides, let loose by midday sun upon the snow, and passed among them (which was lucky), or over their heads (which was alarming). The nights were comfortless and chill, and they did not dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and the silence seemed to dislike being broken—except by the noise of water and the wail of wind and the crack of stone.

The summer is getting on down below, thought Bilbo, and haymaking and picnics. They will be harvesting and blackberrying, before we even reach the other side at this rate. And the others were thinking equally gloomy thoughts, although when they had said goodbye to Elrond in the high hope of a midsummer morning, they had spoken gaily of the passage of the mountains, and of riding swift across the lands beyond. They had thought of coming to the secret door in the Lonely Mountain, perhaps that very next first moon of Autumn—"and perhaps it will be Durin's Day," they had said. Only Gandalf had shaken his head and said nothing. Dwarves had not passed that way for many years, but Gandalf had, and he knew how evil and danger had grown and thriven in the Wild, since the dragons had driven Men from the lands, and the Goblins had spread in secret after the battle of the Mines of Moria. Even the good plans of wise wizards like Gandalf and of good friends like Elrond go astray sometimes when you are off on dangerous adventures or over the Edge of the Wild; and Gandalf was wise enough to know it, as was Hannah. She had very little experience with mountains, but in her short but extremely eventful life, Hannah had long since come to know that unexpected things were always going to happen in life, whether you wanted them to or not, and she had come to understand that the only control she had was how she chose to handle them. So she made the decision to survive using courage, humor, and grace; just as she had witnessed her parents and grandparents do before her.

As a result of their experiences, Gandalf and Hannah both knew that something unexpected might happen, and they hardly dared hope that they would pass without fearful adventure over those great tall mountains with lonely peaks and valleys where no king or queen ruled. They did not. All was well, until one day they met a thunderstorm—more than a thunderstorm, a thunder-battle. You know how terrific a really big thunderstorm can be when crashing down in the land and in a river-valley; especially at times when two great storms meet and clash. More terrible still are thunder and lightning in the mountains at night, when storms come up from East and West and make war. The lightning splinters on the peaks, and rocks shiver, and great crashes split the air and go rolling and tumbling into every cave and hollow; and the darkness is filled with overwhelming noise and sudden light. Bilbo had never seen or imagined anything of the kind. They were high up in a narrow place, with a dreadful fall into a dim valley at one side of them. There they were sheltering under a hanging rock for the night, and he lay beneath a blanket and shook from head to toe. Hannah tried to comfort him, but they were both quite startled when, in the lightning flashes, they saw that across the valley the stone-giants were out and hurling rocks at one another for a game, and catching them, and tossing them down into the darkness where they smashed among the trees far below, or splintered into little bits with a bang. Then came a wind and a rain, and the wind whipped the rain and the hail about in every direction, so that an overhanging rock was no protection at all. Soon they were drenched and their ponies were standing with their heads down and their tails between their legs, and some of them were whinnying with fright. They could hear the giants guffawing and shouting all over the mountainsides.

"This won't do at all!" said Thorin. "If we don't get blown off or drowned, or struck by lightning, we shall be picked up by some giant and kicked sky-high for a football." Despite the direness of their situation and his words, it suddenly struck Hannah odd that she had not ever before realized that they played football in Middle-earth, and wondered if it was the same game as what she used to play back in her own world.

"Well, if you know of anywhere better, take us there!" said Gandalf, who was feeling very grumpy, and far from happy about the giants himself.

The end of their argument was that they sent Fili and Kili to look for better shelter. They had very sharp eyes, and being two of the youngest Dwarves by some fifty years they usually got these sort of jobs (when everybody could see that it was absolutely no use sending Bilbo). There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something (or so Thorin said to the young Dwarves). You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. So it proved on this occasion.

Soon Fili and Kili came crawling back, holding on to the rocks in the wind. "We have found a dry cave," they said, "not far round the next corner; and ponies and all could get inside."

"Have you thoroughly explored it?" said the wizard, who knew caves up in the mountains were seldom unoccupied.

"Yes, yes!" they said, though everybody knew they could not have been long about it; they had come back too quick. "It isn't all that big, and it does not go far back."

That, of course, is the dangerous part about caves: you don't know how far back they go, sometimes, or where a passage behind might lead to, or what is waiting for you inside. But now Fili and Kili's news seemed good enough. So they all got up and prepared to move. The wind was howling and the thunder still growling, and they had a business of getting themselves and their ponies along. Still it was not very far to go, and before long they came to a big rock standing out into the path. If you stepped behind, you found a low arch on the side of the mountain. There was just enough room to get the ponies through with a squeeze, when they had been unpacked and unsaddled. As they passed under the arch, it was good to hear the wind and rain outside instead of all about them, and to feel safe from the giants and their rocks. But the wizard was taking no risks. He lit up his wand, and by its light they explored the cave from end to end.