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     Kili and Fili rode alongside each other on their ponies, hoods on their coats raised to keep them at least a little dry as the rain fell on them.

     "Here, Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori asked.

     "It is raining, Master Dwarf, and it will continue to rain until the rain is done." Gandalf answered. "If you wish to change the weather of the world I suggest you find yourself another wizard."

     "Are there any?" Bilbo asked.

     "What?"

     "Other wizards?"

     "There are five of us. The greatest of our order is Saruman, the White. Then there are the two Blue Wizards- you know, I've quite forgotten their names."

     "And who is the fifth?"

     "Why, that would be Radagast the Brown." Gandalf answered.

     "Is he a great wizard or is he... more like you?"

     Kili and Fili looked at each other and laughed silently. They, noticing Gandalf looked slightly offended, didn't want to hurt his feelings further or make their uncle upset with them again.

     "I think he's a very great wizard, in his own way." Gandalf said. "He's a gentle soul who prefers the company of animals to others. He keeps a watchful eye over the vast forest lands to the East, and a good thing too, for always Evil will look to find a foothold in this world."

     Gandalf and the others continued to converse, though Gandalf did a fair share of the talking.

     "This wizard sure can talk." Fili whispered to Kili.

     "I know. I hope he doesn't talk non-stop the whole way to the Mountain." Kili whispered back. "Speaking of the Mountain, what do you think it looks like?"

     "I don't know." Kili answered. "Majestic, like Thorin."

     Fili rolled his eyes. "Again with Uncle's majesticness."

     "Someday I'll be as majestic as him! Then he'll be proud of me for sure!"

     "Kili, I'm sure he's already proud of you."

     "That was back at the Blue Mountains when we were children. Now we're young adults and know nothing of the world. I want to prove to him that I can handle it."

     "At least making him proud of you is all you have to worry about." Fili sighed. "You do realize that, as the eldest brother, if anything were to happen to Thorin I would be the leader of the Company?"

     "I realize that." Kili said. "You've mentioned many times before you feel kind of pressured, being the next heir to the throne. But if anything were to happen, you could do it."

     "I don't know if I could." Fili said. "I don't feel I'm ready. I'm so inexperienced and still so immature."

     "You've got to have faith in yourself, brother."

     "We'll camp here for the night." Thorin said, loud enough for everyone else to hear. "Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them."

     Kili and Fili dismounted their ponies and led them to the others a little ways off. The two brothers sat down on a log to watch them.

     "Fili, why did Uncle give us the task of watching the ponies?"

     "To teach us responsibility." Fili answered.

     "But this task is so boring." Kili complained. "I'd rather fight a nine foot tall, fat, smelly, ugly troll than watch over a bunch of ponies."

     Suddenly a pony bolted past the brothers and into the forest.

     "I'll go get it." Fili said. "You stay here with the others."

     "I'm not letting you go alone." Kili said. "Safety in numbers."

     "What danger would be out this way?"

     "You never know."

     "No, Kili, you stay here." Fili stood up and went after the pony.

     Kili looked back at the ponies, then back in the direction Fili had gone. Ignoring what his brother had told him to do, he stood and went after Fili. What could possibly happen while they were gone for such a short time?

     Kili caught up to Fili, who was leading the stray pony back to the others.

     "Kili, I thought I told you to stay with the other ponies." Fili said.

     "I came to help you." Kili answered. "You never know what danger could be here."

     "You'd better hope nothing happened to the other ponies."

     "Come on, it's not even been five minutes! What could happen?"

     Kili and Fili got back to the other ponies and released the one they'd caught. They sat on a log and looked after the others.

     "Hey, Kili."

     "Yeah Fili?"

     "I think two of the ponies have gone missing?"

     "What? They couldn't have. We weren't gone that long." Kili looked at the ponies and began counting. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen... Uh-oh. Daisy and Bungo are missing."

     "I told you to stay with them!" Fili said. "Why didn't you?"

     "I don't know! Getting up and going after a pony seemed more exciting than sitting here on the log watching ponies do nothing. I didn't think anything would happen! I wasn't even gone five minutes!"

     "Well, Uncle's not gonna be happy if he finds out."

     "If?" Kili looked at Fili. "You mean we go out and find them?"

     "I do not want to make him angry or disappointed in us again."

     "True... this definitely wouldn't make him proud."

     "Kili and Fili, nephews of Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain and Heirs of Durin can't even do something as simple as watching ponies." Fili held his hand to his forehead. "I do not want to be known as someone who can't even do that."

     "You're right. Let's look around."

     The two brothers looked around and found a large uprooted tree, and several other trees had been uprooted as well."

     "That definitely didn't just fall over." Kili said. "But what could be big enough to do that?"

     "I don't know. Wait, what's that over there?" Fili asked, pointing.

     The brothers moved back to where they had been before and stared into the darkness, trying to see through some of the trees. They thought they saw something, and they heard something as well.

     When Kili and Fili heard someone walking up to them but didn't bother to see who it was. They had bigger things to worry about.

     "What's wrong?" They heard Bilbo ask.

     "We're supposed to be looking out for the ponies..." Kili said.

     "...only we've encountered a small problem." Fili said. 

     "We had sixteen..."

     "...Now there's fourteen." 

     "Well, that's not good." Bilbo said. "That is not good at all. Shouldn't we tell Thorin?"

     Fili glanced at Kili. "Uh... no. Let's not worry him. As our official burglar, we were thinking you might like to look into it."

     Bilbo looked around and saw the uprooted trees. "Well, uh...look, some--something big uprooted these trees." 

     "That was our thinking." Kili said.

     "Hey!" Fili said. "There's a light. Over here! Stay down."

     "What is it?" Bilbo asked.

     Kili glanced at Fili. "Trolls."

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