Amara left Arwen and set off through the halls she had grown up in. She had not been home in a little over three months. Whenever she returned from a longer trip, she would walk the halls to let the familiarity calm her restless soul. She entered the portrait gallery and found Bilbo admiring the portraits. He looked around as she walked in and she offered him a smile which he gladly returned.

"She's beautiful." He remarked, gazing at the portrait of a blonde elleth.

"She is." Amara said, as she took a seat on the cushioned bench that faced the portraits.

"Who is she?"

"Celebrían, lady of Lothlórien, daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn." Amara leaned forward with a sad smile on her face. "My mother."

Bilbo glanced at her before turning back to the portrait. "What happened to her?"

"She was travelling to see my grandparents when her group were ambushed by orcs. My brothers managed to get to her and my father healed her, but she never truly recovered. The following year she sailed west, to the undying lands." Amara told him.

"I'm sorry."

"It was a very long time ago." She murmured as Bilbo turned his attention to the portrait next to Celebrían.

"Has your father remarried?" Bilbo enquired.

Amara stood and walked over to her mother's portrait. "No. Elves only love once in their life, once they have found the one, they will never be with another."

"Have you? F-found yours, I mean?" Bilbo stammered.

"Yes, I have. All though you will not find him here. We are not married. In fact, it has been fifty years since I have last seen him." She gave him a sad smile.

"That's a long time."

She looked at Bilbo. "Not to an elf."

"May I ask why you never wed?"

"We intend too, but have yet to have the chance. We are betrothed but both our realms need defending and circumstances have prevented it I suppose."  She twisted the silver betrothal ring on her finger as she walked to the portrait next to her mothers. "The path our quest will take may bring us across his path however."

Bilbo gave her a smile as he looked at the next portrait with interest. "Now that, I believe, is you."

"My brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, my sister, Arwen, and myself. I am the oldest of my siblings, my brothers are barely a few years younger than me, but Arwen is closer to a century younger than us."

"A century." Bilbo looked shocked.

Amara laughed lightly. "We are half-elves, Mr Baggins. We have the choice between the immortality of the elves and the mortality of men."

"How old are you?"

"I am getting closer to three millennia." Amara smiled at Bilbo's expression. "But I think that is enough of a history lesson, my father will expect us for dinner." She smiled and led the way to the banquet hall.

"Kind of you to invite us. I'm not really dressed for dinner." Amara heard Gandalf tell her father as she and Bilbo walked into the hall, just as Elrond, Gandalf and Thorin entered through the other door.

"Well, you never are." Elrond told him with a warm smile.

All the others were already seated. Amara took her place next to her father as one of the other elves brought them all their food. Dinner, as usual by elvish custom, contained no meat. This did not go down well with the dwarves. Amara looked over to Kili who was winking at the elf playing the harp, she supressed a laugh as Dwalin gave him a stern look.

"Can't say I fancy Elf maids myself. Too thin. They're all high cheekbones and creamy skin; not enough facial hair for me. Although... that one there's not bad" Kili said to the other dwarves

"That's not an elf maid." Dwalin told him with a wink. All the dwarves burst out laughing as the elf turned round and Amara saw that it was indeed not an elf maid.

Amara then turned her attention back to her father who was examining the swords Gandalf and Thorin had found in the troll cave.

"This is Orcrist, the Goblin Cleaver. A famous blade, forged by the High Elves of the West, my kin. May it serve you well." Elrond said handing the sword back to Thorin. He then took the sword off Gandalf and examined it. "And this is Glamdring, the Foe-hammer, sword of the King of Gondolin. These swords were made for goblin wars of the First Age." Elrond then said. Amara remembered her father telling her the stories of the goblin wars of the first age when she was a child.

"How did you come by these?" Elrond asked.

"We found them in a troll hoard on the Great East Road, shortly before we were ambushed by orcs." Gandalf told him.

"And what were you doing on the Great East Road?" Elrond asked.

Thorin looked unsettled. "Excuse me." He muttered before getting up and leaving.

"13 dwarves, and a Halfling; strange travelling companions." Her father remarked when Thorin had left, his eyes drifting between his daughter and Gandalf.

"These are the descendants of the House of Durin! They're noble, decent folk." As Gandalf spoke Amara noticed Nori pick up an ornate salt shaker and discreetly put it in his coat. "And they're surprisingly cultured." Amara watched as Bombur stuffed his face with food. "They've got a deep love of the arts". Gandalf finished and Nori turned to the harp player behind him and said. "Change the tune, why don't you?? I feel like I'm at a funeral!"

"Did somebody die?!" Oin exclaimed.

"Alright lads, there's only one thing for it!" Bofur said standing up and jumping onto a plinth in-between the two tables the dwarves were sat on and started to sing. Soon all the others joined in.

"There is an inn, a merry old inn,

Beneath an old grey hill,

And there they brew a beer so brown,

That the Man in the Moon himself came down,

One night to drink his fill.

The ostler has a tipsy cat,

That plays a five-stringed fiddle;

And up and down he runs his bow,

Now squeaking high, now purring low,

Now sawing in the middle.

So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle,

A jig that would wake the dead:

He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune,

While the landlord shook the Man in the Moon:

'It's after three!' he said."

Bofur finished and the rest of the dwarves started throwing food around. Amara could not keep the smile off her face, even when her father gave her a hard look.

Dinner ended quickly and most of the dwarves left to get a good night's rest. Elrond, Amara, Gandalf, Thorin, Bilbo and Balin moved to one of the other halls. Gandalf attempted to convince Thorin to ask Elrond for help.

"Our business is no concern of elves." Thorin told Elrond with a sneer.

Amara sighed at the stubbornness of dwarves.

"For goodness sake, Thorin, show him the map." Gandalf said growing tired of his impertinence.

"It is the legacy of my people; it is mine to protect, as are its secrets." Thorin told them.

"Save me from the stubbornness of Dwarves. 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." Gandalf said. Thorin thought for a moment before finally conceding and pulling the map out of his pocket.

"Thorin, no!" Balin said as he placed a hand on Thorin's arm. Thorin brushed him aside and gave it to Elrond.

"Erebor. What is your interest in this map?" Elrond asked looking from the map to his daughter to Thorin.

"It's mainly academic. As you know, this sort of artefact sometimes contains hidden text. You still read Ancient Dwarfish, do you not?" Gandalf said, interrupting Thorin as he was about to speak.

Amara watched as her father walked a little bit away from them looking at the map. As the light of the moon hit the map Elrond realised something. "Cirth Ithil." He muttered.

"Moon runes." Amara said, remembering what her father had told her of them.

"Of course. An easy thing to miss." Gandalf muttered.

"Well in this case, that is true; Moon runes can only be read by the light of a moon with the same shape and season as the day on which they were written." Elrond told them.

"Can you read them?" Thorin asked hopefully.

Elrond led the group to an open area outside, on the side of a cliff, with waterfalls surrounding it. Amara had only ever been here several times when her father had taught her about moon runes. The moon was veiled by the clouds as they walked up to a crystalline table near the edge of the cliff face.

"These runes were written on a Midsummer's Eve by the light of a crescent moon nearly two hundred years ago. It would seem you were meant to come to Rivendell. Fate is with you, Thorin Oakenshield; the same moon shines upon us tonight." Elrond told them.

Amara looked on in fascination as the clouds parted to reveal the moon. Rays of moonlight hit the crystalline table and shone through the map. They all watched as the ancient dwarfish runes became visible on the map.

"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine upon the keyhole." Elrond translate for the five others.

"Durin's Day?" Bilbo asked when Elrond had finished.

"It is the dwarves' new year, when the last moon of autumn and the first sun of winter appear in the sky together." Gandalf told him.

"This is ill news. Summer is passing. Durin's Day will soon be upon us." Thorin muttered, sounding disheartened.

"We still have time." Amara assured him.

"Time? For what?" Bilbo asked.

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

"So this is your purpose, to enter the Mountain." Elrond said looking around the dwarves, wizard, elf and hobbit.

"What of it?" Thorin asked, taking the map from Elrond.

"There are some who would not deem it wise." Elrond told him.

"Who do you mean?" Gandalf asked.

"You are not the only guardian to stand watch over Middle-earth." Elrond said as he walked away leaving Gandalf to think deeply.

Amara left the dwarves and walked through Rivendell deep in thought. Thoughts of the quest to come and the path it may lead them all down were tumbling through her mind. She walked out into the woods slightly, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. She continued walking and heard rustling behind her. She spun round in a fighting stance and pulled out her dagger. She put it down, however when her father walked out.

"May I ask why you are going on this quest?" Elrond asked his daughter.

"Because I made a promise." She told him. Her father raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. "I made a promise to see them safely to the mountain and I mean to keep that promise. And if what Gandalf believes is true, then Erebor is a strategic position we cannot afford to concede to our enemy."

"You have seen something." It was a statement, not a question. Elrond knew his daughter better than anyone.

"Yes." She stopped and tried to put it into words. "A shadow hanging over us all, an old enemy. Or at least I believe it is an old enemy. I see... fragments in my dreams each night, but they rarely make much sense."

Elrond nodded. "I see it too which is why if you go on this quest you must be careful. Orcs and trolls are coming down from the mountains, the goblins are regrouping and if you pass through the green wood you must be careful. The men of the wood are starting to call it Mirkwood. A shadow lies over the forest and Thranduil has mentioned there are spiders collimating." Amara looked at her father and nodded.

"I will be careful, I promise." She told him.

"I know you will, I just do not want to lose another member of my house." He smiled sadly. "You are hoping to see Legolas I presume." He had long been aware of the bond they shared.

"If I can, with everything that hangs in the balance I find myself aching to be near him more than ever."

"Love is the strongest bond of all and you have both chosen your duty over it for long enough. I think that when this quest is over it will be time for you to fulfill your betrothal and exchange your silver rings to ones of gold."

"You have seen something." Amara echoed her father's words.

"Yes, although I too cannot be certain. I must leave you; a meeting is to be held with Galadriel and Saruman, and I must inform Gandalf." He embraced her before walking back the way he had come.

Amara walked back to the main hall to find all the dwarves laughing. She saw Bilbo walking and went to stand next to him. He was listening to her father and Gandalf talking between themselves in hushed whispers.

"Of course I was going to tell you" Gandalf was saying. "I was waiting for this very chance. And really, I – I think you can trust that I know what I am doing."

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

Gandalf cut him off; "But if we succeed! What if the dwarves take back the mountain, then our defences in the east will be strengthened."

"It's a dangerous move, Gandalf." Elrond said. Amara and Bilbo heard foot steps behind them and turned to find Thorin listening as well.

"It is also dangerous to do nothing! Oh, come – the throne of Erebor is Thorin's birth right! What is it you fear?" Gandalf asked.

"Have you forgotten, a strain of madness runs deep in that family? His grandfather lost his mind. His father succumbed to the same sickness. Can you swear Thorin Oakenshield will not also fall? Gandalf, these decisions to not rest with us alone. It is not up to you or me to redraw the map of Middle-earth." Elrond said as they walked out of earshot.

Amara turned round to find Thorin looking disgruntled.