Common Flower

Gimli with Loki, Father and Sam descended the steps into a cold storage cellar which was just cold enough to see your breath. A light frost covered the rough, sconce-embedded walls and snow covered the floor. It was like entering a different world as twenty feet above them was the dull rumble, and heat, of the smithy. Light-emerald, cold, fire blazed in the silver sconces around the cavern causing veins of silver to glimmer.

The first flower that came into sight was a white flowering vine which threaded through the cracks and curled around stalactites. Said vine's flowers were white and streaked with dark-sapphire, it also had broad, scale covered petals.

Sam gasped, "Oh wow ! I ain't seen a flower like that before. What's it called in the Common Tongue, Mr. Loki ?"

"It is called the Hatchling Vine, Samwise. Once a mighty bear was foraging for food near a dragon's nest. The bear was starving, heard the hatchlings cries and attacked them. Before it could eat one, the bear found itself rushed by the mother dragon who crushed its skull in one bite. All of her hatchlings were there, but one, the hatchling who had tried to escape. That hatchling fell onto the vine staining it with streaks of blood...where it died of a broken back nuzzled by its mother."

"Never thought I'd want to cuddle a dragon, but that poor baby."

He definitely was not tearing up, he was just walking over to check on a cask of light lager he wanted to use for tonight's feast. So that everyone could finally experience the fabled hospitality of the Dwarves he'd invited Legolas, Aragorn and Gandalf as well early last week. When they'd left the others behind Frodo, Legolas and Gandalf were browsing the library, while Aragorn, Merry and Pippin were trying some pranks, which Loki had put them up to, on the children.

Father tapped the cask and chuckled, "He's still good at telling stories I see. Young Sam's right I've never seen these flowers before either. What's that one there ?" Asked while pointing to a dark-sapphire flower speckled with silver that had a few stamens poking out of it...like fangs.

Gimli couldn't remember, "That's, uh...Loki, what's the mainly blue one ? The one with the teeth."

Loki, who was helping Sam examine the lowest laying Hatchling Vine, looked up with a bright smile. "Blood Fang, dear Gimli, it is Blood Fang."

"Cheery name, eh, son ?"

"From what I've seen Jotunheim ain't a cheery place most days."

More laughter from Father, "I'd say you stole the only cheer they ever had, but you didn't steal him."

Sam suddenly exclaimed, "I know that flower ! It's a common flower in the Shire, well, actually it's a weed there. We call it the Frost Weed because it was first noticed, and multiplied, during the winter then died during the spring. Always thought that was rather odd of it. I mean, it's not like it knows what season it is."

Loki wondered, "Did it ever do this ?"

With a snap of his fingers, Loki doused the sconce fires and summoned a larger flame into his joined palms. The concentrated light causing all the flowers and vines to start glowing. Loki's eyes were the second most noticeable thing in the room as the ruby hue also seemed to glow in the darkness.

Sam sounded awed, "No, Mr. Loki, sir, they certainly didn't. I could've used some of these in that lair, indeed, I could have. Too bad I didn't know what they were then."

A crashing and thumping on the stairs before his cousin Borin Balinson's voice called, "Who put out the sconces ? Bloody scoundrels the lot of ya."

Even in the darkness he knew Loki would have a, quickly hidden, sheepish look on his face as he re-kindled the cold fires. Loki murmured, "My apologies, Borin, I did not know you were coming down here as well."

The other, slightly darker, auburn-haired dwarf answered, "O' course I'm comin' down here ! I need to get the lager, the feast's starting in two hours. Forget your own feasts, aie. Will you forget your own breath next, Gimli ?"

"Not yet, I haven't."

Knowing Loki as he did, he guessed there would be, at least, one prank pulled. He just wondered what it would be this time. Father, Loki, Sam and himself left the cellar to get ready.