I wriggled on the lumpy, cattail cushion situated on the floor beside young Josan. The kid was adorable, his eyes wide as he peppered me with all kinds of Serious Questions about dwarves. Half of them were all kinds of hilarious - one being Gimli's lamented rumor that dwarves sprang up from the ground full-grown. That I was supposed to be the expert here was none-too-easy.
My gaze kept turning towards the window, judging the sun's passage across the sky. These folks were nice, but I wanted Bofur here. I needed to see for myself that he and Fili were alright.
A rap on the window.
The family tensed. Jarel, the man of the house, blew out a large breath and rose to his feet. I sidled out of view at his jerk of the head. If it wasn't the guys at the shutter, announcing myself to all and sundry after all Jarel's efforts would be beyond rude.
The instant the shutter was open, Aleks slithered in. Jarel protested - he hadn't had a chance to question the "intruder" before he was in the room with his family. Jarel's head zoomed towards me.
"My brother," I assured him, trying to move my legs under me to rise. Relief brought tears to my eyes. I'm guessing Aleks felt the same, because he helped me stand and enfolded me in a gentle embrace.
"Are you okay?" he asked roughly.
My laugh was on the watery side. "Me? What about you? Dear heavens, Aleks, Bolg? What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed."
With zero warning, I was almost ripped from Aleks's arms and smothered against a broader chest and a familiar-looking coat. The scents of pipe smoke and wood dust wafted over me, the aroma strongest within his coat. Bofur. He said not a word – shocking given his usual vociferousness. He just held me tight with no seeming intention of letting me go anytime soon. The strength of his response stunned me. I'd known that he cared, but I hadn't realized how deeply that went.
My arms tightened around him in response. "You didn't leave," I whispered in a choppy voice. "You didn't leave with the Company."
The bristles of his mustache teased my cheek as he took a tremulous inhale. He lifted me off my feet, squeezing even tighter until I gasped, "Bofur."
The embrace gentled and concerned brown-green eyes swam into view. He supported my weight with one arm as his other hand pressed to my cheek, rough, work-hardened skin partially covered by fingerless wool gloves. "Did they hurt you, my Daphne? Are you well?"
I managed a wobbly smile. "I am now." I hugged him again, chin on his shoulder, and transferred that smile to the last two of our party. "Kili, I'm glad you're okay." Though to be frank, the dark-haired Durin looked horrible.
He attempted his trademark, flirty smile, and Fili inclined his head in greeting. I returned my head to the crook of Bofur's neck and inhaled. Contentment filled me as fear's icy fingers finally let go of my belly. They were here. They were safe.
Fili broke the silence, introducing himself and the rest of the party to my hosts. I stayed where I was, letting him handle it.
"Um, Daph?"
I relinquished my hold upon Bofur reluctantly, and I fancied he felt the same way. Turning to Aleks, I finally noted the blood staining his side. "Oh, Aleks," I hissed between my teeth, beside him in a flash - okay, not really, not with my own stiffened muscles and aching joints. But I was there as fast as I could hobble, Bofur shadowing me.
"Did you bring-?" I began, only to see the duffle at his feet.
"Where are your supplies?" Aleks asked as I begged Freija's sister – the sweetest, round faced woman I'd ever met – for a stool with a gesture. Hydi brought me the stool with a smile, and I pressed Aleks to a seat, my hands tackling the filthy bandage he'd slapped together.
Lowering myself to my knees hurt like mad, but I managed without betraying my own discomfort. I busied myself with unwrapping Aleks from the topmost layer of bandaging as I answered, "I lost it."
"Lost it?" Immediately, "I'm sorry, Daph." He groaned. "We lost both mp3 players."
"Trust me, I know." I shook my head.
His body language changed. In a different voice, "You had Amma's seeds in there, didn't you?"
No question, just empathy for the loss. I shrugged, determined not to waste time on grief for seeds, for crying out loud. "They're things, Aleks." A clobbered-together smile. "You and these guys are worth a million of them."
"What's this about seeds?" Bofur asked, squatting by my side with elbows on knees.
Aleks began to answer, so I set myself to finding his first-aid kit and retrieving the vials I was after. Hydi shoved clean bandages into my hands before I could ask for them. I smiled in thanks. Knowing where Aleks's bag had been, I next checked the medicinals for signs of tampering, sniffing and putting a pinch of those I intended to use upon my tongue.
"Dryads pass down seeds from generation to generation," Aleks explained, "refining strains and adding traits they're after. Our mother had this line of roses that couldn't be beat for medicinal uses. Appa was always bragging about that, how she had a knack for melding the beautiful with the functional. Seeds are kind of a birthright. It's tradition."
By this time, I'd unraveled the final layer of swaddling over his injury and blanched. My lips compressed. For this, Bolg, I'll hunt you down myself.
The wound hadn't been cleaned properly, that was evident straight off. Already, there was the faintest putrid aroma emanating from it. I poked at it with gentle fingers, grimacing when he flinched, and the blood which seeped from it began to flow freely in that one spot.
"Daph," Aleks grunted.
"Hush," I told him. "You fought Bolg, Aleks. Bolg. What were you thinking?"
"Keeping my head attached to my body," Aleks said in exasperation. "What did you expect me to do? Ward off his attacks with some zen yoga?"
I grumbled under my breath, unhappy, unformed sounds. Hydi appeared by my side and tried to pass me a hot pan of water, but Bofur intervened, collecting the steaming metal container himself and setting it down at my side with a dark, leery look.
"It's fine," I whispered to him. "I'll be careful." I dumped my antibacterial powder into the water, then wet one piece of cloth to use for cleaning. I wrung it out gingerly, tossing it from hand to hand to keep from scalding my fingers. "Don't think I didn't notice the gash on your head, Kili," I remarked as I set the hot cloth against Aleks's skin when I deemed it cooled enough.
Aleks hissed. I persisted.
"Yes, Mistress," Kili answered.
Why did he sound so pleased? Men. Bah.
While I worked, Jarel and Hydi's family fed the others. The couple chatted with Fili and Kili as young Josan pestered Bofur for stories. How the tyke arrowed in upon him, I wasn't altogether certain – maybe Bofur had been making faces at him like I'd caught him doing with Estel a time or two – but the kid sat enraptured the entire time while Bofur handed me vials and supplies as I needed them. Distracted as I was, I still loved watching him with the child. Call me a sappy female, but it tugged on all of my heart strings.
The highlight of the night, though, was the way Aleks almost toppled from the stool when Freija walked through the door. My twin's eyes widened, and his jaw unhinged just the tiniest bit as she curtsied prettily and introduced herself to the group.
The goof tried to bow as he instantly responded with, "Aleks Hunt, at your service." Whether that emphasis was intended or not, it was there for all to hear.
Did Aleks realize what he'd done? Somehow, I thought not. I caught the corner of Bofur's eye and had to swallow back giggles.
Bofur sewed my brother up when the wound was finally cleaned to my satisfaction. I couldn't do it - the supplies I'd had, the non-metallic sort, were gone. Without my gloves, picking up a needle wasn't going to happen.
Once Aleks was bandaged up, Kili claimed his spot with a lopsided grin. Funny, though, where back in Rivendell that smile might have caused me all sorts of mortified stammering and blushing, it really didn't faze me at all. Maybe I was just too tired.
"Daphne, why don't you tell us some tales from your lands?" Kili asked as Bofur aided me to my feet so that I might assess Kili's head wound.
"Your lands?" Jarel piped up. The blond-haired ferryman leaned back upon his wooden chair, his feet crossed upon a wood stump serving as a footrest. "You are not from the same place?"
"The young man spoke of dryads. Is that another clan of dwarves?" Hydi ventured to ask in her soft voice.
I jumped in before Aleks could. Should we be telling all and sundry that we weren't dwarves? That was a question I intended to hash out with the guys later in private.
Along with minor things like, oh, the fact that we were not with Bard and his family, and how long we had until Smaug razed the place to the ground.
"The dwarves from Erebor have been living in Thorin's Hall in Ered Luin," I told them as I probed Kili's head. I'd seen the hard hit Kili had sustained, and even now, he seemed less than steady on his feet. I ran gentle fingers across his brow and then around his skull, searching for damage. "Aleks and I are from further afield."
"They have the strangest of stories," Kili proclaimed.
"What kind?" young Josan asked. The curly-haired boy had migrated to his mother's lap, a cherub's innocent mischief stamped across his face. His legs kicked back and forth from his perch, swinging nonstop.
"They have all kinds of stories about the dwarves of Erebor," Bofur offered with a gleam in his eye. "That's why they came seeking us, see?"
"Bofur." I raised a brow at him. He winked back, leaning forward to tug on a lock of my hair.
"They were much taken with us," Fili added from his cross-legged seat on the floor. With a big grin on his face, Fili was the image of tired contentment.
"Oh, aye. Fair trailed after us like wee puppies, they did," Bofur contributed.
Josan laughed into his small, cupped hands as I swatted Bofur on the arm. "Imp." And earned another of Bofur's winks. He is in high humor, isn't he?
"Tell me a story about the dwarves," Josan begged.
This was all Kili's fault. Seeing an opportunity for revenge, I dove right in. "Well, you see, the dwarves were very famous back home."
"Because of Erebor?" Freija asked as she collected Fili and Kili's emptied plates. Aleks hastened to carry them for her to the small cupboard that was pretty much the entirety of the kitchen. A delighted smile danced upon the dark-haired woman's lips as she followed him.
"In part," I allowed. "Losing their home that way and then rebuilding in the Blue Mountains is a rather inspiring story."
Hydi's husband, Jarel, nodded. His elbow came to rest upon his chair's bare wooden arm, his hand cupping his chin. Unlike Aleks and Fili, his beard was short, trimmed. More, I thought with a spurt of amusement, like poor Kili's. "A tale of endurance and fortitude."
"Is that what you believe, lass?" Bofur asked in an undertone as I located what I was after: a tender spot upon Kili's skull. I didn't like the feel of that. If he wasn't concussed – and really, he'd been without treatment for a day at least, so I supposed he was out of danger on that front – he had to be in considerable pain. Kili winced as I mapped out the extent of the damage with soft fingertips, but he said nothing. I got the impression he was making sure I was witnessing just how tough he was.
All of a sudden, he reminded me of Ori: cute!
"Of course," I told Bofur, nonplussed at his intent expression.
I found myself captivated by the brown-green of his eyes. Houseleek. Why had I never before noticed how much his eyes brought to mind that plant? I stared at them, entranced. A blush began to steel up my cheeks but I was unable to look away. A wry thought: houseleek was totally Bofur, though I imagined its name wouldn't sound flattering if I mentioned it. As legend had it, the plant was a gift from Jupiter for protection, and in the language of flowers it represented vivacity and industry.
And I was staring like an idiot! Knowing I had to be fire-engine red, I tore my gaze away and coughed into one hand, turning brusque. "Bofur, you guys lost everything. You basically hiked across Middle Earth with nothing but what you could carry. You built yourselves a new home with your bare hands. Yeah, I feel the same."
"It's freaking impressive," Aleks chimed in.
"Freaking?" more than one person asked.
I almost said a quick hallelujah as all attention zoomed to Aleks. Well, all but Bofur's. I could feel his gaze on me, and I spotted a small smile dancing upon his lips out of the corner of my eye.
"Um," Aleks said, sounding panicked. My gaze turned to my brother, and I frowned at him good. If he dared explain what that gem replaced, I would clobber him.
"Uh. Well." He cleared his throat, his eyes rushing to me and begging, really begging, for a save.
"It's an expression from our home," I said with an inward sigh. Watching him writhe on the hook would've been fun, but not when he was all puppy-dog eyes. "It is intended to mean a superlative. An extreme of what it's describing."
Aleks sagged as he received nods all around.
I returned to my narrative. "As for stories, since the dwarves of Erebor were famous in our lands, there were quite a few made up in addition to the real ones."
"Untrue stories?" Hydi asked with surprise.
Well, yeah. I supposed, knowing what I knew now, that making up stories about real people was a bit rude. But how were we to know? And some of those stories were my all-time favorites! Not that I'd ever breathe a word to Haldir if I ever met him, but Elfine's Warriors Proud rocked. I'd come away from that one wanting to cheer.
"They're called fanfics," Aleks said with a drawl, a slow smile spreading over his lips. He knew exactly what I'd been referring to. "People write their own stories, all fiction, and swap them for fun." His gaze darted to me. "Seriously. There are fanfics about these guys?"
My own lips twitched, and Bofur's right elbow nudged me, demanding an answer. "They number in the tens of thousands," I informed them.
Fili's brow furrowed. "There are stories about us by these people?" he asked, looking disconcerted. "Though we've not met?"
Bofur began to chuckle, grinning widely.
"Well, you are the heir, Fili," I said.
"What about me?" Kili asked with that infectious smile. "Did they write about me?"
Aleks's head tilted to the side. "They did, didn't they?" he asked. "And I'll bet they had a ton of stories about Legolas, too."
"The Legomances outnumber any other kind by leaps and bounds," I said lightly.
Aleks snickered.
"That elf?" Kili asked, brows rising. He winced but tried to hide it as I dabbed cream on the gash across his forehead. "What is a…" Brief pause. "Lego-mance?"
Pursuing this topic had been a bad idea, no doubt about it. I could feel my cheeks heating once again, and Bofur's gaze was a tangible thing. Why was I so hyper-aware of him all of a sudden? Sheesh, Daph, get it together. I busied myself with placing gauze over Kili's wound, fixing it into place with Aleks's roll of first-aid tape. When Bofur bent closer to see what I was using, I broke off a tab and plunked it onto his nose.
The look I got in return warmed me even as it warned of retribution. Given he sported a wicked grin, I decided not to worry. He removed the tape and turned it this way and that in interest.
"A Legomance," I answered, tearing my gaze from the toymaker, "is a romantic tale featuring Prince Legolas and a female of the author's creation. Usually an elf, but sometimes a woman."
"A romance?" Kili repeated. "With an elf?"
I beamed at him. "You should read the ones about your uncle."
Fili spewed the ale he'd been swallowing, and Kili would have fallen over but for Bofur's swift grab. Aleks roared with laughter, holding his belly with a pained expression. Seeing the Durin brothers' horrified faces, he laughed all the harder.
"Daph," Aleks gasped. "Stop. That can't be true."
I patted Kili on the shoulder, signaling I was done, and let Bofur urge me to a seat on the floor before handing me my own meal. "It's true," I said, noting with relief the wooden spoon tucked into my soup bowl. "Face it, women find the idea of a whirlwind romance with royalty riveting."
"Oh?" Kili asked.
Bofur's eyes narrowed. "Aye?"
I pointed my spoon at the toymaker. "It's a story, Bofur. It is meant to be fantastical."
His only response was a quirk of the lips.
"Then what about me?" Fili asked. He pulled a knife from its sheath and spun it around on its hilt with one finger before re-sheathing it. "Dare I ask what types of stories include me?"
"What are they like?" Kili pounced, leaning forward upon the stool to plant elbows upon his knees. Our hosts watched with avid interest, amused based upon the smiles they shared.
"Noble," I said after savoring a bite of the meal Hydi had prepared. My own portion had cooled considerably, but it was still tasty. "They did a good job capturing you. Most portray you sympathetically - not perfect, but ready to shoulder responsibility. You act when you see a need to intervene, and your affection for your brother is legendary."
"No romances?" Kili asked, tossing a sympathetic yet gloating grin over his shoulder at his brother.
"Oh, yes," I said before he could goad his brother. "Some of the best ones."
Fili smirked. Kili frowned.
"What about me, then? I'm sure there are dozens of stories about me." Out flashed the charming grin followed by the wink.
The flirt. "Well, there was the one about you and a wolf."
Bofur rolled onto his back, laughing, as Kili's jaw dropped. I sniggered into my food. Okay, so it hadn't been a wolf, exactly, but putting it that way? Priceless.
When he wound down, Bofur must have taken pity on Kili because with a sly smile, he said, all casual-like, "You have nothing to be embarrassed about, my lad. You should hear the two sing."
It was Aleks's turn to react, coughing as he swallowed wrong on nothing. My hands froze, spoon an inch from my lips. I should have known Bofur wouldn't be able to leave that one alone.
"What was it you sang about so sweetly?" he asked as if blind to Aleks's panic-stricken flapping of hands. "Oh, aye, walking like a man."
"What is this?" Fili asked, smiling so broadly I feared his cheeks would crack. "They sang?"
"In the Elvenking's Halls," Bofur confirmed. "Here we were, my cousin, Bilbo and me," he clarified for the human audience, "thinking we'd be rescuing our twins, only to find them singing along without a care in the world." In a stage whisper to five-year-old Josan, "Singing as to wake the dead, I'll tell you."
Josan found that hilarious. His parents and aunt both laughed along, their curiosity pricked if I was any judge.
OoOoOo
That was it. The dwarf was going down.
Aleks glared at Bofur, but the dwarf pretended not to see it. Daph had turned beet-red, her lips curved into a grin. Aleks decided to nip this one in the bud now.
"Singing? Us? You must be mistaken," he drawled, tsking under his breath. "Hearing things in your advanced age, are we?"
Daph hooted. Bofur threw her an amused glance.
"Is there a different way for men to walk?" Aleks continued as if posing a hypothetical question.
Daphne backed him up. For a second, he wasn't sure she would. "Since it's Bofur's song, maybe he can demonstrate," she suggested, only to peel into laughter as the dwarf in question tickled her under the ribs, steadying her when she showed signs of discomfort at moving. She wriggled away from his fingers. Tears leaked down her cheeks, she laughed so hard.
He's perfect for her. Not only had Kili's blatant flirting not moved her, but Aleks wasn't positive she'd even noticed. She'd sure seemed content to stay in Bofur's arms earlier, though.
Aleks found Freija trying to suppress a grin, her brown eyes dancing with mirth. It was hard just to look at her. He was blown away by the way he kept wanting to stammer and stare. Get a grip, Hunt. She's just another girl. Pretty - okay, that was an understatement. But…dude. He was going to make a fool of himself if he didn't get a grip.
"You'll be telling our hosts the truth, my lass," Bofur insisted, lifting threatening fingers. What he didn't notice was the way both Kili and Fili stared at him as if he'd grown a second head.
Secret's out now, my friend.
"All right! All right!" Daph held up both hands in a classic "T". "You win."
Facing the inevitable, Aleks told Freija - and her family - "I was trying to keep us both awake." Head nod to his sister. "Daph especially. We'd been dumped into this well with freezing water-"
The women gasped, hands to lips, and Jarel's head jerked back in surprise. "Who would do such a thing?" the man asked.
Daph sighed, losing some humor. "It's a long, convoluted story. Aleks got the bright idea that singing would keep us awake."
"Which it did," Aleks added with a smirk.
"Which it did," she agreed. "The song Bofur overheard," she continued, flicking a finger against the dwarf's arm, "is…" A small frown as she hesitated.
"Silly," Aleks offered. "It's what we would call an 'Oldie' from our grandparents' day. Our father loved that kind of music."
"'twas silly, right enough," Bofur said, capturing Daph's hand in his.
"Can I hear it?" Josan asked, jumping up and down from his seat on his mother's lap.
I knew it. Aleks longed to groan, but at the same time, this was more fun than he'd had in weeks. The stress of worrying about the Durins, the evil Ring, and merely surviving had been hard. Daph needed this break, too, he thought, knowing she had to be hurting by the way she moved gingerly. She probably ached as much as he and Kili.
This? This was normal - hanging with new friends, eating good food and swapping jokes. Tomorrow. They'd worry about Smaug – a sudden new fear reared its head as he realized the danger to this family – tomorrow. I'll make sure they're safe, Aleks swore to himself.
Jarel was a ferryman. How they'd coach the story, Aleks wasn't sure, but if they prepped Jarel, he could get a lot of the people in Lake-town out of harm's way before Smaug could incinerate them.
"That's your cue, Daph," Aleks said, readily throwing her under the bus. The way he saw it, she'd started this whole thing. Plus, her voice might not be perfect, but it was pleasant enough. The same couldn't be said for his. "How about something kid-friendly?"
His follow-up barely made it in time to derail her from arguing about who should take up the challenge.
"Kid-friendly?" Her lower lip disappeared into her mouth, and her head bowed.
"Kid-friendly?" Hydi asked hesitantly.
The woman sure reminded Aleks of a flower - pretty, sweet, but very easily bruised or crushed. He found himself responding just like Hydi's family, careful not to do anything that could be misinterpreted. If he was reading them right, the dwarves were feeling the same way: protective.
"Child-friendly," Aleks clarified. "There were songs back home written and performed just for children."
"You call your children 'young goats'?" Freija teased, her pointed chin quivering with laughter threatening to burst forth.
Aw, man. She had dimples. Totally unfair.
"We call our lady loves 'baby' so why not?" he asked with a smile of his own.
"Baby?" more than one person asked.
"Don't ask," Daphne counseled.
Jarel's chin found his fist again as he leaned against the arm of his ramshackle chair with a grin. "I really must fish more ladies in distress out of the lake. You lot are worth your weight in entertainment."
Daph scrunched her nose. Aleks laughed. "Don't be too sure about that," Aleks warned. "Dwarves are heavy." He had to dodge when Kili tossed an apple at him.
Grinning, Aleks turned back to his sister. "You could do Pooh Corner," he suggested to his twin as her changing facial expressions told him she was having difficulty landing on one. Too late, he realized how much would be unfathomable to their audience. So many of their songs were riddled with references no one here would get, like Still Alive when he'd played it for the Company. They'd had no clue the voice was supposed to be a homicidal AI. And how would he ever have been able to explain it?
She wrinkled her nose again and shook her head. "Unless you want to tell the story behind it first, I think that's a no-go."
Fair enough. "The Last Unicorn?"
She rolled her eyes. Their audience was finding this, too, amusing. "Depressing."
"You loved that story." She'd discovered it on cable around their fifth or sixth birthday, and it had been The Last Unicorn night and day. He'd grown to loathe that movie.
"Still depressing."
"A child's tale?" Fili asked, brows high.
She waved a hand. "The story itself is not bad, but the song Aleks is talking about is…sad. No sad tonight."
Bofur tugged on a lock of her hair. "The song you sang in the well was fair enough."
"That's it," Aleks said in a mock growl. "The instant you fall asleep tonight, I am shaving off your beard."
One would have thought he'd threatened their masculinity, the way the dwarves reacted. "Now that was uncalled for," Fili protested. Aleks thought at first they were joking around, but his certainty wilted and died as he got a load of their absolute affront.
He'd made a huge faux pas, hadn't he? "I take it I just mortally offended the three of you," he sighed, rubbing one brow. "I meant to tease, not offend."
Bofur shook his head with mock sorrow, his eyes dancing. "You cannot go making threats like that, Aleks."
Apparently not. Eager to divert attention, he returned to his sister and found her giving him a sympathetic look. She tapped her chest and lifted one hand. So she's stepped in it, too, at some point.
"There has to be something from one of your musicals," he said. Daphne's expression transformed to one of warning.
"Musicals?" Kili asked.
Too late, he realized this could end with a demand for himself and Daph to perform one. Their eyes locked.
In desperation, Aleks began the opening refrain to, Swinging on a Star. As before, it brought Appa to mind. Aleks almost felt like his father might be looking on from above, grinning his big grin.
It amazed him how fast it became fun. They bounced the old 40's song back and forth, Aleks opening and Daph taking the first verse. She totally hammed it up, using body-language to describe a mule. The kid, Josan, loved it, so when she sang the chorus asked Josan if he'd rather be a pig, Aleks picked up the ball and ran with it.
By the end, he was totally into it, spreading arms in dramatic emphasis as they sang the ending lines.
It was a good, good day.