Chapter Five: Bofur, Bifur, Bombur
Removing his pipe from between his lips, Bofur hummed softly as he wandered through the large garden aimlessly. "Large bees as…," he murmured the words for the third time under his breath. A song was slowly forming in the fur hatted dwarf's mind. "Large bees—" Coming round a bush he abruptly broke off.
While he had encountered a number of surprises during the course of his stay at Beorn's house, Bofur was not expecting to discover his host seated under a tree with the miner's cousin whom was chewing on a large flower. Once Bifur finished eating the flower, Beorn wordlessly offered another one to the dwarf, who accepted it with a gruff grunt.
Bofur stared. Bifur was always wary of strangers, and he had eyed the skin-changer suspiciously since the company's arrival. And now here he was sitting with their host, seemingly at ease…
"Moustached Treeswift!"
The miner jumped slightly at the booming hail and, when the large man and Bifur cheerfully waved at him, walked towards them, his moustache twitching.
"Come! Share my, Pretty Possum, and Plump Panda's picnic!" the skin-changer invited brightly.
It took a moment for the dwarf to locate his brother tucked against Beorn's other side. His look was bashful as he dipped a piece of bread into the honey pot by his feet.
"Thank ye! Don't mind if I do," Bofur declared with a grin, settling down on the blanket and reaching for a slice of cheese.
The skin-changer looked back and forth between the three, his grin growing. "Plump Panda, Moustached Treeswift, Pretty Possum, all happy!"
Chuckling, the toy miner wondered yet again how he and his kin reminded the large man of such animals.