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Coming Of Age – Chapter 37
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Two weeks later, ThoraLee and JoraLee found out that besides daggers, they were very skilled with archery.
Their eyes, instinct and reflex were quicker than most dwarves, gave them that advantage.
"Do you see them?" Oin held his hand over his eyes like a visor to shield the warm afternoon sun over the clearing.
Gloin looked to his right and shook his head, "Shouldn't have paired the two, tried to tell Thorin that."
"Was not my idea either He insisted on trying them out. He wanted to take Frerin out himself." He agreed with his brother unhappily.
Gloin grunted his displeasure, "Never trust twins. They are nothing but trouble! I hope I will never have to deal with anymore twins in the future! Trouble, nothing but double trouble."
"Quit your belly-aching brother," Oin groused as he was looking for them as well. "Let's go."
Behind a tree, near the dwarves a soft whisper came, "Are they gone?"
A feminine giggle came, "Yes, they are headed out beyond the clearing. Quick let's gather bring them up before we're spotted."
"I'm getting them, sis! They are quite heavy, come help me."
A soft thud hit the ground and Lee looked about her quickly. She then moved behind the tree and gather all the rabbits they had shot with their new-found talent.
Today, they were to learn to hunt and stalk. Thorin had separated them in pairs.
The twins, Thorin and Frerin, Oin and Gloin, Balin and Dwalin.
They were to use only their bows and arrows and hunt rabbits.
It did not take the twins long to find the rabbits, especially if you knew where to look for them. Learning that skill from their wood elves helped a lot.
Fifteen rabbits later, the twins felt they have had enough. Besides, Thorin did not tell them how many they were to hunt but they figured they had enough. Archery had become quite easy for them and became almost bored as the rabbits had not proven any challenge to them. They also figured the others would hunt quite a bit of rabbits each. Dinner would be quite a feast tonight.
When Jor had brought all the rabbits up, Lee made her way up and found a branch comfortable enough to sit upon.
They knew dwarves did not like to climb trees as they were heavy built but the twins were not like the regular dwarves and they learned to climb from their elven friends.
When Gloin and Oin finally appeared, they were hot and tired. Jor nudged Lee and pointed at them below.
"Nothing...no rabbits," Gloin shook his head in disgust. "And I am supposed to be their weapons Master!"
"We would have one but you scared it away with your stomping about!"
"Did not!" Gloin shoved his brother grumpily.
Lee was giggling above them. Jora frowned at her as he shushed her.
"Where are the others? Are they here yet?" Oin looked beyond them. "Where are those confounded twins?"
"If we lost them, Thorin will surely have our heads." Gloin was rubbing his head fondly. They were placed in charge of keeping an eye of the twins today. Not something they liked or were thrilled.
Sitting against the tree, Gloin and Oin decided to nap and promptly fell asleep in the warm sun.
Soon, sounds of snoring came from below, silently, the twins crept down and Jor quietly draped a dead rabbit on Gloin's shoulder and another one over his stomach, its stomach exposed and legs spread out with an arrow sticking out of its chest.
Lee then crept in front of Oin and set one of the rabbit so that it sat directly at him, she then place Oin's bow that he had set it by him and put it on the animal's paw and tied it with vines and with an arrow, she pulled it through the bow and tied it around the bow. When she was done, it looked as if the rabbit was drawing an arrow and was about to strike at Oin.
Using two more rabbits, she placed them on top of each other with an arrow skewered through them.
She placed another rabbit down on the grass and stuck an arrow on its body, then put one more and bent its front knees with its front two paws in its face, as it was crying.
"Psst!"She turned and saw Jor signaled to her; the others were returning!
She moved quietly around and hopped up the tree and up the branch.
"Two! I caught two rabbits!" Frerin lifted up his catch proudly for his cousins to see.
Balin and Dwalin lifted his four and showed it to Frerin who glared at him as he flopped his catch by his side.
"I wonder how the twins fared." Thorin said.
"Probably scared off all the rabbits away." Frerin laughed.
Thorin smacked the back of his brother's head hard. "Oi!" he was rubbing his head as he glared at his brother.
They saw the tree which was their meeting point and saw someone asleep by the trunk. "Looks like Oin and Gloin gave up on their hunt."
They walked closer to them when they saw something else…
"What the…What is this?" Frerin pointed over at the tiny figures.
They began to examined the set ups and began laughing.
Oin and Gloin were then awakened by their loud laughter when Gloin saw the dead rabbit staring back at him on his chest and jumped up suddenly.
"Oi! What is this?"He exclaimed as he shoved the dead animals off him his shoulder in a hurry.
"Great Mahal! What the…?" Oin was looking at the dead rabbit with his bow and aiming an arrow at him.
"Where did all these rabbits come from?" Gloin wondered.
"Where are they?" Thorin arched his brow at his cousins.
The brothers shook their heads, "We lost them in the woods when we spotted a rabbit."
"YOU! You spotted that rabbit that got away. We were not so lucky after that!" Gloin pointed out.
"And?" Thorin prompted.
"And when we turned around, them confounded twins were no longer with us." Oin looked down at his feet with shame.
"So, you lost them?" Thorin said succinctly.
"That would be correct."
"Did I not tell you specifically to keep a close eye on them?"Thorin shook his head as he sighed.
"Thorin, I have to say, it was a bad idea to pair them up in the first place. They can't be trusted together." Gloin said, Oin nodded agreeably.
"The whole purpose of this exercise is if they are by themselves, they must learn to work together." Thorin explained to them.
"Oh! Well, should have told us." Oin said grumpily.
"Why do you think we've been doing these past weeks?" Thorin glared at them.
Above them, the twins exchanged looks and nodded; it was time they showed their faces.
But they stopped when Thorin continued, "Find them, they are to work in the kitchen the rest of the day." He then turned away and headed back to the palace.
Jor and Lee stared at each other in horror as they jumped down, startling the rest of the dwarves.
Thorin turned around when he heard them jumped down.
"The kitchen work?" Lee glared at him?
"Where have you been?" He demanded.
The cousins pointed above the tree at the same time.
"You two have been up there all this time?" Thorin asked them. "You were supposed to hunt rabbits with your bow and arr…"
Before he could finish, the twins flung the rest of the rabbits by his feet. Frerin looked at his two rabbits and hid them behind his back.
Gloin looked about him as he began counting.
And counted again.
"How many, Gloin?" Thorin asked.
"Fifteen."
FIFTEEN!" They all exclaimed.
"How did you manage to hunt fifteen rabbits?" Gloin demanded angrily. "And don't tell me it's those blasted wood elves that taught you two!"
The twins nodded at the same time.
"Gor! I wish you two wouldn't nod your heads at the same time! It's just not natural!" Gloin snapped as he stomped away from them then stopped and turned back to them and pointed at the rabbits, "Take them to the kitchen, and you'll be working with chef the rest of the day!"Then he stomped away and muttered loudly about twins and trouble with them.
Frerin was on his knees the entire time laughing until tears was seeping out of his eyes, "You should see his face," he said in between his laughing bouts. "Those eyeballs were staring back at him really scared him almost out of his pants!" Frerin was now lying prone on the ground, pounding the grass.
Suddenly a whole bunch of dead rabbits came flying and landed hard as Oin threw them at Frerin annoyingly at him as he walked away from them.
…..
That evening at dinner;
The Durin family were sitting down to dinner when Thrain saw two empty seats.
"Where are the twins?" He looked at Thorin, one of the empty seat was his wife.
"Kitchen duty, father," he said simply.
Nut brows raised, "Kitchen duties? But they are roy…"
Thorin explained to them their afternoon escapades.
Thrain and Nur were shaking their heads as they were laughing, "They are as bad as… no, worse, than the two of you, Thorin and you Frerin when you two were younger."
"We were not that bad, father." Thorin shook his head, trying to maintain some dignity.
"I have to agree with Thorin, your Majesty," Balin said. "These twins are absolutely the worse! I hope they never have any twins!"
"Hear! Hear!" Gloin, Oin and Dwalin raised their goblets of wine and nodded as Balin did likewise.
Thorin did not say a word as he sat silently; a look of fear, just a small look appeared on his face. It occurred to him that Erimm was a twin, and then ThoraLee and JoraLee. What were the chance twins run in the Nogrod family? If Lee were to have children, would she have twins? Thorin suddenly paled as he began to drink deeply. He hoped she would not have twins; he would not know what to do! Run and scream! Or sent them to Nogrod…to JoraLee. There! He was their Uncle, and as a twin, he would know what to do!
Seeing the servants entering with the first set of dishes, Thorin found that he was hungry and smiled as he smelled the cooking of freshly baked bread and sat up.
As they place several large dishes of breads, they all saw something odd.
Thrain picked up a loaf of bread and looked closely and began to chuckle, "Lee and Jor!"
He held it up for them to see and they laughed.
The loaf of bread was all shaped to look like rabbit.
Nur grinned, "Quite a good likeness."
Thorin shook his head as he pick a loaf and tore its head and chewed at it.
"Taste pretty good." He said.
More servants came, carrying big plates of meats. They saw with more laughter; the rabbits cooked with sticks of carrots stuck across in their mouth, and some had potatoes for eyeballs. Nur tried not to look at them too much but they were too much for her as she laughed hard.
Gloin stared at them grumpily, "I'm starting to hate rabbits."
"I think they are having too much fun helping cook in the kitchen." Thrain said as he helped himself to a rabbit.
A servant came in holding a large bowl with a covered lid and placed it in front of Gloin, "Compliments of… chef, Master Gloin. Enjoy your…soup." He left hurriedly.
They looked at him as he uncovered the bowl.
"It seemed chef knew you might not like rabbits tonight and made you a special dis…oh!" Oin almost jumped out of his seat when Gloin yelped out loud…
Gloin had picked up a spoon and stirred the bowl and yelped out loud as he tossed the spoon out of the bowl. The brothers were out of their seats as they stared at the bowl. "I've had enough with those two!" Gloin was holding his chest where his heart was pounding hard.
"What is it?"Thrain asked as he couldn't see, being seated too far from him. Balin who was sitting on Gloin's other side, spooned some of the contents and held them up to Thrain's viewing and everyone saw that they were milky eyeballs as Balin plopped them back into the bowl.
"Nothing surprises me anymore with those two." Thrain shook his head as he continued to eat.
"I'm going to get even with them, I am…just watch." Gloin was glaring at no one in particular.
"Could have been worse," Frerin shrugged as he ate. "Could have been a deer or pigs."
"I'll talk to Lee, tell her to lighten up." Thorin said quietly.
Gloin shook his head, "No need, Thorin. I can handle them. I will handle them."
Thorin narrowed his gaze at his cousin; he didn't like the way he had looked, should he warn her? Thorin shook his head. They did deserve whatever Gloin had in store for them for all the pranks they played on him.
After the main course was eaten, which of course the bowl of eyeballs soup was rejected.
Dessert was served. Surprisingly, it was good and no surprises. Apple turnovers. The crusts were baked to perfection. The crème served on the side was fresh and creamy.
Gloin was given two helpings; the twins knew he had a sweet tooth and it was their way of making up to their mischief.
Later, when Gloin went down to the kitchen to talk to chef about the eyeballs soup, he saw to his surprise, the twins were washing dishes! The rest of the staff was sitting down to their meals!
"Master Gloin! This is a surprise!" Lee was grinning. "Did you enjoy your dinner?" she asked saucily. Jor was shaking his head.
"I...well, it was too much. My palate did not extend to eyeballs but rabbit meat was quite delicious." He then turned to chef and said, "Thank you, chef, for an excellent meal." Gloin said to the fat dwarf was happily eating a very big portion of rabbit stew and bread.
"I didn't cook, Master Gloin, Her Highness, and His Highness over there did all the work. We didn't hafta do anything but sat here." The others nodded happily. "They knew their way around bouts the kitchen…quite good cooks too, if you ask me." He continued eating as if no one had interrupted him.
Gloin raised a brow but he didn't say a word as he nodded and left the kitchen.
When he joined the others in Thorin's quarters' for their nightly beer, Gloin told them what he leaned.
Thorin smiled, "They cooked the entire dinner for us?' Gloin nodded, a new admiration in their eye and his anger at them had abated completely. "Will they ever cease to amaze us?"
"I doubt it, I highly doubt it." Balin shook his head as he drank his beer as he smiled. "Still, I would watch for them, they are as wily as ever. I wouldn't put it past them to not let up. Just watch your backs."
Much later that night, Lee was sound asleep when Thorin came to bed. He gathered her to him as he took her hands and found they were swollen from washing. He kissed them individually.
"I hoped you and Jor have learned your lessons today." He said softly between kisses.
"I hope Gloin was not too angry with us."
"I would stay away from him if I were you, for a while."
She giggled, "It was quite fun, though."
"Just don't overdo it."Thorin reached up and kissed her long and deep.
"I won't, he is too much like a big brother to us." She owed.
He didn't reply as he was busily removing her clothing…
…..
End of Chapter 37