Chapter 15

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future." - Victor Hugo

Valis' shop wasn't empty Sunday morning. Instead Erdene found Valis near drowning in other dam, all who wore male dwarrow's clothes, all of them were speaking at once. Walking into a wall of sound hurt her ears something awful. Every one of these dam had hair shampoo commercials would be jealous of, and nearly translucent pale skin. Every one of them had a near Australian accent. Clearly not Blue Mountain dwarves.

Erdene winced at the sharp sounds of their voices rose in fervor when Valis asked them to please calm down.

Valis caught sight of her and mouthed, help me at her.

Erdene did the only thing that ever took her nineteen tries to learn. She put two her fingers in her mouth, set her tongue and whistled a high pitched sound that cut through the din. The dam closest to her had to cover their ears, while others cringed and pulled away. Everyone stopped talking.

Valis recovered and jumped in immediately, "Please, I would be most happy to work on all of your dresses. I am afraid it will take time, I am the only one here."

One of the dam standing near Ery eyed her almost disdainfully, "then who is this girl?"

Do not pick a fight with Valis customers. Do not pick a fight with Valis customers.

"Bless your heart darlin," Erdene's polite smile found its way across her face as she looked the dam up and down, "those traveling clothes were certainly…a fashion choice." She bypassed the now shocked dam and her family to get to the counter. "What do you need sugar?"

Valis held out a notepad and quill, "can you read and write?"

Erdene held out a hand, "You bet."

Valis dropped the pad into the girl's hand. "Thank the maker."

It took nearly four hours, between them, but the three daughters of Jorán the Merchant and the two daughters of Gulïe the Silversmith, and the two daughters of Sisêrn who was a noble of some sort from a different mountain range, finally walked out with their orders for dresses placed.

Valis fanned herself with a handful of slips, "Mahal that was…"

"A cluster fuck?" Erdene stacked the other slips neatly to the left of the rolls of cloth they'd broken out for color selection.

"Aye," Valis nodded, "sounds about right." She shook her head. "I should have expected a horde of dam before Durins Day, but this…By the Valar I won't sleep a wink the next two weeks to complete all this!"

Durins Day? Erdene glanced at Valis who was reading one of the paper tickets. Was it supposed to be a big holiday? When she read about it briefly on the Tolkien Gateway it was supposed to be a significant holiday, the Dwarven New Year. And it obviously wasn't that Durins Day, because she saw Thorin yesterday.

"Your handwriting," Valis said as she perused each ticket, acorn colored eyes looked at her as if seeing Erdene for the first time, "You've had schooling."

"I did." Ery began rerolling the cloth without looking up.

When Ery offered no further elaboration, Valis studied the girl carefully. "Well I am thankful to you today Ery, I could not have done any of this without you. Tell me how you would prefer to be thanked. I could pay you for the work or make you something else to wear or-"

"Can you tell me about dwarrow relationships?" Erdene whispered, wringing her fingers nervously. "It's just…I like him. Like I like him like him, you know but he's so…inaccessible. He doesn't show his emotions at all and I think I might be barking up the wrong tree, but I think he flirted with me, so-"

Ah. The dwarrow she would not name. Valis, with one hand on her hip said, "tea, then food and we can discuss." She walked to the window, and flipped the closed sign.

Valis ushered Ery up the stairs to her private home which was unsurprisingly quite nicely decorated and designed. Lots of plush seating and plants, pillows and a blanket, lovely carved wood table and quaint matching chairs. Geodes in various colors and sizes adorning shelves. Golden and silver knick-knacks. Some portraits of two dwarrow who looked very much like Valis.

"Sit." Valis pushed Erdene toward a chair and set about working on tea and warming the orange and cinnamon scones she made a few days ago. It would take a bit for the tea to warm.

"You aren't one of us, are you Ery?" Valis asked gently.

The girl shook her head. "Not as far as I know."

Valis nodded to herself. "And you have never been with a dwarrow before?"

The girl turned a bright strawberry color, dropping her gaze and fidgeting nervously with her fingers. "No. We…we don't have dwarrow where I'm from. I've had boyfriends."

Boyfriend? "Intended?"

"Um, no, men I spent time with deciding if I wanted to be betrothed to them." She spread her fingers across the cream color table cloth. "Obviously I decided not to marry any of them or I'd have a ring on my finger."

Valis hummed as the kettle loosed a small whistle. She poured two cups, adding herbs, catnip and lemon before setting a cup down before Erdene. "Erdene," Valis said carefully, "the reason he may not have shown interest could be that he has a one already."

Big gray eyes looked back at her blankly.

Mahal.

"You, women," she nodded at Erdene, "do not have a concept of one?"

Again, Erdene's gaze showed no sign of understanding.

"One who is fit just for you. Your match." Valis went on.

"Soulmates." Erdene said finally, "that's what humans call it. The other part of your soul. The person you are supposed to be with. We call them soulmates. And yes, we have the idea. I personally know of two pairs."

Human. What a word.

"Yes, that is a dwarrow's one. If your soulmate never appears, you can still love and marry and have children, yes?"

"I mean, yes? Not that I'd want to, but can't you?"

"No, not happily."

Oh…the light bulb clicked on in Erdene's head. "So…if you never find them, you can't fall in love or get married or have kids?"

"Aye, I can, we can, but we'll never be happy. We can end the marriage if it is agreed we no longer match, but it is a long drawn out process. Most of us dwarrow, unless we find our one, we do not marry or have a child." She stirred honey into her tea. "How old do you think I am Ery?"

The girl's eyes widened. "My mama told me never to answer that question."

Strange. Perhaps women did not like that question asked of them. "I am one hundred and ninety."

"Damn, I want to look as good as you do when I'm older." The girl said.

"Dwarrow don't tend to age quickly until we're reaching the end of our lives. But in all my time, I have never met him. I never may. Do you understand now why he," again she wondered who he might be to have caught Ery's eye, "may never show you any interest?"

The girl's whole mood, face and body slumped. "That sucks. I thought maybe… because he definitely watches me. I've caught him watching me. He's caught me watching him. He stopped working to watch me the other day. He…we talk every evening when he walks me home. I think he flirted with me last night."

Valis, who until that moment had been trying to soften a blow for Ery, sat up a little straighter. "He walks you home at night?"

Erdene nodded, "not Sundays, obviously, because I don't work Sundays, but yes."

"Every night without fail?" Valis clarified.

Looking at her with so much confusion, Erdene said, "Yes?"

No dwarrow with a one would spend so much time with a woman without there being an alternative reason. Granted said dwarrow might see her as a friend, though if he thought her a friend, why would he watch her? Flirt with her? Stop crafting to watch her. "Ery…have you dreamed of him? If you have, do not tell me about the dream, just a yes or no will suffice."

The girl blushed a deep pink, dropping Valis gaze and biting her lower lip. "Yes. A few times."

Mahal's breath! "Did they feel like the dreams you have regularly or did they feel real, more vivid?"

Big blue-green eyes blinked back at her. "How-"

"We, dwarrow, have them. Prophetic dreams of our one. A glimpse of a future together. You are not to speak of it to him, at all. Nor can he tell you before you're married."

Erdene opened her mouth to say anything but her brain wouldn't connect and the way Valis looked at her told her a million things that left her with questions. Her dreams could be real? Of Thorin holding her up in a bed and kissing her temple, encouraging her to push their child out. They were already living in Erebor in that one. Or the dream of standing before a crowd of dwarves and humans intermixed, waving with Thorin dressed like he was king. That meant that she designed cotton candy machines and taught others how to make lollipops from fruit and sugar.

Mouth dry, Erdene asked, "So…everything in them is real?"

"Can be real. If he is your one, your soulmate, but lass, dwarrow are a stubborn breed to begin with, add to it that you aren't one of us, there can be obstacles. Not many, not as you could pass as one of us, and you are a female. Your children would be welcome and loved."

Which made Erdene smile a soft happy smile.

"But again, we dwarrow are stubborn. And I well know mine is out there, and he doesn't come to me. So, patience is what I can caution you on. Patience and a gentle reminder to him you are there."

Okay. Erdene sipped her tea. Ooo. Catnip and lemon. "Okay, so subject change if you don't mind too much Valis."

Mind? Better to change the subject than let something slip. Mahal. Did this mean Erdene would be involved in helping take back Erebor? Why had Valis dreamed of it if it was not to happen? And who would be the one taking Erebor back?

Her cousin Thorin?

Could Erdene be involved with Thorin? No. He spent little time associated with the children of men. He could not be her one. Perhaps one of her other cousins, or Fíli or Kíli, Dís' boys. They were young, granted but Kíli was a romantic, with moon eyes for every pretty lass that said good morning to him, and Fíli liked a lass with fire and a mind of her own. Mayhap-

Erdene looked at her expectantly.

"I am sorry Ery, it seems I'm lost in my own thoughts. What was that?"

With a patience most dwarves were only known to have while working their craft, Erdene repeated herself. "Can you explain to me the significance of Durin's Day? Those ladies downstairs were awfully adamant about being prepared to meet someone?"

Valis groaned, draining her tea. She set the mug down with a light slap. "It is out new year." Her eyes rolled even as she said, "Every Durins Day a gaggle of dam, eligible dam, go to see our king. Who declines to meet with them because he isn't interested in barely of age strumpets trying to claim the title of queen."

Thorin had dam throwing themselves at him once a year?

"It used to be, when our king was younger, when we first came to Ered Luin he'd at least politely meet with their fathers to decline. Every holiday there would be a line out the door of the home he shares with his sister and her sons, of every father trying to marry one of his daughters off."

The sting of tears burned Erdene's eyes. Do not cry. He's spent more time with you than them. Do not cry damn it. You don't own him. He doesn't owe you anything. Stop it.

But she couldn't stop her very active and imagination from picturing one of the many dam she saw today wrapped in his arms. A vicious stab of jealousy made her grit her teeth and grip the mug in her hands tightly. Stop it.

"As the years have passed and their fathers have grown tired of being rejected, the younger dam have taken to trying their own hand at it once a year." Valis shook her head. "The last fifty or so years the king has allowed his sister Dís to handle the horde. She turns them all away after a luncheon." She stood, "more tea Ery?"

Breathe. See? He doesn't spend the day with any of them. He doesn't even meet with them.

Ery shook her head, instead grabbing a scone. "But…sorry, I was under the impression that your king hadn't claimed the throne?"

Her dwarrow fella must have told her. "Aye, that's true. Doesn't stop those willful little beasts from trying to climb their way into his lap."

Ery snorted, "Valis!"

Valis poured more tea, rejoining the girl at the table. "It's a nice lap, Ery. He's quite handsome. He, his brother and myself played together as children, my father and mother were the royal tailors. We lived a few floors below the royal wing. I had windows in my bedroom as a child. I could see the sunflower fields to the south." She hummed in memory. "This was before he was groomed to be a prince."

Ery set her chin on her palm, "Erebor must have been beautiful." Young Thorin must have been adorable.

"Oh, Ery, it was. Over two hundred floors, entirely carved into and out the mountain. I was very young when the dragon came." Sighing sadly Valis sipped her tea. "I hope to see it again before I pass."

Erdene reached one hand across the small table to pat Valis on her wrist. "One day, maybe you will."

The late afternoon sun was no help against the cold breeze filtering throughout South Yard. Erdene, now furnished with fingerless gloves that matched the brown toggles of the coat drew a giddy breath in. The dreams were a promise Aulë made his people, Valis told her.

But I'm not a dwarf.

Did you have to be though? Her cousin and his wife were born thousands of miles apart and fell together because he worked for his future wife's family. In a business that was supposed to be only family.

Family. She was the only shorter person in her family. Aside from her father. Who, according to her mother, whose spirit was here in Arda (and hadn't come around for several days [though that might take energy her mother's spirit didn't have]), Erdene's father had been just below five feet tall. While her mother had been five foot eight and some change.

Honestly? She was beginning to wonder. If it looked like a duck, quacked like a duck, good chance it was a duck. But her being even part dwarrow opened a whole damn can of worms.

Biting her lower lip, Erdene made the turn to head back to the house. The one thing Valis was adamant about was not talking about the dreams. At all. It would 'curse the union.'

The dreams only affected those with a one. Valis had a one but they never showed themselves to her. The only other person she knew with a one was Zarin and her husband Harjl. Erdene paused in her steps.

She turned around and walked right past Valis' shop to Zarin's.

Thankfully the door was still open.

Harjl sat at the counter, looking up from carving a small wooden object to call out a greeting. His brow formed a light furrow, as he said, "Miss Erdene. Good evening."

Deep breath. It felt weird being here without sunlight. When the lamps were lit and the interior of the shop felt more like a quiet house than a shop. "Harjl, I need to ask you a few questions about having a one."

He looked like she slapped him. "Lass, you're a daughter of-"

"Woman," she corrected automatically.

"Aye, that," he rolled the word around in his head. "You might be best off asking one of your own about things like that."

The stinging in her hands only got worse as he spoke. "I'm having dreams. I need to know if only dwarrow have dreams like I'm having."

His mouth opened. His mouth closed. His brow furrowed further. He opened his mouth once more, "About a dwarrow?"

She nodded. "I need more information. You and Zarin are the only two I can talk to." Please let him tall to me. Please let him talk to me. Please-

Dwarves were supposed to be secretive and untrusting of outsiders. But she'd felt welcome by both Valis and Zarin. Harjl seemed to like her too.

He set the wooden object down on the counter, a small carved bird. "Lass," Harjl began slowly, "you did say you were not one of us, yes?"

"My father was a little smaller than me," she measured her hand to approximately four foot eleven inches in the space next to her. "And my mother was a tall blonde woman. I don't know." She honestly didn't. At this point, anything was possible.

Humming, Harjl nodded at her. Harjl was the son of archivists. His father, his father's father, and all those that came before him worked in the archives of Erebor before the dragon and those who survived worked tirelessly in Thorin's Hall. Every one of his six brothers would have rather read a book than look at a comely dam when she flashed a smile in their direction. As the youngest of House Har, Harjl had begun to train from the time he was a dwarfling to the day he met his wife, to be an archivist. A historian.

As such he also knew sharing what he was about to tell her was forbidden unless the girl was dwarrow. Maker help him, he believed she might be. If only two or three generations removed. Harjl went around the counter to the front door, flipped the wooden closed sign and locked the door before returning to the counter.

"Aulë, do you know who that is?" Harjl asked. It was always better to begin at the beginning.

Erdene bit her lower lip before saying, "the maker. He is also called Mahal."

Relieved he wouldn't have to go too far back into the history and legends, Harjl nodded. "Yes. The dreams were granted as a way to allow us to find our match. To grow our race as only so many were made and most were male. The dreams come when you have met your one. They come only to dwarrow. The dreaming can grow in intensity and frequency the longer the connection is denied."

"I…the last one left a memory of pain in my back." She touched the base of her spine. "You're telling me that was real pain?"

In her back? "I don't know a roundabout way of asking, but what kind of pain was it? You must avoid telling me outright."

"Zarin will be going through it in several months." Erdene answered after a moment of thought.

He could not stop the grin from spreading across his face. Zarin would be pleased to have another dam with a child to talk to. "Lass, that's no small dream. You've known him for some time."

Technically yes. She saw Thorin for the first time over two months ago but they didn't meet until last week. "Sort of? I saw him working and I couldn't stop looking at him. But that was weeks ago."

"Aye, but there was fascination, and that is usually the first sign. Most I know have little to no interest in another. We, dwarrow, tend to be single minded about our lives. We spend our time devoted to our craft." He watched Erdene nod while he spoke. "The dreams come and many of us fight it. Hold out against it."

Could Thorin be fighting their connection? Was that why he snapped at her the other day? Or was he angry because he thought she didn't feel the same way? Or maybe he really had been upset about something else? He looked worried when she walked into the shop.

"So," Erdene began slowly, "if we both acknowledge it, but don't act on it, how does that work?"

Not act? "Lass, why would you deny-"

"Oh no, I only found out today it was even real." She put her hands palm up in a don't blame me gesture. "The other night he got kind of grumpy and," she let the words sit unsaid.

Harjl sighed in frustration. "He said something awful to you, yeah?"

Shrugging, she picked at a small groove in the wood of the counter. "He apologized already."

"Stubborn bastard." Harjl groused.

If only he knew he was talking about his king. Erdene smiled a small sad smile. "If I'm his one, and he's mine, then I don't exactly blame him for being upset. This is new to me too. He might have known about it all his life, but I'm only thirty and I'm pretty sure he's over a hundred. We've known each other for a week."

Harjl maintained his annoyed expression. "Aye, well he best get over it. There's no fighting it." He must have read her curiosity on her face because he added, "once the maker ties you to your one, there is no running from it."

That sounded like he spoke from experience. "And you know this because…"

"Oh no." Harjl laughed like he had a secret. "A day after I met Rin I was already turning in my resignation to the archives, sorting my move from Thorin's Hall to South Yard while Zarin refused to see me for a fortnight."

Zarin had said…huh? "But Zarin told me you mixed up her preferences at the courting ceremony?"

Still laughing, the corners of his eyes wrinkled. "Aye, because she wouldn't give me a moment to get to know her before she demanded we court and get it over with."

Oh. Well that made way more sense. Speaking of Zarin. "Where is the mama by the way? My mama would have my hide if I didn't at least say hello."

Harjl shook his head. "Dunno why it's called morning sickness if it happens all day. She has been in bed. I will tell her you stopped by, lass."

"You can call me Erdene." She said, "or Ery. If that's okay with you. Thank you Harjl. I mean it."

He nodded, "of course, Miss Erdene."

Four reviewers! Hi. :) You're all wonderful. Thank you. A thank you and shout out to those who added me as a favorite and/or a follow.

Also, I had a request for more dwarves, so, more dwarves. :)