A Better Place - The Hobbit Fanfiction

Alternate Entry Eighteen - With Summer Comes More Lessons

Bofur laughed at me the day I ran home from Dale with a cupped handful of dirt, out of which sprouted a single crocus. "What've you got there, sprinkletoes?"

"Look look!" I held it up for him.

"I see I see!" He was still laughing. "What am I looking at?"

"It's spring! It's spring! See these flowers only bloom when spring is coming."

"Mabyn, I thought you loved winter?"

"Well of course I do. I love all the seasons. Change is fun."

"Well what are you going to do with that? Put it back where you found it?"

"I'm going to pot it. I've used up one of the soaps Dila and I made, so I'll scrub that and put some dirt in it."

"Does it need to drain?"

"Not if I'm careful."

By the time spring was well underway and the last drifts of snow had long gone the calluses on my fingers were strong enough that extensive needlework no longer turned them colors or made the skin ache. I had established a definite rhythm with my knitting (and even with purling) so I could do it now without paying too much attention, so long as I wasn't doing it entirely absentmindedly. I often sat and knit at night after dinner while reading.

"I do believe while you're reading is the only time I have ever seen you willingly sit still," Bofur remarked one evening.

I had a book in my lap and the hem I was lengthening against my stomach behind it. "Well how can one fidget when they're reading?"

I had fallen into habit with my lessons too. I had certain days on which I cleaned certain things, certain days on which I washed our clothes and certain days when I checked them all for whatever I could fix.

My birthday was at the end of May, which Bofur remembered even though I would have been just as happy to consider it just another day, and he invited everyone he knew I knew to our house for supper to celebrate. The dwarves, valuing company over possessions, did not burden me with many gifts-Gloin's family, with Byrnhild's assistance, gave me a royal cobalt dress with silver embroidery for special occasions; those of the Company gave me a few pots and pans I was still missing from our kitchen (which I threw at them); and Bofur presented me with a pair of gently shining boots to go with my new blue dress. Runi brought food and small sweetcakes.

By the time summer came I cooked supper nearly every night. I missed eating with everyone down in the great hall though so on my days off Bofur and I still ate with many others of our community which, to my everlasting astonishment, continued to grow and never appeared to fill. I celebrated the arrival of summer with equal enthusiasm to when I celebrated spring and winter. I loved the sky and what it gave us. And the sun, and the clouds. Everything was wonderful.

"Does anything ever upset you, Mabyn?" Gimli asked one afternoon. He and those in his division of stonemasons had finished what they could do on their statue and had moved on to help those in Bofur's division with their larger one. So he wouldn't have to suffer-or plan ahead and bring his own food-I borrowed a yolk every afternoon and used it to carry down enough food for the three of us at midday. Gimli thanked me for it heartily every time.

"These lessons did," I said around my mouthful of bread, and nudged Bofur with my toe so he'd pass over the water skin. "They're decently tolerable now though. Almost." I shook my head. "But my, can those ladies hammer a point across. I think I make scrubbing motions in my sleep now. How long will I have to attend these lessons?" I asked of Bofur.