Becoming More _ Snufkin X OC Tilly

Chapter 3 - Spring Cleaning

To Tilly, there was no worse feeling than being useless. Moomin had shown her around the house and helped her set up her hammock from the rafters in the front room. There had been a bed available in Little My's room, but since Tilly would be getting up every day Moomin was scared she might wake up the spirited girl. He warned Tilly many times not to wake her up, or she would be very sorry she chose not to hibernate like the rest of them. 

Moomin had gone back to sleep two weeks ago, and Tilly was having a great time in Moomin house. She had gotten to work on the house after spending almost two full days doing nothing but napping and staring lovingly at the wood burning stove that warmed the room. She wafted from room to room in her stockings every so often looking proudly at the pink thread patches where she had darned the holes closed. Moominmama, apparently, was not a fan of grey: all the wools she kept in her celar were brightly colored and stored with dried flowers to keep them smelling fresh. 

The house work was light since most everything was covered with sheets, and once all the floors had been washed, the silverware polished, and walls dusted, there wasn't much for Tilly to do. One morning, after she had become bored of searching for leather strapping to fix her snowshoe, she tied it back on with some twine from her bag and went to explore the valley. She walked for half of an hour, meandering over the slopes of snow and skidding around on the frozen stream, when she heard a low noise in the distance. She moved towards the sound and crossed over two more hills before seeing where it was coming from. The sea! Tilly rushed down the hill to the sand. There was a cute little bathing house like the one her family had build on the lake, but this one was much bigger and probably housed more than a few nets and crayfish baskets, and it most certainly didn't have a hole in the bottom for ice fishing. 

The sea was beautiful. She didn't see any huge, crashing waves like she had heard about. They had been described to her from her uncle who had lived on a southern shore before moving to their village to marry her aunt. He often told stories of great storms that had come through when he was a boy with waves that would carry away whole houses. Tilly found a drift wood log and sat down. Feeling at complete peace watching the waves, she could almost forget how the cold numbed her fingers or how her breath steamed from behind her scarf and froze to her face. She leaned against a boulder and closed her eyes letting the sun touch what skins she could bear to expose to the frigid air. 

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Oh no. She had fallen asleep. "Oh how could I be so stupid!" Tilly hissed, pushing herself up from her slumped position against the rock. He back cramped and she had to lift her legs with her hands to get blood moving back into them again. The sun was setting, but she was too mad to pay much attention to the beautiful reddening of the sky. After jumping up and down in place and adjusting her shawl, she was finally able to start walking back to Moomin house. Good thing her walk earlier had left tracks in the undisturbed snow, she was able to put her head down and pout the whole way home. I really do hate the cold, she complained. 

As she walked, Tilly thought about why she put up with this climate. Apparently Moomin's friend went south every winter, he must hate the cold too. But could he really make it far enough on foot to escape the winter cold? She hadn't been far enough south before to see a Christmas without snow; besides, if it was warm all year round the plants would be completely foreign to her and then where would she be? I put up with it because it makes me happy, she thought. 

It was true. Tilly had a very big heart and loved other people deeply. Sometimes that got her hurt, but she couldn't help herself. She found that even strangers couldn't escape her desire to help. She didn't fancy herself to be some kind of hero, but she was skilled with remedies and able to attend to life-threatening injuries: something she felt required her to lend aid. She didn't have a family member that had died or a friend that she was unable to help in her past to drive her to seek out the most remote places to find those in need. No, it wasn't all selfless. Tilly loved adventures. She wanted a life that was full of newness. Sometimes this conflicted with her need to connect to others, like her family that she missed more than anything, but she found she wasn't herself if she stayed in one place too long. Helping people made her happy, and travelling to seek out those people made her life complete. 

She looked up and found she was close to the house. It's about time. She hadn't stopped shivering since she had woken up. Tilly had thawed herself by the fire and crawled into her sleeping bag. Maybe I should have hibernated with Moomin. 

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The weeks passed and it was time for the Moomins to start waking up. Tilly was excited as the snow melted and the green grass beneath came up for air. "Good riddance!" she called from a window, spatula in hand. She was making pancakes for the family to wake up to, and she desperately hoped they liked them. She had looked through the cellar for ideas on what to surprise them with, but judging from how worn the pancake recipe was, she figured it was well loved. She had just finished setting the table when she heard footsteps on the landing. 

"Good morning Moominpappa," a soft voice said. Certainly not Little My, Tilly thought. She had crafted a mental image of a little goblin living in that bedroom, the one she always walked extra quiet when slipping past. A plump Moomintroll wearing a striped apron and holding a handbag made her way down the stairs. Tilly blushed as she looked down at the one she had pulled from a hook in the kitchen, they were matching. 

A deep voice from further up called, "Moominmama, have you started breakfast already? It smells delicious."

"No, I haven't," the woman replied confused. 

"Good morning Mama, it must be Tilly!" Moomin rushed past his parents and hugged Tilly in the doorway of the kitchen. "Happy spring Tilly, did you get on well while we slept?"

She was so glad to see Moomin, she hadn't expected to miss his boyish excitement after spending only an afternoon with him. "Happy spring to you too, Moomin, I'm so glad you're awake! Thank you for letting me stay here, I've had a wonderful time." Moomin grabbed her hand and lead her to the main room where Mama and Pappa stood looking at the hammock hanging from the rafters. 

"Moominmama, this is Tilly. She woke me up a couple weeks ago and asked if she could rest here. She's been travelling all winter and she was very tired, but she came here in case we needed any help."

"Help?" asked Moominpappa, "what sort of help? Was there something going on while we all slept?" He looked around. "Everything seems in order, besides the bunk in the living room."

"Oh no Moominpappa, nothing is wrong," Tilly assured him, "I am a doctor and I travel in hopes that I can lend my services to those who need me, but Moomin told me that everyone here sleeps all winter and Mama is quite talented in healing herself." 

Moominmama laughed softely, "Oh dear, how kind of Moomin. But I'm very sure that you, Tilly, know many things that even grandma's book of recipes and remedies doesn't." 

"That's why she stayed, Mama," Moomin said. "I told her that she would be a great help if she stayed here till spring when we woke up." Tilly was about to thank the Moomins for letting her stay when she was interrupted.

"I'm starving, are we going to eat or what?" A small girl with red hair pulled into a knot on the top of her head bounded down the stairs followed by another Moomintroll, a girl. 

Mama smiled, "Yes, from the smell of it, Tilly here has made us a wonderful breakfast. Let's all go eat."