Iron and Oak - Short Stories for Rainy Days

Love Explained

He was cold, tired, and every muscle ached. The ride to Dale had been long and wet, the ride back, worse. He'd only been gone six days, but it felt like a hundred years. It was nearing midnight when his ponies finally took the last few steps from the cliff path onto the grassy ridge. She was not expecting him home until tomorrow at the earliest, but the moon was just past full, and Mardie and Pepper knew the trail well. There was no light glowing in the house's windows, and Thorin wrinkled his brow, thinking it odd that Esja would have let the fire go out. He slid off Mardie and pushed open the stable doors, leading the ponies in. It was warmer in here, and he quickly lit a lantern, unsaddled the ponies, and stabled them. He brushed them both and fed and watered them. It took him another half hour to work the mud from the tired ponies' hooves and legs. When he was satisfied they would rest comfortably, he patted them, thanked them for their hard work, and headed for the house.  

As he brushed his fingers across the trailing vines of Jessamine carved into the door, he came immediately to his guard. Pulling his sword from his scabbard as the door swung silently inward at his merest touch. Pushing back the instinct to call to her, he stepped into the house. The fire had gone cold and black and Esja's rocking chair laid on its side nearby. Thorin moved silently to his bedroom doorway and saw their bed, unmade and empty. Esja's chest was pulled from under the bed, and its treasures strewn about the room. Thorin swallowed and turned back, heading for the smaller bedroom. As he passed the kitchen, he noted broken crockery and dirty, abandoned dishes on the table. His hand slipped on his sword, and he tightened his grip as he pushed the door softly open. It caught on the edge of a rumpled rug, and Thorin cautiously pushed it further open. His eyes swept the room. 

"Esja!" he whispered urgently. 

She was on her knees, on the floor, her head and one arm resting on the edge of the small bed she knelt by—her hand resting on the back of his young daughter, a larger lump under her protective arm. A familiar fur blanket draped half over them. She made no move at his voice, and he lifted a suddenly shaking hand to her cheek. She was warm. He felt weak and dropped to sit beside her on the floor, waiting for his heart rate to return to normal. A tiny sound brought his head back up, and he looked around. Reaching over, he realized the second lump on the bed was merely an empty pile of a blanket. Another soft gurgle came from behind the door.  

"Fi?" he said softly. 

The sound of desperate movement came from behind the door, and shortly a little face appeared around the edge of the door. A chubby hand dropped a wooden spoon with an excited squeak. Thorin barely had time to set aside his sword before the tiny dwarvish lass had tumbled into his lap, wrapped chubby fingers in his beard, chortling "Babababaabab." and covering his mouth and cheek in kisses. He pulled the little girl close, kissing her hair.  

"Fi, what have you done to my wife? Hmm? She's fallen asleep on the floor in a house that looks like it's been ransacked by the goblin king himself," he whispered to his daughter.  

The little girl listened to him with rapt attention, her blue eyes never leaving his. 

"Mamammamm," she jabbered and pulled his leather glove from his belt to chew on. 

He scooped the little girl close and rubbed his beard against her neck, making her squirm and giggle. He stood and looked around, not quite sure what to do. He walked back out to the front room, with Faelyn in the crook of his elbow. He hung up his sword and set her down as he shrugged out of his coat and hung it as well. He turned at a thump behind him and just barely grabbed the tiny girl before she pulled a tray of dirty dishes off the table.  

"No you don't, little one!" he said, setting up the rocking chair and setting her in it. He went back to get her blanket from her room, and by the time he had returned, she was nowhere in sight.