Return post and a surprise

[frodofigment]

Bingo already wrote back. That was fast... I was expecting to have more time to get adjusted to this place again. Oh, well... I'm utterly terrified and nervous, but this is a good thing. The sooner I am able to talk to him the better

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[bbolger_baggins]

*gets up, takes a breath, opens the door* Uh, hello. *seems tightly wrapped, meets his eyes, looks away, meets his eyes again* Hello Iorhael. You look well. *holds onto the door, small smile*

[frodofigment]

H...*chokes on the word* hullo. Sorry about that. *looks down at his feet* Yes, so do you. How...how are you? *glances up, smiles lightly, nerves catch him again and looks down*

[bbolger_baggins]

I'm all right. *nervously* Oh! Come in, come in. *moves back from the door* I'll get some tea. *goes to get the kettle and compose himself*

[frodofigment]

Good. Thank you, Bingo. *closes the door quietly behind them, taking his cloak off his shoulders and hanging it. Follows, nervously taking a seat* Thank you for the tea. I feel terrible... I wish I had been able to offer Halfast tea, but I didn't even have a kettle yet when I wrote the letter for you. I'll make it up to him another afternoon.

[bbolger_baggins]

Oh, you're welcome. *gets down some cups with a clatter* Oh, I'm sure he understood. You just moving in and all. *sets them on the table* So are you pleased with the smial? Did you furnish it from yourself and all? *picks up kettle to pour tea*

[frodofigment]

Yes, it's very nice. Small, but comfortable. It took me a few hours, but I furnished it myself, yes. I even furnished the larder for the gnome guardian I made to tend to the smial while I'm gone. Quiet little fellow.

*watches Bingo pour the tea* Thank you for the tea, again. ......If it isn't too bold, you're moving differently than I remember. Are you just getting over an illness or something else? What have you been up to? *nervous, afraid of saying the wrong things, thinks he has spoken out of place*

[bbolger_baggins]

Gnome guardian? Ah, is that the dwarf?--Halfast mentioned you making something. *carefully pours tea in each cup* What's a gnome?

*overpours his cup a little as he listens, sighs* N-no, Iorhael, no question is ever too bold. *gets a towel, frustrated with himself*Questions are always good to my mind. They let a person know you're interested in knowing about them. *wipes his spill, sighs again and looks at him* No, I'm just nervous seeing you again. We share that nervousness, some, if I've read you aright.

What have I been up to? Um . . . life I suppose. Um . . .*sits down*

[frodofigment]

*smiles* It is a small figure of a bearded man wearing a hat that Big People like to put in their yards. They're supposed to be like miniature dwarves, I suppose. I'll have to ask the new gnome the best way to describe him.

*watches Bingo with apprenhension, reaching out to help, then drawing back again, chewing his lip* You've read me right. I'm very nervous right now. It feels almost surreal, but I'm fighting against that illusion. It is best that I don't dream my way through this... it needs to be done.

Life is always a good occupation of one's time. *wraps his hands around the tea, smiling lightly in an attempt to break the tension* I quite enjoy life in comparison to the alternative. But, I mean... what have you been doing? How have you been getting along?

[bbolger_baggins]

I've never seen one. Hmm. But they're alive?

Oh, thank you. I've got it. *smiles nervously, listens and purses his lips*

Life has been quiet lately. Oh! Elanorelle's been back with us for nigh a year now. A year ago things weren't so quiet. I was mauled by a warg, so maybe that's a difference you've seen in my walk--I'm pretty well healed now, but I suppose I'm still favoring one side a bit. *sips his tea, stills the questions it was his wont to ask in turn*

*examines his tea* So. Iorhael. What is the "it" that "needs to be done," you just mentioned a bit ago? *looks up at him*

[frodofigment]

Not usually. They're usually statues. This one... he's pseudo-alive, I suppose. I'll find out as we go along... I've never animated a rock before.

*smiles* Oh, Elanorelle. That's goo-- a warg, Bingo? *wide-eyed with concern* How did you come to be mauled by a warg?

*sighs, taking a sip of his tea* I need to make my amends with you, for what I have done. To put it quite bluntly I have atrociously neglected you with my absences. There is no good excuse for disappearing as I have in the past, though I have tried to press the blame on my writer. I could have done more to be here. I could have done more to not vanish in the middle of conversations, and incidents. I've failed you and I want to accept responsibility for that.

[bbolger_baggins]

Hmmm. Well, do be careful. *sips his tea*

*stares in his cup* I was out in the yard by the woods peeing. It mauled me and dragged me clear across the Old Forest to the Downs . . . it wasn't pleasant. Why it didn't just eat me, we still don't know. Arathorn, if you remember him, caught up with us and fought it off. Then he wandered off I have that effect on others, it seems but Garnet, a lovely hobbit who lived in a farm south of Bree found me and looked after me, and fought off the warg when it came back. I stayed many weeks out at her farmstead healing. Then my chums here, my smialmates, came out and brought me back here. Oh and some Noldor had been around the Shire, doing their emotionally fraught and potentially Armageddon inducing Noldorish things. I've been trying to arrange a couple Elven tutors for garnet's little brother and sister--charming little ones.

*nods* Why-why didn't you? Do more? *gives him a sideways glance then studies his tea*

[frodofigment]

I will.

Oh... oh... that's horrible! I'm glad that Arathorn was there, and certainly glad that Garnet came to your aid. *nods* Elven tutors? To teach what subjects

[bbolger_baggins]

*nods a bit absently, not wanting to get into the complicated interaction he had with Arathorn* Yes, Gary is, quite appropriately enough, a gem of a hobbit. A language teacher for Beryl and a music tutor for Plado, as is their interests. I don't think we can get tutors to go out in the country to live with them, so I'm hoping the hobbitlings will be able to come here for a while to study

[frodofigment]

That's quite nice to try and get them the education they want, but a shame you can't get it out where they live. I imagine it would be hard on the children to leave their home.

Oh, no thank you. I should probably extend that offer to you. I have too many sunflowers for my own good now.

*wishes he hadn't used the past tense about his love, but feels that using present would be taking too many liberties considering the situation. Sees Bingo flush, and isn't sure what to do about the words he has already said. Watches Bingo go to the window, nodding at his agreement to his words*

Take as long as you need, Bingo... and I can see that you're angry. You have a right to be. *pins his ears and waits*

Hey, um, happy V-day! V-day means never taking out a chainsaw when he says he's sorry. (-;

[bbolger_baggins]

Oh, it's the least I could do. Well, it might do them good to take a stay in the Shire. The problem is they're on a farm, so their labours are needed during growing season.

*nods tightly*

*clinches his teeth* I'm gratified you think so. *looks at a pear sitting on the sill, smashes it into the sill with his fist, bitterly* And I suppose acknowledgement is the first step of working on a problem, so congratulations on this new journey. *pounds the sill, sighs, and pushes back his locks from his brow, takes a breath* And I appreciate that you're trying to address this. I really do.

*breathes* It's just . . . *turns slightly and looks over his shoulder at him* You've said sooo much that wasn't true before. It's hard to believe you.

*turns back to the window* I'd like to. But that would be a bit daft, given the history, right?

[frodofigment]

*resists the shying impulse that rises in him as Bingo smashes the pear and pounds the window sill, finds nothing to say in response*

I know.

Bingo... I didn't expect you to trust me immediatly, especially not with... as you said... the given history. It would be daft. But I do want you to trust me, and I want to try and make things right. *stands and picks up the cloth Bingo used to wipe up tea earlier, walks cautiously over to him* Here, wipe your hand with this... are there more? The juice will seep into the wood soon.