The Proposal

FLASHFORWARD SCENE: IC time is morning October 26

                              Breelands Weather                              
The late afternoon autumn air is cool but pleasant around you. The murky sky is overcast and dreary.

The Chetwood(#27687RVnFof)
The trees of the Chetwood rise up above and around you. Here, getting lost is a serious concern, but to the north, the trees seem to be pressed closer together. The lower branches of ancient pines are tangled together, so that finding a path is very difficult in any direction. Few sounds escape from the trees, perhaps the animals that call the Chetwood home favor the less densely wooded areas to the south.

Contents:
Thari
Obvious exits:
North and South


[Frarin] The sun is only an hour risen over the Chetwood this morn, what with the days growing shorter as winter's grip slowly advances. It is a cool morning, damp with the overcast sky but not yet cold enough to leave a frost. Here at the little camp it seems slightly warmer, for the fire has been stoked again and crackles and pops even though no longer tended. Over it hangs a little black pot with boiling water and at the fire's side sits a tin plate with several still sizzling sausages upon it.

The camp's two newest arrivals, however, are no where to be seen at the moment. Frarin and Hal, and their ponies to boot, are gone, though the stoked fire and fresh foot suggests that they are not far away. Indeed, in the quiet of the wood, above the crinkle of autumn leaves falling, a murmuring rumble of two voices drifts through the trees and back to the camp.

[Thari(#31038)]
Dwarves who have been on caravan with Thari might know a few things about her. It is her habit to be among the first awake, building fires, grooming hair and-- if someone hasn't been wise enough to it first-- she will brew a pot of vile coffee that will eventually be poured out, undrunk.

Not so this morning. Perhaps Thari awoke early, for she started fidgeting within her cloak, but only to draw it further over her face and did not arise. Now, however, with the camp semi-abandoned, she lifts her head and takes a furtive look around. A moment later and she is sitting up and rubbing at her face.

[Frarin] After a time the distant rumbling of voices cease and the wood goes quiet once again. But not for long, for soon the crunch of undergrowth greets the approach of heavy boots upon the forest floor. Then Frarin is emerging from between two tall trees with white and black skin, following a small path that leads downhill just behind him. He walks still with his two crutches, but they are hidden somewhat by the overhanging folds of his cloak. Hal and the ponies do not follow.

The silver merchant pauses as he enters upon the camp, only to find Thari awake and sitting up. And then, perhaps unexectedly, he smiles. It is a small expression, buried beneath his beard, but genuine. "Good morning," he rumbles out, hobbling for the fire. "Did you sleep well?"

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's eyes go wide as a dwarf approaches. She looks toward Frarin-- there's a small softening of her expression, a gentling around her eyes and mouth. She laughs then and looks away, toward her wagon. "Not at all, to be honest. Did you?"

[Frarin] "Barely a wink," Frarin replies, smiling still and giving a silent snort. "But, well, there was a lot to think about, I suppose." He says no more on that front for the moment, for he comes to the fire's edge, where the plate of sausages lies. Carefully setting his right crutch up against one of the downed logs in the camp, he leans upon the left one as he reaches down to lift the plate of food up. "I've been up for two hours now, thought I'd best put some breakfast on. I did not bring any coffee along, I'm afraid, but I do have a flagon of the Pony's beer. Try that for now though," he says, coming near Thari and setting the plate of sausages near her.

"Hal's best cooking, or so he says." Still using only the one support, Frarin limps back to a thick, flat log and gently seats him.

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari casts the cloak from her legs. "Thank you, Frarin," she says quietly as the breakfast is set near. "That is thoughtful." She reaches for the sausages. Her eyes at last flick back to him. "Where is Hal now?" There is a self-concious undertone to her words.

[Frarin] Reaching behind the log upon which he sits, Frarin retrieves a small pack that has been tucked away there. From it he pulls a second plate, a pastry-like roll, and an apple. "He is looking after the ponies, away down at the stream a ways. We have been talking, actually," he rumbles, not glancing up as he sets his food across the plate in his lap and proceeds to tear a corner from the pastry roll. "He prefers the world to think him a simple soldier, I think, but he has a keener mind than many would know. And he is my only remaining relative in the company."

Frarin takes a breath as he chews his breakfast and finally looks up. His brows lift, but he casts Thari another smile, odd perhaps for a face so accustomed to stoniness or frowning. His dark eyes, however, reflect the same expression. "And indeed, Thari, I had hoped you and I might talk this morning. But talk openly. There are many thoughts that preyed upon my mind during the night and I think it is time we stopped avoiding one another and speak plainly."

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari chews upon a sausage as Frarin speaks of his cousin. She watches him with interest, swallows, and takes a breath as if to speak, but he smiles at her and the word dies. A half-smile is given in return.

There is a pause when he finishes, and then a short nod. "That might be a relief, yes. What thoughts did you have?" She rolls and makes to stand, a slow process which avoids weight on the lift.

[Frarin] Still patiently pulling apart the roll, Frarin half-heartedly shrugs at Thari's question. "Just...some things, I suppose," he starts, looking at his plate. "See, I did not expect you to say what you did last night. And I have some questions. And am willing to answer any you might have that...the discomfort of the past months might have prohibited."

He looks up now with a casual glance, as if at ease for the first time in a long while. Indeed, when he speaks, his tone is matter-of-fact, conversational. "Well, tell me about your family, first off. I have known you for some time now and know nothing other than your father is Balur and you are of Clan Bundezanul. What is your family like? What would they say to your feelings for me, as old as I am and of another clan?" Even with the last question, Frarin does not seem to grow uncomfortable, as if it were a casual question in a casual conversation.

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari stands and bends over to take up her plate. She limps toward Frarin. "I am the oldest of three. My mother's name is Nari, and my brothers are Nalur and Olur. Olur has the best business aptitude after me."

She seats herself on another log near him and settles the plate of sausages on her lap. Down at her breakfast she looks. "To be frank, my father has alwasy advised me to not take romantic attachments up while away on trading, especially if he's not with me. That you are a Barazin will not matter terribly much... I, well, I can't say about your age. When I was seventy-five I had a dwarf of one hundred and twenty or so try to take advantage of me, and nearly succeeded, so hopefully my dear father will not be reminded of that," she says in a low and frank voice.

[Frarin] "He will, no doubt," says Frarin to the last. "But that is what fathers are for. My own mother was Therus, and my younger brother Grarin, who has a daughter called Gillin. My first cousin Formin is as like a brother too, and he heads our family now." Glancing at Thari as she settles next to him, he smiles again and shifts, one arm pulling back slightly but stopping short.

"Well then, now we know each other's families," the silver merchant continues, biting into his apple. "What then of your future? What plans, if any, did you have for your life? Will you remain on the road all your years? Would you continue working for your father until his passing? Or would you become an independent trader?"

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari picks at her sausage but does not lift fork to her mouth. She gives him a sidelong glance, brief and dazed. "I have thought to continue on as I have for these past couple of decades. I would continue to do the more distant trading for my brothers-- Olur, likely, will be taking over management, unless a great deal is changed. It would be foolish of me to become independent. And I imagine it was the same for you? You are to continue with your trading of silver?"

[Frarin] Lifting his brows to Thari, Frarin shakes his head deftly and gives a small shrug. "It is not quite the same with me. My family has a long history with silver, but not as traders of that metal. I am the first merchant of my family. My father and grandfather were silversmiths, but before them, all of my line have been miners. But yes, I know your point. It is sensible to remain where there is a strong business."

Temporarily forgetting his breakfast, Frarin presses his lips together and takes a breath. There is a passing sense of discomfort, but it is gone by the time he looks to Thari, this time full on and with an open and frank expression, as if urging the same of her. "And what of other things in the future? Do you ever want beardlings? I do not ask to suggest," he assures. "But it is something you should consider. If you do not desire children now, would you ever? To keep you company in your old age? I do not fight you over my age anymore, but you must take account of it."

[Thari(#31038)]
The flush of Thari's naturally rosy cheeks begins to spread. Her chin lifts. "I-- what? Beardlings? But last night you said that you were not sure if you cared for me very strongly. Why would you be thinking of beardlings and..." she waves a hand quickly in the air. "...the like? Over, over pity?" She looks at the fire, quite flustered.

[Frarin] "I was not asking to suggest," Frarin repeats, slightly firmer now, but kindly. "I merely ask you to consider all of your wants, both at present and in the future." But once the correction is finished, the silver merchant drifts off, dropping his eyes to his plate. The pastry roll is only half eaten and the apple has a bite or two from it, but both now are ignored.

Heaving forth a great sigh, Frarin rumbles quietly, still looking down. "Last night...I did not know how I felt. I thought I did, of course, and that was why I sought you out. Certainly it was not out of pity, never out of pity. I knew at least that I would miss you if we were no longer friends. But..." He brings his gaze up now and beholds Thari with an unusually modest smile. "Last night you did not reject my feelings outright, which was everything that I did not expect. I did not allow myself to feel because I did not think there was anything to be gained from it, no future in it because it would not satisfy you. And now...well, now I suppose I feel that there might be, you see."

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari sets her plate upon the ground to one side, only one sausage half-eaten. "Last night I was thinking-- ahh, I don't know how to say it. I was thinking about how, how I..." She growls and shakes her head and finally looks at his face full on for the first time.

"Here, let me try to be as frank as I can. I thought about how I want you and how much I feel about you, but I also thought about how if you could not eventually meet me in this I must not accept you on half-terms, if you can make out what I am saying. I can wait for you to... well, wait anyway. You see, my mother is my father's treasure and-- ah!" she gives a half-laughing cry of frustration and makes as if to stand. "I am bungling it all."

[Frarin] "Wait!" Frarin cries suddenly as Thari makes to stand and his hand unexpectedly reaches out to her forearm. "Wait, Thari, please wait. You're not bungling it at all. It's me who is bungling the whole thing." He smiles and shakes his head, and even rumbles out a short chuckle.

"Well, let me think," he says, sighing thoughtfully. "I recall once my mother said to me that she did not expect me to marry, but that she wished I might. This was many years after my father's death, but she said that, though I might be content all my life, I would not be truly happy. I...I did not think much on at the time," he shrugs lightly, "but it came to me again last night."

"She said also to me that when all the excitement of youth was gone, that she and my father were above all each other's best friend, confidant." Raising his brows at Thari, Frarin continues. "I am no good at this, Thari. But...I would never tell another that." He smiles suddenly. "Mahal knows, Thari, you make me so angry, so frustrated, so fed up. And yet...there is no other who has ever done that. I do not show emotion often , as you might have guessed, even in anger. But with you, that is different."

And with a great breath to prepare himself, he says quietly, "I do meet you, Thari. I know that now."

[Thari(#31038)]
At the touch of Frarin's hand on her sleeve, Thari settles back again. Her flustered eyes turn up to him, but as he speaks, something in her seems to relax and her face opens to surprise, to wonder. "You do?" she asks, and something in her tone is less guarded, more eager. "After one night it has changed for you?"

[Frarin] "No," Frarin replies, holding her arm a second longer perhaps than necessary before withdrawing his grip. "No, not after one night. After one month, perhaps, though I did not know it. I saw no future...for us. I did not allow myself to imagine such because I did not think you would ever be satisfied with a dwarf as stubborn and dour and unprone to displaying feeling as I. And with thought only of what was, and not of what might be, I did not think my sentiment would change."

Lifting his gaze to Thari, Frarin gives the barest of smiles, the expression more in his eyes and cheeks than his lips. "But then, then you said--" his voice catches for a moment, "--'Can it not?' and it was all different for me. Do you see? I shall be honest, Thari, I did not sleep at all last night. Images of what might be kept me awake, and a nervousness, such an unsettling shiver at the pit of my stomach, kept my eyes open through all the dark hours."

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's eyes are there when he lifts his. Her face has bloomed into joy, wide smile and happy gaze. "Frarin, my Frarin!" she is laughing and her hands lift to frame his face. "I never, not since the moment I realized how I felt for you, never imagined you would say such things to me!

She laughs again, her grey eyes twinkling. "If only I had known that you are reserved and unfeeling with others, I might have worried less, for you've never been that way with me, you haven't! This morning is a surprise and a lovely one!"

[Frarin] Frarin sucks in a slow breath, then smiles. A true smile it is this time, and though modest and not wide enough to equal Thari's, for the silver merchant it is an expression with all the joy and cheer that happiness can bring. "Exactly! And that is what I realised all of this long month and half without you. I have never /needed/ another to talk to, I have always been perfectly content to keep my thoughts to myself. And yet, with you, dear Thari, without even knowing it, I began to change in that respect. I enjoyed talking openly with you. I wanted to, valued my time with you, and did not see the reason for that until you spoke of your own feelings."

The joyful, modest smile still upon his face, Frarin reaches up suddenly and takes one of Thari's hands. Both his own rough hands cup hers. "I, I never imagined my heart might feel thus. I never thought I would value the thoughts, the feelings of another, as much as I do yours, Thari. How you lived in silence with it for so long, I cannot even imagine."

[Thari(#31038)]
"My heart must have broken a hundred times," Thari laughs, as if the joy of this moment can make even that memory a happy one. Her hands are not still beneath his-- her fingers flare to stroke his skin and to fit between his fingers.

"And I thought to try to let it die because you'd never noticed me, an then! I was placed in a bed beside you for over a month! But even if that hadn't happened I don't believe it would have died." She is leaning toward him, eyes not moving from his, smile not waning at all.

[Frarin] When Thari mentions spending a month in a bed beside him, Frarin's lips part in a smile for a moment. Then he laughs. It is not a loud laugh, nor short and barking, but like his speech. It rumbles forth, a rarely heard sound from the somber silversmith, but full of his quiet joy. And as the laugh dies away, the smile fades from his mouth, though it remains in his cheeks. But there is something else also as his lips part to behold Thari, a question in his eyes.

"No, no it hasn't," he says quietly. "And no amount of logic, my own foolish logic, has worn it away. I can offer no more arguments against your feelings, and I have not the heart to argue against mine. If...if then...would you...Thari, if we feel for each other so, what would you say if...we were to spend all our days together?"

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's hands drop from Frarin's face, but, her fingers entangled with his, she does not relinquish his hands. They remain clasped between the pair. "I want to Frarin, I do, and so many days and nights now have I hoped for it!"

Her smile wanes just a little and concern creases the corners of her eyes. "But, my dear one, I do not think it would be honorable to make an oath without my family's knowlege and my father's blessing." Her breath catches.

[Frarin] The smile returns to Frarin face as Thari answers him, and wanes in unison with hers as concern catches her breath. He smiles still, but thoughtful is he also, and his eyes flick down as he thinks for a moment. Then nodding understandably, he looks up again. "If that is your wish, then I will expect no answer until we return to Erebor. For my part, my cousin Formin, though he heads our family, will not question my decision."

He nods again, grasping Thari's hand all the tighter. "I have always held that every dwarf should control their own decisions, Thari, but I can see this is important to you. I would spend all the years of my life with you even were all the world against it. But I will wait."

[Thari(#31038)]
"That is as it should be for you," Thari says. She lifts his hand and touches his knuckles to her cheek. "It is sometimes a little different for a woman, and especially a woman like me, with a family who has been so supportive and good to me my whole life. Would you not want a daughter of yours to do the same?"

There is a brief pause then, wherein her smile fades. "Frarin, would you want to take me with you when you go to trade? I don't think I could abide by being left at home. I don't want to choose between my desire to be near you and my desire for the freedom of the road." The words come out all in a rush.

[Frarin] Frarin pauses as Thari explains her need for her family's blessing, and he nods again also, though his brows lift ever so slightly at the rhetorical question. But as her smile fades still more, his brows come together as if disbelieving. "Take you with me?" he repeats, then shakes his head.

"Thari, if we wed, you will not be a prize, do you understand? You will not be mine to do with as I will. If I wanted a wife to tend house, rather than to love and treat as my equal, I would have married long ago. I told you once that women should not stay away from battle merely because they are women, and neither should they stay at home for the same reason. There are many of our folk who would disagree, but that is how I feel. If you stay at home, it will be because we /both/ decided upon it."

Then with a shrug and smile, he adds, "And likewise, if I have need to remain at Erebor while you go abroad, then it shall be."

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's lips part a little as he speaks and then she laughs agian. "You dear dwarf!" She drops one of his hands so that she might lean closer tocurl her arm around his chest and set her cheek against his shoulder. "In my family I have always been a prize, as you said, and I haven't ever looked at it as such a terrible thing, to be... doted on, I suppose I should say. He has always allowed me to go whereever I wanted, but it has always been by his blessing."

[Frarin] With none of the discomfort of the night before, Frarin reaches up and wraps an arm around Thari as she leans in. "Well, I should like to hope that you have my blessing in all your do," he says, leaning his head against hers. "And that I should have yours in all that I do. But, Thari, we are fools if we think that we will always agree." At that he pulls back slightly to smile at her, then replaces his head.

"It is not a terrible thing, to be a prize, and I suppose for a father with a daughter it is different. But in a marriage, the husband belongs to the wife as much as the wife belongs to the husband. I could not love you as I do if I did not believe us equals, Thari."

[Thari(#31038)]
"I can still hardly believe we're talking about this," Thari says in a low, bemused voice. "It feels like everything's gone forward in a rush. I wish we were going home sooner than we are, so that I could talk with my family."

Her other arm goes around him as well and her brow nudges beside his cheek. "You mustn't worry about my father's blessing, for I'll have a good talk with him if he doesn't give it. I'm not seventy-five anymore though sometimes when I go home they behave as if I am."

[Frarin] "Indeed," says Frarin with a light chuckle. "You see now why I could not sleep last night? My mind was agog with all there was to think about." He falls silent as Thari speaks of her father, but chooses to say nothing in response. Instead he remains with his arm around Thari, a small smile contently lingering beneath his beard.

But the peaceful bliss is not long-lasting. So long ignored by the two, the world outside their camp comes suddenly back into focus, for the stomp of heavy boots upon the freshly-fallen leaves of autumn breaks the morning stillness. Frarin lifts his head and his brows come together, though he does not move to rise or remove his arm from Thari's shoulder. Then suddenly Hal is coming up the same trail that Frarin had not so long ago, jogging and breathing hard.

"Frarin, Thari!" he says, once he catches his breath. He does not seem surprised to see Frarin's arm around Thari. "I'm sorry, Frarin, I know I said I wouldn't interrupt. But there's something you must see, down by the stream."

[Thari(#31038)]
"I spent the night just wishing," Thari confesses. "I spent a--" The sound of bootfalls makes her lift her head, startled, and make a short, abortive motion as if to remove her arms from Frarin. A glance to him, however, and she does not. "What is it, Hal?" she asks, face flushed.