Black and Blue Delicate Flower

It's snowing again, but indoors, this is not such a terrible thing. Fat white flakes fall past the windowglass of room 22, where the drapes have been pulled open so that white light may fall within, overpowering the yellow light of the crackling fire.

A dwarf-- Frarin by name-- sleeps in a cot shoved into the corner this afternoon, looking absolutely exhausted even while resting. In the human-sized bed there is another dwarf.

Presumably it is a dwarf, though there is very little beard to speak of, because it is too large to be a hobbit. Above the blankets, the face is beaten black and blue, both eyes open and bright red from broken blood vessels. The hair, reddish-brown, is cropped short, and the left arm is bound in a split where it rests atop of a blanket. Thari is looking at the sleeping Frarin.

There are many dwarves staying at the Pony. One such is out in the hallway, moving to knock at the door of Room 22. He has short-cropped hair as black as ink, with a thick unruly beard to match. He's modestly dressed, with nice clothes but nothin as extravagant as some of the dwarves in Bree right now. At his side hangs a sheathed sword, and his light blue eyes look up and down the hallway while he waits for an answer.

Thari's eyes jump to the door and then, sharply, back to Frarin, but the silversmith does not stir. Back to to the door goes the glance, a pause, and then... "Come in," Thari calls, not too loud.

Ranol reaches down and carefully turns the nob, then steps into the room after one more glance up and down the hallway. The clan-karl gently presses the door closed again once inside, looking the room over and noting Frarin first, then shifts his blue eyes to Thari. "Cousin. You're looking better." He barely glances at the shaved chin and approaches the bed slowly with an easy smile.

Thari is indeed a little better, eyes less swollen anyway. The black bruises have turned to blue, blue turned to brown, and so forth. A half-smile is given to Ranol, but this stresses the split in the lip and a bit of red blood appears.

Thari pulls up the blanket just a little toward the chin. "I am feeling a little better. Much better," the battered dwarf amends. A glance toward Frarin with a lowered voice. "He's the one who is having a rough time of it, I'd say."

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] It wouldn't be long before there would be another quiet little rap on the door. Jacquelyn would stand waiting in the hallway, hefting the weight of some fresh blankets and linens from one hip to the other, listening to the sounds within. She wouldn't open the door unless she was sure she wasn't disturbing the people within.

Ranol eases down gently to sit on the edge of the bed. "We all share the horror and anger, Thari. But Frarin.. He has suffered the most. I was horrified when I couldn't find you that morning. Braldor raised the alarm as soon as he heard. Frarin and I-.. " He looks over at the door, frowning as he stands again. The clan-karl moves to the door, his hand on the grip of the sword at his side as he pulls the door open with a fierce expression on his face.

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's eyes are steady on Ranol as he settles near. The blankets stay near to the injured dwarf's chin, but once or twice Thari seems near speaking.

A knock comes again. Thari gives a quick glance toward the still-sleeping Frarin, then watches Ranol open the door. Only a glimpse of the form beyond and th blankets are pulled higher, covering half of the bruised face.

Jacquelyn jumps back as the door is opened and she's met with a dwarf with such a fierce expression on his face. The girl's face would lose it's color and she'd just stare back completely startled. "I.. I.. I was just supposed to bring some fresh blankets and linens.. this.. this is room 22 right?" Her first day on the job and already things were scary!

Ranol relaxes, his expression softening. "Aye.. " He glances back towards Thari, a brow lifted. "One of the maids." He gestures with a hand for her to enter. "Come in then. There are some dirty dishes and towels you can take. Just be quiet.. please." He moves out of the way, returning to the bedside to let the girl find her own way. He has no way of knowing this is her first day and assumes she knows what she's doing.

"Ranol." Thari's deep voice is very soft, shy perhaps while watching the maid. "Ought I stand so that the linens might be changed? I will need only a little help." Thari's good hand sneaks out from beneath the blankets toward the dark-haired dwarf.

Jacquelyn nods at Ranol's directions, stepping into the room as her brown eyes sweep over the room. She couldn't help but to gape at the beaten creature that had to be a dwarf laying in the bed. She'd stand near the bed, shifting anxiously from one foot to the other. "I could step out if you need.. I don't want to disturbe your privacy." She'd make a glance at where Ranol indicated there was dirty dishes and towels, seeming very unsure of herself indeed.

Ranol didn't expect that, and his black brows lift in surprise. "If you wish." He moves over to the bruised and battered dwarf, offering his arm and shoulder for support, ready to jump in with more aid if Thari has trouble. He looks to Jacquelyn and her hesitation. "It is okay, child. You need to do your job.. as we all must from time to time." He says with a small grin for Thari, lifting his free hand to toy with his beard.

[Cordelia(#1394)] Footsteps are heard coming down the hall, soft and quiet, but not sneaking, and in a moment Cordelia is before the open doorway, hand paused to knock on a closed door and surprised to see the group in Thari's room. "Oh.." She still has a bruised face and bandaged right arm left in a sling.

Thari(#31038)] Thari gingerly uses the good arm to sit up, skin blanching pale beneath the bruises. Yet for some reason in this awkward, painful moment, the injured dwarf glances at Ranol and gives a bit of a laugh. The blankets are tossed away, revealing that Thari is wearing white robes, the left leg bulky with bandages.

Slowly the injured dwarf nudges toward the edge of the bed and reaches for Ranol, good right foot set on the floor and face hidden near Ranol's shoulder. Thus Thari does not see Cordelia, but does say in a low voice, "Anyone who wakes Frarin is going to hear about it from me."

Jacquelyn watches the dwarf coming out of the bed with wide eyes. "I'll be quick, I won't make you stand up for very long." The girl's voice would hold sympathy within it and she would immediately make her way over to the bed to change the linens. She wouldn't have noticed Cordelia yet either, focused completely on the task at hand. While she might not have been an experienced maid she certainly knew how to change a bed, making quick work of it.

Cordelia(#1394)] Hazel's voice can be heard loudly bellowing for Cordelia downstairs, and the young woman suddenly scurries off down the steps, in a hurry.

Ranol supports the smaller dwarf's weight as much as he can, frowning. "Don't push it. I don't want Frarin or Braldor coming after me because you wanted cleaner bedsheets, Thari." The clan-karl mumbles in a soft voice, looking up towards the maid again. His blue eyes open wider when he sees Cordelia in the hallway. "Do you need something?" He has no idea who Cordelia is, hasn't met her before. That fierce expression is returning, and then the other woman is gone.

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari does seem rather exhausted from even this small amount of work, holding hard to Ranol's shoulder and shaking. "Yeah... rather.. stupid of me to stand up," says the smaller dwarf, panting. Thari is careful to use Ranol to shield the beardless face from Jacquelyn. "Might... need a bit of..." Thari gives a laugh. "Help to lie back down. Frarin'll have my head if... he wakes up now."

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] The sheets would be changed quickly, the young woman turning down the blanket so that the injured dwarf wouldn't have any trouble laying back down on the bed. Jacquelyn would gather the old linens up under her arms and offer them a little smile. "There you go then, all set now. I'll just get those dirty things and be on my way."

He shifts his stance to support Thari more securely, his hold solid. Ranol idly watches Jacquelyn work, the faint smile still showing beneath his thick beard. "Maybe you should be quiet then before you wake him.." He suggests, teasing. Once the girl is finished he'll move to help the dwarven patient back into the bed, trying to be as gentle as possible. He makes sure to keep himself between her and Thari, a seemingly casual positioning. "Girl.. do you have a name?"

[Thari(#31038)]
It's awkward to move a body with two broken limbs into a bed, and Thari struggles to stifle a sound of pain in the throat. Once the broken leg has been repositioned on the bed with Ranol's help, Thari begins to pull at the blankets, head down and shyly turned away from Jacquelyn. "I'm not being loud," comes an idle protest, followed by a lingering, "I could do with another bowl of stew...."

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] If the girl noticed that there was some creative blocking going on it wouldn't show in her expression. She would already be on her way to collecting the towels, adding them to the pile of linens before she stacks up the dishes. She would pause at the dwarf's question, glancing over her shoulder with a soft little smile to her lips "It's Jacquelyn." she would say politely, straightening up with all the things she had to carry back downstairs. "I'll make sure to put the order in for you." This statement directed towards Thari with a little nod of her head.

Ranol tends to Thari, making certain the broken dwarf is settled as comfortably as possible. Then he turns to regard the girl directly. He offers a short bow. "I'm Ranol, son of Ranor." After the introduction he glances around. "If you could please come back with the stew personally? I'd like to request of our good innkeeper that you be the only maid to tend to this room, if that's alright with you?"

[Thari(#31038)]
"Thank you," Thari answers in a muted voice, and adds, introduction apparently directed at the window, "I am Thari, at your service." But there is no bow, and surely the mention of service is surely only out of politeness. "Ranol?" Thari's fingers pluck at the blanket.

[Jacquelyn(#26425)] "It's a pleasure to meet you Mister Ranol, Mister Thari" At least Jacquelyn had assumed the battered figure was a male. Jacquelyn would blink with suprise at the Ranol's next statement however, apparently not having expected that. "Oh.. oh. um, I guess so. I'm new.. I. yes of course.. I'll be right back with the stew myself." She'd blush a little and start making her way towards the door with all of the dirty linens and dishes.

Ranol looks back towards Thari, frowning faintly at the expression on his cousin's face. He waves his hand in a gesture for the dwarf to hold. He looks back at Jacquelyn, nodding. "Please always knock first." He requests, and follows her to the door to press it closed after she is out. Then he turns back to his kin.

[Thari(#31038)]"Thank you," says Thari again, head dropped to the pillow. Her voice sounds tired, her eyes close for a moment until the door is shut. And then they open and lie upon Ranol expectantly. "What is it?"

Ranol listens at the door for a moment, hearing the girl's steps retreat down the hallway. Once he's satisfied he moves back to the bedside, grabbing a chair and quietly pulling it over to sit. "The people here distrust us as well. The girl is young, and as she said, new. If we only let her tend to the room, we know who to keep an eye on plus it gives the people working here in the inn a little more ease if we let one of their own see to things. She won't have anything to spread rumors about other than some dwarves tending to their injured brethren.." He shrugs. "Besides, not all the maids always knock first, now we know she will."

[Thari(#31038)] Thari's head shifts on the pillow to turn and speak with him, cropped reddish hair barely making a sound against the cloth. "It's a good thought, Ranol," she murmurs with some dismay. "But she'll be able to look at me and tell everyone what I look like..."

He starts to think he made in error in judgement until Thari's real concerns are laid out. There's a faint smile of sympathy. "Did you see her? She doesn't know anything of our ways or customs. The only thing that girl was doing was looking around as fast as possible for dirty dishes to take out. I doubt she noticed anything." He tries to sound reassuring, but adds as an extra offer, "I'll speak to her later, ask her for some discretion.. okay?"

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's still looking rather dubiously at her cousin, brows knit together and wrinkling a black bruise that bridges between her eyes. "Well, if you or Frarin stay..." her words die off and she sighs. "I sound like a coward."

"No.. Not at all. Thari, you are one of the bravest dwarves I know." He sounds sincere, concern on his face now. "I cannot imagine the pain you are suffering right now. Please do not think poorly of yourself. If you do not want her in here I will tell her to leave things outside." Ranol scrubs a hand through his short hair, blue eyes flicking to Frarin briefly but the elder dwarf sleeps on."

"I am sure that you will be mindful of my modesty and dignity," Thari answers, head turning away to look outside of the window. "I do not wish to be drugged again. If my foes come at me again I want to be on my own two feet with my axe in my hand."

"If -our- foes come again.. " Ranol corrects, patting his sword lightly. "I will be by your side as often as I am able, cousin. Braldor has no objection to that, thankfully." He studies her carefully, a smile working it's way onto his face. "It's good that it's winter. I'm going to buy you a thick warm scarf. What's your color preference?"

From the small slice of turned-away face, it might be possible still to see fear painted into Thari's naked features. She schools her face to something a bit more neutral before looking back at him and smiling a little, not so much that her lip splits again. "Perhaps... some yellow?" she suggests in a grateful voice. "My hood was yellow before I lost it."

"Aye, I can find yellow." It wouldn't have been -his- first choice, but whatever Thari wants, Thari tends to get. The fear he can do little to help with. He's still worried about the the one that got away, and the fact that they don't know if one of these perpetrators was the original murderer.

[Thari(#31038)]
"I'd also like to get an axe back," Thari adds in a lower voice. Her eyes shift toward Frarin. "But I wouldn't be able to use one and I'd not ask you to buy one for me anyway. Do I have any money or was it all stolen?"

Ranol always grows nervous when topics involving money come up. When she speaks of a new axe the smile fades. It's not something he could easily afford. "I'm not sure. Frarin might know.. but I do not think he wants you weilding any weapons for quite some time."

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's eyes sharpen on Frarin as Ranol speaks his name, but still the silversmith does not shift in his slumber. Her brow furrows and she glances back to Ranol. "Well, I can't until I am healed, no. What happened," she asks, "when that bastard Tom came to the Prancing Pony? Do you know?"

Ranol sighs, frowning as he thinks over what he's heard. "I wasn't there, but supposedly Frarin was going into your room when he was distracted by one of the kids that works here. He heard that someone was inside and Tom attacked him when he stepped into the room. They fought, Frarin won.. The one that got away, Rolph, came in during the scuffle, then fled when he realized he had no chance."

[Thari(#31038)] "Of course Frarin won." Here Thari gives the sleeping Frarin one of those hot, devoted looks that the young and in love can muster, and can be a bit silly to an onlooker. Some might wonder what she sees in the dwarf, so much older than her, so rough in manner and quite rumpled-looking at this point.

Thari's attention shifts back to Ranol after that thick little moment. "If Rolph was in the cave with us, I never heard fo him." Her face darkens, flushed beneath the bruises. "There was only Tom and the woman."

"I believe that friend of yours.. Rhiffarth?.. is out tracking him right now. He's probably dead already. There was another that attacked a woman here in town. I don't have all the details on that, though. It's the woman that you were with right before the robbery?" There's the quiet knock at the door as Jacquelyn returns, and Ranol goes to fetch the stew without letting her in again. He softly thanks her, then returns to his seat by the bed.

[Thari(#31038)]
"Tom wasn't the one who attacked us?" Thari sounds surprised by this, but falls silent and turns her face away when there is a knock at the door. Once it is latched again, she struggles to sit upright. "Oof-- could you stick a couple of pillows behind me?" She nods toward where extras have been stacked on the empty foot of the bed (Thari being too short for her feet to reach that far).

Ranol will get the pillows and help her to sit up. "Well.. if this clan-karl thing doesn't work out, at least I'll be a good nursemaid." He says in a joking tone, grinning. He scoots the chair close to the edge of the bed, handing her the spoon before holding the bowl for her.

[Thari(#31038)]
"My thanks." Frarin shifts a little in his sleep and she freezes, watching him, but he does not again stir. The spoon is dipped into the bowl. "I vow that I will never love a food as much as the Pony's stew," she says with relish before savoring the mouthful.

"Don't joke about the nursemaid bit," she advises with a jab of the spoon toward him. "Do you think I meant to pick it up? I didn't, and it's served me well. Thari the Trader-- also knows how to set broken bones, stop your bleeding, and tell you to buck up, my lad." She gives a bit of a grin, but forgetfully manages to split her lip again.

Ranol rolls his eyes a trace when she thanks him for holding the stew. He shifts to prop his arm more comfortably, idly watching the flakes drift past the window. "There's nothing wrong with the trade, I suppose. It's a noble calling. I don't know if it would be for me, though. I mean, you've already convinced me to let you out of bed, and keep you from your sleep."

[Thari(#31038)]
"Somebody ought to learn a bit from me and the Bree healers," Thari argues between mouthfuls of her meal. "It will be months before we get home and I'm the only one surviving in our group. If--" a sharp glance at Frarin and her voice lowers. "If I should die, the lot of you would be in a sorry place."

"Frarin has been taking excellent care of you. Frarin also isn't in service to our Thane as a clan-karl." Ranol states flatly, trying to end her thoughts right there. "I would rather stand in front of you and take a quarrel than see you get hurt again, cousin. Don't speak of things like that."

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's dripping spoon hesitates, held over the bowl. "What does Braldor have to do with it?" she asks in idle confusion.

"If you're thinking that I'm going to learn anything about being a healer, quite a lot." He answers, brow furrowing. "Just don't include me in that 'somebody' is all I'm saying. But it wouldn't hurt to have someone else with the art.." Ranol can't disagree with the logic.

[Thari(#31038)]
"I still think that you'd be good at it," Thari continues stubbornly. The bowl is nearly empty now, and once she has scraped it clean, she abandons the spoon in the dish and leans her head back against the pillow. "Frarin would too, of course, but he wouldn't enjoy taking care of other people as much as you would. Why, the more I think about it, Ranol, the more I think you were born to do it."

"You think I was born to take care of people?" He asks, sitting back and idly thumbing the end of the spoon. "It doesn't matter. Braldor.. I'm clan-karl. I have a responsibility and I don't think being a healer fits in with jumping in front of Braldor in a fight." Ranol shakes his head, angry for even thinking about it for that brief moment.

[Thari(#31038)]
"Knowing a bit of bandages and herb-craft does not mean you stay behind in battle." Thari gingerly reaches behind her head to pull out one of the extra pillows, swallowing a groan as she shifts her broken arm. Panting speech continues. "I stay behind because..." A glance to the door as her fingers form the word 'woman.' She clears her throat. "Not because I'm a healer."

After a couple of years of travelling together, Ranol might know that any of this talk of 'staying behind' coming out of Thari's mouth is a bit of a lie.

"I wasn't implying anything about -you- Thari. I.. " He scrubs a hand in his hair again, "Talk to Braldor about it if it's so important to you. I'm not going to bring it up. He'll assume things that aren't true and he dislikes me enough as it is." Ranol reaches over to set the bowl aside.

[Thari(#31038)]
"Why in the world would Braldor dislike you?" Thari asks as if affronted by the very idea. For a woman lying slightly reclined and black-and-blue, she is awfully opinionated.

"They hit you on the head pretty hard, didn't they?" Ranol asks, lifting a brow. "Have you forgotten why I'm here at all? It hasn't exactly won many over. I'm surprised that Frarin is as polite as he is." He scowls, a dark look on his face, "My father.. some days I'm glad that we're so far from home." He mutters.

[Thari(#31038)]
Thari's expression clears and her brows lift. "Oh. Yes." There is an awkward silence that lingers as she glances away. "Well, you're hardly at all like your father. And Frarin isn't a Bundazanul and probably doesn't know or care as much about our affairs."

"Thari.. I.. " Ranol lifts his gaze to the ceiling as if the answer to this dilemma is written up there. "I'll do it in my -free- time. For you. But you have to promise that you'll take it easy and only worry about getting better quickly, okay?" He has serious doubts about this, but his ability to repeatedly say no to the sweet delicate little black and blue flower is almost non-existant.

"Thank you." Thari gets a twitching in the corners of her mouth as if holding back a smile, the expression utterly exposed for what it is by the lack of beard or moustache. She starts to relax into sleep, but her eyes fly open after a moment in sudden panic, looking for Ranol. As if reassured that he is still present, her eyes close once again.

Ranol sighs softly, shaking his head. He watches her quietly for a moment, blue eyes intent. When she's settled, he slouches back in the chair. "I crumbled.. I completely caved in.." He whispers to himself, running his hand through his hair. "Didn't even get the promise.. Oh, but I'll get it when she wakes up again. Oh I will. And I'm going to warn him about her powers of persuasion..." A glance towards Frarin..