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"My thanks, Kara," said Náin, accepting the roll. Now that he had someone to talk to, he showed no signs of departing immediately, but appeared in a mood to chat, if not to be shiningly cheerful. Over the course of two months, he'd grown familiar enough with Kara not to get too flustered in her presence, and he enjoyed the company of Frodides, whose no-nonsense and authoritarian approach to running the kitchen appealed to him.
"I envy you," Náin told Kara, taking the roll. "Able to work at your craft every day, producing these things of beauty- doing something useful and praiseworthy. I chafe at the delay between projects to occupy me, and Garstan is a worthy mason who needs little in the way of assistance."
"It's hardly all fun and games feeding the Mead Hall," said Kara, working at doing just that, flitting around at various tasks while talking. "People never stop being hungry, you know."
"I do not know how it is for Men," said Náin, "but Dwarves, for the most part, would rather put their hands to steady labour that taxes them, even taxes them overmuch, than to sit idle day in and day out. We need things to occupy our hands and our minds."
"Surely not only work can do that," said Kara, pausing after wiping off a counter. "Surely you can occupy your hands and minds just as easily at work as at play."
"Under normal circumstances, yes," agreed Náin. "But I have had more play and less work than usual, and I prefer to be productive. And there is only so much in the way of play to occupy a strange Dwarf in this city. Even after two months, I'm still a stranger to most of the city and lands outside this Mead Hall. The people and places that would entertain a local such as yourself are unknowable to me- at least without a guide. And, it irks me to say, most of those around me are better occupied with work than I am."
"Well, I would envy you rather than pity you," said Kara. "You're willing to help bake and cook, as far as I'm concerned- though you'd have to do exactly as Frodides told you, lest you find yourself boiling with the vegetables."
"No fear there!" Náin held up his roll-filled hand. "I have no talent in the culinary arts. Merely a great appreciation and taste for the craft." He bit into the roll as a demonstration.
"And this, I might add," he continued, "is most definitely beyond my abilities."
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