The Green Dragon Inn #11 - The Last Chapter

[Firefoot]

Forced to leave his home...? To this point Gróin had only made it sound like his travels were willing, a light-hearted venture. Was there something more? "I'm sorry, Lily. I didn't mean to say that out loud. You have enough troubles of your own. I don't want to burden you with my problems," said Gróin.

But Lily shook her head. It would be relieving not to have to concentrate on her own problems, if only for a few minutes. Her constant worrying was not helping her at all, though she saw little else that she could do until some opportunity presented itself for her to learn more. “You have at least earned a willing ear, after listening so patiently to my troubles. Please, I would like to listen.” She had given Gróin little enough attention since they had sat down, and she felt rather abashed – of course she was not the only one in the world with troubles, but here she was, babbling on about herself without giving Gróin a moment’s concern.

Oh! Perhaps Gróin had diverted from “burdening her with his problems” because he did not want to talk about them? Then she would have just made the situation worse for him. “That is… if you are willing to share your story. I did not mean to sound pushy.”

[Glirdan]

“You have at least earned a willing ear, after listening so patiently to my troubles. Please, I would like to listen. That is… if you are willing to share your story. I did not mean to sound pushy." Gróin looked at Lily wide-eyed. No one ever wanted to listen to his problems. They were always to busy worrying about their own problems to even care about his. He was astonished yet grateful that someone, even if you just met her, cared and wanted to listen to him.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't be a problem to tell you," he answered her, still quite astonished. "But I must warn you now, my story is not full of woe like yours is," he smiled at her gratefully. "Well, it starts off when I was just a young lad when my parents and I used to travel to the Blue Mountains. We always went there to visit my kin. You see, my family is originally from Moria, before the evil was awoken. We are distantly related to Dain. When the evil came, my family moved out to the Blue Mountains. That's when I met her, the love of my life..." he said and trailed off into thought, remembering her beauty. Even amongst the Dwarves she was accounted as beautiful. He came out of his reverie and looked at Lily. She had a sad expression on. "Lily, is there something wrong??"

[Firefoot]

Gróin trailed off in the middle of his story, a blissful, loving expression on his face. At his break, Lily’s thoughts had quickly slid back to Posco. How many times had she seen a look similar to this on his face? He had loved her, hadn’t he? Then why? Why, oh, why? Could he have forgotten about her so quickly? She could not fathom doing the same to him; even during the times she spent with Tommy Banks, his face had a way of popping into her memory and staying there. Her gaze strayed briefly to the inn once more – what was he doing inside? She could torment herself for ages with these questions and never come up with a comforting answer.

Gróin seemed to come back to himself and looked at her. When he asked her again if something was wrong, she realized that her dispirited thoughts must be showing on her face, and she shook her head, replacing the gloomy expression with a slight smile. “No, I have told you all my problems already. Please, do continue with your story. It sounds as if it should be happy, yet you said something about being forced to leave your home…” Her interest was genuine, and she vowed to herself that for the rest of the story she would put thoughts of Posco out of her head and listen attentively. Gróin seemed to need this – he was so attuned to others’ feelings, yet did not seem to expect the same in return. Was there no one that he could tell his problems to? He looked at her closely, as if unsure whether she was telling the truth. “Really, I’m fine. Don’t bother with me; finish your story.”

[Kath]

"I'm not sure if I still know how to dance, but it sounds like a fantastic idea! However my stomach grumbles at the moment and is demanding to be fed. It's been a long time..."

Astilwen beamed at the prospect of more food and pulled Tilionwen over to the tables. She could see the woman hadn't yet entirely let go of her troubles, and was determined to get her dancing in the hope it would do her good. Twirling around to music always raised Astilwen's spirits, she just hoped it would do the same for Tilionwen.

For now though she was quite happy to settle for getting some food into the woman, who didn't look as though she'd had a decent meal for ages. Pushing Tilionwen towards a mostly empty table she bade her stay where she was. After receiving a somewhat bemused nod Astilwen ran off to the tables and filled two plates with as much food as she could get on them, including something of everything. She returned to Tilionwen and dropped the mounds of food on the table. The woman's eyes grew large as she saw the amount in font of her.

"Are you sure we can take this much?"

"Of course! This is barely an adult hobbit's evening meal! Eat as much as you want. If you leave anything I'm sure it'll be snapped up later by some hungry hobbit in passing."

Apparently reassured Tilionwen dug in and the two women communicated in a series of grunts or words spoken through mouthfuls of food for the next few minutes. As she ate Astilwen noted that the other woman was clearing her plate with the same gusto as she herself was, and nodded to herself, realising her guess had been right.

Once the plates were mostly cleared, and they were too full even to pick at what was left, Astilwen suggested going over to the dancing area.

"I think I might pop if I tried to do anything energetic right now"

Tilionwen groaned at the thought, eyeing the people bouncing around with wary eyes.

"Don't you know exercising is the best way to avoid indigestion?" Astilwen replied with a wink. "Come on, I promise I'll be just as bad as you, it's been years since I danced to a good band."

[Glirdan]

“No, I have told you all my problems already. Please, do continue with your story. It sounds as if it should be happy, yet you said something about being forced to leave your home… Really, I’m fine. Don’t bother with me; finish your story." Once again, Gróin was rather surprised at this.

"I'm sorry. It just feels so wierd telling my problems to someone else. No one ever listened to me back at home, which is one reason why I was glad to leave. But now I'm getting ahead of myself. So, where was I?" he asked, racking his brain, trying to remember where he left off. Gróin had a very bad genetic fault; memory loss. It ran on his mothers side and was, unfortunately, passed on to him at an early age. "Ah yes. That's right. As I said, that's when I met the love of my life. We did everything together when I lived there: hide and seek, tag we even ate at each other's respectful homes once in awhile. Yes, we were young, but we were in love. That's when my family decided to move out. We moved back to the Lonely Mountain and dwelt there for awhile. But then, we were driven off by a dragon. Smaug the Worm as he was known, until he was slain, but, once again, I'm jumping ahead. Our goodbye hurt me forever and ever since, I've been longing to see her again, but I never have. Yet that love for her still lives inside of me. Now, when the dragon came, I was playing outside in the fields. He came with a terrible rush, spouting fire from his mouth, nostrails flaring..." He gazed off, remembering the dread he felt when he Smaug approaching, the damage that the Worm did to the mountain and to the city of Dale.

"Umm, Gróin? Are you ok?" Lily asked, suddenly interupting him.

"What? Oh! Yes, I'm fine. Sorry about that, I was just remembering the destruction that he created. It was dreadful. So, we were forced to move again and we moved back with our kin to the Blue Mountains. However, when we returned, my love, Sarin, wasn't there. I never found out what happened to her. That is another reason that I'm heading back to the Blue Mountains. Anyway, when Smaug was slain, my family decided to move back to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain as it is know to you. However, while I was living in the Ered Lindon, another woman fell in love with me. Her name is Corin and my father for her hand in marriage. I was away, working in the mines at the time, and my father answered yes. But we moved before our marriage. So that is what I'm on my way to do. Get married, but also to find out what happened to Sarin, my love. And that's my story..." He trailed off into his thoughts once more, remembering the beauty of Sarin and how much fun they used to have. He awoke from his reverie and looked at Lily. She was starring at him with an odd look in her face. "Lily? Are you sure you're ok??"