[open] concerning hobbits

[harthad_uluithiad]

WHO: Samwise Gamgee and EVERYONE HE CAN FIND
WHAT: Sam's arrived at Skyhold and is exploring! Also asking questions. All the questions.
WHEN: After arriving from the Fallow Mire
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Feel free to meet Sam in any part of Skyhold! He'll be all over.

He'd tried to stick close to who he'd already started privately thinking of as his new friends - the other Sam and the wizard Twisted Fate. He'd even glimpsed, once or twice, the Man who'd pulled him out of the Mire in the first place, and saved him from being drownded. But the road from the Fallow Mire had been long, and Sam had spent much of it on his own, tucked away in small corners of wagons or sitting astride horses alongside dwarves, being too short to walk and have a hope of keeping up.

And when they'd arrived at last, he'd found himself suddenly left completely to his own devices.

Skyhold. He rolls the word around in his mind, staring up, up at the battlements and the clouds beyond. It's a good enough name for the place, he supposes, being up in the mountains as it is. And there's something in it that appeals to him - it's not quite Elvish, not quite Rivendell or Lothlórien, but it's a bit more fanciful than Hobbiton or Bywater, he thinks. As for the place itself, he finds himself a bit overwhelmed - not only with the size (which is enormous in its own right, apart from everything in it being built proportionate to Big People), but with the ceaseless activity and the seemingly endless places to explore and get lost in.

He finds the kitchen first, hobbit-senses guiding him true, but after he's snacked his fill he finds himself wanting to explore more, and he steps carefully down the stairs into the yard. There are folk of all shapes and sizes everywhere (though nobody he recognizes), and he takes a deep breath before walking forward, not quite sure where he's going.

There are Elves here; he knows that much. If nothing else, perhaps the Elves will know more about what's happened and why he's come here. Perhaps they'll at least know Gandalf's name.

Comments

[harthad_uluithiad]

"I don't think it's quite as bad as all that," Sam mutters, taking a few tentative steps down the stairs and into the room. When the dwarf doesn't move to chase him away, he moves a little quicker and more confidently, until he's standing a few feet from Bernard, peering down at him curiously.

"I was just exploring," he explains, though his eyes find the bottle in the dwarf's hands and stay there. He licks his lips, unconsciously.

[afilthwizard]

"Far worse, more like."

It's a faint, idle tone as Bernard looks between the man and the bottle, then decides to wander back to his bench for a seat instead of all this standing business.

"Now there's a strange, foot-fuzzed breed of surface dwarf coming for my sole comfort."

making some assumptions about his appearance, lmk if I need to change

[harthad_uluithiad]

Sam scowls, even as he trails after the dwarf toward his bench. "I'm not a dwarf," he huffs, for what seems like the thousandth time since he'd arrived. "And if anyone should be able to tell such a thing without me saying so, I would have thought it would be an actual dwarf."

Though this is a very strange dwarf indeed. Sam peers at him for a moment, growing more and more suspicious. "Where's your beard?"

nope, you're good

[afilthwizard]

"Got in the way of my drinking."

He raised the bottle in a mock toast before finally ripping the plug out to take a swig. He'd been far too sober in this sunlight for his liking.

"And no telling what happens to a dwarf too long away from the stone. All sorts of unnatural, hairy things no doubt. Foot beards, from the looks of it."

[harthad_uluithiad]

"I'm not a dwarf, and they're not beards," Sam says, now shuffling his feet self-consciously. This dwarf is being very rude, not even offering to share his ale. He wonders if there's another bottle somewhere. "I'm a hobbit!"

[afilthwizard]

"I've no concern for what you've renamed yourselves! Can't change your roots, you short...handsome demon."

Because while he was clearly a surface dwarf, that still made him a notch above these freaks born to this life, these humans and elves and what not.

"Demon...dwarf. That's what you are."

[harthad_uluithiad]

Handsome...demon? Sam gives him a baffled look, not sure whether he's being complimented or insulted. The next is clearly an insult though, and he scowls harder, crossing his arms over his chest and all but stamping his foot.

"I'm not a dwarf and I've never been one, and I'm no demon neither," he says stubbornly, as if arguing will make a difference now when it hasn't so far. "And if you were any kind of a host at all, you'd have offered me a sip of that ale!"

[afilthwizard]

"In another life, perhaps, malformed creature. You and I could have been friends. Set up in Orzammar like a proper people. Drunk in the tavern together. Found a pair of noble sisters to succumb to my charm and your freakish foot beards. Alas, it wasn't to be. Here, you're simply a misshapen wretch and I? I'm no host at all."

Apparently deciding the...whatever it was was no immediate threat, he at least takes a moment to rummage around for a cup.

[harthad_uluithiad]

The dwarf is clearly mad. Sam can't imagine ever being friends in him, in this life or any other. He stands, staring, refusing to let fall the hot tears pricking the corners of his eyes as the strange dwarf lobs insult after insult at him.

"That's the first thing you've said that makes sense," he says thickly, finally, glaring daggers as the dwarf turns and rummages behind him. "But I should have guessed it from the start, when you tried to turn me away at the door. I suppose dwarves aren't known for their hospitality, but I've never met one so cruel."

[afilthwizard]

"Now there's the flattery."

He freezes when he looks up- and dear Stone. There was something wrong. The man was close to leaking. The awkward position of cup held just above the table holds for another long moment as he tries to sort this out.

Then he slowly pours the ale.

"Drink, then?"

[harthad_uluithiad]

Sam's just made up his mind to take his leave, and long past when he should have. He's half turned away, eyes fixed on the door, when the dwarf speaks, and he slowly turns his head to see the cup of ale sitting on the table.

It's the first brew he's seen since he fell through the rift, and in truth, the first in a long time before that. The prospect of a drink is more than appealing. Still, he hesitates, raising his eyes to give the dwarf a wary, distrustful look.

"It's poison, like as not," he says, voice full of suspicion, but he doesn't turn to go.