Chapter Text
Tess was a girl who knew how to have fun. She was there at every fair, dancing, drinking, and taking lovers.
She knew that the men had unflattering nicknames for her, and the women talked behind her back, but she didn’t want a bigot for a husband, and always made sure to drink her herbal tea after each night spent with a man.
At Summer Fair, she was just walking through the alleys, looking for a nice spot to get some alone time with a handsome fellow she had yet to find, when she heared a strange noise. Something made her run to the source of it.
When the noise was followed by laughter, she was already close enough to see what was going on: Someone was in the lake, where it lapped up to the stone of the streets, gasping for air whenever his head appeared, and a young man stood by and did nothing but laugh.
Tess laid down flat on the street, and extended a hand for the drowning man. Everyone living near a lake ought to know what a drowning person looked like, which was not how people who had never seen it thought it would look like.
She managed to get hold of the drowning man’s clothes, and pulled. He was heavy, but he was alert enough to grasp her arm eventually, and that made it easier to drag him ashore.
When she had finished this task, the young man who had watched and laughed was gone.
Tess took a good look at the man she had rescued. He was very short, but not a child, his beard made that very obvious. A dwarf, even though he looked more like a drowned rat at the moment.
“You alright?”
He coughed up some water. “Aye. That lad found it funny to push me into the lake, I’m afraid.”
What? How drunk and stupid could someone be? All dwarves you saw in Laketown, for all she knew, where kin, or at least friends of the King of the Mountain, who had a reputation as warrior. Tess liked a drink as much as anyone, but she’d pass out under the table before she’d do anything as stupid as that.
“Sorry to hear that. I’m Tess, by the way.”
“Bofur, at your service.” He scrambled to his legs and gave the cutest little bow.
“Nice to meet you, Bofur. What about I buy you a drink? You look like you could need one.”
“That would be very generous of you.”
So they went to one of the stalls that had been set up for Summer Fair and Tess bought two mugs of beer, one for Bofur and one for herself.
After that, he insisted to buy her one, too.
She bought another one for him.
Apparently, he was just a humble craftsman, but had been involved in Thorin’s quest to get the mountain back. “I love a good drink and a good story, and they said the beer was free. And I got some stories to tell, that’s for sure.”
After a couple of beers, Bofur began to look quite handsome. Maybe it was because his hair started to dry, or his deep, melodious voice sounded so pleasant, or just because he had so interesting stories to tell.
Tess was not one to dig too deep into such questions. She liked him, and he was not averse to her flirting and complimenting his beard, so she finally asked: “Your place or mine?”
“My place is a mine, yes.”
She laughed. “So, you want to show me your mine?”
“’Course.” He beamed.
They set off towards the mountain. It was a longer way than Tess had thought it would be, and she was tipsy enough that it made everything a bit more difficult.
“Something to drink?” Bofur offered her a metal flask he had worn at his belt.
“What’s that?”
“Dís’ special mushroom drink. Will put hair on your chest.”
She didn’t waste her breath by explaining that if that was true, she shouldn’t drink it. “Thanks.”
She took a hearty gulp of it, and handed the flask back. The drink burnt in her throat. “That’s really good.”
With renewed strength, she strode uphill, but not soon after, the ruins of the old town became blurry before her eyes. “I think I should sit down for a while ...”
“Oh. Should’ve remembered you’re not a dwarf. I can carry you.” He offered his arms, and being carried sounded really, really good right now.
“Yes ...” she said, and then she collapsed.