Tennis With An Elf and A Dwarf by Grundy, Raiyana

A bemused dwarf’s reply

Greetings to you, Master Carweg of Menegroth

It is with some regret that I must pen you this note and send it on with the next caravan leaving for Thargelion – I am hoping it might there find kindly hands to take it further. 

When you do receive it, it is my hope that you will not feel undue grief at the news I amto impart.

You see, Master Hafli the Boneless, my father, has been returned to the Stone these past seven winters. As for your good wishes, I think they arrived before your note, for my father lived a long and  full life, drawing his last breath surrounded by his family, which now numbers my sibling’s pebbles, too. 

You will note the title bestowed upon my late father with some curiosity, I don’t doubt, but fret not, for, as he often put it, the accident that crippled his hand also led him to his greatest act of craftsmanship, and so he would never disdain it – in truth, I am indebted to you and your work, for I believe that if you had not acted with the skill of your people, he might not have lived to return to watch me grow up.

Boneless, they called him, and that is in admiration, I assure you, for though he ended up training himself to use the other hand, his legs could not regain their former use, and so he invented a craft so simple yet brilliant that it has become a marvel of my people, to aid him in returning to his workshop; Hafli crafted the first of his wheeled chairs only scant months after returning to our home, and I admit that I do not remember him any other way. 

He only lamented that he could not join the reel at feasts, but between you and me, I think he found just as much joy in having my mother sat on his lap as they enjoyed the music together. 

I thank you for your good wishes for myself and my sibling, and yes, we are both well accomplished in our chosen crafts – I work in pottery, and my father’s love of metal-shaping lives on in his eldest, who runs a forge of ten.

In hopes that this news finds you well,
Harðgreip, daughter of Hafli