Winterlights by Elleth

Thaw

Prompt #3: Chimney: After weaving the holly garland, Morwen, Aerin and Niënor come in from the cold. A continuation of my Day One ficlet.

"And there will be tale-telling, and then we’ll burn the log and then and — the chimney will be puttering!” Niënor’s little voice hitches with breathless excitement and she hops backward when Morwen passes, carrying inside one end of the holly garland she and Aerin have wrought, stepping around the high-laden sled as though it were nothing but an unwelcome impediment.

"Sputtering, love," says Aerin with a soft laugh while she fixes her end of the garland above the banked hearth with Morwen’s dried herbs (most of them harmless, for medicine, tea or seasoning, but slightly apart some to preserve the moniker of witch-wife that the Easterlings have given her; nightshade and foxglove and lily of the valley, even dried toadstool, never to be used). Morwen’s lips press into a thin line, but she says nothing, still displeased that Niënor refused to continue working on the garland after pricking her finger just once. It’s owing to Aerin’s intervention that the afternoon did not end in tears.

The garland is beautiful, deep green and glossy, studded with clusters of red berries, a handful of pinecones and even a few ears of corn interwoven into the mesh, and when Morwen stands back to appraise their work, she leans into Aerin’s hold, into the arm around her hips, nuzzling her cold nose against the pulse-point of Aerin’s throat.

Aerin’s breath catches, but she allows the touch a moment longer, then saying to Niënor, bright-eyed and watching them with cold-reddened cheeks, “It is not Turuhalmë yet, but shall we see if we can make the chimney blaze already?”

Morwen makes a noise of protest, but Aerin shushes her gently, before she can warn about wasted necessities and the need for frugality, instead nudging her toward the pile of firewood on the sled.

"We have enough, we have enough. The warmth will do you well."

And indeed, Morwen’s frozen glowering thaws - hesitantly, and only a little, but that, too, is enough - and she gives Aerin a thin-lipped smile.