AN: faith_king wanted to know which of the dwarves was the toymaker and why he decided to go on the quest.

Spoilers: The Hobbit

Rating: Kid friendly

Disclaimer: I should be so lucky.

Summary: His father talks incessantly of toys.

The Toymaker

His father talks incessantly of toys.

The men in the villages where they stopped for work shook their heads. The women who fed him clucked their tongues behind their teeth as if to say "Poor old dwarf. Lost his mountain and his common sense to the dragon's fire." But the children, the children always listened.

He'd watch as his father made boats for ponds and kites that could soar on the tiniest breath of the wind. There were wagons that could be wound up to move on their own, and dolls with carved faces so life-like, you could swear they talked.

"And they could talk, once," his father would say, especially in the evenings or if there was an ale in his hand. "The toys we made in the mountain were so real, you'd hardly think they were toys at all."

Bofur looks at the tiny, intricate work on even the most mundane buckboard, and he believes it might be true.

**

His father dies, and takes his secrets and his stories with him.

They weren't at Moria, so no songs will be sung, and there aren't any mountains where Bofur can make a tomb. Instead, he lays his father to rest and sets out to find what remains of his kin. He has cousins, after all, both immediate and distant, and he still needs work.

He joins them in the Blue Mountains, and that is where he learns to work in the mine. It's dark work, but it's good work, and his family is there. He misses the wind on his face, and across the surface of the water where the children would play with the boats his father made, but the camaraderie and coordination that comes from working on a team without the benefit of light are their own kind of fun.

There are new songs aplenty, and he finds that the pick-axe is much more practical than any of the smaller implements his father had used.

But it's not the same.

**

Thorin comes, and talks of a mountain that is far, far away.

The older dwarves talk of their lost glory and of their homeland. Bofur's memories of that time are dim, lit only by fire and the whispers of longing, but he finds a parcel of tools he'd saved from his father, and starts to wonder. If prosperity returns, if they have a homeland again, then there will be time for work other than the mine, other than the hammer and anvil.

If their mad quest works, there will be time for toys.

fin

Notes: I apologize if Bofur is actually in the Moria scene. I looked for him last time and didn't see him, but I might have missed it. The toys come from Balin's line, and also from the line in FotR about the toys from Dale for the Birthday.

Gravity_Not_Included, December 28, 2012