Thorin & Elyria

Thorin had been quiet for almost three minutes.

Elyria noticed.

❤️

Elyria: “You have a question.”

Thorin looked at her.

Thorin: “How do you know?”

…

Elyria smiled.

Elyria: “Because you always do.”

❤️

Thorin thought about this.

Then he looked down at the open book between them.

Thorin: “Do you think every question has an answer?”

Elyria did not answer immediately.

She looked through the window.

At the mountains.

At the evening sky.

At all the things in the world that had existed long before anyone thought to ask why.

🤍

Elyria: “No.”

Thorin frowned.

Thorin: “Then why do we keep asking?”

…

Elyria turned toward him.

Elyria: “Because sometimes the question changes us before the answer ever arrives.”

❤️

Thorin became very still.

For once…

there was no next question.

…

Elyria waited.

Ten seconds.

Twenty.

Then—

Thorin: “But why does it change us?”

Elyria closed her eyes.

…

Elyria: “There he is.”

❤️❤️❤️

← Back to the Family.

Thorin still has questions.

Fortunately…

some answers are waiting for him there.

❤️