Chapter Text
Chapter 2
Dori could feel his heart racing as he helped Ori on with his new Jumper, knitted in the dead of night as a surprise for his first day. Something else that Ori was very good at was knitting.
“Dori?”
“Yes, my little lamb”
“What if I don’t like it”
“Well, you don’t have to wear it if you don’t like it”
Dori’s mind still thinking of all the late nights he has had recently to get the jumper done.
“No, Dori, what if I don’t like school?”
“Oh, I am sure you will love school, don’t you often say to me that you love learning new things, well this is an opportunity to learn lots of new things”
Ori frowned and bit his lip,
“But what if I am not good at hiding what I already know”
“Oh Ori, my little lamb, I am so sorry I said that, just you go and enjoy yourself, and never you mind your Dori's silliness”
“I love you, Dori” came Ori’s muffled reply as he was hugging Dori tight.
“I love you too, Little Ori Lamb”
“Right no more silliness, Out the door with both of us”
Dori walked Ori right up to the front door of the school then knelt and hugged Ori.
“Remember, I am looking forward to hearing about your first day over supper tonight, just you do your best and enjoy yourself. You have a pie for lunch, and I am leaving it with your teacher, ok?”
“Ok,”
Ori felt a little strange and wasn’t sure he could say much more to his Dori.
Dori took Ori by the hand once more and lead them both inside and short ways down a corridor and through a door that said 1st School.
As it happened Ori didn’t need to worry about school, his teacher was very kind and stood talking to Dori for a few minutes. Ori studied him, he was tall for a dwarf but also very broad and strong looking. A large blond soft and fluffy looking beard and mustache covered most of his face but unlike a lot of dwarfs his hair was not very long and he only had 2 braids neither of which Ori recognised, he supposed one must be for his family but the other Ori had not seen before not even in a book of braided hair care Dori owned which he would use sometimes in the teashop so he could Identify a customer's profession and status to greet them appropriately.
“Right, let's get you seated and then we can start because we are all here.”
Looking around, the room seemed nice there was brightly painted pictures of Animals on the wall and a very large set of selves right across one wall that seemed to be full of books, games and other interesting items, some Ori recognized some he didn’t.
Upon realising the teacher was talking Ori pulled his eyes away from the books and listened.
“My name is Lord Zig, but you can call me Ziggy or zig, I am of the family Ig, and I have 2 older bothers one who works in the library and one who is in the royal guard. Now, let's go round and I want you each introduce yourselves, as we are all new here today”
“Ori, would you like to go first?”
Ori knew how to introduce himself; Dori had taught him just what to say, Ori’s name first then of the family Ri and then to say that his brother Dori was the baker in Miss Jen’s Tea shop and under no circumstances what so ever was Ori to ever admit to having a second bother or if anyone ever brought up Nori’s name to deny everything. Ori sometimes thought this a bit too much, but Dori also often used a lot of bad grown-up language when talking about Nori their middle brother.
“Ori of the bothers Ri, my oldest brother Dori works as a baker at Miss Jens Tea Shop.”
“Very nice to meet you, Ori of the brothers Ri”
Lord Zig bowed politely to Ori and Ori bowed back,
“There see how easy it is, Len would you like to go next”
Ori listened and watched as each of the four other students introduced themselves.
There was Len, Dav, Mic, and Stu.
Poor Mic got a little confused and introduced himself as Zig of the Family iC.
After introductions, Lord Zig talked a lot about what they were going to learn and that not to worry because it was his job to help anyone who needed it.
Ori zoned out a little, looking around the classroom. There was a large blackboard behind Lord Zig, with some multiplication sums on it. He was on the 3rd one down when he realised, he was being addressed.
“Ori? Ori of Brothers Ri, Ori. Pay attention please”
Blinking and tuning back into the teacher, Ori blushed.
“Sorry, my Lord, I was just looking at the sums”
“Sums? Oh, on the blackboard, you don’t need to worry about them. There are sometimes Adults who use this room of an evening. I was asking what your favourite colour was?”
With out thinking, Ori blushed again. Took a deep breath and said in a small voice,
“it's ok, I can do them all I think”
Lord Zigs eyebrows shot up, of course when he had spoken to Ori brother, he had mentioned that Ori could count but nothing about being able to do sums.
“Really, what's the answer to the first one,”
“64, I think”
“Well done and the next?”
“19”
Ori blushed again, maybe this is what Dori meant by not knowing too much. He peeked a look at Lord Zig and then at the other students in the class, they were all staring at him with open mouths.
“Well, I never, that is brilliant, tell me Ori do you like numbers and counting?”
Blushing even more and staring down at his hands, Ori stammered and tried to form words, but nothing came.
“It's Ok, I think it's great you can do sums like that, no need to be shy”
Ori shut his eyes and realised he was going to have to answer, so took a deep breath and started talking.
“I do like numbers and counting, I help Dori with recipes and costing items for the bakery, but” and here Ori paused and looked up at the teacher, “What I love is reading and writing”
When Dori had approached Lord Zig about Ori starting school, he had said that Ori was special and knew both common and ruins. He had assumed, that like a lot of parents Dori meant that he knew a few words in both, but now he was starting to wonder if Ori was very special and would need to skip some grades, it would be hard Ori being so quiet and shy but maybe, no he was getting a head of himself, liking reading and writing didn’t mean he was good at it and the sums could just be from helping Dori in teashop. While Lord Zig was thinking all this, Ori was sinking further and further down in his seat and was almost below the table at this point.
“What do you like to read?”
“Dori gets me books, from the public Library, I been reading, ‘The adventures of the Bear people’ this week and last week I read ‘The Elvish War’”
Ori was blushing again, he really had to stop talking Dori would be so disappointed in him.
“Wow, those are both adult books,”
Lord Zig suddenly realised he was staring and probably going to scare Ori half to death.
“Ok, wow, ok let's get back on track here”
Lord Zig realised he was going to have to tell someone, Lord Balin, he had been in the office maybe he might be able to catch him.
“So, why don’t you all go and choose a book from the selves and have a look at it, while I go and ... I will be right back I just got to go and ... Yes well,”
Lord Zig backed out the room and they heard heavy foot falls as if someone was running away.
Ori felt slightly sick, he wanted to go look at the books on the selves, but he also felt like he might be sick if he moved from his chair.
Then a quiet voice next to him said “You're not clever, just because you can read, my dad can’t read, and he is the cleverest dwarf ever”
“Well, you can’t know many dwarfs, then can you.” said Dav who was now on Ori’s other side.
Len didn’t seem to have heard what Dav had said and carried on leaning on Ori desk glaring at him.
Len continued, “My dad says it's stupid being able to read and writing and it doesn’t help anyone”
Dav, however seemed to have decided that he didn’t like Len and proceeded to tell him so in loud and colourful adult language, using many of the same words that Dori used when talking about Nori.
Ori was just wondering if he should say something and stop the argument in its tracks before someone through a first punch, Ori had seen many fights in the street they always exoculated quickly after the first punch was thrown and then someone would call the guard and just as quickly as it had started it was finished and they were all friends again.