milliways_bar | (no subject)

Gimli nods. "Wasn't the idea at first, to be honest," he says, "but it grew out of the journey of our Fellowship. We'd two Men, a Wizard, four Hobbits, myself, and an elf of the realm of Mirkwood- Legolas by name, son of a king who'd held my father prisoner for a time. Necessity made our number so, but it was sheerest luck that friendship grew of it, I think."

"That's always the way of it, I 'magine. For one, me 'n Inara - my...lady, back on my ship - never thought we'd end up admittin' to ourselves that we were attracted. Took a fair number o' fights to get us to come around to friends even."

That draws an appreciative chuckle. "Many Men I know take themselves and their women-folk too seriously," Gimli says, "but I think there are more than a few who found they had to marry a particular woman if only to give themselves enough leisure to argue with her properly. But yes, it was just such a chance as that. Given my druthers at the beginning I'd as soon have left the Elves out of the business, but by the end of it- well, it was his friendship and the grace of a great lady of his folk that won me that last voyage into the West, before the end."

"Its nice to hear that women do that to men in any 'verse," Mal smiles. "But this lady - she let you come with them when they left?"

Gimli nods. "More accurately, she had gone before us, and when Legolas asked leave to bring me to those shores it was she who spoke up in my favour. Galadriel was mighty indeed among her people, and her favour carried much weight in their eyes. I owe her much, indeed," he says, and bows his head a moment.

"Companions - 's what Inara is, a Companion - are pretty high up the social scale in my time. Well educated, beautiful, graceful, everythin' most folk picture a woman to be."

Mal adds quickly, "Not sayin' people never look at naught but Companions," thinking of Simon and Kaylee, "but Companions seem to be pretty much the standard."

Gimli nods. "Rather more like the women of Gondor, I think," he says. "Or of Numenor, which was fairest of mortal lands before it sank; when the descendants of that land speak of its lost glories and treasures, they number its ladies as much among them as any work of men's hands."

Mal would certainly put Inara in that category.

"What about you? Dwarves, I mean. Your women."

Gimli smiles a touch. "Our standards are a bit different than yours, I think. Our women are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to our men that the eyes and ears of other people cannot tell them apart. And that is no idle jest, for I have heard elves and men alike who are wise enough in all other things say in all solemnity that we have no women and are born instead from stone."

"Huh. From stone? While I imagine life'd be a bit simpler like such, I'm thinkin' one might be a little bored bein' around all men."

"Example? Kaylee, my mechanic. Don't think I listened to a-one o' my CO's in the War as much as I listen to her."

"You'd think they'd think that through," says Gimli. "No, we've womenfolk, right enough. Bearded, aye, and as good with an axe or a hammer or a blade as any man of ours, but we can tell, if the taller folk can't."

He nods. "It doesn't do to turn aside the counsel of a skilled crafter, be they woman or man."

"You would like Kaylee, I would venture a guess - she is definitely a skilled crafter, that one."

Mal allows for a moment to imagine Gimli on his back under the engine, under Kaylee's guidance.

"I shouldn't mind meeting her, if that's the case," says the dwarf. "Is she in the Bar often, or does she stay on your vessel?"

"She's in the bar quite a lot, so I understand," Mal confirms. "Time works funny 'tween here 'n home, so sometimes she's gone all day and I just think she's been in her room for a spell."

"It seems a bit like that when I visit the forges of Hephaestos for my lessons," Gimli says. "Two days might well pass there, but then I walk through some door only to find myself here a scant handful of hours after I left."

"Hephaestos?"

Gimli nods. "Tallish fellow, that one. Has to walk with a cane, as he's got something wrong with his legs. He doesn't speak much, but I've never seen anyone like him for smithcraft short of the work of Mahal himself."

As Mal is not up with mythology of Earth-that-Was, he lets this explanation suffice.

"Must be talented, this Hephaestos, if'n he's so much above everyone you've ever seen."

"He is indeed," Gimli agrees. "I've small doubt that if he wanted to, he could forge living things from metal. I can only hope to meet a tenth of his skill, someday."

It's rare for Mal to hear...awe in someone's voice, but he hears it now with Gimli.

"Well, *I* think you can do it," Mal offers cheerfully, not really 100% sure what he's saying, but knowing it sounds appropriate.

"Thank you, Captain," says Gimli after some thought. "I shall be sure to let you know if it seems likely to happen any time soon."