Chapter Text
As expected, Snufkin was not present the next morning, but surprisingly, his tent was still outside near the porch.
Upon seeing it from the Veranda, Moomin gave a sigh of relief. He was glad Snufkin was still here in Moominvalley, but at the same time, the weight of Snufkin’s “teasing” yesterday still lingered in the group. Snorkmaiden and Little My especially, who were very worried about Sniff’s sudden disappearance during the afternoon.
Snorkmaiden still felt bitter about how Snufkin treated Sniff’s initial fears. Normally he wouldn’t have minded easing the poor creature’s worries or gone further with it by continuing to scare him, so to her, it was strange. But at the same time, Sniff tended to overreact in her eyes, and Snufkin was probably just being his usual playful self.
Little My meanwhile had similar thoughts to Snorkmaiden; that Sniff overreacted and Snufkin was just being a tease. But in her heart, she knew something was off about him, but she can’t pinpoint what. And it’s all because of his stupid head injury that he was acting like this at all. She thinks maybe he should’ve been given a more thorough check-up, but he would’ve denied that.
“Ugh, where did that vagabond go this time?!” Little My cried out suddenly.
“Hmph, Moominmamma said he went to apologise to Sniff. If that was the case, he should have been back with him last night!” Snorkmaiden huffed.
“Maybe Snufkin stayed over with Sniff?” Moomin argued.
“Don’t be silly!” Little My protests. “Why would Snufkin stay in Sniff’s silly old cave? I highly doubt it’s comfortable anyway.” She crosses her arms and taps her foot.
The three sat there on the veranda, staring at the sunny glow of the valley. You can almost drown in the peacefulness of it all despite their thoughts plaguing them. They all had to admit, it was very beautiful today, but it was a shame their current mood is making them not want to enjoy it properly.
But to their luck, a whistle was called out from the trees, and to everyone’s shock, it was Sniff and Snufkin, walking up the path to the veranda.
“Sniff!” The three called out, all jumping off to greet them. Sniff looked uneasy when they got closer, prompting Moomin to ask first.
“Are you alright Sniff?”
Sniff fidgeted a bit before snapping out of his thoughts. “H-huh?! Oh!…” he takes a quick look at Snufkin, and then back at them. “I-I’m alright Moomintroll. Sorry for running off like that…”
Little My arches an eyebrow, tilting her head.
“Do you know how worried we were? You can’t just disappear like that!” Snorkmaiden exclaims.
“Worried about me?” Sniff seemed taken aback.
“I told you they’d be worried about you.” Snufkin replied, elbowing him.
Sniff looked around at everyone, beaming as the feeling sank in. “Awww.. thanks everyone. I’m okay now, really. B-Besides, it was just a stupid spider…Heheh!” Sniff gave a small grin, but Little My still stared with suspicion.
Snorkmaiden and Moomin were just overjoyed that their friend was okay, hugging Sniff as they discussed what they can do today to cheer him up further. Snufkin looked at them, then slowly darted his eyes at Little My, coldly. But Little My didn’t give in, when she felt the cold stare shiver up her spine, she stared back with the same ferocity.
“Did Snufkin bring you the food last night?” Moomin asked.
“Oh! He did, don’t worry. He uhh…..even apologized.” Sniff fidgets.
Snufkin puts his attention back on Sniff, putting his arm around him. “I did, in fact, stay near Sniff's last night. He was awfully shaken, it was the least I could do after yesterday.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Snorkmaiden clasps her paws together happily. “But why wouldn’t you bring your tent with you?”
“He left with just the food, remember? He wouldn’t have time to pack his bags.” Moomin spoke straight, but looked back at Snufkin, twiddling his fingers. “You wouldn’t have packed your bags and left right away because of this ..right?”
This question made Snorkmaiden and Little My annoyed, of course he’d be back they’d say, rolling their eyes. Sniff would’ve asked when he’d get to join, but he didn't this time. Instead, he just stares expectantly at Snufkin, with a nervous look.
Snufkin smiles despite the uncomfortable atmosphere. “Far too soon for that my friend.” Moomintroll beams in return.
“Why not come inside for some more food? We have plenty of leftovers.” Moomin announces.
“Oooo, leftovers? Must be plenty for me then! Did Moominmamma make Marzipan Piglets yesterday?” Sniff excitedly asks.
“Of course! Come on Sniff!” Moomin takes Sniff by the hand and brings him up to Moominhouse, the girls walk up along with them, while eyeing Snufkin from behind, noticing his own fidgety hands.
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Sniff was happily stuffing his face with leftovers from the night before. Moominmamma gave a delighted smile as the little creature ate, bringing more food as he finished another plate. Snork left shortly after breakfast. He wanted to expand his horizons, soon falling on an idea on how to get to space.
As the family wished him good luck, Mymble Jr. decided to stay a bit longer, asking the friends if they’d like to make daisy chains and flower crowns to adorn their empty heads. After all, spring wouldn’t be properly celebrated without them.
“It would be nice if black dahlias appeared this time of year.” Snufkin says.
“Black Dahlias?.. Black is a terribly grim colour Snufkin.” Mymble Jr. argues.
“Yes, but it would be nice to have dark colours be appreciated more this time of year, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Hmm.. That could be interesting. But I feel it’ll stand out too much with the nicer colours of the flowers.” Snorkmaiden debates.
“Mamma says Dahlias bloom in the summer, so maybe we can add them then? Maybe for the Midsummer Bonfire!” Moomintroll suggests.
“Like the ashened dark coat of wood in a bonfire… sounds perfect.” Replied Snufkin, causing Moomin to be thrilled at his approval of an idea.
“Ooh! What about roses? They should be blooming this time of year!” Mymble Jr. says excitedly.
“Oh how romantic! OO! What about we mix some small flowers around it? We can make the rose stand out in the center!” Snorkmaiden fantasizes.
The friends excitedly talk about their flowers, thinking of what was in season and how they’d tie it all together. Because some colours weren’t available for roses, Moomin suggested they’d ask mamma to dye them for the week.
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They took a journey through the woods, and Moominmamma packs them a nice picnic basket to go along for the trip.
Snufkin suggests they go up a hill with strong winds to find them. Moomintroll added that they should find budded roses, so they’ll grow as they absorb the dye.
Once the friends find them, they start cutting them from their stems, and storing them on the picnic blanket Moominmamma provided them. Mymble Jr. kept some in the basket, feeling it’s more lady-like to keep them there than in the blanket, to which Little My reminded her the food was stored there, promptly making her panic to check the food’s condition under the roses.
Sniff absentmindedly grabbed the buds itself. To Snorkmaiden’s annoyance, she quickly tells Sniff that they should grab them from the stems while Sniff argues not wanting to prick his finger on the thorns. Moomin tells him they’ll cut the thorns off anyway, but it didn’t convince him much.
Besides that, Moomin notices Snufkin in the distance, fiddling with the stem of a daisy, and twirling it gently.
Moomin walks over to Snufkin’s side. It seems Snufkin didn’t notice his presence. “Do you wanna pick some other flowers?”
Snufkin gave a surprised expression, turning to moomintroll. “Ahh. Maybe…” he looks back at the flower, softly turning it once more. “When you pluck a flower from its stem, we’re cutting it from its roots, right?”
Moomintroll looked at him, confused. “Well… yes?? It’s.. what we normally do, Snufkin.”
“Yes… but for all wildlife, including the grass we stand on, the flowers that grow here, they’re tied by something. So what happens when they’re cut off from it?”
Moomin thinks for a moment. “Well for flowers… they die eventually, right?”
“Yes..” Snufkin fiddles with the petals. “But sometimes, if you just put them in water, they can survive even without their roots. But only for a few days at best. Because once they lose their roots, it’s difficult to continue surviving. Like this daisy.” He gently places it in Moomintroll’s palms. “At some point, it’ll shrivel up, and leave this world.”
Moomintroll simply looks at the tiny daisy, and slowly looks up at Snufkin. He eyes the daisy with a cold stare. But with a hint of something Moomin can’t quite figure out.
“Are you suggesting we get the roses by its roots? Or.. ask Mr. Hemulen for advice on how to take care of them?” Moomin questions.
Snufkin looks up at Moomin, and chuckles. “Well, maybe Moominmamma would like some fresh flowers to transfer to her garden.” He turns to the picnic blanket. “But I don’t think Mymble Jr. nor Snorkmaiden would like that. It’ll be dirty work. And as for Mr. Hemulen, I’m sure he already has such simple flowers. He doesn’t need more. We can always ask him for advice during the week though.”
Moomin giggles to himself. He looks at the daisy, before gently sticking it into Snufkin’s hat. “First flower for the spring.” He beams.
Snufkin returns a gentle smile. They hear a call from Little My, telling them to come over to eat.
As they ate their sandwiches, Little My took note of Sniff sitting away from everyone. With everyone distracted and talking, this egged her to go over and check on him. Not just out of concern, but for answers too, if he’ll budge.
Little My plops herself down on the grass next to Sniff, tilting her head. She can still see that little hint of fear still residing in his eyes.
“What’s got you all glum?”
This sudden remark from Little My made Sniff almost choke from his interrupted thoughts. He quickly turns to Little My, her eyebrows furrowed at him in concentration. “Uuuhhhh.. Nothing! Nothing at all!” He quickly takes a bite at his sandwich, trying to ignore her. In retaliation, Little My slaps the sandwich out of his hands.
“My sandwich!”
“You are being waaay too jumpy for someone who supposedly ‘forgave’ someone for scaring you. You were especially way too jumpy over some small spider!”
“You saw it! It was the size of his paw!”
“That’s not my point! Did Snufkin really apologize?!”
“Yes! He did!….” Sniff took a second to think. “Well… maybe??”
“Maybe?” Little My’s suspicions start to rise.
“Well..” he quickly looked around, scooting himself closer to Little My to whisper in her ear, but before he could utter even a word, a voice suddenly appeared from behind him.
“What are you two doing?”
Sniff lets out a shriek, turning around and seeing Snufkin standing there. Sniff starts muttering excuses under his breath, fumbling his words. Little My pats a paw to her ear.
“I think he just burst my eardrums, that’s what.” Little My responds, looking up at the vagabond intently. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, just letting the lovebirds have their little fling.”
“Lovebirds?” She looks over at the picnic blanket, it’s just Moomin and Snorkmaiden now at the picnic blanket, her sister nowhere to be seen. Moomin serenades Snorkmaiden with bouts of bad poetry, carelessly holding one of the roses they all picked, the silly Snorkmaiden giggling at Moomin’s attempts to woo her. Little My sticks her tongue out. “Bleugh.”
“I thought it would be good to give them alone time~” Mymble Jr surprised her sister from behind as she spoke. “Do you boys wanna help make the daisy chains?”
“That would be lovely, Mymble.” Snufkin replied
“Oh yes! Let’s make it super long!” Sniff replied. Snufkin grins at him, eyes closed. Before the two can walk off though, Little My grabs Snufkin by the tunic, pulling him.
“You’re not interfering with that?” She points at Moomin and Snorkmaiden’s little romantic outing.
Snufkin tilts his head. “Isn’t that normally your job?”
“Well yes, but don’t you remember what you did before winter?”
Snufkin rummaged through his memories. There was the obvious: he gave him his harmonica before leaving. Was there a significance to it?
He shakes his head. “I’m afraid not, Little My. Care to enlighten me?” He gives a mischievous smile.
Little My was fed up. She simply bites his leg, only for her teeth to sting from recoil. “Ow! Did you put metal in your boots or something?!”
“Nope, just fastened them too tightly, that’s all.” Evident by his worn out laces, that were loose to the seams. Little My eyes his boots. Maybe she bit the metal of the lace holes, but she didn’t taste any metal. His leg was just surprisingly hard.
“Ahhh, maybe you just flexed your leg. Is that it? Or did you give yourself a workout?” Little My jokes, pushing down her doubts.
“Haha! Well, travelling does that to you sometimes, yes? Maybe my muscles are just stiff.” Snufkin smirks.
“Oh please! We know you’re pretty strong despite your stature.”
“That so?”
“Guys! Aren’t you gonna help with the chain?” Mymble Jr. Interrupts their banter, admiring the braid Sniff attempted to make with her hair. “Oh, Sniff, this is lovely! I can’t wait to show the inspector my hair. He’ll be fawning over me for hours…”
“He’ll like the flowers too. Maybe we can make it a business! Braiding flowers in people’s hair.” Sniff added.
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The gang all went home close to the start of the evening, the blanket full of beautiful white flowers and roses they can dye.
Moominmamma prepared some vases with different colour dyes, and stuck each flower in while the gang cut up the thorns off the roses.
At some point, Moomin looked at Snufkin, wanting to admire his concentration, but soon noticed a tiny splotch of black drip on the table. His eyes trailed to Snufkin’s finger, pressing against one of the thorns. “Um… Snufkin?”
“Hmm?”
“…your finger.”
Snufkin looks at him puzzled. Moomin directs him to his finger against the thorn. As Snufkin moved the rose from the view of his finger, he looked at it for a while, and gently wiped away the black splotch between his fingers, as it spreaded to his thumb. “Ahh, just some ink. That’s all.”
“Oh, ink?”
“When were you writing with ink? We didn’t see you write all day!” Little My shouted.
Snufkin stares at her for a moment, before turning back to his work. “I wrote in my solitude. While you guys weren’t looking.”
“Y-yeah! Yeah he was writing something!” Sniff quickly defended him. Not greatly, but he tried. Snufkin only stared at him.
“Oh? What were you writing?” Little My questions.
“It’s a secret.” Snufkin replied, continuing his work. Little My felt unsatisfied by the answer, but she decides not to push further.
“Well, it would be good if you washed your hands before cutting the thorns, Snufkin.” Snorkmaiden argued.
“Right right.” Snufkin sighs, getting up, and heading to the washroom.
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When all the flowers were done, Mymble Jr. left to surprise the inspector with her hair that evening, and said she’ll be back again once the flowers are ready.
The friends admired their work, eager to see how the flowers would turn out. They stared at the vases, hoping that they could see the results as it happened, but Moominpappa argued it takes a lot of patience… before promptly joining the group on the couch.
They got bored eventually, and soon, everyone needed to go home.
Snufkin comes out of the washroom, looking at the vases. “Wow, would you look at that!”
“Took you long enough! How hard was it to wash your hands??” Little My retorts.
“Now now, a man’s business is a man’s business.” Moominpappa argues.
Snufkin simply tilted his head, while Little My rolled her eyes at the idiocy.
“So everyone’s going home?” Snufkin asks.
“Yeah, are you gonna sleep in your tent tonight?” Moomin asks.
“I think I would like to accompany our friends home. It’s quite late after all. Would that be okay?” He looks over at Snorkmaiden and Sniff.
Sniff immediately looks pale by the idea, but Snorkmaiden didn’t seem to notice.
“Oh, are you going to be our pied piper? Or our dashing escort?~” Snorkmaiden teases.
Snufkin smirks “You really think I’d send you to your doom? How cruel.” He lifts his hat and takes a bow, as he teases. “ a dashing escort shall never leave their friends astray on a lonely night such as this.”
Snorkmaiden and Moomin giggles. Little My only rolled her eyes. But Sniff meanwhile continues to fidget uncomfortably.
“What about you Sniff? You wouldn’t want to be in danger during the night, right?” Snufkin asks, catching Sniff’s attention.
“Oh!.. n-no thank you! I can just drop off Snorkmaiden. I can go on my own!” Sniff says.
“Oh? But who would accompany you?” Snufkin argues.
“Hey! I’m not that much of a scaredy-cat! I’ll be fine in the dark!”
“How about this, Sniff? We will accompany you home first, and Snufkin can drop me off after we drop you off. We’re not that far from Moominhouse anyway” Snorkmaiden says. Snufkin and Sniff look at each other, before nodding among each other.
“What a genius you are, Snorkmaiden.” Snufkin says, flattering the lovely Snorkmaiden. Sniff muttered under his breath about not being a coward, but he didn't argue against the idea either.
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As the friends walked down the path, Snorkmaiden slowly started to notice the uncomfortable feeling the two boys brought with them.
Clearly Sniff has been trying to avoid Snufkin, or at the very least co-exist with him in the friend group. The two were at each side of her, with Sniff looking away, while Snufkin continued looking straight ahead.
Once Sniff was dropped off, they waved goodbye, promising to check the progress on the flowers over the next couple of days.
It was just Snorkmaiden and Snufkin now. A rare pairing indeed. They rarely interacted by themselves, and usually Moomin was there to get the other talking, so Snorkmaiden isn’t sure how to start the conversation, while Snufkin just looks around in the dark of the night, not even thinking about conversing. She can feel some uneasiness coming from Snufkin. She’s felt it throughout the day. But she didn’t feel brave enough to speak aloud about it. So instead, her mind drifts somewhere else, while eyeing Snufkin.
“It must be useful to have night eyes.” Snorkmaiden finally says aloud. It was the first thought that came to mind.
Snufkin turns to her. “Ahh, yes.” He turns back to the scenery around them.
So much for conversation Snorkmaiden thought. The silence continued for a while, until suddenly, another thought popped to mind. The one thing they have in common is Moomin’s friendship. So what better than to talk about Moomintroll.
“So.. how’s you and Moomin?”
“Me and Moomin?”
“Yes.. I mean, I don’t think either of you actually talked about what happened before winter after all. I know you two are so stubborn in that way.”
Ahh, right. Last winter… I still can’t get that memory no matter how many times I think about it.
Snorkmaiden notices Snufkin’s silence as they walk. He looked deep in thought, and she soon realized, maybe his head injury really did make him lose some memories after all.
“Do you… not remember what happened last winter?”
Snufkin stopped in his tracks, looking down at the ground. He’s sure he wants to remember, but he can’t understand why it just won’t come to him. There was only one winter memory he remembers, but he can never talk about it to anyone. Because if he did, no one would be happy. And he knows it all too well.
“I’m… afraid not.” He confesses.
“Oh.. I see.” She slowed to a stop, turning to the mumrik in front of her. “So… Moomin never talked to you about it either?”
Snufkin shakes his head.
Snorkmaiden sighs and facepalms. “Of course he didn’t.” she mutters.
Snufkin looks at her curiously. “How do you know what happened last winter? Little My perhaps? At this point it feels like this is a secret everyone knows but me.”
Snorkmaiden looks at him, dragging her hand down to her snout, taking a deep breath. “Well.. Moomin was the one who told me of course. If you really want to know, why not ask him yourself?”
“I think it would only upset him if he heard I don’t remember, yes?”
“Ahh, Right…”
The two stood silent once more. With one foot in front of the other, Snufkin steps past Snorkmaiden, telling her that they’re already close to her house. “The Snork must be terribly worried, wouldn’t he be?”
“Oh.. well I hope he hasn’t found himself in another mess while I was gone. He tends to get carried away, you know?”
Snufkin nods. They make their way up to the house, not a sound of concern leaks from it. Snork must be asleep. Snorkmaiden thought. As she gets dropped off, she turns to Snufkin for a moment, thinking to say something, but ultimately shakes it out of her head. She waves goodbye, and gently shuts the door behind her. Snufkin quietly stares at the door, looking up at the window of a dimly lit room, a silhouette of a sleeping Snork is seen from the curtains. Turning away, Snufkin quietly walks back to Moominhouse, and within the dark, a small pair of green eyes follows his steps, and scurries away like a little mouse.