Rirrym chortled softly to himself. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking that you and water don't seem to get along to well, judging from what you just told me and your having mentioned being rescued by Gandalf earlier. If it helps any, I was scared when I first learned to swim."
"We had a watering hole to the east of the village near where I grew up, and many of us would spend hours at a time there. The first time I went there I tagged along with a neighbor's son -- I was 4 and he was 13. Blair, that was his name, picked me up and threw me in the hole, and I was expected to swim back. I think that's how most, if not all, of the lads who used that swimming hole first learned to swim. It probably wasn't as bad as it could be, since we didn't really have tides to worry about. Still, I know I was terrified in that moment that I was flying through the air."
"Your way of life sounds so different to mine. I grew up with my family as most people did, unless a child's family couldn't afford to keep them there. The son's were expected to continue their father's work when he was to old to do it any longer." He looks down at the ground. "That's probably what I should be doing, but my father wouldn't hear of me staying there any longer. Things were starting to get dangerous there."
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