"Are you coming down with something?" Hyacinth asked, getting up and feeling her sister's forehead.

"I don't think so?" Amaryllis didn't sound so sure of that. "I suppose it's possible? But I don't have time to be sick." She pouted.

"You feel a little warm," Hyacinth murmured. "You might have caught something. You know how markets can be, you could have picked it up anywhere. Maybe you should rest for a bit, have some hot tea."

"Alright," Amaryllis muttered sulkily. She slouched to the sitting room in the suite that she and Hyacinth were sharing and found a comfortable chair to settle into. She was starting to sniffle, and not from emotions.

Hyacinth promptly went and put a kettle on so she could make her sister some tea. She'd heard the sniffles, and she knew it was definitely best to try to head it off before the cold got too much worse.

Despite Hyacinth's best attempts, it did get worse. The next day Amaryllis didn't even bother getting out of bed, quite warm to the touch and sniffly and coughing and generally miserable.

Hyacinth was bustling around, making sure her sister was as comfortable as she could be and had enough tea and soup and blankets. Once Amaryllis was as settled as she was going to get, Hyacinth sat down in a comfortable armchair and began to work on the baby blanket.

Fili and Kili stopped in to check on the two. Dwarves couldn't get sick, and they were the closest in age to the girls, so their mother had volunteered them to go look.

"Everything okay in here?" Kili asked, peeking around the doorframe.

"Fine," Hyacinth said, glancing up from her work briefly before continuing. Her hook darted in and out of the chain of stitches as she worked on setting her foundation. "Lottie isn't feeling well, so she's staying in bed today. She must have caught something going around the town while we were at the market. I've been looking after her, though."

"She caught the thing going around in Dale?" Kili asked, eyes wide. He exchanged a somewhat panicked look with Fili. Oh this could be very bad...

Hyacinth heard the panicked note in his voice and looked up.

"Yes...?" she responded. "It seems like a seasonal sickness. They happen all the time back at the Shire. Lottie is miserable, but she should be fine."

Kili fidgeted at that, looking at Fili again for a moment. "Well, uh, seems like it might be... kind of serious, in Dale," he muttered.

"Serious how?" Hyacinth asked, pausing her work. Her hook hovered in the middle of two stitches, half-way through a third.

"Well, it's going around Dale," Kili said, fretting a bit. "Seems like everyone down there is getting it, they're getting hit harder than normal. Think we should get Oin?" He aimed that at Fili.

"Yes, we should," Fili agreed, nodding.

"Relax," Hyacinth said, finally setting her work aside and standing up. "Amaryllis will be fine. The sickness will pass in a few days."

Kili muttered something in Khuzdul but didn't elaborate. "We'll be back in a bit with some food," he told Hyacinth. "Yell if you need someone before then." And then he grabbed Fili and headed off to find Oin.

Hyacinth rolled her eyes at the two and settled back in to keep working on the blanket. She got so absorbed in her work that she didn't immediately notice when the two princes came back.

Kili glanced at Fili before he inched further in. He had a tray with some food for Hyacinth and broth for Amaryllis. He set the tray down gently and took a few moments to look at what Hyacinth was doing.

Amaryllis raised her head to look at the two groggily, blinking a few times.

Hyacinth didn't notice him. She was rhythmically going through the motions of her stitches, pausing every so often to count how many she had done on each side of the scale before moving on. Her hook flashed in and out as it worked the yarn.

Fili brought the bowl of broth over to Amaryllis.

"Here," he said. "This should help."

Kili watched her, fascinated as he watched the blanket taking form. He had no idea how this worked, but this was clearly crafting of some kind, and it was really kind of cool.

"How do you do that?" he asked, leaning closer to peer more closely at her work.

"Thank you," Amaryllis murmured, struggling to sit up so she could take the bowl.

Hyacinth blinked as her concentration was broken.

"Oh I'm so sorry," she said, "I didn't realize you were there." She blinked again and looked down at her work. "This is... it's called a dragon stitch. It's not terribly difficult, it only takes a couple of basic stitches to form the scales."

"Easy," Fili murmured, helping her sit up. "Do only what you can, we don't want you getting any worse."

"Dragon stitch?" Kili looked highly entertained at that. "But what is this? What form of craft?" He carefully lifted an edge to feel the stitches carefully.

"Thank you." Amaryllis settled back against some pillows. "Trying not to overdo it." She managed a little smile.

"It's crochet," Hyacinth said, letting him examine the work. "Similar to knitting, actually, but with a hook instead of a pair of needles."

"Just rest now," Fili said. "Focus on getting well again."

"Crochet, huh? Never heard of it. How does it work?" Kili turned the work over, still being careful not to disrupt her spot, to look at the reverse of it.

Amaryllis grumbled a bit. "I hate being sick," she muttered sullenly.

Hyacinth blinked. She'd never had to explain crochet before; all of her cousins knew how already.

"Well, here, watch," she said, taking it back and beginning the next stitch. Instead of flying through it, she moved the hook slowly, so he could see how it moved.

"Your sister assures us it will pass," Fili replied sympathetically.