Tapio had been sitting in uncharacteristic silence as he waited for the feast, though he greeted each of his colleagues with a smile (and tried very hard not to make it to big of a smile when he saw Norman Carton--he would never forget that skating party, though he would hate to mention anything and embarrass the poor man).
Tapio had been musing about what might have happened had he been one of the folks to go through that mirror, and it thought frightened him. All his life, since he was very young, he'd been aware of his great size and strength and tried with all his might to reign his body and his temper in. He was very, very glad not to have exposed the world to his opposite, for he was afraid his shadow self might have proved a violent and dangerous man. Fortunately, he had not had to find that out. Nevertheless, he could not treat those who had had that experience with anything less than kindness and sympathy now, for it could easily have happened to any of them.
Now he was eager to taste this feast, and then to travel home to Scotland and see his dear wife, and check up on how his younger son had been doing at school (and whether he'd really settled down or had gotten into any more trouble during the term). At least the Elves were back to normal!
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