I really like this story because it feels so different - in a good way! Sometimes the melancholy stories are the most beatiful.

Wow, this is so sweet and poignant. A little depressing, yes, but it also adds so much depth to Smoit's character - rounds him out into someone more sympathetic than the roaring bear he appears in the books, as much as I like him there.

I love the name Seren. It's one of my favorite welsh words. You painted the image of his young wife and the way she responded to his bluster and anxieties so beautifully...showing us all the more how much he needed her.

His musings over the lost opportunity Taran presents are saved from being too sad when I consider that by the end of the series Smoit will be bending his own knee to the boy he so admires, and so learning the wisdom he thinks is now beyond his grasp. So in a sense, there is a hope to this story that Smoit just doesn't see yet. It strikes me that there could be material there for a fic on Smoit's reaction to hearing that Taran is the new High King. Hm...

Well done! Glad I prodded you a little on this!

Oh my, what a treat to get a Smoit story. I've been hoping so much that someone would write about him--and you've done a beautiful job, packing a lot of emotion and backstory into one compact story. I love the bit about Smoit imagining his son as a toddler when he never got past infancy; this is so sad. I also like Smoit's rueful awareness of his own (constructed) persona as bluff-and-hearty king. I have to say, I see Smoit as less of a blunderer than he does himself--but people are often more severe on themselves than on others (at least good-natured ones).

Thanks, then, so much for fleshing out that one line about him being a "widower, and childless" in Taran Wanderer. I've always thought that Smoit's yearning to adopt Taran as his son and heir was quite poignant. I'm sure he was full of support and advice--and pride!--once Taran became High King.

Don't worry about being depressing--some losses can't be covered up or papered over. Best to acknowledge this. Just because there are haunted nights, though, doesn't mean that daytime is devoid of any joy. So your last line implies--and that is quite hopeful, to my mind.