Chapter Four- The Muster Drill

At six thirty, our two heroes were in their cabin, desperately trying to get their bright orange life preservers on.  Well, they were trying to get Gimli's on.  Every time they'd snap the straps on, and as Legolas tried to wrap the velcro strip around, Gimli would shout "NOT THE BEARD!" because it kept getting stuck to it.  So with one arm, Leggy had to hold the beard up while looping the strip around the dwarf.  When they were done, Gimli's head looked like one big pile of fur.  Not only was his hair more knotty than usual, he insisted on having all of it about the life-vest, so the dwarf had it piled high.

"We're to be at station…12C!" Legolas cheered as he led Gimli down the hall by his beard.  He skipped happily (and Gimli ran as he tried to keep up) through the sliding doors and down the deck, past the elves already at their separate stations.  The air was moist and hot so most of the elves had a red flush to their faces and glared at the energy of the two.  To Legolas' surprise, Laurie was already at 12C.  "Laurie!" Legolas dropped Gimli's beard and opened his arms wide.

"Legolas!" Laurie opened her arms as well, and they ran to each other to jump up and down and hug again.  Gimli tried to walk in the direction of the sounds, but he ended up walking into the low wall of the deck.

"Gummy!  You're so silly!" Legolas grabbed the dwarf's facial hair again and pulled him back to where they stood.  "So how was the super-secret travel agent meeting, Laurie?"

"Shh!" She put a finger over her mouth. "It's a secret!"

More elves crowed around, and by seven o'clock there were about twenty.  An elf dressed in a clean, white uniform came to the front of them with a clipboard and checklist in hand.  "Cabin 977?"

"Here!"

"Here!" 

The elf nodded at the two honeymooners.  "Cabin 979?" He bellowed.

"Here!"

"Here!" 

He nodded in the direction of those elves before going back to his list.  "Cabin 981?"

"Here!!!" Legolas waved his arm cheerfully.

A muffled 'Here!" came from below the elves.

The director looked at the group. "Where?"

"Here!" Gimli tried again, still stuck behind his braids and the tall elves around him.

"I'm sorry sir, where are you?"

Gimli pushed to the front of the crowd. "HERE!!!"  The elf shrank back in horror while Gimli grumbled under his breath about elves and their love for high heels.

Once all of the cabins and their occupants had been accounted for, they waited for the final announcement so they could go back to their rooms.  Gimli immediately stripped off his life jacket and grabbed onto the bottom of Legolas' tunic. (Elves all look the same from their waist down; he didn't want to get lost.)  They waded their way through the throngs of elves on deck and in the hallways until they reached their room.

Legolas bounced into the room and immediately started rummaging through his suitcase.  "Time for dinner!  We need to get all clean and yummy smelling and pretty looking!  Yay!"  He pulled out a silver tunic with embroidered leaves and blue leggings.  "I'm going to go bathe and brush my hair and prettify myself!" Legolas skipped off to their bathroom.

Gimli had barely stepped inside the room, and his head was spinning from whatever the hell his roommate just said.  Deciding that he would probably be skewered if he wasn't half-decent by the time Legolas got out of the bathroom, he opened his own suitcase.   When he did, he held back a furious yell.  Legolas had switched all of his ratty old clothes with…with…with…ELVISH CHILDREN'S WEAR!!  'Baby Gap of Rohan' was stitched on all of the pastel colored tunics and leggings.  There was even a mini tuxedo with a top hat and walking stick. 

Gimli pulled out the hairbrush that had been planted in his luggage, and cried as he started to untangle his hair.

((A/N:  I didn't explain what a muster drill was for fear of insulting your intelligence.  I didn't know what it was until I went on my own cruise, but basically, it's like an emergency drill.))