Disclaimer: Gandalf isn't mine, thankfully…Not that I have anything against the old man, he's just old.
Chapter 8: A Meal Fit For A King.
The table was laden with allsorts of fine foods. Suckling pig roasted golden and crackling, pheasant stuffed with wild herbs, steamed spring vegetables served with melted butter and soft-boiled potatoes, golden, flaky pastries filled with savoury mince… Bridget was full just from looking at it, and they haven't even reached dessert yet!
"Now I have first hand experience of what it means to eat like a king." She said to no-one in particular.
"This is new to you?" Legolas asked, "What sort of things do you eat in your own world?"
"Lots of stuff. It just tends to be plainer and doesn't take all day to prepare."
"Well, it is a good deal of effort to go to if you are just cooking for yourself." Aragorn answered this time.
"I don't cook only for myself. What gave you that idea? There's six people in my family and it's very stressful to cook dinner for all of them." Bridget replied rather angrily.
The servants in the room froze. Surely, this insolent girl would be punished for speaking to the king in such a way? They were wrong. They did not yet know their king very well.
"Six people? Do you have cousins who live with you?"
"My cousins! Purple monkey butts, not on your life! I'd go insane! More than I already am! I've got about forty-three cousins." She replied nonchalantly.
Legolas and Gimli, who had both been sipping their drinks, suddenly choked, Gimli spraying wine all over his plate and Legolas having to get thumped on the back because he was choking.
"Forty-three?" exclaimed Aragorn, "This is another one of your jokes, isn't it?"
Bridget just stared at him. "If it makes you feel any better I haven't actually met all of them."
"But how is that possible!" gasped Legolas, finally able to breath again, "How many siblings do your parents have?"
"My Grandparents on my mothers side had 18 children. Two died, two have no children as of yet, as for the rest? Well, my family size is sort of the norm. And they haven't stopped, and now my cousins are having babies too, and that's not even counting the extended family. I guess you could say we are rather, um… prolific breeders?"
"And your father?" inquired Gimli,
"He was an only child. He has a few cousins, but they live in another country, and I don't really associate with that side of the family."
"You sound sad child?" This was Gandalf speaking, until now he had sat silent at the table, merely watching and listening.
Bridget looked up from her plate and met the old mans gaze. Her reply was unexpected.
"You're a wizard right?" she asked, "Do you know, maybe, if there's like, a way for me to go… back? You know, to my world?" Her voice was hopeful, but forlorn, as if she were already expecting the answer to be no.
"Aragorn has told me of how you came to be here. I have never before heard of something like this, but I do not know everything!" He said with a laugh, "I will need to think about this, and do some research. But, have you not thought perhaps, that you were sent here for a reason?"
"Well if I was, it's not jumping out at me, and I've come to the conclusion that I really don't belong here. I mean, running someone over with a ute? It's not a very precise way of doing things."
Gandalf laughed.
"Is that what that was?" asked Legolas "That big metal cart thing that went so fast?"
"Hm. Yeah, truck-car thing, ute, farm vehicle. Please, don't ask me any more, I don't know."
The rest of the evening past much the same way, and Bridget went to sleep that night happier than she had for a very long time, with the knowledge that she might soon be going home.
A/N: ok, I know were not aloud to reply to reviewers any more, so I'll just say thanks to all of you in general, your support and encouragement is vital to my existence as a writer. I really couldn't do it without you. :)
But don't worry, the storys not over yet! Do you really think I'd make it that easy?