Chapter Ten: Gimli is Our Hero
"Life is good." I smiled.
Eowyn looked up with a puzzled expression from the dinner she was cooking over the fire. "What?"
"I'm just picturing my father mentally breaking down."
"That's horrible."
"But funny."
She hesitated, then grinned.
"I suppose that I can't argue with that."
I stood up to stretch, and screamed when I found Browne's face upside down and in front of me. She was hanging from a tree branch with her legs hooked around it. I stumbled back and bumped my head against the tree trunk, and saw stars in front of my eyes. I muttered some curses at her, by since my brain was all foggy, I'm sure they came out jumbled. But I got the point across, and she smiled apologetically.
"Soooo, what's the game plan?" she asked. Her face was turning pink from all the blood rushing to it. I kindly pointed this out and she flipped down out of the tree, nearly giving me another heart attack. I liked to climb trees too, but I'd break my neck trying a stunt like that. It was fun to scare the daylights out of my sisters by dropping down in front of them, though.
"Well, after Lorien, we'll only have Mirkwood left, then we head back for Minas Tirith and watch the fireworks." Arwen said with a slightly vicious grin.
"Looking forward to winning back your man?" Belgaer grinned.
Arwen looked a little ill. "Not too sure, since he's been with that…thing. Eru knows where she's BEEN."
Eowyn laughed slightly, until she remembered she had the same problem with her beloved.
"Good luck finding someone who HASN'T." I shuddered. The really sad thing is that I wasn't exaggerating.
"I am excited to get back to Gondor, though. Most of the Fellowship will be there." Eowyn said. "The Hobbits will be there about the time we will, and I believe Gimli is there as well."
"I feel bad for him, he doesn't get any recognition." Arwen sighed. "But that one time, when Starr woke up with half her hair chopped off? I'm willing to bet that was him."
I sighed happily at the memory of Starr's harpy shrieks echoing throughout the castle. I bet Arwen and Eowyn could've heard them in the dungeons. Starr didn't break just a few windows that morning.
"Remind me I owe that Dwarf a hug." I smiled.
"He's my hero for that." Belgaer beamed.
"Lorien's going be difficult, though." Arwen mused. "I'm predicting we'll be there for several days, if not weeks."
"Why?" Belgaer asked.
"It turns out that Galadriel found out that Celeborn was…" Arwen hesitated. "…with Starr. She's inconsolable. People have been starting to call her a witch, because when people go in, they don't come out. She isn't under Starr's spell but everyone else is, she her name is mud to them."
"That's horrible!" I gasped. "Isn't she your grandmother?"
Arwen nodded. "Both she and my Ada are going to have some choice words with Aragorn once he comes around…"
Browne laughed. "But he really can't help it, can he?"
"No…I suppose not. But I'm still going to have to smack him around a bit."
I giggled at the image of Arwen smacking King Elessar around Minas Tirith.
"What I'm wondering is, how are you like you are?" Browne questioned, looking at me. "I mean, you told us all your siblings are like your mother. But why are you different?"
"I probably had a different father, knowing Starr." I rolled my eyes. "I'd guess Gimli if I thought there was a possibility that my mother was into dwarf-lovin. But that I highly doubt. Highly."
The next day we were walking again. We walked and walked and walked. And then for a change, we WALKED some more. My feet were killing me, and I was bored out of my mind. That could explain the singing.
Yes, singing. Some rowdy tavern song a young, impressionable lady like me could hear through the open window of my considerably-smaller-than-my-other-siblings room. Starr would go into conniptions if she heard me. And Browne and Belgaer too. Arwen and Eowyn were a little too dignified for that, but they were laughing through the whole thing. But singing was the one thing I got from my mother—I love it. I'm not the best, but I get by.
Of course, we just happened to have been passing through a particularly dangerous area, where several bands of orcs still roamed, and we three singers didn't know better; Arwen and Eowyn were too incapable with laughter to notice.
Our song was quite effectively cut off by an arrow burying itself in the ground in front of Belgaer. Arwen whipped out a bow and began taking out orcs, while Eowyn unsheathed a big and scary sword. I learned that despite what Starr claimed, Eowyn really had defeated the Witch King—Starr had just pushed her out of the way and struck a victorious pose on top of the fell beast's carcass. What a twit. Eowyn did get her revenge by 'accidentally' knocking her into a particularly gruesome puddle of blood and guts though. Oh, to have seen THAT!
But that is completely off-topic.
We leapt to action, and I surprisingly find rhythm in the battle. Browne's twirling and twisting around with twin daggers, very fluidly. She was obviously well-trained in the art of fighting. Arwen and Eowyn are having no problems, of course. In fact, they seem to be enjoying it! They get that from their brothers, I'm guessing. Belgaer has a small sword that she is gleefully cutting down orcs with.
I swear, they're all crazy.
Me? I've got a spear-like thing, because I like to swing it around and knock out the orcs. I'm not too bad, which explains why I'm still alive. But it gets tiring, and by the time all the orcs are killed, my arms are like lead.
We survey the carnage, and it isn't pretty. I'm glad we hadn't eaten before this, because the blood was bad enough, I didn't feel like adding my puke to it. Blech.
"So…" Belgaer said, looking around. "When's breakfast?"
Please tell me she's kidding.
Nope, no such luck.
I think I'm going to have to pass on breakfast, until I get my appetite back. That should be in, oh…
Ten years?