Stalking the Fellowship
Chapter Forty two: Prince Imrahil and the houses of healing
"Where should we go?" Mo wondered as the two girls caught up with her.
"Houses of healing," Maddy decided cheerfully, smiling happily.
Mo and Fran nodded and they resolutely set off in a random direction.
"Why are you so happy?" Fran queried, looking at Maddy apprehensively.
"We're safe!" she squealed mid-skip.
"That's it?" Mo questioned.
"We're not jumping around like new born lambs, there must be something more," Fran continued.
"No, I'm just happy."
"There's definitely something more. Is it something to do with Legolas?"
Maddy blushed but shook her head, "Nope, it's the same old, same old. I gaze at him lovingly while he continues to look positively dashing without even realising."
"Dashing?" Mo echoed, "more like mind numbingly annoying; prancing around like a prissy little elf prince."
"He is an elf prince. And he can't help…prancing! He's an elf, he's light on his feet."
"Will you two stop twittering like birds? Francesca implored, "Do you know where we are?"
There was a slight pause, "Well, the throne room is on the seventh ring, you know with the citadel and everything, and we're now on the sixth ring, the healing houses are on the erm…I don't know, never really thought about it actually…" Maddy trailed off.
"Well that's just peachy!" Fran grumbled.
"Well, I suppose we could ask someone…" Mo wondered aloud.
"Then feel free to ask someone!" Fran exclaimed.
"No." Maddy and Mo replied unanimously.
"Oh for heavens sake!" Fran burst, before striding off towards someone in expensive looking clothing. "Excuse me? Could you direct my friends and I to the houses of healing."
The man looked at the three and frowned, "You are not from Gondor?" he was slightly perplexed.
"No, we are nor," Mo replied, eyeing the man with disdain.
"Rohan perhaps? But surely they brought no other woman other than Lady Eowyn, and they knew nought of her. Did you conceal yourselves as well?"
"No," Maddy replied, "We helped commandeer the Corsairs ship with Lord Aragorn, Prince Legolas Greenleaf, Gimli son of Gloin, the twins of Elrond and the Rangers of the North. During the battle we stayed on the boats and we have only just come out of a meeting about how we will continue to fight the war."
"I wonder why I was not there…" the man muttered somewhat put out.
"Why would you be?" Mo questioned, earning a jab in the ribs from both Fran and Maddy.
"So, what as your name?" Fran asked, smiling coyly at the man.
"Imrahil," he replied.
Maddy gasped, "Prince Imrahil? As in Imrahil the fair, the prince of Dol Amroth?"
The man nodded, he was obviously used to people recognising him. "Now you said you were looking for the houses of healing? They're just there." He nodded towards a white building not ten metres away.
"Oh, right, sorry!" Fran replied, blushing slightly, "thank you though. I guess we will see you around." And with that the three continued on their way.
"How did you know what?" Fran eventually burst, "how can you remember such useless and trivial information in that small little head of yours?"
"It's not useless! It was useful just now wasn't it?" Maddy argued.
"When you learnt it, it wasn't."
"Come on!" urged Mo, "we want to go into the houses of healing, Aragorn has cured Merry of whatever it was that he had…"
"…the Black Breath…" Maddy noted.
"…so we can see him now."
The three went to the large wooden door and knocked on it softly.
"Hello?" a plump woman came to the door and looked at the three in surprise, "are you wounded?"
"No," Mo replied.
"How may I help you then?"
"We were wondering if we could see Merry? He's a hobbit."
"I am afraid we do not let just anyone come in to gawk at our patients, I would have to ask you to leave."
"But he's our friend," Fran urged.
"I very much doubt that. Now would you please go?"
"No!" Fran snapped, "I have not just tramped from Lothlorien all the way to Edoras, and then to Helm's deep and then walked through the Paths of the freakin' dead to have some healer tell me I cannot see my friend. Now you are going to step out of our way and let us see Merry."
The healers eyes hardened, "No! I have said no, so clear off!" She then closed the door. Hard.
"Of all the cheek!" Maddy burst, "Hoity toity little! Arg! I haven't walked through a tunnel full of ghosts and then spent days on a ship with them to be told I cannot see him! We will, whether it be through proper means or not!"
"I thought you were ever one for propriety, you hate breaking rules." Fran commented flippantly.
Maddy's eyes narrowed, "I'm fighting for what is right, against that dictator! Now come on, we have breaking and entering to do."
The girls stealthily made their way around the house to find that a rather large window had been left open, and it was near to the ground! The three grinned impishly at each other, cautiously peering over the windowsill.
What they saw surprised them all.
Eowyn and what could only be Faramir seemed to be in a rather tight embrace with their lips locked together. "Tolkien definitely censored this in the book, he made it sound like it took them two weeks just to realise each others existence, let alone this." Maddy mumbled.
"Whore," Mo muttered lightly.
"Come on, in through the window," Fran whispered.
The three climbed in, unfortunately Maddy, ever the clumsy one, fell as she crept in, hitting the floor with a dull thud. The two occupants whirled and stared at them in shock. "You!" Eowyn burst out, "What are you doing in here? In my room?"
"Who are they?" Faramir ventured, shocked at the absolute hate held in (fair) Eowyn's voice.
"She is a drunk!" she pointed at Maddy who looked back in surprise her mind thinking of past events before mumbling,
"Oh yeah…the cider."
"And those two, her accomplices. They are intent on degrading the reputation of future King of Gondor. They were rude and impolite with me and, furthermore, they are intent upon forcing the drunk upon Aragorn!"
Faramir looked at this 'Maddy' oddly, "they don't look very dangerous."
"Appearances can be deceiving." Was the shield maidens enigmatic reply.
"First and foremost, I don't like Aragorn in that way, he has a beard for starters!" Faramir rose his eyebrows at that, self consciously stroking his own, "and anyway, I think of him as a brother and I'm not into the weird interfamily marriages that hobbits seem to love so much." Maddy continued, the makings of a speech in the brewing, "Secondly, the reason those two were being to rude to you was because you wouldn't take your roving eyes off Aragorn, and unfortunately, he noticed you, mainly because of your courage, something very rare, no, don't take that as a compliment. You clouded his eyes, and what woman wouldn't? Him and Arwen haven't had any proper alone time, if you get what I mean, in ages. So the three of us had to remind him of his beloved, who he plighted his troth to many years ago. Now, I may not like her, but I don't like you either, so basically, we didn't want you to wheedle in on the future king, understand?"
"Now, we will not mention the fact that Faramir was in your room, nor will we mention that erm…kiss if you let us out of this room without making a fuss." Mo said, oh how she loved blackmail!
The two lovers nodded, and the three girls made their way out of the room, "Now which one is Merry's?"
They crept down the hall, peering into rooms until they found the halfling quite awake in his bed. "Merry!" they greeted coming into the room. Maddy sat on the edge of the bed while Fran leant against the wall and Mo sat on a nearby chair.
"Ithildin! Earedien! Francesca!" he welcomed, nodding at the three.
"Mo. Not Ithildin, no one calls me Ithildin unless…ok, no one ever calls me that."
"Feel free to call me Earedien, I like the name."
"Oh, okay," the hobbit replied, "I'm mighty hungry, aren't you?"
Not waiting for a response the hobbit rang a bell, to the three girls horror.
The head healer from earlier came in, seeing the girls she narrowed her eyes into a fierce frown, "are these girls bothering you?" not waiting for a reply she grabbed Mo, who was the nearest, and started hauling her out, "I said you were nor to enter and I meant it! You are hereby banned from the healing house unless you actually need healing, though even if you did I doubt you would come here. A lesser healing house would suffice, after all you are no one of importance." And with that she threw the three out, literally.
A/n Hi all! I know it's been a month, sorry! I was working 9-6.30 last week and that was my holiday, you can only imagine what it's like when I have school work as well.
Bunny of despair: A hissy fit? But you don't know what we do to Harry, yet!
Fk306 animelover: Thanks
Fae Black: That's what we thought! The three aren't really the most talented when it comes to wielding weapons!
Georgianna: Thanks
LadyGlory: I know what it's like to be stressed! I have uni interviews next week as well, so loads of preparing for that.
Sweetypie15: Your welcome.
Shadow08: Thanks
Yellow Peanutbutter Ruler: Thank you
And with that I leave you with the sound of fireworks ringing in my ears. England, the only country in the world to celebrate an act of terrorism with yearly firework displays, go figure….
PiXiE