Stalking the Fellowship
Chapter Forty Three: The farewell feast
"Now what are we going to do? No one even thought of getting us accommodation!" Moaned Fran as the girls circled the citadel once more.
"I don't know Fran, but seeing as the city is in a commotion right now, I don't think anyone would notice if we took a room in their house for the night," Mo suggested.
"Unless they were like that 'Lady' back there," Maddy scowled.
"That is most unladylike you know."
Maddy turned around ready to give her best glare but stopped immediately when she saw who the man was. "Lord Imrahil!"
"I have been scouring the citadel from top to bottom in search of you three for quite some time. Gandalf asked that I put up accommodation for you as guests of Lord Aragorn."
"Thank God! We don't have to sleep in the streets," squealed Fran in relief.
The three rooms that they were lead to were each similar in size and next door to one another. Prince Imrahil told them to be prepared to dine that evening, as they would be saying farewell to their company.
Maddy was rummaging through her bag when she realised that she has had no change in clothes and would have to wear the dirty set she was wearing. Sighing she slowly made her way towards the bathtub that a woman had kindly filled will hot water. The water was revitalising, washing away the smell of damp and decay clutching at her skin from the paths of the dead.
Next-door Mo lay on her comfortable bed, trying to get some sleep. Everything was over, they had made it out alive and no one was hurt. But thoughts from home plagued her, what would her mum think of her drastically shortened hair? Would they ever get home? "Stop it!" She muttered to herself, angrily hitting her pillow, "that will get me nowhere."
Meanwhile Fran was staring out of her window gazing at the many rings below; many people were rushing here and there. Her gaze turned towards the battlefield, the pungent smell of death assaulting her senses making her turn sadly thinking of the many battles to come, the many deaths they would have to endure.
.-.-.-.
"Mo! Come on, get up!" Francesca shook Mo, who had managed to tangle herself in the thick heavy velveteen sheets of her bed.
"What?" Mo mumbled?"
"Get up. We have to go and say goodbye to the idiots of our company, so come on." Francesca hauled the girl out of the bed, "we still have to get Maddy."
Mo sleepily followed Francesca as they exited her room and entered Maddy's, it was strangely empty. "Where is she?"
Mo shrugged whilst yawning, eyeing the bed greedily.
"Hi you too," Maddy said suddenly, from behind them.
"How comes you have clean clothes!" Fran exclaimed, hands of hips, "they didn't give us any."
"Well I didn't see the point in having a bath and then putting dirty clothes on, so I washed them.
"Maddy, don't be ridiculous," Mo muttered, "your clothes were dirtier than ours, there's months of grime embedded in the threads, they wouldn't come out that clean, especially not without any detergent."
"And they were really thick, they wouldn't of dried in time." Fran continued.
Maddy grinned announcing "they're elven," before skipping out the door.
Five minutes later the girls were found following Gandalf's adage of 'always follow your nose' as they had not been told where they would be dining.
"Aha!" Exclaimed Fran pushing open a door, "Food!"
Fran sat next to Prince Imrahil and was quickly followed by Maddy who sat to her left, uncomfortably glancing at Elrohir who had started to fill her plate for her. Mo was left with the last remaining seat between Elladan and Pippin. "I thought we would never see the real you under all those layers of filth," commented Elladan jokingly, fingering some of Mo's newly cleaned hair.
"Though the question remains as to why the two of you are wearing dirty clothes whilst Maddy is clean, were no clean clothes provided?" Elrohir inquired.
"I cleaned mine, Fran and Mo didn't take the initiative," Madeleine responded.
"You were not provided with clothes?" Imrahil frowned.
"Obviously not." Fran replied, "But we don't mind. This city is stuck in the ravages of war, food is on ration, I'm surprised that you managed to get all this food. Having no clean clothes provided matters not, we have comfortable beds which is more that some of the residents in this city can say."
Elladan leaned over and whispered something to Elrohir, making him scowl in distaste.
"…So you travelled with Lord Aragorn and his company?" Imrahil asked Francesca.
She nodded, quickly trying to swallow the bread in her mouth, "Yes, since we entered Rohan."
"What were you doing in Rohan?" He asked, genuinely interested.
"Following Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Lady Galadriel asked us to take a message to them."
"Speaking of which, can you give is the message yet?" Aragorn asked.
"No." Replied Maddy,
"I won't pretend to understand. This message is about this war and yet you cannot tell us? We leave after this meal." Aragorn frowned.
"We never said this was about the war."
"But there is no certainty that we shall win it, why would Lady Galadriel send you out on a fools errand?" Legolas questioned.
"I know of the message," Gandalf replied, "Lady Madeleine is right, you need not know of the message until after the next battle."
"Yeah, listen to Lady Maddy," Mo replied sarcastically.
"Piss off Lady Moley!" came the reply which lead to Mo trying to reach across Elladan and Elrohir to try and whack her.
"Now, now Mo, that's not befitting of a lady," Elladan grinned.
"Oh don't you start," Mo narrowed her eyes, "Or I might have to un-friend you."