for all the gold || hobbit {completed}

chapter fourteen - welcome and unwelcome

Any thoughts I had of the bargeman were soon lost to the clamour and excitement of the Lake Town Master's party. Tables were brought out of corners, surfaces dusted off, and platters of food and bottles of drink - more of the stuff than I had seen in a long time - were carried out and served up. Meat and bread, fowl and - to my delight - fish. And wine. Enough wine to fill the lake itself perhaps if the Master so wished. Thankfully he seemed more keen to fill us with it and, especially, to fill the Mountain King he was so generously entertaining. The small town on the lake may have been starving, if the bargeman and his family were anything to go by, but the town's master certainly was not, and he at least was eager to sweeten us all up with what he had.

Not that I was complaining - or, at least, I was not complaining too much. I myself fancied being sweetened up and, well, if not completely sweetened, then I could settle for a leg of pork the size of my own head. This was something I found among the piles of food served up and I was just biting into its succulent, crispy flesh when an order from the Master caught my attention.

"Rooms," he barked to his servants, "for our friends here. The guest rooms. And bring them wash basins too!" he added. "We would hate for them to have to rest in their... their condition."

In polite words, we stank - not that I was completely unaware of this. I had never much been one to care much about cleanliness, but I still felt decidedly slimy from our earlier adventures and my dip in the canal had hardly improved my 'condition.' I was more than happy to swallow back the pork - and any retorts - and accept the Master's kind offer, following his serving woman up the stairs with her large basin and water jug.

The room she led me to was nowhere near as fancy as the one we had slept in at Rivendell. It seemed the Master only had three rooms to spare for his guests and these rooms themselves only held one rickety double bed in each and some space between it and a fireplace. Each fireplace was lit, casting shadows across each gloomy room. Nevertheless, I followed the girl into the smallest and gloomiest of the rooms (the only one that was currently free of the other dwarves) and, having waited for her to put the basin down and to leave, stripped off and began to scrub furiously at myself with the bar of lye soap provided.

The washcloth was soon caked in filth, as was the soap and wash basin. Plunging my head into it, I made a satisfactory enough job at washing my hair before stepping back and shaking it free over my shoulders. Lastly, I splashed water up into my face, brushing it through my beard with my fingers. I wasn't completely satisfied with my wash, but I felt a good deal more comfortable in my own skin - even if I was freezing cold, standing wet and naked as I was before the weak fire. The Master's windows were glass-paned and that seemed to keep the worst of the cold and light flurries of snow out. I would not have been so fortunate had I washed at the bargeman's house. Quickly squeezing my hair dry over the basin, I paused, holding my breath, as I heard two voices sound out by the door.

"I'll fetch Oin," came what I recognised to be Fili's low voice. Damn it. "He can look at it."

"Don't. Just- just leave it." That had to be Kili. Damn them, I thought bitterly, grabbing the towel and wrapping it quickly and tightly around myself. Did these lads have some hidden talent at disturbing me at moments like this?

"You know, what happened- it wasn't your fault. Uncle understands that. Everyone understands."

"They don't though."

The door opened and Kili stepped in, likely imagining the room to be empty or, at the very least, its inhabitants to be clothed. Rather his eyes grew almost to the size of the hobbit's dinner plates as he spotted me standing there, in the firelight, naked but for the towel, and full of righteous anger.

"One of these days I might actually be dressed when you walk in," I said, sourly, as Kili turned around, spluttering apologies, his brother peeking over his shoulder, only to look away also. "Or better yet, you might learn to actually knock!"