Loyalty, Honor, and a Willing Heart

Chapter 6 - Happy hour

After a small meeting between Elrond, Ellen, Thorin, Gandalf, Dwalin and Balin, where it was made clear that she had shown herself worthy of Thorin’s company, she and Dwalin were dismissed, and they all were shown their rooms. The women enjoyed the chance to take a real bath, and some clean clothes and even night gowns were lent to them. The girls were curious about the meeting, and they all chatted carelessly while taking turns in the bath tub.

The elf told them Dwalin said to Thorin that he thought she was swift, but that her strokes could be harder, even with a well sharpened blade to compensate for it. He noted rightly that she was not used to aim at head and neck, which was true, as in boffering this is prohibited, but it could be fixed with some training. Then Thorin asked about the girl’s abilities, and Ellen explained the best she could without a demonstration. Then he settled that they would have some training from then on, at every spare time possible, and chose Fili to train Iris, as he excelled in two swords fighting; Kili would take charge of Lily, as both of them were archers; and Thorin would train Ellen himself.

“It will be cool, those two are funny!”

“You are saying this only because you got a gold coin from them.”

“How did you get a gold piece, Iris?”

The hobbit laughed out loud.

“They were making bets on your fight. We betted a gold piece in exchange of a tuna can!”

“And you got the coin and did not lose the tuna, is it right?”

Ellen wanted to untangle her hair before of washing it, so it would be easier to brush the dirt away, and was the last to undress to take her bath. She flinched when she took the leather corselet off, then took the once upon a time white shirt off too. Lily whistled, looking wide eyed at the big black bruise on Ellen’s back.

“Aunty, this does not look good at all!”

“I know.” She said, wincing with pain when her niece touched it lightly.

“We must do something, you might have broken a rib! I will see my first aid kit, but it is more likely to have some dried herbs and barks instead of our allopathic medicines. I’ll see if there is some ice in this house, if they have electricity it is possible that they have a freezer, too.”

“Yes, it might be. Did you see the dwarves’ faces when the lights went on? I guess they think it is a kind of magic!” Said Iris, laughing again.

“All those waterfalls are a wonderful means of getting energy, if one knows how to use it. This Master Elrond must have his mastering degree in engineering!” Ellen enjoyed the warm water and all the soap foam in her hair, but she was in pain. “Lily, don’t tell any of the dwarves I’m hurt. Let’s keep it to ourselves.”

“But why?”

“They may think I’m weak, and if so they will not be willing for us to go on with them. We must go with them, else we will never go home again!”

***

Lily put on some clean clothes, went out off their rooms and found a kind elf who guided her to a kitchen. As they suspected, they had ice, even if it was not in a freezer like they’d recognize as such. But the kitchen was not empty.

“What are you doing here?” Asked an angry Thorin with a small bucket full of ice in his hands. Lily looked down at the ice and almost chuckled, guessing rightly that he was angry for being caught red handed taking ice to tend Dwalin’s bruises. She knew Ellen could stock hard sometimes.

“Hmm, just the same as you, sir. Getting some ice. May you tell me where I can find a small bucket like yours?”

Elrond answered instead of the dwarf, as he himself had guided Thorin to the kitchen.