All Shall Fade (LOTR-Wattys 2014)

All Shall Fade - Chapter 33 - Spirit of the Festivities

All Shall Fade

Chapter 33

Spirit of the Festivities

Soon after our small party of riders left the cover of Fangorn forest and I found myself crouched low over Aduial’s neck to shield my face from the whipping wind as we galloped across the plains of Rohan. I glanced up occasionally, each time seeing the familiar city of Edoras growing a little closer, until the ground began to slope upwards, and before long we had slowed to a trot to enter the bustling city. My arrival here was very different to my original one, when everyone had been listless and mourning; now the houses were flurries of activity as people returned home after fleeing to Helm’s Deep. We rode to the steps in front of the hall and dismounted, and I fondly patted Aduial as she was led away. I’d met the horse less than a week ago, and already we’d been through so much, although I wasn’t in much of a hurry to repeat some of the experiences. I smiled a little as we began to climb the steps to where Eówyn and Eowdrin were waiting at the doors, although I had to stop my smile from fading as I noticed that Eówyn’s gaze was fixed upon Aragorn. I quickly forced myself to look as nonchalant as possible, but my façade was instantly ruined as Eowdrin came barrelling down the steps towards me.

“You’re back!” She cried, almost bowling me over with her enthusiastic hug. “Quick! You have to come inside and get ready!”

I frowned in confusion as she grabbed my wrist and started dragging me up the steps. “Uh, ready for what?” I asked as I noticed Legolas trying to hold back laughter as I appeared to be getting kidnapped.

“There’s going to be a feast!” She explained, pulling me into the hall and whisking me away to our shared room.

“Oh.” I breathed as she released me and I took the opportunity to flop down onto my bed. “Can I sleep first?” I sighed, burying my face in my unbearably soft pillow. All I wanted to do was rest and put all thoughts of the battle and Saruman behind me.

“Of course not!” Eowdrin sounded quite literally appalled that I had dared suggest such a thing as she grabbed my arm as if to drag me to my feet, but quickly dropped it as I hissed in pain, remembering that it was the arm I had injured. “Oh, sorry.” She murmured sheepishly as I sat up and began pulling off my coat.

“It’s fine, it doesn’t even hurt that much.” I lied with an easy smile – which vanished as I peeled off my chainmail, revealing the bloodstained sleeve of my shirt. I rolled up the sleeve and grimaced at the long, jagged wound that ran down the length of my forearm, still oozing a stomach-churning amount of blood now that the flow was no longer staunched by my sleeve.

“We should probably get that cleaned up.” Eowdrin said, quickly moving to get whatever she’d need to clean my wound as I examined it.

“Looks like it might need stitches…” I sighed, and then wondered if they had stitches here or not.

“I know,” Eowdrin replied lightly, “Don’t worry, I have lots of experience.” She smiled as she pulled up a chair in front of where I sat and took my arm, “Théodred always used to come home injured and I’d have to sew him up…” She trailed off and I saw the clear pain in her eyes as her thoughts wandered to her recently departed cousin. I didn’t really know what I should say to comfort her, so I just sat quietly as she cleaned away most of the blood from my arm before reaching for a candle that burned on the small table between our beds. I watched curiously as she picked up an alarmingly large needle and held the point in the flame to sterilise until it glowed red hot, and then she threaded it with what looked like a fine silk thread. I took this as my cue to look away to stop myself throwing up, and sure enough a few seconds later I felt the still-hot needle pierce my skin. I grimaced, biting down on my lower lip as I felt the thread painfully tug at the sensitive areas around the wound. I was instantly reminded of the few times I had visited a hospital to receive stitches. I couldn’t remember it ever being this painful.