Rose the hobbit stood blinking through her tears, and the 'Bravery' bottle lay broken at her feet. Then she looked for her sword that she had let fall; and Behold! there lay her weapon, but the blade was smoking like a dry branch that has been thrust in a fire, and as she watched it, it writhed and withered and was consumed.
So passed another blade of the Barrow Downs. Barrow Downs blades are some of the finest swords you can get. Trouble is: you can only use them once.
"Wow! What a rush!" marveled Birdie. "I was in a real battle, with a sword and everything! Did you see how I came down on that Maeglin? Biff! Pow! Take that!" Then Birdie turned to the stawart little Rose. "But you delivered the killing stroke there, Rose Bro!"
Pio raised herself achingly off the deck. Weakly, she protested "I think it was a joint effort on all our parts. Rose merely wounded the foul specter. Then we delivered the blows that slew him."
"No way, said Birdie, "Rose's sword cleaved his unseen sinews, and if you look up the Old English definition of "sinews", it clearly states that it means 'strength' or 'will'..."
"I'm on Pio's bandwagon", piped up Primrose, "I think you ALL killed Maeglin..."
"Enough of that!" said Rose, "We've still got the Blue Wizards to deal with. If they return to the ship and find their captain has been overthrown, there's no telling what they might do to us all."
Then tilting her head towards Birdie, she whispered, "So do you REALLY think I deserve the credit for slaying Maeglin?"
"Well that's how I read it," Birdie whispered back, "but you're gonna have a hard time convincing everyone else of it."
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