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Old 04-18-2011, 05:23 PM   #208
Pitchwife
Wight of the Old Forest
 
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall
Posts: 3,355
Pitchwife is a guest of Galadriel in Lothlórien.Pitchwife is a guest of Galadriel in Lothlórien.Pitchwife is a guest of Galadriel in Lothlórien.Pitchwife is a guest of Galadriel in Lothlórien.Pitchwife is a guest of Galadriel in Lothlórien.
Born and raised in a wine-growing country, Coldan had thought himself immunized against the less pleasant side effects of excessive drinking by life-long training, but the hangover he awoke with on his second morning in Minas Anor was a stinker the likes of which hadn't plagued him since the aftermath of his fifteenth birthday. Fending off the walls that pressed against his maltreated skull with groans and curses, he dragged himself out of bed and to the wash-stand, where he filled the basin with cold water from a jar and plunged his head right in.

Gasping and sputtering, he jerked his head back up and shook and blinked the water out of his hair and eyes. The memory of yesterday's various altercations all came back to him now, starting from that ill-fated rehearsal with Asta in the afternoon. That had not at all gone as he'd meant it to, and looking back on it now, he had to admit to himself that he bore a good part of the blame for that; calling her out on her flirting with Aldarion hadn't exactly been the most tactful way to prepare for a declaration of his love. And that quarrel with Aldarion himself in the common room - thinking of it made him wince now. He had behaved like a drunken boar, and that in front of that Lord Sador, who was under orders to supervise them on behalf of their none-too-friendly employer. What had he thought he was doing?

After all, what business was it of his whether Aldarion had been playing fair with Asta or not? He was done with her, wasn't he? At least he had told her so, after she had called him a name that used to cause blood feuds where he came from, and still did at times. If Sador's rumours turned out to be true and Aldarion really had only used her to amuse himself, didn't it serve her right?

But then she had apologized to him - a rare thing for her to do under any circumstances, and to him of all people. And - and she had been crying before that. He clearly remembered seeing the traces around her eyes. And that had been even before Sador had told them about that 'lady of Dol Amroth', so -

He stared at the wall in shock when the pieces began to come together in his head.

"You, my friend", he told his image in the small mirror on the wall, "may vell be ze dumbest fool valking Middle-earth."

After that, it took him a while to gather enough courage to venture into the common room in order to look for some pickles and salted herring and find out whether there was anybody left in the company whom he hadn't offended yet.
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