Eorling Mead Hall

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Saeryn watched the dangling shimmer with all the fascination of a crow with a shining penny. Though no light from the sky touched it, it seemed to catch what light there was and reflect it back toward her as it spun slowly on its chain.

“I may have more of these precious little beauties.” The man made her curious. She had met those like him, of course, but they had never gained her attention such as this. She put it down to that the last time she had been in such company, she had been clad in a fine gown with her hair styled and had been seen only as a fine-brained lady with no mind for barter.

"Perhaps later, Master Larswic, you shall tell me the history of this lovely piece. I wonder at the lovely woman whose neck it once adorned. But as you can see, now is not quite the time or the place." She gestured simply, somehow capturing the illusion that she had pointed simultaniously to the drizzle falling lightly from the dull grey sky to the mud about their feet and the imperfect shelter nearby. "I must admit to a slight chill, and I suspect that if I've one, others of this household do as well. I'll need to check the state of rooms closest to the fall and organize a meal of some sort, and all that that will go unnoticed otherwise. If you'll excuse me..."

They had walked as she spoke and were now within the building at the end farthest from the destruction.

"This room should suit." she said, opening a door wide. She had cleaned it that morning before Lin had joined her for sweets and laughter. "You are, of course, welcome to wander, but please take care. I am sorry to be so abrupt, but there is much to be done and less time to do it in."

[Lalwendë]

Wultheof knew that when another boy said he had not settled on a sport or he had no idea what he was going to compete in, it usually meant he was afriad to compete, that he had no real strength. But as Leofric talked, Wultheof could tell that the other boy was clearly made to be a jockey. That would explain why he was working as an ostler, to be closer to the horses. Wultheof did not say anything, but this impressed him. A good rider was highly prized in all quarters of Rohan, but out on the plains, horse riding had become not just a skill, but an art, and a good rider would be sought out by the owner of a good horse to compete in the regular races held.

Wultheof made sure to remember to tell his father about Leofric.

They worked hard to get the horses settled. A horse was worth a lot, and everyone in Rohan respected the animals, making sure they had comfort before they sought their own. The work was done without any second thoughts. Once it was finished, Wultheof and Leocsley headed back towards the Mead Hall, hoping to find some food.

"He looked to have a limp. Lame old horse," muttered Leocsley to his cousin.

"Limp or not, he knows his horses. I reckon he'd give us more than a fair race, if it came to it," Wultheof said. "Least he wasn't soft in the head like you."

"Look who's talking, fool," Leocsley quickly stuck out his foot and his cousin stumbled. he was rewarded by being bundled to the ground and punched in the shoulder. The boys scuffled for a moment before getting up again, covered in muck and laughing.

***

He could see she was interested. That was enough for now, to dangle the idea and wait to see what unfolded.

Larswic had been dangled something interesting himself. This young woman was clearly not born to be a serving girl, she had more grace and a certain bright intelligence hidden beneath. He knew there was a story here and he resolved to find out more. His own daughter was a simple girl, beautiful but quiet.

Here was another young woman who seemed to have a man's ways. He did not quite understand why so many chose to act that way, but since the King's sister it was more common, and she had been a brave lass, as brave as any man. Still, he could not square a young woman like Saeryn with the presence of the other finely dressed, but dusty young woman he had seen pass by on the way in. One was fine but chose to hide it, the other displayed it for all she was worth.

There might be money to be made here after all, he thought to himself. He thanked his hostess kindly, and made sure to press a small gold coin into her hand for her troubles.

He looked at the room out of courtesy to Saeryn, and found it as he expected, clean and plain, and at any rate much better than the tent they had used to camp in on the journey to Edoras. Larswic was not the type to fuss about his lodgings, so as soon as the hostess had left him, he turned around. He had to make sure his horses were properly stabled to set his mind at rest, and to check that the lads weren't being knuckleheads, and making fools of themselves, and more importantly, him.

[Nerindel]

At first Æðelhild had not much liked the idea of having to take Frodides upstairs. Though she had neatly stitched up the wound and dressed it tightly with a compress of Knitbone (Comfrey) root and Calendula oil, it was still tender. She wouldn’t be able to put weight on it for sometime and climbing stairs was the last thing she should do, but there was no help for it. The lower level was now littered with dust and debris. The mock hall was no better an option as there would be no peace for the woman to get the rest she required to overcome her shock. No up stairs was all that was left and after Thornden and Degas had assured her that they could see the injured woman safely up, she had relented.

After the men had left and Frodides had finally drifted off to sleep, Æðel helped Kara to light a small fire in the hearth, to keep the room warm. She had not known where all the others had been when the wall had fallen only that Frodides had still been in the kitchen were she had left her only moments ago, noting that Thornden had realised the same thing and was trying to clear a way the debris to free the trap woman she had instinctively rushed to her room to collect the herbs and oils Meduseld’s healer had given her on his last visit. Only now, now that Frodides was safe and well did she think of the others and hoped that none of them had been in the hall when the wall fell, but still she had to be sure. So whispering, she told Kara that she thought she should go and make sure that there were not others requiring her assistance. Kara nodded, agreeing to sit with Frodides, until she or someone else returned.

“ I shall try not to be long and if I can I will also try to procure a kettle or something in which to brew a nice warm calming tea, perhaps Chamomile or lavender? Frodides will be thirsty when she awakes, and when memory of the state of her kitchen comes back to her she my need a little something to calm her nerves.”

Kara’s eye widened slightly at the thought, “Aye, perhaps it would also be best for you to advise our lordship not to pay visit till after she’s had the tea then!”

“Yes I believe that would indeed be wise,” she replied with a chuckled as she picked up her basket and again headed down stairs.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs she stood aghast, as finally the full extend of the damage lay before her. The front wall had fully collapsed in on itself, completely covering the old hall and blocking the way into the kitchen and Kara had already told her the damage within as they had lit the fire in frodides room. She had stood stunned for a moment, this would take months to clear up she thought, then with thought to how Lord Eodwine would be taking this she looked round.

She found him talking to Thornden, Degas and Falco were with him and to her relief neither Eodwine nor Falco seemed hurt. As she approached them she noted Linduail and Meneril sitting a little away lost in thought, but neither seemed hurt.

“M’lord!” She respectfully nodded in greeting. “I bring news of Mistress Frodides, The severe gash to her leg, though not deep still required some stitching. I also took the liberty of applying a compress of Knitbone root and Calendula oil, both to prevent infection and to aid in the healing, she will be fine, but she will have to stay off that leg for sometime. She is resting now in the west quarter on the second floor, but I think it would not be wise for you to visit until after there has been chance to brew ..eh…erm a more calming remedy.”

Falco let out a deep hearty laugh, catching on to what she was politely implying. “Even wounded she don’t lose that fire!” he roar digging Eodwine jovially in the ribs.

Æðel said nothing but waited for the Lord to speak, before asking him if any others required her attention.

[littlemanpoet]

Eodwine waited for Æðel to finish her report, not betraying any sign of his own mood; that is, until Falco ribbed him. Eodwine scowled but recovered quickly enough, or at least so he told himself. Frodides would be a spitfire for a while. He hoped she would be willing to stay on.

"My thanks, Æðel, for taking charge of Frodides' care. There is another whom I would have you look after, unwilling though he be. Find Thornden and Gárwine, and have them wrestle that Léof down and take his boot off. I wager that foot he's hiding is at least bruised if not harboring broken bones, and I'll not have him suffer the longer hidden. Will you do that?"

"Yes, lord," she nodded.

"One thing more."

"Yes, lord?"

"Know you where Kara is?"

"She is in the room where we have laid Frodides, building the fire in the hearth."

"That is good. When she has built it to her satisfaction, tell her that I send her to market to buy food for a late midday meal and tonight's meal."

Æðel curtsied and went in search of Kara, Thornden and Gárwine.

"Now Falco, let's you and me have a look at what we can find in the mess I call my mead hall."

They picked their way through the rubble and shivered beams lying at all angles across the floor and over crushed tables and chairs, and searched every nook and cranny they could get to. After much labor at this that took them well into the middle of the afternoon, stomachs groweling, the two reached the same conclusion at the same moment, Falco speaking while Eodwine nodded.

"It was bound to fall, Master Eodwine of the Gap. It was the roof and its beams holding up the wall instead of the other way around. And that roof and those beams was getting weaker by the month. Had you not had the roof taken off when you did, the wall would have fallen at any road, and most like on top of guests in the middle of their supping. And that would ha' been tragic. So you're a lucky lord, is what it looks like."

Eodwine shook his head. "As hard as it was to believe such a thing just a couple of hours ago, I do believe you have the right of it." Someone approached. It was Saeryn.

"Hello my lovely!" Eodwine called cheerfully. "We have found us a secret worth the telling!" But then he noticed that her face was drawn in a frown, and there was a purposed fire in her eyes. "But you seem to have somewhat to tell of yourself, so I'll hear you first."

"These new men," she said. "They're freeholders from within the bounds of your new realm, and they don't sound too happy about it."

"What be you a-thinking?" Falco asked.

Before Saeryn could answer, a call issued from out front: "Hello! Are there any about who might aid a weary traveler?"

There was a cart led by a single horse, and a man standing beside it looking desperate. Off the three of them went to see what was what.

Intro to Eorling Mead Hall rpg

[Firefoot]

As soon as Wultheof and Leocsley had left, Léof hobbled as quickly as he could into his little room, hoping that he would have at least a few minutes to himself. He would need at least that long to have a look at his foot. After closing the door almost all the way (so that he would still be able to hear out), he sat down and gingerly removed the boot, then the sock beneath it.

He sighed at what he saw. Unsurprisingly, most of the front half of his foot was already starting to turn color and would undoubtedly be a mess of black and blue before too long. He tentatively prodded at it with his finger and felt spasms of pain with every touch. The toes were the worst. He could tell that his third and fourth toe had broken; he did not know about the other three (or the rest of his foot, for that matter). He did not have enough experience with injuries to tell how much was broken. Legs, fingers – those were easy to tell, Léof knew from experience. As were sprained ankles. But feet?

Convinced that he could do nothing more than hope it healed itself up, he padded his foot with some bits of cloth he found from his pack and forced himself to shove the boot back on his foot. He had no intention of taking the boot back off any time soon, not until the foot didn’t hurt as much.

But now he had other business to attend to. He recalled now the bang he had heard before Æthel and Herefola had been pushed completely over the edge and guessed that one of the horses had kicked a wall or something of the sort. If so, it would not be unlikely that the horse would now need some sort of care – perhaps a new shoeing. Léof limped off to find which horse it had been, determined to carry on with his normal duties. He had been forced to work with worse before, after all, and what was a few broken toes compared to that?

The horse he was looking for was the fifth horse he had checked on, a flighty grey gelding. Léof did not feel comfortable alone in the stall with this one, and so led him out into the aisle with some difficulty. Tying him securely outside the stall, he was moving around to check the horse’s feet when he heard people entering the stable. He looked up to find Gárwine and Thornden walking straight towards him. Léof suppressed a groan. He could easily guess what they were here for. He pretended to ignore them at first, inspecting first one back leg of the horse, finding nothing, and moving on to the other.

“My answer is ‘no’,” said Léof without even looking up. He picked up the horse’s other back leg, and, sure enough, the shoe had come lose. He would be taking this horse to the blacksmith later – and he could even ride Æthel there, avoiding the need to be on his feet.

“Léof, you can’t be walking around on a broken foot,” said Gárwine. “I saw how much pain you were in before.”

“I can and will,” answered Léof evenly. “I’ve had worse, and there’s work for me to do. Besides, it’s already feeling better.” He found the blatant disbelief in both of their faces rather annoying. Why couldn’t everyone just leave him alone? He’d be fine. “I’m not coming with you.”

[Nerindel]

After being dismissed Æðel had hurriedly returned to Kara to deliver Lord Eodwine’s instruction, then hastened to find Thornden and Gárwine. The news that her friend had been injuried had caused her no amount of worry, she knew how much he wanted to impress upon Eodwine that he could forefill the role given him and how stubbornly he would work regardless of any injury to insure that the postion would remain his. His need to see his sister with him was great and one she understood, but she would not simply let him go on suffering needlessly. She was his friend and this she could help him with and as she followed silently, blocked from view by the opposing broad shoulders of the Lords men, she silently resolved to help him weather he wanted it or not.


“My answer is ‘no’,” Léof issued before she could even come out of the shadow of the two men. This sharp response startled her and she waited to hear more, as Gárwine attempted to entreat the young man to see reason.

“I can and will,” came the even response “I’ve had worse, and there’s work for me to do. Besides, it’s already feeling better.” At this Æðel’s normally shy and temperate deamour shifted, like the others she could not believe what she was hearing, a very fine horse man he was but a healer he was not! She would decide if it was feeling better or not! She had expected him to be stubborn, but not a complete bonehead, his foot could not possibly feel better if anything it would only get worse!

So as the young ostler blatantly refused to go with them she stepped out of the shadow of the two men, regarding her friend with an irritable and frustrated look. “Who said anything about going anywhere? Here is as good a place as any!” She issued, nodding to Thornden and Gárwine, who quickly stepped forward intent to apprehend the young ostler, that she could attend to his injury.

“This is for your own good” she sighed sympathetically, seeing the wounded look he shot her.

[Kath]

After building the fire to her satisfaction, Kara had sat with Frodides and kept a careful eye on her. She didn't seem to be running a fever and there were no nightmares disturbing the sleep she had fallen into since Aedhel had returned with the chamomile tea, so when the message from Eodwine came that she was to go to market and fetch food for the days meals she felt that it would be alright to leave.

Making her way back down the stairs Kara had seen that the rest of the Hall's inhabitants seemed perfectly alright, even if the building itself was in a bit of a state. She began to walk towards the kitchen to pick up her cloak for the journey, but stopped as she caught sight of the pile of rubble and thought that perhaps she could do without it for one day. Nodding to Saeryn and the newcomer as she went out the front door, Kara left, a little worried about the journey as it was the first time she'd had to plan two entire meals by herself. She had thought about waking Frodides to check that what she was making was alright, but then wondered if it was worth the tongue lashing she would receive for her insecutiry. Anyway, if Frodides was leaving Kara would need to get used to this.

* * *

Kara returned a couple of hours later, laden down with goods from the market. Things seemed to have calmed down a little since the disaster that morning, though plenty was still going on. She put everything down just outside the doors to keep it away from the dust still being stirred up inside, and suddenly realised that she had nowhere proper to put the food, or indeed to cook it, since the kitchen was a mess.

Deciding to leave that problem for a few minutes she ran up the stairs to check on Frodides, and found that she was now awake and seemingly in not too much pain. She stoked the fire until it was back as full heat, despite Frodides' insistence that she need not be fussed over. Ignoring this Kara poured the cook a little more tea and sat on the bed next to her until she, grudgingly, drank it. As she did Kara told her of her dilemma, and was told in no uncertain terms that it was Eodwine's job to make sure the household ate and she should go speak to him about it at once. But it might be an idea to suggest an outdoor oven, as that was bound to get people involved.

Taking Frodides' reluctant advice Kara ran back downstairs to find Eodwine. It took a few minutes of searching but she eventually came across him and put the question to him.

"My Lord, I have the food for the meals but nowhere to cook it. Frodides suggested an outdoor oven, would it be too much to ask that some of the men help me build one that I might get something made?"

Eodwine thought for a few moments and then nodded. Motioning for Kara to follow him he led her out of the Hall and around to the east of the building. He pointed toward the grass a little way off.

"It will have to be done in a camp style and make a stone-rounded firepit somewhere in this area. I would be happy to let Saeyrn and Degas help you but they are indisposed right now. Can you not do it alone?"

"I'm sorry my lord but it will be difficult for me to build and prepare the food at the same time but if you don't mind your meal being a few hours late then yes I can."

Eodwine looked a little surprised at her being so candid, but then smiled.

"You can ask for help from anyone here. I'm sure there will be someone who is willing and able."

Thanking him Kara headed back inside to find some helpers. Marenil soon offered his services, but warned that he would not be able to do anything too demanding as he was still not completely recovered. Happy that she had at least one person Kara accepted and sent him off to find wood for the fire. She set to work marking out a space for the oven to go, and hoped that someone would walk past and offer help as she and Marenil alone wouldn't have this finished before midnight if they had to work alone.