Ariel The Angst
Maven
Registered: Feb
2002 Location: Where my heart is... with my sisters in the
harem... Posts: 187 |
Umm... Sorry...? Part
5
Umm....
Sorry...?
Part
5
Life soon returned to some semblance of normality in
Bag End West. Goldenberry learned from her friend the elven
healer that the medicine she had been given occasionally made
recipients ‘energetic’, though he judged in a household with
nearly 30 ladies and one gentlehobbit, this might not be such
a problem! Frodo seemed all right, and had suffered no
apparent ill effects, so Goldenberry deemed it best to let the
matter lie. It wasn’t until she overheard Taurendil, Merewyn,
Iorethdttr and Brandy discussing him in the kitchen that she
began to suspect he might indeed have been affected by the
draught.
“Well, he’s certainly not incapacitated as far
as I have seen,” Taurendil exclaimed. “The minute we let him
out of bed, he’s done nothing but try and get back into it!”
Brandy laughed over her tea. She looked a bit tired
this morning, but had a satisfied smile. “Yes, but not for
sleep!” She tossed her generous curls. “It’s like he’s making
up for lost time… and making up, and making up! I have never
seen the like!”
“Did you hear?” added Merewyn. “He even
when IN to EliyaKirian’s bedroom to find
her!”
“Really?” the other ladies gasped. “What
happened?” they asked.
Merewyn giggled. “Well, I don’t
rightly know, but he didn’t come out for quite a while and
I’ve not seen Eliya since!”
“Yes, about the only one I
have even SEEN the next morning was Elda… and SHE looked like
the cat that ate the canary!” Iorethdttr scoffed. “And have
you SEEN the appointment book?” The other ladies shook their
heads no. Iorethdttr looked vaguely disgusted. “Not a blank
page in it! Honestly, how’s a lady to get time with her
squire?!”
“Well, I don’t know how much attention he’s
been paying to it lately anyway… He’s only one hobbit, but I
swear that he’s been around the entire harem at least once!
And it’s only been a month!” Taurendil shook her head in
amusement.
At that moment, Patricia, Firiel and Gladys
walked into the kitchen. All three looked a bit peaked.
Patricia and Firiel got themselves tea and sat at the large
table, but Gladys took one look at the cups and shook her head
as if deciding against it.
“Do we have any crackers?”
she asked. “I just can’t seem to get my stomach working
lately. I feel so awful.”
Goldenberry quickly found her
some crackers and asked if Gladys would like some ginger in
her tea as it might help settle her system. Gladys accepted
gratefully.
“Yes, Lily was complaining of much the same
thing! We just get over a convalescent Frodo and now our
sisters are coming down with a bug!” Patricia noted. “She came
out to the observatory the other night and almost threw up on
my journal!”
Firiel sipped unenthusiastically at her
drink and nodded. “Yes, and Mel too! Although she’s been
complaining of being achy and sore, not queasy.” She sighed.
“Well, whatever it is we’ve all got, it’s not that bad. I can
still function through it has made me retain water something
fierce. I can barely lace up my bodice any more.”
The
ladies continued to chat amicably but Goldenberry filed all
their symptoms away in her mind. The combination sounded
vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on
what it reminded her of. It would probably begin to show in
time.
By the next week, more ladies were
complaining of symptoms of the mysterious ailment. Evenstar,
one of the youngest ladies, was by far the worst affected. She
lay about for the first half of every day almost too ill to
move, but was nearly always better by luncheon. Marigold
wasn’t much better, but she’d found that by putting a snack by
her bed every evening and eating a bit of it before she even
rose, she could control the worst of her symptoms. What
bothered the affected ladies most was that there seemed to be
a group of their sisters who were NOT becoming ill. These
lucky souls included Erendis, Queenie, Rosie, Elda, Ariel,
Elevensies, Pearl, Chica, Bethel, Meryl, Quicksilver, Stormy
and Goldenberry. While it would be assumed that the healers
among them would be able to keep themselves healthy (though
this kind of thinking was belayed by the fact that Evenstar
was sicker than anyone!) it just didn’t seem fair that some
would fall ill and others would not. Lily marked this
disparity bitterly.
“You know,” she fumed. “What
irritates me the most is that Frodo’s been so sweet and
attentive lately, and most of us are too sick to even enjoy
his company! And there go that lot, especially Elda and Meryl,
hogging his time nearly to the exclusion of all else! If I see
Elda with that sappy grin on her face one more time, I am
going to hit her!”
Aisling nodded in agreement. “And
Pearl hasn’t been much better! She and Rosie both have been so
sweet tempered and maternal I could just scream. Do you know
when I got sick last time, she had the nerve to send me to bed
and even tried to tuck me in?” Lily didn’t think it wise to
mention that Aisling had been becoming as cross and moody as
Pearl was becoming maternal – they were uncharacteristic moods
for both of them.
“Ele has been acting like that too,”
piped up MelodyM. “I swear I have never seen her so sweet
tempered! If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was taking
some of Frodo’s medicine! She’s positively glowing.” The sweet
hobbitlass scowled. “It’s all those evenings she’s been
spending with Frodo, darn her! I’d be contented too!”
Erendis, who’d been listening quietly in the corner
with Elenillor, closed her book and looked disapprovingly at
them. “Well, I wouldn’t be too jealous of those ladies,” she
said pointedly. “It seems to me that nearly everyone who’s
gotten 10 feet of Frodo lately has come down with this
illness! They’ll get theirs sooner or later, I feel
sure.”
River Daughter frowned at her. “Well, you
haven’t exactly shown any signs of illness either, Erendis.
Shouldn’t you be one of the ones we are irritated
at?”
Erendis looked smug. “Well, I haven’t
gotten near Frodo since the accident! I knew right off
something fishy was going on when the first of you started
getting sick. I don’t know what is, but if those others are
greedy enough to hog all his time, then they will pay for
their actions, and in spades!” The ladies looked at each other
guiltily. Erendis did have a point. None of them had gotten
ill until after they had been with Frodo. “See what I mean?”
The dark haired lass chided. “Sorry, but whatever is going
around, I’m going to give it a pass, thank you very
much!”
“Well, that’s one way of handling it, I
suppose,” Anais yawned. “But it’s too late for me, whatever it
is, I’ve already got it, and I can only hope it’s nothing
permanent.”
HE HE
HE
TBC
Ariel
__________________ "Anyone for hobbit
abuse...?"
THE VERY SECRET DIARY OF
SAMWISE GAMGEE Day Twenty-Four
...We will see
about that.
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