It was almost dusk before Gimli got the three of us to stop arguing. Katy, Pippin and I had been arguing about some of Aragorn’s tendencies. The ranger had been up front with Haldir, Legolas and Frodo (followed closely by Sam as always) and hadn’t heard us, saving us from his fury.
Katy thought his worst habit was his tendency to skip bathing for weeks on end. Pippin, while thinking this was a good point, thought it was his tendency to forget important meals like second breakfast, elevensies and afternoon tea. Pippin was now sulking upon the realization most of the Fellowship had this habit. Even though I acknowledged both these things as true, I had argued his tendency not to let me hold his sword was the worst.
Gimli had found this amusing at first but after the first half an hour he just got annoyed and yelled at us. He was now mumbling something about maidens being almost as bad as elves.
So now we were forced to walk along in silence. Katy was kicking a rock as we went and soon we were playing soccer with it. During our game we failed to notice the company halt and bumped into them. The elves were more than a little annoyed, if their glares meant anything.
Haldir ignored us, "Welcome to Caras Galadhon." He announced, "But we cannot enter here, for the gates do not look northward. We must go round to the southern side."
"And how long will that take?" I asked.
"It should not take even an hour." He told us "Will that suffice?"
I smiled, "Sure, I guess I can hold out that long."
"For once you are not complaining about the duration of the hike," Haldir noted, "What is wrong?"
I laughed, "I think you already know me better than them!" I indicated to the rest of the Fellowship, "But don’t worry, I’m fine."
He didn’t look convinced, but dropped it anyway. We walked along in silence for a few minutes.
"Hey, Haldir?" I asked, waiting until he acknowledged to continue, "Do they have an armory in the city?" I asked, my lips perking up into a grin.
Katy heard this, as she was walking right behind us, and quickly interrupted Haldir’s response, "I don’t think Galadriel will let you in their armory, Rachel." She told me, "Not if they heard anything about us from Elrond!"
I gave Katy my best practiced hurt look, "What’s that supposed to mean?" I asked, "I wasn’t that bad!"
"Oh right!" Katy rolled her eyes, "It only took, what? Three, four hours to get you out of there the first time?"
Haldir couldn’t suppress the look of surprise from his face, "Four hours?" He repeated, "That is more time than I spend in the armory in a week! What were you doing, polishing the blades?"
"That might’ve been fun!" I exclaimed, "But I wasn’t allowed to touch them…" I added sadly.
"So you sat in the Rivendell armory just staring at weapons?" He asked in astonishment.
"Actually, she was standing." Katy corrected, "And she mostly just stared at the swords."
He blanched.
"Sure anything sounds bad when you say it with that attitude." I complained.
"How would you say it then?" Katy asked.
I thought. Then I thought some more. Finally I replied, "I’m not going to grace that with an answer." I declared and stalked off.
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