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Haradhel opened the fire doors and started piling the wood inside, equally between the two places. She left them open for Cindy to load the last of the wood when she brought it in, then turned and started to prepare the food.

Cindy came in one last time and piled the last of the wood into the places carefully making sure it wouldn't toppled too badly as it burned. Nodding at her work for a moment she turned to see what else she could do.

"That's the last of it," she told Haradhel.

Haradhel smiled and passed Cindy a peeling knife from a drawer. "Would you mind helping to peel the potatoes?" she asked. "Peels can just go into the basket again, potatoes into the pot."

And she filled the pot with water about halfway.

"Just give me a minute to get the fires going and I'll help you as well."

Elrohir grinned and took a step backwards, out of the stable again. "Ready, then?" he asked Donovan and the others. "Just the fighters left, I think ... and I should warn you about them ... some of them are a little eccentric."

Donovan had to admit the second half of this was becoming quite amusing, even though he himself was being caught off guard by some of the people involved. He motioned for Triton to follow as he went with Elrohir giving a nod that he was quite ready to meet the people he would be working with most of the time.

"Elrohir," Donovan replied in almost absolute seriousness, "Fighters spend their occupation putting their life on the line, for that reason along we're all a bit eccentric."

Nevermind the mental issues that went along with it, whether it be emotional or actually physically cracking one's skull one too many times.

Haradhel held her hands at each of the fire doors and summoned a fire in each of them. Once they were burning hot enough, she closed the doors and washed her hands in the sink to one side.

"Usually I only cook for Elrohir, Aliya and myself," she replied, taking up a second knife and helping to peel the potatoes. "Everyone else usually feeds themselves. This is the slow season for work, so ..." She shrugged. "On the other hand, come winter, everyone will be eating inside, so I'll be needing quite a bit of help to feed everyone. Not to mention, I'll be nearly half way through my pregnancy by then, so I'll be needing even more help."

She frowned softly. "Truth be told, I'm worried about the winter. I've never experienced one outside the desert before, and I really don't know what to expect at all."


Elrohir nodded. "I understand, Donovan, but ..."

He hesitated, trying to find the words to explain: but finally he gave up and shrugged. "You'll see."

Donovan raised a brow, he wondered what Elrohir was trying to say. Granted he wasn't sure how much experience Elrohir had with fighters but he assumed it would be quite a bit if he was still training with his wife and had been back at the castle.

As the group approached the barracks, the door opened and Elros ducked out. He was the onl one on the entire ranch (and indeed probably in all of the Four Lands) who needed to do so, but he didn't mind. He hadn't hit his head yet, and he had been there over a year already.

Once outside, he straightened to his full height, an impressive almost 8 feet, and looked around. His icy blue eyes spotted the group immediately, and he moved to meet them.