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Anyopa had left a short while ago, saying he would meet them in the Common Room. Zimzi heated some water and set Derufin to washing up. He raised his brows at her and laughed, saying didn’t she enjoy the smell of a hard-working man?
Her emphatic answer was ‘no’. And would he please be sure he scrubbed the pitchy spots off his arms and hands. ‘I’d like to take your arm as we walk over to the Inn. And I’d like not to find myself glued to you by the time we get there.’
He pulled his sad, hound face at her, saying how quickly the romance had fled. Her only reply was to snap his bare midriff with a towel she had fetched him. Thereon ensued a friendly scuffle, and the transfer of a small smudge of pitch from his cheek to hers as he attempted to steal a kiss.
In the end, they were both cleaned up, walking arm in arm into the Inn. Zimzi was the first to spot Benat and the others already gathered at a table in the center of the room. Derufin steered her toward them, and once they were seated, the companions fell to talking.
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‘Many are the strange chances of the world,’ said Mithrandir, ‘and help oft shall come from the hands of the weak when the Wise falter.’
– Gandalf in: The Silmarillion, 'Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age'
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