[Nurumaiel]

From outside the door of the Green Dragon a loud, high-pitched voice could be heard screeching angrily. The door burst open and a young hobbit lad marched into the inn, followed by a red-faced lass, obviously the one who was screaming. Though many eyes were on them, the lass did not cease her screaming until, in humiliated desperation, the lad clamped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes widened and she glared furiously at him, but he didn't release her.

"Melilot, please be quiet," he said. "Or, even better, please go away. I came here to be alone for once."

The captive tried to say something, but still he wouldn't let her go until she had promised to stop her screeching. Then she said a low voice, yet not without all her previous anger, "Hamson Cotton, I will not leave until you answer my question."

"Then the answer is no," the lad replied firmly. "Or will you continue to pester me until I say yes?" He took her arm and led her over to an empty table. "Maybe you'd care to sit down and discuss this calmly," he said, gesturing towards the bench. With great reluctance, she obeyed. He took a seat opposite her, and for a moment they just stared at each other.

His Sackville-Baggins cousins had always been out to ruin his life, or at least that's how it appeared. The way they ordered him around sometimes you would think he was their slave. And Melilot was the worst. She was rather an attractive lass, with black hair and blue eyes, and though she found her freckles a serious flaw to her beauty, everyone else liked them. Her prettiness made her think she could convince any hobbit lad to do anything she wanted him to. And now she was after Hamson Cotton's hole.

Of course he wouldn't go live in it until he was 33, and he was only in his mid-tweens yet, but his parents were rather wealthy and had two holes. One in Bywater and one in Buckland. The one if Bywater was the simpler of the two, and the Cotton parents preferred it. Before they had gained their wealth they had been middle-class hobbits, and they felt more at home in the Bywater hole. The Buckland hole, however, was a different story. It was extremely elaborate, fit for the wealthiest of hobbits. Hamson never heard the story of how his parents had gained the expensive hole, but they had, and he was to own it when he came of age.

So, of course, Melilot had to have it. It was expensive, very elegant... in fact it had all the qualities that she appreciated. She was quite determined to get the hole from Hamson, whether he liked it or not. He didn't like it. He would have been quite content to sell it and buy some other simpler hole, but because his parents and probably done a lot to get the hole for him, and because Melilot was so dead-set on owning it herself, he was also determined. Nobody besides his family would ever own the hole, not even if they killed him for it.

A few minutes ago Hamson had had a few concerns that Melilot was going to do just that. She had waylaid him while he was on the way to the inn, demanding angrily once again for ownership of the hole (as if she had any right to it at all!). At first he had ignored her, but then as she followed him, insisting for an answer, he had told her no. That made her fly into a rage, though she had pretended she hadn't heard him. She had shouted angrily at him all the way to the inn. He thought he could escape there. He had thought she would consider herself to elegant to enter an inn. But she was in such a rage that all of those thoughts left her, and still she pursued him.

And so now she sat before him, her cheeks still flushed in anger, her eyes shooting sparks at him, her hands clenched tight on the table where they rested. How could he possibly make her understand that he would not sell the hole? He could ignore her, but not for long. She would keep following him wherever he went, screeching at him, and he was convinced he couldn't take that for very long without going insane. Then he'd be locked up and Melilot could take over the hole easily. The whole matter was so childish, but Melilot didn't care, so therefore Hamson didn't care. He'd act childishly to defend his hole as long as she acted childishly to get it.

"Well, did you want to say something?" the lass demanded. "Or is your silence a way of telling me you give in to my demands?" She smiled and him in a superior way, then added casually, "Really, Hamson, you should give up. I am going to win in the end."

He didn't answer. He was used to her saying things like that. At first it had annoyed, but now he didn't care at all. Let her talk. She knew very well he would win and no other.

"Hamson, listen," she said, the anger leaving her voice and a honey-sweet tone replacing it. "If you let me have the hole, I'll buy one just as nice for you. What's the difference between one hole and another?"

"It won't be as nice, otherwise you could buy the other hole for yourself," Hamson said with a little shake of his head. "And the difference is that one hole means nothing to me and the other is mine. Melilot Sackville-Baggins, you just listen to me for one moment. I'm not going to tell you again. I am not selling that hole, ever. Maybe you'll get it someday if you outlive me (which I highly doubt), but while I'm alive, I own the hole and no one else."

Melilot rolled her eyes and then turned a desperate look towards a hobbit sitting on the table behind her, who blushed and got up, walking to the bar. Hamson didn't care a bit if anyone listened in. Let all of the Shire know that Melilot was a little brat who was trying to take what wasn't hers. He didn't care. Maybe they'd all rise in rebellion and drive her out of the Shire. He grinned suddenly. It was an amusing thought.

Melilot stood up. "I'm going to get a drink," she said. "Don't try to run away while I'm going, because I'll be watching you the whole time. Maybe you should have a drink too... something that will wake up your brain." She pressed her hands down on the table and leaned forward, looking him straight in the eye. "Give up, Hamson," she said. "It's only sensible." Then she walked away.

Hamson watched her as she made her way to the bar, smiling innocently at everyone. If she weren't a lady he would like to give her a sound punch in the nose. Maybe that would wake up her brain. Yes, she was watching him. He couldn't possibly escape. And even if he did, she'd find him again eventually. How would he ever show her that he was just as serious as she was, that it was only sensible for her to give up? Propping his chin onto his hands, he began to ponder this.

Soon Melilot returned, a drink in hand. She took her former seat and watched Hamson thinking. Not a very handsome hobbit. He had freckles all over his face. He was rather smart, but naturally not as smart as her. Or maybe he was stupid. It was stupid to think he could get away without giving the hole to her. So was he stupid or smart? Well, he was ugly, anyway. Look at all those freckles! And his brown hair was the ugliest shade of brown in the Shire. And what color were his eyes? Were they brown or blue or grey or green or all of them mixed together? Oh, what did it matter what the exact color of his eyes was? They were ugly, that was all that mattered. He was ugly and stupid and very rude.

Hamson was oblivious to all Melilot's thoughts. He was picturing himself at the head of a rebel crowd, leading them to where their battle against the Sackville-Bagginses would take place. They had rebelled against those cruel tyrants because of their pure evilness, and now they had only one thought in mind... to drive Melilot out of the Shire. Fortunately Melilot was also oblivious to Hamson's thoughts, or there would have been another fuss.

Hamson didn't consider himself very fortunate. If any other hobbit in the Shire was persecuting him like Melilot could, he could bring the matter to the parents of that hobbit. He didn't consider that to be a cowardly act. After all, hadn't he done everything he could? Melilot was almost a matter for the Shirriffs, of that he was convinced. She should be locked up in jail. He chuckled to himself when he recalled his previous thoughts of how he might go insane. Then the two of them would make a great pair! Melilot was already insane. Of that Hamson was completely convinced. Only an insane hobbit would act like she acted.

Melilot had stopped pondering over Hamson's ugliness and stupidity and was now thinking about how annoying he was. Why couldn't he stop persecuting her and just give her the hole? He was entirely insane. She should report him to his parents. At least he could be civil about the whole thing! Maybe one day the Shirriffs would hear him yelling at her and he'd get thrown into jail. That would be just what he deserved.

Plain to see, the two of them were thinking almost exactly alike. But Hamson was also hatching up various schemes to get rid of Melilot, while she sat there, completely unknowing (innocent wouldn't work). The first one would be simple... he'd use his extra money to get himself a room at the inn. Melilot didn't have any money with her now that she had bought that drink. While she went to get some, he would climb out the window of his room and escape to Buckland. And until she found him again, he'd be perfectly safe.

Hopefully it would work.