Old Stoat sat smoking on a grassy bank some distance from the hovel they had made their camp. Ferny and others had come and gone over the past day or so leaving him to mind the children.
He was no sitter for babies and left them much to their own devices, occasionally hurling food in their general direction, much in the style of a pig farmer with a sty of particularly bad-tempered pigs. He had put all the hobbit children together in the same room as Fosco that morn, not to give the trying child company. Stoatie was as weary of the child and the regularly assaulted Ferny but just to make his own job easier. He was tired of doing his rounds to check on them so by putting them all together in one room he need only leave one tray of food then leave them while he busied himself stealing from the other men or smoking in the sunshine.
At that particular moment he was not merely smoking. He had set himself a little snare for a cony and was waiting patiently as she approached the cabbage leaves he had set his trap with. Stoatie watched, still and silent as his dinner approached. The young rabbit stepped within the snare. Stoatie grasped the end of the cord. A shriek cut through the morning air. The rabbit ran free.
Stoatie turned sharply toward the shack doorway. A filthy Fosco stood arms akimbo while the two other hobbit children ran off into the trees. The man cursed himself for putting them together. The evil little creatures had freed themselves.
"Ha-ha, smelly-stoat!" Fosco yelled and made to dash away as well.
Old Stoat charged toward him. The boy was fast but the man had a good turn of speed for he was acostomed to being chased. In a matter of minutes he was grabbed and felled by the full weight of his persuer.
He heard laughter above him. Stoatie looked up and saw another of Ferny's men standing with the hobbit escapees tucked beneath each arm. "You be lookin' for these'uns?" He enquired.
Stoatie pulled the squirming Fosco up and under his arm in a similar manner, being kicked several times in the process. "Aye, little rats. I thought they were firmly tethered in there."
The other man laughed again. "Na, don't put the varmits together. They're clever and cunning those halflings, even the bairns. Wait till Ferny hears about this Stoat. He'll have yer guts for garters. We could have lost all of them 'cos of you."
Stoatie was not impressed with being told how to do his job by a mere underling. He grunted bad-temperedly and turned back toward the shed.
[ April 27, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]
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Auriel
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