[Child of the 7th Age]

Amanaduial the Archer's [post:
Shadow of Starlight

Aman drifted slowly out of sleep, a strange sensation itching at the insides of her nose. She sniffed a few times, hoping to clear it...and sudden realisation dawned. The Innkeeper's eyes snapped open and she threw back her bed covers and stood, all in one movement. Running through the dark room to the door, she flung it open, grabbing her sleeved cloak from a peg as she went and pulling it on over her nightdress. Running down the corridor, she came out in the Common Room where utter chaos reigned, people running around and shouting, some angry, some authoritative, some wide-eyed, all scared and fighting for the door.

The smoke was much thicker in here, and Aman waved a hand in front of her face trying to clear it. Looking around, her eyes suddenly widened as she caught sight of the kitchen door - and more importantly, the thick black smoke flowing under the bottom and around the sides. Hastening towards it, she nearly put her hand on the doorknob, before realising it would already be scaldingly hot to judge from the amount of smoke issuing from it. But from inside she could hear a sound...was that a voice?

"Hawthorne..." horrible realisation struck Aman. Had that been a voice, and was it that of the young hobbit? She hadn't see her in the crowded Common Room... "Hang on, Hawthorne, get to the window!" she yelled through the door, then coughed again, more violently this time. Turning to the chaotic Common Room, she bellowed with all the authority and power she could muster, "Get into two lines to go through the doors! You - yes, you, the hobbit with the hat - for goodness sake, put down the ale tankard, man! - open up the other door. The catch at the corner..."

Aman was struggling to be heard and the hobbit was obviously confused, tired and, from the look of his eyes, even redder than most, suffering from a hangover. Fighting her way to the front with yells of "MOVE!", the Innkeeper managed to get to the front and, undoing the catch with hands that suddenly felt like pillow cases, she flung open the second door. The crowd surged forward gratefully and Aman was pushed out of the way, only able to watch, fearing some poor souls were going to get trampled. But this was no time for courtesy; reaching forward, she grabbed one man roughly by the shoulder, recognising him as the Rohirrim man, Grimm.

"Grimm, please - go around the side to the kitchen door. Do you know where it is? A red door - oh look, you can't miss it. Just get it open, take someone else if you need help-"

"Cree, have you see Cree?!" he interrupted, his eyes wide. Aman, frustrated, let him go. Looking frantically around the room, Aman couldn't see the familiar faces of Ruby or Buttercup, and what's more, their room was almost above the kitchen. Seeing the competent looking hobbit lass from the night before, she pulled her back from underneath the feet of the two panicked Big Folk who looked about to trample her.

"You, what's your name?"

"Asphodel Hamfast, miss." The girl's eyes were wide, but she answered politely, keeping her head.

"Asphodel - do you know your way around the Inn?"

The hobbit nodded. "Somewhat, miz Aman. Can I help?"

Good girl... "You know where the guests' rooms are, Asphodel?" A nod from the hobbit lass. "Could you run up there and bang as hard as you can on the doors of all the rooms, shouting as loud as you can that there's a fire?"

Asphodel nodded again, a determined look in her pretty, dark eyes. "As you say, Miss." Darting away, Asphodel was soon lost to the crowd. Aman didn't have time to check whether the hobbit got to and up the stairs, as she turned to go towards the servants' quarters. She still hadn't see Ruby or Buttercup, and what if they hadn't woken up for some reason? Cloak flapping around her and hair flying, Aman set off at a run.