[Amanaduial the archer]

The bucket chain was working well and fast, and most of the fire was going down, but one wall, the one nearest the kitchen, was consumed by flames. These licked greedily through the Common Room, filling it with choking smoke as Aman entered, breathless, a hankerchief clamped over her mouth and nose. Despite her fears, the three hobbit servers had got out, but the Innkeeper herself was another matter as came down from fetching them. But she was not going to let anyone, even in a sleepy little hobbit Inn, perish in the flames, and was determined that before she left, everyone else would be safely out.

Most of the guests, it seemed, were out, many of them going out of the windows and supervised by a few men on the ground below. But there was that sound again...like the one she had heard before...but louder, more real, even beyond the sound of the creaking wall and the flames. A small, thin voice, desperate...

Aman peered through the smoky room, her green eyes vivid with smoky tears, looking for some sign of movement. And there it was...a bright cloth, the green strange in the flame-filled cavern of this side of the Common Room, waving...then it fell. Aman had only seen it for a second, but that was enough; picking up her skirts with one hand, covering her mouth with the other, she darted between fallen tables and chairs towards the source of the movement. There, curled protectively into a ball in the corner, was a small hobbit lass - Asphodel. A wave of guilt rushed over the Innkeeper - if it wasn't for her, Asphodel might have been out by now. Rolling the girl over, she looked her over for any immediate signs of burns or breaks which would stop her from being moved, but there were none, luckily - and she was still breathing, thank the Valar. Bending into a squat, Aman picked the girl up beneath her elbows and managed to hold her in the way one might hold a small child, although her head was lolling over her shoulder. She tied the handkerchief quickly around the girl's own mouth to prevent more of the choking smoke from getting in then, tightening her grip, she ran back out through the burning room. But wait...

Aman knew it was stupid and rash, and that she was not only endangering herself, but Asphodel as well, but her business-like side came over her. Diverting her course slightly towards the bar, she grabbed the till, propping it firmly under one arm, then ran as fast a possible, even as the wall nearest the kitchen creaked and fell. Ashes and sparks and soot were everywhere, falling behind the Innkeeper and her burden and over them, as Aman sprinted, one arm shading her face and Asphodel's, the other clinging to the till, out through the door into the fresh, clean air...