[Kransha]

After a great deal of loud complaining and grumbling, Tobias Hornblower, the aged gentlehobbit from Longbottom, was sitting on the grass that rimmed Bywater Road and fanning his crimson tinged feet. The soles of those feet were coated with charred skin, which wasn’t particularly irritating, except for the fact that he now couldn’t walk without causing himself pain. He looked at the fiery display of color blossoming from the Green Dragon Inn with a mixture of awe, disappointment, and confusion.

Slowly but surely, the fire began to slow its rapid and destructive rate, dying down due in part to the efforts of the people around him. It would have been harrowing indeed to see all these multiracial folk banding together to combat a common enemy, this chaotic natural force, but Toby was too busy mumbling about his poor, injured feet to care. He slowly rose, testing the strength of his tired legs. Lances of pain shot through his lower limbs and the soles of his feet tingled unpleasantly as he attempted to support himself on them. The pain wasn’t great, but Tobias loved making mountains out of molehills. He shook scorched debris from his hairy appendages and began to walk slowly back and forth, past the other escapees.

He looked to the line of men and women valiantly sending bucketfuls of water onto the ruin, now wheezing and coughing with smoke like a sick old man as the fire’s power waned. A gruff noise rising in his dry throat, the hobbit walked toward the water bucket line to find someone who had an inkling of what was going on. Suddenly an idea dawned on him. Despite raging smoke, he could probably get in and out of the structure with relative ease. There would be plenty of valuables, albeit a little damaged, still inside and completely unguarded, giving him the perfect oppurtunity to pilfer a chosen few.

Mustering up some courage and cunning, Toby ran around the bucket line and headed into the inn through one of the collapsed entrances. If anyone asked why he was inside, he had a valid and honest excuse. He’d left his pipe on a table in the common room.