[Kransha]

“Where do I hail from?” said Toby, leaning back again and laughing to himself, “Therein lies a tale which I have told far too many before you. But it is always a pleasure to tell it again.

Reclining further, Tobias Hornblower took a great, guzzling swig of the frothy ale that lingered in his tin mug. He had a great supply of ale earlier, quaffing to his heart’s wholesome content. The elder hobbit began to fear that he was letting the drink get to his head as well as his belly, but he was successful in rattling off the traditional “Hornblower Heritage” story that he’d told Snaveling and Roa several days earlier.

“I am a gentlehobbit of Longbottom, ma’am, and the stunningly green fields of the Southfarthing. There, my family, the Hornblowers, is one of the most respected and honored of the hobbit dynasties. For many long years we have tended the land around Longbottom and exported pipe-weed to the rest of the Shire. In fact, one of my own distant relatives first planted pipe-weed in the Shire and began to increase its popularity. Now, we Hornblowers have his legacy to continue.”

His warm grin remained pleasant, but became less direct as he looked away from Miss Mirabell, staring into the blurred colors of the crowd as it seemed to sway, swell, flow, and ebb around him like multicolored tides with countless rays of light refracting into delicate rainbows through them. It was a beautiful sight, though it was not the sight his eyes actually were witnessing. “And then….and…and I came to the Green Dragon…about a year ago…no, that’s not right, it was about a month ago…or was it a week.” Toby’s narrative oration crumbled as his words began to come out slurred together. Ignoring the fact, he took another drink, finishing off the ale in his mug and carefully inspecting every last drop that clung to its innards.

“Yes, yes, about a month, I think…” he trailed off, the colors of the crowd and the various dim lights beginning to captivate him as the ale mingled with the rest of him. He sagged in the chair, his eyelids drooping. He managed to perk up after a deep breath and almost fell forward in the hobbit-size chair.

“So…how’s life in Hobbiton nowadays? I have many a relative around these parts and I would certainly like to know of any interesting recent happenstances.”