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The newcomer mumbled something inaudible in response to Snaveling’s uncharacteristically friendly tone, and he quickly looked away. Feeling the snub, Snaveling turned his attention back to Toby and addressed the elder hobbit’s question, too long unanswered.
“You are right, my friend, we should attempt to regain our happy mood. But I am a dour and uncompanionable sort, and those who take up with me must endure it.” Toby laughed with delight and took another swallow of his ale. His face was thoroughly flushed now and his eyes had begun to wander in slightly different directions. As drunk as the little fellow was it was nothing compared to the state the larger Man would be in had he been matching Tobias drink for drink. Not for the first time, Snaveling marvelled at these Halfling folk and castigated himself inwardly for so badly misjudging them when he first arrived at the Inn.
He turned to Galadel next and bowed his head slightly. “I am glad you have rejoined us My Lady.” Silently he sent her thanks for her aid earlier in the evening. Without her support, he would never have found the courage to confess to Aman, and all the good that had come of that would never have been. Even as he formulated the thought, he felt her silent acknowledgement. But at the same time, he could feel her renewed curiosity about him pushing at the edge of his consciousness. Once more, he closed off that part of himself which he had forever kept hidden, but this time he did so as one would close a door behind a departing friend, and not violently as he had before. Galadel smiled and he knew her mind: Very well, Man of the South, keep your secrets. For now.
Indeed, it was those secrets that now consumed Snaveling. He could tell from the reaction of Roa and Galadel that his amulet and the tale he told of it had put him into an entirely new light with them – a potentially dangerous new light, although who was a danger to whom was unclear to him. In his youth he had heard many tales of his ancestor, the exiled heir to the prince, and of the enchanted island in the West where Men did not die, and over whom there ruled a King so powerful that he had vanquished and humbled the Nameless One himself. Snaveling had always put aside such tales as trifles meant to calm children before bed, or to mislead the foolish. But now…he began to wonder if there could be any truth to the tales. And if so, how could he profit from them…?
Toby clapped Snaveling on the back and suggested another drink. Snaveling smiled and remarked, “I have already had more than enough drink for one evening” and his face flushed with immediate shame at the thought of what he done that night while under the influence of the alcohol, “so I shall forgo any more. However, a nice cup of tea and some of that food would be more than welcome right now.” He rose with Tobias to fetch something, but at a thought, he turned to Roa and Galadel and asked, as courteously as he could, if they wanted anything from the table.
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