[littlemanpoet]

"Ahh," said Falco, patting his belly, "three bowls of stew and three mugs of ale to go with 'em. Now that's what I call good Shire fair and better portions!"

Gorby and Anson grinned, having followed Falco's example to the final swallow.

Falco turned to Eodwine. "And now, Master Eodwine, I think it's time for that tale. And you can be sure that we'll be quick to fill in any details you've missed!"

Eodwine grinned, feeling quite full himself from two bowls, and working on his second mug of ale. "I am happy enough that the Master of Brandy Hall saw fit to pay you well for your services, not leasting of finding me! Else we'd be beggars this night!"

Word spread that the tale would be told, and even the kitchen staff filled the doorway to get an ear of it. Aman came out and sat in the eighth chair around the table. The Great Room quieted, and Eodwine began.

"It is no longer a secret that I was lent to King Elessar by my own lord, King Eomer. You may have heard the rumors that surveyors and builders were sent from Gondor to the Hills of Evendim, to see what could be done to rebuild Fornost and Annuminas on the Lake. Four years in a row, no report came back from Evendim, not even one soul. All the builders were never heard from again. So I, not being of Gondor, was sent north to see what I could learn.

"On a day in mid summer, I road out of Bywater and left the Great Road, heading north over open country. It was not long before I was beyond the settled realms of the Shire. And not long after that, close to the Hills, I was of a sudden surrounded by two dozen and more men, and taken prisoner, but my horse escaped. They beat me and crushed my lyre, and took me, bound hand in foot, to a settlement along the shores of Lake Evendim.

"But before I was taken away from that place, I saw a wild wanderer hiding in the brush - our faces were no farther apart than Gorby's there across the table from me. And I begged him with my eyes to do something to aid me. I did not know if he did anything at all, and I confess that I did not count on it, and so made matters worse for myself than I had need to.

"For Falowik Stonewort here, was that wanderer, and he came straightway to the outskirts of the Shire, and reported what he had seen."

Falco interrupted. "I admit that I did not believe Falowik at first, not until I came to the Green Dragon Inn, where this man of Rohan that I thought Falowik had dreamed up, had been seen and heard of, and they had his horse. I return the tale to you, Master Eodwine!"

"I was made a slave, along with more than a hundred other men at the settlement. These men, as it turned out, were the very same surveyors and builders that had been sent north by Elessar. Not all were still accounted for, and ugly rumors there were as to what happened to some of them. We were made to farm the fields of their Master, and to husband their cattle, getting very little gain from it ourselves, for they almost starved us.

"There came a day when I lost hope and ran away from the settlement, only to be caught before I'd passed over the first hill, partly from my own weakness. My captors decided that I must pay the worst price, and be sent north to the Master."

"Who is this Master out of the north?" asked Aman.

"Was, more like, for he is no more, but that gets ahead of my tale. He called himself Herugor, an Elvish sounding name, which I am told meant something akin to 'lord of horror'. That title was true enough. But I have not yet told you who he was. He was the Dark Lord's Lieutenant of Barad-dur, and he was known to us who were at the Battle of the Morannon in the War of the Ring. He was called the 'Mouth of Sauron'."

The name brought a hush, for even though that Dark Lord was no more, his evil Ring destroyed, his name was not spoken lightly.