[Noinkling]

There was a slight clearing of the throat as Tolly tried to catch Cook’s attention. ‘Maybe we can help out,’ he offered, stepping forward. ‘My friend and I thought we might gather greens for the garlands and then help put them up. The crow could help us out . . . show us where to find the best ones.’ He looked over to where one of the servers was scraping some breakfast leavings into the scraps bucket. ‘Used to have a crow that liked to hang about my Da’s place. Maybe we could feed her some scraps,’ he said. ‘Looks hungry.’ Avalon looked from one to another of the creatures in the kitchen.

Cook agreed to the offer from Tolly and sent the three of them off with apples to tide over the man and Hobbit. And a small bowl of tasty breakfast leavings from the kitchen for the crow.

The three had gone out onto the Inn’s porch. The sun was warm and felt quite nice as Keleth and Tolly stood waiting for the crow to finish up her breakfast. ‘Well,’ said Tolly, looking about the Inn grounds, ‘where shall we begin?’