[piosenniel]

Pio's post - Assiram - October 30th

Assiram pulled his blankets close around him and buried his head in his rolled up cloak. He was having the most wonderful dream!

He and his two companions had broken into the Great Smials. Most of the younger hobbits were gone, leaving only the older fellow and his wife there along with one or two old servants. Ahriman stuffed the servants into burlap bags from the mill while Helios and Assiram tied up and questioned the old man and woman. They were self-righteous little prigs - contemptuous of the men and especially the Boss.

The old guy spilled his guts soon enough, though, when Helios threatened his wife with a knife – actually drawing a little blood on her arm. He led them to a secret room at the back of the holes. And when they opened it up, it was stacked from floor to ceiling with gold coins and jewels. assiram reach out his hand to grab a handful . . .’

‘Wake up!’ The grating voice of Helios pulled him from his sleep, followed by the none too gentle nudge of the man’s boot. Assiram was on his feet in an instant, his sword drawn on pointed at the man’s gut. Ahriman stepped in, shaking his head at the two. ‘I thought we were getting an early start?’ he said, pointing at the sun that had already inched up above the horizon. ‘Might as well get goin’ now. We don’t have any more food – we’re gonna have to scrounge for breakfast.’

Even the horses were in a fractious mood as they rode off. Not enough grass and tasty bushes to forage for a satisfying meal. Assiram cursed at his mount and kicked her in the flanks. But she was having none of it, and turned round to nip him hard on the leg.

In a foul mood he led the other two westward.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They had no sight of the shiriffs as they rode along, and their stomachs protested loudly at their empty state. It was not the men who suffered the worst at this lack of food. It was the unfortunate Hobbit family whose little holding stood in the path of their advancement.

Assiram urged his horse through the garden, mashing down the last of the winter’s vegetables and tubers. His two companions wreaked havoc on what few livestock the Hobbits owned. The fence round the chicken coop was knocked down and the chickens’ scattered in all directions. The pigs were turned loose and driven into the brush beneath the trees.

When the man of the house tried to protest and shake his walking staff at them, he was knocked down with a blow from Assiram’s cudgel and his Missus ordered to cook up some breakfast. Ahriman came riding up with a big cured ham from the little smoke house and threw it at her, ‘Here cook up some thick slabs for us – ‘long with some a them eggs from the henhouse.’

Assiram pointed at the oldest boy. ‘And you! Get some of them taters picked up and cleaned off and fried up for us.’

There were a number of small Hobbit farms along the way to Tuckburrough, and each was dealt with in the same brutish way. The men cut a wide and destructive path as they made their way west.

No sign of the Shiriff’s were seen anywhere. ‘Damnable laggards and lazy louts!’ cursed Assiram as the day marched on. ‘Useless little rats!’

It was just as well the Shiriffs were not there to add fuel to the fire. The three were in such a mood, that they might have cut down the Hobbit officials had they encountered them . . .

[ September 25, 2003: Message edited by: piosenniel ]