The Green Dragon Inn - Part 10

[Maeggaladiel]

Arrow wagged his silvery tail as Eleniel tossed him a piece of bread.

"You're getting spoiled, O Great Hunting Dog," she scolded. "Just remember that you're going back to the hunting and gathering life after this." Arrow raised a mithril eyebrow, as though he thought differently.

From behind her, a man had taken a stand and was delivering an official-sounding and somewhat alcohol-laced speech to the patrons of the Inn. The speech was announcing the donation of a sum of money to the Inn by a certain hobbit, who looked rather drunk himself. It seemed as though this Inn had experienced some hard times in the recent past and was now celebrating its recovery.

Eleniel applauded politely as he finished his speech. On the other side of the Inn, a trio of younger hobbits finished a song.

"Bravo!" Eleniel said. "Fine music!" Arrow tilted back his head and howled along with their next song, agreeing with her judgement. Eleniel laughed.

"Apparently you approve of the song!" she said. She approched the hobbits and the elven woman who had joined them.

"Mind if I sit in and listen?" she asked. Arrow tilted his head to the side, casting a pleading glance through black puppy eyes to the hobbits.

[Archsage Isaac]

Isaac had drifted off into his thoughts while listening to the music that had been played. It was great, very beautiful. It comforted him. He snapped out of his thoughts quickly enough though and took a drink from his mug.

To his dismay, there was no ale left. He was slightly saddened, but then came back to reality. He could get more, but thought it rude to drink when Deva drank no more. As he placed his mug on the table before him, he saw an elven girl stop almost to the bar. She just stopped in place, staring at another elf girl seated at the bar. Both wore beautiful robes, and both soon walked back in the direction the first had come.

With a slight smile he turned his attention to Deva. Being the kind of person used to being alone, he never did know how to start a conversation, always feeling as if he'd say the wrong thing. A childish fear, yes, but a fear nonetheless. It was his only fear. Isaac had stared down death and put his life on the line everyday he traveled, but he was afraid of saying the wrong thing to start a conversation. He sat in silence for several moments, before unstrapping the sheathe from his hip and laying it in his lap, looking at the intricate designs that had been placed on it.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

The transformation of Snaveling was remarkable. Before their eyes his confident, happy façade fell away, and once more he became the shifty-eyed rogue they had known. He licked his lips nervously as he looked from Aman to Toby to Pimpernel. He glanced at the door as though contemplating escape, but Roa had chosen this moment to finally pay him heed, and for the first time today she was looking at him with something less than the bitter disdain that he had come to expect from her, and which he thought would ever mar her expression toward him. He turned back to Aman, and saw that she was becoming increasingly suspicious, and for a moment – just a moment – he thought he saw something else in her eye…something that regarded him in a generous light…something that would be hurt were he to prove himself once more a rogue, and a thief, and a vagabond.

It was a tight spot for Snaveling, the tightest yet, and he was alone in it. Galadel was across the room with Roa, apparently unaware of what was transpiring. Aman was suspicious, but not yet awake to what had happened. Toby, perhaps his dearest friend – for he was the one who, in an odd way, best understood Snaveling – was weaving toward him, smilingly unaware that this time he was the victim of the Man’s vicious nature.

And Roa was watching him, with those maddeningly perceptive green eyes of hers.

It was a tight spot. The happy music of an increasingly boisterous group hung about him like offending flowers, and the general clamour of the partygoers weaved about him. But it did not include him: he was, as always an outsider. But then something occurred to the Man that had never really crossed his mind before. This isolated pain, this solitary void in the middle of such celebration…was his own doing. So palpably did he feel this truth that he took a small step backward. His hand reached up and clutched the amulet about his neck. He had taken Toby’s gold. He had betrayed his friend and put his own head in the noose. He had taken what he had been given from Toby, Aman, Galadel and Roa and carelessly thrown it aside for the sake of a new set of clothes.

He did not feel guilt, not yet. It was a long road that Snaveling was travelling from the Man he had been, and there remained far to go yet. But he did feel shame – shame for his betrayal of Toby, and shame to be so nakedly caught out by Aman, before the very eyes of Roa. He looked back and forth between the two women, then addressed the Innkeeper. “Yes,” he said, “Yes, Toby was generous…or rather,” he turned to the hobbit who was now within earshot. “Hello Toby. I’m sorry but I seem to have interfered with your plans somewhat. I borrowed a coin from the pouch, so now there will only be ten for Aman. You see,” he said hurriedly, “you were asleep and I wanted to make a purchase rather urgently,” he indicated the boy, “so I took the coin without asking. I realise I probably shouldn’t have, but there’s no harm yet. If you wish to have the coin back, I can get it for you from the tailor I’ve asked to meet me here. But if you are willing to loan it me, I will be sure to pay you back as soon as I can.” He paused here and looked at Aman -- he lacked the courage to look at Roa -- to see her reaction. She frowned lightly, and it was enough to prompt Snaveling to speak further to Toby. “I admit, it may be some time before I can afford to pay you back, but I will give you whatever surety you require.”

[Roa_Aoife]

Roa frowned slightly. Something was definitely wrong. She leaned in and concentrated on what was happening. Almost all of Snaveling's confession reached her ears, and Roa was taken aback. That he had taken the gold was no surprise- he seemed to have a habit of doing that- but that he had confessed, and offered recompence, the shock nearly pushed her from her seat. Galadel cuaght her reaction and smiled.

"He has changed, indeed," Roa was able to murmur. Catching the frown on Aman's face, she quickly rose to her feet. As a matter of honor, she would take the punishment before Snaveling. Quickly she strode toward them, though she remained on the other side of Toby when she came into the group.

[Maeggaladiel]

Listening to the music, Eleniel did not notice Arrow's silver ears perk up. The dog turned his head, looking at a man across the room. Wagging his mithril tail, the dog trotted away from his mistress and sat down at the man's feet.

"Woof!" said Arrow in a friendly manner. Eleniel was shaken from her trance by the dog's outburst. She looked down at her feet, but the dog was no longer there. Panicing, she glanced around her. That mutt could get into so much trouble!

She found him at the feet of a man, who appeared to be studying his sword-sheath. She ran over and gripped the dog's collar.

"Sorry about that!" she said sheepishly. "Apparently my dog likes you!" She gave the collar a tug, but the dog flopped stubbornly to the ground. Eleniel sighed.

"My name's Eleniel Goodchild of Laketown. No relation to Cami Goodchild." she told the man with a smile. "It seems my friend Arrow here has found a place to sit." she cast him an angry glance, but the dog ignored it. "Mind if we join you, sir?"

She scratched the dog's ears, waiting for a reply.

[Crystal Heart]

Crystal smiled. "Thank you," she said as she took the ale. She looked around. Angry was no where to be found. She wondered where he could have gotten to.
"I am sorry to be leaving this conversation, but I want to tell Angry what has happened. Please excuse me."

Crystal got down off of the stool and looked around the busy Inn for Angry Brandybuck. She hadn't heard a word from him since Arty's brother Bartholomew had come in to tell her the news of her father's death.

Even though she knew that she should be sorry and sad for her father's death, she just couldn't make herself. She was too over joyed by the chain of events. When she had first arrived to the Shire and had met Angry, she had thought there would never be away to stay in the Shire and live out her life. She thought that she would have to leave her heart and soul here in the Shire as she ran from town to town, looking for a way to live off of other's drunkeness. She continued to smile at the world of luck she had found for herself and continued looking for Angry.

[Kransha]

“I admit, it may be some time before I can afford to pay you back, but I will give you whatever surety you require.” finished Snaveling, half rushing and half rueful as he spoke. His words were directed at Tobias Hornblower, but the elder hobbit could tell that several of the folk around now had fixed their gazes on the man who stood before them. Toby’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. He looked at Snaveling, then to a frowning Aman, then to Roa who was nearby, and considered. He could’ve begun any number of mindless rants, but his logical side warned him against it. Thinking for a long moment as a minor silence gathered around the few people nearby, he began to speak quietly and slowly, contemplating every word.

“Snaveling…I am not entirely sure, for once, what to say…” he was nearly speechless, staring with narrowed eyes at the man. Suddenly, those narrowed eyes and furrowed brow softened as if a great burden had been lifted from them. Though it came through a great supply a stuttering and groping for words, Toby began to speak again. “I…I am astounded that you would say such false things to these people! You know perfectly well that the coin wasn’t stolen. I distinctly remember giving it to you as a gift earlier…In simply must’ve forgotten that one of the eleven coins I had ready was given to you. It is my shortcoming, and I cannot fathom why you would try to take the blame for it. You will all have to forgive me, I have been a bit…shall we say, ‘distracted,’ and I see now why my mind became so diluted by these festivities. The gold coin thought stolen was a gift, and I can probably muster more for the inn if Miss Aman would desire as much.”

Toby’s mind was, almost literally, trying to throttle him. He felt a great lump in his throat, but swallowed it. He had never in his life done anything charitable that he could remember. The eleven gold coins was a great and straining stretch, but this was nearly over the limit. Snaveling had robbed him, no matter how small the sum was, but he suddenly didn’t care. If anything, he had been just as much a fool as Snaveling and the man who’d shown him friendship had surely earned this gift after all the pain he’d endured. For all the hobbit knew, this might be the last as well as first charitable thing he’d done, so he would remove all guilt from himself in one fell swoop. It would be good for him anyway, and his resolution was at last made.