Something\'s Broken

Common Room(#32029RM)

This large and rectangular room serves the purpose of Common Room for the Prancing Pony. Large windows along the western end of the room peek out over the Great East Road which runs outside the Inn. There are long tables with bench seats for the patrons in the centre of the room. Nestled into the wall is a large fireplace with several bundles of wood piled next to it. Sunlight streams through the windows to mingle with the smoke that floats above the ceiling beams, and provide an odd sort of illumination that, even in daylight, doesn\'t quite reach the corners. The lamps which hang down are presently unlit.

Obvious exits: Out

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Bree Time

Real time: Thu Jul 07 15:06:25 2011 Bree time: Midday <13> on Sterday of Spring - May 13,1453 Moon Phase: First Quarter Moon

                          Breelands Weather

The midday spring air is cool but pleasant around you. The day sky is clear with only slight wisps of clouds overhead.

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The afternoon sunshine streams in through the open shutters of the Prancing Pony, sending dust motes dancing and glinting on the piles of empty dishes waiting to be cleared. Lunch was good, and now satisfied Breefolk Big and Little have gone about their business - well, most of them, anyway. Young Brandebras Bywater sits on the window-ledge, head back and a curious sound coming from his half-open mouth. The gentle breeze playing across his face doesn\'t seem to disturb him in the least.

Alys, one of the newer additions to the kitchen staff, looks round at the mess and sighs. \"Is it always like this?\" she wonders plaintively.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Aye, tis,\" is the reply another hobbit has come out from the kitchen, her curly hair damp from exertion. She glances over in the direction of the ... well, surely not /snoring/! and hurriedly pats her curls into some semblance of order whilst a fond smile spreads over her round, cheerful face. \"Isn\'t he /beautiful/?\" she whispers, then coughs and turns back to the other woman. \"Doesn\'t take all that long to clear it up though.\"

Alys looks round, and round again, first at chair level and then at floor level (kittens and puppies, after all, could be described as beautiful). Eventually she gives up. \"What\'s beautiful?\" she asks, stacking plates atop each other. \"This dish - oh, I forgot to tell Mister Butterbur or Mister Nob! That big man from Archet was in, the one with the big beard. \"Something about a dish he thought was ours? I set it down somewhere ...\" Distractedly she looks round, taking her chin off the pile of crockery she\'s built up.

[Nob(#16122)] \"/Him/,\" Blackberry sighs, her eyes lingering on Brandebras again. For several long minutes, before she coughs and looks around vaguely. \"Dish?\"

\"Oh, that man whose son went and stole all that stuff?\"

The pile in Alys\' arms wavers. Hastily she ducks her chin down again to right it. \"Did he really?\" Alys asks interestedly. \"Different people keep telling me different things. You mean the dish he gave me was /stolen/?\" Her grey-green eyes open wide.

After a moment she sets off across the Common Room, pausing to look at the object of Blackberry\'s affections. \"He\'s .. uh, drooling,\" she informs Blackberry after a moment. \"Do you /really/ li-\"

Alas! It is never wise to look in one direction whilst walking in another. Alys\'s foot catches against a chair leg and Breegirl, chair and dishes come down in a heap with a tremendous crashing and clattering.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Well, that\'s what I heard,\" Blackberry says cautiously. She follows along, pausing behind Alys. \"Ah, poor lad. Tired out, I\'ve no doubt. What he wants is someone to... EEE!\"

Alys lies where she has fallen, the breath knocked from her. \"I- I think I\'ve broken something,\" she says in a small voice.

From the windowsill comes a tremendous snort, and then Brandebras Bywater jerks awake. There is nearly another calamity as the jerk takes him toward the open shutter, but with typical hobbit-nimbleness he rights himself. \"Is there a break-in?\" he asks sleepily, brown eyes peering blearily around until they fix on Blackberry.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Oh, dear,\" Blackberry says, flustered. She is blushing for her scream - startled by the tremendous crash. She bends over Alys, looking up at Brandebras\'s words. \"No, no, but look, she\'s hurt herself. Oh, whatever shall we do?\" She gazes trustingly upwards - her hero will certainly know just how to lever a Big Person (injured at that!) off the floor.

Alas, Blackberry\'s hero is never the best person to ask for suggestions. \"We could make a stretcher out of those chairs?\" Brandebras suggests eagerly, hopping down fro his perch and brushing past Blackberry as he goes to look at the Accident Victim. \"Or we could - what are all those dishes doing all over the floor?\"

\"No,\" says Alys in that same small, subdued voice. Her braid has come undone and a curtain of brown hair is spilling forward to hide her face. \"I\'m not hurt. I think I-I\'ve /broken/ something.\" A sound very like a sob comes from her throat.

[Nob(#16122)] \"She dropped them,\" Blackberry says. She giggles. \"Isn\'t he sweet?\" she says to Alys. But her eyes widen enormously at the news that Something has been Broken. \"Oh, dear,\" she repeats, and grasps the idea of a stretcher with relief. And a bit of gushiness. \"Yes, yes indeed, that\'s a wonderful idea. And... I\'ll... get some cloths!\"

Brandebras\' brown eyes blink at Blackberry in incomprehension. \"Shouldn\'t we - uh, clear them up, then?\" he wonders, pointing to the dishes. But then it sinks in - someone thought he had a Good Idea! The hobbit\'s rosy cheeks redden just a little.

\"That\'s a good idea too,\" he says to Blackberry\'s suggestion, eager to return the favour. Skirting round the spreadeagled Alys (and treading on her dress in the process) he asks the Big Person curiously, \"What have you broken?\"

[Nob(#16122)] Blackberry beams, and rushes off to get the cloths. Whatever they are for. Back in a few moments, she smiles widely at Brandebras, holding them out so it is obvious she has them, then bends over Alys solicitously. \"Now, you just say where it\'s hurt.\"

Alys lifts a tear-streaked face from the dusty floor at that. \"Th-there.\" Pushing herself up to a sitting position, the new serving-maid points. And there, no longer concealed by her body, is a large ceramic serving platter, broken in two.

[Nob(#16122)] Apparently disappointed that Alys hasn\'t, after all, broken some limb or other - a leg would have been nice - Blackberry pats the woman\'s leg anyways, and idly, tsking over the platter and darting melting glances at Brandebras, starts to wind one of her cloths about the human\'s ankle.

Brandebras, unfortunately, is more interested in the dish than in Blackberry. \"That\'s quite a crack,\" he says in admiration. \"Maybe if we glued it together noone would notice /very/ much?\"

He is answered by a sob. \"I\'ve broken it and when Mister Nob counts the dishes there\'ll be one missing and Mister Butterbur will sack me and-\" Alys reaches out and attempts to snatch the other cloth from Blackberry, doubtless to mop the tears.

[Nob(#16122)] The second \'bandage\' is grabbed right out of her hand, and Blackberry gapes at the Big Person for a moment in astonishment. Then she shrugs, seeming to wave all strange behaviors off as being caused by The Poor Girl\'s Illness and continues binding up the uninjured ankle. There being a bit of cloth left over on the tail end when she is finished, she eyes the second leg consideringly. Possibly, they should be immobilized...

\"Surely not,\" she says with vague comfort. \"Mister Nob isn\'t that sort.\"

Alys, now she has the cloth, wipes her face and then blows her nose vigorously. If the article was clean before (doubtful), it certainly isn\'t now. \"Y-you really think so?\" she asks Blackberry doubtfully, too preoccupied to notice the state her leg is in.

Brandebras, always a kind-hearted soul, reaches out to pat the sitting Big Person on the shoulder. \"It\'s all right,\" he says confidentially to his pair of companions. \"You could tell him I broke it. I\'m always having little accidents.\" That confession is accompanied by an embarrassed grin.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Course I do,\" Blackberry says confidently, and decides. She tugs on Alys\'s other leg, and begins to wind the last bit of cloth about that one, too. Then Brandebras speaks, and the little hobbit lass looks up at him, wide-eyed - torn, it seems, between indignation that Her Brandebras should be accused of anything at all! and melting reverence for his great sacrifice. \"Oh, Brandebras,\" she murmurs. \"That\'s so noble of you!\"

Noble? Brandebras looks quite surprised at this praise - but then the tips of his ears turn pink. \"Torebras never says things like that about me,\" he murmurs. \"I - what are you doing?\" He blinks interestedly at the legs.

Alys\' mind, meanwhile, is on other things. \"Maybe if I find that other dish the Archet man brought in, I could give him that,\" she says, wringing her cloth between her hands. Then her face lights up. \"I remember now! It was over on the mantlepiece!\" Hurriedly she starts to get up ...

[Nob(#16122)] Blackberry is caught up in gazing admiringly at Brandebras, and doesn\'t notice her patient... \"Men never can see these things,\" she tells the other hobbit, before the loose bandage end is yanked from her grip and she goggles up at Alys, and hurries to cry a warning. \"Wait....!\"

Brandebras blinks at Blackberry, trying to work that one out. \"But /I\'m/-\" he begins.

The hobbit-lass\'s warning comes too late for poor Alys, who has already tried to take that first all-important step ...

Wham!

For the second time that afternoon, Alys finds herself sprawled full-length on the floor.

[Nob(#16122)] \"...Oh, dear,\" Blackberry says, guiltily. She stares at Alys, and a tear slides down her cheek and wobbles on the end of her chin before falling -splat!- onto her lap. Another follows, then another. The hobbit lass sniffs, and buries her face in her hands, and sobs. \"I\'m sorry!\"

Brandebras, alas, is torn. He gazes from one weeping figure to the other groaning one. \"Please don\'t cry,\" he says helplessly to Blackberry. I - uh-\" He rummages in his pocket and pulls out a none-too-clean red-and-white spotted handkerchief. This he thrusts at the weeping hobbit before going down on his knees beside the fallen Big Person. \"Are you hurt now?\"

Silence. Then Alys replies bitterly, \"My ankle.\"

[Nob(#16122)] Blindly, Blackberry takes the handkerchief, blotting her eyes with it. \"I\'m so sorry!\" she weeps. \"I was just trying to /help/!\"

\"Oh.\" Brandebras surveys the damage, then suggests helpfully, \"Maybe if I unwind this bit of rag here -\"

\"No!\" Injured or no, Alys manages to lever herself up enough to push the hobbit away. \"Just ... don\'t touch me. Go and c-clear up some crockery. Or you could get that d-dish down from the mantelpiece.\" The occasional sob still shakes her - but there are things even worse than facing potential firing from Mister Butterbur. Being helped by hobbits is one of them ...

[Nob(#16122)] This is enough to bring Blackberry\'s head up, tear-streaked and eyes swollen. \"Don\'t you talk like that to my Brandebras! After all he\'s done for you!\"

\"He hasn\'t done anything for me,\" Alys retorts, squirming round to a sitting position and gingerly feeling her ankle. \"How would I know if it\'s b-broken?\"

Brandebras, meanwhile, is quite happily picking up scattered dishes, balancing them into a wavering stack. \"I wonder if I can get the different colours to make a pattern?\" he murmurs, then belatedly realizes he\'s being spoken about. \"What do you mean, \'my\'? Are we related?\" he asks Blackberry interestedly.

[Nob(#16122)] \"H-he /did/!\" Blackberry hiccups. \"He offered to say it was all his fault the dish was broken so as Mister Nob wouldn\'t blame you none.\" She darts a glance towards the other hobbit and blushes, then tosses her hair. \"Don\'t you mind none about that,\" she tells Brandebras, and to Alys, \"I reckon it ain\'t. Or it\'d be turning all blue and puffing up.\"

Alys looks quite panicked at that. \"But I can\'t /see/ if it\'s turning blue,\" the girl exclaims in alarm, reaching for the cloth \'bandage\' and then thinking better of it. \"I - maybe if I just take a seat it\'ll be better soon.\" Numbly - and without soliciting any help at all - she reaches for the nearest chair and manages to pull herself up before collapsing gratefully into it.

Brandebras, meanwhile, is disregarding Blackberry\'s advice. \"It can\'t be on Da\'s side,\" he reflects, \"I know all the Bywater cousins. Maybe something to do with Ma? I could ask her ...\" Setting down the colour-coordinated stack of bowls on a nearby table, the young hobbit starts to drag a stool over to the mantlpiece. He climbs up onto it - and then gasps.

[Nob(#16122)] \"I\'m not related to you,\" Blackberry says, slightly irritably. She is distracted from Alys\'s predicament by Brandebras\' gasp. \"What\'s that?\" sh asks, alarmed.

\"That\'s /Torebras/ serving dish!\" Brandebras proclaims indignantly. \"One of the ones he took with him when he moved to the Shire. What in the world is it doing here?\"

[Nob(#16122)] Blackberry\'s face is blank. \"Who\'s Torebras?\" she asks. \"Maybe he ... brought it back?\"

\"My brother!\" Brandebras says even more indignantly. \"Don\'t you know that? Are you sure we /are/ related?\" Carefully - very carefully - he reaches out to lift the silver-chased dish down from the mantel.

Meanwhile Alys, whose weeping has subsided to just the odd sniff, gingerly unwinds her \'bandage\'. The flesh beneath is red rather than blue and she gives a shaky sigh. \"Could- could someone get Mister Bob?\" she asks tentatively. \"He\'s good at poultices.\"

[Nob(#16122)] \"I /said/ we weren\'t!\" Blackberry retorts, still red and defensive. It is with relief that she hears Alys\'s request, and hurries off to fetch Bob.

Brandebras, his prize cradled tenderly in both hands, climbs down off the stool without incident and wanders after Blackberry, still looking confused. \"She\'s a bit .. odd,\" he confides to Alys as he passes. \"What\'s her name?\"