Let it snow

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

================================== Bree Time ==================================

Real time: Wed May 06 17:25:06 2009

Bree time: Late Morning <11> on Sterday of Autumn - November 13,1446

Moon Phase: Waning Crescent Moon

Breelands Weather

The late morning autumn air is cool but pleasant around you. Heavy snows fall down from the daytime sky.

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It\'s late morning on a chilly November day - that awkward point in proceedings when it\'s too late for elevenses but perhaps still a tad early for lunch. Hence the Pony is quiet, mostly oldsters muttering in corners or hunched round the roaring fire. The shutters are part-open, but the light filtering through the windows is oddly dim.

The reason for that becomes obvious when an excited Brandebras Bywater bursts into the Common Room, a woolly hat pulled down over his ears. There is a dusting of white on his head and shoulders, and as if that wasn\'t enough, he lifts his voice and pipes out eagerly for anyone who\'s listening. \"Did you know it\'s snowing out there? Really big flakes - maybe we\'ll get snowed in.\" His brown eyes are bright with hope.

[Nob(#16122)] Nob looks up, and grins involuntarily at Brandebras\' excitement. \"Well,\" he says thoughtfully, \"There\'s plenty of food... I hope it doesn\'t hurt the harvest though! Awful early for snow.\"

\"Won\'t last,\" opines one old fellow drowsing by the fire - well, he /was/ drowsing until the hobbit came charging in shouting at the top of his lungs like that. \"Early snows never do.\" He hunches himself around.

\"Bet we\'re in for another long winter,\" argues a second man, gloomily. \"Just like was a couple years back. Started snowing in August, practically, and never let off until June!\"

\"Well, it is a /bit/ early for snow,\" Brandebras concedes. \"But that just means we can build an even bigger snowman in the yard than last year, doesn\'t it?\" His flushed, excited face shows not a trace of worry about food and fuel shortages, wolves and all the other things that come with hard winters. Unfortunately Bywaters aren\'t known for their good hobbit-sense.

\"Did you say something about food?\" he asks Nob suddenly. \"All that cold out there\'s given me quite an appetite.\"

[Nob(#16122)] \"You and several others, I\'m sure,\" Nob says drily. Still, customers and customers, and who\'s going to turn them down. \"What can I get for you? Something hot, I expect? Stew?\"

[Nob(#16122)] \"Wolvesh,\" mumbles the oldest among the fire-hoggers. \"Bet they\'ll be wolvesh. If itsh shtarting t\'shnow sho shoon.\"

Brandebras blinks. \"Isn\'t that good for business?\" he wonders innocently. \"You don\'t sound too happy about it. I\'ll have some ste- oh.\" At the mumble from the oldster by the fire he sobers up abruptly. \"I\'d forgotten about wolves,\" he says in a slightly wavering voice.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Well,\" Nob stops to explain. \"It\'s good because them as are here can\'t leave. It\'s bad, see, because nobody else can /get/ here.\" He bustles off to get the stew, leaving Brandebras to his imagination and the tender mercies of the old men and hobbits.

\"Lots of them, sure to be,\" adds the fourth of the group. Three elderly hobbits there are, and two ancient gentlemen. \"Lots and lots,\" he adds with goolish satisfaction.

\"Come down from the hills, looking for food,\" quavers the oldest of them all, a hobbit carefully bundled against the cold (of which, this close to the roaring fire, there is none).

\"Oh,\" Brandebras responds as Nob bustles off. \"I see.\" The frown on his round face suggests he might not.

At the comments from the elder-folk by the fire he shivers, and turns his coat collar up a bit (never mind that he\'s dripping little patches of thawed snow on the floor). \"Do you /remember/ the wolves coming before?\" he asks the oldest of the old. \"Do you have any stories about it?\" And the worry fades, as he turns an eager face toward the wrapped-up hobbit.

[Nob(#16122)] The hobbit looks quite pleased to be asked! \"Why, yes, I does,\" he says, quite as eagerly as Brandebras.

\"Gots lots of stories, he does,\" chuckles one of the old men. He pokes his elbow into his neighbor\'s ribs. \"Never shuts up on \'em!\"

\"I \'members when I was just a wee tyke, younger than you is now,\" continues the hobbit, ignoring his companions\' laughter with lofty dignity. \"Was still living out, practically in the Chetwood, we were. Family farm. It commenced to snow while the corn was still standing. All us younguns, we was out in the fields from can-see to can\'t-see, trying t\'get that corn in. Never did stop snowing. That was a good thing though!\" He gives Brandebras a sharp look. \"You know why?\"

Brandebras leans forward and lets his steps take him toward the little group of oldsters, scarcely seeming to notice the heat of the fire, though his face is starting to turn red (he\'s still wearing his outdoor coat and hat). At the query, he frowns thoughtfully. \"Because - because the wolves couldn\'t see you?\" he falters.

[Nob(#16122)] \"No, no,\" the answer is given with a cackle of glee. \"Why, \'cause we could walk on top and reach the ears easier!\" He laughs so hard at his own wit that it is some little while, and Nob is back with the stew, before he can go on. \"My, that does smell good,\" he comments finally, sniffing appreciatively (and greedily) at the stewbowl.

\"Well, as I says, we worked day and night getting in all the crops, and then we sits back to enjoy ourselfs. Lots of food stored up, stock all safe in warm barns, what\'s there to do? Pop popcorn, pull taffy, go sledding, drink cider....\" A long silence in honor of days gone by, and their simple pleasures.

\"But /then/,\" the elderly hobbit leans forward darkly. \"Then THEY CAME.\"

Brandebras glances at the old hobbit, then back at his stew, seemingly dithering. Then he murmurs something to Nob. Perhaps he\'s taken the hint.

The young hobbit seats himself down at a nearby table and loosens his coat before taking the first bite of stew, face still turned eagerly toward the elderly hobbit. \"That must have been scary,\" he murmurs, encouraging the other to go on.

You +whisper to Nob, \"Can you get another bowl of stew for the old fellow? It /is/ a good story ...\"

[<#16122>] Nob nods solemnly and goes back to the kitchen, returning with another bowl (a bit smaller) for the old hobbit. \"One does need to keep one\'s strength up..\" he murmurs to Brandebras when he has returned.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Ah, thank you, young feller.\" The hobbit eagerly dives into his own plate, and it is a few more minutes before anything more can be got out of him. Then, \"Oh, aye, you\'ve no idea. At first, they were too frightened yet to do more than lurk. They\'d circle round the farm - we saw their footprints in the snow - and howl at night. You never did hear more bone-freezing howls than those. I still hear them sometimes in me dreams!\" He scrapes the bowl clean and leans back with a sigh of contentment.

\"But they weren\'t content to lurk, not for long,\" he warns Brandebras, warming to his story. \"Soon, we\'d be seeing them in the daytime, even! Eyes watching you from the trees. A grey shadow stalking along, follering your every step. And that weren\'t all....\"

Brandebras, caught up in listening, is rather slower to finish his own plateful. He leans forward, nodding every now and then, and seems to be forgetting to chw his stew. At the old fellow\'s hint there might be more, the hobbit suddenly chokes, and soon he is too busy coughing to listen to anyone.

[Nob(#16122)] \"Here now, here now!\"

\"Whack him on the back!\"

\"No, hang him by his feets!\"

\"Bring him a drink, that\'s what he needs!\"

Alas, words alone don\'t seem to be helping Brandebras, who is by now quite red-faced and unable to speak.

[Nob(#16122)] Nob, the only one of them either willing or able to do more than shout contradictory advice, moves up and smacks Brandebras sharply between the shoulder blades, several times.

Nob\'s timely intervention seems to do the trick, for Brandebras spits out a half-chewed lump of meat. The coughing takes a while longer to settle, but when he can speak the hobbit mumbles, \"Ouch! That hurt.\" So much for thanks.

Despite the excitement, he hasn\'t forgotten that he\'s supposed to be listening to a story. \"Do go on!\" he urges the elder hobbit. \"You said something about seeing wolves in the daytime ...\"

[Nob(#16122)] Content that the youngster is all right now, they settle back. The oldest nods solemnly. \"And then,\" he says in a thrilling whisper, \"They started to Attack. Got my littlest sister first dragged her off by her scarf. But my pa ran out and scared \'em off. After that, we didn\'t go out none, \'cept to do the chores, and believe you me, we all went out in a group, carrying torches and axes and brooms and anything else we could use to beat them off with. They\'d watch us all the way from the house to the barn, and all the way back again. It was a shivery thing, sitting in there milking the cow or pitching hay down, and knowing that all the time, there was them wolves, pacing around and around and around. Now and then, one\'d sit down and howl. Right there... In the... in the yard...\" The old fellow seems, however, to be so worn out from his story that his head nods down onto his chest and he starts to snore gently.

Brandebras gasps at the story reaches its stunning climax, and involuntarily his hand rises to his own neck. No, he\'s not wearing a scarf.

He remains silent until the oldster has finished, then asks uncertainly, \"But she was all right - wasn\'t she?\" He listens a while to the sound of snoring, then turns back to Nob. \"If we\'re going to be snowed in, I think I\'d like some more of that wonderful stew, please!\" he tells the assistant innkeeper, then settles down to wait. If it doesn\'t stop snowing, those unfortunate to be in the same room as the young messenger-hobbit have a long day ahead ...

[Nob(#16122)] \"Eh?\" The old hobbit opens an eye blearily. \"\'Course she was,\" he says groggily. \"Spring came...\" And he is gone again. Nob nods and vanishes for more stew. And all is quiet.