================================== Bree Time ==================================
Real time: Fri Jul 09 19:49:29 2004
Bree time: Midday 12:28 PM (noon) on Sunday of Summer - August 20,1432
Moon Phase: New Moon
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Breelands Weather
The midday summer air is very hot and dry around you. The murky sky is overcast and dreary.

Common Room
This large and rectangular room serves the purpose of Common Room for the Prancing Pony. Red curtains drape down from large windows that look out to the west and the Great East Road, which runs outside the Inn. There are long tables with bench seats for the patrons in the center of the room. Nestled into the wall is a large fireplace, with several bundles of wood piled next to it.

Large bunches of glossy leaves cunningly woven into fat swags of bronze and red and yellow-gold festoon the walls; their undulating rhythm is punctuated by bright berries on branches, lending a festive air to the usually stolid Common Room. The red curtains that hang down from the windows are tied back, providing a good view of the Road outside.


Sitting at a table is Hewes. The common room is rather full, but not overly so, given the lunch hour. Most people have had their lunch and have left, leaving the lone Hewes to himself at his table. He sits over a beer and a half-eaten mutton leg, eating slowly as he ponders something or other.


"I never!"

The rather peaceful silence of the room is shattered by the angry words as a boy, almost a man, backs through the door. Dark brown hair tops a furious face; a tattered shirt covers bunched muscles but stops somewhat short of bony wrists, leaving clenched fists bare. "I never and if you try and say I did, I'll..." Abruptly Toby seems to become aware of where he is, and the end of his threat subsides into wrathful muttering as he slams himself into a chair and glares at the empty doorway.


Hewes looks up from the remains of his lunch and notes the boy's entrance. He drains his beer slowly and finishes off his mutton before getting to his feet. Crossing to where Toby sits, the man finds a chair close by and sits down. "Hey," he calls.


Toby's gaze is dragged away from the doorway to land on his uninvited guest. "Hey," he says at last, ungraciously. Rapid footsteps sound in the hallway and a door slams somewhere in the depths of the building. "Idiot!" he explodes finally. "Thinks he can stick it all on me just because..." A wary note enters his eyes and he stops himself again.


Hewes eyes the boy and sits back in his chair. A serving girl enters and the man orders himself another beer. He looks to Toby. "You want anything"


"No."
"A beer."
The two contradictory replies come in swift succession. And "thank you" is added grudgingly. Curiousity finally begins to replace the simmering rage and Toby looks at Hewes a little closer. "Ain't I seen you somewheres before?" he asks after a minute. "You been around here a bit, right?"


Hewes nods. "I have, yes. I think I've seen you around, but I've never heard your name. I'm Hewes." He nods friendily to Toby. "You a little young to be drinking beer?" The older man smiles slightly.


Toby bristles. "I ain't." He scowls at Hewes for a few minutes, then adds, "I'm Toby." There is a clunk as two glasses are set on the wooden table and the waitress pipes up cheerfully. "Appledore, he is. Working out at the stables, comes in here lots now. Quite the man he's getting to be." She winks at the boy whose ears begin to turn red.


Hewes smiles to the serving woman and flips her something silverish. "And keep the change." Looking to Toby, Hewes remarks, "You're man enough to work in the stables, you're man enough to drink beer after a morning of work."


The coin, whatever it is, disappears into a pocket and the woman is gone. Toby buries his nose in his glass, but after three long silent swallows, he is apparently in the mood for a little conversation. "Only been there a couple months," he volunteers. "Better 'n cutting up wood all day long." He draws the back of a hand across his mouth.


"I hear you. My mother wanted me to settle down with a woman and take up hunting. No thankee sirrah." Hewes grins. "Bree's my home for the moment. I like it here. Odd folks wander through, but still a nice town."


Toby laughs humorlessly. "I don't," he says and gulps a few more swallows. Something Hewes has said brings a return of the earlier frown to his face, but this time it is more contemplative than angry. "Odd folk, yes... You been here for a while?"


"Year and a half. And yeah, odd folk. We didn't have any of those rangers wandering the land away down south, I can tell you that." Hewes shudders. "They give me the willies."


Something, maybe suspicion, flickers in the boy's eyes. "You're from the south?" he asks slowly. He drains his glass and sets it down loudly; his hand slipping from the table top to rest on one trouser-clad thigh. "I don't know much about them rangers," he adds, but his oddly-bright gaze remains pinned to Hewes' face.


Catching something in Toby's expression, Hewes looks back suspiciously as well. "From the south, aye. T'was my home for many a year, until I took up wandering. I am from there but I have not been there in many a year."


Fingers clench and then relax. "You've been here," Toby says flatly. "Not wandering around? Maybe a little south of here and some west?"


"Down away south of that Shire land?" Hewes shakes his head. "I mostly kept east of the road, headed north. Down south, we heard tales of folk along the sea who didn't like outsiders, and I didn't want to wander into their lands by chance."


"Hnh," is all the answer the boy gives, but he flashes a fairly friendly grin. "I never been out there. Headed south a bit, but come back. What was that you was saying about rangers?" he asks abruptly.


Hewes eyes the boy. "You heard about those ravens that fell out of the sky up by the healing house?" Hewes looks a bit pale. "I heard they fell 'cause of something the rangers did. Rumors, mind you, but still... Must be some truth."


"No," Toby scoffs. "Nobody can't make birds fall out of the sky. Not unless they use a slingshot anyhow." He laughs, but maybe it sounds a little forced. "What sort of something they did?"


Hewes gulps down his beer nervously. "I look like I know about magic and that dark stuff? Not my area. Maybe if you're curious, you could ask one." He shrugs and gets to his feet. "See ya round, Toby." With that, the man is gone.


"M-magic?" Toby's eyes grow wide and he stares after Hewes long past the time the man has vanished from sight.