* Even the vegetable soup featured by the Green Dragon served as another reminder of the urgency of Bullroarer's quest to Rivendell for food. Grassy herbs and leeks graced the thin broth where only a month before taters, parsnips, celery and even mushrooms had bobbed aplenty. Every now and then you still might come across a spoonful of turnip or carrot. Still, the cook did his best with what he'd got, using every last shred of turnip leaf and parsley sprig towards satisfying the Shire's ever-growing hunger. Giles Harfoot finished his crust of bread, pocketed several carrot tops and half an apple for his pony Puddlejump, stood with a sigh, and made for the stable. *
* Puddlejump nickered softly at his master's absent-minded affectionate pats on his mane. The pony patiently ate the food offerings placed in the manger while the Hobbit double-checked supplies. Flickering lantern-light traced branchlike ripplings of golden glow and gentle shadow against the wall, as if to shelter their thoughts against the night-snow gathering just outside into ever-deepening drifts of doom. *
* Giles' carpentry kit contained three chisels, a plane, a planing knife, two hammers, a pouchful of iron nails, several gimlets and files, four clamps, and a hand drill. *
* Giles himself brought with him or carried a dark brown wool cloak and hood, a spare set of clothes, a tinderbox with flint and char cloth for making fire, a tin cup, knife and spoon, two small buckets, the sort of small axe customary to carpenters, a money pouch with what silver and copper pieces the Harfoot clan saw fit to contribute as a going-away present, and his whacking stick. Some of his possessions Giles would carry in a pouch hanging from his broad leather belt. Others, Giles would load onto Puddlejump. *
* Puddlejump came equipped with several nosebags of oats, a blanket, and canvas bags secured with ropes. *
* Always though, it came back to food. Giles would see how much food he could buy to take with him from the Green Dragon ... and meanwhile try not to feel guilty that whatever food he took, someone else in the Shire would have to do without. *
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