[Amanaduial the archer]

Aman turned flusteredly to Grimm and Cree and even in her business couldn't help smiling at them as they stood there in front of her. Her arm was hooked through his elbow, she was nestled slightly into his side, he stood so close by her - they fitted together naturally like the pieces of a well made puzzle. Aman smiled, then turned back to the question asked of her.

"What to do...no, I don't think there is anything now, Cree, Grimm - you're back to being guests at the Inn once more!" She beamed at them and added inwardly with a flush of happiness and pride, and soon Mr Meriadoc will be as well, then with slight worry, and so will Cook.

Cook...what would Vinca think of the Inn as it was now? To Aman's eyes, it was beautiful now, possibly even more than it had been before, just because it had been built up in front of Aman's eyes. Tokens and gifts from several Inn members adorned the walls and Common Room - a bunch of flowers from two young hobbit lasses, sitting in a rescued and restored vase on one of the windowsills, a charcoal drawing of the Shire from one of the elves, a carving of the Inn's name, entwined with a dragon above the fireplace, the magnificent doors. Even the Innkeeper herself bore some of the kind customer's work - her hair was tied back with two long, green ribbons, which matched her eyes almost perfectly. In all the new rooms of the Inn, Aman could see the craftmanship and kindess of the volunteers who had been so selflessly helpful (although she had her misgivings about a few...), people of all sorts, helping to build back a community that several of them didn't even know well. Such kindness was more than Aman had ever expected, and it delighted her in everything she now saw in the beautifully restored Green Dragon.

But the work was not over yet, for when such an achievement is reached, the work cannot go unrewarded. And, as Aman had found out last time there had been a party at the Dragon, for the naming ceremony of Mithadan and Pio's beautiful twins, a girl and a boy, there was nowhere that did parties at quite the same scale as the Shire. Still, they had managed it last time, in only a few days; over the past ten days they had managed to virtually rebuild half the Inn, all before Cook could see the damage (the last few beams and tiles were being fixed into place even now). To work out a whole party so quickly and for everyone who had helped and more? Sure, 'twould be no problem....right?

As Aman thought this, she finished climbing the stairs up to the attic, or the guest quarters as they were now (Pio and Mithadan's room last), and then approached the round window looking out across the green pleasantness of the Shire, swinging it open easily on well-oiled hinges. Then, hitching up her skirt, she climbed onto the sill - but not to do anything drastic, of course, not on such a delightful day when all was so well! Instead of throwing herself off as some who did not know the Innkeeper so well may have thought, Aman then turned around, spinning on her heels on her precarious top floor perch, then, gripping the grooves between the bricks firmly with her slim fingers, she put her right foot onto the top of the window and pulled herself up once more, so her chest was level with the roof. Then, with arms made strong from heaving bricks these past days and from handling half-wild colts her whole life, Aman pulled herself up, spinning mid-jump to sit neatly on the edge. Then, relaxing on the perch she had made hers, the blue folds of her dress hanging down over crossed, swinging feet, the faint, pleasant breeze ruffling the loose strands of her hair very slightly, the Innkeeper gave a great, contented sigh and smiled.