[littlemanpoet]

"Aye, lassie," Falco said, leaning so the girl alone could hear him. "Sharkey's no more. I saw his end. Pretty it wasn't. More about that later," he winked.

Eodwine continued. "Think not of it, sir," he said to the new man called Brokhelm in answer to his apology. "I've been interrupted by Master Falco so oft that I mark it not. Indeed, 'tis all give and take here, so if you've a mind to pick up the story at any point, jump in with both feet." Eodwine smiled as Brokhelm raised both hands in a gesture of relinquishment.

"The tale is yours, sir."

"Then I'll pick it up with Gob and Twiddle having been brought up to Hobbiton and put to work in de-storying, as it were. That is, they were ordered to take a shovel each, and dig out the hobbit holes under the Hill, to make place for a wide road and new brick buildings that were noised to be improvements to the area intended by Sharkey.

"'Who is this Sharkey?' Twiddle wanted to know.

"'Never heard of 'im before ol' Ferny started yammerin' about him,' said Gob.

"Gob and Twiddle didn't think too highly of Bill Ferny and his crew of ruffians, so they didn't work very fast or hard, which was easy for them as they knew how to stretch out a job and look busy doing it. That gave them time enough to keep their eyes pealed and their noses to the wind. They didn't like what they saw, even less what they smelt.

"What they smelt was Ted Sandyman's mill, with all its black smoke making a mess of the sky first, then wherever the smoke touched ground or wight, soot got left behind. What they saw was hobbits that seemed unhappy and scared, and generally kafuffled. These kinds of things didn't happen in the Shire, from the look of it, and the hobbits had nary and idea how to change things back to the way they were, which meant getting rid of the Bill Ferny and his ruffians, and this Sharkey, whoever that was. And it also meant teachin' old Sandyman a lesson.

"'Gob,' said Twiddle, 'we don't b'long here and these ruffians do even less.'

"'Right you are my Twid,' Gob replied. 'We ought to do a mite about it, don't you know?'

"Twiddle's small face screwed up into a wrinkled smile, because when he smiled his whole face seemed not to be attached to any sinew or bone, but squeezed all up like somebody folded it. But when that happened, it was wise for those who he was thinking on to watch it, because something was bound to happen that they wouldn't like much.

"Gob, seeing Twid's grin, got this pleased look on his face but kept his smile off, unless you looked in his eyes, which were, as I've said before, half covered by his drooping lids. They dug a little, rested a little, made it look like they were digging more when all they were doing for the most part was moving dirt around. And they whispered to each other their plan."

Eodwine rose. "But now I need to take a moment and take care of necessary business, as it were. I shall be back. Gudryn, you leave me some mead."

He scruffled her hair and she grinned at him, eyeing his almost empty mead cup. She looked conspiratorially at Saeryn and Æoelhild.

"Should I finish it?"