Dungeons & Disappointment

Chapter 30: Town of the Little People

BahnBarr and I looked over the side of the ship and at the hobbits that were approaching us, and they held their weapons at the ready, as if they were going to attempt to take our ship.

"Hail there!" I yelled out to the Hobbits.

"Whats your business here?"

"Just stopping for the day, maybe to get a bite to eat, and a pint to drink."

The guards stopped and talked amidst themselves, then turned back to me.

"Very well. Enjoy the festival!"

I looked over at BahnBarr, but before I could say anything, Finana came up the stairs, looking groggy. She met my eyes, smiled a little bit, then sauntered up to the both of us.

"Listen, we landed in this town not too long ago. Apparently, there's a festival. Wanna check it out?"

"Sure." She said, wiping her eyes. "We don't have much else to do."

"Alrighty, lets go!"

I set down the gangplank, and we all strutted off of the ship and to the soft ground below, and I looked around at the Hobbits around us as Finana put on more water, trying to keep herself from drying out. I was looking around at the little hobbit town, trying to keep an eye foot for anyone who looked like they might need work, but so far, people were just either relaxing, eating, sweeping their homes, or performing other mundane tasks. However, as we got closer and closer to the festival at the center of the town, more and more of the Hobbits were running around, trying to bring food to the festival, along with a few Hobbits that were dragging a huge wagon, chocked full of barrels of some of the strongest mead that I had ever smelled in my life.

"Holy crap that is strong." I said to myself, rubbing my nose.

Some of the other Hobbits in the festival gave us funny looks, but most of them were just gorging themselves on the food, or nearly drowning themselves in alcohol. As I looked around, there was a large banner being hosted, and it read: "Day of the Good Harvest Festival."

"Well, I guess they're farmers." I said dumbly.

Both BahnBarr and Finana gave me obvious looks.

"Wait really?" BahnBarr said. "They're farmers? Man, I thought they were all Serpent-tamers."

I rolled my eyes, and I looked to the left, and there I spotted a rather fat Hobbit that was chopping away at a large slab of meat. He looked tired, but he looked up, and when he met my eyes, he waved me over. I left BahnBarr and Finana, and made my way over to the fat Hobbit.

"Hey there! You came from the airship that just landed?"

"Yeah, me and the two over there." I said. "Do you need something?"

"Yes please. We have a terrible problem." He said, then gestured around at the festival. "We have three hundred more people that are arriving here for the festival, but if you've noticed, there isn't near enough mead. Or ale. Or beer, for that matter."

"Soooo, you didn't make enough?"

"No no, we did make enough, but they haven't arrived yet. I would send out a courier to figure out what the hell happened, but the horses were all taken by the OTHER couriers who went out to fetch those three hundred people. So I'm kinda in a bind."

"You offering gold?"

"Well, no, but if you get the alcohol, I imagine that these people would be more than happy to give you some food!"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Alright, that sounds good. Where would we find the beer?"

"Well, the brewery is a little bit out of town. Out on the west side. The warehouse is right across the street from that. If they're on the way there, or if they're in the warehouse, can you tell them to hurry up?"