The Prancing Pony
This is a very, very short story I tried and quickly typed. It is set around a year before Frodo's visit to the Prancing Pony. I suppose the idea is to imagine what it would be like if Bill Ferny was in charge of the Prancing Pony rather than Butterbur!
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There was an important inn, a merry old inn on the side of the road at Bree. Ale was drunk, jokes were laughed at and friendly folk danced the joyful evenings away. But months later, the proprietor, Barliman Butterbur sighed in the gloomy evening though the Inn itself was well-lit. The accounts were not good, again! He couldn't go on like this. He liked the job and the people but business was business and he had to accept any good offer.
He sipped a mug of golden ale.. Even if that offer was from one Bill Ferny. A suspicious character, Butterbur knew, the Inn would not be so merry for a while with him in charge. His wife, Sybil, bought Bob a young Hobbit, Barliman knew. 'Come in!' said Butterbur. Bob smiled in his hobbit green and yellow dress and sat down.
'We have an offer for you, Barliman, if you accept my family's dowry. Take me on as your'e apprentice!'
Butterbur thought the dowry was extremely substantial. Enough to pay of his debts, keep in business and even re-carpet the back-room that needed it. After some thought, he said, 'Fine, I accept. This will be very helpful, thank you very much, good to have you on board!' He smiled, thinking this was a far better option than selling to Bill Ferny!
Later, Bob was sitting in one of the Inn's chairs with a Ranger, Halbarad. 'He accepted the money!'
'Yes, Bob!' We had to bankroll you! But we need Butterbur as a decent landlord of this important Inn. But he wouldn't accept money from us direct any more so than from Bill Ferny. Especially some of which is retrieved from a Wizard's Dragon's treasure.' Halbarad smiled. Sybil, an important part of the Inn's management looked at Halbarad's scruffy attire suspiciously but patted Butterbur's checked sleeve as he drunk more ale.
But that was how the Rangers liked it, for reasons, they kept the population of Bree suspicious of them. The Rangers did have the interests of Bree at heart. Though on occasions like this, it wasn't convenient. Though the situation worked fine, Butterbur and Bob after a fashion worked well and soon the Inn became a proposers and merry Inn once more!
The End