Four hobbits walk into the Prancing Pony and take a seat chattering loudly enough for me to hear them several tables away.
"I can't believe you continued to work with cruel big men in our town," Bob Greeneaves says.
"They were ignoring my glass making tools," Mundaric Sandheaver says "and there was nothing else I could do."
"It was a bit hard to work with so many distractions," Pearl Goodbody says.
"You made some remarkable pieces all the same."
"We got everything we needed for coloring the glass thanks to that elf with an egg shell on his head," Wald Hillburrow says.
"He was certainly an odd one," Bob says. "Though he was a great deal of help doing something useful despite you sending him on your errends."
"What we were doing is important," Mundaric says. "We're going to need money to fix everything the big men broke."
"I'll give you that but..."
"I had him kill goblins," Wald says. "It might have been because I wanted the blue stones they carry but he still killed goblins."
"The things I wanted didn't help like that," Pearl says. "The limrafin and sand-nerbyg aren't a treat to us but they are really creepy."
"Yes helping to drive back goblins was good but we needed our homes back more than any of that," Bob says.
"He helped you in the end," Mundaric says.
"We would have gotten Dwaling back sooner if you hadn't bothered him."
"Why are you so worked up?" Wald asks. "Everything worked out in the end didn't it?"
"While I agree that we should accept that everything worked out I can kind of understand what Bob's saying," Pearl says. "It is nice to be able to sleep in my bed instead of on the ground."
"After seeing him fight even the goblins feel like a waste of his ability," Bob says.
"I didn't see him fight but he always came back with the kind of stuff the big men were carrying," Mundaric says. "Our merchants never gave him a lot but I'm glad he made some money from it."
"I certainly didn't pay him a lot for his work."
"Even without the trouble I don't have much money," Pearl says.
"I gave him some money but I'm saving for a new dress," Wald says.
"He didn't seem to mind not getting a good reward," Bob says.
"He was probably having fun running around in his shiny gold armor," Mundaric says.
"He had a very odd way of doing things. He tried to deliver my message twice. The second time they attacked him. I can't believe how easily he beat all of the other big folk."
"He did have thick armor," Pearl says. "That might have been too tought for them to break through."
"Not to mention that big axe he carried," Wald says. "I think he called it Shogiath."
"He was very strange," Bob says "after he finished off the last bandit he put my message on his chest and came bace to tell me that the complaint has been resolved. It took me forever to clean up the mess he left in that house."
"We should be just happy that we're rid of the bad big men," Mundaric says.
"You're just saying that because your house came out of it completely untouched."