Smoke billowed up from the bowl of the long shire pipe as PoPo lit the chamber and took a couple of quick puffs. Satisfied with the red glow of the weed now smoldering, he admired the freshly swept hobbit hole and gave an ascending hum of approval. "Mhmm." A pleasant smile puffed his plump cheeks, followed by a merry chuckle that filled the room.
"The wifey will be surprised when she gets back! Hmmm…. She’s been gone awhile. Where did that lass get to?"
He pushed the round wooden door open and stepped into the afternoon sun, blinking twice as his eyes adjusted. PoPo looked down the path towards the town proper where he had last seen his wife earlier that morning and set down the winding path.
Narrowhaven boasted quite the collective of shoppes, merchants and a rather grand (and populated) inn. Knowing his young wife’s like for vanilla mead, he popped into the inn first, weaving in and out past the long legs of the humans that crowded the bar, all the while saying "Excuse me… Pardon me" as he made his way through.
One patron burst out into a roaring laugh, his arm lifted high in a merry salute and knocking his foamy ale into the arm of the next man, forcing the amber liquid to slosh out of the mug and onto the floor just in front of PoPo’s feet. Quick as a cat he hopped back, narrowly missing the toe of the man behind him. "Nope… Too crowded for her likes."
Quickly he left and stepped into the lane, though he did not get far. Just beyond the wooden slatted gate of the inn sat a fluffy [white? pink?] bunny, pristine and rather out of place. Popo gave the bunny an odd look and was ready to dimiss it until it spoke.
"Hello!"
He blinked once, gave a nod and replied, "Hello to ye."
"What are you doing?" The bunny’s nose twitched, making its whiskers see-saw up and and down.
"I’m looking for my wife. She’s been gone a while. I wanted to show her the new
home
." He took a puff from his pipe, relaized it had gone out and struck another match.
"A new home?" The bunny asked with curiosity.
"Mhmm. Would you like to see it? It’s a fine looking hobbit hole if I do say so myself!"
"Is it far?" The bunny asked.
"Not at all, just a small ways down the lane."
The fluffly [white? pink?] bunny followed PoPo down the winding lane back towards the hobbit hole, proud that he was to show it off to someone appreciative. Soon, they arrived and he pushed in the round wooden door and in hopped the bunny.
A hobbit hole, for those who do not know, are stately places, many rooms that sprawl underground into the sides of hills and mountains. As cozy as they are, it is no wonder that a Hobbit will take great pride in their homes.
Popo showed the fluffy bunny around, taking it room to room. Just as the tour was nearly over and they came to the main room once more, an odd noise made him look around quickly. A floating red skull materialized directly across from the two, and hovered just a couple of feet from the floor. PoPo gasped, nearly taking a step back into the door he had just closed as his eyes widened.
"What is that?!" He exclaimed, feeling a little rise of his blood pressure. He could scarecely tear his eyes from the grotesque scene of the skull floating there, emitting a horrible sound with it. Suddenly, a voice came from his feet, darkly demonic, "Do you have something it wantssss…? Something that is possessssed…?"
Panic surged through PoPo’s veins and his heart raced like a great team of horses in his chest, threatening to burst forth and take off without him. His hand absently slipped into his pants pocket, fumbling with something in it, though stealthy he was about it.
Shaking his head, he relied, "No… nothing! What could it want!" Before the bunny could say anything and before the skull could do something more than just hover and make the worst noise, PoPo vanished!
The fluffly bunny with the odd demonic voice blinked and its voice was back to its sweet tone, "Where did you go! Where did you go!"
The floating red skull slowly faded from the room and all was quiet, save for the bunny’s searching tone. As soon as the coast was clear, PoPo appeared again and was met with a barrage of questions, "Where did you go? Did you see that! What happened to you?"
Hobbits are generous, polite folk, so it was rather odd how hastily he was escorting his new companion out of the door. "Well, look at the time! It is getting late and I really must be on my way to find my wife and bring her home. Now, be a good bunny and run along, hmm? "
With that he shoved the bunny out of the door and closed it behind it with an audible "click".
