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“He is smiling at that!“ said Seamus as the hobbit called Gil exchanged a few words with a pretty hobbit serving girl, then took his spot amongst his companions. “Let’s hope it’s not just reserved for his friends!”
A tall fellow, even by the standards of Men, Seamus stooped a bit as he approached the hobbits’ table, so as not to seem too intimidating. After all, he never knew with the little folk how they would react to his size, although most of them were fairly used to big folk and generally paid him very little mind. Looking up curiously as the two men arrived alongside their table, the hobbits stopped their banter and lowered their pints. Their eyes moved politely from Seamus to Owen before finally settling on Shimshin, who had once again taken up his post on Seamus’ shoulder. With his long tail wrapped loosely around Seamus’ neck, he held on to a lock of the man’s long brown hair with one hand. The other hand held the last piece of apple from the dish that the Cook had prepared.
Ignoring Shimshin, Seamus smiled his wide, easy grin. “Good morning, my good fellows!” he said pleasantly to the hobbits. “Might one of you be called Gil?”
“That would be me,” said the hobbit who had been addressed by that name earlier. He tore his eyes away from the monkey and met Seamus’ gaze with a steady, bright-eyed gaze of his own. “Good morning to you as well! Might I ask whom I have the pleasure of addressing?”
“Well...” said Seamus slowly, his blue eyes twinkling. “That you might. My name is Seamus. My friend here is Owen. This little fellow with the apple -” he indicated the spider monkey “- is Shimshin. We - well, Owen and I - are musicians. We saw your notice yesterday and were wondering if you still needed anyone to finish out your band. For the handfasting, you know. I play the rebec and Owen plays a fine bladder pipe. Shimshin can dance a lively jig, too, if we play well enough for him.” He paused and smiled around the group. “So what do you say? We’d be happy to play a song for you, if you like. Show our chops, if you know what I mean.”
The hobbits looked up at Seamus, then at Owen, who gave them a hopeful smile and a nod. Waving his bit of apple, the monkey smiled, too.
“So what do you say?” repeated Seamus.
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