[Anguirel]

Artifondo was taken aback with how readily the young Hobbit believed and heeded his curious story. Ursula had threatened to box his ears "to knock out the nonsense", his father had shaken his head and muttered about Elvish twaddle, and Grizel, giggling, had died Artifondo's shoelaces together as he talked. But once out of the Dwellover house and into the welcoming atmosphere of the Dragon, he was truly listened to, it seemed.

He frowned as Edan talked of the natural element to the situation.

"Gandalf came, why couldn't another?"

"Another did," he muttered under his breath. The history of Saruman the White had always been terrifying to Artifondo. The Dark Lord and his armies were nothing but standard ogres to him; but Saruman had been different, by all accounts; a Wizard who had been changed, corrupted, by a thirst for knowledge. What was so wrong with a craving for discovery, a thirst to see new facets in life?

Yet it had destroyed Saruman, and almost taken the Shire with it. It was at Bywater his thugs had been beaten; his father Pellinco had fought beside Meriadoc the Magnificent in that famous battle (though he had not distinguished himself, and had much of the fight pretending to be dead, to the extent that he had almost been given a hero's burial.)

Surely the man in the brown cloak could not be another malevolent magician? And if he was, under the rule of King Elessar he would not dare to act?

Artifondo lost himself in these troubling notions as Edan munched; only the younger Hobbit's query brought him back to the present.

"Where were we?"

"Oh...ah...you asked me if I talked to the old man. Certainly not," Artifondo laughed nervously, "I didn't dare. You'd think I'd sprouted roots. I stood and stock still and watched. But the man wasn't silent. He was making these peculiar chirrups, and tiny little sparrows hopped on and off his wrist. At last it dawned on me; he was talking to them. And that lightened my heart slightly. Surely a fellow who idles about conversing with songbirds can't mean us any harm? But I wonder...I do wonder who he was. I shall see if I can find anyone like him in the records when I have the time."