The great Boar-hunt excursion of the Shire people has begun!
Paganita, a young Hobbit of extraordinary courage, had heard the great tale of the Boar-flank steak to end all Boar-flank steaks. This extraordinary meal could only be carved from the shoulder of a Boar so great and old it was rumoured to have been rooting around already when Dragons still roamed Middle-Earth.
Undeterred of all rational arguments of her peers ("A boar that old must be tough and worm-riddled!") she gathered friends and willing adventurers around her and set out for the hunt.
Miji, a young elf as she called herself, volunteered to provide information about the whereabouts of the fabled Boar. It lived in the Troll-Shaws, she said, rumoured to live among the drakes that reminded it of the olden days when it was but a young tusker without a care. Yet the Troll-Shaws are a wild and dangerous area where even the Earth-worms grow huge and fierce and may yet be the doom of an unwary traveller such as a little Hobbit.
But the People of the Shire had decided on the hunt, and a hunt it shall be! The hunting party set out from the Lone-Lands stronghold of Ost Guruth, heading east towards the Last Bridge and onward. Beyond the Bridge the road gets wild and dangerous. But the stout Hobbits pressed on! The Shirriffs Silkweed and Carme were adept in protecting young Paganita even in this wilderness. And so they crossed the Ford of Bruinen and entered the valley where Drakes still roam, and the quarry was finally sighted! A clear shot from a crossbow brought down the great beast.
Paganita expertly cleaned and cut a flank from the great beast. It was so heavy all the Hobbits and the Dwarf and Elf had to help carrying it! So the decision was made to bring it to nearby Rivendell at first and have it packed up and sent to the Shire by swift Elven horses.
It was Paganita's first visit to the Elf-town, and she was suitably amazed.
The successful hunt was celebratedwith some wine in the Hall of Fire, where we met an old Hobbit who promised to write down the story of our hunt - provided, that is, that he finished his own story first.
Hooray for the People of Shire and their hunt!
(We'll ask Paganita how the boar tasted later.)
