Clapping Toddy on his leg, Fea cheered him on “Right so, out you go and take a peek, I’ll bet you anything they’ve left behind a nice juicy roast chicken” she fabricated a story to bribe Toddy into going out first, “just for us” she started licking her lips convincing only herself “It’s on the spittle, roasting over the fire. I’m sure they have even forgotten the tankards of ale they poured themselves.”
“You what? Are you mad?” Toddy crossed his arms and sat back as Fea ordered him to go take a peek “I’m not going out there” he began until she started talking about roast chicken and tankards of ale and that’s when his mouth started watering.
Fea was eyeing Toddy now “Go on, you know you want to!” she purred in a low voice.
Frowning deeply Toddy thought about it “I suppose a quick peek wouldn’t be too difficult” he looked up at her and a twinkle formed in his eye “I am smarter than you of course and if you go out there, your sure to wake them up, being so clumsy and all. Whereas me” he puffed out his chest, “I’m a hobbit, and us hobbits are known for our stealth and dexterity” he proudly announced not even too sure what the word dexterity meant but he had heard Bilbo and Frodo using it and it sounded impressive to him. “Ok, I shall go but you must stay as quiet as a mouse” he warned her. Toddy knew only too well just how hard Fea found it to keep quiet at anything at all.
Getting onto his hands and knees, Toddy crawled slowly through the little tunnel which led to the outside world. Inch by inch he went until at last his little head made it to the opening. He paused and waited but heard and saw nothing, so finally worked up the courage to poke his head through to take a better look.
“Well I never” his eyes went wide in wonder “I don’t believe it, but she’s right!” Toddy looked around again just to make sure but there was no doubt about it, all the orcs and goblins had gone but there were a few massive trolls just laying flat on the ground not too far away. They all looked to be deep in sleep which judging by the drool pouring from their open mouths and the snores coming from one or two meant they were more or less in a catatonic state.
Creeping out further, Toddy’s mouth was now most definitely watering. The smell of the cooked meats coming from the fire pit was absolutely driving him insane.
Fea sat there chewing her lip waiting “Well this is a good start, he hasn’t come back snivelling” so on her hands and knees and then down onto her belly, she pulled herself through the tunnel and popped her head out from behind where Toddy stood “Is it safe?”
The smell of cooked foot was overpowering and her eyes zoomed in on it straight away “I bags that!” she began heaving herself out of the tiny entrance to the tunnel “I told you didn’t I? didn’t I say it? I did, I said there would be cooked chicken and sure enough, there it is” she was thrilled with her prediction.
Seeing the sleeping trolls only caused her to pause for a split second in her stride but the scent of the food was too much to ignore “Come on, keep your eyes peeled” she whispered in a dangerously loud whisper “we’ll snatch what we can and drag it all back with us.” With that she tiptoed through to the fire pit and grabbed a chicken leg and shoved it in her mouth while grabbing the rest of the chicken still on the skewer. Pointing to the other bits of food laying around, Fea pointed to them “DER” she tried to stress to Toddy with the leg of a chicken protruding from her mouth to where he should go. Piling up her stash with as much as she could carry, she turned around and bumped into Toddy dropping a few things. “TUT” she glared at him with the leg of chicken slipping to one side of her mouth and shook her head sideways at Toddy indicating for him to get out of her way. “MOO” she muttered for him to move as she stumbled her way back to the tunnel entrance. So delighted was she with her haul, she didn’t even stop to consider whether Toddy was with her, if he had gotten himself any food or even if the trolls had woken and seen her stealing their dinner.
Meanwhile close by....
The drool flowed backwards down into his wide open mouth and lodged in this throat. Suddenly, there was too much drool and the troll began choking on his own spit. As he did so, he sat up winded just at the same moment the back end of a human disappeared through a hole. Sticking his snout in the air, the troll inhaled trying to identify any new smells in the air but then another, so tiny, the troll mistook it for a small animal, came running along by him and made straight for the hole too.
The troll was on his feet with club in hand and already had it crashing down to where Toddy stood with his stash of food bundled into his arms. The troll wasn’t too sure what it was, all he did know was that it was moving, therefore it was edible. Clambering to get into position again, the troll raised his mighty club high again to bring it hurtling towards Toddy.
