Prompt 61: Rogue
Ficlet: Stick-at-naught Strider
Rating: G
Bree, September 29, 3018 TA

Aragorn kept in the shadows as he followed the hobbits from the West-gate, careful to not come close and yet not fall too far behind. He entered The Prancing Pony a moment after them, making immediately for a dark corner where he could observe the rest of the room. He was happy to see that the four of them followed the landlord down the hall to rooms in the back of the inn. Once Barliman returned, he would ask to be able to speak with the hobbits and warn them against coming into the common-room.

As he waited for Butterbur's return to the front of the inn, Aragorn's sharp ears caught a muttered conversation nearby.

"There's Stick-at-naught Strider again," said Bill Ferny with a sneer.

"Looks like a rogue, that one," said his companion, a squint-eyed man who resembled a group of southerners in another part of the common-room.

"They're all scoundrels, them Rangers. Can't trust them; they're thieves and dangerous folk."

Aragorn thought that ironic, coming from Bill Ferny out of all people; all honest men in town knew that Ferny was a man who did business with shady strangers and whose coin was less well-earned than most.

He needed not, however, a rather ill-looking stranger to know that he very much resembled a rogue; the long years in the wild did much to his appearance. He knew that his looks would be against him when he spoke with the hobbits; he only hoped that they would see beyond his outer appearance and trust him.

Now, however, was not the time for such thoughts. Butterbur had returned to the bar; he had to convince him to let him see his newest patrons before they came out to the common-room and endangered themselves.