[piosenniel]

The man knelt down on one knee and came face to face with the hobbrim. His face was wreathed in a large smile and his eyes twinkled in delight.

'Well met, my dear sea-hobbit! I did not think to see any of Ulmo's halfling children until a later Age! Yet it is only right that one of their race should greet them when we come to them.'

Veritas and Khelek had come up on deck in time to hear this last declaration of Ancalimon. They stared at him in wonder, a vague memory stirred, like a half remembered dream.

Daisy, still holding the hobbrim's hand, stepped up protectively beside him. She had no concern for who this man might be, but only that her friend not get hurt. 'Do you mean to tell us you are here to take us to Kali's family, sir?' she demanded of him.

'No, I cannot take you to them. That quest is for you and your companions alone. But, I have come to see your feet take the shortest path. The fate of the hobbits and of the hobbrim is intimately entwined with that of Arda, and should one fail, so will the others come to their destruction.' He looked toward the east, where the sun now threw its first pale rays of gold across the waves. 'Let us finalize your plans, now, and be off to Númenor this day as you had thought to do. The patterns of light and darkness shift and move as in a game. I would that we maintain the advantage of Morgoth's ignorance, and keep our next moves to ourselves.

Khelek and Veritas brought Levanto aboard in preparation for the journey, then bent with Ancalimon over the maps and navigational charts for a final look.

Veritas had planned to time jump from their present position and then sail south to the Isle. Given a favorable wind they could reach the waters of Westerness in four days. The only part of this plan they had not been able to make concrete was which date they should jump to. 'We know we should make for the port of Eldalondë according to Pio's instructions.' said Veritas, 'but when we should arrive there we do not know.'

'Pio?' asked Ancalimon, his gaze sweeping the group for an answer.

'A companion.' came the simple reply of Khelek. 'Now lost to us.' He said no more.

'I see.' said Ancalimon, fixing the elf with his piercing eyes. 'Speaking of companions - where are the others? I have talked with Child, and seen Rose. But what of the skin changer? and the Man? Will they not be coming with us?'

'You saw Child and Rose?' cried Kali. 'Tell us how are they, please!' Ancalimon told them of his visit to the work camp and how the two hobbits fared. The companions rejoiced to hear that even amid such bleak conditions the two kept strong. A small glimmer of hope that this all might work out grew in them.

Ancalimon turned to Daisy, who had been very quiet. 'And what of the other two companions?' he asked her. The story that Bird had given her to tell was in the fore of her mind. It died on her lips as she looked into his face. The truth came out then about Bird's travels to the camp to be with Child and Rose. Veritas and Khelek shook their heads in disbelief, while Angara fixed the hobbit with a withering stare for fooling her completely.

The tension was broken by the laughter of Kali. 'Oh, that Bird! She is too funny! Very brave,very funny. She fooled you big Angara!'

Then, even Angara, laughed. 'She did, indeed! Just wait til that poor excuse for a dragon gets back here! I'll show her fooling!!'

'And the last companion,' asked Ancalimon quietly as the laughter faded. 'where is he?'

'Here, he is,' said Kali, sadly now. 'A good man who walks in bad dreams and cannot find his way back to us. Would you like to see him?'

'In time,' said Ancalimon, looking thoughtfully toward the steps down to the cabins, 'but not now.' He thought for a moment, wrinkling his brow as if making a calculation.

'Let us set our date for the year 2000 of the Second Age, and set sail for the western shore of the Isle - the Bay of Eldanna to be exact.'

Veritas positioned the crystal and then closed and locked the cover into place. The air and sea shimmered about them and then winked out for a brief moment.

The far off coasts of Beleriand had completely disappeared, all about them lay the wide open waters of the Sundering Seas. A fair wind was at their backs as they sailed at a fast clip southwards.

[ August 30, 2002: Message edited by: piosenniel ]