[Child of the 7th Age]

Piosenniel led her friend gently over to the table where Bilbo and Frodo sat waiting. Cami sat down slowly, wondering if she was finally going to get some answers to her questions, and find out exactly what her friends had in mind for her.

But, as luck would have it, just at that instant, Laurie came running up, waving her hands wildy in the air. "Oh, Miss Cami, we have such a problem in the kitchen. One of Samwise's children, I believe it was Goldilocks, has crawled into the laundry chute, and gotten stuck. We could pull her out from the other end, only somebody locked the closet where the chute comes out, and we can't get to it."

"Miss Rose is quite desperate and needs your help. She begs you to come with a key to unlock the door so they can pull Goldie out."

Cami had to struggle to keep a straight face. She had gotten stuck in a laundry chute or two in her own day, and thought that the young hobbit would probably be none the worse for wear. Still, she couldn't leave her dangling like that. Indeed, Cami thought, if this Inn was the place where dreams and reality crossed, it said some very strange things about what reality might mean, at least as far as her own life was concerned.

"Excuse me," she signed. "I'd best go help Miss Goldie, or Samwise and Rose will have my neck."

Bilbo looked at her and smiled. "Still pulling little ones out of harm's way. Some things never change. No hurry. I wanted to speak with your friend Piosenniel a bit. Take your time with what you need to do. Then come back and we'll go for a little walk, before I set back to Bag-end.

"I expect Frodo and Sam will go on ahead with the children and Rose once Goldie gets rescued from the laundry."

With that Cami headed for the kitchen, searching for the one right key among the many that hung down from her belt that would free Goldie from the laundry room. Once Cami had gone far enough away not to overhear, Bilbo leaned over to the Elf and spoke in a quiet voice, "I understand you were with Cami on the Star, and that you're a good friend. We're friends too, but from very long ago, and we have something we'd like to discuss with you. This came up several weeks ago when Gandalf began telling us some things that happened on the Star. We were back in Tol Eressea, before we agreed to come here for a visit."

"We had an idea, but Gandalf suggested that I speak with you before talking to Cami. This is one of those situations where there is no perfect answer, but we were trying to come up with something that might give some meaning to what the two of them were asked to bear in Beleriand."

Pio listened intently to what Bilbo had in mind.