[Child of the 7th Age]

As the first morning songbirds trilled their notes over the Shire, Cami awoke with a start, pulled herself up from the wooden chair where she'd slept last night, and ran to find Piosenniel. Pio was already hard at work in the kitchens, giving orders to the staff, and keeping a watchful eye on the kettles, pots, and frying pans to make sure that nothing burned. The hobbits who worked in the Inn were a bit less afraid of her now. Cami had made certain to reassure them that the Elf was really not a bad sort, as long as they honestly did their jobs and were truthful in their comments to her.

But, this morning, Cami's mind was not on the staff or the bedchambers that needed dusting or even the meals being prepared and served to their guests. Indeed, her mind was a thousand miles away from the Green Dragon Inn, as she reflected on a place where she'd never been, but had heard a good deal about, in fact considerably more than most other hobbits.

"Pio, Pio," Cami tugged insistently on the Elf's tunic, trying to get her attention. "It's important. I really need to talk to you now. I figured out why I'm here."

"That's nice, Cami. We'll talk about it later. Now, can you take these out to the group of young hobbit lads seated near the bar?" Piosenniel thrust out a serving tray towards her friend with a vast assortment of breakfast platters stacked up in three untidy piles.

Cami clutched desperately at the overloaded tray, with its plates unsteadily perched and wobbling, trying to keep them all in line. Then she stuck her head out from the side of the load, and bellowed, "No, this is important. Really important."

The Elf sighed and handed the tray over to Elanor, pushing Cami before her into one of the side pantries. "Now, what is so important that it can't wait till after breakfast? Especially for a hobbit!"

"Pio, Bilbo and Frodo are doing what you did. They're coming back, back from the West, at least for a visit. That must be why I'm here. I'm finally going to get to see my teacher again."

Pio's eyes fixed hard on the small hobbit, but she said nothing for a good while. Then she asked her friend, "Cami, where did you learn this?"

Cami stopped a minute and thought. That was very hard to answer. To tell the truth, she wasn't totally sure. She'd woken up that morning, and the exciting news had been there, taken up from somewhere in sleep and now staring her in the face. The hobbit turned to her friend and sighed, "Please believe me. If you've ever set any trust on my word, you will listen to what I say and act on it. Tomorrow evening, the hobbits will arrive here at the Inn. We need to turn down the beds in our best rooms and invite friends over for a small dinner party. It would be very rude to welcome them in any other way."

"I do not know why they're coming, unless it's for Bilbo and I to see each other again. But someone else will be with them, someone I've never seen before."

"Who is this someone?" Pio gently probed.

Cami heard herself speak. "Perhaps you will know of him, for he is no common mortal. He wears a silver-white garment, and his eyes are as deep as a pool from a bottomless spring. And, wherever he walks, a curtain of grey mist arises about him, spun from silver dreams." Cami looked up startled, for she could not even say where these words were coming from.

[ February 04, 2003: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]