[Saelind]

Thalion had wandered down to the Common Room to finish his breakfast, his mind still riveted on his son and how Miz Bella had assured him the boy would be welcome at the school. One day, surely one day won't hurt. Perhaps Neviel will find that the class doesn't suit him, and we can be on our way. Yet Thalion still had no idea where he should go next. Memories of his dream from the night before hung heavily over his head. He could not simply run off to the Havens and pretend the dream had never happened. Yet he had no idea where to go or what to do if he decided to stay in Middle-earth.

His reflections were suddenly interrupted by the sound of a half-familiar voice calling him from across the room. Thalion looked up in surprise as he heard his name spoken by an Elven woman with serious gray eyes who had just come in from off the road. Leaping to his feet, Thalion rushed forward to the table where the Elf was sitting, "Cariâthwen, is that you?" Thalion did not know the woman well, but he did recognize her as someone he knew from Lorien. It had been long years since their paths had crossed. "Someone from home.....I can scarcely believe it. I thought all the rest had sailed West. Would you mind if I joined you?"

Cariâthwen eagerly nodded her head, and Thalion pulled up a chair next to hers and began to talk. He was hungry for conversation with someone he knew from his past, even so slightly. Thalion explained that he was in the Shire with his son. The two of them had been living in Rivendell. He had worked as a healer, but there were too many books and buildings, and the place was crowded with many visitors. "Not that I don't appreciate such things," Thalion hastily assured her, "but I prefer to live someplace where I can spend my days outside in the sunshine and fresh air, and feel the earth underneath my feet. I guess I've never really settled down since my wife's death," he added with a sigh. "We were cutting through the Shire on our road to the Havens intending to sail West, but now I do not know. Last night, I had a strange dream---more like a vision than a dream. My mother reminded me that, before my wife died, she had requested Neviel should remain some time in Middle-earth and learn the ways of Men and Dwarves before he sailed to Aman. And now my son has some fool notion to stay in Hobbiton and go to school with some young hobbit lads who have befriended him."

"I do not know what to think. Elves and hobbits in one classroom! It seems very odd. And yet.....I can not shake off that dream and wonder if it is a true message from Aman. Would that there were powerful seeing stones left I could speak with my family. But, alas, those have sailed away."

"What think you of this, Cariâthwen? Should I stay or leave, and should my son sit and learn with hobbits? And, while you are at it, tell me what you have been up to all these years."