[Child of the 7th Age]

As the Star pulled into the Bay, Cami had to admit that her mind was not on transport arrangements. She'd decided to leave all that to Mithadan and Bird and Pio. She trusted them to make things turn out all right. All these months on a vessel and she'd never really gotten the hang of navigation. No wonder she was destined for solid ground!

Cami leaned against the rail as the distant outline of the White Mountains slowly came into clearer focus. The snow covered tip of its nearest peak was barely visible amid the mists and clouds.

Phura and Gamba had come up beside her to catch their first close glimpse of Middle-earth. The brothers pointed and gestured with excitement towards the coastline, which extended towards the east as far as they could see. Rose had perched herself up on the railing, lost in dreams and memories of the last time she'd been near those hills.

Cami explained to Gamba how the range swung eastward and inland down towards the Anduin, rambling on for over six hundred miles. They were likely to see it again to the west when they sailed up the River, and passed Minas Anor.

With a pang of remembrance, Cami recalled how she'd bid farewell to this same range just outside Minas Anor to embark on her voyage. Less than a year ago, yet it seemed like a lifetime. The household where she'd worked for so many years had lain on the hills of Emyn Arnen. She remembered sitting in her tiny room every evening looking out, wishing and hoping that something would push her along a different path.

On a clear day, she could see the slopes of Mindolluin and its Hill of Guards from her little window. How many times had she sat and wondered what it would be like to walk along the ridge of the White Mountains, clear to the other end, to see the Cape of Andrast with her own eyes? Now, from the deck of the Star, the Cape stood before her.

Rose leaned over and whispered, "Do you remember that last week in Minas Anor? Going to the Hill of Guards? Just before we searched out a ship to find sea-hobbits?"

Cami laughed. "How could I forget? It was the Tombs that decided everything for me." At the mention of the word "Tombs", Gamba flinched as if someone had jabbed him with the prick of a knife.

"Tombs?" he asked with a grumble. "I thought we'd left those behind."

"No, Gamba, not a prison. Just the tombs of burial for the Kings and Stewards of Gondor, and other great ones of the land."

"Let me tell you a story about that, one that Rose has heard before. I worked for the household of Beregond, the captain of Faramir's guard, a great hero and a decent Man. The family had built such close ties to the Stewards of Gondor that, when Beregond's father died, they allowed him to rest in the Stewards' burial plot. There used to be a Hall there, I think, but that has long since gone.

"There was a day when the whole household went through the Closed Door to mourn their departed, and I saw the Hallows. It was the day they laid Master Bregor to rest, right next to the Tombs where the Kings and Stewards of Gondor lay. Like his son and grandson, he was a good Man, kindly to the servants who worked in his house."

"Yet, when I saw that burial plot, I knew I had to leave. It reminded me I was mortal. No matter what I did, whether I stayed in the city or went on some madcap adventure, someday, somewhere, others would build a barrow for me. The only real difference was what I'd do with that time before the barrow came. Plus, I was the only hobbit there, the only mortal who did not share in the tales behind those Tombs."

"Most hobbits wouldn't care about that. Yet I felt so lonely, so pitifully lonely. I was away from the Shire, and I had no tales from my past, no lays or songs, to comfort me as these folk did. They at least knew where they'd come from. I knew nothing beyond a few whispered rumors and a strange note about sea hobbits."

"So, like you Gamba, I walked out of the Tombs and decided it was time for a change. My teacher Bilbo was gone. He wasn't coming back, no matter how much I wished it. No one wanted to find those sea-hobbits except for me. I was hardly the ideal candidate to go off on an adventure, but someone had to do it, or it wouldn't get done. Right away, I knew I needed help. So the very next day, I went to the harbor and pounded on doors until I found Mithadan."

"That's what I think of when I see these mountains, even clear down here, on the other end of the range."

[ December 11, 2002: Message edited by: Child of the 7th Age ]