He prepared a small meal to take with him--cheese between slices of bread sprinkled with poppy seed; a crystal bottle of peach juice; a dish of curds and whey covered by a sheet of parchment, several carrots, a large cookie. He fetched fork, knife, spoon, and cup, and headed for the wharf, grateful there was no reason to lock up behind him.
One of the waiting Elves played a violin, and overhead children climbed like tailless monkeys in the trees. The sea lay like crystal, and upon its surface the wind wrote its own strange letters. The moon hung like a pendant in the western sky as the dawn brightened that to the east. No amount of money could have purchased such beauty, he thought as he settled himself in the chair set for him.
Sam was coming, and the final hole in his heart would at last be healed.