"He has gone hasn't he my old friend?" Radagast whispered as he stared into the glow of the dying embers.
"Yes, he has." Tom smiled and allowed the smoke from his pipe to curl up the chimney in random swirls. "No one has thought to ask where she is." Tom observed.
"By whom you mean our fellow host and not our waylaid friends, do you not?" Radagast continued sotto voice. "She intends their proctection?"
"Who am I to say? Goldberry is free but she feels their pain as you and I do. Let us say there are three who seek your companion upon those downs and one of those will pass unseen." Tom replied mystically.
"Ah dear Tom, you speak in riddles I would be proud of." Radagast sighed. "I fear I have failed them all dear friend. I should be strong and wise for this company. I should be guiding them. I lean upon the boy and Rothalle too much."
"I am sure the time will come to pass Radagast that you will feel a true wizard yet,it is merely that your moment is not come. Each of you seek something that is missing from your existance. Something that the Beast feeds upon. Destroy the Beast and you will fulfill your destiny or deny it food and it will be starved out of these lands."
"How can we stop it feeding, when it goes where it pleases with scant regard to anything or anyone?" Radagast sighed and sat back in his chair in the inglenook.
He was suddenly aware of a cough at his side. He turned sharply to see Faye looking at him directly.
"That's not what Tom Bombadil means," she said quietly. "I'm a hobbit, I know all about food. This isn't a matter of normal food. Tom said it feeds on what is missing in our lives and that is the food we've got to deny it. We have to become whole to defeat the Beast. Honestly, Radagast, you really are as hopeless as you feel." She gave an exasperated snort and bedded back down upon the floor.
"Amazing creatures, aren't they?" Tom Bombadil laughed and even Radagast raised a smile.
It was quite the opposite of the foreboding world outside on the downs.
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Auriel
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