[Birdland]

Birdie swam along the coastline, searching with her eyes, and sending out the echoes of the dolphin kind, anything to try and find Kali. Levanto swam with her, pointing her in the last direction that he had seen the hobbrim go.

She had looked everywhere in the three dimensions of the surrounding sea, but it was Levanto who finally spied him. "There" he had said, pointing to a small cliff of rocks that were pounded by the surrounding waves. A great wall of rocky shoreline was to his back, the waves washing and climbing against it, but he ignored the dancing, dangerous waters around him, only gazing out on the horizon, where Tilion's charge was slowly disappearing into the sea.

"Kal-eeeeee! Come down!" she called. Levanto had backed away from the cliff face. It was too dangerous. Birdie wondered how in Middle-Earth Kali had ever managed to come to such a spot. It took all her skill to hold her place in the water without being dashed against the rock face before her.

"Kali! I can barely hold out against the waves, but I will stay here until you talk to me, even if it means the rocks chew me to bits!" Her dolphin form twisted instinctively as a wave caught her and tried to throw her into the land.

Kali saw this last maneuver, and dived off the rock, knifing through the water away from the sucking tide against the cliff face. Birdie followed him with relief, swimming around him and cutting him off as she gained the open ocean again.

"Kali, what are you doing? We were all worried for you."

Kali looked around Birdie; at the wave, the moon, horizon; everywhere but her face. Finally he said: I'm afraid, Birdee. It seems as if the tales are wrong. The Hobbit Daisy does not accept me as one of her own. Perhaps there will be no meeting of the land and sea folk, as I was taught."

"Daisy hardly represents all Hobbits, Kali. What about Child, and Rose? They certainly have embraced you, and accept you as their cousin."

Kali made a universal gesture when any people are at a loss for words or explanation: he shrugged, and studied his long feet waving back and forth in the current.

"Oh, I know, hate and rejection can have such power, said Bird, "but you mustn't let it win out over the love that has been shown to you by all the others on the 'Lonely Star'. After all, you've earned that love. Daisy's feelings towards you have nothing to do with you, and everything to do with how she has been treated by other people. She is to be pitied, Kali. That's all. She has no power over you or your destiny."

"Has she been treated badly, Birdee?" asked Kali.

"Perhaps. I can think of no other explanation for her most un-hobbit like behavior. Come, Kali. Come back to the ship. No one there will let her hurt you. You have friends on your side. Don't let her destroy your faith in your cause. Or yourself."

"Alright, then. I will come back. But it has been so long Birdee. I did not know that adventures could last so long."

Birdee laughed, a strange whistling sound that echoed through the water. "Some say adventures never end, but I don't think that will be your fate, Sea Halfling. Come on. The others are waiting."

The swam back towards the "Lonely Star" side-by-side in silence. As the vessel came into view through the night, the could see lanterns hung along the sides, and people on the rail calling out "Kali! "Kali!", and a few times "Birdie!"

They raised their heads to call back to the crew. Birdie drew breath through her blowhole to call back to Child and Pio, but when she tried to holler back, the sound that came out shocked both her and Kali. Instead of "We're here!", a sharp, shrill whistle came from the skin-changer. She tried again, but again the only sound that she could make was a dolphin's whistle.

Birdie stopped dead in the water, looking wildly about her. For a minute she looked at Kali with a air of almost panic. Then shaking her head violently, said to Kali in a strained voice "Get me to the ship, Kali."