"Good morning, March Warden—Elvellon," said Legolas, stepping aside to allow his guests to enter.
The Elf and the Dwarf returned his greeting, then greeted his lady—Haldir with a hand upon his heart, Gimli with a nod and a grunt—and the four friends took their places at the breakfast table.
As she served her friends with bowls of porridge, Eowyn was smiling. She had grown very fond of the irascible djinn, and felt responsible for his current misfortune. And although she was sure, and Legolas agreed, that the djinn—having bound himself to her, as her servant, for the rest of her life—would return to her the moment some unfortunate passer by released him, she was anxious to rescue him herself, and as soon as possible.
"You are sure that you can find the place again?" Legolas asked the March Warden.
"To within a few hundred yards," replied Haldir, helping himself to some bramble jam.
"So close?" said Eowyn, who still found it hard to comprehend the sharpness of Elven senses.
As they ate, the friends planned their expedition.
Haldir estimated that the trip would take at least three days, and told them of a farmstead where the Men, he believed, would be willing to give them shelter for a night or two.
"Strange in what way, melmenya?" asked Legolas.
* Eowyn found the djinn in The Strange Sea Road, and lost him in Westron Wynde.