Berindel arrived at the coast not long after dawn, hearing from afar the endless whisper of the sea, whose secrets were being ever confessed, but in a language none, save perhaps for the ancient mariner-elves of old, could understand.

He made his way onto the beach through a steep-sided gully, running with rivulets of freshwater, that fell onto the beach over a small fall. Here, because of the little stream no sand had gathered, and the exposed stones were thick with large green-lipped mussels.

Berindel expected a regular party that night, as he watched a good hunters moon stretching itself free of the morning horizon. Bu nightfall it would be in its full glory. Berindel checked his tinder, and set to work piling timbers for a bonfire. He had chanced upon many in the wilds, and had invited them all here to relax, and forget the cares of their lives, in this place, between land and sea.

He kept an ear out for the voices of friends, and piled the bonfire ever higher, knowing the smoke would only draw company all the sooner. High overhead the gulls wailed, and wheeled upon the offshore breezes. Berindel busied himself steaming the mussels, and cooking off some camp-bread for the arrival of his first guests.

Dunimir cried a great "halloo" and waved, drawn to the bonfire by the prodigious pillar of smoke rising from the damp driftwood. He arrived, and greeted his friend with a few gruff words, and enthusiastic shake of hands. He had not seen Berindel in a very long time, but had remembered this gathering, which Berindel had long planned. "Meet me on the eastern coast on the last moon of winter, and we will light such a fire, as to welcome summer as it has never been!" He'd said.

Dunimir had been fortunate enough to sling down three pheasants on his way to the beach, which he moved a small distance aside to clean down, and fossiced about the small creek as he cleaned his hands to find a few fat river-lobsters. These, and a head full of excitement he brough to the bonfire, and laughed to see the bright anticipation in his friend Berindels' eyes.

"How have you fared old friend? Last time I was here I was almost skewered, and hewn in half by the palest, most gigantic barbarian you've ever seen!"