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After Særyn left them, Eodwine handed the measuring rope to Gudryn. "Break your fast, my dear, before you're blown away by the wind. And ask Frodides if there might be any fare for me, if you please."
"Yes, father!" Gudryn grinned and ran off to the kitchen.
Gárwine looked to be a stout young lad, if a little dirty and travel worn. Eodwine, in his turn, seemed tallish and well kept for a man of his forty or so years. His hair was the color of corn ripe in the cob, but soft as silk; and his eyes were the deep blue of the sky on a hot summer day at noon. He smiled quickly and often.
"Well met and welcome, Gárwine," Eodwine said. "Who is your father? And what brings you here?"
And so the conversation began. Eodwine learned of Gárulf, and of the king's orders upon the young man.
"You would be a guard in my hall then?" Eodwine looked him in the eye, but kindly.
"Aye, I would, lord."
"Well then, we must swear oath each to the other, and then I must decide just what I need guarding from! But first, food! You look hungery!"
It seemed that Frodides had not only arrived to prepare breakfast, but had done so very quietly and unnoticed while he and Gudryn had measured the room's fixtures: Gudryn brought out with a tray bearing three hot mugs and three plates piled high with eggs and rashers of bacon, and hearty black bread. Eodwine and Gárwine pulled a table away from the wall, set three chairs about it, and the three of them fell to.
Not long after they had begun to break their fast, a tall man came through the front door, a warrior in the employ of Meduseld by the look of him. Eodwine wiped his mouth on his sleeve and stood.
"Hail, Eorlinga! I am Eodwine of the Gap, Eorl of the Middle Emnet. How are you called, and how may I host you?"
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